  Helix-coil transitions in poly-alanine molecules of length 10 are studied by
multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations. The solvation effects are included by
either a distance-dependent dielectric permittivity or by a term that is
proportional to the solvent-accessible surface area of the peptide. We found a
strong dependence of the characteristics of the helix-coil transition from the
details of the solvation model.
