CRALBP supports the mammalian retinal visual cycle and cone vision

Mutations in the cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP, encoded by RLBP1) can lead to severe cone photoreceptor-mediated vision loss in patients. It is not known how CRALBP supports cone function or how altered CRALBP leads to cone dysfunction. Here, we determined that deletion of Rlbp1 in mice impairs the retinal visual cycle. Mice lacking CRALBP exhibited M-opsin mislocalization, M-cone loss, and impaired cone-driven visual behavior and light responses. Additionally, M-cone dark adaptation was largely suppressed in CRALBP-deficient animals. While rearing CRALBP-deficient mice in the dark prevented the deterioration of cone function, it did not rescue cone dark adaptation. Adeno-associated virus-mediated restoration of CRALBP expression specifically in Müller cells, but not retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, rescued the retinal visual cycle and M-cone sensitivity in knockout mice. Our results identify Müller cell CRALBP as a key component of the retinal visual cycle and demonstrate that this pathway is important for maintaining normal cone-driven vision and accelerating cone dark adaptation

Content-Based Image Retrieval of Skin Lesions by Evolutionary Feature Synthesis

Abstract. This paper gives an example of evolved features that improve image retrieval performance. A content-based image retrieval system for skin lesion images is presented. The aim is to support decision making by retrieving and displaying relevant past cases visually similar to the one under examination. Skin lesions of five common classes, including two non-melanoma cancer types, are used. Colour and texture features are extracted from lesions. Evolutionary algorithms are used to create composite features that optimise a similarity matching function. Experiments on our database of 533 images are performed and results are compared to those obtained using simple features. The use of the evolved composite features improves the precision by about 7%.

Evaluating information-theoretic measures of word prediction in naturalistic sentence reading

Contains fulltext : 213694.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)10 p

Comparing gated and simple recurrent neural network architectures as models of human sentence processing

Contains fulltext : 213724.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)The 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2019), 24 juli 201

Die drei Ringe. Entstehung, Wandel und Wirkung der Ringparabel in der europ\ue4ischen Literatur und Kultur

Der vorliegende Band, der die Ergebnisse eines deutsch-italienischen Forschungskolloquiums vom 27. bis 29. September 2012 in der Villa Vigoni dokumentiert, m\uf6chte gegen die pr\ue4sentistischen Reduktionen und Missverst\ue4ndnisse der Ringparabel die literarische Geschichte dieses wirkm\ue4chtigen Erz\ue4hlmodells rekonstruieren und an diesem Leitfaden entlang auch eine Arch\ue4ologie des europ\ue4ischen Toleranzgedankens selbst liefern. Erhellt werden zum einen die Transformationen der Parabel von der Antike bis zu Boccaccios Melchisedech-Novelle, um dann zum anderen auf Lessing einzugehen und dessen Rezeption bis in die Moderne zu verfolgen. Wie die Tagung wird auch die vorliegende Dokumentation mit einem Beitrag des \uc4gyptologen Jan Assmann er\uf6ffnet. Ef folgen Beitr\ue4ge von A.C. Mayer, W.-D. Stempel, V.L. Puccetti, A. Kablitz, L. M\uf6llenbrink, A. Aurnhammer, M. Zanucchi, C. Rivoletti, W. Schr\uf6der, G. Cantarutti, F. Vollhardt, F. Tucci und L. Weissberg

Misguidance and modulation of axonal regeneration by Stat3 and Rho/ROCK signaling in the transparent optic nerve

The use of the visual system played a major role in the elucidation of molecular mechanisms controlling axonal regeneration in the injured CNS after trauma. In this model, CNTF was shown to be the most potent known neurotrophic factor for axonal regeneration in the injured optic nerve. To clarify the role of the downstream growth regulator Stat3, we analyzed axonal regeneration and neuronal survival after an optic nerve crush in adult mice. The infection of retinal ganglion cells with adeno-associated virus serotype 2 (AAV2) containing wild-type (Stat3-wt) or constitutively active (Stat3-ca) Stat3 cDNA promoted axonal regeneration in the injured optic nerve. Axonal growth was analyzed in whole-mounted optic nerves in three dimensions (3D) after tissue clearing. Surprisingly, with AAV2.Stat3-ca stimulation, axons elongating beyond the lesion site displayed very irregular courses, including frequent U-turns, suggesting massive directionality and guidance problems. The pharmacological blockade of ROCK, a key signaling component for myelin-associated growth inhibitors, reduced axonal U-turns and potentiated AAV2.Stat3-ca-induced regeneration. Similar results were obtained after the sustained delivery of CNTF in the axotomized retina. These results show the important role of Stat3 in the activation of the neuronal growth program for regeneration, and they reveal that axonal misguidance is a key limiting factor that can affect long-distance regeneration and target interaction after trauma in the CNS. The correction of axonal misguidance was associated with improved long-distance axon regeneration in the injured adult CNS