Mining Gene Ontology Data with AGENDA

The Gene Ontology (GO) initiative is a collaborative effort that uses controlled vocabularies for annotating genetic information. We here present AGENDA (Application for mining Gene Ontology Data), a novel web-based tool for accessing the GO database. AGENDA allows the user to simultaneously retrieve and compare gene lists linked to different GO terms in diverse species using batch queries, facilitating comparative approaches to genetic information. The web-based application offers diverse search options and allows the user to bookmark, visualize, and download the results. AGENDA is an open source web-based application that is freely available for non-commercial use at the project homepage. URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bioagenda

The neural basis of Drosophila gravity-sensing and hearing

The neural substrates that the fruitfly Drosophila uses to sense smell, taste and light share marked structural and functional similarities with ours, providing attractive models to dissect sensory stimulus processing. Here we focus on two of the remaining and less understood prime sensory modalities: graviception and hearing. We show that the fly has implemented both sensory modalities into a single system, Johnston's organ, which houses specialized clusters of mechanosensory neurons, each of which monitors specific movements of the antenna. Gravity- and sound-sensitive neurons differ in their response characteristics, and only the latter express the candidate mechanotransducer channel NompC. The two neural subsets also differ in their central projections, feeding into neural pathways that are reminiscent of the vestibular and auditory pathways in our brain. By establishing the Drosophila counterparts of these sensory systems, our findings provide the basis for a systematic functional and molecular dissection of how different mechanosensory stimuli are detected and processed

Forkhead Transcription Factor Fd3F Cooperates with Rfx to Regulate a Gene Expression Program for Mechanosensory Cilia Specialization

Cilia have evolved hugely diverse structures and functions to participate in a wide variety of developmental and physiological processes. Ciliary specialization requires differences in gene expression, but few transcription factors are known to regulate this, and their molecular function is unclear. Here, we show that the Drosophila Forkhead box (Fox) gene, fd3F, is required for specialization of the mechanosensory cilium of chordotonal (Ch) neurons. fd3F regulates genes for Ch-specific axonemal dyneins and TRPV ion channels, which are required for sensory transduction, and retrograde transport genes, which are required to differentiate their distinct motile and sensory ciliary zones. fd3F is reminiscent of vertebrate Foxj1, a motile cilia regulator, but fd3F regulates motility genes as part of a broader sensory regulation program. Fd3F cooperates with the pan-ciliary transcription factor, Rfx, to regulate its targets directly. This illuminates pathways involved in ciliary specialization and the molecular mechanism of transcription factors that regulate them

Dynamic Range Compression in the Honey Bee Auditory System toward Waggle Dance Sounds

Honey bee foragers use a “waggle dance” to inform nestmates about direction and distance to locations of attractive food. The sound and air flows generated by dancer's wing and abdominal vibrations have been implicated as important cues, but the decoding mechanisms for these dance messages are poorly understood. To understand the neural mechanisms of honey bee dance communication, we analyzed the anatomy of antenna and Johnston's organ (JO) in the pedicel of the antenna, as well as the mechanical and neural response characteristics of antenna and JO to acoustic stimuli, respectively. The honey bee JO consists of about 300–320 scolopidia connected with about 48 cuticular “knobs” around the circumference of the pedicel. Each scolopidium contains bipolar sensory neurons with both type I and II cilia. The mechanical sensitivities of the antennal flagellum are specifically high in response to low but not high intensity stimuli of 265–350 Hz frequencies. The structural characteristics of antenna but not JO neurons seem to be responsible for the non-linear responses of the flagellum in contrast to mosquito and fruit fly. The honey bee flagellum is a sensitive movement detector responding to 20 nm tip displacement, which is comparable to female mosquito. Furthermore, the JO neurons have the ability to preserve both frequency and temporal information of acoustic stimuli including the “waggle dance” sound. Intriguingly, the response of JO neurons was found to be age-dependent, demonstrating that the dance communication is only possible between aged foragers. These results suggest that the matured honey bee antennae and JO neurons are best tuned to detect 250–300 Hz sound generated during “waggle dance” from the distance in a dark hive, and that sufficient responses of the JO neurons are obtained by reducing the mechanical sensitivity of the flagellum in a near-field of dancer. This nonlinear effect brings about dynamic range compression in the honey bee auditory system

Direct gating and mechanical integrity of Drosophila auditory transducers require TRPN1

The elusive transduction channels for hearing are directly gated mechanically by the pull of gating springs. We found that the transient receptor potential (TRP) channel TRPN1 (NOMPC) is essential for this direct gating of Drosophila auditory transduction channels and that the channel-spring complex was disrupted if TRPN1 was lost. Our results identify TRPN1 as a mechanical constituent of the fly's auditory transduction complex that may act as the channel and/or gating spring

THE UTILISATION OF VALUE BASED MANAGEMENT IN THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF GERMAN’S AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

The purpose of this research paper is to analyse the value-based management commitment of automotive enterprises and to examine the factors that explain the control parameters in automotive industry. There have been a few empirical studies published in the German’s automotive sector but most of the existing studies failed to provide evidence of utilisation of value-based management in the strategic management in the automotive sector. The German automotive industry’s development is closely related to global economic developments. Previous research work has considered control parameters of enterprises but there is little evidence on the factors that explain which control parameters are used in automotive industry. A survey based on annual reports from the year 2008 to 2011 is used. In total, 20 annual reports of automotive companies were analysed. The results show that automotive companies, especially Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and listed suppliers, have committed to value-oriented management and have implemented value-oriented approaches. However, not all of the suppliers are communicating this in their reports. The results also show that Economic Value Added (EVA) is the leading key indicator in the automotive industry

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurement of the flavour composition of dijet events in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the flavour composition of dijet events produced in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector. The measurement uses the full 2010 data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 39 pb−1. Six possible combinations of light, charm and bottom jets are identified in the dijet events, where the jet flavour is defined by the presence of bottom, charm or solely light flavour hadrons in the jet. Kinematic variables, based on the properties of displaced decay vertices and optimised for jet flavour identification, are used in a multidimensional template fit to measure the fractions of these dijet flavour states as functions of the leading jet transverse momentum in the range 40 GeV to 500 GeV and jet rapidity |y|<2.1. The fit results agree with the predictions of leading- and next-to-leading-order calculations, with the exception of the dijet fraction composed of bottom and light flavour jets, which is underestimated by all models at large transverse jet momenta. The ability to identify jets containing two b-hadrons, originating from e.g. gluon splitting, is demonstrated. The difference between bottom jet production rates in leading and subleading jets is consistent with the next-to-leading-order predictions

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results