288 research outputs found
Tomosyn inhibits synaptic vesicle priming in Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans TOM-1 is orthologous to vertebrate tomosyn, a cytosolic syntaxin-binding protein implicated in the modulation of both constitutive and regulated exocytosis. To investigate how TOM-1 regulates exocytosis of synaptic vesicles in vivo, we analyzed C. elegans tom-1 mutants. Our electrophysiological analysis indicates that evoked postsynaptic responses at tom-1 mutant synapses are prolonged leading to a two-fold increase in total charge transfer. The enhanced response in tom-1 mutants is not associated with any detectable changes in postsynaptic response kinetics, neuronal outgrowth, or synaptogenesis. However, at the ultrastructural level, we observe a concomitant increase in the number of plasma membrane-contacting vesicles in tom-1 mutant synapses, a phenotype reversed by neuronal expression of TOM-1. Priming defective unc-13 mutants show a dramatic reduction in plasma membrane-contacting vesicles, suggesting these vesicles largely represent the primed vesicle pool at the C. elegans neuromuscular junction. Consistent with this conclusion, hyperosmotic responses in tom-1 mutants are enhanced, indicating the primed vesicle pool is enhanced. Furthermore, the synaptic defects of unc-13 mutants are partially suppressed in tom-1 unc-13 double mutants. These data indicate that in the intact nervous system, TOM-1 negatively regulates synaptic vesicle priming. © 2006 Gracheva et al
Illuminating spindle convex bodies and minimizing the volume of spherical sets of constant width
A subset of the d-dimensional Euclidean space having nonempty interior is
called a spindle convex body if it is the intersection of (finitely or
infinitely many) congruent d-dimensional closed balls. The spindle convex body
is called a "fat" one, if it contains the centers of its generating balls. The
core part of this paper is an extension of Schramm's theorem and its proof on
illuminating convex bodies of constant width to the family of "fat" spindle
convex bodies.Comment: 17 page
Local Anisotropy of Fluids using Minkowski Tensors
Statistics of the free volume available to individual particles have
previously been studied for simple and complex fluids, granular matter,
amorphous solids, and structural glasses. Minkowski tensors provide a set of
shape measures that are based on strong mathematical theorems and easily
computed for polygonal and polyhedral bodies such as free volume cells (Voronoi
cells). They characterize the local structure beyond the two-point correlation
function and are suitable to define indices of
local anisotropy. Here, we analyze the statistics of Minkowski tensors for
configurations of simple liquid models, including the ideal gas (Poisson point
process), the hard disks and hard spheres ensemble, and the Lennard-Jones
fluid. We show that Minkowski tensors provide a robust characterization of
local anisotropy, which ranges from for vapor
phases to for ordered solids. We find that for fluids,
local anisotropy decreases monotonously with increasing free volume and
randomness of particle positions. Furthermore, the local anisotropy indices
are sensitive to structural transitions in these simple
fluids, as has been previously shown in granular systems for the transition
from loose to jammed bead packs
Valuations on lattice polytopes
This survey is on classification results for valuations defined on lattice polytopes that intertwine the special linear group over the integers. The basic real valued valuations, the coefficients of the Ehrhart polynomial, are introduced and their characterization by Betke and Kneser is discussed. More recent results include classification theorems for vector and convex body valued valuations. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017
Search for non-Gaussianity in pixel, harmonic and wavelet space: compared and combined
We present a comparison between three approaches to test non-Gaussianity of
cosmic microwave background data. The Minkowski functionals, the empirical
process method and the skewness of wavelet coefficients are applied to maps
generated from non-standard inflationary models and to Gaussian maps with point
sources included. We discuss the different power of the pixel, harmonic and
wavelet space methods on these simulated almost full-sky data (with Planck like
noise). We also suggest a new procedure consisting of a combination of
statistics in pixel, harmonic and wavelet space.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR
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