Neurofly 2008 abstracts : the 12th European Drosophila neurobiology conference 6-10 September 2008 Wuerzburg, Germany

This volume consists of a collection of conference abstracts

The Two-Component Non-Perturbative Pomeron and the G-Universality

In this communication we present a generalization of the Donnachie-Landshoff model inspired by the recent discovery of a 2-component Pomeron in LLA-QCD by Bartels, Lipatov and Vacca. In particular, we explore a new property, not present in the usual Regge theory - the G-Universality - which signifies the independence of one of the Pomeron components on the nature of the initial and final hadrons. The best description of all the forward hadron-hadron, gamma- gamma and gamma-proton data is obtained when G-universailty is imposed. Moreover, the maximal (ln)**2 behaviour of the hadron amplitude, first established by Heisenberg, is clearly favoured by the data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 tables, talk at the International Workshop on Diffraction in High-Energy Physics "Diffraction 2000", Cetraro, Italy, September 2-7, 200

Analytic Amplitudes for Hadronic Forward Scattering and the Heisenberg ln**2 Behaviour of Total Cross Section

The ln**2 behaviour of total cross sections, first obtained by Heisenberg 50 years ago, receives now increased interest both on phenomenological and theoretical levels. We present a modification of the Heisenberg's model in connection with the presence of glueballs and we show that it leads to a realistic description of all existing hadron total cross-section data, in agreement with the COMPETE analysis.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 4 tables Invited talk at the QCD International Conference QCD03, Montpellier, France, July 2-9, 200

Symmetry-preserving Loop Regularization and Renormalization of QFTs

A new symmetry-preserving loop regularization method proposed in \cite{ylw} is further investigated. It is found that its prescription can be understood by introducing a regulating distribution function to the proper-time formalism of irreducible loop integrals. The method simulates in many interesting features to the momentum cutoff, Pauli-Villars and dimensional regularization. The loop regularization method is also simple and general for the practical calculations to higher loop graphs and can be applied to both underlying and effective quantum field theories including gauge, chiral, supersymmetric and gravitational ones as the new method does not modify either the lagrangian formalism or the space-time dimension of original theory. The appearance of characteristic energy scale $M_c$ and sliding energy scale $\mu_s$ offers a systematic way for studying the renormalization-group evolution of gauge theories in the spirit of Wilson-Kadanoff and for exploring important effects of higher dimensional interaction terms in the infrared regime.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex, extended modified version, more references adde

The Swiss Cheese Mutant Causes Glial Hyperwrapping and Brain Degeneration in Drosophila

Swiss cheese (sws) mutant flies develop normally during larval life but show age-dependent neurodegeneration in the pupa and adult and have reduced life span. In late pupae, glial processes form abnormal, multilayered wrappings around neurons and axons. Degeneration first becomes evident in young flies as apoptosis in single scattered cells in the CNS, but later it becomes severe and widespread. In the adult, the number of glial wrappings increases with age. The sws gene is expressed in neurons in the brain cortex. The conceptual 1425 amino acid protein shows two domains with homology to the regulatory subunits of protein kinase A and to conceptual proteins of yet unknown function in yeast, worm, and human. Sequencing of two sws alleles shows amino acid substitutions in these two conserved domains. It is suggested that the novel SWS protein plays a role in a signaling mechanism between neurons and glia that regulates glial wrapping during development of the adult brain

The swiss cheese mutant causes glial hyperwrapping and brain degeneration in Drosophila

Swiss cheese (sws) mutant flies develop normally during larval life but show age-dependent neurodegeneration in the pupa and adult and have reduced life span. In late pupae, glial processes form abnormal, multilayered wrappings around neurons and axons. Degeneration first becomes evident in young flies as apoptosis in single scattered cells in the CNS, but later it becomes severe and widespread. In the adult, the number of glial wrappings increases with age. The sws gene is expressed in neurons in the brain cortex. The conceptual 1425 amino acid protein shows two domains with homology to the regulatory subunits of protein kinase A and to conceptual proteins of yet unknown function in yeast, worm, and human. Sequencing of two sws alleles shows amino acid substitutions in these two conserved domains. It is suggested that the novel SWS protein plays a role in a signaling mechanism between neurons and glia that regulates glial wrapping during development of the adult brain

Anisotropy effects in a mixed quantum-classical Heisenberg model in two dimensions

We analyse a specific two dimensional mixed spin Heisenberg model with exchange anisotropy, by means of high temperature expansions and Monte Carlo simulations. The goal is to describe the magnetic properties of the compound (NBu_{4})_{2}Mn_{2}[Cu(opba)]_{3}\cdot 6DMSO\cdot H_{2}O which exhibits a ferromagnetic transition at $T_{c}=15K$. Extrapolating our analysis on the basis of renormalisation group arguments, we find that this transition may result from a very weak anisotropy effect.Comment: 8 pages, 10 Postscript figure

Control of Directed Cell Migration In Vivo by Membrane-to-Cortex Attachment

Analysis of cell migration in vivo combined with biophysical measurements reveals how membrane-to-cortex attachment fine-tunes the type of protrusions formed by cells and, as a consequence, controls directed migration during zebrafish gastrulation