6,243 research outputs found
Cellular pattern formation during Dictyostelium aggregation
The development of multicellularity in the life cycle of Dictyostelium discoideum provides a paradigm model system for biological pattern formation. Previously, mathematical models have shown how a collective pattern of cell communication by waves of the messenger molecule cyclic adenosine 3′5′-monophosphate (cAMP) arises from excitable local cAMP kinetics and cAMP diffusion. Here we derive a model of the actual cell aggregation process by considering the chemotactic cell response to cAMP and its interplay with the cAMP dynamics. Cell density, which previously has been treated as a spatially homogeneous parameter, is a crucial variable of the aggregation model. We find that the coupled dynamics of cell chemotaxis and cAMP reaction-diffusion lead to the break-up of the initially uniform cell layer and to the formation of the striking cell stream morphology which characterizes the aggregation process in situ. By a combination of stability analysis and two-dimensional simulations of the model equations, we show cell streaming to be the consequence of the growth of a small-amplitude pattern in cell density forced by the large-amplitude cAMP waves, thus representing a novel scenario of spatial patterning in a cell chemotaxis system. The instability mechanism is further analysed by means of an analytic caricature of the model, and the condition for chemotaxis-driven instability is found to be very similar to the one obtained for the standard (non-oscillatory) Keller-Segel system. The growing cell stream pattern feeds back into the cAMP dynamics, which can explain in some detail experimental observations on the time evolution of the cAMP wave pattern, and suggests the characterization of the Dictyostelium aggregation field as a self-organized excitable medium
Reconciliation of experimental and theoretical electric tensor polarizabilities of the cesium ground state
We present a new theoretical analysis of the strongly suppressed F- and
M-dependent Stark shifts of the Cs ground state hyperfine structure. Our
treatment uses third order perturbation theory including off-diagonal hyperfine
interactions not considered in earlier treatments. A numerical evaluation of
the perturbation sum using bound states up to n=200 yields ground state tensor
polarizabilities which are in good agreement with experimental values, thereby
bridging the 40-year-old gap between experiments and theory. We have further
found that the tensor polarizabilities of the two ground state hyperfine
manifolds have opposite signs, in disagreement with an earlier derivation. This
sign error has a direct implication for the precise evaluation of the blackbody
radiation shift in primary frequency standards.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter
Rb*He_n exciplexes in solid 4_He
We report the observation of emission spectra from Rb*He_n exciplexes in
solid 4He. Two different excitation channels were experimentally identified,
viz., exciplex formation via laser excitation to the atomic 5P3/2 and to the
5P1/2 levels. While the former channel was observed before in liquid helium, on
helium nanodroplets and in helium gas by different groups, the latter creation
mechanism occurs only in solid helium or in gaseous helium above 10 Kelvin. The
experimental results are compared to theoretical predictions based on the
extension of a model, used earlier by us for the description of Cs*He_n
exciplexes. We also report the first observation of fluorescence from atomic
rubidium in solid helium, and discuss striking differences between the
spectroscopic feature of Rb-He and Cs-He systems.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Spectroscopy of Rb dimers in solid He
We present experimental and theoretical studies of the absorption, emission
and photodissociation spectra of Rb molecules in solid helium. We have
identified 11 absorption bands of Rb. All laser-excited molecular states
are quenched by the interaction with the He matrix. The quenching results in
efficient population of a metastable (1) state, which emits
fluorescence at 1042 nm. In order to explain the fluorescence at the forbidden
transition and its time dependence we propose a new molecular exciplex
RbHe. We have also found evidence for the formation of
diatomic bubble states following photodissociation of Rb
Lifetime of the Cs 6P1/2 state in bcc and hcp solid 4He
Abstract.: We present the first experimental study of time-resolved fluorescence from laser-excited Cs(6P1/2) atoms isolated in a solid 4He matrix. The results are compared to the predictions of the bubble model including the interaction of the atomic dipole with its radiation reflected at the bubble interface. Our results show that in liquid He as well as in the body-centered cubic (bcc) crystalline phase of He the lifetime of excited Cs atoms does not depend on He pressure, in agreement with our theory. When going from the bcc to the hexagonally close-packed (hcp) phase of 4He the lifetime is reduced by ≈10% and decreases further with increasing He pressure. We assign this effect to the formation of Cs*Hen exciplexes, and determine the pressure dependence of the probability that the 6P1/2 state decays via this nonradiative channe
Discovery of dumbbell-shaped Cs*He_n exciplexes in solid He 4
We have observed several new spectral features in the fluorescence of cesium
atoms implanted in the hcp phase of solid helium following laser excitation to
the 6P states. Based on calculations of the emission spectra using
semiempirical Cs-He pair potentials the newly discovered lines can be assigned
to the decay of specific Cs*He exciplexes: an apple-shaped CsHe and a dumbbell-shaped CsHe exciplex with
a well defined number of bound helium atoms. While the former has been
observed in other enviroments, it was commonly believed that exciplexes with
might not exist. The calculations suggest CsHe to be
the most probable candidate for that exciplex, in which the helium atoms are
arranged on a ring around the waist of the dumbbell shaped electronic density
distribution of the cesium atom.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A room temperature 19-channel magnetic field mapping device for cardiac signals
We present a multichannel cardiac magnetic field imaging system built in
Fribourg from optical double-resonance Cs vapor magnetometers. It consists of
25 individual sensors designed to record magnetic field maps of the beating
human heart by simultaneous measurements on a grid of 19 points over the chest.
The system is operated as an array of second order gradiometers using
sophisticated digitally controlled feedback loops.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Dictyostelium discoideum: Cellular self-organisation in an excitable medium
The dynamics which govern the establishment of pattern and form in multicellular organisms remain a key problem of developmental biology. We study this question in the case of morphogenesis during aggregation of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum. Here detailed experimental information allows the formulation of a mechanistic model in which the central element is the coupling of the previously muchstudied intracellular cyclic AMP signalling with the chemotactic cell response in cyclic AMP gradients. Numerical simulations of the model show quantitatively how signal relay, chemotactic movement and adaptation orchestrate the collective modes of cell signalling and migration in the aggregating cell layer. The interaction of chemotaxis with the cyclic AMP excitation waves causes the initially homogeneous cell layer to become unstable towards the formation of a branching cell stream pattern with close cell-cell contacts as observed in situ. The evolving cell morphology in turn leads to a pattern of non-homogeneous excitability of the medium and thus feeds back into the cAMP dynamics. This feedback can expalin the decrease in signalling period and propagation speed with time, as well as observations on the structure of the spiral wave core in this self-organized excitable medium
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