TY - JOUR AB - Ran GTPase plays important roles in nucleocytoplasmic transport in interphase [1, 2] and in both spindle formation and nuclear envelope (NE) assembly during mitosis [3, 4, 5]. The latter functions rely on the presence of high local concentrations of GTP-bound Ran near mitotic chromatin [3, 4, 5]. RanGTP localization has been proposed to result from the association of Ran's GDP/GTP exchange factor, RCC1, with chromatin [6, 7, 8, 9], but Ran is shown here to bind directly to chromatin in two modes, either dependent or independent of RCC1, and, where bound, to increase the affinity of chromatin for NE membranes. We propose that the Ran binding capacity of chromatin contributes to localized spindle and NE assembly. AU - Bilbao-Cortés, Daniel AU - HETZER, Martin W AU - Längst, Gernot AU - Becker, Peter B. AU - Mattaj, Iain W. ID - 11124 IS - 13 JF - Current Biology KW - General Agricultural and Biological Sciences KW - General Biochemistry KW - Genetics and Molecular Biology SN - 0960-9822 TI - Ran binds to chromatin by two distinct mechanisms VL - 12 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The small GTPase Ran is a key regulator of nucleocytoplasmic transport during interphase. The asymmetric distribution of the GTP-bound form of Ran across the nuclear envelope — that is, large quantities in the nucleus compared with small quantities in the cytoplasm — determines the directionality of many nuclear transport processes. Recent findings that Ran also functions in spindle formation and nuclear envelope assembly during mitosis suggest that Ran has a general role in chromatin-centred processes. Ran functions in these events as a signal for chromosome position. AU - HETZER, Martin W AU - Gruss, Oliver J. AU - Mattaj, Iain W. ID - 11123 IS - 7 JF - Nature Cell Biology KW - Cell Biology SN - 1465-7392 TI - The Ran GTPase as a marker of chromosome position in spindle formation and nuclear envelope assembly VL - 4 ER - TY - JOUR AB - For many years considerable efforts have been put into investigating and modelling hydrological processes of mountainous catchments. On the one hand, the complexity and intrinsically high variability of the involved processes as well as insufficient knowledge of the underlying physical mechanisms still induce large uncertainties in understanding observed phenomena and predicting the behaviour of the system. On the other hand, the demand for models that are able to simulate mountainous water resource systems is increasing because of the needs related to both water exploitation and water conservation, which clearly call for an integrated vision and modelling of these systems. Accordingly, this paper moves from a brief survey of the most significant achievements in mountain hydrology to discuss what could be future challenging issues related to the broader spectrum of questions, which hydrologic modelling of mountainous river systems may face in the next decades. Firstly, reference is made to existing methodologies for modelling alpine water systems, focussing on some specific aspects that provide a basis for the discussion of the weaknesses and perspectives of present simulation tools. The future is thus discussed, delineating some of the research challenges that may foster a comprehensive and integrated vision of water related issues in mountainous regions. AU - Burlando, Paolo AU - Pellicciotti, Francesca AU - Strasser, Ulrich ID - 12659 IS - 1 JF - Hydrology Research SN - 0029-1277 TI - Modelling mountainous water systems between learning and speculating looking for challenges VL - 33 ER - TY - CONF AB - New dyes of the type Ru(II)(bdmpp)(bpy) [where bdmpp is 2,6-bis(3,5-dimethyl-N-pyrazoyl)pyridine and bpy is 2,2′-bipyridine-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid] are prepared and characterized by infra-red (IR), mass (MS) and electrospray mass spectroscopy (ES-MS) as well as 1H NMR (1D and 2D) spectroscopies. The compounds present broad and very high intensity MLCT absorption bands in the visible and can be chemically anchored on TiO2 films via ester-like linkage involving carboxylato groups. These complexes have been tested with success as potential molecular antennas in dye-sensitized solar cells. Both opaque and transparent nanocrystalline TiO2 thin film electrodes obtained by a doctor blade technique sensitized by these complexes were incorporated in a sandwich type regenerative photoelectrochemical solar cell containing 0.1M LiI +0.01M I2 in propylene carbonate as well as a platinized conductive glass counter electrode. The cell was characterized by Raman spectroscopy under anodic and cathodic bias. Two new vibration bands were observed in the lower frequency region. The first one at 112 cm-1 is due to tri-iodide formed on the photoactive electrode, and the second one at 167 cm-1 is a sign of the dye/iodide interaction and corresponds to a vibration in a chemically stable "DI" intermediate species. Under direct sunlight illumination (solar irradiance of 60 mW/cm2) by using a composite polymer solid state electrolyte, the cell ITO/TiO2/[Ru(II)(bdmpp)(bpy)(NCS)](PF6)/electrolyte/Pt-ITO produced a continuous photocurrent as high as 4.29mA/cm2, and gave IPCE values about half of the corresponding values obtained by the standard N3 dye under the same conditions. The photovoltage is about 600 mV and the overall energy conversion cell's efficiency is as high as 1.72%. AU - Falaras, Polycarpos AU - Chryssou, Katerina AU - Stergiopoulos, Thomas AU - Arabatzis, Ioannis M AU - Georgios Katsaros AU - Catalano, Vincent J AU - Kurtaran, Raif AU - Hugot-Le Goff, Anne AU - Bernard, Marie C ID - 1738 TI - Dye-sensitization of titanium dioxide thin films by Ru(II)-bpp-bpy complexes VL - 4801 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Poly(ethylene oxide)/titania polymer electrolyte based photoelectrochemical cells have been fabricated with Ru(dcbpy)2(NCS)2 complex as the sensitizer and nanoporous TiO2 films as photoanodes. The introduction of the titania filler into the poly(ethylene oxide) matrix reduces the crystallinity of the polymer and enhances the mobility of the 1-/13 - redox couple, resulting in outstanding overall conversion efficiency (4.2% under direct sunlight illumination) of the corresponding dye-sensitized nanocrystalline TiO2 solar cell, one of the best efficiencies reported to date for a solid-state device. AU - Stergiopoulos, Thomas AU - Arabatzis, Iannis M AU - Georgios Katsaros AU - Falaras, Polycarpos ID - 1739 IS - 11 JF - Nano Letters TI - Binary Polyethylene Oxide/Titania Solid-State Redox Electrolyte for Highly Efficient Nanocrystalline TiO2 Photoelectrochemical Cells VL - 2 ER - TY - CONF AU - Robert Seiringer ED - Weder, Richardo ED - Exner, Pavel ED - Grébert, Benoit ID - 2339 TI - Symmetry breaking in a model of a rotating Bose gas VL - 307 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the Gross-Pitaevskii functional for a rotating two-dimensional Bose gas in a trap. We prove that there is a breaking of the rotational symmetry in the ground state; more precisely, for any value of the angular velocity and for large enough values of the interaction strength, the ground state of the functional is not an eigenfunction of the angular momentum. This has interesting consequences on the Bose gas with spin; in particular, the ground state energy depends non-trivially on the number of spin components, and the different components do not have the same wave function. For the special case of a harmonic trap potential, we give explicit upper and lower bounds on the critical coupling constant for symmetry breaking. AU - Robert Seiringer ID - 2351 IS - 3 JF - Communications in Mathematical Physics TI - Gross-Pitaevskii theory of the rotating Bose gas VL - 229 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of the ground state of bosonic atoms in a trap was discussed. The BEC was proved for bosons with two-body repulsive interaction potentials in the dilute limit, starting from the basic Schrodinger equation. The BEC was 100% into the state which minimized the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional. The analysis also included rigorous proof of BEC in a physically realistic, continuum model. AU - Lieb, Élliott H AU - Robert Seiringer ID - 2349 IS - 17 JF - Physical Review Letters TI - Proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for dilute trapped gases VL - 88 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We present a generalization of the Fefferman-de la Llave decomposition of the Coulomb potential to quite arbitrary radial functions V on ℝn going to zero at infinity. This generalized decomposition can be used to extend previous results on N-body quantum systems with Coulomb interaction to a more general class of interactions. As an example of such an application, we derive the high density asymptotics of the ground state energy of jellium with Yukawa interaction in the thermodynamic limit, using a correlation estimate by Graf and Solovej. AU - Hainzl, Christian AU - Robert Seiringer ID - 2352 IS - 1 JF - Letters in Mathematical Physics TI - General decomposition of radial functions on ℝn and applications to N-body quantum systems VL - 61 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Synapses exhibit different short-term plasticity patterns and this behaviour influences information processing in neuronal networks. We tested how the short-term plasticity of excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) depends on the postsynaptic cell type, identified by axonal arborizations and molecular markers in the hippocampal CA1 area. Three distinct types of short-term synaptic behaviour (facilitating, depressing and combined facilitating-depressing) were defined by fitting a dynamic neurotransmission model to the data. Approximately 75 % of the oriens-lacunosum-moleculare (O-LM) interneurones received facilitating EPSCs, but in three of 12 O-LM cells EPSCs also showed significant depression. Over 90 % of the O-LM cells were immunopositive for somatostatin and mGluR1α and all tested cells were decorated by strongly mGluR7a positive axon terminals. Responses in eight of 12 basket cells were described well with a model involving only depression, but the other cells displayed combined facilitating-depressing EPSCs. No apparent difference was found between the plasticity of EPSCs in cholecystokinin- or parvalbumin-containing basket cells. In oriens-bistratified cells (O-Bi), two of nine cells showed facilitating EPSCs, another two depressing, and the remaining five cells combined facilitating-depressing EPSCs. Seven of 10 cells tested for somatostatin were immunopositive, but mGluR1α was detectable only in two of 11 tested cells. Furthermore, most O-Bi cells projected to the CA3 area and the subiculum, as well as outside the hippocampal formation. Postsynaptic responses to action potentials recorded in vivo from a CA1 place cell were modelled, and revealed great differences between and within cell types. Our results demonstrate that the short-term plasticity of EPSCs is cell type dependent, but with significant heterogeneity within all three interneurone populations. AU - Losonczy, Attila AU - Zhang, Limei AU - Ryuichi Shigemoto AU - Somogyi, Péter AU - Nusser, Zoltán ID - 2617 IS - 1 JF - Journal of Physiology TI - Cell type dependence and variability in the short-term plasticity of EPSCs in identified mouse hippocampal interneurones VL - 542 ER - TY - CONF AU - László Erdös ID - 2708 TI - Two dimensional Pauli operator via scalar potential VL - 307 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Polar auxin transport controls multiple aspects of plant development including differential growth, embryo and root patterning and vascular tissue differentiation. Identification of proteins involved in this process and availability of new tools enabling `visualization' of auxin and auxin routes in planta largely contributed to the significant progress that has recently been made. New data support classical concepts, but several recent findings are likely to challenge our view on the mechanism of auxin transport. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the polar auxin transport field. It starts with classical models resulting from physiological studies, describes the genetic contributions and discusses the molecular basis of auxin influx and efflux. Finally, selected questions are presented in the context of developmental biology, integrating available data from different fields. AU - Friml, Jirí AU - Palme, Klaus ID - 2991 IS - 3-4 JF - Plant Molecular Biology TI - Polar auxin transport - Old questions and new concepts? VL - 49 ER - TY - GEN AB - A method of automatic conversion of a physical object into a three-dimensional digital model. The method acquires a set of measured data points on the surface of a physical model. From the measured data points, the method reconstructs a digital model of the physical object using a Delaunay complex of the points, a flow strcuture of the simplicies in the Delaunay complex and retracting the Delaunay complex into a digital model of the physical object using the flow structure. The method then outputs the digital model of the physical object. AU - Edelsbrunner, Herbert AU - Fu, Ping ID - 3508 TI - Methods of generating three-dimensional digital models of objects by wrapping point cloud data points ER - TY - CONF AU - Mallick, Sanhita AU - Krishnendu Chatterjee AU - Merchant, Arif N AU - Dasgupta, Pallab ID - 3448 TI - Implementation of shape grammar for plan analysis ER - TY - THES AB - This dissertation investigates game-theoretic approaches to the algorithmic analysis of concurrent, reactive systems. A concurrent system comprises a number of components working concurrently; a reactive system maintains an ongoing interaction with its environment. Traditional approaches to the formal analysis of concurrent reactive systems usually view the system as an unstructured state-transition graphs; instead, we view them as collections of interacting components, where each one is an open system which accepts inputs from the other components. The interactions among the components are naturally modeled as games. Adopting this game-theoretic view, we study three related problems pertaining to the verification and synthesis of systems. Firstly, we propose two novel game-theoretic techniques for the model-checking of concurrent reactive systems, and improve the performance of model-checking. The first technique discovers an error as soon as it cannot be prevented, which can be long before it actually occurs. This technique is based on the key observation that "unpreventability" is a local property to a module: an error is unpreventable in a module state if no environment can prevent it. The second technique attempts to decompose a model-checking proof into smaller proof obligations by constructing abstract modules automatically, using reachability and "unpreventability" information about the concrete modules. Three increasingly powerful proof decomposition rules are proposed and we show that in practice, the resulting abstract modules are often significantly smaller than the concrete modules and can drastically reduce the space and time requirements for verification. Both techniques fall into the category of compositional reasoning. Secondly, we investigate the composition and control of synchronous systems. An essential property of synchronous systems for compositional reasoning is non-blocking. In the composition of synchronous systems, however, due to circular causal dependency of input and output signals, non-blocking is not always guaranteed. Blocking compositions of systems can be ruled out semantically, by insisting on the existence of certain fixed points, or syntactically, by equipping systems with types, which make the dependencies between input and output signals transparent. We characterize various typing mechanisms in game-theoretic terms, and study their effects on the controller synthesis problem. We show that our typing systems are general enough to capture interesting real-life synchronous systems such as all delay-insensitive digital circuits. We then study their corresponding single-step control problems --a restricted form of controller synthesis problem whose solutions can be iterated in appropriate manners to solve all LTL controller synthesis problems. We also consider versions of the controller synthesis problem in which the type of the controller is given. We show that the solution of these fixed-type control problems requires the evaluation of partially ordered (Henkin) quantifiers on boolean formulas, and is therefore harder (nondeterministic exponential time) than more traditional control questions. Thirdly, we study the synthesis of a class of open systems, namely, uninitialized state machines. The sequential synthesis problem, which is closely related to Church's solvability problem, asks, given a specification in the form of a binary relation between input and output streams, for the construction of a finite-state stream transducer that converts inputs to appropriate outputs. For efficiency reasons, practical sequential hardware is often designed to operate without prior initialization. Such hardware designs can be modeled by uninitialized state machines, which are required to satisfy their specification if started from any state. We solve the sequential synthesis problem for uninitialized systems, that is, we construct uninitialized finite-state stream transducers. We consider specifications given by LTL formulas, deterministic, nondeterministic, universal, and alternating Buechi automata. We solve this uninitialized synthesis problem by reducing it to the well-understood initialized synthesis problem. While our solution is straightforward, it leads, for some specification formalisms, to upper bounds that are exponentially worse than the complexity of the corresponding initialized problems. However, we prove lower bounds to show that our simple solutions are optimal for all considered specification formalisms. The lower bound proofs require nontrivial generic reductions. AU - Mang, Freddy ID - 4414 TI - Games in open systems verification and synthesis ER - TY - JOUR AB - Wild isolates of Caenorhabditis elegans can feed either alone or in groups1,2. This natural variation in behaviour is associated with a single residue difference in NPR-1, a predicted G-protein-coupled neuropeptide receptor related to Neuropeptide Y receptors2. Here we show that the NPR-1 isoform associated with solitary feeding acts in neurons exposed to the body fluid to inhibit social feeding. Furthermore, suppressing the activity of these neurons, called AQR, PQR and URX, using an activated K+ channel, inhibits social feeding. NPR-1 activity in AQR, PQR and URX neurons seems to suppress social feeding by antagonizing signalling through a cyclic GMP-gated ion channel encoded by tax-2 and tax-4. We show that mutations in tax-2 or tax-4 disrupt social feeding, and that tax-4 is required in several neurons for social feeding, including one or more of AQR, PQR and URX. The AQR, PQR and URX neurons are unusual in C. elegans because they are directly exposed to the pseudocoelomic body fluid3. Our data suggest a model in which these neurons integrate antagonistic signals to control the choice between social and solitary feeding behaviour. AU - Coates, Juliet C. AU - de Bono, Mario ID - 6158 IS - 6910 JF - Nature SN - 0028-0836 TI - Antagonistic pathways in neurons exposed to body fluid regulate social feeding in Caenorhabditis elegans VL - 419 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Natural Caenorhabditis elegans isolates exhibit either social or solitary feeding on bacteria. We show here that social feeding is induced by nociceptive neurons that detect adverse or stressful conditions. Ablation of the nociceptive neurons ASH and ADL transforms social animals into solitary feeders. Social feeding is probably due to the sensation of noxious chemicals by ASH and ADL neurons; it requires the genes ocr-2 and osm-9, which encode TRP-related transduction channels, and odr-4 and odr-8, which are required to localize sensory chemoreceptors to cilia. Other sensory neurons may suppress social feeding, as social feeding in ocr-2 and odr-4 mutants is restored by mutations in osm-3, a gene required for the development of 26 ciliated sensory neurons. Our data suggest a model for regulation of social feeding by opposing sensory inputs: aversive inputs to nociceptive neurons promote social feeding, whereas antagonistic inputs from neurons that express osm-3 inhibit aggregation. AU - de Bono, Mario AU - Tobin, David M. AU - Davis, M. Wayne AU - Avery, Leon AU - Bargmann, Cornelia I. ID - 6159 IS - 6910 JF - Nature SN - 0028-0836 TI - Social feeding in Caenorhabditis elegans is induced by neurons that detect aversive stimuli VL - 419 ER - TY - CONF AB - We present a theory of timed interfaces, which is capable of specifying both the timing of the inputs a component expects from the environment, and the timing of the outputs it can produce. Two timed interfaces are compatible if there is a way to use them together such that their timing expectations are met. Our theory provides algorithms for checking the compatibility between two interfaces and for deriving the composite interface; the theory can thus be viewed as a type system for real-time interaction. Technically, a timed interface is encoded as a timed game between two players, representing the inputs and outputs of the component. The algorithms for compatibility checking and interface composition are thus derived from algorithms for solving timed games. AU - De Alfaro, Luca AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Stoelinga, Mariëlle ID - 4631 SN - 9783540443070 T2 - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Embedded Software TI - Timed interfaces VL - 2491 ER - TY - CONF AB - We present interface models that describe both the input assumptions of a component, and its output behavior. By enabling us to check that the input assumptions of a component are met in a design, interface models provide a compatibility check for component-based design. When refining a design into an implementation, interface models require that the output behavior of a component satisfies the design specification only when the input assumptions of the specification are satisfied, yielding greater flexibility in the choice of implementations. Technically, our interface models are games between two players, Input and Output; the duality of the players accounts for the dual roles of inputs and outputs in composition and refinement. We present two interface models in detail, one for a simple synchronous form of interaction between components typical in hardware, and the other for more complex synchronous interactions on bidirectional connections. As an example, we specify the interface of a bidirectional bus, with the input assumption that at any time at most one component has write access to the bus. For these interface models, we present algorithms for compatibility and refinement checking, and we describe efficient symbolic implementations. AU - Chakrabarti, Arindam AU - De Alfaro, Luca AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Mang, Freddy ID - 4562 SN - 9783540439974 T2 - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification TI - Synchronous and bidirectional component interfaces VL - 2404 ER - TY - CONF AB - In the literature, we find several formulations of the control problem for timed and hybrid systems. We argue that formulations where a controller can cause an action at any point in dense (rational or real) time are problematic, by presenting an example where the controller must act faster and faster, yet causes no Zeno effects (say, the control actions are at times 0, 1/2, 1, 1 1/4, 2, 2 1/8, 3, 3 1/16 ,...). Such a controller is, of course, not implementable in software. Such controllers are avoided by formulations where the controller can cause actions only at discrete (integer) points in time. While the resulting control problem is well- understood if the time unit, or “sampling rate” of the controller, is fixed a priori, we define a novel, stronger formulation: the discrete-time control problem with unknown sampling rate asks if a sampling controller exists for some sampling rate. We prove that this problem is undecidable even in the special case of timed automata. AU - Cassez, Franck AU - Henzinger, Thomas A AU - Raskin, Jean ID - 4565 SN - 9783540433217 T2 - Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control TI - A comparison of control problems for timed and hybrid systems VL - 2289 ER -