@article{9828, abstract = {Amplitude demodulation is a classical operation used in signal processing. For a long time, its effective applications in practice have been limited to narrowband signals. In this work, we generalize amplitude demodulation to wideband signals. We pose demodulation as a recovery problem of an oversampled corrupted signal and introduce special iterative schemes belonging to the family of alternating projection algorithms to solve it. Sensibly chosen structural assumptions on the demodulation outputs allow us to reveal the high inferential accuracy of the method over a rich set of relevant signals. This new approach surpasses current state-of-the-art demodulation techniques apt to wideband signals in computational efficiency by up to many orders of magnitude with no sacrifice in quality. Such performance opens the door for applications of the amplitude demodulation procedure in new contexts. In particular, the new method makes online and large-scale offline data processing feasible, including the calculation of modulator-carrier pairs in higher dimensions and poor sampling conditions, independent of the signal bandwidth. We illustrate the utility and specifics of applications of the new method in practice by using natural speech and synthetic signals.}, author = {Gabrielaitis, Mantas}, issn = {1941-0476}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing}, pages = {4039 -- 4054}, publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, title = {{Fast and accurate amplitude demodulation of wideband signals}}, doi = {10.1109/TSP.2021.3087899}, volume = {69}, year = {2021}, } @misc{9327, abstract = {This archive contains the missing sweater mesh animations and displacement models for the code of "Mechanics-Aware Deformation of Yarn Pattern Geometry" Code Repository: https://git.ist.ac.at/gsperl/MADYPG}, author = {Sperl, Georg and Narain, Rahul and Wojtan, Christopher J}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Mechanics-Aware Deformation of Yarn Pattern Geometry (Additional Animation/Model Data)}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:9327}, year = {2021}, } @article{9770, abstract = {We study an effective one-dimensional quantum model that includes friction and spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and show that the model exhibits spin polarization when both terms are finite. Most important, strong spin polarization can be observed even for moderate SOC, provided that the friction is strong. Our findings might help to explain the pronounced effect of chirality on spin distribution and transport in chiral molecules. In particular, our model implies static magnetic properties of a chiral molecule, which lead to Shiba-like states when a molecule is placed on a superconductor, in accordance with recent experimental data.}, author = {Volosniev, Artem and Alpern, Hen and Paltiel, Yossi and Millo, Oded and Lemeshko, Mikhail and Ghazaryan, Areg}, issn = {2469-9969}, journal = {Physical Review B}, number = {2}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Interplay between friction and spin-orbit coupling as a source of spin polarization}}, doi = {10.1103/physrevb.104.024430}, volume = {104}, year = {2021}, } @article{9827, abstract = {The Nearest neighbour search (NNS) is a fundamental problem in many application domains dealing with multidimensional data. In a concurrent setting, where dynamic modifications are allowed, a linearizable implementation of the NNS is highly desirable.This paper introduces the LockFree-kD-tree (LFkD-tree ): a lock-free concurrent kD-tree, which implements an abstract data type (ADT) that provides the operations Add, Remove, Contains, and NNS. Our implementation is linearizable. The operations in the LFkD-tree use single-word read and compare-and-swap (Image 1 ) atomic primitives, which are readily supported on available multi-core processors. We experimentally evaluate the LFkD-tree using several benchmarks comprising real-world and synthetic datasets. The experiments show that the presented design is scalable and achieves significant speed-up compared to the implementations of an existing sequential kD-tree and a recently proposed multidimensional indexing structure, PH-tree.}, author = {Chatterjee, Bapi and Walulya, Ivan and Tsigas, Philippas}, issn = {0304-3975}, journal = {Theoretical Computer Science}, keywords = {Concurrent data structure, kD-tree, Nearest neighbor search, Similarity search, Lock-free, Linearizability}, pages = {27--48}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Concurrent linearizable nearest neighbour search in LockFree-kD-tree}}, doi = {10.1016/j.tcs.2021.06.041}, volume = {886}, year = {2021}, } @article{9877, abstract = {Parent-of-origin–dependent gene expression in mammals and flowering plants results from differing chromatin imprints (genomic imprinting) between maternally and paternally inherited alleles. Imprinted gene expression in the endosperm of seeds is associated with localized hypomethylation of maternally but not paternally inherited DNA, with certain small RNAs also displaying parent-of-origin–specific expression. To understand the evolution of imprinting mechanisms in Oryza sativa (rice), we analyzed imprinting divergence among four cultivars that span both japonica and indica subspecies: Nipponbare, Kitaake, 93-11, and IR64. Most imprinted genes are imprinted across cultivars and enriched for functions in chromatin and transcriptional regulation, development, and signaling. However, 4 to 11% of imprinted genes display divergent imprinting. Analyses of DNA methylation and small RNAs revealed that endosperm-specific 24-nt small RNA–producing loci show weak RNA-directed DNA methylation, frequently overlap genes, and are imprinted four times more often than genes. However, imprinting divergence most often correlated with local DNA methylation epimutations (9 of 17 assessable loci), which were largely stable within subspecies. Small insertion/deletion events and transposable element insertions accompanied 4 of the 9 locally epimutated loci and associated with imprinting divergence at another 4 of the remaining 8 loci. Correlating epigenetic and genetic variation occurred at key regulatory regions—the promoter and transcription start site of maternally biased genes, and the promoter and gene body of paternally biased genes. Our results reinforce models for the role of maternal-specific DNA hypomethylation in imprinting of both maternally and paternally biased genes, and highlight the role of transposition and epimutation in rice imprinting evolution.}, author = {Rodrigues, Jessica A. and Hsieh, Ping-Hung and Ruan, Deling and Nishimura, Toshiro and Sharma, Manoj K. and Sharma, Rita and Ye, XinYi and Nguyen, Nicholas D. and Nijjar, Sukhranjan and Ronald, Pamela C. and Fischer, Robert L. and Zilberman, Daniel}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, number = {29}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Divergence among rice cultivars reveals roles for transposition and epimutation in ongoing evolution of genomic imprinting}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.2104445118}, volume = {118}, year = {2021}, } @article{9874, abstract = {Myocardial regeneration is restricted to early postnatal life, when mammalian cardiomyocytes still retain the ability to proliferate. The molecular cues that induce cell cycle arrest of neonatal cardiomyocytes towards terminally differentiated adult heart muscle cells remain obscure. Here we report that the miR-106b~25 cluster is higher expressed in the early postnatal myocardium and decreases in expression towards adulthood, especially under conditions of overload, and orchestrates the transition of cardiomyocyte hyperplasia towards cell cycle arrest and hypertrophy by virtue of its targetome. In line, gene delivery of miR-106b~25 to the mouse heart provokes cardiomyocyte proliferation by targeting a network of negative cell cycle regulators including E2f5, Cdkn1c, Ccne1 and Wee1. Conversely, gene-targeted miR-106b~25 null mice display spontaneous hypertrophic remodeling and exaggerated remodeling to overload by derepression of the prohypertrophic transcription factors Hand2 and Mef2d. Taking advantage of the regulatory function of miR-106b~25 on cardiomyocyte hyperplasia and hypertrophy, viral gene delivery of miR-106b~25 provokes nearly complete regeneration of the adult myocardium after ischemic injury. Our data demonstrate that exploitation of conserved molecular programs can enhance the regenerative capacity of the injured heart.}, author = {Raso, Andrea and Dirkx, Ellen and Sampaio-Pinto, Vasco and el Azzouzi, Hamid and Cubero, Ryan J and Sorensen, Daniel W. and Ottaviani, Lara and Olieslagers, Servé and Huibers, Manon M. and de Weger, Roel and Siddiqi, Sailay and Moimas, Silvia and Torrini, Consuelo and Zentillin, Lorena and Braga, Luca and Nascimento, Diana S. and da Costa Martins, Paula A. and van Berlo, Jop H. and Zacchigna, Serena and Giacca, Mauro and De Windt, Leon J.}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{A microRNA program regulates the balance between cardiomyocyte hyperplasia and hypertrophy and stimulates cardiac regeneration}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-25211-4}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9769, abstract = {A few years ago, flow equations were introduced as a technique for calculating the ground-state energies of cold Bose gases with and without impurities. In this paper, we extend this approach to compute observables other than the energy. As an example, we calculate the densities, and phase fluctuations of one-dimensional Bose gases with one and two impurities. For a single mobile impurity, we use flow equations to validate the mean-field results obtained upon the Lee-Low-Pines transformation. We show that the mean-field approximation is accurate for all values of the boson-impurity interaction strength as long as the phase coherence length is much larger than the healing length of the condensate. For two static impurities, we calculate impurity-impurity interactions induced by the Bose gas. We find that leading order perturbation theory fails when boson-impurity interactions are stronger than boson-boson interactions. The mean-field approximation reproduces the flow equation results for all values of the boson-impurity interaction strength as long as boson-boson interactions are weak.}, author = {Brauneis, Fabian and Hammer, Hans-Werner and Lemeshko, Mikhail and Volosniev, Artem}, issn = {2542-4653}, journal = {SciPost Physics}, number = {1}, publisher = {SciPost}, title = {{Impurities in a one-dimensional Bose gas: The flow equation approach}}, doi = {10.21468/scipostphys.11.1.008}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @article{9746, abstract = {Evolutionary adaptation is a major source of antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens. Evolution-informed therapy aims to constrain resistance by accounting for bacterial evolvability. Sequential treatments with antibiotics that target different bacterial processes were previously shown to limit adaptation through genetic resistance trade-offs and negative hysteresis. Treatment with homogeneous sets of antibiotics is generally viewed to be disadvantageous, as it should rapidly lead to cross-resistance. We here challenged this assumption by determining the evolutionary response of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to experimental sequential treatments involving both heterogenous and homogeneous antibiotic sets. To our surprise, we found that fast switching between only β-lactam antibiotics resulted in increased extinction of bacterial populations. We demonstrate that extinction is favored by low rates of spontaneous resistance emergence and low levels of spontaneous cross-resistance among the antibiotics in sequence. The uncovered principles may help to guide the optimized use of available antibiotics in highly potent, evolution-informed treatment designs.}, author = {Batra, Aditi and Römhild, Roderich and Rousseau, Emilie and Franzenburg, Sören and Niemann, Stefan and Schulenburg, Hinrich}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{High potency of sequential therapy with only beta-lactam antibiotics}}, doi = {10.7554/elife.68876}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @article{9911, abstract = {A modern day light microscope has evolved from a tool devoted to making primarily empirical observations to what is now a sophisticated , quantitative device that is an integral part of both physical and life science research. Nowadays, microscopes are found in nearly every experimental laboratory. However, despite their prevalent use in capturing and quantifying scientific phenomena, neither a thorough understanding of the principles underlying quantitative imaging techniques nor appropriate knowledge of how to calibrate, operate and maintain microscopes can be taken for granted. This is clearly demonstrated by the well-documented and widespread difficulties that are routinely encountered in evaluating acquired data and reproducing scientific experiments. Indeed, studies have shown that more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to repeat another scientist's experiments, while more than half have even failed to reproduce their own experiments. One factor behind the reproducibility crisis of experiments published in scientific journals is the frequent underreporting of imaging methods caused by a lack of awareness and/or a lack of knowledge of the applied technique. Whereas quality control procedures for some methods used in biomedical research, such as genomics (e.g. DNA sequencing, RNA-seq) or cytometry, have been introduced (e.g. ENCODE), this issue has not been tackled for optical microscopy instrumentation and images. Although many calibration standards and protocols have been published, there is a lack of awareness and agreement on common standards and guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility. In April 2020, the QUality Assessment and REProducibility for instruments and images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi) initiative was formed. This initiative comprises imaging scientists from academia and industry who share a common interest in achieving a better understanding of the performance and limitations of microscopes and improved quality control (QC) in light microscopy. The ultimate goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to establish a set of common QC standards, guidelines, metadata models and tools, including detailed protocols, with the ultimate aim of improving reproducible advances in scientific research. This White Paper (1) summarizes the major obstacles identified in the field that motivated the launch of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative; (2) identifies the urgent need to address these obstacles in a grassroots manner, through a community of stakeholders including, researchers, imaging scientists, bioimage analysts, bioimage informatics developers, corporate partners, funding agencies, standards organizations, scientific publishers and observers of such; (3) outlines the current actions of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative and (4) proposes future steps that can be taken to improve the dissemination and acceptance of the proposed guidelines to manage QC. To summarize, the principal goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to improve the overall quality and reproducibility of light microscope image data by introducing broadly accepted standard practices and accurately captured image data metrics.}, author = {Nelson, Glyn and Boehm, Ulrike and Bagley, Steve and Bajcsy, Peter and Bischof, Johanna and Brown, Claire M. and Dauphin, Aurélien and Dobbie, Ian M. and Eriksson, John E. and Faklaris, Orestis and Fernandez-Rodriguez, Julia and Ferrand, Alexia and Gelman, Laurent and Gheisari, Ali and Hartmann, Hella and Kukat, Christian and Laude, Alex and Mitkovski, Miso and Munck, Sebastian and North, Alison J. and Rasse, Tobias M. and Resch-Genger, Ute and Schuetz, Lucas C. and Seitz, Arne and Strambio-De-Castillia, Caterina and Swedlow, Jason R. and Alexopoulos, Ioannis and Aumayr, Karin and Avilov, Sergiy and Bakker, Gert Jan and Bammann, Rodrigo R. and Bassi, Andrea and Beckert, Hannes and Beer, Sebastian and Belyaev, Yury and Bierwagen, Jakob and Birngruber, Konstantin A. and Bosch, Manel and Breitlow, Juergen and Cameron, Lisa A. and Chalfoun, Joe and Chambers, James J. and Chen, Chieh Li and Conde-Sousa, Eduardo and Corbett, Alexander D. and Cordelieres, Fabrice P. and Nery, Elaine Del and Dietzel, Ralf and Eismann, Frank and Fazeli, Elnaz and Felscher, Andreas and Fried, Hans and Gaudreault, Nathalie and Goh, Wah Ing and Guilbert, Thomas and Hadleigh, Roland and Hemmerich, Peter and Holst, Gerhard A. and Itano, Michelle S. and Jaffe, Claudia B. and Jambor, Helena K. and Jarvis, Stuart C. and Keppler, Antje and Kirchenbuechler, David and Kirchner, Marcel and Kobayashi, Norio and Krens, Gabriel and Kunis, Susanne and Lacoste, Judith and Marcello, Marco and Martins, Gabriel G. and Metcalf, Daniel J. and Mitchell, Claire A. and Moore, Joshua and Mueller, Tobias and Nelson, Michael S. and Ogg, Stephen and Onami, Shuichi and Palmer, Alexandra L. and Paul-Gilloteaux, Perrine and Pimentel, Jaime A. and Plantard, Laure and Podder, Santosh and Rexhepaj, Elton and Royon, Arnaud and Saari, Markku A. and Schapman, Damien and Schoonderwoert, Vincent and Schroth-Diez, Britta and Schwartz, Stanley and Shaw, Michael and Spitaler, Martin and Stoeckl, Martin T. and Sudar, Damir and Teillon, Jeremie and Terjung, Stefan and Thuenauer, Roland and Wilms, Christian D. and Wright, Graham D. and Nitschke, Roland}, issn = {1365-2818}, journal = {Journal of Microscopy}, number = {1}, pages = {56--73}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{QUAREP-LiMi: A community-driven initiative to establish guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility for instruments and images in light microscopy}}, doi = {10.1111/jmi.13041}, volume = {284}, year = {2021}, } @article{9906, abstract = {Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder characterized by ectopic growth of endometrium outside the uterus and is associated with chronic pain and infertility. We investigated the role of the long intergenic noncoding RNA 01133 (LINC01133) in endometriosis, an lncRNA that has been implicated in several types of cancer. We found that LINC01133 is upregulated in ectopic endometriotic lesions. As expression appeared higher in the epithelial endometrial layer, we performed a siRNA knockdown of LINC01133 in an endometriosis epithelial cell line. Phenotypic assays indicated that LINC01133 may promote proliferation and suppress cellular migration, and affect the cytoskeleton and morphology of the cells. Gene ontology analysis of differentially expressed genes indicated that cell proliferation and migration pathways were affected in line with the observed phenotype. We validated upregulation of p21 and downregulation of Cyclin A at the protein level, which together with the quantification of the DNA content using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis indicated that the observed effects on cellular proliferation may be due to changes in cell cycle. Further, we found testis-specific protein kinase 1 (TESK1) kinase upregulation corresponding with phosphorylation and inactivation of actin severing protein Cofilin, which could explain changes in the cytoskeleton and cellular migration. These results indicate that endometriosis is associated with LINC01133 upregulation, which may affect pathogenesis via the cellular proliferation and migration pathways.}, author = {Yotova, Iveta and Hudson, Quanah J. and Pauler, Florian and Proestling, Katharina and Haslinger, Isabella and Kuessel, Lorenz and Perricos, Alexandra and Husslein, Heinrich and Wenzl, René}, issn = {14220067}, journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, number = {16}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{LINC01133 inhibits invasion and promotes proliferation in an endometriosis epithelial cell line}}, doi = {10.3390/ijms22168385}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{9910, abstract = {Adult height inspired the first biometrical and quantitative genetic studies and is a test-case trait for understanding heritability. The studies of height led to formulation of the classical polygenic model, that has a profound influence on the way we view and analyse complex traits. An essential part of the classical model is an assumption of additivity of effects and normality of the distribution of the residuals. However, it may be expected that the normal approximation will become insufficient in bigger studies. Here, we demonstrate that when the height of hundreds of thousands of individuals is analysed, the model complexity needs to be increased to include non-additive interactions between sex, environment and genes. Alternatively, the use of log-normal approximation allowed us to still use the additive effects model. These findings are important for future genetic and methodologic studies that make use of adult height as an exemplar trait.}, author = {Slavskii, Sergei A. and Kuznetsov, Ivan A. and Shashkova, Tatiana I. and Bazykin, Georgii A. and Axenovich, Tatiana I. and Kondrashov, Fyodor and Aulchenko, Yurii S.}, issn = {14765438}, journal = {European Journal of Human Genetics}, number = {7}, pages = {1082--1091}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{The limits of normal approximation for adult height}}, doi = {10.1038/s41431-021-00836-7}, volume = {29}, year = {2021}, } @article{9912, abstract = {In the customary random matrix model for transport in quantum dots with M internal degrees of freedom coupled to a chaotic environment via 𝑁≪𝑀 channels, the density 𝜌 of transmission eigenvalues is computed from a specific invariant ensemble for which explicit formula for the joint probability density of all eigenvalues is available. We revisit this problem in the large N regime allowing for (i) arbitrary ratio 𝜙:=𝑁/𝑀≤1; and (ii) general distributions for the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian of the quantum dot. In the limit 𝜙→0, we recover the formula for the density 𝜌 that Beenakker (Rev Mod Phys 69:731–808, 1997) has derived for a special matrix ensemble. We also prove that the inverse square root singularity of the density at zero and full transmission in Beenakker’s formula persists for any 𝜙<1 but in the borderline case 𝜙=1 an anomalous 𝜆−2/3 singularity arises at zero. To access this level of generality, we develop the theory of global and local laws on the spectral density of a large class of noncommutative rational expressions in large random matrices with i.i.d. entries.}, author = {Erdös, László and Krüger, Torben H and Nemish, Yuriy}, issn = {1424-0661}, journal = {Annales Henri Poincaré }, pages = {4205–4269}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Scattering in quantum dots via noncommutative rational functions}}, doi = {10.1007/s00023-021-01085-6}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{9891, abstract = {Extending on ideas of Lewin, Lieb, and Seiringer [Phys. Rev. B 100, 035127 (2019)], we present a modified “floating crystal” trial state for jellium (also known as the classical homogeneous electron gas) with density equal to a characteristic function. This allows us to show that three definitions of the jellium energy coincide in dimensions d ≥ 2, thus extending the result of Cotar and Petrache [“Equality of the Jellium and uniform electron gas next-order asymptotic terms for Coulomb and Riesz potentials,” arXiv: 1707.07664 (2019)] and Lewin, Lieb, and Seiringer [Phys. Rev. B 100, 035127 (2019)] that the three definitions coincide in dimension d ≥ 3. We show that the jellium energy is also equivalent to a “renormalized energy” studied in a series of papers by Serfaty and others, and thus, by the work of Bétermin and Sandier [Constr. Approximation 47, 39–74 (2018)], we relate the jellium energy to the order n term in the logarithmic energy of n points on the unit 2-sphere. We improve upon known lower bounds for this renormalized energy. Additionally, we derive formulas for the jellium energy of periodic configurations.}, author = {Lauritsen, Asbjørn Bækgaard}, issn = {1089-7658}, journal = {Journal of Mathematical Physics}, keywords = {Mathematical Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics}, number = {8}, publisher = {AIP Publishing}, title = {{Floating Wigner crystal and periodic jellium configurations}}, doi = {10.1063/5.0053494}, volume = {62}, year = {2021}, } @article{9909, abstract = {Roots are composed of different root types and, in the dicotyledonous Arabidopsis, typically consist of a primary root that branches into lateral roots. Adventitious roots emerge from non-root tissue and are formed upon wounding or other types of abiotic stress. Here, we investigated adventitious root (AR) formation in Arabidopsis hypocotyls under conditions of altered abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. Exogenously applied ABA suppressed AR formation at 0.25 µM or higher doses. AR formation was less sensitive to the synthetic ABA analog pyrabactin (PB). However, PB was a more potent inhibitor at concentrations above 1 µM, suggesting that it was more selective in triggering a root inhibition response. Analysis of a series of phosphonamide and phosphonate pyrabactin analogs suggested that adventitious root formation and lateral root branching are differentially regulated by ABA signaling. ABA biosynthesis and signaling mutants affirmed a general inhibitory role of ABA and point to PYL1 and PYL2 as candidate ABA receptors that regulate AR inhibition.}, author = {Zeng, Yinwei and Verstraeten, Inge and Trinh, Hoang Khai and Heugebaert, Thomas and Stevens, Christian V. and Garcia-Maquilon, Irene and Rodriguez, Pedro L. and Vanneste, Steffen and Geelen, Danny}, issn = {20734425}, journal = {Genes}, number = {8}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Arabidopsis hypocotyl adventitious root formation is suppressed by ABA signaling}}, doi = {10.3390/genes12081141}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9907, abstract = {DivIVA is a protein initially identified as a spatial regulator of cell division in the model organism Bacillus subtilis, but its homologues are present in many other Gram-positive bacteria, including Clostridia species. Besides its role as topological regulator of the Min system during bacterial cell division, DivIVA is involved in chromosome segregation during sporulation, genetic competence, and cell wall synthesis. DivIVA localizes to regions of high membrane curvature, such as the cell poles and cell division site, where it recruits distinct binding partners. Previously, it was suggested that negative curvature sensing is the main mechanism by which DivIVA binds to these specific regions. Here, we show that Clostridioides difficile DivIVA binds preferably to membranes containing negatively charged phospholipids, especially cardiolipin. Strikingly, we observed that upon binding, DivIVA modifies the lipid distribution and induces changes to lipid bilayers containing cardiolipin. Our observations indicate that DivIVA might play a more complex and so far unknown active role during the formation of the cell division septal membrane. }, author = {Labajová, Naďa and Baranova, Natalia S. and Jurásek, Miroslav and Vácha, Robert and Loose, Martin and Barák, Imrich}, issn = {14220067}, journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, number = {15}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Cardiolipin-containing lipid membranes attract the bacterial cell division protein diviva}}, doi = {10.3390/ijms22158350}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{9905, abstract = {Vaccines are thought to be the best available solution for controlling the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, the emergence of vaccine-resistant strains may come too rapidly for current vaccine developments to alleviate the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic. To quantify and characterize the risk of such a scenario, we created a SIR-derived model with initial stochastic dynamics of the vaccine-resistant strain to study the probability of its emergence and establishment. Using parameters realistically resembling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, we model a wave-like pattern of the pandemic and consider the impact of the rate of vaccination and the strength of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures on the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. As expected, we found that a fast rate of vaccination decreases the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. Counterintuitively, when a relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened at a time when most individuals of the population have already been vaccinated the probability of emergence of a resistant strain was greatly increased. Consequently, we show that a period of transmission reduction close to the end of the vaccination campaign can substantially reduce the probability of resistant strain establishment. Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions and transmission-reducing behaviours throughout the entire vaccination period.}, author = {Rella, Simon and Kulikova, Yuliya A. and Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T. and Kondrashov, Fyodor}, issn = {20452322}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Rates of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccination impact the fate of vaccine-resistant strains}}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-95025-3}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @article{9903, abstract = {Eigenstate thermalization in quantum many-body systems implies that eigenstates at high energy are similar to random vectors. Identifying systems where at least some eigenstates are nonthermal is an outstanding question. In this Letter we show that interacting quantum models that have a nullspace—a degenerate subspace of eigenstates at zero energy (zero modes), which corresponds to infinite temperature, provide a route to nonthermal eigenstates. We analytically show the existence of a zero mode which can be represented as a matrix product state for a certain class of local Hamiltonians. In the more general case we use a subspace disentangling algorithm to generate an orthogonal basis of zero modes characterized by increasing entanglement entropy. We show evidence for an area-law entanglement scaling of the least-entangled zero mode in the broad parameter regime, leading to a conjecture that all local Hamiltonians with the nullspace feature zero modes with area-law entanglement scaling and, as such, break the strong thermalization hypothesis. Finally, we find zero modes in constrained models and propose a setup for observing their experimental signatures.}, author = {Karle, Volker and Serbyn, Maksym and Michailidis, Alexios}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {6}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Area-law entangled eigenstates from nullspaces of local Hamiltonians}}, doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.127.060602}, volume = {127}, year = {2021}, } @article{9952, abstract = {Proper control of division orientation and symmetry, largely determined by spindle positioning, is essential to development and homeostasis. Spindle positioning has been extensively studied in cells dividing in two-dimensional (2D) environments and in epithelial tissues, where proteins such as NuMA (also known as NUMA1) orient division along the interphase long axis of the cell. However, little is known about how cells control spindle positioning in three-dimensional (3D) environments, such as early mammalian embryos and a variety of adult tissues. Here, we use mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which grow in 3D colonies, as a model to investigate division in 3D. We observe that, at the periphery of 3D colonies, ESCs display high spindle mobility and divide asymmetrically. Our data suggest that enhanced spindle movements are due to unequal distribution of the cell–cell junction protein E-cadherin between future daughter cells. Interestingly, when cells progress towards differentiation, division becomes more symmetric, with more elongated shapes in metaphase and enhanced cortical NuMA recruitment in anaphase. Altogether, this study suggests that in 3D contexts, the geometry of the cell and its contacts with neighbors control division orientation and symmetry.}, author = {Chaigne, Agathe and Smith, Matthew B. and Cavestany, R. L. and Hannezo, Edouard B and Chalut, Kevin J. and Paluch, Ewa K.}, issn = {14779137}, journal = {Journal of Cell Science}, number = {14}, publisher = {The Company of Biologists}, title = {{Three-dimensional geometry controls division symmetry in stem cell colonies}}, doi = {10.1242/jcs.255018}, volume = {134}, year = {2021}, } @article{9908, abstract = {About eight million animal species are estimated to live on Earth, and all except those belonging to one subphylum are invertebrates. Invertebrates are incredibly diverse in their morphologies, life histories, and in the range of the ecological niches that they occupy. A great variety of modes of reproduction and sex determination systems is also observed among them, and their mosaic-distribution across the phylogeny shows that transitions between them occur frequently and rapidly. Genetic conflict in its various forms is a long-standing theory to explain what drives those evolutionary transitions. Here, we review (1) the different modes of reproduction among invertebrate species, highlighting sexual reproduction as the probable ancestral state; (2) the paradoxical diversity of sex determination systems; (3) the different types of genetic conflicts that could drive the evolution of such different systems.}, author = {Picard, Marion A L and Vicoso, Beatriz and Bertrand, Stéphanie and Escriva, Hector}, issn = {20734425}, journal = {Genes}, number = {8}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Diversity of modes of reproduction and sex determination systems in invertebrates, and the putative contribution of genetic conflict}}, doi = {10.3390/genes12081136}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9829, abstract = {In 2020, many in-person scientific events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a vacuum in networking and knowledge exchange between scientists. To fill this void in scientific communication, a group of early career nanocrystal enthusiasts launched the virtual seminar series, News in Nanocrystals, in the summer of 2020. By the end of the year, the series had attracted over 850 participants from 46 countries. In this Nano Focus, we describe the process of organizing the News in Nanocrystals seminar series; discuss its growth, emphasizing what the organizers have learned in terms of diversity and accessibility; and provide an outlook for the next steps and future opportunities. This summary and analysis of experiences and learned lessons are intended to inform the broader scientific community, especially those who are looking for avenues to continue fostering discussion and scientific engagement virtually, both during the pandemic and after.}, author = {Baranov, Dmitry and Šverko, Tara and Moot, Taylor and Keller, Helena R. and Klein, Megan D. and Vishnu, E. K. and Balazs, Daniel and Shulenberger, Katherine E.}, issn = {1936086X}, journal = {ACS Nano}, number = {7}, pages = {10743–10747}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{News in Nanocrystals seminar: Self-assembly of early career researchers toward globally accessible nanoscience}}, doi = {10.1021/acsnano.1c03276}, volume = {15}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13057, abstract = {This dataset comprises all data shown in the figures of the submitted article "Geometric superinductance qubits: Controlling phase delocalization across a single Josephson junction". Additional raw data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.}, author = {Peruzzo, Matilda and Hassani, Farid and Szep, Grisha and Trioni, Andrea and Redchenko, Elena and Zemlicka, Martin and Fink, Johannes M}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Geometric superinductance qubits: Controlling phase delocalization across a single Josephson junction}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.5592103}, year = {2021}, } @article{9985, abstract = {AMPA receptor (AMPAR) abundance and positioning at excitatory synapses regulates the strength of transmission. Changes in AMPAR localisation can enact synaptic plasticity, allowing long-term information storage, and is therefore tightly controlled. Multiple mechanisms regulating AMPAR synaptic anchoring have been described, but with limited coherence or comparison between reports, our understanding of this process is unclear. Here, combining synaptic recordings from mouse hippocampal slices and super-resolution imaging in dissociated cultures, we compare the contributions of three AMPAR interaction domains controlling transmission at hippocampal CA1 synapses. We show that the AMPAR C-termini play only a modulatory role, whereas the extracellular N-terminal domain (NTD) and PDZ interactions of the auxiliary subunit TARP γ8 are both crucial, and each is sufficient to maintain transmission. Our data support a model in which γ8 accumulates AMPARs at the postsynaptic density, where the NTD further tunes their positioning. This interplay between cytosolic (TARP γ8) and synaptic cleft (NTD) interactions provides versatility to regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity.}, author = {Watson, Jake and Pinggera, Alexandra and Ho, Hinze and Greger, Ingo H.}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{AMPA receptor anchoring at CA1 synapses is determined by N-terminal domain and TARP γ8 interactions}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-25281-4}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9981, abstract = {The numerical simulation of dynamical phenomena in interacting quantum systems is a notoriously hard problem. Although a number of promising numerical methods exist, they often have limited applicability due to the growth of entanglement or the presence of the so-called sign problem. In this work, we develop an importance sampling scheme for the simulation of quantum spin dynamics, building on a recent approach mapping quantum spin systems to classical stochastic processes. The importance sampling scheme is based on identifying the classical trajectory that yields the largest contribution to a given quantum observable. An exact transformation is then carried out to preferentially sample trajectories that are close to the dominant one. We demonstrate that this approach is capable of reducing the temporal growth of fluctuations in the stochastic quantities, thus extending the range of accessible times and system sizes compared to direct sampling. We discuss advantages and limitations of the proposed approach, outlining directions for further developments.}, author = {De Nicola, Stefano}, issn = {2666-9366}, journal = {SciPost Physics}, keywords = {General Physics and Astronomy}, number = {3}, publisher = {SciPost}, title = {{Importance sampling scheme for the stochastic simulation of quantum spin dynamics}}, doi = {10.21468/scipostphys.11.3.048}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{9951, abstract = {There has recently been a surge of interest in the computational and complexity properties of the population model, which assumes n anonymous, computationally-bounded nodes, interacting at random, with the goal of jointly computing global predicates. Significant work has gone towards investigating majority or consensus dynamics in this model: that is, assuming that every node is initially in one of two states X or Y, determine which state had higher initial count. In this paper, we consider a natural generalization of majority/consensus, which we call comparison : in its simplest formulation, we are given two baseline states, X and Y, present in any initial configuration in fixed, but possibly small counts. One of these states has higher count than the other: we will assume |X_0| > C |Y_0| for some constant C > 1. The challenge is to design a protocol by which nodes can quickly and reliably decide on which of the baseline states X_0 and Y_0 has higher initial count. We begin by analyzing a simple and general dynamics solving the above comparison problem, which uses O( log n ) states per node, and converges in O(log n) (parallel) time, with high probability, to a state where the whole population votes on opinions X or Y at rates proportional to the initial concentrations of |X_0| vs. |Y_0|. We then describe how this procedure can be bootstrapped to solve comparison, i.e. have every node in the population reach the "correct'' decision, with probability 1 - o(1), at the cost of O (log log n) additional states. Further, we prove that this dynamics is self-stabilizing, in the sense that it converges to the correct decision from arbitrary initial states, and leak-robust, in the sense that it can withstand spurious faulty reactions, which are known to occur in practical implementations of population protocols. Our analysis is based on a new martingale concentration result relating the discrete-time evolution of a population protocol to its expected (steady-state) analysis, which should be a useful tool when analyzing opinion dynamics and epidemic dissemination in the population model.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Töpfer, Martin and Uznański, Przemysław}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing}, isbn = {9781450385480}, location = {Virtual, Italy}, pages = {55--65}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Comparison dynamics in population protocols}}, doi = {10.1145/3465084.3467915}, year = {2021}, } @article{9960, abstract = {The control of many-body quantum dynamics in complex systems is a key challenge in the quest to reliably produce and manipulate large-scale quantum entangled states. Recently, quench experiments in Rydberg atom arrays [Bluvstein et al. Science 371, 1355 (2021)] demonstrated that coherent revivals associated with quantum many-body scars can be stabilized by periodic driving, generating stable subharmonic responses over a wide parameter regime. We analyze a simple, related model where these phenomena originate from spatiotemporal ordering in an effective Floquet unitary, corresponding to discrete time-crystalline behavior in a prethermal regime. Unlike conventional discrete time crystals, the subharmonic response exists only for Néel-like initial states, associated with quantum scars. We predict robustness to perturbations and identify emergent timescales that could be observed in future experiments. Our results suggest a route to controlling entanglement in interacting quantum systems by combining periodic driving with many-body scars.}, author = {Maskara, N. and Michailidis, Alexios and Ho, W. W. and Bluvstein, D. and Choi, S. and Lukin, M. D. and Serbyn, Maksym}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {9}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Discrete time-crystalline order enabled by quantum many-body scars: Entanglement steering via periodic driving}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.090602}, volume = {127}, year = {2021}, } @article{9961, abstract = {The notion of Thouless energy plays a central role in the theory of Anderson localization. We investigate and compare the scaling of Thouless energy across the many-body localization (MBL) transition in a Floquet model. We use a combination of methods that are reliable on the ergodic side of the transition (e.g., spectral form factor) and methods that work on the MBL side (e.g., typical matrix elements of local operators) to obtain a complete picture of the Thouless energy behavior across the transition. On the ergodic side, Thouless energy decreases slowly with the system size, while at the transition it becomes comparable to the level spacing. Different probes yield consistent estimates of Thouless energy in their overlapping regime of applicability, giving the location of the transition point nearly free of finite-size drift. This work establishes a connection between different definitions of Thouless energy in a many-body setting and yields insights into the MBL transition in Floquet systems.}, author = {Sonner, Michael and Serbyn, Maksym and Papić, Zlatko and Abanin, Dmitry A.}, issn = {2469-9969}, journal = {Physical Review B}, number = {8}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Thouless energy across the many-body localization transition in Floquet systems}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.104.L081112}, volume = {104}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{9957, abstract = {The reflectance field of a face describes the reflectance properties responsible for complex lighting effects including diffuse, specular, inter-reflection and self shadowing. Most existing methods for estimating the face reflectance from a monocular image assume faces to be diffuse with very few approaches adding a specular component. This still leaves out important perceptual aspects of reflectance as higher-order global illumination effects and self-shadowing are not modeled. We present a new neural representation for face reflectance where we can estimate all components of the reflectance responsible for the final appearance from a single monocular image. Instead of modeling each component of the reflectance separately using parametric models, our neural representation allows us to generate a basis set of faces in a geometric deformation-invariant space, parameterized by the input light direction, viewpoint and face geometry. We learn to reconstruct this reflectance field of a face just from a monocular image, which can be used to render the face from any viewpoint in any light condition. Our method is trained on a light-stage training dataset, which captures 300 people illuminated with 150 light conditions from 8 viewpoints. We show that our method outperforms existing monocular reflectance reconstruction methods, in terms of photorealism due to better capturing of physical premitives, such as sub-surface scattering, specularities, self-shadows and other higher-order effects.}, author = {B R, Mallikarjun and Tewari, Ayush and Oh, Tae-Hyun and Weyrich, Tim and Bickel, Bernd and Seidel, Hans-Peter and Pfister, Hanspeter and Matusik, Wojciech and Elgharib, Mohamed and Theobalt, Christian}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition}, isbn = {978-166544509-2}, issn = {1063-6919}, location = {Nashville, TN, United States; Virtual}, pages = {4791--4800}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Monocular reconstruction of neural face reflectance fields}}, doi = {10.1109/CVPR46437.2021.00476}, year = {2021}, } @article{9973, abstract = {In this article we introduce a complete gradient estimate for symmetric quantum Markov semigroups on von Neumann algebras equipped with a normal faithful tracial state, which implies semi-convexity of the entropy with respect to the recently introduced noncommutative 2-Wasserstein distance. We show that this complete gradient estimate is stable under tensor products and free products and establish its validity for a number of examples. As an application we prove a complete modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality with optimal constant for Poisson-type semigroups on free group factors.}, author = {Wirth, Melchior and Zhang, Haonan}, issn = {1432-0916}, journal = {Communications in Mathematical Physics}, keywords = {Mathematical Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics}, pages = {761–791}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Complete gradient estimates of quantum Markov semigroups}}, doi = {10.1007/s00220-021-04199-4}, volume = {387}, year = {2021}, } @article{10000, abstract = {Inhibition or targeted deletion of histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) is neuroprotective in a variety neurodegenerative conditions, including retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) after acute optic nerve damage. Consistent with this, induced HDAC3 expression in cultured cells shows selective toxicity to neurons. Despite an established role for HDAC3 in neuronal pathology, little is known regarding the mechanism of this pathology.}, author = {Schmitt, Heather M. and Fehrman, Rachel L. and Maes, Margaret E and Yang, Huan and Guo, Lian Wang and Schlamp, Cassandra L. and Pelzel, Heather R. and Nickells, Robert W.}, issn = {1552-5783}, journal = {Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science}, number = {10}, publisher = {Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology}, title = {{Increased susceptibility and intrinsic apoptotic signaling in neurons by induced HDAC3 expression}}, doi = {10.1167/IOVS.62.10.14}, volume = {62}, year = {2021}, } @article{9998, abstract = {We define quantum equivariant K-theory of Nakajima quiver varieties. We discuss type A in detail as well as its connections with quantum XXZ spin chains and trigonometric Ruijsenaars-Schneider models. Finally we study a limit which produces a K-theoretic version of results of Givental and Kim, connecting quantum geometry of flag varieties and Toda lattice.}, author = {Koroteev, Peter and Pushkar, Petr and Smirnov, Andrey V. and Zeitlin, Anton M.}, issn = {1420-9020}, journal = {Selecta Mathematica}, number = {5}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Quantum K-theory of quiver varieties and many-body systems}}, doi = {10.1007/s00029-021-00698-3}, volume = {27}, year = {2021}, } @article{9999, abstract = {The developmental strategies used by progenitor cells to endure a safe journey from their induction place towards the site of terminal differentiation are still poorly understood. Here we uncovered a progenitor cell allocation mechanism that stems from an incomplete process of epithelial delamination that allows progenitors to coordinate their movement with adjacent extra-embryonic tissues. Progenitors of the zebrafish laterality organ originate from the surface epithelial enveloping layer by an apical constriction process of cell delamination. During this process, progenitors retain long-term apical contacts that enable the epithelial layer to pull a subset of progenitors along their way towards the vegetal pole. The remaining delaminated progenitors follow apically-attached progenitors’ movement by a co-attraction mechanism, avoiding sequestration by the adjacent endoderm, ensuring their fate and collective allocation at the differentiation site. Thus, we reveal that incomplete delamination serves as a cellular platform for coordinated tissue movements during development. Impact Statement: Incomplete delamination serves as a cellular platform for coordinated tissue movements during development, guiding newly formed progenitor cell groups to the differentiation site.}, author = {Pulgar, Eduardo and Schwayer, Cornelia and Guerrero, Néstor and López, Loreto and Márquez, Susana and Härtel, Steffen and Soto, Rodrigo and Heisenberg, Carl Philipp and Concha, Miguel L.}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, keywords = {cell delamination, apical constriction, dragging, mechanical forces, collective 18 locomotion, dorsal forerunner cells, zebrafish}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{Apical contacts stemming from incomplete delamination guide progenitor cell allocation through a dragging mechanism}}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.66483}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10002, abstract = {We present a faster symbolic algorithm for the following central problem in probabilistic verification: Compute the maximal end-component (MEC) decomposition of Markov decision processes (MDPs). This problem generalizes the SCC decomposition problem of graphs and closed recurrent sets of Markov chains. The model of symbolic algorithms is widely used in formal verification and model-checking, where access to the input model is restricted to only symbolic operations (e.g., basic set operations and computation of one-step neighborhood). For an input MDP with n vertices and m edges, the classical symbolic algorithm from the 1990s for the MEC decomposition requires O(n2) symbolic operations and O(1) symbolic space. The only other symbolic algorithm for the MEC decomposition requires O(nm−−√) symbolic operations and O(m−−√) symbolic space. A main open question is whether the worst-case O(n2) bound for symbolic operations can be beaten. We present a symbolic algorithm that requires O˜(n1.5) symbolic operations and O˜(n−−√) symbolic space. Moreover, the parametrization of our algorithm provides a trade-off between symbolic operations and symbolic space: for all 0<ϵ≤1/2 the symbolic algorithm requires O˜(n2−ϵ) symbolic operations and O˜(nϵ) symbolic space ( O˜ hides poly-logarithmic factors). Using our techniques we present faster algorithms for computing the almost-sure winning regions of ω -regular objectives for MDPs. We consider the canonical parity objectives for ω -regular objectives, and for parity objectives with d -priorities we present an algorithm that computes the almost-sure winning region with O˜(n2−ϵ) symbolic operations and O˜(nϵ) symbolic space, for all 0<ϵ≤1/2 .}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Dvorak, Wolfgang and Henzinger, Monika H and Svozil, Alexander}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science}, isbn = {978-1-6654-4896-3}, issn = {1043-6871}, keywords = {Computer science, Computational modeling, Markov processes, Probabilistic logic, Formal verification, Game Theory}, location = {Rome, Italy}, pages = {1--13}, publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, title = {{Symbolic time and space tradeoffs for probabilistic verification}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS52264.2021.9470739}, year = {2021}, } @article{10024, abstract = {In this paper, we introduce a random environment for the exclusion process in obtained by assigning a maximal occupancy to each site. This maximal occupancy is allowed to randomly vary among sites, and partial exclusion occurs. Under the assumption of ergodicity under translation and uniform ellipticity of the environment, we derive a quenched hydrodynamic limit in path space by strengthening the mild solution approach initiated in Nagy (2002) and Faggionato (2007). To this purpose, we prove, employing the technology developed for the random conductance model, a homogenization result in the form of an arbitrary starting point quenched invariance principle for a single particle in the same environment, which is a result of independent interest. The self-duality property of the partial exclusion process allows us to transfer this homogenization result to the particle system and, then, apply the tightness criterion in Redig et al. (2020).}, author = {Floreani, Simone and Redig, Frank and Sau, Federico}, issn = {0304-4149}, journal = {Stochastic Processes and their Applications}, keywords = {hydrodynamic limit, random environment, random conductance model, arbitrary starting point quenched invariance principle, duality, mild solution}, pages = {124--158}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Hydrodynamics for the partial exclusion process in random environment}}, doi = {10.1016/j.spa.2021.08.006}, volume = {142}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10004, abstract = {Markov chains are the de facto finite-state model for stochastic dynamical systems, and Markov decision processes (MDPs) extend Markov chains by incorporating non-deterministic behaviors. Given an MDP and rewards on states, a classical optimization criterion is the maximal expected total reward where the MDP stops after T steps, which can be computed by a simple dynamic programming algorithm. We consider a natural generalization of the problem where the stopping times can be chosen according to a probability distribution, such that the expected stopping time is T, to optimize the expected total reward. Quite surprisingly we establish inter-reducibility of the expected stopping-time problem for Markov chains with the Positivity problem (which is related to the well-known Skolem problem), for which establishing either decidability or undecidability would be a major breakthrough. Given the hardness of the exact problem, we consider the approximate version of the problem: we show that it can be solved in exponential time for Markov chains and in exponential space for MDPs.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Doyen, Laurent}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science}, isbn = {978-1-6654-4896-3}, issn = {1043-6871}, keywords = {Computer science, Heuristic algorithms, Memory management, Automata, Markov processes, Probability distribution, Complexity theory}, location = {Rome, Italy}, pages = {1--13}, publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, title = {{Stochastic processes with expected stopping time}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS52264.2021.9470595}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10053, abstract = {This paper characterizes the latency of the simplified successive-cancellation (SSC) decoding scheme for polar codes under hardware resource constraints. In particular, when the number of processing elements P that can perform SSC decoding operations in parallel is limited, as is the case in practice, the latency of SSC decoding is O(N1−1 μ+NPlog2log2NP), where N is the block length of the code and μ is the scaling exponent of polar codes for the channel. Three direct consequences of this bound are presented. First, in a fully-parallel implementation where P=N2 , the latency of SSC decoding is O(N1−1/μ) , which is sublinear in the block length. This recovers a result from an earlier work. Second, in a fully-serial implementation where P=1 , the latency of SSC decoding scales as O(Nlog2log2N) . The multiplicative constant is also calculated: we show that the latency of SSC decoding when P=1 is given by (2+o(1))Nlog2log2N . Third, in a semi-parallel implementation, the smallest P that gives the same latency as that of the fully-parallel implementation is P=N1/μ . The tightness of our bound on SSC decoding latency and the applicability of the foregoing results is validated through extensive simulations.}, author = {Hashemi, Seyyed Ali and Mondelli, Marco and Fazeli, Arman and Vardy, Alexander and Cioffi, John and Goldsmith, Andrea}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory}, isbn = {978-1-5386-8210-4}, issn = {2157-8095}, location = {Melbourne, Australia}, pages = {2369--2374}, publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, title = {{Parallelism versus latency in simplified successive-cancellation decoding of polar codes}}, doi = {10.1109/ISIT45174.2021.9518153}, year = {2021}, } @article{10033, abstract = {The ⊗*-monoidal structure on the category of sheaves on the Ran space is not pro-nilpotent in the sense of [3]. However, under some connectivity assumptions, we prove that Koszul duality induces an equivalence of categories and that this equivalence behaves nicely with respect to Verdier duality on the Ran space and integrating along the Ran space, i.e. taking factorization homology. Based on ideas sketched in [4], we show that these results also offer a simpler alternative to one of the two main steps in the proof of the Atiyah-Bott formula given in [7] and [5].}, author = {Ho, Quoc P}, issn = {1090-2082}, journal = {Advances in Mathematics}, keywords = {Chiral algebras, Chiral homology, Factorization algebras, Koszul duality, Ran space}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{The Atiyah-Bott formula and connectivity in chiral Koszul duality}}, doi = {10.1016/j.aim.2021.107992}, volume = {392}, year = {2021}, } @article{10051, abstract = {Rab-interacting molecule (RIM)-binding protein 2 (BP2) is a multidomain protein of the presynaptic active zone (AZ). By binding to RIM, bassoon (Bsn), and voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (CaV), it is considered to be a central organizer of the topography of CaV and release sites of synaptic vesicles (SVs) at the AZ. Here, we used RIM-BP2 knock-out (KO) mice and their wild-type (WT) littermates of either sex to investigate the role of RIM-BP2 at the endbulb of Held synapse of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs) with bushy cells (BCs) of the cochlear nucleus, a fast relay of the auditory pathway with high release probability. Disruption of RIM-BP2 lowered release probability altering short-term plasticity and reduced evoked EPSCs. Analysis of SV pool dynamics during high-frequency train stimulation indicated a reduction of SVs with high release probability but an overall normal size of the readily releasable SV pool (RRP). The Ca2+-dependent fast component of SV replenishment after RRP depletion was slowed. Ultrastructural analysis by superresolution light and electron microscopy revealed an impaired topography of presynaptic CaV and a reduction of docked and membrane-proximal SVs at the AZ. We conclude that RIM-BP2 organizes the topography of CaV, and promotes SV tethering and docking. This way RIM-BP2 is critical for establishing a high initial release probability as required to reliably signal sound onset information that we found to be degraded in BCs of RIM-BP2-deficient mice in vivo. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Rab-interacting molecule (RIM)-binding proteins (BPs) are key organizers of the active zone (AZ). Using a multidisciplinary approach to the calyceal endbulb of Held synapse that transmits auditory information at rates of up to hundreds of Hertz with submillisecond precision we demonstrate a requirement for RIM-BP2 for normal auditory signaling. Endbulb synapses lacking RIM-BP2 show a reduced release probability despite normal whole-terminal Ca2+ influx and abundance of the key priming protein Munc13-1, a reduced rate of SV replenishment, as well as an altered topography of voltage-gated (CaV)2.1 Ca2+ channels, and fewer docked and membrane proximal synaptic vesicles (SVs). This hampers transmission of sound onset information likely affecting downstream neural computations such as of sound localization.}, author = {Butola, Tanvi and Alvanos, Theocharis and Hintze, Anika and Koppensteiner, Peter and Kleindienst, David and Shigemoto, Ryuichi and Wichmann, Carolin and Moser, Tobias}, issn = {1529-2401}, journal = {Journal of Neuroscience}, number = {37}, pages = {7742--7767}, publisher = {Society for Neuroscience}, title = {{RIM-binding protein 2 organizes Ca21 channel topography and regulates release probability and vesicle replenishment at a fast central synapse}}, doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0586-21.2021}, volume = {41}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10055, abstract = {Repeated idempotent elements are commonly used to characterise iterable behaviours in abstract models of computation. Therefore, given a monoid M, it is natural to ask how long a sequence of elements of M needs to be to ensure the presence of consecutive idempotent factors. This question is formalised through the notion of the Ramsey function R_M associated to M, obtained by mapping every k ∈ ℕ to the minimal integer R_M(k) such that every word u ∈ M^* of length R_M(k) contains k consecutive non-empty factors that correspond to the same idempotent element of M. In this work, we study the behaviour of the Ramsey function R_M by investigating the regular 𝒟-length of M, defined as the largest size L(M) of a submonoid of M isomorphic to the set of natural numbers {1,2, …, L(M)} equipped with the max operation. We show that the regular 𝒟-length of M determines the degree of R_M, by proving that k^L(M) ≤ R_M(k) ≤ (k|M|⁴)^L(M). To allow applications of this result, we provide the value of the regular 𝒟-length of diverse monoids. In particular, we prove that the full monoid of n × n Boolean matrices, which is used to express transition monoids of non-deterministic automata, has a regular 𝒟-length of (n²+n+2)/2.}, author = {Jecker, Ismael R}, booktitle = {38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science}, isbn = {978-3-9597-7180-1}, issn = {1868-8969}, location = {Saarbrücken, Germany}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz Zentrum für Informatik}, title = {{A Ramsey theorem for finite monoids}}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2021.44}, volume = {187}, year = {2021}, } @article{10069, abstract = {The extent to which women differ in the course of blood cell counts throughout pregnancy, and the importance of these changes to pregnancy outcomes has not been well defined. Here, we develop a series of statistical analyses of repeated measures data to reveal the degree to which women differ in the course of pregnancy, predict the changes that occur, and determine the importance of these changes for post-partum hemorrhage (PPH) which is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. We present a prospective cohort of 4082 births recorded at the University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland between 2009 and 2014 where full labour records could be obtained, along with complete blood count data taken at hospital admission. We find significant differences, at a [Formula: see text] level, among women in how blood count values change through pregnancy for mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean platelet volume, platelet count and red cell distribution width. We find evidence that almost all complete blood count values show trimester-specific associations with PPH. For example, high platelet count (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.01-1.53), high mean platelet volume (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.04-2.08), and high erythrocyte levels (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.01-1.57) in trimester 1 increased PPH, but high values in trimester 3 decreased PPH risk (OR 0.85, 0.79, 0.67 respectively). We show that differences among women in the course of blood cell counts throughout pregnancy have an important role in shaping pregnancy outcome and tracking blood count value changes through pregnancy improves identification of women at increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage. This study provides greater understanding of the complex changes in blood count values that occur through pregnancy and provides indicators to guide the stratification of patients into risk groups.}, author = {Robinson, Matthew Richard and Patxot, Marion and Stojanov, Miloš and Blum, Sabine and Baud, David}, issn = {2045-2322}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Postpartum hemorrhage risk is driven by changes in blood composition through pregnancy}}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-98411-z}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @article{10025, abstract = {Ferromagnetism is most common in transition metal compounds but may also arise in low-density two-dimensional electron systems, with signatures observed in silicon, III-V semiconductor systems, and graphene moiré heterostructures. Here we show that gate-tuned van Hove singularities in rhombohedral trilayer graphene drive the spontaneous ferromagnetic polarization of the electron system into one or more spin- and valley flavors. Using capacitance measurements on graphite-gated van der Waals heterostructures, we find a cascade of density- and electronic displacement field tuned phase transitions marked by negative electronic compressibility. The transitions define the boundaries between phases where quantum oscillations have either four-fold, two-fold, or one-fold degeneracy, associated with a spin and valley degenerate normal metal, spin-polarized `half-metal', and spin and valley polarized `quarter metal', respectively. For electron doping, the salient features are well captured by a phenomenological Stoner model with a valley-anisotropic Hund's coupling, likely arising from interactions at the lattice scale. For hole filling, we observe a richer phase diagram featuring a delicate interplay of broken symmetries and transitions in the Fermi surface topology. Finally, by rotational alignment of a hexagonal boron nitride substrate to induce a moiré superlattice, we find that the superlattice perturbs the preexisting isospin order only weakly, leaving the basic phase diagram intact while catalyzing the formation of topologically nontrivial gapped states whenever itinerant half- or quarter metal states occur at half- or quarter superlattice band filling. Our results show that rhombohedral trilayer graphene is an ideal platform for well-controlled tests of many-body theory and reveal magnetism in moiré materials to be fundamentally itinerant in nature.}, author = {Zhou, Haoxin and Xie, Tian and Ghazaryan, Areg and Holder, Tobias and Ehrets, James R. and Spanton, Eric M. and Taniguchi, Takashi and Watanabe, Kenji and Berg, Erez and Serbyn, Maksym and Young, Andrea F.}, issn = {1476-4687}, journal = {Nature}, keywords = {condensed matter - mesoscale and nanoscale physics, condensed matter - strongly correlated electrons, multidisciplinary}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Half and quarter metals in rhombohedral trilayer graphene}}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-03938-w}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10076, abstract = {We present a novel approach for blockchain asset owners to reclaim their funds in case of accidental private-key loss or transfer to a mistyped address. Our solution can be deployed upon failure or absence of proactively implemented backup mechanisms, such as secret sharing and cold storage. The main advantages against previous proposals is it does not require any prior action from users and works with both single-key and multi-sig accounts. We achieve this by a 3-phase Commit()→Reveal()→Claim()−or−Challenge() smart contract that enables accessing funds of addresses for which the spending key is not available. We provide an analysis of the threat and incentive models and formalize the concept of reactive KEy-Loss Protection (KELP).}, author = {Blackshear, Sam and Chalkias, Konstantinos and Chatzigiannis, Panagiotis and Faizullabhoy, Riyaz and Khaburzaniya, Irakliy and Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios and Lind, Joshua and Wong, David and Zakian, Tim}, booktitle = {FC 2021 Workshops}, isbn = {978-3-6626-3957-3}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Virtual}, pages = {431--450}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Reactive key-loss protection in blockchains}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-63958-0_34}, volume = {12676 }, year = {2021}, } @article{10070, abstract = {We extensively discuss the Rademacher and Sobolev-to-Lipschitz properties for generalized intrinsic distances on strongly local Dirichlet spaces possibly without square field operator. We present many non-smooth and infinite-dimensional examples. As an application, we prove the integral Varadhan short-time asymptotic with respect to a given distance function for a large class of strongly local Dirichlet forms.}, author = {Dello Schiavo, Lorenzo and Suzuki, Kohei}, issn = {1096-0783}, journal = {Journal of Functional Analysis}, number = {11}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Rademacher-type theorems and Sobolev-to-Lipschitz properties for strongly local Dirichlet spaces}}, doi = {10.1016/j.jfa.2021.109234}, volume = {281}, year = {2021}, } @article{10123, abstract = {Solution synthesis of particles emerged as an alternative to prepare thermoelectric materials with less demanding processing conditions than conventional solid-state synthetic methods. However, solution synthesis generally involves the presence of additional molecules or ions belonging to the precursors or added to enable solubility and/or regulate nucleation and growth. These molecules or ions can end up in the particles as surface adsorbates and interfere in the material properties. This work demonstrates that ionic adsorbates, in particular Na⁺ ions, are electrostatically adsorbed in SnSe particles synthesized in water and play a crucial role not only in directing the material nano/microstructure but also in determining the transport properties of the consolidated material. In dense pellets prepared by sintering SnSe particles, Na remains within the crystal lattice as dopant, in dislocations, precipitates, and forming grain boundary complexions. These results highlight the importance of considering all the possible unintentional impurities to establish proper structure-property relationships and control material properties in solution-processed thermoelectric materials.}, author = {Liu, Yu and Calcabrini, Mariano and Yu, Yuan and Genç, Aziz and Chang, Cheng and Costanzo, Tommaso and Kleinhanns, Tobias and Lee, Seungho and Llorca, Jordi and Cojocaru‐Mirédin, Oana and Ibáñez, Maria}, issn = {1521-4095}, journal = {Advanced Materials}, keywords = {mechanical engineering, mechanics of materials, general materials science}, number = {52}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{The importance of surface adsorbates in solution‐processed thermoelectric materials: The case of SnSe}}, doi = {10.1002/adma.202106858}, volume = {33}, year = {2021}, } @article{10117, abstract = {Proximity labeling provides a powerful in vivo tool to characterize the proteome of subcellular structures and the interactome of specific proteins. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is one of the most intensely studied organisms in biology, offering many advantages for biochemistry. Using the highly active biotin ligase TurboID, we optimize here a proximity labeling protocol for C. elegans. An advantage of TurboID is that biotin's high affinity for streptavidin means biotin-labeled proteins can be affinity-purified under harsh denaturing conditions. By combining extensive sonication with aggressive denaturation using SDS and urea, we achieved near-complete solubilization of worm proteins. We then used this protocol to characterize the proteomes of the worm gut, muscle, skin, and nervous system. Neurons are among the smallest C. elegans cells. To probe the method's sensitivity, we expressed TurboID exclusively in the two AFD neurons and showed that the protocol could identify known and previously unknown proteins expressed selectively in AFD. The active zones of synapses are composed of a protein matrix that is difficult to solubilize and purify. To test if our protocol could solubilize active zone proteins, we knocked TurboID into the endogenous elks-1 gene, which encodes a presynaptic active zone protein. We identified many known ELKS-1-interacting active zone proteins, as well as previously uncharacterized synaptic proteins. Versatile vectors and the inherent advantages of using C. elegans, including fast growth and the ability to rapidly make and functionally test knock-ins, make proximity labeling a valuable addition to the armory of this model organism.}, author = {Artan, Murat and Barratt, Stephen and Flynn, Sean M. and Begum, Farida and Skehel, Mark and Nicolas, Armel and De Bono, Mario}, issn = {1083-351X}, journal = {Journal of Biological Chemistry}, number = {3}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Interactome analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans synapses by TurboID-based proximity labeling}}, doi = {10.1016/J.JBC.2021.101094}, volume = {297}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10108, abstract = {We argue that the time is ripe to investigate differential monitoring, in which the specification of a program's behavior is implicitly given by a second program implementing the same informal specification. Similar ideas have been proposed before, and are currently implemented in restricted form for testing and specialized run-time analyses, aspects of which we combine. We discuss the challenges of implementing differential monitoring as a general-purpose, black-box run-time monitoring framework, and present promising results of a preliminary implementation, showing low monitoring overheads for diverse programs.}, author = {Mühlböck, Fabian and Henzinger, Thomas A}, booktitle = {International Conference on Runtime Verification}, isbn = {978-3-030-88493-2}, issn = {1611-3349}, keywords = {run-time verification, software engineering, implicit specification}, location = {Virtual}, pages = {231--243}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Differential monitoring}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-88494-9_12}, volume = {12974}, year = {2021}, } @article{10116, abstract = {The ubiquitous Ca2+ sensor calmodulin (CaM) binds and regulates many proteins, including ion channels, CaM kinases, and calcineurin, according to Ca2+-CaM levels. What regulates neuronal CaM levels, is, however, unclear. CaM-binding transcription activators (CAMTAs) are ancient proteins expressed broadly in nervous systems and whose loss confers pleiotropic behavioral defects in flies, mice, and humans. Using Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila, we show that CAMTAs control neuronal CaM levels. The behavioral and neuronal Ca2+ signaling defects in mutants lacking camt-1, the sole C. elegans CAMTA, can be rescued by supplementing neuronal CaM. CAMT-1 binds multiple sites in the CaM promoter and deleting these sites phenocopies camt-1. Our data suggest CAMTAs mediate a conserved and general mechanism that controls neuronal CaM levels, thereby regulating Ca2+ signaling, physiology, and behavior.}, author = {Vuong-Brender, Thanh and Flynn, Sean and Vallis, Yvonne and De Bono, Mario}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{Neuronal calmodulin levels are controlled by CAMTA transcription factors}}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.68238}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @article{10103, abstract = {The small cellular molecule inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) has been known for ~20 years to promote the in vitro assembly of HIV-1 into immature virus-like particles. However, the molecular details underlying this effect have been determined only recently, with the identification of the IP6 binding site in the immature Gag lattice. IP6 also promotes formation of the mature capsid protein (CA) lattice via a second IP6 binding site, and enhances core stability, creating a favorable environment for reverse transcription. IP6 also enhances assembly of other retroviruses, from both the Lentivirus and the Alpharetrovirus genera. These findings suggest that IP6 may have a conserved function throughout the family Retroviridae. Here, we discuss the different steps in the viral life cycle that are influenced by IP6, and describe in detail how IP6 interacts with the immature and mature lattices of different retroviruses.}, author = {Obr, Martin and Schur, Florian KM and Dick, Robert A.}, issn = {1999-4915}, journal = {Viruses}, keywords = {virology, infectious diseases}, number = {9}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{A structural perspective of the role of IP6 in immature and mature retroviral assembly}}, doi = {10.3390/v13091853}, volume = {13}, year = {2021}, } @article{10067, abstract = {The search for novel entangled phases of matter has lead to the recent discovery of a new class of “entanglement transitions,” exemplified by random tensor networks and monitored quantum circuits. Most known examples can be understood as some classical ordering transitions in an underlying statistical mechanics model, where entanglement maps onto the free-energy cost of inserting a domain wall. In this paper we study the possibility of entanglement transitions driven by physics beyond such statistical mechanics mappings. Motivated by recent applications of neural-network-inspired variational Ansätze, we investigate under what conditions on the variational parameters these Ansätze can capture an entanglement transition. We study the entanglement scaling of short-range restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) quantum states with random phases. For uncorrelated random phases, we analytically demonstrate the absence of an entanglement transition and reveal subtle finite-size effects in finite-size numerical simulations. Introducing phases with correlations decaying as 1/r^α in real space, we observe three regions with a different scaling of entanglement entropy depending on the exponent α. We study the nature of the transition between these regions, finding numerical evidence for critical behavior. Our work establishes the presence of long-range correlated phases in RBM-based wave functions as a required ingredient for entanglement transitions.}, author = {Medina Ramos, Raimel A and Vasseur, Romain and Serbyn, Maksym}, issn = {2469-9969}, journal = {Physical Review B}, number = {10}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Entanglement transitions from restricted Boltzmann machines}}, doi = {10.1103/physrevb.104.104205}, volume = {104}, year = {2021}, } @misc{9946, abstract = {We argue that the time is ripe to investigate differential monitoring, in which the specification of a program's behavior is implicitly given by a second program implementing the same informal specification. Similar ideas have been proposed before, and are currently implemented in restricted form for testing and specialized run-time analyses, aspects of which we combine. We discuss the challenges of implementing differential monitoring as a general-purpose, black-box run-time monitoring framework, and present promising results of a preliminary implementation, showing low monitoring overheads for diverse programs.}, author = {Mühlböck, Fabian and Henzinger, Thomas A}, issn = {2664-1690}, keywords = {run-time verification, software engineering, implicit specification}, pages = {17}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Differential monitoring}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:9946}, year = {2021}, } @article{10073, abstract = {Thermoelectric materials enable the direct conversion between heat and electricity. SnTe is a promising candidate due to its high charge transport performance. Here, we prepared SnTe nanocomposites by employing an aqueous method to synthetize SnTe nanoparticles (NP), followed by a unique surface treatment prior NP consolidation. This synthetic approach allowed optimizing the charge and phonon transport synergistically. The novelty of this strategy was the use of a soluble PbS molecular complex prepared using a thiol-amine solvent mixture that upon blending is adsorbed on the SnTe NP surface. Upon consolidation with spark plasma sintering, SnTe-PbS nanocomposite is formed. The presence of PbS complexes significantly compensates for the Sn vacancy and increases the average grain size of the nanocomposite, thus improving the carrier mobility. Moreover, lattice thermal conductivity is also reduced by the Pb and S-induced mass and strain fluctuation. As a result, an enhanced ZT of ca. 0.8 is reached at 873 K. Our finding provides a novel strategy to conduct rational surface treatment on NP-based thermoelectrics.}, author = {Chang, Cheng and Ibáñez, Maria}, issn = {1996-1944}, journal = {Materials}, number = {18}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Enhanced thermoelectric performance by surface engineering in SnTe-PbS nanocomposites}}, doi = {10.3390/ma14185416}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, } @article{10167, abstract = {Schistosomes, the human parasites responsible for snail fever, are female-heterogametic. Different parts of their ZW sex chromosomes have stopped recombining in distinct lineages, creating “evolutionary strata” of various ages. Although the Z-chromosome is well characterized at the genomic and molecular level, the W-chromosome has remained largely unstudied from an evolutionary perspective, as only a few W-linked genes have been detected outside of the model species Schistosoma mansoni. Here, we characterize the gene content and evolution of the W-chromosomes of S. mansoni and of the divergent species S. japonicum. We use a combined RNA/DNA k-mer based pipeline to assemble around 100 candidate W-specific transcripts in each of the species. About half of them map to known protein coding genes, the majority homologous to S. mansoni Z-linked genes. We perform an extended analysis of the evolutionary strata present in the two species (including characterizing a previously undetected young stratum in S. japonicum) to infer patterns of sequence and expression evolution of W-linked genes at different time points after recombination was lost. W-linked genes show evidence of degeneration, including high rates of protein evolution and reduced expression. Most are found in young lineage-specific strata, with only a few high expression ancestral W-genes remaining, consistent with the progressive erosion of nonrecombining regions. Among these, the splicing factor u2af2 stands out as a promising candidate for primary sex determination, opening new avenues for understanding the molecular basis of the reproductive biology of this group.}, author = {Elkrewi, Marwan N and Moldovan, Mikhail A. and Picard, Marion A L and Vicoso, Beatriz}, issn = {1537-1719}, journal = {Molecular Biology and Evolution}, keywords = {sex chromosomes, evolutionary strata, W-linked gene, sex determining gene, schistosome parasites}, publisher = {Oxford University Press }, title = {{Schistosome W-Linked genes inform temporal dynamics of sex chromosome evolution and suggest candidate for sex determination}}, doi = {10.1093/molbev/msab178}, year = {2021}, } @article{10163, abstract = {The C-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) is a regulatory hub for transcription and RNA processing. Here, we identify PHD-finger protein 3 (PHF3) as a regulator of transcription and mRNA stability that docks onto Pol II CTD through its SPOC domain. We characterize SPOC as a CTD reader domain that preferentially binds two phosphorylated Serine-2 marks in adjacent CTD repeats. PHF3 drives liquid-liquid phase separation of phosphorylated Pol II, colocalizes with Pol II clusters and tracks with Pol II across the length of genes. PHF3 knock-out or SPOC deletion in human cells results in increased Pol II stalling, reduced elongation rate and an increase in mRNA stability, with marked derepression of neuronal genes. Key neuronal genes are aberrantly expressed in Phf3 knock-out mouse embryonic stem cells, resulting in impaired neuronal differentiation. Our data suggest that PHF3 acts as a prominent effector of neuronal gene regulation by bridging transcription with mRNA decay.}, author = {Appel, Lisa-Marie and Franke, Vedran and Bruno, Melania and Grishkovskaya, Irina and Kasiliauskaite, Aiste and Kaufmann, Tanja and Schoeberl, Ursula E. and Puchinger, Martin G. and Kostrhon, Sebastian and Ebenwaldner, Carmen and Sebesta, Marek and Beltzung, Etienne and Mechtler, Karl and Lin, Gen and Vlasova, Anna and Leeb, Martin and Pavri, Rushad and Stark, Alexander and Akalin, Altuna and Stefl, Richard and Bernecky, Carrie A and Djinovic-Carugo, Kristina and Slade, Dea}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, keywords = {general physics and astronomy, general biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, general chemistry}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{PHF3 regulates neuronal gene expression through the Pol II CTD reader domain SPOC}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-26360-2}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9547, abstract = {With the wider availability of full-color 3D printers, color-accurate 3D-print preparation has received increased attention. A key challenge lies in the inherent translucency of commonly used print materials that blurs out details of the color texture. Previous work tries to compensate for these scattering effects through strategic assignment of colored primary materials to printer voxels. To date, the highest-quality approach uses iterative optimization that relies on computationally expensive Monte Carlo light transport simulation to predict the surface appearance from subsurface scattering within a given print material distribution; that optimization, however, takes in the order of days on a single machine. In our work, we dramatically speed up the process by replacing the light transport simulation with a data-driven approach. Leveraging a deep neural network to predict the scattering within a highly heterogeneous medium, our method performs around two orders of magnitude faster than Monte Carlo rendering while yielding optimization results of similar quality level. The network is based on an established method from atmospheric cloud rendering, adapted to our domain and extended by a physically motivated weight sharing scheme that substantially reduces the network size. We analyze its performance in an end-to-end print preparation pipeline and compare quality and runtime to alternative approaches, and demonstrate its generalization to unseen geometry and material values. This for the first time enables full heterogenous material optimization for 3D-print preparation within time frames in the order of the actual printing time.}, author = {Rittig, Tobias and Sumin, Denis and Babaei, Vahid and Didyk, Piotr and Voloboy, Alexey and Wilkie, Alexander and Bickel, Bernd and Myszkowski, Karol and Weyrich, Tim and Křivánek, Jaroslav}, issn = {1467-8659}, journal = {Computer Graphics Forum}, number = {2}, pages = {205--219}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Neural acceleration of scattering-aware color 3D printing}}, doi = {10.1111/cgf.142626}, volume = {40}, year = {2021}, } @article{10177, abstract = {Phonon polaritons (PhPs)—light coupled to lattice vibrations—with in-plane hyperbolic dispersion exhibit ray-like propagation with large wave vectors and enhanced density of optical states along certain directions on a surface. As such, they have raised a surge of interest, promising unprecedented manipulation of infrared light at the nanoscale in a planar circuitry. Here, we demonstrate focusing of in-plane hyperbolic PhPs propagating along thin slabs of α-MoO3. To that end, we developed metallic nanoantennas of convex geometries for both efficient launching and focusing of the polaritons. The foci obtained exhibit enhanced near-field confinement and absorption compared to foci produced by in-plane isotropic PhPs. Foci sizes as small as λp/4.5 = λ0/50 were achieved (λp is the polariton wavelength and λ0 is the photon wavelength). Focusing of in-plane hyperbolic polaritons introduces a first and most basic building block developing planar polariton optics using in-plane anisotropic van der Waals materials.}, author = {Martín-Sánchez, Javier and Duan, Jiahua and Taboada-Gutiérrez, Javier and Álvarez-Pérez, Gonzalo and Voronin, Kirill V. and Prieto Gonzalez, Ivan and Ma, Weiliang and Bao, Qiaoliang and Volkov, Valentyn S. and Hillenbrand, Rainer and Nikitin, Alexey Y. and Alonso-González, Pablo}, issn = {23752548}, journal = {Science Advances}, number = {41}, publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science}, title = {{Focusing of in-plane hyperbolic polaritons in van der Waals crystals with tailored infrared nanoantennas}}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.abj0127}, volume = {7}, year = {2021}, } @article{10146, abstract = {The enzymes of the mitochondrial electron transport chain are key players of cell metabolism. Despite being active when isolated, in vivo they associate into supercomplexes1, whose precise role is debated. Supercomplexes CIII2CIV1-2 (refs. 2,3), CICIII2 (ref. 4) and CICIII2CIV (respirasome)5,6,7,8,9,10 exist in mammals, but in contrast to CICIII2 and the respirasome, to date the only known eukaryotic structures of CIII2CIV1-2 come from Saccharomyces cerevisiae11,12 and plants13, which have different organization. Here we present the first, to our knowledge, structures of mammalian (mouse and ovine) CIII2CIV and its assembly intermediates, in different conformations. We describe the assembly of CIII2CIV from the CIII2 precursor to the final CIII2CIV conformation, driven by the insertion of the N terminus of the assembly factor SCAF1 (ref. 14) deep into CIII2, while its C terminus is integrated into CIV. Our structures (which include CICIII2 and the respirasome) also confirm that SCAF1 is exclusively required for the assembly of CIII2CIV and has no role in the assembly of the respirasome. We show that CIII2 is asymmetric due to the presence of only one copy of subunit 9, which straddles both monomers and prevents the attachment of a second copy of SCAF1 to CIII2, explaining the presence of one copy of CIV in CIII2CIV in mammals. Finally, we show that CIII2 and CIV gain catalytic advantage when assembled into the supercomplex and propose a role for CIII2CIV in fine tuning the efficiency of electron transfer in the electron transport chain.}, author = {Vercellino, Irene and Sazanov, Leonid A}, issn = {1476-4687}, journal = {Nature}, number = {7880}, pages = {364--367}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Structure and assembly of the mammalian mitochondrial supercomplex CIII2CIV}}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-03927-z}, volume = {598}, year = {2021}, } @article{10176, abstract = {We give a combinatorial model for r-spin surfaces with parameterized boundary based on Novak (“Lattice topological field theories in two dimensions,” Ph.D. thesis, Universität Hamburg, 2015). The r-spin structure is encoded in terms of ℤ𝑟-valued indices assigned to the edges of a polygonal decomposition. This combinatorial model is designed for our state-sum construction of two-dimensional topological field theories on r-spin surfaces. We show that an example of such a topological field theory computes the Arf-invariant of an r-spin surface as introduced by Randal-Williams [J. Topol. 7, 155 (2014)] and Geiges et al. [Osaka J. Math. 49, 449 (2012)]. This implies, in particular, that the r-spin Arf-invariant is constant on orbits of the mapping class group, providing an alternative proof of that fact.}, author = {Runkel, Ingo and Szegedy, Lorant}, issn = {00222488}, journal = {Journal of Mathematical Physics}, number = {10}, publisher = {AIP Publishing}, title = {{Topological field theory on r-spin surfaces and the Arf-invariant}}, doi = {10.1063/5.0037826}, volume = {62}, year = {2021}, } @article{10179, abstract = {Inhibitory GABAergic interneurons migrate over long distances from their extracortical origin into the developing cortex. In humans, this process is uniquely slow and prolonged, and it is unclear whether guidance cues unique to humans govern the various phases of this complex developmental process. Here, we use fused cerebral organoids to identify key roles of neurotransmitter signaling pathways in guiding the migratory behavior of human cortical interneurons. We use scRNAseq to reveal expression of GABA, glutamate, glycine, and serotonin receptors along distinct maturation trajectories across interneuron migration. We develop an image analysis software package, TrackPal, to simultaneously assess 48 parameters for entire migration tracks of individual cells. By chemical screening, we show that different modes of interneuron migration depend on distinct neurotransmitter signaling pathways, linking transcriptional maturation of interneurons with their migratory behavior. Altogether, our study provides a comprehensive quantitative analysis of human interneuron migration and its functional modulation by neurotransmitter signaling.}, author = {Bajaj, Sunanjay and Bagley, Joshua A. and Sommer, Christoph M and Vertesy, Abel and Nagumo Wong, Sakurako and Krenn, Veronica and Lévi-Strauss, Julie and Knoblich, Juergen A.}, issn = {1460-2075}, journal = {EMBO Journal}, number = {23}, publisher = {Embo Press}, title = {{Neurotransmitter signaling regulates distinct phases of multimodal human interneuron migration}}, doi = {10.15252/embj.2021108714}, volume = {40}, year = {2021}, } @article{10203, abstract = {Single photon emitters in atomically-thin semiconductors can be deterministically positioned using strain induced by underlying nano-structures. Here, we couple monolayer WSe2 to high-refractive-index gallium phosphide dielectric nano-antennas providing both optical enhancement and monolayer deformation. For single photon emitters formed on such nano-antennas, we find very low (femto-Joule) saturation pulse energies and up to 104 times brighter photoluminescence than in WSe2 placed on low-refractive-index SiO2 pillars. We show that the key to these observations is the increase on average by a factor of 5 of the quantum efficiency of the emitters coupled to the nano-antennas. This further allows us to gain new insights into their photoluminescence dynamics, revealing the roles of the dark exciton reservoir and Auger processes. We also find that the coherence time of such emitters is limited by intrinsic dephasing processes. Our work establishes dielectric nano-antennas as a platform for high-efficiency quantum light generation in monolayer semiconductors.}, author = {Sortino, Luca and Zotev, Panaiot G. and Phillips, Catherine L. and Brash, Alistair J. and Cambiasso, Javier and Marensi, Elena and Fox, A. Mark and Maier, Stefan A. and Sapienza, Riccardo and Tartakovskii, Alexander I.}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Bright single photon emitters with enhanced quantum efficiency in a two-dimensional semiconductor coupled with dielectric nano-antennas}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-26262-3}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{10178, abstract = {In dense biological tissues, cell types performing different roles remain segregated by maintaining sharp interfaces. To better understand the mechanisms for such sharp compartmentalization, we study the effect of an imposed heterotypic tension at the interface between two distinct cell types in a fully 3D Voronoi model for confluent tissues. We find that cells rapidly sort and self-organize to generate a tissue-scale interface between cell types, and cells adjacent to this interface exhibit signature geometric features including nematic-like ordering, bimodal facet areas, and registration, or alignment, of cell centers on either side of the two-tissue interface. The magnitude of these features scales directly with the magnitude of the imposed tension, suggesting that biologists can estimate the magnitude of tissue surface tension between two tissue types simply by segmenting a 3D tissue. To uncover the underlying physical mechanisms driving these geometric features, we develop two minimal, ordered models using two different underlying lattices that identify an energetic competition between bulk cell shapes and tissue interface area. When the interface area dominates, changes to neighbor topology are costly and occur less frequently, which generates the observed geometric features.}, author = {Sahu, Preeti and Schwarz, J. M. and Manning, M. Lisa}, issn = {13672630}, journal = {New Journal of Physics}, number = {9}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Geometric signatures of tissue surface tension in a three-dimensional model of confluent tissue}}, doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/ac23f1}, volume = {23}, year = {2021}, } @article{10181, abstract = {In this article we study some geometric properties of proximally smooth sets. First, we introduce a modification of the metric projection and prove its existence. Then we provide an algorithm for constructing a rectifiable curve between two sufficiently close points of a proximally smooth set in a uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach space, with the moduli of smoothness and convexity of power type. Our algorithm returns a reasonably short curve between two sufficiently close points of a proximally smooth set, is iterative and uses our modification of the metric projection. We estimate the length of the constructed curve and its deviation from the segment with the same endpoints. These estimates coincide up to a constant factor with those for the geodesics in a proximally smooth set in a Hilbert space.}, author = {Ivanov, Grigory and Lopushanski, Mariana S.}, issn = {1877-0541}, journal = {Set-Valued and Variational Analysis}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Rectifiable curves in proximally smooth sets}}, doi = {10.1007/s11228-021-00612-1}, year = {2021}, } @article{10202, abstract = {Zygotic genome activation (ZGA) initiates regionalized transcription underlying distinct cellular identities. ZGA is dependent upon dynamic chromatin architecture sculpted by conserved DNA-binding proteins. However, the direct mechanistic link between the onset of ZGA and the tissue-specific transcription remains unclear. Here, we have addressed the involvement of chromatin organizer Satb2 in orchestrating both processes during zebrafish embryogenesis. Integrative analysis of transcriptome, genome-wide occupancy and chromatin accessibility reveals contrasting molecular activities of maternally deposited and zygotically synthesized Satb2. Maternal Satb2 prevents premature transcription of zygotic genes by influencing the interplay between the pluripotency factors. By contrast, zygotic Satb2 activates transcription of the same group of genes during neural crest development and organogenesis. Thus, our comparative analysis of maternal versus zygotic function of Satb2 underscores how these antithetical activities are temporally coordinated and functionally implemented highlighting the evolutionary implications of the biphasic and bimodal regulation of landmark developmental transitions by a single determinant.}, author = {Pradhan, Saurabh J. and Reddy, Puli Chandramouli and Smutny, Michael and Sharma, Ankita and Sako, Keisuke and Oak, Meghana S. and Shah, Rini and Pal, Mrinmoy and Deshpande, Ojas and Dsilva, Greg and Tang, Yin and Mishra, Rakesh and Deshpande, Girish and Giraldez, Antonio J. and Sonawane, Mahendra and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J and Galande, Sanjeev}, issn = {20411723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Satb2 acts as a gatekeeper for major developmental transitions during early vertebrate embryogenesis}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-26234-7}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{10271, abstract = {Understanding interactions between antibiotics used in combination is an important theme in microbiology. Using the interactions between the antifolate drug trimethoprim and the ribosome-targeting antibiotic erythromycin in Escherichia coli as a model, we applied a transcriptomic approach for dissecting interactions between two antibiotics with different modes of action. When trimethoprim and erythromycin were combined, the transcriptional response of genes from the sulfate reduction pathway deviated from the dominant effect of trimethoprim on the transcriptome. We successfully altered the drug interaction from additivity to suppression by increasing the sulfate level in the growth environment and identified sulfate reduction as an important metabolic determinant that shapes the interaction between the two drugs. Our work highlights the potential of using prioritization of gene expression patterns as a tool for identifying key metabolic determinants that shape drug-drug interactions. We further demonstrated that the sigma factor-binding protein gene crl shapes the interactions between the two antibiotics, which provides a rare example of how naturally occurring variations between strains of the same bacterial species can sometimes generate very different drug interactions.}, author = {Qi, Qin and Angermayr, S. Andreas and Bollenbach, Mark Tobias}, issn = {1664-302X}, journal = {Frontiers in Microbiology}, keywords = {microbiology}, publisher = {Frontiers}, title = {{Uncovering Key Metabolic Determinants of the Drug Interactions Between Trimethoprim and Erythromycin in Escherichia coli}}, doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2021.760017}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{10221, abstract = {We prove that any deterministic matrix is approximately the identity in the eigenbasis of a large random Wigner matrix with very high probability and with an optimal error inversely proportional to the square root of the dimension. Our theorem thus rigorously verifies the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis by Deutsch (Phys Rev A 43:2046–2049, 1991) for the simplest chaotic quantum system, the Wigner ensemble. In mathematical terms, we prove the strong form of Quantum Unique Ergodicity (QUE) with an optimal convergence rate for all eigenvectors simultaneously, generalizing previous probabilistic QUE results in Bourgade and Yau (Commun Math Phys 350:231–278, 2017) and Bourgade et al. (Commun Pure Appl Math 73:1526–1596, 2020).}, author = {Cipolloni, Giorgio and Erdös, László and Schröder, Dominik J}, issn = {1432-0916}, journal = {Communications in Mathematical Physics}, number = {2}, pages = {1005–1048}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis for Wigner matrices}}, doi = {10.1007/s00220-021-04239-z}, volume = {388}, year = {2021}, } @article{10224, abstract = {We investigate the Fröhlich polaron model on a three-dimensional torus, and give a proof of the second-order quantum corrections to its ground-state energy in the strong-coupling limit. Compared to previous work in the confined case, the translational symmetry (and its breaking in the Pekar approximation) makes the analysis substantially more challenging.}, author = {Feliciangeli, Dario and Seiringer, Robert}, issn = {1432-0673}, journal = {Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis}, number = {3}, pages = {1835–1906}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{The strongly coupled polaron on the torus: Quantum corrections to the Pekar asymptotics}}, doi = {10.1007/s00205-021-01715-7}, volume = {242}, year = {2021}, } @article{10281, abstract = {Mutations affecting mTOR or RAS signaling underlie defined syndromes (the so-called mTORopathies and RASopathies) with high risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These syndromes show a broad variety of somatic phenotypes including cancers, skin abnormalities, heart disease and facial dysmorphisms. Less well studied are the neuropsychiatric symptoms such as ASD. Here, we assess the relevance of these signalopathies in ASD reviewing genetic, human cell model, rodent studies and clinical trials. We conclude that signalopathies have an increased liability for ASD and that, in particular, ASD individuals with dysmorphic features and intellectual disability (ID) have a higher chance for disruptive mutations in RAS- and mTOR-related genes. Studies on rodent and human cell models confirm aberrant neuronal development as the underlying pathology. Human studies further suggest that multiple hits are necessary to induce the respective phenotypes. Recent clinical trials do only report improvements for comorbid conditions such as epilepsy or cancer but not for behavioral aspects. Animal models show that treatment during early development can rescue behavioral phenotypes. Taken together, we suggest investigating the differential roles of mTOR and RAS signaling in both human and rodent models, and to test drug treatment both during and after neuronal development in the available model systems}, author = {Vasic, Verica and Jones, Mattson S.O. and Haslinger, Denise and Knaus, Lisa and Schmeisser, Michael J. and Novarino, Gaia and Chiocchetti, Andreas G.}, issn = {2073-4425}, journal = {Genes}, number = {11}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Translating the role of mtor-and ras-associated signalopathies in autism spectrum disorder: Models, mechanisms and treatment}}, doi = {10.3390/genes12111746}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{10282, abstract = {Advanced transcriptome sequencing has revealed that the majority of eukaryotic genes undergo alternative splicing (AS). Nonetheless, little effort has been dedicated to investigating the functional relevance of particular splicing events, even those in the key developmental and hormonal regulators. Combining approaches of genetics, biochemistry and advanced confocal microscopy, we describe the impact of alternative splicing on the PIN7 gene in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. PIN7 encodes a polarly localized transporter for the phytohormone auxin and produces two evolutionarily conserved transcripts, PIN7a and PIN7b. PIN7a and PIN7b, differing in a four amino acid stretch, exhibit almost identical expression patterns and subcellular localization. We reveal that they are closely associated and mutually influence each other's mobility within the plasma membrane. Phenotypic complementation tests indicate that the functional contribution of PIN7b per se is minor, but it markedly reduces the prominent PIN7a activity, which is required for correct seedling apical hook formation and auxin-mediated tropic responses. Our results establish alternative splicing of the PIN family as a conserved, functionally relevant mechanism, revealing an additional regulatory level of auxin-mediated plant development.}, author = {Kashkan, Ivan and Hrtyan, Mónika and Retzer, Katarzyna and Humpolíčková, Jana and Jayasree, Aswathy and Filepová, Roberta and Vondráková, Zuzana and Simon, Sibu and Rombaut, Debbie and Jacobs, Thomas B. and Frilander, Mikko J. and Hejátko, Jan and Friml, Jiří and Petrášek, Jan and Růžička, Kamil}, issn = {1469-8137}, journal = {New Phytologist}, pages = {329--343}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Mutually opposing activity of PIN7 splicing isoforms is required for auxin-mediated tropic responses in Arabidopsis thaliana}}, doi = {10.1111/nph.17792}, volume = {233}, year = {2021}, } @article{10220, abstract = {We study conditions under which a finite simplicial complex K can be mapped to ℝd without higher-multiplicity intersections. An almost r-embedding is a map f: K → ℝd such that the images of any r pairwise disjoint simplices of K do not have a common point. We show that if r is not a prime power and d ≥ 2r + 1, then there is a counterexample to the topological Tverberg conjecture, i.e., there is an almost r-embedding of the (d +1)(r − 1)-simplex in ℝd. This improves on previous constructions of counterexamples (for d ≥ 3r) based on a series of papers by M. Özaydin, M. Gromov, P. Blagojević, F. Frick, G. Ziegler, and the second and fourth present authors. The counterexamples are obtained by proving the following algebraic criterion in codimension 2: If r ≥ 3 and if K is a finite 2(r − 1)-complex, then there exists an almost r-embedding K → ℝ2r if and only if there exists a general position PL map f: K → ℝ2r such that the algebraic intersection number of the f-images of any r pairwise disjoint simplices of K is zero. This result can be restated in terms of a cohomological obstruction and extends an analogous codimension 3 criterion by the second and fourth authors. As another application, we classify ornaments f: S3 ⊔ S3 ⊔ S3 → ℝ5 up to ornament concordance. It follows from work of M. Freedman, V. Krushkal and P. Teichner that the analogous criterion for r = 2 is false. We prove a lemma on singular higher-dimensional Borromean rings, yielding an elementary proof of the counterexample.}, author = {Avvakumov, Sergey and Mabillard, Isaac and Skopenkov, Arkadiy B. and Wagner, Uli}, issn = {1565-8511}, journal = {Israel Journal of Mathematics}, pages = {501–534 }, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Eliminating higher-multiplicity intersections. III. Codimension 2}}, doi = {10.1007/s11856-021-2216-z}, volume = {245}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13061, abstract = {Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism’s development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing “superorganisms” – incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen’s immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen-exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen’s pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.}, author = {Casillas Perez, Barbara E and Pull, Christopher and Naiser, Filip and Naderlinger, Elisabeth and Matas, Jiri and Cremer, Sylvia}, publisher = {Dryad}, title = {{Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies}}, doi = {10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ}, year = {2021}, } @article{10301, abstract = {De novo protein synthesis is required for synapse modifications underlying stable memory encoding. Yet neurons are highly compartmentalized cells and how protein synthesis can be regulated at the synapse level is unknown. Here, we characterize neuronal signaling complexes formed by the postsynaptic scaffold GIT1, the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase, and Raptor that couple synaptic stimuli to mTOR-dependent protein synthesis; and identify NMDA receptors containing GluN3A subunits as key negative regulators of GIT1 binding to mTOR. Disruption of GIT1/mTOR complexes by enhancing GluN3A expression or silencing GIT1 inhibits synaptic mTOR activation and restricts the mTOR-dependent translation of specific activity-regulated mRNAs. Conversely, GluN3A removal enables complex formation, potentiates mTOR-dependent protein synthesis, and facilitates the consolidation of associative and spatial memories in mice. The memory enhancement becomes evident with light or spaced training, can be achieved by selectively deleting GluN3A from excitatory neurons during adulthood, and does not compromise other aspects of cognition such as memory flexibility or extinction. Our findings provide mechanistic insight into synaptic translational control and reveal a potentially selective target for cognitive enhancement.}, author = {Conde-Dusman, María J and Dey, Partha N and Elía-Zudaire, Óscar and Garcia Rabaneda, Luis E and García-Lira, Carmen and Grand, Teddy and Briz, Victor and Velasco, Eric R and Andero Galí, Raül and Niñerola, Sergio and Barco, Angel and Paoletti, Pierre and Wesseling, John F and Gardoni, Fabrizio and Tavalin, Steven J and Perez-Otaño, Isabel}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, keywords = {general immunology and microbiology, general biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, general medicine, general neuroscience}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{Control of protein synthesis and memory by GluN3A-NMDA receptors through inhibition of GIT1/mTORC1 assembly}}, doi = {10.7554/elife.71575}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @article{10283, abstract = {During the past decade, the scientific community and outside observers have noted a concerning lack of rigor and transparency in preclinical research that led to talk of a “reproducibility crisis” in the life sciences (Baker, 2016; Bespalov & Steckler, 2018; Heddleston et al, 2021). Various measures have been proposed to address the problem: from better training of scientists to more oversight to expanded publishing practices such as preregistration of studies. The recently published EQIPD (Enhancing Quality in Preclinical Data) System is, to date, the largest initiative that aims to establish a systematic approach for increasing the robustness and reliability of biomedical research (Bespalov et al, 2021). However, promoting a cultural change in research practices warrants a broad adoption of the Quality System and its underlying philosophy. It is here that academic Core Facilities (CF), research service providers at universities and research institutions, can make a difference. It is fair to assume that a significant fraction of published data originated from experiments that were designed, run, or analyzed in CFs. These academic services play an important role in the research ecosystem by offering access to cutting-edge equipment and by developing and testing novel techniques and methods that impact research in the academic and private sectors alike (Bikovski et al, 2020). Equipment and infrastructure are not the only value: CFs employ competent personnel with profound knowledge and practical experience of the specific field of interest: animal behavior, imaging, crystallography, genomics, and so on. Thus, CFs are optimally positioned to address concerns about the quality and robustness of preclinical research.}, author = {Restivo, Leonardo and Gerlach, Björn and Tsoory, Michael and Bikovski, Lior and Badurek, Sylvia and Pitzer, Claudia and Kos-Braun, Isabelle C. and Mausset-Bonnefont, Anne Laure Mj and Ward, Jonathan and Schunn, Michael and Noldus, Lucas P.J.J. and Bespalov, Anton and Voikar, Vootele}, issn = {1469-3178}, journal = {EMBO Reports}, publisher = {EMBO Press}, title = {{Towards best practices in research: Role of academic core facilities}}, doi = {10.15252/embr.202153824}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{10310, abstract = {A high-resolution structure of trimeric cyanobacterial Photosystem I (PSI) from Thermosynechococcus elongatus was reported as the first atomic model of PSI almost 20 years ago. However, the monomeric PSI structure has not yet been reported despite long-standing interest in its structure and extensive spectroscopic characterization of the loss of red chlorophylls upon monomerization. Here, we describe the structure of monomeric PSI from Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1. Comparison with the trimer structure gave detailed insights into monomerization-induced changes in both the central trimerization domain and the peripheral regions of the complex. Monomerization-induced loss of red chlorophylls is assigned to a cluster of chlorophylls adjacent to PsaX. Based on our findings, we propose a role of PsaX in the stabilization of red chlorophylls and that lipids of the surrounding membrane present a major source of thermal energy for uphill excitation energy transfer from red chlorophylls to P700.}, author = {Çoruh, Mehmet Orkun and Frank, Anna and Tanaka, Hideaki and Kawamoto, Akihiro and El-Mohsnawy, Eithar and Kato, Takayuki and Namba, Keiichi and Gerle, Christoph and Nowaczyk, Marc M. and Kurisu, Genji}, issn = {2399-3642}, journal = {Communications Biology}, keywords = {general agricultural and biological Sciences, general biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, medicine (miscellaneous)}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer }, title = {{Cryo-EM structure of a functional monomeric Photosystem I from Thermosynechococcus elongatus reveals red chlorophyll cluster}}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-021-01808-9}, volume = {4}, year = {2021}, } @article{10270, abstract = {Plants develop new organs to adjust their bodies to dynamic changes in the environment. How independent organs achieve anisotropic shapes and polarities is poorly understood. To address this question, we constructed a mechano-biochemical model for Arabidopsis root meristem growth that integrates biologically plausible principles. Computer model simulations demonstrate how differential growth of neighboring tissues results in the initial symmetry-breaking leading to anisotropic root growth. Furthermore, the root growth feeds back on a polar transport network of the growth regulator auxin. Model, predictions are in close agreement with in vivo patterns of anisotropic growth, auxin distribution, and cell polarity, as well as several root phenotypes caused by chemical, mechanical, or genetic perturbations. Our study demonstrates that the combination of tissue mechanics and polar auxin transport organizes anisotropic root growth and cell polarities during organ outgrowth. Therefore, a mobile auxin signal transported through immobile cells drives polarity and growth mechanics to coordinate complex organ development.}, author = {Marconi, Marco and Gallemi, Marçal and Benková, Eva and Wabnik, Krzysztof}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{A coupled mechano-biochemical model for cell polarity guided anisotropic root growth}}, doi = {10.7554/elife.72132}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @article{10299, abstract = {Turbulence generally arises in shear flows if velocities and hence, inertial forces are sufficiently large. In striking contrast, viscoelastic fluids can exhibit disordered motion even at vanishing inertia. Intermediate between these cases, a state of chaotic motion, “elastoinertial turbulence” (EIT), has been observed in a narrow Reynolds number interval. We here determine the origin of EIT in experiments and show that characteristic EIT structures can be detected across an unexpectedly wide range of parameters. Close to onset, a pattern of chevron-shaped streaks emerges in qualitative agreement with linear and weakly nonlinear theory. However, in experiments, the dynamics remain weakly chaotic, and the instability can be traced to far lower Reynolds numbers than permitted by theory. For increasing inertia, the flow undergoes a transformation to a wall mode composed of inclined near-wall streaks and shear layers. This mode persists to what is known as the “maximum drag reduction limit,” and overall EIT is found to dominate viscoelastic flows across more than three orders of magnitude in Reynolds number.}, author = {Choueiri, George H and Lopez Alonso, Jose M and Varshney, Atul and Sankar, Sarath and Hof, Björn}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, keywords = {multidisciplinary, elastoinertial turbulence, viscoelastic flows, elastic instability, drag reduction}, number = {45}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Experimental observation of the origin and structure of elastoinertial turbulence}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.2102350118}, volume = {118}, year = {2021}, } @article{10280, abstract = {Machines enabled the Industrial Revolution and are central to modern technological progress: A machine’s parts transmit forces, motion, and energy to one another in a predetermined manner. Today’s engineering frontier, building artificial micromachines that emulate the biological machinery of living organisms, requires faithful assembly and energy consumption at the microscale. Here, we demonstrate the programmable assembly of active particles into autonomous metamachines using optical templates. Metamachines, or machines made of machines, are stable, mobile and autonomous architectures, whose dynamics stems from the geometry. We use the interplay between anisotropic force generation of the active colloids with the control of their orientation by local geometry. This allows autonomous reprogramming of active particles of the metamachines to achieve multiple functions. It permits the modular assembly of metamachines by fusion, reconfiguration of metamachines and, we anticipate, a shift in focus of self-assembly towards active matter and reprogrammable materials.}, author = {Aubret, Antoine and Martinet, Quentin and Palacci, Jérémie A}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Metamachines of pluripotent colloids}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-26699-6}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{10322, abstract = {To survive elevated temperatures, ectotherms adjust the fluidity of membranes by fine-tuning lipid desaturation levels in a process previously described to be cell autonomous. We have discovered that, in Caenorhabditis elegans, neuronal heat shock factor 1 (HSF-1), the conserved master regulator of the heat shock response (HSR), causes extensive fat remodeling in peripheral tissues. These changes include a decrease in fat desaturase and acid lipase expression in the intestine and a global shift in the saturation levels of plasma membrane’s phospholipids. The observed remodeling of plasma membrane is in line with ectothermic adaptive responses and gives worms a cumulative advantage to warm temperatures. We have determined that at least 6 TAX-2/TAX-4 cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) gated channel expressing sensory neurons, and transforming growth factor ß (TGF-β)/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) are required for signaling across tissues to modulate fat desaturation. We also find neuronal hsf-1 is not only sufficient but also partially necessary to control the fat remodeling response and for survival at warm temperatures. This is the first study to show that a thermostat-based mechanism can cell nonautonomously coordinate membrane saturation and composition across tissues in a multicellular animal.}, author = {Chauve, Laetitia and Hodge, Francesca and Murdoch, Sharlene and Masoudzadeh, Fatemah and Mann, Harry Jack and Lopez-Clavijo, Andrea and Okkenhaug, Hanneke and West, Greg and Sousa, Bebiana C. and Segonds-Pichon, Anne and Li, Cheryl and Wingett, Steven and Kienberger, Hermine and Kleigrewe, Karin and De Bono, Mario and Wakelam, Michael and Casanueva, Olivia}, issn = {1545-7885}, journal = {PLoS Biology}, number = {11}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, title = {{Neuronal HSF-1 coordinates the propagation of fat desaturation across tissues to enable adaptation to high temperatures in C. elegans}}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3001431}, volume = {19}, year = {2021}, } @article{10222, abstract = {Consider a random set of points on the unit sphere in ℝd, which can be either uniformly sampled or a Poisson point process. Its convex hull is a random inscribed polytope, whose boundary approximates the sphere. We focus on the case d = 3, for which there are elementary proofs and fascinating formulas for metric properties. In particular, we study the fraction of acute facets, the expected intrinsic volumes, the total edge length, and the distance to a fixed point. Finally we generalize the results to the ellipsoid with homeoid density.}, author = {Akopyan, Arseniy and Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Nikitenko, Anton}, issn = {1944-950X}, journal = {Experimental Mathematics}, pages = {1--15}, publisher = {Taylor and Francis}, title = {{The beauty of random polytopes inscribed in the 2-sphere}}, doi = {10.1080/10586458.2021.1980459}, year = {2021}, } @article{10323, abstract = {Molecular chaperones are central to cellular protein homeostasis. Dynamic disorder is a key feature of the complexes of molecular chaperones and their client proteins, and it facilitates the client release towards a folded state or the handover to downstream components. The dynamic nature also implies that a given chaperone can interact with many different client proteins, based on physico-chemical sequence properties rather than on structural complementarity of their (folded) 3D structure. Yet, the balance between this promiscuity and some degree of client specificity is poorly understood. Here, we review recent atomic-level descriptions of chaperones with client proteins, including chaperones in complex with intrinsically disordered proteins, with membrane-protein precursors, or partially folded client proteins. We focus hereby on chaperone-client interactions that are independent of ATP. The picture emerging from these studies highlights the importance of dynamics in these complexes, whereby several interaction types, not only hydrophobic ones, contribute to the complex formation. We discuss these features of chaperone-client complexes and possible factors that may contribute to this balance of promiscuity and specificity.}, author = {Sučec, Iva and Bersch, Beate and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {2296-889X}, journal = {Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences}, publisher = {Frontiers}, title = {{How do chaperones bind (partly) unfolded client proteins?}}, doi = {10.3389/fmolb.2021.762005}, volume = {8}, year = {2021}, } @article{10326, abstract = {Strigolactones (SLs) are carotenoid-derived plant hormones that control shoot branching and communications between host plants and symbiotic fungi or root parasitic plants. Extensive studies have identified the key components participating in SL biosynthesis and signalling, whereas the catabolism or deactivation of endogenous SLs in planta remains largely unknown. Here, we report that the Arabidopsis carboxylesterase 15 (AtCXE15) and its orthologues function as efficient hydrolases of SLs. We show that overexpression of AtCXE15 promotes shoot branching by dampening SL-inhibited axillary bud outgrowth. We further demonstrate that AtCXE15 could bind and efficiently hydrolyse SLs both in vitro and in planta. We also provide evidence that AtCXE15 is capable of catalysing hydrolysis of diverse SL analogues and that such CXE15-dependent catabolism of SLs is evolutionarily conserved in seed plants. These results disclose a catalytic mechanism underlying homoeostatic regulation of SLs in plants, which also provides a rational approach to spatial-temporally manipulate the endogenous SLs and thus architecture of crops and ornamental plants.}, author = {Xu, Enjun and Chai, Liang and Zhang, Shiqi and Yu, Ruixue and Zhang, Xixi and Xu, Chongyi and Hu, Yuxin}, issn = {2055-0278}, journal = {Nature Plants}, pages = {1495–1504 }, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Catabolism of strigolactones by a carboxylesterase}}, doi = {10.1038/s41477-021-01011-y}, volume = {7}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13069, abstract = {To survive elevated temperatures, ectotherms adjust the fluidity of membranes by fine-tuning lipid desaturation levels in a process previously described to be cell-autonomous. We have discovered that, in Caenorhabditis elegans, neuronal Heat shock Factor 1 (HSF-1), the conserved master regulator of the heat shock response (HSR)- causes extensive fat remodelling in peripheral tissues. These changes include a decrease in fat desaturase and acid lipase expression in the intestine, and a global shift in the saturation levels of plasma membrane’s phospholipids. The observed remodelling of plasma membrane is in line with ectothermic adaptive responses and gives worms a cumulative advantage to warm temperatures. We have determined that at least six TAX-2/TAX-4 cGMP gated channel expressing sensory neurons and TGF-β/BMP are required for signalling across tissues to modulate fat desaturation. We also find neuronal hsf-1 is not only sufficient but also partially necessary to control the fat remodelling response and for survival at warm temperatures. This is the first study to show that a thermostat-based mechanism can cell non-autonomously coordinate membrane saturation and composition across tissues in a multicellular animal.}, author = {Chauve, Laetitia and Hodge, Francesca and Murdoch, Sharlene and Masoudzadeh, Fatemah and Mann, Harry-Jack and Lopez-Clavijo, Andrea and Okkenhaug, Hanneke and West, Greg and Sousa, Bebiana C. and Segonds-Pichon, Anne and Li, Cheryl and Wingett, Steven and Kienberger, Hermine and Kleigrewe, Karin and de Bono, Mario and Wakelam, Michael and Casanueva, Olivia}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Neuronal HSF-1 coordinates the propagation of fat desaturation across tissues to enable adaptation to high temperatures in C. elegans}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.5519410}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10325, abstract = {Since the inception of Bitcoin, a plethora of distributed ledgers differing in design and purpose has been created. While by design, blockchains provide no means to securely communicate with external systems, numerous attempts towards trustless cross-chain communication have been proposed over the years. Today, cross-chain communication (CCC) plays a fundamental role in cryptocurrency exchanges, scalability efforts via sharding, extension of existing systems through sidechains, and bootstrapping of new blockchains. Unfortunately, existing proposals are designed ad-hoc for specific use-cases, making it hard to gain confidence in their correctness and composability. We provide the first systematic exposition of cross-chain communication protocols. We formalize the underlying research problem and show that CCC is impossible without a trusted third party, contrary to common beliefs in the blockchain community. With this result in mind, we develop a framework to design new and evaluate existing CCC protocols, focusing on the inherent trust assumptions thereof, and derive a classification covering the field of cross-chain communication to date. We conclude by discussing open challenges for CCC research and the implications of interoperability on the security and privacy of blockchains.}, author = {Zamyatin, Alexei and Al-Bassam, Mustafa and Zindros, Dionysis and Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios and Moreno-Sanchez, Pedro and Kiayias, Aggelos and Knottenbelt, William J.}, booktitle = {25th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security}, isbn = {9-783-6626-4330-3}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Virtual}, pages = {3--36}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{SoK: Communication across distributed ledgers}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-64331-0_1}, volume = {12675 }, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10324, abstract = {Off-chain protocols (channels) are a promising solution to the scalability and privacy challenges of blockchain payments. Current proposals, however, require synchrony assumptions to preserve the safety of a channel, leaking to an adversary the exact amount of time needed to control the network for a successful attack. In this paper, we introduce Brick, the first payment channel that remains secure under network asynchrony and concurrently provides correct incentives. The core idea is to incorporate the conflict resolution process within the channel by introducing a rational committee of external parties, called wardens. Hence, if a party wants to close a channel unilaterally, it can only get the committee’s approval for the last valid state. Additionally, Brick provides sub-second latency because it does not employ heavy-weight consensus. Instead, Brick uses consistent broadcast to announce updates and close the channel, a light-weight abstraction that is powerful enough to preserve safety and liveness to any rational parties. We formally define and prove for Brick the properties a payment channel construction should fulfill. We also design incentives for Brick such that honest and rational behavior aligns. Finally, we provide a reference implementation of the smart contracts in Solidity.}, author = {Avarikioti, Zeta and Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios and Wattenhofer, Roger and Zindros, Dionysis}, booktitle = {25th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security}, isbn = {9-783-6626-4330-3}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Virtual}, pages = {209--230}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Brick: Asynchronous incentive-compatible payment channels}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-64331-0_11}, volume = {12675 }, year = {2021}, } @article{10363, abstract = {Erythropoietin enhances oxygen delivery and reduces hypoxia-induced cell death, but its pro-thrombotic activity is problematic for use of erythropoietin in treating hypoxia. We constructed a fusion protein that stimulates red blood cell production and neuroprotection without triggering platelet production, a marker for thrombosis. The protein consists of an anti-glycophorin A nanobody and an erythropoietin mutant (L108A). The mutation reduces activation of erythropoietin receptor homodimers that induce erythropoiesis and thrombosis, but maintains the tissue-protective signaling. The binding of the nanobody element to glycophorin A rescues homodimeric erythropoietin receptor activation on red blood cell precursors. In a cell proliferation assay, the fusion protein is active at 10−14 M, allowing an estimate of the number of receptor–ligand complexes needed for signaling. This fusion protein stimulates erythroid cell proliferation in vitro and in mice, and shows neuroprotective activity in vitro. Our erythropoietin fusion protein presents a novel molecule for treating hypoxia.}, author = {Lee, Jungmin and Vernet, Andyna and Gruber, Nathalie and Kready, Kasia M. and Burrill, Devin R. and Way, Jeffrey C. and Silver, Pamela A.}, issn = {1741-0134}, journal = {Protein Engineering, Design and Selection}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{Rational engineering of an erythropoietin fusion protein to treat hypoxia}}, doi = {10.1093/protein/gzab025}, volume = {34}, year = {2021}, } @article{10366, author = {Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J and Lennon, Ana Maria and Mayor, Roberto and Salbreux, Guillaume}, issn = {2667-2901}, journal = {Cells and Development}, number = {12}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Special rebranding issue: “Quantitative cell and developmental biology”}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cdev.2021.203758}, volume = {168}, year = {2021}, } @article{10402, abstract = {Branching morphogenesis governs the formation of many organs such as lung, kidney, and the neurovascular system. Many studies have explored system-specific molecular and cellular regulatory mechanisms, as well as self-organizing rules underlying branching morphogenesis. However, in addition to local cues, branched tissue growth can also be influenced by global guidance. Here, we develop a theoretical framework for a stochastic self-organized branching process in the presence of external cues. Combining analytical theory with numerical simulations, we predict differential signatures of global vs. local regulatory mechanisms on the branching pattern, such as angle distributions, domain size, and space-filling efficiency. We find that branch alignment follows a generic scaling law determined by the strength of global guidance, while local interactions influence the tissue density but not its overall territory. Finally, using zebrafish innervation as a model system, we test these key features of the model experimentally. Our work thus provides quantitative predictions to disentangle the role of different types of cues in shaping branched structures across scales.}, author = {Ucar, Mehmet C and Kamenev, Dmitrii and Sunadome, Kazunori and Fachet, Dominik C and Lallemend, Francois and Adameyko, Igor and Hadjab, Saida and Hannezo, Edouard B}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Theory of branching morphogenesis by local interactions and global guidance}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-27135-5}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10407, abstract = {Digital hardware Trojans are integrated circuits whose implementation differ from the specification in an arbitrary and malicious way. For example, the circuit can differ from its specified input/output behavior after some fixed number of queries (known as “time bombs”) or on some particular input (known as “cheat codes”). To detect such Trojans, countermeasures using multiparty computation (MPC) or verifiable computation (VC) have been proposed. On a high level, to realize a circuit with specification F one has more sophisticated circuits F⋄ manufactured (where F⋄ specifies a MPC or VC of F ), and then embeds these F⋄ ’s into a master circuit which must be trusted but is relatively simple compared to F . Those solutions impose a significant overhead as F⋄ is much more complex than F , also the master circuits are not exactly trivial. In this work, we show that in restricted settings, where F has no evolving state and is queried on independent inputs, we can achieve a relaxed security notion using very simple constructions. In particular, we do not change the specification of the circuit at all (i.e., F=F⋄ ). Moreover the master circuit basically just queries a subset of its manufactured circuits and checks if they’re all the same. The security we achieve guarantees that, if the manufactured circuits are initially tested on up to T inputs, the master circuit will catch Trojans that try to deviate on significantly more than a 1/T fraction of the inputs. This bound is optimal for the type of construction considered, and we provably achieve it using a construction where 12 instantiations of F need to be embedded into the master. We also discuss an extremely simple construction with just 2 instantiations for which we conjecture that it already achieves the optimal bound.}, author = {Chakraborty, Suvradip and Dziembowski, Stefan and Gałązka, Małgorzata and Lizurej, Tomasz and Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z and Yeo, Michelle X}, isbn = {9-783-0309-0452-4}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Raleigh, NC, United States}, pages = {397--428}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Trojan-resilience without cryptography}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-90453-1_14}, volume = {13043}, year = {2021}, } @article{10403, abstract = {Synaptic transmission, connectivity, and dendritic morphology mature in parallel during brain development and are often disrupted in neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet how these changes influence the neuronal computations necessary for normal brain function are not well understood. To identify cellular mechanisms underlying the maturation of synaptic integration in interneurons, we combined patch-clamp recordings of excitatory inputs in mouse cerebellar stellate cells (SCs), three-dimensional reconstruction of SC morphology with excitatory synapse location, and biophysical modeling. We found that postnatal maturation of postsynaptic strength was homogeneously reduced along the somatodendritic axis, but dendritic integration was always sublinear. However, dendritic branching increased without changes in synapse density, leading to a substantial gain in distal inputs. Thus, changes in synapse distribution, rather than dendrite cable properties, are the dominant mechanism underlying the maturation of neuronal computation. These mechanisms favor the emergence of a spatially compartmentalized two-stage integration model promoting location-dependent integration within dendritic subunits.}, author = {Biane, Celia and Rückerl, Florian and Abrahamsson, Therese and Saint-Cloment, Cécile and Mariani, Jean and Shigemoto, Ryuichi and Digregorio, David A. and Sherrard, Rachel M. and Cathala, Laurence}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{Developmental emergence of two-stage nonlinear synaptic integration in cerebellar interneurons}}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.65954}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @article{10401, abstract = {Theoretical and experimental studies of the interaction between spins and temperature are vital for the development of spin caloritronics, as they dictate the design of future devices. In this work, we propose a two-terminal cold-atom simulator to study that interaction. The proposed quantum simulator consists of strongly interacting atoms that occupy two temperature reservoirs connected by a one-dimensional link. First, we argue that the dynamics in the link can be described using an inhomogeneous Heisenberg spin chain whose couplings are defined by the local temperature. Second, we show the existence of a spin current in a system with a temperature difference by studying the dynamics that follows the spin-flip of an atom in the link. A temperature gradient accelerates the impurity in one direction more than in the other, leading to an overall spin current similar to the spin Seebeck effect.}, author = {Barfknecht, Rafael E. and Foerster, Angela and Zinner, Nikolaj T. and Volosniev, Artem}, issn = {23993650}, journal = {Communications Physics}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Generation of spin currents by a temperature gradient in a two-terminal device}}, doi = {10.1038/s42005-021-00753-7}, volume = {4}, year = {2021}, } @article{10404, abstract = {While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have found wide adoption as state-of-the-art models for image-related tasks, their predictions are often highly sensitive to small input perturbations, which the human vision is robust against. This paper presents Perturber, a web-based application that allows users to instantaneously explore how CNN activations and predictions evolve when a 3D input scene is interactively perturbed. Perturber offers a large variety of scene modifications, such as camera controls, lighting and shading effects, background modifications, object morphing, as well as adversarial attacks, to facilitate the discovery of potential vulnerabilities. Fine-tuned model versions can be directly compared for qualitative evaluation of their robustness. Case studies with machine learning experts have shown that Perturber helps users to quickly generate hypotheses about model vulnerabilities and to qualitatively compare model behavior. Using quantitative analyses, we could replicate users’ insights with other CNN architectures and input images, yielding new insights about the vulnerability of adversarially trained models.}, author = {Sietzen, Stefan and Lechner, Mathias and Borowski, Judy and Hasani, Ramin and Waldner, Manuela}, issn = {1467-8659}, journal = {Computer Graphics Forum}, number = {7}, pages = {253--264}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Interactive analysis of CNN robustness}}, doi = {10.1111/cgf.14418}, volume = {40}, year = {2021}, } @article{10406, abstract = {Multicellular organisms develop complex shapes from much simpler, single-celled zygotes through a process commonly called morphogenesis. Morphogenesis involves an interplay between several factors, ranging from the gene regulatory networks determining cell fate and differentiation to the mechanical processes underlying cell and tissue shape changes. Thus, the study of morphogenesis has historically been based on multidisciplinary approaches at the interface of biology with physics and mathematics. Recent technological advances have further improved our ability to study morphogenesis by bridging the gap between the genetic and biophysical factors through the development of new tools for visualizing, analyzing, and perturbing these factors and their biochemical intermediaries. Here, we review how a combination of genetic, microscopic, biophysical, and biochemical approaches has aided our attempts to understand morphogenesis and discuss potential approaches that may be beneficial to such an inquiry in the future.}, author = {Mishra, Nikhil and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J}, issn = {1545-2948}, journal = {Annual Review of Genetics}, keywords = {morphogenesis, forward genetics, high-resolution microscopy, biophysics, biochemistry, patterning}, pages = {209--233}, publisher = {Annual Reviews}, title = {{Dissecting organismal morphogenesis by bridging genetics and biophysics}}, doi = {10.1146/annurev-genet-071819-103748}, volume = {55}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13058, abstract = {The zip file includes source data used in the main text of the manuscript "Theory of branching morphogenesis by local interactions and global guidance", as well as a representative Jupyter notebook to reproduce the main figures. A sample script for the simulations of branching and annihilating random walks is also included (Sample_script_for_simulations_of_BARWs.ipynb) to generate exemplary branched networks under external guidance. A detailed description of the simulation setup is provided in the supplementary information of the manuscipt.}, author = {Ucar, Mehmet C}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Source data for the manuscript "Theory of branching morphogenesis by local interactions and global guidance"}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.5257160}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10408, abstract = {Key trees are often the best solution in terms of transmission cost and storage requirements for managing keys in a setting where a group needs to share a secret key, while being able to efficiently rotate the key material of users (in order to recover from a potential compromise, or to add or remove users). Applications include multicast encryption protocols like LKH (Logical Key Hierarchies) or group messaging like the current IETF proposal TreeKEM. A key tree is a (typically balanced) binary tree, where each node is identified with a key: leaf nodes hold users’ secret keys while the root is the shared group key. For a group of size N, each user just holds log(N) keys (the keys on the path from its leaf to the root) and its entire key material can be rotated by broadcasting 2log(N) ciphertexts (encrypting each fresh key on the path under the keys of its parents). In this work we consider the natural setting where we have many groups with partially overlapping sets of users, and ask if we can find solutions where the cost of rotating a key is better than in the trivial one where we have a separate key tree for each group. We show that in an asymptotic setting (where the number m of groups is fixed while the number N of users grows) there exist more general key graphs whose cost converges to the cost of a single group, thus saving a factor linear in the number of groups over the trivial solution. As our asymptotic “solution” converges very slowly and performs poorly on concrete examples, we propose an algorithm that uses a natural heuristic to compute a key graph for any given group structure. Our algorithm combines two greedy algorithms, and is thus very efficient: it first converts the group structure into a “lattice graph”, which is then turned into a key graph by repeatedly applying the algorithm for constructing a Huffman code. To better understand how far our proposal is from an optimal solution, we prove lower bounds on the update cost of continuous group-key agreement and multicast encryption in a symbolic model admitting (asymmetric) encryption, pseudorandom generators, and secret sharing as building blocks.}, author = {Alwen, Joel F and Auerbach, Benedikt and Baig, Mirza Ahad and Cueto Noval, Miguel and Klein, Karen and Pascual Perez, Guillermo and Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z and Walter, Michael}, booktitle = {19th International Conference}, isbn = {9-783-0309-0455-5}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Raleigh, NC, United States}, pages = {222--253}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Grafting key trees: Efficient key management for overlapping groups}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-90456-2_8}, volume = {13044}, year = {2021}, } @article{10527, abstract = {We show that in a two-dimensional electron gas with an annular Fermi surface, long-range Coulomb interactions can lead to unconventional superconductivity by the Kohn-Luttinger mechanism. Superconductivity is strongly enhanced when the inner and outer Fermi surfaces are close to each other. The most prevalent state has chiral p-wave symmetry, but d-wave and extended s-wave pairing are also possible. We discuss these results in the context of rhombohedral trilayer graphene, where superconductivity was recently discovered in regimes where the normal state has an annular Fermi surface. Using realistic parameters, our mechanism can account for the order of magnitude of Tc, as well as its trends as a function of electron density and perpendicular displacement field. Moreover, it naturally explains some of the outstanding puzzles in this material, that include the weak temperature dependence of the resistivity above Tc, and the proximity of spin singlet superconductivity to the ferromagnetic phase.}, author = {Ghazaryan, Areg and Holder, Tobias and Serbyn, Maksym and Berg, Erez}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, keywords = {general physics and astronomy}, number = {24}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Unconventional superconductivity in systems with annular Fermi surfaces: Application to rhombohedral trilayer graphene}}, doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.127.247001}, volume = {127}, year = {2021}, } @article{10534, abstract = {For many years, fullerene derivatives have been the main n-type material of organic electronics and optoelectronics. Recently, fullerene derivatives functionalized with ethylene glycol (EG) side chains have been showing important properties such as enhanced dielectric constants, facile doping and enhanced self-assembly capabilities. Here, we have prepared field-effect transistors using a series of these fullerene derivatives equipped with EG side chains of different lengths. Transport data show the beneficial effect of increasing the EG side chain. In order to understand the material properties, full structural determination of these fullerene derivatives has been achieved by coupling the X-ray data with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The increase in transport properties is paired with the formation of extended layered structures, efficient molecular packing and an increase in the crystallite alignment. The layer-like structure is composed of conducting layers, containing of closely packed C60 balls approaching the inter-distance of 1 nm, that are separated by well-defined EG layers, where the EG chains are rather splayed with the chain direction almost perpendicular to the layer normal. Such a layered structure appears highly ordered and highly aligned with the C60 planes oriented parallel to the substrate in the thin film configuration. The order inside the thin film increases with the EG chain length, allowing the systems to achieve mobilities as high as 0.053 cm2 V−1 s−1. Our work elucidates the structure of these interesting semiconducting organic molecules and shows that the synergistic use of X-ray structural analysis and MD simulations is a powerful tool to identify the structure of thin organic films for optoelectronic applications.}, author = {Dong, Jingjin and Sami, Selim and Balazs, Daniel and Alessandri, Riccardo and Jahani, Fatimeh and Qiu, Li and Marrink, Siewert J. and Havenith, Remco W.A. and Hummelen, Jan C. and Loi, Maria A. and Portale, Giuseppe}, issn = {2050-7526}, journal = {Journal of Materials Chemistry C}, number = {45}, pages = {16217--16225}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, title = {{Fullerene derivatives with oligoethylene-glycol side chains: An investigation on the origin of their outstanding transport properties}}, doi = {10.1039/d1tc02753k}, volume = {9}, year = {2021}, } @article{10533, abstract = {Flowering plants utilize small RNA molecules to guide DNA methyltransferases to genomic sequences. This RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway preferentially targets euchromatic transposable elements. However, RdDM is thought to be recruited by methylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9me), a hallmark of heterochromatin. How RdDM is targeted to euchromatin despite an affinity for H3K9me is unclear. Here we show that loss of histone H1 enhances heterochromatic RdDM, preferentially at nucleosome linker DNA. Surprisingly, this does not require SHH1, the RdDM component that binds H3K9me. Furthermore, H3K9me is dispensable for RdDM, as is CG DNA methylation. Instead, we find that non-CG methylation is specifically associated with small RNA biogenesis, and without H1 small RNA production quantitatively expands to non-CG methylated loci. Our results demonstrate that H1 enforces the separation of euchromatic and heterochromatic DNA methylation pathways by excluding the small RNA-generating branch of RdDM from non-CG methylated heterochromatin.}, author = {Choi, Jaemyung and Lyons, David B and Zilberman, Daniel}, issn = {2050-084X}, journal = {eLife}, keywords = {genetics and molecular biology}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications}, title = {{Histone H1 prevents non-CG methylation-mediated small RNA biogenesis in Arabidopsis heterochromatin}}, doi = {10.7554/elife.72676}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, } @article{10536, abstract = {TGFβ overexpression is commonly detected in cancer patients and correlates with poor prognosis and metastasis. Cancer progression is often associated with an enhanced recruitment of myeloid-derived cells to the tumor microenvironment. Here we show that functional TGFβ-signaling in myeloid cells is required for metastasis to the lungs and the liver. Myeloid-specific deletion of Tgfbr2 resulted in reduced spontaneous lung metastasis, which was associated with a reduction of proinflammatory cytokines in the metastatic microenvironment. Notably, CD8+ T cell depletion in myeloid-specific Tgfbr2-deficient mice rescued lung metastasis. Myeloid-specific Tgfbr2-deficiency resulted in reduced liver metastasis with an almost complete absence of myeloid cells within metastatic foci. On contrary, an accumulation of Tgfβ-responsive myeloid cells was associated with an increased recruitment of monocytes and granulocytes and higher proinflammatory cytokine levels in control mice. Monocytic cells isolated from metastatic livers of Tgfbr2-deficient mice showed increased polarization towards the M1 phenotype, Tnfα and Il-1β expression, reduced levels of M2 markers and reduced production of chemokines responsible for myeloid-cell recruitment. No significant differences in Tgfβ levels were observed at metastatic sites of any model. These data demonstrate that Tgfβ signaling in monocytic myeloid cells suppresses CD8+ T cell activity during lung metastasis, while these cells actively contribute to tumor growth during liver metastasis. Thus, myeloid cells modulate metastasis through different mechanisms in a tissue-specific manner.}, author = {Stefanescu, Cristina and Van Gogh, Merel and Roblek, Marko and Heikenwalder, Mathias and Borsig, Lubor}, issn = {2234-943X}, journal = {Frontiers in Oncology}, publisher = {Frontiers}, title = {{TGFβ signaling in myeloid cells promotes lung and liver metastasis through different mechanisms}}, doi = {10.3389/fonc.2021.765151}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @article{10537, abstract = {We consider the quantum many-body evolution of a homogeneous Fermi gas in three dimensions in the coupled semiclassical and mean-field scaling regime. We study a class of initial data describing collective particle–hole pair excitations on the Fermi ball. Using a rigorous version of approximate bosonization, we prove that the many-body evolution can be approximated in Fock space norm by a quasi-free bosonic evolution of the collective particle–hole excitations.}, author = {Benedikter, Niels P and Nam, Phan Thành and Porta, Marcello and Schlein, Benjamin and Seiringer, Robert}, issn = {1424-0637}, journal = {Annales Henri Poincaré}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Bosonization of fermionic many-body dynamics}}, doi = {10.1007/s00023-021-01136-y}, year = {2021}, } @article{10549, abstract = {We derive optimal-order homogenization rates for random nonlinear elliptic PDEs with monotone nonlinearity in the uniformly elliptic case. More precisely, for a random monotone operator on \mathbb {R}^d with stationary law (that is spatially homogeneous statistics) and fast decay of correlations on scales larger than the microscale \varepsilon >0, we establish homogenization error estimates of the order \varepsilon in case d\geqq 3, and of the order \varepsilon |\log \varepsilon |^{1/2} in case d=2. Previous results in nonlinear stochastic homogenization have been limited to a small algebraic rate of convergence \varepsilon ^\delta . We also establish error estimates for the approximation of the homogenized operator by the method of representative volumes of the order (L/\varepsilon )^{-d/2} for a representative volume of size L. Our results also hold in the case of systems for which a (small-scale) C^{1,\alpha } regularity theory is available.}, author = {Fischer, Julian L and Neukamm, Stefan}, issn = {1432-0673}, journal = {Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis}, keywords = {Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics (miscellaneous), Analysis}, number = {1}, pages = {343--452}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Optimal homogenization rates in stochastic homogenization of nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations and systems}}, doi = {10.1007/s00205-021-01686-9}, volume = {242}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10409, abstract = {We show that Yao’s garbling scheme is adaptively indistinguishable for the class of Boolean circuits of size S and treewidth w with only a SO(w) loss in security. For instance, circuits with constant treewidth are as a result adaptively indistinguishable with only a polynomial loss. This (partially) complements a negative result of Applebaum et al. (Crypto 2013), which showed (assuming one-way functions) that Yao’s garbling scheme cannot be adaptively simulatable. As main technical contributions, we introduce a new pebble game that abstracts out our security reduction and then present a pebbling strategy for this game where the number of pebbles used is roughly O(δwlog(S)) , δ being the fan-out of the circuit. The design of the strategy relies on separators, a graph-theoretic notion with connections to circuit complexity. with only a SO(w) loss in security. For instance, circuits with constant treewidth are as a result adaptively indistinguishable with only a polynomial loss. This (partially) complements a negative result of Applebaum et al. (Crypto 2013), which showed (assuming one-way functions) that Yao’s garbling scheme cannot be adaptively simulatable. As main technical contributions, we introduce a new pebble game that abstracts out our security reduction and then present a pebbling strategy for this game where the number of pebbles used is roughly O(δwlog(S)) , δ being the fan-out of the circuit. The design of the strategy relies on separators, a graph-theoretic notion with connections to circuit complexity.}, author = {Kamath Hosdurg, Chethan and Klein, Karen and Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z}, booktitle = {19th International Conference}, isbn = {9-783-0309-0452-4}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Raleigh, NC, United States}, pages = {486--517}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{On treewidth, separators and Yao’s garbling}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-90453-1_17}, volume = {13043 }, year = {2021}, } @article{10545, abstract = {Classical models with complex energy landscapes represent a perspective avenue for the near-term application of quantum simulators. Until now, many theoretical works studied the performance of quantum algorithms for models with a unique ground state. However, when the classical problem is in a so-called clustering phase, the ground state manifold is highly degenerate. As an example, we consider a 3-XORSAT model defined on simple hypergraphs. The degeneracy of classical ground state manifold translates into the emergence of an extensive number of Z2 symmetries, which remain intact even in the presence of a quantum transverse magnetic field. We establish a general duality approach that restricts the quantum problem to a given sector of conserved Z2 charges and use it to study how the outcome of the quantum adiabatic algorithm depends on the hypergraph geometry. We show that the tree hypergraph which corresponds to a classically solvable instance of the 3-XORSAT problem features a constant gap, whereas the closed hypergraph encounters a second-order phase transition with a gap vanishing as a power-law in the problem size. The duality developed in this work provides a practical tool for studies of quantum models with classically degenerate energy manifold and reveals potential connections between glasses and gauge theories.}, author = {Medina Ramos, Raimel A and Serbyn, Maksym}, issn = {2469-9934}, journal = {Physical Review A}, number = {6}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Duality approach to quantum annealing of the 3-variable exclusive-or satisfiability problem (3-XORSAT)}}, doi = {10.1103/physreva.104.062423}, volume = {104}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{10554, abstract = {We present DAG-Rider, the first asynchronous Byzantine Atomic Broadcast protocol that achieves optimal resilience, optimal amortized communication complexity, and optimal time complexity. DAG-Rider is post-quantum safe and ensures that all values proposed by correct processes eventually get delivered. We construct DAG-Rider in two layers: In the first layer, processes reliably broadcast their proposals and build a structured Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) of the communication among them. In the second layer, processes locally observe their DAGs and totally order all proposals with no extra communication.}, author = {Keidar, Idit and Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios and Naor, Oded and Spiegelman, Alexander}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing}, isbn = {978-1-4503-8548-0}, location = {Virtual, Italy}, pages = {165--175}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{All You Need is DAG}}, doi = {10.1145/3465084.3467905}, year = {2021}, }