@article{1563, abstract = {For a given self-map $f$ of $M$, a closed smooth connected and simply-connected manifold of dimension $m\geq 4$, we provide an algorithm for estimating the values of the topological invariant $D^m_r[f]$, which equals the minimal number of $r$-periodic points in the smooth homotopy class of $f$. Our results are based on the combinatorial scheme for computing $D^m_r[f]$ introduced by G. Graff and J. Jezierski [J. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 13 (2013), 63-84]. An open-source implementation of the algorithm programmed in C++ is publicly available at {\tt http://www.pawelpilarczyk.com/combtop/}.}, author = {Graff, Grzegorz and Pilarczyk, Pawel}, journal = {Topological Methods in Nonlinear Analysis}, number = {1}, pages = {273 -- 286}, publisher = {Juliusz Schauder Center for Nonlinear Studies}, title = {{An algorithmic approach to estimating the minimal number of periodic points for smooth self-maps of simply-connected manifolds}}, doi = {10.12775/TMNA.2015.014}, volume = {45}, year = {2015}, } @article{1564, author = {Gilson, Matthieu and Savin, Cristina and Zenke, Friedemann}, journal = {Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience}, number = {11}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, title = {{Editorial: Emergent neural computation from the interaction of different forms of plasticity}}, doi = {10.3389/fncom.2015.00145}, volume = {9}, year = {2015}, } @article{1565, abstract = {Leptin is an adipokine produced by the adipose tissue regulating body weight through its appetite-suppressing effect. Besides being expressed in the hypothalamus and hippocampus, leptin receptors (ObRs) are also present in chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. In the present study, we report the effect of leptin on mouse chromaffin cell (MCC) functionality, focusing on cell excitability and catecholamine secretion. Acute application of leptin (1 nm) on spontaneously firing MCCs caused a slowly developing membrane hyperpolarization followed by complete blockade of action potential (AP) firing. This inhibitory effect at rest was abolished by the BK channel blocker paxilline (1 μm), suggesting the involvement of BK potassium channels. Single-channel recordings in 'perforated microvesicles' confirmed that leptin increased BK channel open probability without altering its unitary conductance. BK channel up-regulation was associated with the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling cascade because the PI3K specific inhibitor wortmannin (100 nm) fully prevented BK current increase. We also tested the effect of leptin on evoked AP firing and Ca2+-driven exocytosis. Although leptin preserves well-adapted AP trains of lower frequency, APs are broader and depolarization-evoked exocytosis is increased as a result of the larger size of the ready-releasable pool and higher frequency of vesicle release. The kinetics and quantal size of single secretory events remained unaltered. Leptin had no effect on firing and secretion in db-/db- mice lacking the ObR gene, confirming its specificity. In conclusion, leptin exhibits a dual action on MCC activity. It dampens AP firing at rest but preserves AP firing and increases catecholamine secretion during sustained stimulation, highlighting the importance of the adipo-adrenal axis in the leptin-mediated increase of sympathetic tone and catecholamine release.}, author = {Gavello, Daniela and Vandael, David H and Gosso, Sara and Carbone, Emilio and Carabelli, Valentina}, journal = {Journal of Physiology}, number = {22}, pages = {4835 -- 4853}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, title = {{Dual action of leptin on rest-firing and stimulated catecholamine release via phosphoinositide 3-kinase-riven BK channel up-regulation in mouse chromaffin cells}}, doi = {10.1113/JP271078}, volume = {593}, year = {2015}, } @article{1566, abstract = {Deposits of misfolded proteins in the human brain are associated with the development of many neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies show that these proteins have common traits even at the monomer level. Among them, a polyglutamine region that is present in huntingtin is known to exhibit a correlation between the length of the chain and the severity as well as the earliness of the onset of Huntington disease. Here, we apply bias exchange molecular dynamics to generate structures of polyglutamine expansions of several lengths and characterize the resulting independent conformations. We compare the properties of these conformations to those of the standard proteins, as well as to other homopolymeric tracts. We find that, similar to the previously studied polyvaline chains, the set of possible transient folds is much broader than the set of known-to-date folds, although the conformations have different structures. We show that the mechanical stability is not related to any simple geometrical characteristics of the structures. We demonstrate that long polyglutamine expansions result in higher mechanical stability than the shorter ones. They also have a longer life span and are substantially more prone to form knotted structures. The knotted region has an average length of 35 residues, similar to the typical threshold for most polyglutamine-related diseases. Similarly, changes in shape and mechanical stability appear once the total length of the peptide exceeds this threshold of 35 glutamine residues. We suggest that knotted conformers may also harm the cellular machinery and thus lead to disease.}, author = {Gómez Sicilia, Àngel and Sikora, Mateusz K and Cieplak, Marek and Carrión Vázquez, Mariano}, journal = {PLoS Computational Biology}, number = {10}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, title = {{An exploration of the universe of polyglutamine structures}}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004541}, volume = {11}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1567, abstract = {My personal journey to the fascinating world of geometric forms started more than 30 years ago with the invention of alpha shapes in the plane. It took about 10 years before we generalized the concept to higher dimensions, we produced working software with a graphics interface for the three-dimensional case. At the same time, we added homology to the computations. Needless to say that this foreshadowed the inception of persistent homology, because it suggested the study of filtrations to capture the scale of a shape or data set. Importantly, this method has fast algorithms. The arguably most useful result on persistent homology is the stability of its diagrams under perturbations.}, author = {Edelsbrunner, Herbert}, booktitle = {23rd International Symposium}, location = {Los Angeles, CA, United States}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Shape, homology, persistence, and stability}}, volume = {9411}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1568, abstract = {Aiming at the automatic diagnosis of tumors from narrow band imaging (NBI) magnifying endoscopy (ME) images of the stomach, we combine methods from image processing, computational topology, and machine learning to classify patterns into normal, tubular, vessel. Training the algorithm on a small number of images of each type, we achieve a high rate of correct classifications. The analysis of the learning algorithm reveals that a handful of geometric and topological features are responsible for the overwhelming majority of decisions.}, author = {Dunaeva, Olga and Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Lukyanov, Anton and Machin, Michael and Malkova, Daria}, booktitle = {Proceedings - 16th International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing}, location = {Timisoara, Romania}, pages = {7034731}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{The classification of endoscopy images with persistent homology}}, doi = {10.1109/SYNASC.2014.81}, year = {2015}, } @article{1569, abstract = {Spatial regulation of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, or auxin) is essential for plant development. Auxin gradient establishment is mediated by polarly localized auxin transporters, including PIN-FORMED (PIN) proteins. Their localization and abundance at the plasma membrane are tightly regulated by endomembrane machinery, especially the endocytic and recycling pathways mediated by the ADP ribosylation factor guanine nucleotide exchange factor (ARF-GEF) GNOM. We assessed the role of the early secretory pathway in establishing PIN1 polarity in Arabidopsis thaliana by pharmacological and genetic approaches. We identified the compound endosidin 8 (ES8), which selectively interferes with PIN1 basal polarity without altering the polarity of apical proteins. ES8 alters the auxin distribution pattern in the root and induces a strong developmental phenotype, including reduced root length. The ARF-GEF- defective mutants gnom-like 1 ( gnl1-1) and gnom ( van7) are significantly resistant to ES8. The compound does not affect recycling or vacuolar trafficking of PIN1 but leads to its intracellular accumulation, resulting in loss of PIN1 basal polarity at the plasma membrane. Our data confirm a role for GNOM in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) - Golgi trafficking and reveal that a GNL1/GNOM-mediated early secretory pathway selectively regulates PIN1 basal polarity establishment in a manner essential for normal plant development.}, author = {Doyle, Siamsa and Haegera, Ash and Vain, Thomas and Rigala, Adeline and Viotti, Corrado and Łangowskaa, Małgorzata and Maa, Qian and Friml, Jirí and Raikhel, Natasha and Hickse, Glenn and Robert, Stéphanie}, journal = {PNAS}, number = {7}, pages = {E806 -- E815}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{An early secretory pathway mediated by gnom-like 1 and gnom is essential for basal polarity establishment in Arabidopsis thaliana}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1424856112}, volume = {112}, year = {2015}, } @article{1570, abstract = {Grounding autonomous behavior in the nervous system is a fundamental challenge for neuroscience. In particular, self-organized behavioral development provides more questions than answers. Are there special functional units for curiosity, motivation, and creativity? This paper argues that these features can be grounded in synaptic plasticity itself, without requiring any higher-level constructs. We propose differential extrinsic plasticity (DEP) as a new synaptic rule for self-learning systems and apply it to a number of complex robotic systems as a test case. Without specifying any purpose or goal, seemingly purposeful and adaptive rhythmic behavior is developed, displaying a certain level of sensorimotor intelligence. These surprising results require no systemspecific modifications of the DEP rule. They rather arise from the underlying mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking,which is due to the tight brain body environment coupling. The new synaptic rule is biologically plausible and would be an interesting target for neurobiological investigation. We also argue that this neuronal mechanism may have been a catalyst in natural evolution.}, author = {Der, Ralf and Martius, Georg S}, journal = {PNAS}, number = {45}, pages = {E6224 -- E6232}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Novel plasticity rule can explain the development of sensorimotor intelligence}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1508400112}, volume = {112}, year = {2015}, } @article{1571, abstract = {Epistatic interactions can frustrate and shape evolutionary change. Indeed, phenotypes may fail to evolve when essential mutations are only accessible through positive selection if they are fixed simultaneously. How environmental variability affects such constraints is poorly understood. Here, we studied genetic constraints in fixed and fluctuating environments using the Escherichia coli lac operon as a model system for genotype-environment interactions. We found that, in different fixed environments, all trajectories that were reconstructed by applying point mutations within the transcription factor-operator interface became trapped at suboptima, where no additional improvements were possible. Paradoxically, repeated switching between these same environments allows unconstrained adaptation by continuous improvements. This evolutionary mode is explained by pervasive cross-environmental tradeoffs that reposition the peaks in such a way that trapped genotypes can repeatedly climb ascending slopes and hence, escape adaptive stasis. Using a Markov approach, we developed a mathematical framework to quantify the landscape-crossing rates and show that this ratchet-like adaptive mechanism is robust in a wide spectrum of fluctuating environments. Overall, this study shows that genetic constraints can be overcome by environmental change and that crossenvironmental tradeoffs do not necessarily impede but also, can facilitate adaptive evolution. Because tradeoffs and environmental variability are ubiquitous in nature, we speculate this evolutionary mode to be of general relevance.}, author = {De Vos, Marjon and Dawid, Alexandre and Šunderlíková, Vanda and Tans, Sander}, journal = {PNAS}, number = {48}, pages = {14906 -- 14911}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Breaking evolutionary constraint with a tradeoff ratchet}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1510282112}, volume = {112}, year = {2015}, } @article{1572, abstract = {We consider the quantum ferromagnetic Heisenberg model in three dimensions, for all spins S ≥ 1/2. We rigorously prove the validity of the spin-wave approximation for the excitation spectrum, at the level of the first non-trivial contribution to the free energy at low temperatures. Our proof comes with explicit, constructive upper and lower bounds on the error term. It uses in an essential way the bosonic formulation of the model in terms of the Holstein-Primakoff representation. In this language, the model describes interacting bosons with a hard-core on-site repulsion and a nearest-neighbor attraction. This attractive interaction makes the lower bound on the free energy particularly tricky: the key idea there is to prove a differential inequality for the two-particle density, which is thereby shown to be smaller than the probability density of a suitably weighted two-particle random process on the lattice. }, author = {Correggi, Michele and Giuliani, Alessandro and Seiringer, Robert}, journal = {Communications in Mathematical Physics}, number = {1}, pages = {279 -- 307}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Validity of the spin-wave approximation for the free energy of the Heisenberg ferromagnet}}, doi = {10.1007/s00220-015-2402-0}, volume = {339}, year = {2015}, } @article{1573, abstract = {We present a new, simpler proof of the unconditional uniqueness of solutions to the cubic Gross-Pitaevskii hierarchy in ℝ3. One of the main tools in our analysis is the quantum de Finetti theorem. Our uniqueness result is equivalent to the one established in the celebrated works of Erdos, Schlein, and Yau.}, author = {Chen, Thomas and Hainzl, Christian and Pavlović, Nataša and Seiringer, Robert}, journal = {Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics}, number = {10}, pages = {1845 -- 1884}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Unconditional uniqueness for the cubic gross pitaevskii hierarchy via quantum de finetti}}, doi = {10.1002/cpa.21552}, volume = {68}, year = {2015}, } @article{1574, abstract = {Multiple plant developmental processes, such as lateral root development, depend on auxin distribution patterns that are in part generated by the PIN-formed family of auxin-efflux transporters. Here we propose that AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR7 (ARF7) and the ARF7-regulated FOUR LIPS/MYB124 (FLP) transcription factors jointly form a coherent feed-forward motif that mediates the auxin-responsive PIN3 transcription in planta to steer the early steps of lateral root formation. This regulatory mechanism might endow the PIN3 circuitry with a temporal 'memory' of auxin stimuli, potentially maintaining and enhancing the robustness of the auxin flux directionality during lateral root development. The cooperative action between canonical auxin signalling and other transcription factors might constitute a general mechanism by which transcriptional auxin-sensitivity can be regulated at a tissue-specific level.}, author = {Chen, Qian and Liu, Yang and Maere, Steven and Lee, Eunkyoung and Van Isterdael, Gert and Xie, Zidian and Xuan, Wei and Lucas, Jessica and Vassileva, Valya and Kitakura, Saeko and Marhavy, Peter and Wabnik, Krzysztof T and Geldner, Niko and Benková, Eva and Le, Jie and Fukaki, Hidehiro and Grotewold, Erich and Li, Chuanyou and Friml, Jirí and Sack, Fred and Beeckman, Tom and Vanneste, Steffen}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{A coherent transcriptional feed-forward motif model for mediating auxin-sensitive PIN3 expression during lateral root development}}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms9821}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, } @article{1575, abstract = {The immune response relies on the migration of leukocytes and on their ability to stop in precise anatomical locations to fulfil their task. How leukocyte migration and function are coordinated is unknown. Here we show that in immature dendritic cells, which patrol their environment by engulfing extracellular material, cell migration and antigen capture are antagonistic. This antagonism results from transient enrichment of myosin IIA at the cell front, which disrupts the back-to-front gradient of the motor protein, slowing down locomotion but promoting antigen capture. We further highlight that myosin IIA enrichment at the cell front requires the MHC class II-associated invariant chain (Ii). Thus, by controlling myosin IIA localization, Ii imposes on dendritic cells an intermittent antigen capture behaviour that might facilitate environment patrolling. We propose that the requirement for myosin II in both cell migration and specific cell functions may provide a general mechanism for their coordination in time and space.}, author = {Chabaud, Mélanie and Heuzé, Mélina and Bretou, Marine and Vargas, Pablo and Maiuri, Paolo and Solanes, Paola and Maurin, Mathieu and Terriac, Emmanuel and Le Berre, Maël and Lankar, Danielle and Piolot, Tristan and Adelstein, Robert and Zhang, Yingfan and Sixt, Michael K and Jacobelli, Jordan and Bénichou, Olivier and Voituriez, Raphaël and Piel, Matthieu and Lennon Duménil, Ana}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{Cell migration and antigen capture are antagonistic processes coupled by myosin II in dendritic cells}}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms8526}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, } @article{1576, abstract = {Gene expression is controlled primarily by interactions between transcription factor proteins (TFs) and the regulatory DNA sequence, a process that can be captured well by thermodynamic models of regulation. These models, however, neglect regulatory crosstalk: the possibility that noncognate TFs could initiate transcription, with potentially disastrous effects for the cell. Here, we estimate the importance of crosstalk, suggest that its avoidance strongly constrains equilibrium models of TF binding, and propose an alternative nonequilibrium scheme that implements kinetic proofreading to suppress erroneous initiation. This proposal is consistent with the observed covalent modifications of the transcriptional apparatus and predicts increased noise in gene expression as a trade-off for improved specificity. Using information theory, we quantify this trade-off to find when optimal proofreading architectures are favored over their equilibrium counterparts. Such architectures exhibit significant super-Poisson noise at low expression in steady state.}, author = {Cepeda Humerez, Sarah A and Rieckh, Georg and Tkacik, Gasper}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {24}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Stochastic proofreading mechanism alleviates crosstalk in transcriptional regulation}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.248101}, volume = {115}, year = {2015}, } @article{1577, abstract = {Contrary to the pattern seen in mammalian sex chromosomes, where most Y-linked genes have X-linked homologs, the Drosophila X and Y chromosomes appear to be unrelated. Most of the Y-linked genes have autosomal paralogs, so autosome-to-Y transposition must be the main source of Drosophila Y-linked genes. Here we show how these genes were acquired. We found a previously unidentified gene (flagrante delicto Y, FDY) that originated from a recent duplication of the autosomal gene vig2 to the Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster. Four contiguous genes were duplicated along with vig2, but they became pseudogenes through the accumulation of deletions and transposable element insertions, whereas FDY remained functional, acquired testis-specific expression, and now accounts for ∼20% of the vig2-like mRNA in testis. FDY is absent in the closest relatives of D. melanogaster, and DNA sequence divergence indicates that the duplication to the Y chromosome occurred ∼2 million years ago. Thus, FDY provides a snapshot of the early stages of the establishment of a Y-linked gene and demonstrates how the Drosophila Y has been accumulating autosomal genes.}, author = {Carvalho, Antonio and Vicoso, Beatriz and Russo, Claudia and Swenor, Bonnielin and Clark, Andrew}, journal = {PNAS}, number = {40}, pages = {12450 -- 12455}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Birth of a new gene on the Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1516543112}, volume = {112}, year = {2015}, } @article{1578, abstract = {We prove that the dual of the digital Voronoi diagram constructed by flooding the plane from the data points gives a geometrically and topologically correct dual triangulation. This provides the proof of correctness for recently developed GPU algorithms that outperform traditional CPU algorithms for constructing two-dimensional Delaunay triangulations.}, author = {Cao, Thanhtung and Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Tan, Tiowseng}, journal = {Computational Geometry}, number = {7}, pages = {507 -- 519}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Triangulations from topologically correct digital Voronoi diagrams}}, doi = {10.1016/j.comgeo.2015.04.001}, volume = {48}, year = {2015}, } @article{1579, abstract = {We show that the Galois group of any Schubert problem involving lines in projective space contains the alternating group. This constitutes the largest family of enumerative problems whose Galois groups have been largely determined. Using a criterion of Vakil and a special position argument due to Schubert, our result follows from a particular inequality among Kostka numbers of two-rowed tableaux. In most cases, a combinatorial injection proves the inequality. For the remaining cases, we use the Weyl integral formulas to obtain an integral formula for these Kostka numbers. This rewrites the inequality as an integral, which we estimate to establish the inequality.}, author = {Brooks, Christopher and Martin Del Campo Sanchez, Abraham and Sottile, Frank}, journal = {Transactions of the American Mathematical Society}, number = {6}, pages = {4183 -- 4206}, publisher = {American Mathematical Society}, title = {{Galois groups of Schubert problems of lines are at least alternating}}, doi = {10.1090/S0002-9947-2014-06192-8}, volume = {367}, year = {2015}, } @article{1580, abstract = {Synapsins (Syns) are an evolutionarily conserved family of presynaptic proteins crucial for the fine-tuning of synaptic function. A large amount of experimental evidences has shown that Syns are involved in the development of epileptic phenotypes and several mutations in Syn genes have been associated with epilepsy in humans and animal models. Syn mutations induce alterations in circuitry and neurotransmitter release, differentially affecting excitatory and inhibitory synapses, thus causing an excitation/inhibition imbalance in network excitability toward hyperexcitability that may be a determinant with regard to the development of epilepsy. Another approach to investigate epileptogenic mechanisms is to understand how silencing Syn affects the cellular behavior of single neurons and is associated with the hyperexcitable phenotypes observed in epilepsy. Here, we examined the functional effects of antisense-RNA inhibition of Syn expression on individually identified and isolated serotonergic cells of the Helix land snail. We found that Helix synapsin silencing increases cell excitability characterized by a slightly depolarized resting membrane potential, decreases the rheobase, reduces the threshold for action potential (AP) firing and increases the mean and instantaneous firing rates, with respect to control cells. The observed increase of Ca2+ and BK currents in Syn-silenced cells seems to be related to changes in the shape of the AP waveform. These currents sustain the faster spiking in Syn-deficient cells by increasing the after hyperpolarization and limiting the Na+ and Ca2+ channel inactivation during repetitive firing. This in turn speeds up the depolarization phase by reaching the AP threshold faster. Our results provide evidence that Syn silencing increases intrinsic cell excitability associated with increased Ca2+ and Ca2+-dependent BK currents in the absence of excitatory or inhibitory inputs.}, author = {Brenes, Oscar and Vandael, David H and Carbone, Emilio and Montarolo, Pier and Ghirardi, Mirella}, journal = {Neuroscience}, pages = {430 -- 443}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Knock-down of synapsin alters cell excitability and action potential waveform by potentiating BK and voltage gated Ca2 currents in Helix serotonergic neurons}}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.10.046}, volume = {311}, year = {2015}, } @article{1581, abstract = {In animal embryos, morphogen gradients determine tissue patterning and morphogenesis. Shyer et al. provide evidence that, during vertebrate gut formation, tissue folding generates graded activity of signals required for subsequent steps of gut growth and differentiation, thereby revealing an intriguing link between tissue morphogenesis and morphogen gradient formation.}, author = {Bollenbach, Mark Tobias and Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J}, journal = {Cell}, number = {3}, pages = {431 -- 432}, publisher = {Cell Press}, title = {{Gradients are shaping up}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.009}, volume = {161}, year = {2015}, } @article{1582, abstract = {We investigate weighted straight skeletons from a geometric, graph-theoretical, and combinatorial point of view. We start with a thorough definition and shed light on some ambiguity issues in the procedural definition. We investigate the geometry, combinatorics, and topology of faces and the roof model, and we discuss in which cases a weighted straight skeleton is connected. Finally, we show that the weighted straight skeleton of even a simple polygon may be non-planar and may contain cycles, and we discuss under which restrictions on the weights and/or the input polygon the weighted straight skeleton still behaves similar to its unweighted counterpart. In particular, we obtain a non-procedural description and a linear-time construction algorithm for the straight skeleton of strictly convex polygons with arbitrary weights.}, author = {Biedl, Therese and Held, Martin and Huber, Stefan and Kaaser, Dominik and Palfrader, Peter}, journal = {Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications}, number = {2}, pages = {120 -- 133}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Weighted straight skeletons in the plane}}, doi = {10.1016/j.comgeo.2014.08.006}, volume = {48}, year = {2015}, }