Several factors regulate export of mRNAs from neuronal cell bodies. Using in situ hybridization and RT-PCR, we examined how target interaction influences the distribution of mRNAs expressed in sensory neurons (SNs) of Aplysia maintained in cell culture. Interaction with a synaptic target has two effects on the distribution of mRNA encoding an SN-specific peptide, sensorin: the target affects th...

We perform atomistic Monte Carlo simulations of bending a Lennard-Jones single crystal in two dimensions. Dislocations nucleate only at the free surface as there are no sources in the interior of the sample. When dislocations reach sufficient density, they spontaneously coalesce to nucleate grain boundaries, and the resulting microstructure depends strongly on the initial crystal orientation of...

Antidromic action potentials following distal stimulation of motor axons occasionally fail to invade the soma of alpha motoneurons in spinal cord, due to their passing through regions of high non-uniformity. Morphologically detailed conductance-based models of cat spinal alpha motoneurons have been developed, with the aim to reproduce and clarify some aspects of the electrophysiological behavio...

Friction-induced selective etching provides a convenient and practical way for fabricating protrusive nanostructures. A further understanding of this method is very important for establishing a controllable nanofabrication process. In this study, the effect of etching temperature on the formation of protrusive hillocks and surface properties of the etched silicon surface was investigated. It is...

A geometrical optical model for the image formation of Makyoh (or magic-mirror) topography is presented. General relations are given on the optical settings. The basic equations of the imaging are derived. Fundamental features of the imaging are pointed out, and optimum working conditions are established. Simulations of the image of an isolated defect (hillock or depression) and a periodic (sin...

In most neurons, Na+ channels in the axon are complemented by others localized in the soma and dendrites to ensure spike back-propagation. However, cerebellar granule cells are neurons with simplified architecture in which the dendrites are short and unbranched and a single thin ascending axon travels toward the molecular layer before bifurcating into parallel fibers. Here we show that in cereb...

Void defects were demonstrated to form away from the substrate-epifilm interface during the molecular beam epitaxial growth of mercury cadmium telluride on cadmium zinc telluride substrates. These were smaller in size compared to voids which nucleated at the substrate-epifilm interface, which were also observed. Once nucleated, voids usually replicated all the way to the surface even if the flu...