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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a revolutionary technique for accessing and modulating brain circuits. DBS is used to treat dysfunctional neuronal circuits in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Despite over two decades of clinical application, the fundamental mechanisms underlying DBS are still not well understood. One reason is the complexity of in vivo electrical manipulation of the central nervous system, particularly in rodent models. DBS-devices for freely moving rodents are typically custom-designed and not commercially available, thus making it difficult to perform experimental DBS according to common standards. Addressing these challenges, we have developed a novel wireless microstimulation system for deep brain stimulation (wDBS) tailored for rodents. We demonstrate the efficacy of this device for the restoration of behavioral impairments in hemiparkinsonian mice through unilateral wDBS of the subthalamic nucleus. Moreover, we introduce a standardized and innovative pipeline, integrating machine learning techniques to analyze Parkinson’s disease-like and DBS-induced gait changes.

Although sessile, plants are able to grow toward or away from an environmental stimulus. Important examples are stem or leaf orientation of higher plants in response to the direction of the incident light. The responsible photoreceptors belong to the phototropin photoreceptor family. Although the mode of phototropin action is quite well understood, much less is known of how the light signal is transformed into a bending response. Several lines of evidence indicate that a lateral auxin gradient is responsible for asymmetric cell elongation along the light gradient within the stem. However, some of the molecular key players leading to this asymmetric auxin distribution are, as yet, unidentified. Previously, it was shown that phototropin gets autophosphorylated upon illumination and binds to a scaffold protein termed NPH3 (for nonphototropic hypocotyl 3). Using a yeast three-hybrid approach with phototropin and NPH3 as a bait complex, we isolated a protein, termed ÉHB1 (for enhanced bending 1), with a so far unknown function, which binds to this binary complex. This novel interacting factor negatively affects hypocotyl bending under blue light conditions in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and thus seems to be an important component regulating phototropism. Interestingly, it could be shown that the gravitropic response was also affected. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that this protein might also have a more general role in auxin-mediated bending toward an environmental stimulus.

Although sessile, plants are able to grow toward or away from an environmental stimulus. Important examples are stem or leaf orientation of higher plants in response to the direction of the incident light. The responsible photoreceptors belong to the phototropin photoreceptor family. Although the mode of phototropin action is quite well understood, much less is known of how the light signal is transformed into a bending response. Several lines of evidence indicate that a lateral auxin gradient is responsible for asymmetric cell elongation along the light gradient within the stem. However, some of the molecular key players leading to this asymmetric auxin distribution are, as yet, unidentified. Previously, it was shown that phototropin gets autophosphorylated upon illumination and binds to a scaffold protein termed NPH3 (for nonphototropic hypocotyl 3). Using a yeast three-hybrid approach with phototropin and NPH3 as a bait complex, we isolated a protein, termed EHB1 (for enhanced bending 1), with a so far unknown function, which binds to this binary complex. This novel interacting factor negatively affects hypocotyl bending under blue light conditions in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and thus seems to be an important component regulating phototropism. Interestingly, it could be shown that the gravitropic response was also affected. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that this protein might also have a more general role in auxin-mediated bending toward an environmental stimulus.

Sieve tubes are transport conduits not only for photoassimilates but also for macromolecules and other compounds that are involved in sieve tube maintenance and systemic signalling. In order to gain sufficient amounts of pure phloem exudates from barley plants for analyses of the protein and mRNA composition, a previously described stylectomy set-up was optimized. Aphids were placed in sealed cages, which, immediately after microcauterization of the stylets, were flooded with water-saturated silicon oil. The exuding phloem sap was collected with a capillary connected to a pump. Using up to 30 plants and 600 aphids (Rhopalosiphum padi) in parallel, an average of 10 μl of phloem sap could be obtained within 6 h of sampling. In first analyses of the macromolecular content, eight so far unknown phloem mRNAs were identified by cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism. Transcripts in barley phloem exudates are related to metabolism, signalling, and pathogen defence, for example coding for a protein kinase and a pathogen- and insect-responsive WIR1A (wheat-induced resistance 1A)-like protein. Further, one-dimensional gel electrophoresis and subsequent partial sequencing by mass spectrometry led to the identification of seven major proteins with putative functions in stress responses and transport of mRNAs, proteins, and sugars. Two of the discovered proteins probably represent isoforms of a new phloem-mobile sucrose transporter. Notably, two-dimensional electrophoresis confirmed that there are >250 phloem proteins awaiting identification in future studies.

Small (s)RNA molecules are crucial factors in the communication between hosts and their interacting pathogens/pests that can modulate both host defense and microbial virulence/pathogenicity known as cross-kingdom RNA interference (ckRNAi). Consistent with this, sRNAs and their double-stranded (ds)RNA precursors have been adopted to control plant diseases through exogenously applied RNA biopesticides, known as spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS). While RNA spray proved to be effective, the mechanisms underlying the transfer and uptake of SIGS-associated RNAs are inadequately understood. Moreover, the use of the SIGS-technology as a biopesticide will require the systemic spreading of dsRNA/siRNA signals. Our results strongly support the notion of phloem-mediated long-distance movement of SIGS-associated dsRNA and/or siRNA. These findings are significant contributions to our mechanistic understanding of RNA spray technology, as our previous data indicate that SIGS requires the processing of dsRNAs by the fungal RNAi machinery. In summary, our findings support the model that SIGS involves: (i) uptake of sprayed dsRNA by the plant (via stomata); (ii) transfer of apoplastic dsRNAs into the symplast (DCL processing into siRNAs); (iii) systemic translocation of siRNA or unprocessed dsRNA via the vascular system (phloem/xylem); (iv) uptake of apoplastic dsRNA or symplastic dsRNA/siRNA depending on the lifestyle/feeding behavior of the pathogen/pest.

During the first operational phase (OP 1.1) of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) was the exclusive heating method and provided plasma start-up, wall conditioning, heating and current drive. Six gyrotrons were commissioned for OP1.1 and used in parallel for plasma operation with a power of up to 4.3 MW. During standard X2-heating the spatially localized power deposition with high power density allowed controlling the radial profiles of the electron temperature and the rotational transform. Even though W7-X was not fully equipped with first wall tiles and operated with a graphite limiter instead of a divertor, electron densities of n e > 3·1019 m-3 could be achieved at electron temperatures of several keV and ion temperatures above 2 keV. These plasma parameters allowed the first demonstration of a multipath O2-heating scenario, which is envisaged for safe operation near the X-cutoff-density of 1.2·1020 m-3 after full commissioning of the ECRH system in the next operation phase OP1.2.

We give new positive results on the long-standing open problem of geometric covering decomposition for homothetic polygons. In particular, we prove that for any positive integer $k$, every finite set of points in $\\mathbb{R} reversible reaction $ can be colored with $k$ colors so that every translate of the negative octant containing at least $k similar to $ points contains at least one of each color. The best previously known bound was doubly exponential in $k$. This yields, among other corollaries, the first polynomial bound for the decomposability of multiple coverings by homothetic triangles. We also investigate related decomposition problems involving intervals appearing on a line. We prove that no algorithm can dynamically maintain a decomposition of a multiple covering by intervals under insertion of new intervals, even in a semionline model, in which some coloring decisions can be delayed. This implies that a wide range of sweeping plane algorithms cannot guarantee any bound even for special cases of the octant problem.

From the wild-type strain Steptomyces sp. AK 671, three nitrogen-containing octaketides were isolated, bhimamycins F, H and I, besides the known azaanthraquinone utahmycin A and polyketide shunt products SEK 4, SEK 4b, mutactin, dehydromutactin and EM18. The structures were characterized by MS and NMR experiments. The hitherto unknown absolute configuration of the two enantiomers of EM18 was determined by online-CD spectroscopy and quantum-chemical CD calculations. Bhimamycins H and I show weak antibacterial activities, whereas the enzyme phosphodiesterase 4 is strongly inhibited by bhimamycins H and I, which has never been reported for nitrogen-containing octaketides. In addition, bhimamycin H inhibits the enzyme glycogen synthase kinase-3β.

A set \\(S\\subseteq V\\) of vertices of a graph \\(G\\) is a \\emph{\\(c\\)-clustered set} if it induces a subgraph with components of order at most \\(c\\) each, and \\(\\alpha_c(G)\\) denotes the size of a largest \\(c\\)-clustered set. For any graph \\(G\\) on \\(n\\) vertices and treewidth \\(k\\), we show that \\(\\alpha_c(G) \\geq \\frac{c}{c+k+1}n\\), which improves a result of Wood [arXiv:2208.10074, August 2022], while we construct \\(n\\)-vertex graphs \\(G\\) of treewidth~\\(k\\) with \\(\\alpha_c(G)\\leq \\frac{c}{c+k}n\\). In the case \\(c\\leq 2\\) or \\(k=1\\) we prove the better lower bound \\(\\alpha_c(G) \\geq \\frac{c}{c+k}n\\), which settles a conjecture of Chappell and Pelsmajer [Electron.\\ J.\\ Comb., 2013] and is best-possible. Finally, in the case \\(c=3\\) and \\(k=2\\), we show \\(\\alpha_c(G) \\geq \\frac{5}{9}n\\) and which is best-possible.

We show that the vertices of every planar graph can be partitioned into two sets, each inducing a so-called triangle-forest, i.e., a graph with no cycles of length more than three. We further discuss extensions to locally planar graphs. After finishing the paper we noticed that our main result was already proved much earlier by Carsten Thomassen [Decomposing a Planar Graph into Degenerate Graphs, JCTB 1995].