University of Konstanz

About: University of Konstanz is a education organization based out in Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Membrane. The organization has 12115 authors who have published 27401 publications receiving 951162 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Constance & Universität Konstanz.

Historical Perspectives: plasticity of mammalian skeletal muscle.

Abstract: More than 40 years ago, the nerve cross-union experiment of Buller, Eccles, and Eccles provided compelling evidence for the essential role of innervation in determining the properties of mammalian skeletal muscle fibers. Moreover, this experiment revealed that terminally differentiated muscle fibers are not inalterable but are highly versatile entities capable of changing their phenotype from fast to slow or slow to fast. With the use of various experimental models, numerous studies have since confirmed and extended the notion of muscle plasticity. Together, these studies demonstrated that motoneuron-specific impulse patterns, neuromuscular activity, and mechanical loading play important roles in both the maintenance and transition of muscle fiber phenotypes. Depending on the type, intensity, and duration of changes in any of these factors, muscle fibers adjust their phenotype to meet the altered functional demands. Fiber-type transitions resulting from multiple qualitative and quantitative changes in gene expression occur sequentially in a regular order within a spectrum of pure and hybrid fiber types.

Evolution of the MIP family of integral membrane transport proteins.

Abstract: Six integral membrane proteins of bacterial, animal, and plant origin, which are believed to function in solute transport, share sequence identity and are grouped together as members of the MIP family. These include the Escherichia coli glycerol facilitator, the major intrinsic protein from bovine lens fibre junction membranes, a plant tonoplast membrane protein, a soybean protein from the peribacteroid membrane, and a Drosophila neurogenic protein. These proteins, each of which appears to consist of six transmembrane helical segments per subunit, apparently arose by internal duplication of a three-transmembrane segment. Phylogenetic 'trees' interrelating these proteins and segments are presented.

An improved SPH scheme for cosmological simulations

Abstract: We present an implementation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) with improved accuracy for simulations of galaxies and the large-scale structure. In particular, we implement and test a vast majority of SPH improvement in the developer version of GADGET-3. We use the Wendland kernel functions, a particle wake-up time-step limiting mechanism and a time-dependent scheme for artificial viscosity including high-order gradient computation and shear flow limiter. Additionally, we include a novel prescription for time-dependent artificial conduction, which corrects for gravitationally induced pressure gradients and improves the SPH performance in capturing the development of gas-dynamical instabilities. We extensively test our new implementation in a wide range of hydrodynamical standard tests including weak and strong shocks as well as shear flows, turbulent spectra, gas mixing, hydrostatic equilibria and self-gravitating gas clouds. We jointly employ all modifications;however, when necessary we study the performance of individual code modules. We approximate hydrodynamical states more accurately and with significantly less noise than standard GADGET-SPH. Furthermore, the new implementation promotes the mixing of entropy between different fluid phases, also within cosmological simulations. Finally, we study the performance of the hydrodynamical solver in the context of radiative galaxy formation and non-radiative galaxy cluster formation. We find galactic discs to be colder and more extended and galaxy clusters showing entropy cores instead of steadily declining entropy profiles. In summary, we demonstrate that our improved SPH implementation overcomes most of the undesirable limitations of standard GADGET-SPH, thus becoming the core of an efficient code for large cosmological simulations.