From yeast to humans, the fusion of vesicles with target membranes is driven by the formation of a parallel four-helix bundle of SNARE proteins that are present on both the vesicular (v-SNAREs) and target plasma membranes (t-SNAREs). The full zippering of this bundle is thought to provide the driving force for membrane fusion. At synapses, vesicle fusion is exquisitely regulated by Ca2+ such th...

The mechanism of skeletal myoblast fusion is not well understood. We show that endogenous nitric oxide (NO) generation is required for myoblast fusion both in embryonic myoblasts and in satellite cells. The effect of NO is concentration and time dependent, being evident only at the onset of differentiation, and direct on the fusion process itself. The action of NO is mediated through a tightly ...

The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) is a subdivision of the inferior parietal lobe that has been implicated in the guidance of spatial attention. In a variety of tasks, LIP provides a "salience representation" of the external world-a topographic visual representation that encodes the locations of salient or behaviorally relevant objects. Recent neurophysiological experiments show that this sal...

We provide a theoretical framework and empirical evidence for how verbally planning an action creates direct perception-action links and behavioral automaticity. We argue that planning actions in an if (situation)-then (action) format induces sensorimotor simulations (i.e., activity patterns reenacting the event in the sensory and motor brain areas) of the anticipated situation and the intended...

We have proposed a novel application of Markov decision processes (MDPs), a reinforcement learning technique, to automatically generate hints using historical student data. Using this technique, we have modified a an existing, non-adaptive logic proof tutor called Deep Thought with a Hint Factory that provides hints on the next step a student might take. This paper presents the results of our p...

This work explores the effects of using automatically generated hints in Deep Thought, a propositional logic tutor. Generating hints automatically removes a large amount of development time for new tutors, and it also useful for already existing computer-aided instruction systems that lack intelligent feedback. We focus on a series of problems, after which, the control group is known to be 3.5 ...

The interactions of concepts and problem-solving techniques needed to solve open-ended proof problems are varied, making it difficult to select problems that improve individual student performance. We have developed a system of datadriven ordered problem selection for Deep Thought, a logic proof tutor. The problem selection system presents problem sets of expert-determined higher or lower diffi...

Editor’s note: This editorial is part of a series written by editors and co-authored with a senior executive, thought leader, or scholar from a different field to explore new content areas and grand challenges with the goal of expanding the scope, interestingness, and relevance of the work presented in the Academy of Management Journal. The principle is to use the editorial notes as “stage sett...