Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations are employed to study the fusion and fission dynamics of polymeric vesicles formed from amphiphilic triblock copolymers. The amphiphilic molecule is built from two hydrophilic blocks and a hydrophobic middle block. Two different pathways for both fusion and fission processes of two-component vesicles with polymer-based symmetric membranes have bee...

The GTPase dynamin assembles at the necks of budded vesicles in vivo and functions in membrane fission. We have developed fluid supported bilayers with excess membrane reservoir, (SUPER) templates, to assay vesicle formation and membrane fission. Consistent with previous studies, in the absence of GTP, dynamin assembles in spirals, forming long membrane tubules. GTP addition triggers disassembl...

The crypts of the intestinal epithelium house the stem cells that ensure the continual renewal of the epithelial cells that line the intestinal tract. Crypt number increases by a process called crypt fission, the division of a single crypt into two daughter crypts. Fission drives normal tissue growth and maintenance. Correspondingly, it becomes less frequent in adulthood. Importantly, fission i...

Many gregarious species display rapid fission-fusion dynamics with individuals frequently leaving their groups to reunite or to form new ones soon after. The adaptive value of such ephemeral associations might reflect a frequent tilt in the balance between the costs and benefits of maintaining group cohesion. The lack of information on the short-term advantages of group fission, however, hamper...

When an agent undergoes fission, how should the beliefs of the fission results relate to the pre-fission beliefs? This question is important for the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics, but it is of independent philosophical interest. Among other things, fission scenarios demonstrate that “self-locating” information can affect the probability of uncentred propositions even if an agent h...

Mitochondria undergo cycles of fusion and fission crucial for organelle homeostasis. Fission is regulated partially by recruitment of the large GTPase Dnm1p to the outer mitochondrial membrane. Using three-dimensional time-lapse fluorescence imaging of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells, we found that Dnm1p-EGFP appears and disappears at “hot spots” along mitochondrial tubes. It forms patches that ...

Electrowetting has been proposed as a technique for manipulating droplets surrounded by air or oil. In this paper, we discuss the modeling and simulation of the droplet fission process between two parallel plates inside an electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) device. Since the gap between the plates is small, we use the two-phase Hele-Shaw flow as a model. An immersed boundary (IB) method is emp...

Rationale: Airway epithelial cells (AECs) are critical regulators of inflammatory, immune and injury responses to allergens that contribute to asthma pathogenesis. The response of AECs to allergens requires an integrated-complex, extracellular receptors and intracellular organelle interaction to achieve secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitoc...

Since its discovery 75 years ago fission has been at the forefront of nuclear science and engineering research. Although the fission process is being used worldwide to generate safe reliable power, there are several aspects of the fission process which are still not well known. One such parameter of the fission process is the prompt fission neutron spectrum (PFNS). Although the average number o...

The current status of the application of covariant density functional theory to microscopic description of nuclear fission with main emphasis on superheavy nuclei (SHN) is reviewed. The softness of SHN in the triaxial plane leads to an emergence of several competing fission pathes in the region of the inner fission barrier in some of these nuclei. The outer fission barriers of SHN are considera...