KEY POINTS Omecamtiv mecarbil and blebbistatin perturb the regulatory state of the thick filament in heart muscle. Omecamtiv mecarbil increases contractility at low levels of activation by stabilizing the ON state of the thick filament. Omecamtiv mecarbil decreases contractility at high levels of activation by disrupting the acto-myosin ATPase cycle. Blebbistatin reduces contractility by stabil...

The fine structure of the tergo-coxal muscle of the cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, has been studied with the electron microscope. This muscle differs from some other types of insect flight muscles inasmuch as the ratio of thin to thick filaments is 4 instead of the characteristic 3. The cockroach flight muscle also differs from the cockroach femoral muscle in thin to thick filament ratios and d...

SU(2) lattice gauge theory is studied after eliminating thin monopoles and the smallest thick monopoles. Kinematically this constraint allows thick vortex loops which produce long range Z(2) fluctuations. The thick vortex loops are identified in a three dimensional simulation. A condensate of thick vortices persists even after the thin vortices have all disappeared. They decouple at a slightly ...

Native thick filaments from the clam, Mercinaria mercinaria translocate actin filaments both toward and away from the center of the thick filament in an in vitro motility assay. The thick filaments from the adductor muscle are about 10 microns long whereas those from the catch muscle are 30-50 microns long. These thick filaments should prove useful in understanding the mechanism of myosin-depen...

Prostaglandins are present in large quantities in the kidney and have been shown to directly affect transepithelial transport. The present studies were designed to examine whether prostaglandin E2 could affect chloride transport across the thick ascending limb of Henle. Isolated segments of the cortical and medullary thick ascending limb of Henle were perfused in vitro and the transepithelial v...

We have measured Lick index equivalent widths to derive luminosity weighted stellar ages and metallicities for thin and thick disk dominated regions of 9 edge-on disk galaxies with the ARC 3.5 meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory. In all cases, the thick disks are confirmed to be old stellar populations, with typical ages between 4 and 10 Gyr. The thin disks are uniformly younger than th...

arguments for the recognition of cultural diversity have led to a fundamental question in political theory: on what basis the process of political decision making should be formed to accommodate cultural diversity as a permanent feature of contemporary societies? the aim of this paper is to examine whether 'dialogue' can be employed as a means in such a process. the first section of this paper...

one of the new research fields in plasticity is related to choosing a proper non-associated flow rule (nafr), instead of the associated one (afr), to predict the experimental results more accurately. the idea of the current research is derived from combining von mises and tresca criteria in the places of yield and plastic potential surfaces in rate-independent plasticity.  this idea is implemen...