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January 01, 2015
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Date:25SundayJanuary 2015Lecture
Rock and Roll – How flies control their flight
More information Time 14:30Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical Sciences
AuditoriumLecturer Tsevi Beatus
Cornell UniversityOrganizer Department of Physics of Complex SystemsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Flying insects can perform a wide array of extreme aerial ma...» Flying insects can perform a wide array of extreme aerial maneuvers with exquisite accuracy and robustness, outmaneuvering any man-made flying device. As a physical system, a flapping insect is strongly nonlinear with fast-growing mechanical instabilities that must be controlled to allow flight. Hence, similar to balancing a stick on one's fingertip, flapping flight is a delicate balancing act made possible only by ever-present, fast corrective actions. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of insect flight is a major challenge, since this graceful behavior is highly coupled to complex fluid flows and arises from the concerted operation of physiological functions across multiple length and time scales. As such, Insect flight research involves basic concepts from nonlinear dynamics, fluid mechanics, neurobiology and control theory, and has direct application to the development of small flapping robots.
Here we show how flies control their rotational degrees of freedom: yaw, pitch and roll. We focus on their body roll angle, which is unstable and most sensitive degree of freedom. We glue a magnet to each fly and apply a short magnetic pulse that rolls it in mid-air. Fast video shows that flies fully correct for perturbations of up to 100o within 30±7ms. The roll correction maneuver consists of a stroke-amplitude asymmetry that is well described by a linear PI controller. For more aggressive perturbations, we show evidence for nonlinear and hierarchical control mechanisms. Flies respond to roll perturbations within a single wing-beat, or 5ms, making this correction reflex one of the fastest in the animal kingdom.
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Date:25SundayJanuary 2015Lecture
Incomplete metabolic pathway: a new principle in cancer metabolism
More information Time 15:00 - 16:00Location Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical Research
Botnar AuditoriumLecturer Dr. Yoav Shaul
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,MA,USAOrganizer Life Sciences
Metabollic Research ForumContact -
Date:26MondayJanuary 2015Colloquia
"Twisted Crystals"
More information Time 11:00 - 12:30Location Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallLecturer Prof. Bart Kahr
Department of Chemistry, NYU/USAOrganizer Faculty of ChemistryContact -
Date:26MondayJanuary 2015Lecture
Feedforward semantic segmentation with zoom-out features
More information Time 14:00Location Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 141Lecturer Greg Shakhnarovich
Toyota Technological Institute, ChicagoOrganizer Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Vision and Robotics SeminarContact -
Date:26MondayJanuary 2015Lecture
Gapped excitations in a quantum solid
More information Time 14:15Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical Sciences
Room ALecturer Daniel Podolsky
TechnionOrganizer Department of Physics of Complex Systems
Statistical Physics SeminarContact Abstract Show full text abstract about The BCC phase of solid helium-4 has a gapped excitation mode...» The BCC phase of solid helium-4 has a gapped excitation mode, as revealed by inelastic neutron scattering experiments. This mode is unexpected, since BCC is a Bravais lattice and therefore acoustic modes are the only low-lying excitations expected in the harmonic solid. I will give a simple model for this new collective excitation based on the amplitude fluctuations of a quantum solid -
Date:26MondayJanuary 2015Lecture
Random Assignment games
More information Time 14:30Location Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 261Lecturer Avinatan Hassidim
Bar Ilan University and GoogleOrganizer Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Foundations of Computer Science SeminarContact -
Date:26MondayJanuary 2015Cultural Events
Cinderalla
More information Time 17:30 - 19:00Title Children's TheatreLocation Michael and Anna Wix AuditoriumContact -
Date:27TuesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Lily flowering: a cool story
More information Time 11:15Location Ullmann Building of Life Sciences
Aharon Katzir HallLecturer Dr. Michele Zaccai
Life Sciences Dept., Faculty of Natural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevOrganizer Department of Plant and Environmental SciencesContact -
Date:27TuesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Special Magnetic Resonance Seminar
More information Time 12:00Title Probing Molecular Dances in the Cell Membrane by NMR SpectroscopyLocation Perlman Chemical Sciences Building
Room 404Lecturer Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy
Biophysics and Department of Chemistry University of MichiganOrganizer Department of Chemical and Biological PhysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Membrane proteins are an exciting class of biomacromolecules...» Membrane proteins are an exciting class of biomacromolecules and play important roles in a variety of biological processes that are directly linked to major diseases including cancer, aging-related diseases, and infectious diseases. A complete understanding of their function can only be accomplished using high-resolution structures. In spite of recent developments in structural biology, membrane proteins continue to pose tremendous challenges to most biophysical techniques. A major area of research in my group is focused on the development of NMR techniques to study the dynamic structures of membrane bound proteins such as cytochrome b5, cytochrome P450 and cytochrome P450-reductase. In the first-half of my talk, I will present strategies to study the structure and dynamics of these challenging systems and also on the electron transfer mechanism that enables the enzymatic
function of P450. The accumulation of misfolded proteins is a hallmark feature in numerous human disorders such as blood diseases like sickle cell anemia, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and metabolic diseases such as type II diabetes. Misfolded protein aggregates may deposit in tissues, can be intracellular, extracellular, or both. The conformational changes accompanying misfolding can result in disruption of the regular function of the protein or may result in a gain of function that is often associated with toxicity. Amyloid peptides represent a subset of misfolded proteins whose misfolded state shares unique characteristics. Our research group has been investigating the high-resolution structures of early amyloid intermediates, amyloid-membrane interaction and membrane disruption, and the interaction of polyphenols with amyloid proteins. In the second-half of my presentation, NMR structures of early intermediates of amyloid peptides, mechanisms of amyloid-induced membrane disruption, and amyloid inhibition by polyphenolic compounds will be discussed. Solid-state NMR results on the interaction of amyloid fibers with lipid bilayers, and novel NMR approaches to investigate amyloid formation will also be presented.
1. BBA Biomembranes 1768 (2007) 3235.
2. Acc. Chem. Res. 116 (2012) 3650.
3. Chem. Soc. Rev. 41 (2012) 608.
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Date:27TuesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
"Protein-DNA binding in the absence of specific base-pair recognition"
More information Time 14:00Location Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Building
Dov Elad RoomLecturer Dr. David Lukatsky
BGUOrganizer Department of Chemical and Structural BiologyContact -
Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Proteasome lid assembly and processing of mixed-linkage polyubiquitin conjugates
More information Time 10:00 - 11:00Location Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Lecture HallLecturer Prof. Michael Glickman
Technion Israel Institute of TechnologyOrganizer Department of Biomolecular SciencesContact -
Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Chasing the role of LKB1 in sensory axons
More information Time 10:00Location Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical Research
Botnar AuditoriumLecturer Avraham Yaron
Department of Biological Chemistry, WISOrganizer Life SciencesContact -
Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
TBD
More information Time 11:15 - 12:00Location Nella and Leon Benoziyo Physics Building
Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics Seminar RoomLecturer Takashi MoriaOrganizer Faculty of PhysicsContact -
Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Pair-instability supernova progenitors with large mass loss
More information Time 11:15 - 12:00Location Nella and Leon Benoziyo Physics Building
Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics Seminar RoomLecturer Takashi MoriaOrganizer Nella and Leon Benoziyo Center for AstrophysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) are thermonuclear explos...» Pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) are thermonuclear explosions of very massive stars. The stellar core needs to be heavier than about 60 Msun for stars to be PISNe. Mass loss prevents massive stars from making large enough cores to be PISNe, and PISNe are presumed to exist in metal-free or metal-poor environment where radiation-driven mass loss is small. Stellar evolution models show that such PISN progenitors evolve to red supergiants (RSGs) shortly before their explosions. However, RSGs are suggested to be pulsationally unstable, and they can experience huge mass loss driven by the pulsation. We investigate the effect of the pulsation-driven mass loss on PISN progenitors. We find that hydrogen-rich layers of PISN progenitors are significantly reduced by the pulsation-driven mass loss, even if they are initially metal-free. Because the pulsation-driven mass loss terminates when the hydrogen-rich envelope is lost, the core mass is not affected by the pulsation-driven mass loss and they still explode as PISNe. However, the large pulsation-driven mass loss can significantly alter observational properties of PISNe. -
Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Special Guest Lecture - Prof. Alberto Bardelli
More information Time 12:00 - 13:00Title Clonal evolution and drug resistance: from cancer avatars to liquid biopsiesLocation Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical Research
Botnar AuditoriumLecturer Prof. Alberto Bardelli
University of Torino, School of Medicine, ItalyOrganizer Department of Molecular Cell BiologyContact -
Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Plants, Sex and the Hidden Epigenetic Code
More information Time 14:00Location Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallLecturer Dr. Cathy Bessudo
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, WISOrganizer Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science
Staff Scientists SeminarContact Details Show full text description of Abstract: Plants provide us with oxygen, food, fiber, medic...» Abstract:
Plants provide us with oxygen, food, fiber, medicines, energy and more. Feeding the growing world population under constant climate change with less arable land is a huge challenge that requires new genetic tools. Whatever tool is chosen it is crucial to understand the mechanisms of the process.
One way to obtain new traits is by achieving variation. Variation is created in sexual reproducing eukaryotes by a specialized type of cell division called meiosis. During meiosis, a programmed induction of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) leads to the exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes. This process, called meiotic recombination, increases genome diversity and is essential for proper chromosome segregation and production of viable gametes. We are trying to understand how meiotic recombination is regulated.
An alternative to obtain better crops is by genetic engineering. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a bacterium that is widely used as a vector for plant transformation. We are currently developing methods to understand when and how the plants are transform. We are exploring new arising technologies that we led us to introduce new genes in specific genome position.
This work was performed in the laboratory of Avi Levy, Plant and Environmental Sciences Dept.
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Date:28WednesdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Diagnostics of laser induced plasma by optical emission spectroscopy
More information Time 14:30Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical Sciences
Drory AuditoriumLecturer Marko Cvejic
Weizmann Institute of ScienceOrganizer Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics
Plasma SeminarContact Details Show full text description of 14:15 - Coffee, tea and more...» 14:15 - Coffee, tea and moreAbstract Show full text abstract about The procedure for diagnostics of laser induced plasma (LIP) ...» The procedure for diagnostics of laser induced plasma (LIP) by optical emission spectroscopy technique is described. LIP was generated by focusing Nd:YAG laser radiation (1.064 nm, 50 mJ, 15 ns pulse duration) on the surface of pellet containing among other elements lithium. Details of the experimental setup and experimental data processing are presented.
High speed plasma photography was used to study plasma evolution and decay. From those images optimum time for plasma diagnostics is located.
The electron number density, Ne, is determined by fitting profiles of Li I lines while electron temperature, Te, was determined from relative intensities of Li I lines using Boltzmann plot (BP) technique. All spectral line recordings were tested for the presence of self-absorption and then if optically thin, Abel inverted and used for plasma diagnostic purposes.
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Date:29ThursdayJanuary 2015Colloquia
DOUBLE BETA DECAY AND THE NEUTRINO MASS
More information Time 11:00 - 12:30Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical Sciences
AuditoriumLecturer Francesco Iachello
Yale UniversityOrganizer Faculty of PhysicsContact Details Show full text description of 11:00 – Raising a toast...» 11:00 – Raising a toastAbstract Show full text abstract about The question of whether or not the neutrino is a Majorana pa...» The question of whether or not the neutrino is a Majorana particle and, if so, what is its average mass remains one of the most fundamental problems in physics today.
The average neutrino mass can be obtained from neutrinoless double beta decay.
The inverse half-life for this process is given by the product of a phase space factor (PSF), a nuclear matrix element (NME) and whatever physics there is beyond the standard model. In this talk, the theory of double beta decay, both with and without the emission of neutrinos, will be rviewed, and recent calculations of the PSF and NME will be presented. From these and from experimental limits on the half-life of neutrinoless double beta decay, one can extract limits on the neutrino mass, both for the exchange of light (m>1MeV) and heavy (m<1GeV) neutrinos. Current limits will be discussed.
This talk is dedicated to Igal Talmi on the occasion of his 90th birthday. The calculation of the NME makes use of methods (microscopic interacting boson model) co-developed by Talmi years ago.
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Date:29ThursdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Geometric Functional Analysis and Probability Seminar
More information Time 11:05 - 01:00Title Random walk in random environment: the operator theory approachLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 261Lecturer Gady Kozma
WISContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Examine random walk in a stationary, ergodic, random environ...» Examine random walk in a stationary, ergodic, random environment which is bistochastic i.e. the sum of probabilities to enter any fixed vertex is 1. Consider the drift as a function on the probability space on the environments, and assume it belongs to domain of definition of where D is the symmetrized generator of the walk (this is the famous H_{-1} condition). We show that under these conditions the walk satisfies a central limit theorem. The proof uses the "relaxed sector condition" which shows an unexpected connection to the spectral theory of unbounded operators.
All terms will be explained in the talk. This is joint work with B??lint T?³th. -
Date:29ThursdayJanuary 2015Lecture
Chromatin Dynamics in Hematopoiesis: Instructions for Blood Formation
More information Time 14:00 - 15:00Title Student SeminarLocation Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical Research
Botnar AuditoriumLecturer David Lara Astiaso
from Dr. Ido Amit's labOrganizer Department of Systems ImmunologyContact