Localization of messenger ribonucleoproteins (mRNPs) plays an essential role in the regulation of gene expression for long-term memory formation and neuronal development. Knowledge concerning the nature of neuronal mRNP transport is thus crucial for understanding how mRNPs are delivered to their target synapses. Here, we report experimental and theoretical evidence that the active transport dynamics of neuronal mRNPs, which is distinct from the previously reported motor-driven transport, follows an aging Lévy walk. Such nonergodic, transient superdiffusion occurs because of two competing dynamic phases: the motor-involved ballistic run and static localization of mRNPs. Our proposed Lévy walk model reproduces the experimentally extracted key dynamic characteristics of mRNPs with quantitative accuracy. Moreover, the aging status of mRNP particles in an experiment is inferred from the model. This study provides a predictive theoretical model for neuronal mRNP transport and offers insight into the active target search mechanism of mRNP particles in vivo.

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A simple and highly sensitive phase-demodulation technique is proposed, and its use for a fiber Bragg grating strain sensor is experimentally demonstrated. Sampling a phase-modulated Mach-Zehnder output with controlled time delay produced two quadrature data streams that have relative quadrature phase difference (90 degrees ). The Bragg wavelength-dependent phase information is extracted by application of digital arctangent function and phase unwrapping to the quadrature signals. By use of this technique with a reference grating, strain sensing at as much as a 30-kHz sampling rate was obtained with strain resolution of 3.5 microstrains and 6 nanostrains/[square root]Hz in quasi-static and dynamic strain measurements, respectively.

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