Magnetic Properties of the low dimensional spin system (VO)2_2P2_2O7_{7}: ESR and susceptibility

Experimental results on magnetic resonance (ESR) and magnetic susceptibility are given for single crystalline (VO)$_2$P$_2$O$_{7}$. The crystal growth procedure is briefly discussed. The susceptibility is interpreted numerically using a model with alternating spin chains. We determine $J$=51 K and $\delta$=0.2. Furthermore we find a spin gap of $\approx 6$meV from our ESR measurements. Using elastic constants no indication of a phase transition forcing the dimerization is seen below 300 K.Comment: 7 pages, REVTEX, 7 figure

Involvement of mossy cells in sharp wave-ripple activity in vitro

The role of mossy cells (MCs) of the hippocampal dentate area has long remained mysterious. Recent research has begun to unveil their significance in spatial computation of the hippocampus. Here, we used an in vitro model of sharp wave-ripple complexes (SWRs), which contribute to hippocampal memory formation, to investigate MC involvement in this fundamental population activity. We find that a significant fraction of MCs (~47%) is recruited into the active neuronal network during SWRs in the CA3 area. Moreover, MCs receive pronounced, ripple-coherent, excitatory and inhibitory synaptic input. Finally, we find evidence for SWR-related synaptic activity in granule cells that is mediated by MCs. Given the widespread connectivity of MCs within and between hippocampi, our data suggest a role for MCs as a hub functionally coupling the CA3 and the DG during ripple-associated computations

The 1991 Field Evaluation of Herbicides on Small Fruit, Vegetables and Ornamental Crops

The establishment of this field-testing procedure provides the chemical industry, through its partial support, and the Arkansas Experiment Station the opportunity to evaluate herbicide performance on small fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops grown under Arkansas conditions. This report also provides a means for disseminating information to interested people and public-service weed scientists

Analytical Bethe Ansatz for closed and open gl(n)-spin chains in any representation

We present an "algebraic treatment" of the analytical Bethe Ansatz. For this purpose, we introduce abstract monodromy and transfer matrices which provide an algebraic framework for the analytical Bethe Ansatz. It allows us to deal with a generic gl(n)-spin chain possessing on each site an arbitrary gl(n)-representation. For open spin chains, we use the classification of the reflection matrices to treat all the diagonal boundary cases. As a result, we obtain the Bethe equations in their full generality for closed and open spin chains. The classifications of finite dimensional irreducible representations for the Yangian (closed spin chains) and for the reflection algebras (open spin chains) are directly linked to the calculation of the transfer matrix eigenvalues. As examples, we recover the usual closed and open spin chains, we treat the alternating spin chains and the closed spin chain with impurity

Rhythmic dynamics and synchronization via dimensionality reduction : application to human gait

Reliable characterization of locomotor dynamics of human walking is vital to understanding the neuromuscular control of human locomotion and disease diagnosis. However, the inherent oscillation and ubiquity of noise in such non-strictly periodic signals pose great challenges to current methodologies. To this end, we exploit the state-of-the-art technology in pattern recognition and, specifically, dimensionality reduction techniques, and propose to reconstruct and characterize the dynamics accurately on the cycle scale of the signal. This is achieved by deriving a low-dimensional representation of the cycles through global optimization, which effectively preserves the topology of the cycles that are embedded in a high-dimensional Euclidian space. Our approach demonstrates a clear advantage in capturing the intrinsic dynamics and probing the subtle synchronization patterns from uni/bivariate oscillatory signals over traditional methods. Application to human gait data for healthy subjects and diabetics reveals a significant difference in the dynamics of ankle movements and ankle-knee coordination, but not in knee movements. These results indicate that the impaired sensory feedback from the feet due to diabetes does not influence the knee movement in general, and that normal human walking is not critically dependent on the feedback from the peripheral nervous system

Reinforcement versus Fluidization in Cytoskeletal Mechanoresponsiveness

Every adherent eukaryotic cell exerts appreciable traction forces upon its substrate. Moreover, every resident cell within the heart, great vessels, bladder, gut or lung routinely experiences large periodic stretches. As an acute response to such stretches the cytoskeleton can stiffen, increase traction forces and reinforce, as reported by some, or can soften and fluidize, as reported more recently by our laboratory, but in any given circumstance it remains unknown which response might prevail or why. Using a novel nanotechnology, we show here that in loading conditions expected in most physiological circumstances the localized reinforcement response fails to scale up to the level of homogeneous cell stretch; fluidization trumps reinforcement. Whereas the reinforcement response is known to be mediated by upstream mechanosensing and downstream signaling, results presented here show the fluidization response to be altogether novel: it is a direct physical effect of mechanical force acting upon a structural lattice that is soft and fragile. Cytoskeletal softness and fragility, we argue, is consistent with early evolutionary adaptations of the eukaryotic cell to material properties of a soft inert microenvironment

Electrochemical and immunoelectron microscopy evidence of lipid-protein interaction in Langmuir-Blodgett films of the human lung surfactant.

The extracellular lung surfactant surface film (ELSSF) which lines the mammalian lung alveoli at the alveolar air-aqueous cell surface interface is vital in both the breathing and the pulmonary defence processes. The molecular composition of, the structure of and the interaction in the ELSSF was studied, after the ELSSF of human lung lavages could be separated from the subphase and reassembled from its components by using the multicompartment Fromherz-type Langmuir-Blodgett trough. Transmission electron microscopy images of immunogold- labelled and negatively stained isolated film specimens were seen in a continuous layer of mostly phospholipid head groups surfactant-specific protein SpA molecules. Electrical double-layer capacitance and oxygen reduction potential measurements carried out by transferring the surface film from the air-water to a mercury-saline interface of a hanging mercury drop electrode revealed a strong lipid-protein SpA interaction. SpA molecules were partly squeezed out from the film by compression; a proteinless lipid film proved to be a condensed multilayer. Contact with SpA transformed the multilayer into a loose monomolecular film. It is suggested that SpA molecules play a lipid-transporting role, removing lipids in excess from the air-water interface into the aqueous subphase and vice versa. Lipid- protein interaction can be of importance in vivo. An explanation of how the surfactant film works during the two phases of breathing is proposed