57,692 research outputs found
Encapsulation of gold nanostructures and oil-in-water nanocarriers in microgels with biomedical potential
Indexación: Scopus.Funding: This research was funded by FONDECYT 1161450, 1150744, 11130494 and 1170929, FONDEQUIP EQM160157, EQM170111, CONICYT-FONDAP 15130011, and CONICYT PhD Scholarship 21141137.Here we report the incorporation of gold nanostructures (nanospheres or nanorods, functionalized with carboxylate-end PEG) and curcumin oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions (CurNem) into alginate microgels using the dripping technique. While gold nanostructures are promising nanomaterials for photothermal therapy applications, CurNem possess important pharmacological activities as reported here. In this sense, we evaluated the effect of CurNem on cell viability of both cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines (AGS and HEK293T, respectively), demonstrating preferential toxicity in cancer cells and safety for the non-cancerous cells. After incorporating gold nanostructures and CurNem together into the microgels, microstructures with diameters of 220 and 540 µm were obtained. When stimulating microgels with a laser, the plasmon effect promoted a significant rise in the temperature of the medium; the temperature increase was higher for those containing gold nanorods (11–12 ◦ C) than nanospheres (1–2 ◦ C). Interestingly, the incorporation of both nanosystems in the microgels maintains the photothermal properties of the gold nanostructures unmodified and retains with high efficiency the curcumin nanocarriers. We conclude that these results will be of interest to design hydrogel formulations with therapeutic applications. © 2018 by the authors.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/5/120
Collective enhancement and suppression in Bose-Einstein condensates
The coherent and collective nature of Bose-Einstein condensate can enhance or
suppress physical processes. Bosonic stimulation enhances scattering in already
occupied states which leads to atom amplification, and the suppression of
dissipation leads to superfluidity. In this paper, we review several
experiments where suppression and enhancement have been observed and discuss
the common roots of and differences between these phenomena.Comment: ICAP proceedings; 12 figure
Spinor condensates and light scattering from Bose-Einstein condensates
These notes discuss two aspects of the physics of atomic Bose-Einstein
condensates: optical properties and spinor condensates. The first topic
includes light scattering experiments which probe the excitations of a
condensate in both the free-particle and phonon regime. At higher light
intensity, a new form of superradiance and phase-coherent matter wave
amplification were observed. We also discuss properties of spinor condensates
and describe studies of ground--state spin domain structures and dynamical
studies which revealed metastable excited states and quantum tunneling.Comment: 58 pages, 33 figures, to appear in Proceedings of Les Houches 1999
Summer School, Session LXXI
Regular and stochastic behavior of Parkinsonian pathological tremor signals
Regular and stochastic behavior in the time series of Parkinsonian
pathological tremor velocity is studied on the basis of the statistical theory
of discrete non-Markov stochastic processes and flicker-noise spectroscopy. We
have developed a new method of analyzing and diagnosing Parkinson's disease
(PD) by taking into consideration discreteness, fluctuations, long- and
short-range correlations, regular and stochastic behavior, Markov and
non-Markov effects and dynamic alternation of relaxation modes in the initial
time signals. The spectrum of the statistical non-Markovity parameter reflects
Markovity and non-Markovity in the initial time series of tremor. The
relaxation and kinetic parameters used in the method allow us to estimate the
relaxation scales of diverse scenarios of the time signals produced by the
patient in various dynamic states. The local time behavior of the initial time
correlation function and the first point of the non-Markovity parameter give
detailed information about the variation of pathological tremor in the local
regions of the time series. The obtained results can be used to find the most
effective method of reducing or suppressing pathological tremor in each
individual case of a PD patient. Generally, the method allows one to assess the
efficacy of the medical treatment for a group of PD patients.Comment: 39 pages, 10 figures, 1 table Physica A, in pres
Pain perception and migraine
Background: It is well-known that both inter-and intra-individual differences exist in the perception of pain; this is especially true in migraine, an elusive pain disorder of the head. Although electrophysiology and neuroimaging techniques have greatly contributed to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in migraine during recent decades, the exact characteristics of pain threshold and pain intensity perception remain to be determined, and continue to be a matter of debate.Objective: The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of clinical, electrophysiological, and functional neuroimaging studies investigating changes during various phases of the so-called "migraine cycle" and in different migraine phenotypes, using pain threshold and pain intensity perception assessments.Methods: A systematic search for qualitative studies was conducted using search terms "migraine," "pain," "headache," "temporal summation," "quantitative sensory testing," and "threshold," alone and in combination (subject headings and keywords). The literature search was updated using the additional keywords "pain intensity," and "neuroimaging"to identify full-text papers written in English and published in peer-reviewed journals, using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. In addition, we manually searched the reference lists of all research articles and review articles.Conclusion: Consistent data indicate that pain threshold is lower during the ictal phase than during the interictal phase of migraine or healthy controls in response to pressure, cold and heat stimuli. There is evidence for preictal sub-allodynia, whereas interictal results are conflicting due to either reduced or no observed difference in pain threshold. On the other hand, despite methodological limitations, converging observations support the concept that migraine attacks may be characterized by an increased pain intensity perception, which normalizes between episodes. Nevertheless, future studies are required to longitudinally evaluate a large group of patients before and after pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to investigate phases of the migraine cycle, clinical parameters of disease severity and chronic medication usage
Manifestation of Chaos in Real Complex Systems: Case of Parkinson's Disease
In this chapter we present a new approach to the study of manifestations of
chaos in real complex system. Recently we have achieved the following result.
In real complex systems the informational measure of chaotic chatacter (IMC)
can serve as a reliable quantitative estimation of the state of a complex
system and help to estimate the deviation of this state from its normal
condition. As the IMC we suggest the statistical spectrum of the non-Markovity
parameter (NMP) and its frequency behavior. Our preliminary studies of real
complex systems in cardiology, neurophysiology and seismology have shown that
the NMP has diverse frequency dependence. It testifies to the competition
between Markovian and non-Markovian, random and regular processes and makes a
crossover from one relaxation scenario to the other possible. On this basis we
can formulate the new concept in the study of the manifestation of chaoticity.
We suggest the statistical theory of discrete non-Markov stochastic processes
to calculate the NMP and the quantitative evaluation of the IMC in real complex
systems. With the help of the IMC we have found out the evident manifestation
of chaosity in a normal (healthy) state of the studied system, its sharp
reduction in the period of crises, catastrophes and various human diseases. It
means that one can appreciably improve the state of a patient (of any system)
by increasing the IMC of the studied live system. The given observation creates
a reliable basis for predicting crises and catastrophes, as well as for
diagnosing and treating various human diseases, Parkinson's disease in
particular.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. To be published in "The Logistic Map
and the Route to Chaos: From the Beginnings to the Modern Applications", eds.
by M. Ausloos, M. Dirickx, pp. 175-196, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (2006
Two-photon imaging and analysis of neural network dynamics
The glow of a starry night sky, the smell of a freshly brewed cup of coffee
or the sound of ocean waves breaking on the beach are representations of the
physical world that have been created by the dynamic interactions of thousands
of neurons in our brains. How the brain mediates perceptions, creates thoughts,
stores memories and initiates actions remains one of the most profound puzzles
in biology, if not all of science. A key to a mechanistic understanding of how
the nervous system works is the ability to analyze the dynamics of neuronal
networks in the living organism in the context of sensory stimulation and
behaviour. Dynamic brain properties have been fairly well characterized on the
microscopic level of individual neurons and on the macroscopic level of whole
brain areas largely with the help of various electrophysiological techniques.
However, our understanding of the mesoscopic level comprising local populations
of hundreds to thousands of neurons (so called 'microcircuits') remains
comparably poor. In large parts, this has been due to the technical
difficulties involved in recording from large networks of neurons with
single-cell spatial resolution and near- millisecond temporal resolution in the
brain of living animals. In recent years, two-photon microscopy has emerged as
a technique which meets many of these requirements and thus has become the
method of choice for the interrogation of local neural circuits. Here, we
review the state-of-research in the field of two-photon imaging of neuronal
populations, covering the topics of microscope technology, suitable fluorescent
indicator dyes, staining techniques, and in particular analysis techniques for
extracting relevant information from the fluorescence data. We expect that
functional analysis of neural networks using two-photon imaging will help to
decipher fundamental operational principles of neural microcircuits.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Reports on Progress
in Physic
Brain rhythms of pain
Pain is an integrative phenomenon that results from dynamic interactions between sensory and contextual (i.e., cognitive, emotional, and motivational) processes. In the brain the experience of pain is associated with neuronal oscillations and synchrony at different frequencies. However, an overarching framework for the significance of oscillations for pain remains lacking. Recent concepts relate oscillations at different frequencies to the routing of information flow in the brain and the signaling of predictions and prediction errors. The application of these concepts to pain promises insights into how flexible routing of information flow coordinates diverse processes that merge into the experience of pain. Such insights might have implications for the understanding and treatment of chronic pain
A time-invariant visco-elastic windkessel model relating blood flow and blood volume
The difference between the rate of change of cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) following stimulation is thought to be due to circumferential stress relaxation in veins (Mandeville, J.B., Marota, J.J.A., Ayata, C., Zaharchuk, G., Moskowitz, M.A., Rosen, B.R., Weisskoff, R.M., 1999. Evidence of a cerebrovascular postarteriole windkessel with delayed compliance. J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 19, 679-689). In this paper we explore the visco-elastic properties of blood vessels, and present a dynamic model relating changes in CBF to changes in CBV. We refer to this model as the visco-elastic windkessel (VW) model. A novel feature of this model is that the parameter characterising the pressure-volume relationship of blood vessels is treated as a state variable dependent oil the rate of change of CBV, producing hysteresis in the pressure-volume space during vessel dilation and contraction. The VW model is nonlinear time-invariant, and is able to predict the observed differences between the time series of CBV and that of CBF measurements following changes in neural activity. Like the windkessel model derived by Mandeville, J.B., Marota, J.J.A., Ayata, C., Zaharchuk, G., Moskowitz, M.A., Rosen, B.R., Weisskoff, R.M., 1999. Evidence of a cerebrovascular postarteriole windkessel with delayed compliance. J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 19, 679-689, the VW model is primarily a model of haemodynamic changes in the venous compartment. The VW model is demonstrated to have the following characteristics typical of visco-elastic materials: (1) hysteresis, (2) creep, and (3) stress relaxation, hence it provides a unified model of the visco-elastic properties of the vasculature. The model will not only contribute to the interpretation of the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signals from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments, but also find applications in the study and modelling of the brain vasculature and the haemodynamics of circulatory and cardiovascular systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
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