1,115 research outputs found
The role of intracellular zinc release in aging, oxidative stress, and Alzheimer's disease
Brain aging is marked by structural, chemical, and genetic changes leading to cognitive decline and impaired neural functioning. Further, aging itself is also a risk factor for a number of neurodegenerative disorders, most notably Alzheimer's disease (AD). Many of the pathological changes associated with aging and aging-related disorders have been attributed in part to increased and unregulated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the brain. ROS are produced as a physiological byproduct of various cellular processes, and are normally detoxified by enzymes and antioxidants to help maintain neuronal homeostasis. However, cellular injury can cause excessive ROS production, triggering a state of oxidative stress that can lead to neuronal cell death. ROS and intracellular zinc are intimately related, as ROS production can lead to oxidation of proteins that normally bind the metal, thereby causing the liberation of zinc in cytoplasmic compartments. Similarly, not only can zinc impair mitochondrial function, leading to excess ROS production, but it can also activate a variety of extra-mitochondrial ROS-generating signaling cascades. As such, numerous accounts of oxidative neuronal injury by ROS-producing sources appear to also require zinc. We suggest that zinc deregulation is a common, perhaps ubiquitous component of injurious oxidative processes in neurons. This review summarizes current findings on zinc dyshomeostasis-driven signaling cascades in oxidative stress and age-related neurodegeneration, with a focus on AD, in order to highlight the critical role of the intracellular liberation of the metal during oxidative neuronal injury. © 2014 McCord and Aizenman
Infrared bound and mean-field behaviour in the quantum Ising model
We prove an infrared bound for the transverse field Ising model. This bound
is stronger than the previously known infrared bound for the model, and allows
us to investigate mean-field behaviour. As an application we show that the
critical exponent for the susceptibility attains its mean-field value
in dimension at least 4 (positive temperature), respectively 3
(ground state), with logarithmic corrections in the boundary cases.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures, to appear in CM
Spin Glass Computations and Ruelle's Probability Cascades
We study the Parisi functional, appearing in the Parisi formula for the
pressure of the SK model, as a functional on Ruelle's Probability Cascades
(RPC). Computation techniques for the RPC formulation of the functional are
developed. They are used to derive continuity and monotonicity properties of
the functional retrieving a theorem of Guerra. We also detail the connection
between the Aizenman-Sims-Starr variational principle and the Parisi formula.
As a final application of the techniques, we rederive the Almeida-Thouless line
in the spirit of Toninelli but relying on the RPC structure.Comment: 20 page
Localization criteria for Anderson models on locally finite graphs
We prove spectral and dynamical localization for Anderson models on locally
finite graphs using the fractional moment method. Our theorems extend earlier
results on localization for the Anderson model on \ZZ^d. We establish
geometric assumptions for the underlying graph such that localization can be
proven in the case of sufficiently large disorder
The phase transition of the quantum Ising model is sharp
An analysis is presented of the phase transition of the quantum Ising model
with transverse field on the d-dimensional hypercubic lattice. It is shown that
there is a unique sharp transition. The value of the critical point is
calculated rigorously in one dimension. The first step is to express the
quantum Ising model in terms of a (continuous) classical Ising model in d+1
dimensions. A so-called `random-parity' representation is developed for the
latter model, similar to the random-current representation for the classical
Ising model on a discrete lattice. Certain differential inequalities are
proved. Integration of these inequalities yields the sharpness of the phase
transition, and also a number of other facts concerning the critical and
near-critical behaviour of the model under study.Comment: Small changes. To appear in the Journal of Statistical Physic
A non-perturbative method of calculation of Green functions
A new method for non-perturbative calculation of Green functions in quantum
mechanics and quantum field theory is proposed. The method is based on an
approximation of Schwinger-Dyson equation for the generating functional by
exactly soluble equation in functional derivatives. Equations of the leading
approximation and the first step are solved for -model. At
(anharmonic oscillator) the ground state energy is calculated. The
renormalization program is performed for the field theory at . At
the renormalization of the coupling involves a trivialization of the theory.Comment: 13 pages, Plain LaTex, no figures, some discussion of results for
anharmonic oscillator and a number of references are added, final version
published in Journal of Physics
No quasi-long-range order in strongly disordered vortex glasses: a rigorous proof
The paper contains a rigorous proof of the absence of quasi-long-range order
in the random-field O(N) model for strong disorder in the space of an arbitrary
dimensionality. This result implies that quasi-long-range order inherent to the
Bragg glass phase of the vortex system in disordered superconductors is absent
as the disorder or external magnetic field is strong.Comment: 3 pages, Revte
Competition between fluctuations and disorder in frustrated magnets
We investigate the effects of impurities on the nature of the phase
transition in frustrated magnets, in d=4-epsilon dimensions. For sufficiently
small values of the number of spin components, we find no physically relevant
stable fixed point in the deep perturbative region (epsilon << 1), contrarily
to what is to be expected on very general grounds. This signals the onset of
important physical effects.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published versio
On Bernoulli Decompositions for Random Variables, Concentration Bounds, and Spectral Localization
As was noted already by A. N. Kolmogorov, any random variable has a Bernoulli
component. This observation provides a tool for the extension of results which
are known for Bernoulli random variables to arbitrary distributions. Two
applications are provided here: i. an anti-concentration bound for a class of
functions of independent random variables, where probabilistic bounds are
extracted from combinatorial results, and ii. a proof, based on the Bernoulli
case, of spectral localization for random Schroedinger operators with arbitrary
probability distributions for the single site coupling constants. For a general
random variable, the Bernoulli component may be defined so that its conditional
variance is uniformly positive. The natural maximization problem is an optimal
transport question which is also addressed here
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