3,929 research outputs found
Effects of general anesthetics on visceral pain transmission in the spinal cord
Current evidence suggests an analgesic role for the spinal cord action of general anesthetics; however, the cellular population and intracellular mechanisms underlying anti-visceral pain by general anesthetics still remain unclear. It is known that visceral nociceptive signals are transmited via post-synaptic dorsal column (PSDC) and spinothalamic tract (STT) neuronal pathways and that the PSDC pathway plays a major role in visceral nociception. Animal studies report that persistent changes including nociception-associated molecular expression (e.g. neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptors) and activation of signal transduction cascades (such as the protein kinase A [PKA]-c-AMP-responsive element binding [CREB] cascade)-in spinal PSDC neurons are observed following visceral pain stimulation. The clinical practice of interruption of the spinal PSDC pathway in patients with cancer pain further supports a role of this group of neurons in the development and maintenance of visceral pain. We propose the hypothesis that general anesthetics might affect critical molecular targets such as NK-1 and glutamate receptors, as well as intracellular signaling by CaM kinase II, protein kinase C (PKC), PKA, and MAP kinase cascades in PSDC neurons, which contribute to the neurotransmission of visceral pain signaling. This would help elucidate the mechanism of antivisceral nociception by general anesthetics at the cellular and molecular levels and aid in development of novel therapeutic strategies to improve clinical management of visceral pain
Intermittent dislocation flow in viscoplastic deformation
The viscoplastic deformation (creep) of crystalline materials under constant
stress involves the motion of a large number of interacting dislocations.
Analytical methods and sophisticated `dislocation-dynamics' simulations have
proved very effective in the study of dislocation patterning, and have led to
macroscopic constitutive laws of plastic deformation. Yet, a statistical
analysis of the dynamics of an assembly of interacting dislocations has not
hitherto been performed. Here we report acoustic emission measurements on
stressed ice single crystals, the results of which indicate that dislocations
move in a scale-free intermittent fashion. This result is confirmed by
numerical simulations of a model of interacting dislocations that successfully
reproduces the main features of the experiment. We find that dislocations
generate a slowly evolving configuration landscape which coexists with rapid
collective rearrangements. These rearrangements involve a comparatively small
fraction of the dislocations and lead to an intermittent behavior of the net
plastic response. This basic dynamical picture appears to be a generic feature
in the deformation of many other materials. Moreover, it should provide a
framework for discussing fundamental aspects of plasticity, that goes beyond
standard mean-field approaches that see plastic deformation as a smooth laminar
flow
Ultrafast changes in lattice symmetry probed by coherent phonons
The electronic and structural properties of a material are strongly
determined by its symmetry. Changing the symmetry via a photoinduced phase
transition offers new ways to manipulate material properties on ultrafast
timescales. However, in order to identify when and how fast these phase
transitions occur, methods that can probe the symmetry change in the time
domain are required. We show that a time-dependent change in the coherent
phonon spectrum can probe a change in symmetry of the lattice potential, thus
providing an all-optical probe of structural transitions. We examine the
photoinduced structural phase transition in VO2 and show that, above the phase
transition threshold, photoexcitation completely changes the lattice potential
on an ultrafast timescale. The loss of the equilibrium-phase phonon modes
occurs promptly, indicating a non-thermal pathway for the photoinduced phase
transition, where a strong perturbation to the lattice potential changes its
symmetry before ionic rearrangement has occurred.Comment: 14 pages 4 figure
Genetic Inactivation of Trpml3 Does Not Lead to Hearing and Vestibular Impairment in Mice
TRPML3, a member of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family, is an inwardly rectifying, non-selective Ca2+-permeable cation channel that is regulated by extracytosolic Na+ and H+ and can be activated by a variety of small molecules. The severe auditory and vestibular phenotype of the TRPML3(A419P) varitint-waddler mutation made this protein particularly interesting for inner ear biology. To elucidate the physiological role of murine TRPML3, we conditionally inactivated Trpml3 in mice. Surprisingly, lack of functional TRPML3 did not lead to circling behavior, balance impairment or hearing loss
1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments of the Calmodulin-Munc13-1 peptide complex
Ca2+-Calmodulin binding to the variable N-terminal region of the diacylglycerol/phorbol ester-binding UNC13/Munc13 family of proteins modulates the short-term synaptic plasticity characteristics in neurons. Here, we report the sequential backbone and side chain resonance assignment of the Ca2+-Calmodulin/Munc13-1458–492 peptide complex at pH 6.8 and 35°C (BMRB No. 15470)
Higgsing M2 to D2 with gravity: N=6 chiral supergravity from topologically gauged ABJM theory
We present the higgsing of three-dimensional N=6 superconformal ABJM type
theories coupled to conformal supergravity, so called topologically gauged ABJM
theory, thus providing a gravitational extension of previous work on the
relation between N M2 and N D2-branes. The resulting N=6 supergravity theory
appears at a chiral point similar to that of three-dimensional chiral gravity
introduced recently by Li, Song and Strominger, but with the opposite sign for
the Ricci scalar term in the lagrangian. We identify the supersymmetry in the
broken phase as a particular linear combination of the supersymmetry and
special conformal supersymmetry in the original topologically gauged ABJM
theory. We also discuss the higgsing procedure in detail paying special
attention to the role played by the U(1) factors in the original ABJM model and
the U(1) introduced in the topological gauging.Comment: 53 pages, Late
D-Branes on the Conifold and N=1 Gauge/Gravity Dualities
We review extensions of the AdS/CFT correspondence to gauge/ gravity
dualities with N=1 supersymmetry. In particular, we describe the gauge/gravity
dualities that emerge from placing D3-branes at the apex of the conifold. We
consider first the conformal case, with discussions of chiral primary operators
and wrapped D-branes. Next, we break the conformal symmetry by adding a stack
of partially wrapped D5-branes to the system, changing the gauge group and
introducing a logarithmic renormalization group flow. In the gravity dual, the
effect of these wrapped D5-branes is to turn on the flux of 3-form field
strengths. The associated RR 2-form potential breaks the U(1) R-symmetry to
and we study this phenomenon in detail. This extra flux also leads to
deformation of the cone near the apex, which describes the chiral symmetry
breaking and confinement in the dual gauge theory.Comment: Based on I.R.K.'s lectures at the Les Houches Summer School Session
76, ``Gravity, Gauge Theories, and Strings'', August 2001, 42 pages, v2:
clarifications and references adde
Evidence for Two Modes of Synergistic Induction of Apoptosis by Mapatumumab and Oxaliplatin in Combination with Hyperthermia in Human Colon Cancer Cells
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world-- the main cause of death from colorectal cancer is hepatic metastases, which can be treated with isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP). Searching for the most clinically relevant approaches for treating colorectal metastatic disease by isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP), we developed the application of oxaliplatin concomitantly with hyperthermia and humanized death receptor 4 (DR4) antibody mapatumumab (Mapa), and investigated the molecular mechanisms of this multimodality treatment in human colon cancer cell lines CX-1 and HCT116 as well as human colon cancer stem cells Tu-12, Tu-21 and Tu-22. We showed here, in this study, that the synergistic effect of the multimodality treatment-induced apoptosis was caspase dependent and activated death signaling via both the extrinsic apoptotic pathway and the intrinsic pathway. Death signaling was activated by c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling which led to Bcl-xL phosphorylation at serine 62, decreasing the anti-apoptotic activity of Bcl-xL, which contributed to the intrinsic pathway. The downregulation of cellular FLICE inhibitory protein long isoform (c-FLIPL) in the extrinsic pathway was accomplished through ubiquitination at lysine residue (K) 195 and protein synthesis inhibition. Overexpression of c-FLIPL mutant (K195R) and Bcl-xL mutant (S62A) completely abrogated the synergistic effect. The successful outcome of this study supports the application of multimodality strategy to patients with colorectal hepatic metastases who fail to respond to standard chemoradiotherapy that predominantly targets the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. © 2013 Song et al
Surface electrons at plasma walls
In this chapter we introduce a microscopic modelling of the surplus electrons
on the plasma wall which complements the classical description of the plasma
sheath. First we introduce a model for the electron surface layer to study the
quasistationary electron distribution and the potential at an unbiased plasma
wall. Then we calculate sticking coefficients and desorption times for electron
trapping in the image states. Finally we study how surplus electrons affect
light scattering and how charge signatures offer the possibility of a novel
charge measurement for dust grains.Comment: To appear in Complex Plasmas: Scientific Challenges and Technological
Opportunities, Editors: M. Bonitz, K. Becker, J. Lopez and H. Thomse
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