8,407 research outputs found
Un nouveau rĂŽle pour lâagrine dans la rĂ©gulation des communications intercellulaires au cours de la synaptogenĂšse
Agrin mediates a rapid switch from electrical coupling to chemical neurotransmission during synaptogenesis
In contrast to its well-established actions as an organizer of synaptic differentiation at the neuromuscular junction, the proteoglycan agrin is still in search of a function in the nervous system. Here, we report an entirely unanticipated role for agrin in the dual modulation of electrical and chemical intercellular communication that occurs during the critical period of synapse formation. When applied at the developing splanchnic nerveâchromaffin cell cholinergic synapse in rat adrenal acute slices, agrin rapidly modified cell-to-cell communication mechanisms. Specifically, it led to decreased gap junctionâmediated electrical coupling that preceded an increase in nicotinic synaptic transmission. This developmental switch from predominantly electrical to chemical communication was fully operational within one hour and depended on the activation of Src familyârelated tyrosine kinases. Hence, agrin may play a pivotal role in synaptogenesis in promoting a rapid switch between electrical coupling and synaptic neurotransmission
Mid-infrared imaging- and spectro-polarimetric subarcsecond observations of NGC 1068
We present sub-arcsecond 7.513 m imaging- and spectro-polarimetric
observations of NGC 1068 using CanariCam on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio
CANARIAS. At all wavelengths, we find:
(1) A 90 60 pc extended polarized feature in the northern ionization
cone, with a uniform 44 polarization angle. Its polarization
arises from dust and gas emission in the ionization cone, heated by the active
nucleus and jet, and further extinguished by aligned dust grains in the host
galaxy. The polarization spectrum of the jet-molecular cloud interaction at
24 pc from the core is highly polarized, and does not show a silicate
feature, suggesting that the dust grains are different from those in the
interstellar medium.
(2) A southern polarized feature at 9.6 pc from the core. Its
polarization arises from a dust emission component extinguished by a large
concentration of dust in the galaxy disc. We cannot distinguish between dust
emission from magnetically aligned dust grains directly heated by the jet close
to the core, and aligned dust grains in the dusty obscuring material
surrounding the central engine. Silicate-like grains reproduce the polarized
dust emission in this feature, suggesting different dust compositions in both
ionization cones.
(3) An upper limit of polarization degree of 0.3 per cent in the core. Based
on our polarization model, the expected polarization of the obscuring dusty
material is 0.1 per cent in the 813 m wavelength range. This
low polarization may be arising from the passage of radiation through aligned
dust grains in the shielded edges of the clumps.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication at MNRA
A Nexafs Study of Nitric Oxide Layers Adsorbed from a nitrite Solution onto a Pt(111) Surface
NO molecules adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface from dipping in an acidic nitrite
solution are studied by near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy
(NEXAFS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), low energy electron
diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) techniques. LEED
patterns and STM images show that no long range ordered structures are formed
after NO adsorption on a Pt(111) surface. Although the total NO coverage is
very low, spectroscopic features in N K-edge and O K-edge absorption spectra
have been singled out and related to the different species induced by this
preparation method. From these measurements it is concluded that the NO
molecule is adsorbed trough the N atom in an upright conformation. The maximum
saturation coverage is about 0.3 monolayers, and although nitric oxide is the
major component, nitrite and nitrogen species are slightly co-adsorbed on the
surface. The results obtained from this study are compared with those
previously reported in the literature for NO adsorbed on Pt(111) under UHV
conditions
The Top Ten solar analogs in the ELODIE library
Several solar analogs have been identified in the library of high resolution
stellar spectra taken with the echelle spectrograph ELODIE. A purely
differential method has been used, based on the chi2 comparison of a large
number of G dwarf spectra to 8 spectra of the Sun, taken on the Moon and Ceres.
HD 146233 keeps its status of closest ever solar twin (Porto de Mello & da
Silva 1997). Some other spectroscopic analogs have never been studied before,
while the two planet-host stars HD095128 and HD186427 are also part of the
selection. The fundamental parameters found in the literature for these stars
show a surprising dispersion, partly due to the uncertainties which affect
them.
We discuss the advantages and drawbacks of photometric and spectroscopic
methods to search for solar analogs and conclude that they have to be used
jointly to find real solar twins.Comment: 12 pages, accepted in A&
On the algorithmic construction of classifying spaces and the isomorphism problem for biautomatic groups
We show that the isomorphism problem is solvable in the class of central
extensions of word-hyperbolic groups, and that the isomorphism problem for
biautomatic groups reduces to that for biautomatic groups with finite centre.
We describe an algorithm that, given an arbitrary finite presentation of an
automatic group , will construct explicit finite models for the skeleta
of and hence compute the integral homology and cohomology of
.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
Near-Infrared Polarimetric Adaptive Optics Observations of NGC 1068: A torus created by a hydromagnetic outflow wind
We present J' and K' imaging linear polarimetric adaptive optics observations
of NGC 1068 using MMT-Pol on the 6.5-m MMT. These observations allow us to
study the torus from a magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) framework. In a 0.5" (30 pc)
aperture at K', we find that polarisation arising from the passage of radiation
from the inner edge of the torus through magnetically aligned dust grains in
the clumps is the dominant polarisation mechanism, with an intrinsic
polarisation of 7.0%2.2%. This result yields a torus magnetic field
strength in the range of 482 mG through paramagnetic alignment, and
139 mG through the Chandrasekhar-Fermi method. The measured
position angle (P.A.) of polarisation at K is found to be similar to the
P.A. of the obscuring dusty component at few parsec scales using infrared
interferometric techniques. We show that the constant component of the magnetic
field is responsible for the alignment of the dust grains, and aligned with the
torus axis onto the plane of the sky. Adopting this magnetic field
configuration and the physical conditions of the clumps in the MHD outflow wind
model, we estimate a mass outflow rate 0.17 M yr at 0.4
pc from the central engine for those clumps showing near-infrared dichroism.
The models used were able to create the torus in a timescale of 10
yr with a rotational velocity of 1228 km s at 0.4 pc. We conclude
that the evolution, morphology and kinematics of the torus in NGC 1068 can be
explained within a MHD framework.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by MNRA
Stimulus - response curves of a neuronal model for noisy subthreshold oscillations and related spike generation
We investigate the stimulus-dependent tuning properties of a noisy ionic
conductance model for intrinsic subthreshold oscillations in membrane potential
and associated spike generation. On depolarization by an applied current, the
model exhibits subthreshold oscillatory activity with occasional spike
generation when oscillations reach the spike threshold. We consider how the
amount of applied current, the noise intensity, variation of maximum
conductance values and scaling to different temperature ranges alter the
responses of the model with respect to voltage traces, interspike intervals and
their statistics and the mean spike frequency curves. We demonstrate that
subthreshold oscillatory neurons in the presence of noise can sensitively and
also selectively be tuned by stimulus-dependent variation of model parameters.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure
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