746 research outputs found
Isoform-selective susceptibility of DISC1/phosphodiesterase-4 complexes to dissociation by elevated intracellular cAMP levels
Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a genetic susceptibility factor for schizophrenia and related severe psychiatric conditions. DISC1 is a multifunctional scaffold protein that is able to interact with several proteins, including the independently identified schizophrenia risk factor phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B). Here we report that the 100 kDa full-length DISC1 isoform (fl-DISC1) can bind members of each of the four gene, cAMP-specific PDE4 family. Elevation of intracellular cAMP levels, so as to activate protein kinase A, caused the release of PDE4D3 and PDE4C2 isoforms from fl-DISC1 while not affecting binding of PDE4B1 and PDE4A5 isoforms. Using a peptide array strategy, we show that PDE4D3 binds fl-DISC1 through two regions found in common with PDE4B isoforms, the interaction of which is supplemented because of the presence of additional PDE4B-specific binding sites. We propose that the additional binding sites found in PDE4B1 underpin its resistance to release during cAMP elevation. We identify, for the first time, a functional distinction between the 100 kDa long DISC1 isoform and the short 71 kDa isoform. Thus, changes in the expression pattern of DISC1 and PDE4 isoforms offers a means to reprogram their interaction and to determine whether the PDE4 sequestered by DISC1 is released after cAMP elevation. The PDE4B-specific binding sites encompass point mutations in mouse Disc1 that confer phenotypes related to schizophrenia and depression and that affect binding to PDE4B. Thus, genetic variation in DISC1 and PDE4 that influence either isoform expression or docking site functioning may directly affect psychopathology
Nonstationary Stochastic Resonance in a Single Neuron-Like System
Stochastic resonance holds much promise for the detection of weak signals in
the presence of relatively loud noise. Following the discovery of nondynamical
and of aperiodic stochastic resonance, it was recently shown that the
phenomenon can manifest itself even in the presence of nonstationary signals.
This was found in a composite system of differentiated trigger mechanisms
mounted in parallel, which suggests that it could be realized in some
elementary neural networks or nonlinear electronic circuits. Here, we find that
even an individual trigger system may be able to detect weak nonstationary
signals using stochastic resonance. The very simple modification to the trigger
mechanism that makes this possible is reminiscent of some aspects of actual
neuron physics. Stochastic resonance may thus become relevant to more types of
biological or electronic systems injected with an ever broader class of
realistic signals.Comment: Plain Latex, 7 figure
Stochastic Resonance in Ion Channels Characterized by Information Theory
We identify a unifying measure for stochastic resonance (SR) in voltage
dependent ion channels which comprises periodic (conventional), aperiodic and
nonstationary SR. Within a simplest setting, the gating dynamics is governed by
two-state conductance fluctuations, which switch at random time points between
two values. The corresponding continuous time point process is analyzed by
virtue of information theory. In pursuing this goal we evaluate for our
dynamics the tau-information, the mutual information and the rate of
information gain. As a main result we find an analytical formula for the rate
of information gain that solely involves the probability of the two channel
states and their noise averaged rates. For small voltage signals it simplifies
to a handy expression. Our findings are applied to study SR in a potassium
channel. We find that SR occurs only when the closed state is predominantly
dwelled. Upon increasing the probability for the open channel state the
application of an extra dose of noise monotonically deteriorates the rate of
information gain, i.e., no SR behavior occurs.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
The stable oxygen isotope ratio of resin extractable phosphate derived from fresh cattle faeces
Phosphorus losses from agriculture pose an environmental threat to watercourses. A new approach using the stable oxygen isotope ratio of oxygen in phosphate (ÎŽ18OPO4 value) may help elucidate some phosphorus sources and cycling. Accurately determined and isotopically distinct source values are essential for this process. The ÎŽ18OPO4 values of animal wastes have, up to now, received little attention.
Methods
Phosphate (PO4) was extracted from cattle faeces using anion resins and the contribution of microbial PO4 was assessed. The Ύ18OPO4 value of the extracted PO4 was measured by precipitating silver phosphate and subsequent analysis on a thermal conversion elemental analyser at 1400°C, with the resultant carbon monoxide being mixed with a helium carrier gas passed through a GC column into a mass spectrometer. Faecal water oxygen isotope ratios (Ύ18OH2O values) were determined on a dual-inlet mass spectrometer through a process of headspace carbon dioxide equilibration with water samples.
Results
Microbiological results indicated that much of extracted PO4 was not derived directly from the gut fauna lysed during the extraction of PO4 from the faeces. Assuming that the faecal ÎŽ18OH2O values represented cattle body water, the predicted pyrophosphatase equilibrium ÎŽ18OPO4 (EÎŽ18OPO4) values ranged between +17.9 and +19.9â°, while using groundwater ÎŽ18OH2O values gave a range of +13.1 to +14.0â°. The faecal ÎŽ18OPO4 values ranged between +13.2 and +15.3â°.
Conclusions
The fresh faecal ÎŽ18OPO4 values were equivalent to those reported elsewhere for agricultural animal slurry. However, they were different from the EÎŽ18OPO4 value calculated from the faecal ÎŽ18OH2O value. Our results indicate that slurry PO4 is, in the main, derived from animal faeces although an explanation for the observed value range could not be determined
Nonstationary Stochastic Resonance
It is by now established that, remarkably, the addition of noise to a
nonlinear system may sometimes facilitate, rather than hamper the detection of
weak signals. This phenomenon, usually referred to as stochastic resonance, was
originally associated with strictly periodic signals, but it was eventually
shown to occur for stationary aperiodic signals as well. However, in several
situations of practical interest, the signal can be markedly nonstationary. We
demonstrate that the phenomenon of stochastic resonance extends to
nonstationary signals as well, and thus could be relevant to a wider class of
biological and electronic applications. Building on both nondynamic and
aperiodic stochastic resonance, our scheme is based on a multilevel trigger
mechanism, which could be realized as a parallel network of differentiated
threshold sensors. We find that optimal detection is reached for a number of
thresholds of order ten, and that little is gained by going much beyond that
number. We raise the question of whether this is related to the fact that
evolution has favored some fixed numbers of precisely this order of magnitude
in certain aspects of sensory perception.Comment: Plain Latex, 6 figure
The Similarity Hypothesis in General Relativity
Self-similar models are important in general relativity and other fundamental
theories. In this paper we shall discuss the ``similarity hypothesis'', which
asserts that under a variety of physical circumstances solutions of these
theories will naturally evolve to a self-similar form. We will find there is
good evidence for this in the context of both spatially homogenous and
inhomogeneous cosmological models, although in some cases the self-similar
model is only an intermediate attractor. There are also a wide variety of
situations, including critical pheneomena, in which spherically symmetric
models tend towards self-similarity. However, this does not happen in all cases
and it is it is important to understand the prerequisites for the conjecture.Comment: to be submitted to Gen. Rel. Gra
Forward coherent -meson photoproduction from deuterons near threshold
Differential cross sections and decay asymmetries for coherent -meson
photoproduction from deuterons were measured for the first time at forward
angles using linearly polarized photons at = 1.5-2.4 GeV. This
reaction offers a unique way to directly access natural-parity Pomeron dynamics
and gluon exchange at low energies. The cross sections at zero degrees increase
with increasing photon energy. The decay asymmetries demonstrate a complete
dominance of natural-parity exchange processes, showing that isovector
unnatural-parity -meson exchange is small. Nevertheless the deduced cross
sections of -mesons from nucleons contributed by isoscalar t-channel
exchange processes are not well described by the conventional Pomeron model.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Final published versio
Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in âs = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fbâ1 of protonâproton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results
Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC
provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of
lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with
a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the
transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the
anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the
nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of
the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp.
Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in
the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies
smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating
nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and
transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of
inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous
measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables,
submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02
Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment
This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and
W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with
the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and
the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto
the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions
f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV
and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw
> 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour,
are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017
+/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second
include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables,
revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio
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