ATP as a presynaptic modulator

© 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.There is considerable evidence that ATP acts as a fast transmitter or co-transmitter in autonomic and sensory nerves mostly through activation of ionotropic P2X receptors but also through metabotropic P2Y receptors. By analogy, the observations that ATP is released from stimulated central nervous system (CNS) nerve terminals and that responses to exogenously added ATP can be recorded in central neurons, lead to the proposal that ATP might also be a fast transmitter in the CNS. However, in spite of the robust expression of P2 receptor mRNA and binding to P2 receptors in the CNS, the demonstration of central purinergic transmission has mostly remained elusive. We now review evidence to suggest that ATP may also act presynaptically rather than solely postsynaptically in the nervous system.Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia and European nio

On the nature of the spin-polarized hole states in a quasi-two-dimensional GaMnAs ferromagnetic layer

A self-consistent calculation of the density of states and the spectral density function is performed in a two-dimensional spin-polarized hole system based on a multiple-scattering approximation. Using parameters corresponding to GaMnAs thin layers, a wide range of Mn concentrations and hole densities have been explored to understand the nature, localized or extended, of the spin-polarized holes at the Fermi level for several values of the average magnetization of the Mn ystem. We show that, for a certain interval of Mn and hole densities, an increase on the magnetic order of the Mn ions come together with a change of the nature of the states at the Fermi level. This fact provides a delocalization of spin-polarized extended states anti-aligned to the average Mn magnetization, and a higher spin-polarization of the hole gas. These results are consistent with the occurrence of ferromagnetism with relatively high transition temperatures observed in some thin film samples and multilayered structures of this material.Comment: 3 page

Inhibition by ATP of hippocampal synaptic transmission requires localized extracellular catabolism by ecto-nucleotidases into adenosine and channeling to adenosine A1 receptors

© 1998 Society for NeuroscienceATP analogs substituted in the γ-phosphorus (ATPγS, β, γ-imido-ATP, and β, γ-methylene-ATP) were used to probe the involvement of P2 receptors in the modulation of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus, because their extracellular catabolism was virtually not detected in CA1 slices. ATP and γ-substituted analogs were equipotent to inhibit synaptic transmission in CA1 pyramid synapses (IC50 of 17–22 μM). The inhibitory effect of ATP and γ-phosphorus-substituted ATP analogs (30 μM) was not modified by the P2 receptor antagonist suramin (100 μM), was inhibited by 42–49% by the ecto-5’- nucleotidase inhibitor and α, β-methylene ADP (100 μM), was inhibited by 74–85% by 2 U/ml adenosine deaminase (which converts adenosine into its inactive metabolite-inosine), and was nearly prevented by the adenosine A1 receptor antagonist 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentylxanthine (10 nM). Stronger support for the involvement of extracellular adenosine formation as a main requirement for the inhibitory effect of ATP and γ-substituted ATP analogs was the observation that an inhibitor of adenosine uptake, dipyridamole (20 μM), potentiated by 92–124% the inhibitory effect of ATP and γ-substituted ATP analogs (10 μM), a potentiation similar to that obtained for 10 μM adenosine (113%). Thus, the present results indicate that inhibition by extracellular ATP of hippocampal synaptic transmission requires localized extracellular catabolism by ectonucleotidases and channeling of the generated adenosine to adenosine A1 receptors.This work was supported by Junta Nacional de Investigação Cientifica e Tecnológica, Praxis XXI, Gulbenkian Foundation, and European Union (BIOMED 2 programme

Wang-Landau sampling in three-dimensional polymers

Monte Carlo simulations using Wang-Landau sampling are performed to study three-dimensional chains of homopolymers on a lattice. We confirm the accuracy of the method by calculating the thermodynamic properties of this system. Our results are in good agreement with those obtained using Metropolis importance sampling. This algorithm enables one to accurately simulate the usually hardly accessible low-temperature regions since it determines the density of states in a single simulation.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures arch-ive/Brazilian Journal of Physic

Magnetic ordering in GaAlAs:Mn double well structure

The magnetic order in the diluted magnetic semiconductor barrier of double AlAs/GaAs: Mn quantum well structures is investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. A confinement adapted RKKY mechanism is implemented for indirect exchange between Mn ions mediated by holes. It is shown that, depending on the barrier width and the hole concentration a ferromagnetic or a spin-glass order can be established.Comment: 3 figure

Constraining Dark Energy with Clusters: Complementarity with Other Probes

The Figure of Merit Science Working Group (FoMSWG) recently forecast the constraints on dark energy that will be achieved prior to the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) by ground-based experiments that exploit baryon acoustic oscillations, type Ia supernovae, and weak gravitational lensing. We show that cluster counts from on-going and near-future surveys should provide robust, complementary dark energy constraints. In particular, we find that optimally combined optical and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect cluster surveys should improve the Dark Energy Task Force (DETF) figure of merit for pre-JDEM projects by a factor of two even without prior knowledge of the nuisance parameters in the cluster mass-observable relation. Comparable improvements are achieved in the forecast precision of parameters specifying the principal component description of the dark energy equation of state parameter as well as in the growth index gamma. These results indicate that cluster counts can play an important complementary role in constraining dark energy and modified gravity even if the associated systematic errors are not strongly controlled.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev. D. Discussion section adde

A dynamical point of view of Quantum Information: entropy and pressure

Quantum Information is a new area of research which has been growing rapidly since last decade. This topic is very close to potential applications to the so called Quantum Computer. In our point of view it makes sense to develop a more "dynamical point of view" of this theory. We want to consider the concepts of entropy and pressure for "stationary systems" acting on density matrices which generalize the usual ones in Ergodic Theory (in the sense of the Thermodynamic Formalism of R. Bowen, Y. Sinai and D. Ruelle). We consider the operator $\mathcal{L}$ acting on density matrices $\rho\in \mathcal{M}_N$ over a finite $N$-dimensional complex Hilbert space $\mathcal{L}(\rho):=\sum_{i=1}^k tr(W_i\rho W_i^*)V_i\rho V_i^*,$ where $W_i$ and $V_i$, $i=1,2,...k$ are operators in this Hilbert space. $\mathcal{L}$ is not a linear operator. In some sense this operator is a version of an Iterated Function System (IFS). Namely, the $V_i\,(.)\,V_i^*=:F_i(.)$, $i=1,2,...,k$, play the role of the inverse branches (acting on the configuration space of density matrices $\rho$) and the $W_i$ play the role of the weights one can consider on the IFS. We suppose that for all $\rho$ we have that $\sum_{i=1}^k tr(W_i\rho W_i^*)=1$. A family $W:=\{W_i\}_{i=1,..., k}$ determines a Quantum Iterated Function System (QIFS) $\mathcal{F}_{W}$, $\mathcal{F}_W=\{\mathcal{M}_N,F_i,W_i\}_{i=1,..., k}.

P-248 Futility and utility of two-stage hepatectomy

Meeting abstract in the European-Society-for-Medical-Oncology (ESMO) 21st World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A dynamical point of view of Quantum Information: Wigner measures

We analyze a known version of the discrete Wigner function and some connections with Quantum Iterated Funcion Systems. This paper is a follow up of "A dynamical point of view of Quantum Information: entropy and pressure" by the same authors

Shadows and strong gravitational lensing: a brief review

For ultra compact objects (UCOs), Light Rings (LRs) and Fundamental Photon Orbits (FPOs) play a pivotal role in the theoretical analysis of strong gravitational lensing effects, and of BH shadows in particular. In this short review, specific models are considered to illustrate how FPOs can be useful in order to understand some non-trivial gravitational lensing effects. This paper aims at briefly overviewing the theoretical foundations of these effects, touching also some of the related phenomenology, both in General Relativity (GR) and alternative theories of gravity, hopefully providing some intuition and new insights for the underlying physics, which might be critical when testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; Review paper in the General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG) Topical Collection "Testing the Kerr spacetime with gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations" (Guest Editor: Emanuele Berti); v2: Typo corrected and two references adde