2,027 research outputs found
Molecular mechanisms behind inherited neurodegeneration of the optic nerve
Inherited neurodegeneration of the optic nerve is a paradigm in neurology, as many forms of isolated or syndromic optic atrophy are encountered in clinical practice. The retinal ganglion cells originate the axons that form the optic nerve. They are particularly vulnerable to mitochondrial dysfunction, as they present a peculiar cellular architecture, with axons that are not myelinated for a long intra-retinal segment, thus, very energy dependent. The genetic landscape of causative mutations and genes greatly enlarged in the last decade, pointing to common pathways. These mostly imply mitochondrial dysfunction, which leads to a similar outcome in terms of neurodegeneration. We here critically review these pathways, which include (1) complex I-related oxidative phosphor-ylation (OXPHOS) dysfunction, (2) mitochondrial dynamics, and (3) endoplasmic reticulum-mito-chondrial inter-organellar crosstalk. These major pathogenic mechanisms are in turn interconnected and represent the target for therapeutic strategies. Thus, their deep understanding is the basis to set and test new effective therapies, an urgent unmet need for these patients. New tools are now available to capture all interlinked mechanistic intricacies for the pathogenesis of optic nerve neuro-degeneration, casting hope for innovative therapies to be rapidly transferred into the clinic and effectively cure inherited optic neuropathies
Electron attachment rates for PAH anions in the ISM and dark molecular clouds: dependence on their chemical properties
CONTEXT: The attachment of free electrons to polycondensed aromatic ring
molecules (PAHs) is studied for the variety of these molecules with different
numbers of condensed rings and over a broad range of electron temperatures,
using a multichannel quantum scattering approach. The calculations of the
relevant cross sections are used in turn to model the corresponding attachment
rates for each of the systems under study, and these rates are parametrized as
a function of temperature using a commonly employed expression for two-body
processes in the interstellar medium (ISM). AIM: The scope of this work is to
use first principles to establish the influence of chemical properties on the
efficiency of the electron-attachment process for PAHs. METHODS: Quantum
multichannel scattering methods are employed to generate the relevant cross
sections, hence the attachment rates, using integral elastic cross sections
computed over a broad range of relevant energies, from threshold up to 1000 K
and linking the attachment to low-energy resonant collisions. RESULTS: The
rates obtained for the present molecules are found to markedly vary within the
test ensemble of the present work and to be lower than the earlier values used
for the entire class of PAHs anions, when modelling their evolutions in ISM
environments. The effects of such differences on the evolutions of chemical
networks that include both PAH and PAH- species are analysed in some detail and
related to previous calculations.Comment: accepted to be published on A&
Electron-attachment rates for carbon-rich molecules in protoplanetary atmospheres: the role of chemical differences
The formation of anionic species in the interstellar medium from interaction
of linear molecules containing carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen as atomic
components (polyynes) with free electrons in the environment is modelled via a
quantum treatment of the collision dynamics. The ensuing integral cross
sections are employed to obtain the corresponding attachment rates over a broad
range of temperatures for the electrons. The calculations unequivocally show
that a parametrization form often employed for such rates yields a broad range
of values that turn out to be specific for each molecular species considered,
thus excluding using a unique set for the whole class of polyynes.Comment: accepted to be published on MNRA
Nucleus Accumbens Core and Shell Differentially Encode Reward-Associated Cues after Reinforcer Devaluation
Nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons encode features of stimulus learning and action selection associated with rewards. The NAc is necessary for using information about expected outcome values to guide behavior after reinforcer devaluation. Evidence suggests that core and shell subregions may play dissociable roles in guiding motivated behavior. Here, we recorded neural activity in the NAc core and shell during training and performance of a reinforcer devaluation task. Long–Evans male rats were trained that presses on a lever under an illuminated cue light delivered a flavored sucrose reward. On subsequent test days, each rat was given free access to one of two distinctly flavored foods to consume to satiation and were then immediately tested on the lever pressing task under extinction conditions. Rats decreased pressing on the test day when the reinforcer earned during training was the sated flavor (devalued) compared with the test day when the reinforcer was not the sated flavor (nondevalued), demonstrating evidence of outcome-selective devaluation. Cue-selective encoding during training by NAc core (but not shell) neurons reliably predicted subsequent behavioral performance; that is, the greater the percentage of neurons that responded to the cue, the better the rats suppressed responding after devaluation. In contrast, NAc shell (but not core) neurons significantly decreased cue-selective encoding in the devalued condition compared with the nondevalued condition. These data reveal that NAc core and shell neurons encode information differentially about outcome-specific cues after reinforcer devaluation that are related to behavioral performance and outcome value, respectively
A tunable rf SQUID manipulated as flux and phase qubit
We report on two different manipulation procedures of a tunable rf SQUID.
First, we operate this system as a flux qubit, where the coherent evolution
between the two flux states is induced by a rapid change of the energy
potential, turning it from a double well into a single well. The measured
coherent Larmor-like oscillation of the retrapping probability in one of the
wells has a frequency ranging from 6 to 20 GHz, with a theoretically expected
upper limit of 40 GHz. Furthermore, here we also report a manipulation of the
same device as a phase qubit. In the phase regime, the manipulation of the
energy states is realized by applying a resonant microwave drive. In spite of
the conceptual difference between these two manipulation procedures, the
measured decay times of Larmor oscillation and microwave-driven Rabi
oscillation are rather similar. Due to the higher frequency of the Larmor
oscillations, the microwave-free qubit manipulation allows for much faster
coherent operations.Comment: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium "Qubits for future quantum computers",
Goeteborg, Sweden, May 25-28, 2009; to appear in Physica Script
- …