21,229 research outputs found
Synchronization and oscillatory dynamics in heterogeneous mutually inhibited neurons
We study some mechanisms responsible for synchronous oscillations and loss of
synchrony at physiologically relevant frequencies (10-200 Hz) in a network of
heterogeneous inhibitory neurons. We focus on the factors that determine the
level of synchrony and frequency of the network response, as well as the
effects of mild heterogeneity on network dynamics. With mild heterogeneity,
synchrony is never perfect and is relatively fragile. In addition, the effects
of inhibition are more complex in mildly heterogeneous networks than in
homogeneous ones. In the former, synchrony is broken in two distinct ways,
depending on the ratio of the synaptic decay time to the period of repetitive
action potentials (), where can be determined either from the
network or from a single, self-inhibiting neuron. With ,
corresponding to large applied current, small synaptic strength or large
synaptic decay time, the effects of inhibition are largely tonic and
heterogeneous neurons spike relatively independently. With ,
synchrony breaks when faster cells begin to suppress their less excitable
neighbors; cells that fire remain nearly synchronous. We show numerically that
the behavior of mildly heterogeneous networks can be related to the behavior of
single, self-inhibiting cells, which can be studied analytically.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Kluwer.sty. Journal of Compuational Neuroscience
(in press). Originally submitted to the neuro-sys archive which was never
publicly announced (was 9802001
Averaging approximation to singularly perturbed nonlinear stochastic wave equations
An averaging method is applied to derive effective approximation to the
following singularly perturbed nonlinear stochastic damped wave equation \nu
u_{tt}+u_t=\D u+f(u)+\nu^\alpha\dot{W} on an open bounded domain
\,, \,. Here is a small parameter
characterising the singular perturbation, and \,, \,, parametrises the strength of the noise. Some scaling transformations
and the martingale representation theorem yield the following effective
approximation for small , u_t=\D u+f(u)+\nu^\alpha\dot{W} to an error of
\ord{\nu^\alpha}\,.Comment: 16 pages. Submitte
Purification and characterization of a protein-tyrosine kinase encoded by the Abelson murine leukemia virus
Sequences termed v-abl, which encode the protein-tyrosine kinase activity of Abelson murine leukemia virus, have been expressed in Escherichia coli as a fusion product (ptabl50 kinase). This fusion protein contains 80 amino acids of SV40 small t and the 403 amino acid protein kinase domain of v-abl. We report here the purification and characterization of this kinase. The purified material contains two proteins (Mr = 59,800 and 57,200), both of which possess sequences derived from v-abl. Overall purification was 3,750-fold, with a 31% yield, such that 117 micrograms of kinase could be obtained from 40 g of E. coli within 6-7 days. The specific kinase activity is over 170 mumol of phosphate min-1 mumol-1, comparable to the most active protein- serine kinases. Kinase activity is insensitive to K+, Na+, Ca2+, Ca2+- calmodulin, cAMP, or cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor. The Km for ATP is dependent on the concentration of the second substrate. GTP can also be used as a phosphate donor. The enzyme can phosphorylate peptides consisting of as few as two amino acids and, at a very low rate, free tyrosine. Incubation of the kinase with [gamma-32P]ATP results in incorporation of 1.0 mol of phosphate/mol of protein. This reaction, however, cannot be blocked by prior incubation with unlabeled ATP. Incubation of 32P-labeled kinase with either ADP or ATP results in the synthesis of [32P]ATP. This suggests the phosphotyrosine residue on the Abelson kinase contains a high energy phosphate bond
Running-phase state in a Josephson washboard potential
We investigate the dynamics of the phase variable of an ideal underdamped
Josephson junction in switching current experiments. These experiments have
provided the first evidence for macroscopic quantum tunneling in large
Josephson junctions and are currently used for state read-out of
superconducting qubits. We calculate the shape of the resulting macroscopic
wavepacket and find that the propagation of the wavepacket long enough after a
switching event leads to an average voltage increasing linearly with time.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Electrical determination of the valence-band discontinuity in HgTe-CdTe heterojunctions
Current-voltage behavior is studied experimentally in a Hg0.78Cd0.22Te-CdTe-Hg0.78Cd0.22Te heterostructure grown by molecular beam epitaxy. At temperatures above 160 K, energy-band diagrams suggest that the dominant low-bias current is thermionic hole emission across the CdTe barrier layer. This interpretation yields a direct determination of 390±75 meV for the HgTe-CdTe valence-band discontinuity at 300 K. Similar analyses of current-voltage data taken at 190–300 K suggest that the valence-band offset decreases at low temperatures in this heterojunction
Type II superlattices for infrared detectors and devices
Superlattices consisting of combinations of III-V semiconductors with type II band alignments are of interest for infrared applications because their energy gaps can be made smaller than those of any 'natural' III-V compounds. Specifically, it has been demonstrated that both InSb/InAsxSb1-x superlattices and Ga1-xInxSb/InAs superlattices can possess energy gaps in the 8-14 mu m range. The efforts have focused on the Ga1-xInxSb/InAs system because of its extreme broken gap band alignment, which results in narrow energy gaps for very short superlattice periods. The authors report the use of in situ chemical doping of Ga1-xInxSb/InAs superlattices to fabricate p-n photodiodes. These diodes display a clear photovoltaic response with a threshold near 12 mu m. They have also attained outstanding structural quality in Ga1-xInxSb/InAs superlattices grown on radiatively heated GaSb substrates. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscope images of these superlattices display no dislocations, while high resolution X-ray diffraction scans reveal sharp high-order superlattice satellites and strong Pendellosung fringes
The Resonance Peak in SrRuO: Signature of Spin Triplet Pairing
We study the dynamical spin susceptibility, , in the
normal and superconducting state of SrRuO. In the normal state, we find
a peak in the vicinity of in agreement with
recent inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments. We predict that for spin
triplet pairing in the superconducting state a {\it resonance peak} appears in
the out-of-plane component of , but is absent in the in-plane component.
In contrast, no resonance peak is expected for spin singlet pairing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, final versio
- …