131 research outputs found
Calcium channels controlling acetylcholine release from preganglionic nerve terminals in rat autonomic ganglia
Little is known about the nature of the calcium channels controlling neurotransmitter release from preganglionic parasympathetic nerve fibres. In the present study, the effects of selective calcium channel antagonists and amiloride were investigated on ganglionic neurotransmission. Conventional intracellular recording and focal extracellular recording techniques were used in rat submandibular and pelvic ganglia, respectively. Excitatory postsynaptic potentials and excitatory postsynaptic currents preceded by nerve terminal impulses were recorded as a measure of acetylcholine release from parasympathetic and sympathetic preganglionic fibres following nerve stimulation. The calcium channel antagonists omega-conotoxin GVIA (N type), nifedipine and nimodipine (L type), omega-conotoxin MVIIC and omega-agatoxin IVA (P/Q type), and Ni2+ (R type) had no functional inhibitory effects on synaptic transmission in both submandibular and pelvic ganglia. The potassium-sparing diuretic, amiloride, and its analogue, dimethyl amiloride, produced a reversible and concentration-dependent inhibition of excitatory postsynaptic potential amplitude in the rat submandibular ganglion. The amplitude and frequency of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic potentials and the sensitivity of the postsynaptic membrane to acetylcholine were unaffected by amiloride. In the rat pelvic ganglion, amiloride produced a concentration-dependent inhibition of excitatory postsynaptic currents without causing any detectable effects on the amplitude or configuration of the nerve terminal impulse. These results indicate that neurotransmitter release from preganglionic parasympathetic and sympathetic nerve terminals is resistant to inhibition by specific calcium channel antagonists of N-, L-, P/Q- and R-type calcium channels. Amiloride acts presynaptically to inhibit evoked transmitter release, but does not prevent action potential propagation in the nerve terminals, suggesting that amiloride may block the pharmacologically distinct calcium channel type(s) on rat preganglionic nerve terminals. (C) 1999 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd
New Insights into White-Light Flare Emission from Radiative-Hydrodynamic Modeling of a Chromospheric Condensation
(abridged) The heating mechanism at high densities during M dwarf flares is
poorly understood. Spectra of M dwarf flares in the optical and
near-ultraviolet wavelength regimes have revealed three continuum components
during the impulsive phase: 1) an energetically dominant blackbody component
with a color temperature of T 10,000 K in the blue-optical, 2) a smaller
amount of Balmer continuum emission in the near-ultraviolet at lambda 3646
Angstroms and 3) an apparent pseudo-continuum of blended high-order Balmer
lines. These properties are not reproduced by models that employ a typical
"solar-type" flare heating level in nonthermal electrons, and therefore our
understanding of these spectra is limited to a phenomenological interpretation.
We present a new 1D radiative-hydrodynamic model of an M dwarf flare from
precipitating nonthermal electrons with a large energy flux of erg
cm s. The simulation produces bright continuum emission from a
dense, hot chromospheric condensation. For the first time, the observed color
temperature and Balmer jump ratio are produced self-consistently in a
radiative-hydrodynamic flare model. We find that a T 10,000 K
blackbody-like continuum component and a small Balmer jump ratio result from
optically thick Balmer and Paschen recombination radiation, and thus the
properties of the flux spectrum are caused by blue light escaping over a larger
physical depth range compared to red and near-ultraviolet light. To model the
near-ultraviolet pseudo-continuum previously attributed to overlapping Balmer
lines, we include the extra Balmer continuum opacity from Landau-Zener
transitions that result from merged, high order energy levels of hydrogen in a
dense, partially ionized atmosphere. This reveals a new diagnostic of ambient
charge density in the densest regions of the atmosphere that are heated during
dMe and solar flares.Comment: 50 pages, 2 tables, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Solar
Physics Topical Issue, "Solar and Stellar Flares". Version 2 (June 22, 2015):
updated to include comments by Guest Editor. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11207-015-0708-
Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares
The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of
diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an
injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares.
These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted
emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential
emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among
others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years
using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data
from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background
and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the
Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare
Differential cross section and recoil polarization measurements for the gamma p to K+ Lambda reaction using CLAS at Jefferson Lab
We present measurements of the differential cross section and Lambda recoil
polarization for the gamma p to K+ Lambda reaction made using the CLAS detector
at Jefferson Lab. These measurements cover the center-of-mass energy range from
1.62 to 2.84 GeV and a wide range of center-of-mass K+ production angles.
Independent analyses were performed using the K+ p pi- and K+ p (missing pi -)
final-state topologies; results from these analyses were found to exhibit good
agreement. These differential cross section measurements show excellent
agreement with previous CLAS and LEPS results and offer increased precision and
a 300 MeV increase in energy coverage. The recoil polarization data agree well
with previous results and offer a large increase in precision and a 500 MeV
extension in energy range. The increased center-of-mass energy range that these
data represent will allow for independent study of non-resonant K+ Lambda
photoproduction mechanisms at all production angles.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figure
Tensor Correlations Measured in 3He(e,e'pp)n
We have measured the 3He(e,e'pp)n reaction at an incident energy of 4.7 GeV
over a wide kinematic range. We identified spectator correlated pp and pn
nucleon pairs using kinematic cuts and measured their relative and total
momentum distributions. This is the first measurement of the ratio of pp to pn
pairs as a function of pair total momentum, . For pair relative
momenta between 0.3 and 0.5 GeV/c, the ratio is very small at low and
rises to approximately 0.5 at large . This shows the dominance of
tensor over central correlations at this relative momentum.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Coherent Photoproduction of pi^+ from 3^He
We have measured the differential cross section for the
He reaction. This reaction was studied using
the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab. Real photons
produced with the Hall-B bremsstrahlung tagging system in the energy range from
0.50 to 1.55 GeV were incident on a cryogenic liquid He target. The
differential cross sections for the He
reaction were measured as a function of photon-beam energy and pion-scattering
angle. Theoretical predictions to date cannot explain the large cross sections
except at backward angles, showing that additional components must be added to
the model.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figure
Measurement of the Nucleon Structure Function F2 in the Nuclear Medium and Evaluation of its Moments
We report on the measurement of inclusive electron scattering off a carbon
target performed with CLAS at Jefferson Laboratory. A combination of three
different beam energies 1.161, 2.261 and 4.461 GeV allowed us to reach an
invariant mass of the final-state hadronic system W~2.4 GeV with four-momentum
transfers Q2 ranging from 0.2 to 5 GeV2. These data, together with previous
measurements of the inclusive electron scattering off proton and deuteron,
which cover a similar continuous two-dimensional region of Q2 and Bjorken
variable x, permit the study of nuclear modifications of the nucleon structure.
By using these, as well as other world data, we evaluated the F2 structure
function and its moments. Using an OPE-based twist expansion, we studied the
Q2-evolution of the moments, obtaining a separation of the leading-twist and
the total higher-twist terms. The carbon-to-deuteron ratio of the leading-twist
contributions to the F2 moments exhibits the well known EMC effect, compatible
with that discovered previously in x-space. The total higher-twist term in the
carbon nucleus appears, although with large systematic uncertainites, to be
smaller with respect to the deuteron case for n<7, suggesting partial parton
deconfinement in nuclear matter. We speculate that the spatial extension of the
nucleon is changed when it is immersed in the nuclear medium.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figure
A Bayesian analysis of pentaquark signals from CLAS data
We examine the results of two measurements by the CLAS collaboration, one of
which claimed evidence for a pentaquark, whilst the other found no
such evidence. The unique feature of these two experiments was that they were
performed with the same experimental setup. Using a Bayesian analysis we find
that the results of the two experiments are in fact compatible with each other,
but that the first measurement did not contain sufficient information to
determine unambiguously the existence of a . Further, we suggest a
means by which the existence of a new candidate particle can be tested in a
rigorous manner.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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