Formal total synthesis of (±)-conduramine E utilising the Bryce-Smith-Gilbert photoamination reaction

Utilising a Bryce-Smith-Gilbert photoamination of benzene as a key step, a synthesis of ()-conduramine E was carried out. A highly regioselective dihydroxylation of a cyclic diene was effected utilising Sharpless AD-mix-b

Electromagnons in multiferroic YMn2O5 and TbMn2O5

Based on temperature dependent far infrared transmission spectra of YMn2O5 and TbMn2O5 single crystals, we report the observation of electric dipole-active magnetic excitations, or electromagnons, in these multiferroics. Electromagnons are found to be directly responsible for the step-like anomaly of the static dielectric constant at the commensurate--incommensurate magnetic transition and are the origin of the colossal magneto-dielectric effect reported in these multiferroics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitte

Bedrest in healthy women: Effects of menstrual function and oral contraceptives

With the development of the space shuttle program, space flight for the first time is available to individuals who have not been specially selected and trained to be astronauts. In addition, women are being actively recruited into the space program, both as mission specialists and as career astronauts. One purpose of this project was to examine some of the physiological responses of women to a simulated weightlessness program (12 day horizontal bedrest), to compare their responses to those reported in men during similar programs, and to test whether menstrual function might alter some of the physiological changes which occur during bedrest, specifically changes in the plasma volume, exercise tolerance, and venous compliance before and after bedrest

Ecological theory predicts ecosystem stressor interactions in freshwater communities, but highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the additive null model

Understanding and predicting how multiple co-occurring environmental stressors combine to affect biodiversity and ecosystem services is an on-going grand challenge for ecology. So far progress has been made through accumulating large numbers of smaller-scale individual studies that are then investigated by meta-analyses to look for general patterns. In particular there has been an interest in checking for so-called ecological surprises where stressors interact in a synergistic manner. Recent reviews suggest that such synergisms do not dominate, but few other generalities have emerged. This lack of general prediction and understanding may be due in part to a dearth of ecological theory that can generate clear hypotheses and predictions to tested against empirical data. Here we close this gap by analysing food web models based upon classical ecological theory and comparing their predictions to a large (546 interactions) dataset for the effects of pairs of stressors on freshwater communities, using trophic- and population-level metrics of abundance, density, and biomass as responses. We find excellent overall agreement between the stochastic version of our models and the experimental data, and both conclude additive stressor interactions are the most frequent, but that meta-analyses report antagonistic summary interaction classes. Additionally, we show that the statistical tests used to classify the interactions are very sensitive to sampling variation. It is therefore likely that current weak sampling and low sample sizes are masking many non-additive stressor interactions, which our theory predicts to dominate when sampling variation is removed. This leads us to suspect ecological surprises may be more common than currently reported. Our results highlight the value of developing theory in tandem with empirical tests, and the need to examine the robustness of statistical machinery, especially the widely-used null models, before we can draw strong conclusions about how environmental drivers combine

Spectral origin of the colossal magnetodielectric effect in multiferroic DyMn2O5

The origin of the colossal magnetodielectric effect in DyMn2O5 [1] has been an outstanding question in multiferroics. Here, we report the activation of the electric dipole mode at 4-5 cm-1 in an applied magnetic field which fully accounts for the CMD effect. We examine two alternative explanations of this mode: an electromagnon and transitions between f-electron levels of Dy3+ ions. The experimental and theoretical evidence supports the electromagnon origin of the CMD effect.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

High-threshold mechanosensitive ion channels blocked by a novel conopeptide mediate pressure-evoked pain

Little is known about the molecular basis of somatosensory mechanotransduction in mammals. We screened a library of peptide toxins for effects on mechanically activated currents in cultured dorsal root ganglion neurons. One conopeptide analogue, termed NMB-1 for noxious mechanosensation blocker 1, selectively inhibits (IC50 1 µM) sustained mechanically activated currents in a subset of sensory neurons. Biotinylated NMB-1 retains activity and binds selectively to peripherin-positive nociceptive sensory neurons. The selectivity of NMB-1 was confirmed by the fact that it has no inhibitory effects on voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels, or ligand-gated channels such as acid-sensing ion channels or TRPA1 channels. Conversely, the tarantula toxin, GsMTx-4, which inhibits stretch-activated ion channels, had no effects on mechanically activated currents in sensory neurons. In behavioral assays, NMB-1 inhibits responses only to high intensity, painful mechanical stimulation and has no effects on low intensity mechanical stimulation or thermosensation. Unexpectedly, NMB-1 was found to also be an inhibitor of rapid FM1-43 loading (a measure of mechanotransduction) in cochlear hair cells. These data demonstrate that pharmacologically distinct channels respond to distinct types of mechanical stimuli and suggest that mechanically activated sustained currents underlie noxious mechanosensation. NMB-1 thus provides a novel diagnostic tool for the molecular definition of channels involved in hearing and pressure-evoked pain

Elucidating the role of hyperfine interactions on organic magnetoresistance using deuterated aluminium tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)

Measurements of the effect of a magnetic field on the light output and current through an organic light emitting diode made with deuterated aluminium tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) have shown that hyperfine coupling with protons is not the cause of the intrinsic organic magnetoresistance. We suggest that interactions with unpaired electrons in the device may be responsible.Comment: Submitte

Spike-timing computation properties of a feed-forward neural network model

Brain function is characterized by dynamical interactions among networks of neurons. These interactions are mediated by network topology at many scales ranging from microcircuits to brain areas. Understanding how networks operate can be aided by understanding how the transformation of inputs depends upon network connectivity patterns, e.g. serial and parallel pathways. To tractably determine how single synapses or groups of synapses in such pathways shape transformations, we modeled feed-forward networks of 7-22 neurons in which synaptic strength changed according to a spike-timing dependent plasticity rule. We investigated how activity varied when dynamics were perturbed by an activity-dependent electrical stimulation protocol (spike-triggered stimulation; STS) in networks of different topologies and background input correlations. STS can successfully reorganize functional brain networks in vivo, but with a variability in effectiveness that may derive partially from the underlying network topology. In a simulated network with a single disynaptic pathway driven by uncorrelated background activity, structured spike-timing relationships between polysynaptically connected neurons were not observed. When background activity was correlated or parallel disynaptic pathways were added, however, robust polysynaptic spike timing relationships were observed, and application of STS yielded predictable changes in synaptic strengths and spike-timing relationships. These observations suggest that precise input-related or topologically induced temporal relationships in network activity are necessary for polysynaptic signal propagation. Such constraints for polysynaptic computation suggest potential roles for higher-order topological structure in network organization, such as maintaining polysynaptic correlation in the face of relatively weak synapses