1,754 research outputs found
Spin-glass state and long-range magnetic order in Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3
We have investigated the magnetic ground-state of the multiferroic relaxor
ferroelectric \pfn with SR spectroscopy and neutron scattering. We find
that a transition to a partially disordered phase occurs below T=20 K that
coexists with long-range antiferromagnetic ordering. The disordered phase
resembles a spin-glass. No clustering of magnetic ions could be evidenced by
SR so that the coexistence appears homogeneous in the sample
Neural Circuitry of Novelty Salience Processing in Psychosis Risk: Association With Clinical Outcome
Psychosis has been proposed to develop from dysfunction in a hippocampal-striatal-midbrain circuit, leading to aberrant salience processing. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during novelty salience processing to investigate this model in people at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis according to their subsequent clinical outcomes. Seventy-six CHR participants as defined using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS) and 31 healthy controls (HC) were studied while performing a novelty salience fMRI task that engaged an a priori hippocampal-striatal-midbrain circuit of interest. The CHR sample was then followed clinically for a mean of 59.7 months (~5 y), when clinical outcomes were assessed in terms of transition (CHR-T) or non-transition (CHR-NT) to psychosis (CAARMS criteria): during this period, 13 individuals (17%) developed a psychotic disorder (CHR-T) and 63 did not. Functional activation and effective connectivity within a hippocampal-striatal-midbrain circuit were compared between groups. In CHR individuals compared to HC, hippocampal response to novel stimuli was significantly attenuated (P = .041 family-wise error corrected). Dynamic Causal Modelling revealed that stimulus novelty modulated effective connectivity from the hippocampus to the striatum, and from the midbrain to the hippocampus, significantly more in CHR participants than in HC. Conversely, stimulus novelty modulated connectivity from the midbrain to the striatum significantly less in CHR participants than in HC, and less in CHR participants who subsequently developed psychosis than in CHR individuals who did not become psychotic. Our findings are consistent with preclinical evidence implicating hippocampal-striatal-midbrain circuit dysfunction in altered salience processing and the onset of psychosis
Nonequilibrium Forces Between Neutral Atoms Mediated by a Quantum Field
We study all known and as yet unknown forces between two neutral atoms,
modeled as three dimensional harmonic oscillators, arising from mutual
influences mediated by an electromagnetic field but not from their direct
interactions. We allow as dynamical variables the center of mass motion of the
atom, its internal degrees of freedom and the quantum field treated
relativistically. We adopt the method of nonequilibrium quantum field theory
which can provide a first principle, systematic and unified description
including the intrinsic field fluctuations and induced dipole fluctuations. The
inclusion of self-consistent back-actions makes possible a fully dynamical
description of these forces valid for general atom motion. In thermal
equilibrium we recover the known forces -- London, van der Waals and
Casimir-Polder forces -- between neutral atoms in the long-time limit but also
discover the existence of two new types of interatomic forces. The first, a
`nonequilibrium force', arises when the field and atoms are not in thermal
equilibrium, and the second, which we call an `entanglement force', originates
from the correlations of the internal degrees of freedom of entangled atoms.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Gyrokinetic simulations of the tearing instability
Linear gyrokinetic simulations covering the collisional -- collisionless
transitional regime of the tearing instability are performed. It is shown that
the growth rate scaling with collisionality agrees well with that predicted by
a two-fluid theory for a low plasma beta case in which ion kinetic dynamics are
negligible. Electron wave-particle interactions (Landau damping), finite Larmor
radius, and other kinetic effects invalidate the fluid theory in the
collisionless regime, in which a general non-polytropic equation of state for
pressure (temperature) perturbations should be considered. We also vary the
ratio of the background ion to electron temperatures, and show that the
scalings expected from existing calculations can be recovered, but only in the
limit of very low beta.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Po
Astrophysical Gyrokinetics: Basic Equations and Linear Theory
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is encountered in a wide variety of
astrophysical plasmas, including accretion disks, the solar wind, and the
interstellar and intracluster medium. On small scales, this turbulence is often
expected to consist of highly anisotropic fluctuations with frequencies small
compared to the ion cyclotron frequency. For a number of applications, the
small scales are also collisionless, so a kinetic treatment of the turbulence
is necessary. We show that this anisotropic turbulence is well described by a
low frequency expansion of the kinetic theory called gyrokinetics. This paper
is the first in a series to examine turbulent astrophysical plasmas in the
gyrokinetic limit. We derive and explain the nonlinear gyrokinetic equations
and explore the linear properties of gyrokinetics as a prelude to nonlinear
simulations. The linear dispersion relation for gyrokinetics is obtained and
its solutions are compared to those of hot-plasma kinetic theory. These results
are used to validate the performance of the gyrokinetic simulation code {\tt
GS2} in the parameter regimes relevant for astrophysical plasmas. New results
on global energy conservation in gyrokinetics are also derived. We briefly
outline several of the problems to be addressed by future nonlinear
simulations, including particle heating by turbulence in hot accretion flows
and in the solar wind, the magnetic and electric field power spectra in the
solar wind, and the origin of small-scale density fluctuations in the
interstellar medium.Comment: emulateapj, 24 pages, 10 figures, revised submission to ApJ:
references added, typos corrected, reorganized and streamline
Extended cardiolipin anchorage to cytochrome c: model for protein-mitochondrial membrane binding.
Two models have been proposed to explain the interaction of cytochrome c with cardiolipin (CL) vesicles. In one case, an acyl chain of the phospholipid accommodates into a hydrophobic channel of the protein located close the Asn52 residue, whereas the alternative model considers the insertion of the acyl chain in the region of the Met80-containing loop. In an attempt to clarify which proposal offers a more appropriate explanation of cytochrome c-CL binding, we have undertaken a spectroscopic and kinetic study of the wild type and the Asn52Ile mutant of iso-1-cytochrome c from yeast to investigate the interaction of cytochrome c with CL vesicles, considered here a model for the CL-containing mitochondrial membrane. Replacement of Asn52, an invariant residue located in a small helix segment of the protein, may provide data useful to gain novel information on which region of cytochrome c is involved in the binding reaction with CL vesicles. In agreement with our recent results revealing that two distinct transitions take place in the cytochrome c-CL binding reaction, data obtained here support a model in which two (instead of one, as considered so far) adjacent acyl chains of the liposome are inserted, one at each of the hydrophobic sites, into the same cytochrome c molecule to form the cytochrome c-CL complex
The Met80Ala and Tyr67His/Met80Ala mutants of human cytochrome cshed light on the reciprocal role of Met80 and Tyr67 in regulating ligand access into the heme pocket.
The spectroscopic and functional properties of the single Met80Ala and double Tyr67His/Met80Ala mutants of human cytochrome c have been investigated in their ferric and ferrous forms, and in the presence of different ligands, in order to clarify the reciprocal effect of these two residues in regulating the access of exogenous molecules into the heme pocket. In the ferric state, both mutants display an aquo high spin and a low spin species. The latter corresponds to an OH- ligand in Met80Ala but to a His in the double mutant. The existence of these two species is also reflected in the functional behavior of the mutants. The observation that (i) a significant peroxidase activity is present in the Met80Ala mutants, (ii) the substitution of the Tyr67 by His leads to only a slight increase of the peroxidase activity in the Tyr67His/Met80Ala double mutant with respect to wild type, while the Tyr67His mutant behaves as wild type, as previously reported, suggests that the peroxidase activity of cytochrome c is linked to an overall conformational change of the heme pocket and not only to the disappearance of the Fe-Met80 bond. Therefore, in human cytochrome c there is an interplay between the two residues at positions 67 and 80 that affects the conformation of the distal side of the heme pocket, and thus the sixth coordination of the hem
Phase Space Energization of Ions in Oblique Shocks
Examining energization of kinetic plasmas in phase space is a growing topic
of interest, owing to the wealth of data in phase space compared to traditional
bulk energization diagnostics. Via the field-particle correlation (FPC)
technique and using multiple means of numerically integrating the plasma
kinetic equation, we have studied the energization of ions in phase space
within oblique collisionless shocks. The perspective afforded to us with this
analysis in phase space allows us to characterize distinct populations of
energized ions. In particular, we focus on ions which reflect multiple times
off the shock front through shock-drift acceleration, and how to distinguish
these different reflected populations in phase space using the FPC technique.
We further extend our analysis to simulations of three-dimensional shocks
undergoing more complicated dynamics, such as shock ripple, to demonstrate the
ability to recover the phase space signatures of this energization process in a
more general system. This work thus extends previous applications of the FPC
technique to more realistic collisionless shock environments, providing
stronger evidence of the technique's utility for simulation, laboratory, and
spacecraft analysis.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Role of lysines in cytochrome c – cardiolipin interaction
Cytochrome c undergoes structural variations during the apoptotic process; such changes have been related with modifications occurring in the protein when it forms a complex with cardiolipin, one of the phospholipids constituting the mitochondrial membrane. Although several studies have been performed to identify the site(s) of the protein involved in the cytochrome c/cardiolipin interaction, to date the location of this hosting region(s) remains unidentified and is a matter of debate. To gain a deeper insight into the reaction mechanism, we investigate the role that the Lys72, Lys73 and Lys79 residues play in the cytochrome c/cardiolipin interaction, as these side chains appear to be critical for cytochrome c/cardiolipin recognition. The Lys72Asn, Lys73Asn, Lys79Asn, Lys72/73Asn and Lys72/73/79Asn mutants of horse heart cytochrome c were produced and characterized by circular dichroism, UV-visible and resonance Raman spectroscopies, and the effects of the mutations on the interaction of the variants with cardiolipin have been investigated. The mutants are characterized by a subpopulation with non-native axial coordination, and are less stable than the wild type protein. Furthermore, the mutants lacking Lys72 and/or Lys79 do not bind cardiolipin and those lacking Lys73, although they form a complex with the phospholipid, do not show any peroxidase activity. These observations indicate that the Lys72, Lys73 and Lys79 residues stabilize the native axial Met80-Fe(III) coordination as well as the tertiary structure of cytochrome c. Moreover, while Lys72 and Lys79 are critical for cytochrome c/cardiolipin recognition, the simultaneous presence of Lys72, Lys73 and Lys79 is necessary for peroxidase activity of cardiolipin-bound cytochrome c
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