15,908 research outputs found
Energetics of ion competition in the DEKA selectivity filter of neuronal sodium channels
The energetics of ionic selectivity in the neuronal sodium channels is
studied. A simple model constructed for the selectivity filter of the channel
is used. The selectivity filter of this channel type contains aspartate (D),
glutamate (E), lysine (K), and alanine (A) residues (the DEKA locus). We use
Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations to compute equilibrium binding
selectivity in the selectivity filter and to obtain various terms of the excess
chemical potential from a particle insertion procedure based on Widom's method.
We show that K ions in competition with Na are efficiently excluded
from the selectivity filter due to entropic hard sphere exclusion. The
dielectric constant of protein has no effect on this selectivity. Ca
ions, on the other hand, are excluded from the filter due to a free energetic
penalty which is enhanced by the low dielectric constant of protein.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
Very High Mach Number Electrostatic Shocks in Collisionless Plasmas
The kinetic theory of collisionless electrostatic shocks resulting from the
collision of plasma slabs with different temperatures and densities is
presented. The theoretical results are confirmed by self-consistent
particle-in-cell simulations, revealing the formation and stable propagation of
electrostatic shocks with very high Mach numbers (), well above the
predictions of the classical theories for electrostatic shocks.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Impacts of in vivo and in vitro exposures to tamoxifen: comparative effects on human cells and marine organisms
Tamoxifen (TAM) is a first generation-SERM administered for hormone receptor-positive (HER+) breast cancer in both pre- and post-menopausal patients and may undergo metabolic activation in organisms that share similar receptors and thus face comparable mechanisms of response. The present study aimed to assess whether environmental trace concentrations of TAM are bioavailable to the filter feeder M. galloprovincialis (100 ng L-1) and to the deposit feeder N. diversicolor (0.5, 10, 25 and 100 ng L-1) after 14 days of exposure. Behavioural impairment (burrowing kinetic), neurotoxicity (AChE activity), endocrine disruption by alkali-labile phosphate (ALP) content, oxidative stress (SOD, CAT, GPXs activities), biotransformation (GST activity), oxidative damage (LPO) and genotoxicity (DNA damage) were assessed. Moreover, this study also pertained to compare TAM cytotoxicity effects to mussels and targeted human (i.e. immortalized retinal pigment epithelium - RPE; and human transformed endothelial cells - HeLa) cell lines, in a range of concentrations from 0.5 ng L-1 to 50 μg L-1. In polychaetes N. diversicolor, TAM exerted remarkable oxidative stress and damage at the lowest concentration (0.5 ng L-1), whereas significant genotoxicity was reported at the highest exposure level (100 ng L-1). In mussels M. galloprovincialis, 100 ng L-1 TAM caused endocrine disruption in males, neurotoxicity, and an induction in GST activity and LPO byproducts in gills, corroborating in genotoxicity over the exposure days. Although cytotoxicity assays conducted with mussel haemocytes following in vivo exposure was not effective, in vitro exposure showed to be a feasible alternative, with comparable sensitivity to human cell line (HeLa).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Nonlinear Interferometry via Fock State Projection
We use a photon-number resolving detector to monitor the photon number
distribution of the output of an interferometer, as a function of phase delay.
As inputs we use coherent states with mean photon number up to seven. The
postselection of a specific Fock (photon-number) state effectively induces
high-order optical non-linearities. Following a scheme by Bentley and Boyd
[S.J. Bentley and R.W. Boyd, Optics Express 12, 5735 (2004)] we explore this
effect to demonstrate interference patterns a factor of five smaller than the
Rayleigh limit.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Photodisintegration of the triton with realistic potentials
The process is treated by means of three-body integral
equations employing in their kernel the W-Matrix representation of the
subsystem amplitudes. As compared to the plane wave (Born) approximation the
full solution of the integral equations, which takes into account the final
state interaction, shows at low energies a 24% enhancement. The calculations
are based on the semirealistic Malfliet-Tjon and the realistic Paris and Bonn B
potentials. For comparison with earlier calculations we also present results
for the Yamaguchi potential. In the low-energy region a remarkable potential
dependence is observed, which vanishes at higher energies.Comment: 16 pages REVTeX, 8 postscript figures included, uses epsfig.st
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