45 research outputs found
Long-term social recognition memory in adult male rats: factor analysis of the social and non-social behaviors
A modified version of the intruder-resident paradigm was used to investigate if social recognition memory lasts at least 24 h. One hundred and forty-six adult male Wistar rats were used. Independent groups of rats were exposed to an intruder for 0.083, 0.5, 2, 24, or 168 h and tested 24 h after the first encounter with the familiar or a different conspecific. Factor analysis was employed to identify associations between behaviors and treatments. Resident rats exhibited a 24-h social recognition memory, as indicated by a 3- to 5-fold decrease in social behaviors in the second encounter with the same conspecific compared to those observed for a different conspecific, when the duration of the first encounter was 2 h or longer. It was possible to distinguish between two different categories of social behaviors and their expression depended on the duration of the first encounter. Sniffing the anogenital area (49.9% of the social behaviors), sniffing the body (17.9%), sniffing the head (3%), and following the conspecific (3.1%), exhibited mostly by resident rats, characterized social investigation and revealed long-term social recognition memory. However, dominance (23.8%) and mild aggression (2.3%), exhibited by both resident and intruders, characterized social agonistic behaviors and were not affected by memory. Differently, sniffing the environment (76.8% of the non-social behaviors) and rearing (14.3%), both exhibited mostly by adult intruder rats, characterized non-social behaviors. Together, these results show that social recognition memory in rats may last at least 24 h after a 2-h or longer exposure to the conspecific
Spin Two Glueball Mass and Glueball Regge Trajectory from Supergravity
We calculate the mass of the lowest lying spin two glueball in N=1 super
Yang-Mills from the dual Klebanov-Strassler background. We show that the Regge
trajectory obtained is linear; the 0++, 1-- and 2++ states lie on a line of
slope 0.23 -measured in units of the conifold deformation. We also compare mass
ratios with lattice data and find agreement within one standard deviation.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
Magnetic enhancement of CoZnFeO spinel oxide by mechanical milling
We report the magnetic properties of mechanically milled
CoZnFeO spinel oxide. After 24 hours milling of the
bulk sample, the XRD spectra show nanostructure with average particle size
20 nm. The as milled sample shows an enhancement in magnetization and
ordering temperature compared to the bulk sample. If the as milled sample is
annealed at different temperatures for the same duration, recrystallization
process occurs and approaches to the bulk structure on increasing the annealing
temperatures. The magnetization of the annealed samples first increases and
then decreases. At higher annealing temperature ( 1000C) the system
shows two coexisting magnetic phases {\it i.e.}, spin glass state and
ferrimagnetic state, similar to the as prepared bulk sample. The room
temperature M\"{o}ssbauer spectra of the as milled sample, annealed at
300C for different durations (upto 575 hours), suggest that the observed
change in magnetic behaviour is strongly related with cations redistribution
between tetrahedral (A) and octahedral (O) sites in the spinel structure. Apart
from the cation redistribution, we suggest that the enhancement of
magnetization and ordering temperature is related with the reduction of B site
spin canting and increase of strain induced anisotropic energy during
mechanical milling.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, 10 ps figure
G<sub>s</sub> protein peptidomimetics as allosteric modulators of the β<sub>2</sub>-adrenergic receptor
A series of G(s) protein peptidomimetics were designed and synthesised based on the published X-ray crystal structure of the active state β(2)-adrenergic receptor (β(2)AR) in complex with the G(s) protein (PDB 3SN6). We hypothesised that such peptidomimetics may function as allosteric modulators that target the intracellular G(s) protein binding site of the β(2)AR. Peptidomimetics were designed to mimic the 15 residue C-terminal α-helix of the G(s) protein and were pre-organised in a helical conformation by (i, i + 4)-stapling using copper catalysed azide alkyne cycloaddition. Linear and stapled peptidomimetics were analysed by circular dichroism (CD) and characterised in a membrane-based cAMP accumulation assay and in a bimane fluorescence assay on purified β(2)AR. Several peptidomimetics inhibited agonist isoproterenol (ISO) induced cAMP formation by lowering the ISO maximal efficacy up to 61%. Moreover, some peptidomimetics were found to significantly decrease the potency of ISO up to 39-fold. In the bimane fluorescence assay none of the tested peptidomimetics could stabilise an active-like conformation of β(2)AR. Overall, the obtained pharmacological data suggest that some of the peptidomimetics may be able to compete with the native G(s) protein for the intracellular binding site to block ISO-induced cAMP formation, but are unable to stabilise an active-like receptor conformation
An emerging viral pathogen truncates population age structure in a European amphibian and may reduce population viability
Infectious diseases can alter the demography of their host populations, reducing their viability even in the absence of mass mortality. Amphibians are the most threatened group of vertebrates globally, and emerging infectious diseases play a large role in their continued population declines. Viruses belonging to the genus Ranavirus are responsible for one of the deadliest and most widespread of these diseases. To date, no work has used individual level data to investigate how ranaviruses affect population demographic structure. We used skeletochronology and morphology to evaluate the impact of ranaviruses on the age structure of populations of the European common frog (Rana temporaria) in the UK. We compared ecologically similar populations that differed most notably in their historical presence or absence of ranavirosis (the acute syndrome caused by ranavirus infection). Our results suggest that ranavirosis may truncate the age structure of R. temporaria populations. One potential explanation for such a shift might be increased adult mortality and subsequent shifts in the life history of younger age classes that increase reproductive output earlier in life. Additionally, we constructed population projection models which indicated that such increased adult mortality could heighten the vulnerability of frog populations to stochastic environmental challenges
Building the cosmic distance scale: from Hipparcos to Gaia
Hipparcos, the first ever experiment of global astrometry, was launched by
ESA in 1989 and its results published in 1997 (Perryman et al., Astron.
Astrophys. 323, L49, 1997; Perryman & ESA (eds), The Hipparcos and Tycho
catalogues, ESA SP-1200, 1997). A new reduction was later performed using an
improved satellite attitude reconstruction leading to an improved accuracy for
stars brighter than 9th magnitude (van Leeuwen & Fantino, Astron. Astrophys.
439, 791, 2005; van Leeuwen, Astron. Astrophys. 474, 653, 2007).
The Hipparcos Catalogue provided an extended dataset of very accurate
astrometric data (positions, trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions),
enlarging by two orders of magnitude the quantity and quality of distance
determinations and luminosity calibrations. The availability of more than 20000
stars with a trigonometric parallax known to better than 10% opened the way to
a drastic revision of our 3-D knowledge of the solar neighbourhood and to a
renewal of the calibration of many distance indicators and age estimations. The
prospects opened by Gaia, the next ESA cornerstone, planned for launch in June
2013 (Perryman et al., Astron. Astrophys. 369, 339, 2001), are still much more
dramatic: a billion objects with systematic and quasi simultaneous astrometric,
spectrophotometric and spectroscopic observations, about 150 million stars with
expected distances to better than 10%, all over the Galaxy. All stellar
distance indicators, in very large numbers, will be directly measured,
providing a direct calibration of their luminosity and making possible detailed
studies of the impacts of various effects linked to chemical element
abundances, age or cluster membership. With the help of simulations of the data
expected from Gaia, obtained from the mission simulator developed by DPAC, we
will illustrate what Gaia can provide with some selected examples.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, Conference "The Fundamental Cosmic Distance
scale: State of the Art and the Gaia perspective, 3-6 May 2011, INAF,
Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples. Accepted for publication in
Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Scaling and universality in the phase diagram of the 2D Blume-Capel model
We review the pertinent features of the phase diagram of the zero-field
Blume-Capel model, focusing on the aspects of transition order, finite-size
scaling and universality. In particular, we employ a range of Monte Carlo
simulation methods to study the 2D spin-1 Blume-Capel model on the square
lattice to investigate the behavior in the vicinity of the first-order and
second-order regimes of the ferromagnet-paramagnet phase boundary,
respectively. To achieve high-precision results, we utilize a combination of
(i) a parallel version of the multicanonical algorithm and (ii) a hybrid
updating scheme combining Metropolis and generalized Wolff cluster moves. These
techniques are combined to study for the first time the correlation length of
the model, using its scaling in the regime of second-order transitions to
illustrate universality through the observed identity of the limiting value of
with the exactly known result for the Ising universality class.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, submitted to Eur. Phys. J. Special
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