Role of chaos for the validity of statistical mechanics laws: diffusion and conduction

Several years after the pioneering work by Fermi Pasta and Ulam, fundamental questions about the link between dynamical and statistical properties remain still open in modern statistical mechanics. Particularly controversial is the role of deterministic chaos for the validity and consistency of statistical approaches. This contribution reexamines such a debated issue taking inspiration from the problem of diffusion and heat conduction in deterministic systems. Is microscopic chaos a necessary ingredient to observe such macroscopic phenomena?Comment: Latex, 27 pages, 10 eps-figures. Proceedings of the Conference "FPU 50 years since" Rome 7-8 May 200

Monitoring Cl- movement in single cells exposed to hypotonic solution

Self-referencing ion--selective electrodes (ISEs), made with Chloride Ionophore I-Cocktail A (Fluka), were positioned 1-3 microm from human embryonic kidney cells (tsA201a) and used to record chloride flux during a sustained hyposmotic challenge. The ISE response was close to Nernstian when comparing potentials (VN) measured in 100 and 10 mM NaCl (deltaVN = 57 +/- 2 mV), but was slightly greater than ideal when comparing 1 and 10 mM NaCl (deltaVN = 70 +/- 3 mV). The response was also linear in the presence of 1 mM glutamate, gluconate, or acetate, 10 microM tamoxifen, or 0.1, 1, or 10 mM HEPES at pH 7.0. The ISE was approximately 3 orders of magnitude more selective for Cl- over glutamate or gluconate but less than 2 orders of magnitude move selective for Clover bicarbonate, acetate, citrate or thiosulfate. As a result this ISE is best described as an anion sensor. The ISE was 'poisoned' by 50 microM 5-nitro-2-(3phenylpropyl-amino)-benzoic acid (NPPB), but not by tamoxifen. An outward anion efflux was recorded from cells challenged with hypotonic (250 +/- 5 mOsm) solution. The increase in efflux peaked 7-8 min before decreasing, consistent with regulatory volume decreases observed in separate experiments using a similar osmotic protocol. This anion efflux was blocked by 10 microM tamoxifen. These results establish the feasibility of using the modulation of electrochemical, anion-selective, electrodes to monitor anions and, in this case, chloride movement during volume regulatory events. The approach provides a real-time measure of anion movement during regulated volume decrease at the single-cell leve

Red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) associated with a small artificial structure in the Mississippi Sound, a northern Gulf of Mexico estuary; Asociacion del pargo rojo (Lutjanus campechanus) con una pequena estructura artificial en Mississippi Sound, un estuario al norte del Golfo de Mexico

Title and abstract are in English and Spanish; article is in English