766 research outputs found
Cellâtype specific visualization and biochemical isolation of endogenous synaptic proteins in mice
In recent years, the remarkable molecular complexity of synapses has been revealed, with over 1000 proteins identified in the synapse proteome. Although it is known that different receptors and other synaptic proteins are present in different types of neurons, the extent of synapse diversity across the brain is largely unknown. This is mainly due to the limitations of current techniques. Here we report an efficient method for the purification of synaptic proteinâcomplexes, fusing a highâaffinity tag to endogenous PSD95 in specific cell types.
We also developed a strategy which enables the visualization of endogenous PSD95 with fluorescentâproteins tag in Creârecombinase expressing cells. We demonstrate the feasibility of proteomic analysis of synaptic proteinâcomplexes and visualization of these in specific cell types. We find that the composition of PSD95âcomplexes purified from specific cell types differs from those extracted from tissues with diverse cellular composition. The results suggest that there might be differential interactions in the PSD95âcomplexes in different brain regions. We have detected differentially interacting proteins by comparing datasets from the whole hippocampus and the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus. Therefore, these novel conditional PSD95 tagging lines will not only serve as powerful tools for precisely dissecting synapse diversity in specific brain regions and subsets of neuronal cells, but also provide an opportunity to better understand brain regionâ and cell typeâspecific alterations associated with various psychiatric/neurological diseases. These newly developed conditional geneâtagging methods can be applied to many different synaptic proteins and will facilitate research on the molecular complexity of synapses
Mercury (Hg) concentrations in predatory bird livers and eggs as an indicator of changing environmental concentrations: a Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) report
Concern over the potential health effects of mercury (Hg) has prompted an international agreement, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, that aims to control anthropogenic releases to the environment and reduce potential impacts on humans and wildlife. Monitoring is required to determine to what extent the convention is successful. The PBMS has monitored long-term trends in environmental Hg concentration using raptors and fish-eating birds as sentinels to track changes in exposure. Overall, PBMS monitoring of Hg in predatory birds provides an evidence base by which the impact of the Minamata Convention on environmental mercury concentrations in Britain can be assessed.
The current study consisted of four main aims that would help rationalize and inform our long-term Hg monitoring.
(i) Updating long-term data for liver Hg concentrations in sparrowhawks, (Accipiter nisus), a sentinel for exposure in lowland terrestrial habitats.
(ii) Exploration of the use of alternative tissues for monitoring Hg in sparrowhawks.
(iii) Comparison of trends in liver Hg residues in sparrowhawks and kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) to examine if trends in sparrowhawks, which feed on relatively mobile avian prey, reflect those in kestrels which mainly feed on small mammals that are more likely to reflect local contamination.
(iv) Completion of work initiated last year to explore the potential for using Hg concentrations in the eggs of inland-feeding golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) as a sentinel to track changes in Hg bioavailability and uptake by biota in upland terrestrial systems.
We measured liver Hg residues in sparrowhawks that had died in 2013 and 2014 to quantify current Hg exposure in lowland terrestrial habitats and to add to previously reported long-term data. Mercury residues in birds that died in 2013 and 2014 were largely consistent with those reported in recent previous years and were below those associated with mortalities. Three birds had residues higher than those associated with potential adverse effects on reproduction.
Analysis of long-term data (1990-2014) indicated liver Hg residues in sparrowhawks vary with age and sex; concentrations are highest in adult males. Starvation also elevates liver Hg concentrations. Taking age and sex into account and using only data for non-starved birds, we investigated temporal trends and found that, although there has been between-year variation in liver Hg concentrations, there has been no consistent upward or downward trend. We used the long-term dataset to define âcurrent baselineâ liver Hg concentrations against which levels in future years, and consistent time trends, can be quantitatively and rapidly assessed.
We found that total Hg concentrations in sparrowhawk liver, kidney and brain were closely related. We conclude it is possible to transfer our long-term monitoring of Hg in sparrowhawks (including retrospective calculation of âcurrent baseline concentrationsâ) to analysis of kidney or brain. This would preserve [what are relatively small] sparrowhawk livers for other analyses.
Comparison of historic trends in liver Hg in sparrowhawks and kestrels indicated that rates of decline during 1980-1998 were similar in the two species. This is consistent with the premise that sparrrowhawks are as likely as kestrels to be representative of changes in environmental exposure to (and associated bioaccumulation of) Hg in lowland terrestrial systems.
The conclusion of our work on Hg concentrations in golden eagle eggs enabled us to quantify a âbaseline concentrationâ for eggs laid by females feeding predominantly on terrestrial prey. We can use this to identify significant changes in future exposure and associated bioaccumulation and thereby use our measurements as sentinel of future change in Hg bioavailability in upland habitats in northern Britain
Ordering and finite-size effects in the dynamics of one-dimensional transient patterns
We introduce and analyze a general one-dimensional model for the description
of transient patterns which occur in the evolution between two spatially
homogeneous states. This phenomenon occurs, for example, during the
Freedericksz transition in nematic liquid crystals.The dynamics leads to the
emergence of finite domains which are locally periodic and independent of each
other. This picture is substantiated by a finite-size scaling law for the
structure factor. The mechanism of evolution towards the final homogeneous
state is by local roll destruction and associated reduction of local
wavenumber. The scaling law breaks down for systems of size comparable to the
size of the locally periodic domains. For systems of this size or smaller, an
apparent nonlinear selection of a global wavelength holds, giving rise to long
lived periodic configurations which do not occur for large systems. We also
make explicit the unsuitability of a description of transient pattern dynamics
in terms of a few Fourier mode amplitudes, even for small systems with a few
linearly unstable modes.Comment: 18 pages (REVTEX) + 10 postscript figures appende
Nonextensivity in Geological Faults?
Geological fault systems, as the San Andreas fault (SAF) in USA, constitute
typical examples of self-organizing systems in nature. In this paper, we have
considered some geophysical properties of the SAF system to test the viability
of the nonextensive models for earthquakes developed in [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 73},
026102, 2006]. To this end, we have used 6188 earthquakes events ranging in the
magnitude interval that were taken from the Network Earthquake
International Center catalogs (NEIC, 2004-2006) and the Bulletin of the
International Seismological Centre (ISC, 1964-2003). For values of the Tsallis
nonextensive parameter , it is shown that the energy
distribution function deduced in above reference provides an excellent fit to
the NEIC and ISC SAF data.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, standard LaTeX fil
On Perturbative Gravity and Gauge Theory
We review some applications of tree-level (classical) relations between
gravity and gauge theory that follow from string theory. Together with
-dimensional unitarity, these relations can be used to perturbatively
quantize gravity theories, i.e. they contain the necessary information for
obtaining loop contributions. We also review recent applications of these ideas
showing that N=1 D=11 supergravity diverges, and review arguments that N=8 D=4
supergravity is less divergent than previously thought, though it does appear
to diverge at five loops. Finally, we describe field variables for the
Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian that help clarify the perturbative relationship
between gravity and gauge theory.Comment: Talk presented at Third Meeting on Constrained Dynamics and Quantum
Gravity, Villasimius (Sardinia, Italy) September 13-17, 1999 and at the
Workshop on Light-Cone QCD and Nonperturbative Hadron Physics, University of
Adelaide (Australia) December 13-22, 1999. Latex, 9 page
Making things happen : a model of proactive motivation
Being proactive is about making things happen, anticipating and preventing problems, and seizing opportunities. It involves self-initiated efforts to bring about change in the work environment and/or oneself to achieve a different future. The authors develop existing perspectives on this topic by identifying proactivity as a goal-driven process involving both the setting of a proactive goal (proactive goal generation) and striving to achieve that proactive goal (proactive goal striving). The authors identify a range of proactive goals that individuals can pursue in organizations. These vary on two dimensions: the future they aim to bring about (achieving a better personal fit within oneâs work environment, improving the organizationâs internal functioning, or enhancing the organizationâs strategic fit with its environment) and whether the self or situation is being changed. The authors then identify âcan do,â âreason to,â and âenergized toâ motivational states that prompt proactive goal generation and sustain goal striving. Can do motivation arises from perceptions of self-efficacy, control, and (low) cost. Reason to motivation relates to why someone is proactive, including reasons flowing from intrinsic, integrated, and identified motivation. Energized to motivation refers to activated positive affective states that prompt proactive goal processes. The authors suggest more distal antecedents, including individual differences (e.g., personality, values, knowledge and ability) as well as contextual variations in leadership, work design, and interpersonal climate, that influence the proactive motivational states and thereby boost or inhibit proactive goal processes. Finally, the authors summarize priorities for future researc
Formation of superdense hadronic matter in high energy heavy-ion collisions
We present the detail of a newly developed relativistic transport model (ART
1.0) for high energy heavy-ion collisions. Using this model, we first study the
general collision dynamics between heavy ions at the AGS energies. We then show
that in central collisions there exists a large volume of sufficiently
long-lived superdense hadronic matter whose local baryon and energy densities
exceed the critical densities for the hadronic matter to quark-gluon plasma
transition. The size and lifetime of this matter are found to depend strongly
on the equation of state. We also investigate the degree and time scale of
thermalization as well as the radial flow during the expansion of the
superdense hadronic matter. The flow velocity profile and the temperature of
the hadronic matter at freeze-out are extracted. The transverse momentum and
rapidity distributions of protons, pions and kaons calculated with and without
the mean field are compared with each other and also with the preliminary data
from the E866/E802 collaboration to search for experimental observables that
are sensitive to the equation of state. It is found that these inclusive,
single particle observables depend weakly on the equation of state. The
difference between results obtained with and without the nuclear mean field is
only about 20\%. The baryon transverse collective flow in the reaction plane is
also analyzed. It is shown that both the flow parameter and the strength of the
``bounce-off'' effect are very sensitive to the equation of state. In
particular, a soft equation of state with a compressibility of 200 MeV results
in an increase of the flow parameter by a factor of 2.5 compared to the cascade
case without the mean field. This large effect makes it possible to distinguish
the predictions from different theoretical models and to detect the signaturesComment: 55 pages, latex, + 39 figures available upon reques
CPsuperH: a Computational Tool for Higgs Phenomenology in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with Explicit CP Violation
We provide a detailed description of the Fortran code CPsuperH, a
newly--developed computational package that calculates the mass spectrum and
decay widths of the neutral and charged Higgs bosons in the Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model with explicit CP violation. The program is based
on recent renormalization-group-improved diagrammatic calculations that include
dominant higher--order logarithmic and threshold corrections, b-quark
Yukawa-coupling resummation effects and Higgs-boson pole-mass shifts. The code
CPsuperH is self--contained (with all subroutines included), is easy and fast
to run, and is organized to allow further theoretical developments to be easily
implemented. The fact that the masses and couplings of the charged and neutral
Higgs bosons are computed at a similar high-precision level makes it an
attractive tool for Tevatron, LHC and LC studies, also in the CP-conserving
case.Comment: 46 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figures; the code may be obtained from
http://theory.ph.man.ac.uk/~jslee/CPsuperH.html (version as to appear in
Comput. Phys. Commun.
Forward production of charged pions with incident on nuclear targets measured at the CERN PS
Measurements of the double-differential production cross-section
in the range of momentum 0.5 \GeVc \leq p \le 8.0 \GeVc and angle 0.025 \rad
\leq \theta \le 0.25 \rad in interactions of charged pions on beryllium,
carbon, aluminium, copper, tin, tantalum and lead are presented. These data
represent the first experimental campaign to systematically measure forward
pion hadroproduction. The data were taken with the large acceptance HARP
detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. Incident particles, impinging on a
5% nuclear interaction length target, were identified by an elaborate system of
beam detectors. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was
performed using the forward spectrometer of the HARP detector. Results are
obtained for the double-differential cross-sections mainly at four incident pion beam
momenta (3 \GeVc, 5 \GeVc, 8 \GeVc and 12 \GeVc). The measurements are compared
with the GEANT4 and MARS Monte Carlo simulationComment: to be published on Nuclear Physics
Gluino Contribution to Radiative B Decays: Organization of QCD Corrections and Leading Order Results
The gluino-induced contributions to the decay b-> s gamma are investigated in
supersymmetric frameworks with generic sources of flavour violation. It is
shown that, when QCD corrections are taken into account, the relevant operator
basis of the Standard Model effective Hamiltonian gets enlarged to contain: i)
magnetic and chromomagnetic operators with a factor of alpha_s and weighted by
a quark mass m_b or m_c; ii) magnetic and chromomagnetic operators of lower
dimensionality, also containing alpha_s; iii) four-quark operators weighted by
a factor alpha_s^2. Numerical results are given, showing the effects of the
leading order QCD corrections on the inclusive branching ratio for b-> s gamma.
Constraints on supersymmetric sources of flavour violation are derived.Comment: 36 pages including 16 postscript figures; uses epsf; journal version:
one ref. added; rephrasing of a couple of paragraph
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