1,128 research outputs found
Characteristics of long-duration inhibitory postsynaptic potentials in rat neocortical neurons in vitro
1. The characteristics of long-duration inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (l-IPSPs) which are evoked in rat frontal neocortical neurons by local electrical stimulation were investigated with intracellular recordings from anin vitro slice preparation.
2. Stimulation with suprathreshold intensities evoked l-IPSPs with typical durations of 600–900 msec at resting membrane potential. Conductance increases of 15–60% were measured at the peak amplitude of l-IPSPs (150–250 msec poststimulus).
3. The duration of the conductance increases during l-IPSPs displayed a significant voltage dependence, decreasing as the membrance potential was depolarized and increasing with hyperpolarization.
4. The reversal potential of l-IPSPs is significantly altered by reductions in the extracellular potassium concentration. Therefore it is concluded that l-IPSPs in rat neocortical neurons are generated by the activation of a potassium conductance.
5. l-IPSPs exhibit stimulation fatigue. Stimulation with a frequency of 1 Hz produces a complete fatigue of the conductance increases during l-IPSPs after approximately 20 consecutive stimuli. Recovery from this fatigue requires minutes.
6. l-IPSPs are not blocked by bicuculline but are blocked by baclofen
Prediction and statistics of pseudoknots in RNA structures using exactly clustered stochastic simulations
Ab initio RNA secondary structure predictions have long dismissed helices
interior to loops, so-called pseudoknots, despite their structural importance.
Here, we report that many pseudoknots can be predicted through long time scales
RNA folding simulations, which follow the stochastic closing and opening of
individual RNA helices. The numerical efficacy of these stochastic simulations
relies on an O(n^2) clustering algorithm which computes time averages over a
continously updated set of n reference structures. Applying this exact
stochastic clustering approach, we typically obtain a 5- to 100-fold simulation
speed-up for RNA sequences up to 400 bases, while the effective acceleration
can be as high as 100,000-fold for short multistable molecules (<150 bases). We
performed extensive folding statistics on random and natural RNA sequences, and
found that pseudoknots are unevenly distributed amongst RNAstructures and
account for up to 30% of base pairs in G+C rich RNA sequences (Online RNA
folding kinetics server including pseudoknots : http://kinefold.u-strasbg.fr/
).Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Information-theoretic significance of the Wigner distribution
A coarse grained Wigner distribution p_{W}(x,u) obeying positivity derives
out of information-theoretic considerations. Let p(x,u) be the unknown joint
PDF (probability density function) on position- and momentum fluctuations x,u
for a pure state particle. Suppose that the phase part Psi(x,z) of its Fourier
transform F.T.[p(x,u)]=|Z(x,z)|exp[iPsi(x,z)] is constructed as a hologram.
(Such a hologram is often used in heterodyne interferometry.) Consider a
particle randomly illuminating this phase hologram. Let its two position
coordinates be measured. Require that the measurements contain an extreme
amount of Fisher information about true position, through variation of the
phase function Psi(x,z). The extremum solution gives an output PDF p(x,u) that
is the convolution of the Wigner p_{W}(x,u) with an instrument function
defining uncertainty in either position x or momentum u. The convolution arises
naturally out of the approach, and is one-dimensional, in comparison with the
two-dimensional convolutions usually proposed for coarse graining purposes. The
output obeys positivity, as required of a PDF, if the one-dimensional
instrument function is sufficiently wide. The result holds for a large class of
systems: those whose amplitudes a(x) are the same at their boundaries
(Examples: states a(x) with positive parity; with periodic boundary conditions;
free particle trapped in a box).Comment: pdf version has 16 pages. No figures. Accepted for publ. in PR
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