1,579 research outputs found
Advances in Engineering and Application of Optogenetic Indicators for Neuroscience
Our ability to investigate the brain is limited by available technologies that can record biological processes in vivo with suitable spatiotemporal resolution. Advances in optogenetics now enable optical recording and perturbation of central physiological processes within the intact brains of model organisms. By monitoring key signaling molecules noninvasively, we can better appreciate how information is processed and integrated within intact circuits. In this review, we describe recent efforts engineering genetically-encoded fluorescence indicators to monitor neuronal activity. We summarize recent advances of sensors for calcium, potassium, voltage, and select neurotransmitters, focusing on their molecular design, properties, and current limitations. We also highlight impressive applications of these sensors in neuroscience research. We adopt the view that advances in sensor engineering will yield enduring insights on systems neuroscience. Neuroscientists are eager to adopt suitable tools for imaging neural activity in vivo, making this a golden age for engineering optogenetic indicators. Keywords: optogenetic tools; neuroscience; calcium sensor; voltage sensor; neurotransmitter
Media outlets and their moguls: why concentrated individual or family ownership is bad for editorial independence
This article investigates the levels of owner influence in 211 different print and broadcast outlets in 32 different European media markets. Drawing on the literature from industrial organisation, it sets out reasons why we should expect greater levels of influence where ownership of individual outlets is concentrated; where it is concentrated in the hands of individuals or families; and where ownership groups own multiple outlets in the same media market. Conversely, we should expect lower levels of influence where ownership is dispersed between transnational companies. The articles uses original data on the ownership structures of these outlets, and combines it with reliable expert judgments as to the level of owner influence in each of the outlets. These hypotheses are tested and confirmed in a multilevel regression model of owner influence. The findings are relevant for policy on ownership limits in the media, and for the debate over transnational versus local control of media
Zinc Fertilization of Corn in Kentucky
Of the agronomic crops, corn is especially sensitive to zinc deficiency. The major symptom of zinc deficiency in corn is broad white stripes in the leaves at or near the growing point in the early growth stages of the plant. It has been referred to as white bud disease because of the characteristic whitish area on one or both sides of the midrib near the base of new leaves. It can be seen as a new leaf unfolds from the whorl. Growth is stunted resulting in shorter than normal internodes. The pith of the stalk may become darkened at the base of the stalk (below ground level) and at the first leaf node. Sometimes the lower leaves become purple
Evolutionary Dynamics While Trapped in Resonance: A Keplerian Binary System Perturbed by Gravitational Radiation
The method of averaging is used to investigate the phenomenon of capture into
resonance for a model that describes a Keplerian binary system influenced by
radiation damping and external normally incident periodic gravitational
radiation. The dynamical evolution of the binary orbit while trapped in
resonance is elucidated using the second order partially averaged system. This
method provides a theoretical framework that can be used to explain the main
evolutionary dynamics of a physical system that has been trapped in resonance.Comment: REVTEX Style, Submitte
Fragipan Horizon Fragmentation in Slaking Experiments with Amendment Materials and Ryegrass Root Tissue Extracts
Slaking experiments were conducted of fragipan clods immersed in solutions of poultry manure, aerobically digested biosolid waste (ADB), fluidized bed combustion byproduct (FBC), D-H2O, CaCO3, NaF, Na-hexa-metaphosphate, and ryegrass root biomass. The fragipan clods were sampled from the Btx horizon of an Oxyaquic Fragiudalf in Kentucky. Wet sieving aggregate analysis showed significantly better fragmentation in the NaF, Na-hexa-metaphosphate, and ryegrass root solutions with a mean weight diameter range of 15.5-18.8 mm compared to the 44.2-47.9 mm of the poultry manure, ADB, and FBC treatments. Dissolved Si, Al, Fe, and Mn levels released in solution were ambiguous. The poor efficiency of the poultry manure, ADB, and FBC treatments was attributed to their high ionic strength, while the high efficiency of the NaF, Na-hexa-metaphosphate, and rye grass root solutions to their high sodium soluble ratio (SSR). A slaking mechanism is proposed suggesting that aqueous solutions with high SSR penetrate faster into the fragipan capillaries and generate the critical swelling pressure and shearing stress required to rupture the fragipan into several fragments. Additional fragmentation occurs in a followup stage during which potential Si, Al, Fe, and Mn binding agents may be released into solution. Field experiments testing these findings are in progress
Breakdown of Conformal Invariance at Strongly Random Critical Points
We consider the breakdown of conformal and scale invariance in random systems
with strongly random critical points. Extending previous results on
one-dimensional systems, we provide an example of a three-dimensional system
which has a strongly random critical point. The average correlation functions
of this system demonstrate a breakdown of conformal invariance, while the
typical correlation functions demonstrate a breakdown of scale invariance. The
breakdown of conformal invariance is due to the vanishing of the correlation
functions at the infinite disorder fixed point, causing the critical
correlation functions to be controlled by a dangerously irrelevant operator
describing the approach to the fixed point. We relate the computation of
average correlation functions to a problem of persistence in the RG flow.Comment: 9 page
Momentum-Dependent Mean Field Based Upon the Dirac-Brueckner Approach for Nuclear Matter
A momentum-dependent mean field potential, suitable for application in the
transport-model description of nucleus-nucleus collisions, is derived in a
microscopic way. The derivation is based upon the Bonn meson-exchange model for
the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the Dirac-Brueckner approach for nuclear
matter. The properties of the microscopic mean field are examined and compared
with phenomenological parametrizations which are commonly used in
transport-model calculations.Comment: 15 pages text (RevTex) and 4 figures (postscript in a separate
uuencoded file), UI-NTH-930
Molecular analyses on host-seeking black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) reveal a diverse assemblage of Leucocytozoon (Apicomplexa: Haemospororida) parasites in an alpine ecosystem
Role of heavy-meson exchange in pion production near threshold
Recent calculations of -wave pion production have severely underestimated
the accurately known \ total cross section near
threshold. In these calculations, only the single-nucleon axial-charge operator
is considered. We have calculated, in addition to the one-body term, the
two-body contributions to this reaction that arise from the exchange of mesons.
We find that the inclusion of the scalar -meson exchange current (and
lesser contributions from other mesons) increases the cross section by about a
factor of five, and leads to excellent agreement with the data. The results are
neither very sensitive to changes in the distorting potential that generates
the wave function, nor to different choices for the meson-nucleon form
factors. We argue that \ data provide direct
experimental evidence for meson-exchange contributions to the axial current.Comment: 28 Pages, IU-NTC #93-0
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