201 research outputs found
Studying the role of axon fasciculation during development in a computational model of the Xenopus tadpole spinal cord
Abstract During nervous system development growing axons can interact with each other, for example by adhering together in order to produce bundles (fasciculation). How does such axon-axon interaction affect the resulting axonal trajectories, and what are the possible benefits of this process in terms of network function? In this paper we study these questions by adapting an existing computational model of the development of neurons in the Xenopus tadpole spinal cord to include interactions between axons. We demonstrate that even relatively weak attraction causes bundles to appear, while if axons weakly repulse each other their trajectories diverge such that they fill the available space. We show how fasciculation can help to ensure axons grow in the correct location for proper network formation when normal growth barriers contain gaps, and use a functional spiking model to show that fasciculation allows the network to generate reliable swimming behaviour even when overall synapse counts are artificially lowered. Although we study fasciculation in one particular organism, our approach to modelling axon growth is general and can be widely applied to study other nervous systems
An interactive channel model of the Basal Ganglia: bifurcation analysis under healthy and parkinsonian conditions.
Oscillations in the basal ganglia are an active area of research and have been shown to relate to the hypokinetic motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. We study oscillations in a multi-channel mean field model, where each channel consists of an interconnected pair of subthalamic nucleus and globus pallidus sub-populations.To study how the channels interact, we perform two-dimensional bifurcation analysis of a model of an individual channel, which reveals the critical boundaries in parameter space that separate different dynamical modes; these modes include steady-state, oscillatory, and bi-stable behaviour. Without self-excitation in the subthalamic nucleus a single channel cannot generate oscillations, yet there is little experimental evidence for such self-excitation. Our results show that the interactive channel model with coupling via pallidal sub-populations demonstrates robust oscillatory behaviour without subthalamic self-excitation, provided the coupling is sufficiently strong. We study the model under healthy and Parkinsonian conditions and demonstrate that it exhibits oscillations for a much wider range of parameters in the Parkinsonian case. In the discussion, we show how our results compare with experimental findings and discuss their possible physiological interpretation. For example, experiments have found that increased lateral coupling in the rat basal ganglia is correlated with oscillations under Parkinsonian conditions
Dry-hopping: the effects of temperature and hop variety on the bittering profiles and properties of resultant beers
This paper reports the effects of dry-hopping at 4 and 19 °C for a low alpha versus high alpha hop variety on the resulting profiles of non-volatile hop acids (humulinones, iso-a-acids, a-acids). In a dry-hopping study conducted over 2 weeks, we found a significant increase in humulinone concentration driven principally by hop alpha acid content and the duration of dry-hopping. Conclusive evidence of iso-a-acid losses during dry-hopping (by adsorption onto spent hops) is presented, in addition to a significant increase in a-acid concentrations, which was observed only for beers dry-hopped at 19 °C with the high alpha hop variety. Measured beer parameters (especially at 19 °C) revealed an increase in pH, ABV (%), and a decrease in beer density during dry-hopping - from which we conclude that further attenuation of beer occurred during dry-hopping. The polyphenol content of beers was found to increase substantially with dry-hopping time, whilst both temperature and hop variety were found to be significant factors determining the amounts of polyphenols extracted. Finally, analysis of the spent hop slurry (recovered after 14 days of dry-hopping) confirmed that the residual content of hop acids (a-acids, their oxidised derivatives and polyphenol content), makes these materials - currently treated as waste - of potential value for re-use in the brewing process
Long-lasting XUV activation of helium nanodroplets for avalanche ionization
We study the dynamics of avalanche ionization of pure helium nanodroplets
activated by a weak extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulse and driven by an intense
near-infrared (NIR) pulse. In addition to a transient enhancement of ignition
of a nanoplasma at short delay times ~fs, long-term activation of the
nanodroplets lasting up to a few nanoseconds is observed. Molecular dynamics
simulations suggest that the short-term activation is caused by the injection
of seed electrons into the droplets by XUV photoemission. Long-term activation
appears due to electrons remaining loosely bound to photoions which form stable
`snowball' structures in the droplets. Thus, we show that XUV irradiation can
induce long-lasting changes of the strong-field optical properties of
nanoparticles, potentially opening new routes to controlling
avalanche-ionization phenomena in nanostructures and condensed-phase systems
Influence of the Dufour effect on convection in binary gas mixtures
Linear and nonlinear properties of convection in binary fluid layers heated
from below are investigated, in particular for gas parameters. A Galerkin
approximation for realistic boundary conditions that describes stationary and
oscillatory convection in the form of straight parallel rolls is used to
determine the influence of the Dufour effect on the bifurcation behaviour of
convective flow intensity, vertical heat current, and concentration mixing. The
Dufour--induced changes in the bifurcation topology and the existence regimes
of stationary and traveling wave convection are elucidated. To check the
validity of the Galerkin results we compare with finite--difference numerical
simulations of the full hydrodynamical field equations. Furthermore, we report
on the scaling behaviour of linear properties of the stationary instability.Comment: 14 pages and 10 figures as uuencoded Postscript file (using uufiles
Convection in colloidal suspensions with particle-concentration-dependent viscosity
The onset of thermal convection in a horizontal layer of a colloidal
suspension is investigated in terms of a continuum model for binary-fluid
mixtures where the viscosity depends on the local concentration of colloidal
particles. With an increasing difference between the viscosity at the warmer
and the colder boundary the threshold of convection is reduced in the range of
positive values of the separation ratio psi with the onset of stationary
convection as well as in the range of negative values of psi with an
oscillatory Hopf bifurcation. Additionally the convection rolls are shifted
downwards with respect to the center of the horizontal layer for stationary
convection (psi>0) and upwards for the Hopf bifurcation (psi<0).Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal
Influence of the Soret effect on convection of binary fluids
Convection in horizontal layers of binary fluids heated from below and in
particular the influence of the Soret effect on the bifurcation properties of
extended stationary and traveling patterns that occur for negative Soret
coupling is investigated theoretically. The fixed points corresponding to these
two convection structures are determined for realistic boundary conditions with
a many mode Galerkin scheme for temperature and concentration and an accurate
one mode truncation of the velocity field. This solution procedure yields the
stable and unstable solutions for all stationary and traveling patterns so that
complete phase diagrams for the different convection types in typical binary
liquid mixtures can easily be computed. Also the transition from weakly to
strongly nonlinear states can be analyzed in detail. An investigation of the
concentration current and of the relevance of its constituents shows the way
for a simplification of the mode representation of temperature and
concentration field as well as for an analytically manageable few mode
description.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure
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