16,026 research outputs found
Ontogeny of purinergic receptor-regulated Ca2+ signaling in mouse cortical collecting duct epithelium
Changes in ATP-induced increase in {[}Ca2+], during collecting duct ontogeny were studied in primary monolayer cultures of mouse ureteric bud (UB) and cortical collecting duct (CCD) cells by Fura-PE3 fluorescence ratio imaging. In UB (embryonic day E14 and postnatal day P1) the ATIP-stimulated increase (EC50 approximate to 1 muM) in fluorescence ratio (DeltaR(ATP)) was independent of extracellular Ca2+ and insensitive to the P2 purinoceptor-antagonist suramin (1 mM). From day P7 onward when CCD morphogenesis had been completed DeltaR(ATP) increased and became dependent on extracellular Ca2+. This ATP-stimulated Ca2+ entry into CCD cells was non-capacitative and suramin (11 mM)insensitive, but sensitive to nifedipine (30 muM) and enhanced by Bay K8644 (15 muM), a blocker and an agonist of L-type Ca2+ channels, respectively. Quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated similar mRNA expression of L-type Ca2+ channel alpha1-subunit, P2Y(1), P2Y(2), and P2X(4b) purinoceptors in UB and CCD monolayers while the abundance of P2X(4) mRNA increased with CCD morphogenesis. In conclusion, both embryonic and postnatal cells express probably P2Y(2)-stimulated Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. With development, the CCD epithelium acquires ATP-stimulated Ca2+ entry via L-type Ca2+ channels. This pathway might by mediated by the increasing expression of P2X(4)-receptors resulting in an increasing ATP-dependent membrane depolarization and activation of L-type Ca2+ channels. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel
Electrostatic Steering Accelerates C3d:CR2 Association.
Electrostatic effects are ubiquitous in protein interactions and are found to be pervasive in the complement system as well. The interaction between complement fragment C3d and complement receptor 2 (CR2) has evolved to become a link between innate and adaptive immunity. Electrostatic interactions have been suggested to be the driving factor for the association of the C3d:CR2 complex. In this study, we investigate the effects of ionic strength and mutagenesis on the association of C3d:CR2 through Brownian dynamics simulations. We demonstrate that the formation of the C3d:CR2 complex is ionic strength-dependent, suggesting the presence of long-range electrostatic steering that accelerates the complex formation. Electrostatic steering occurs through the interaction of an acidic surface patch in C3d and the positively charged CR2 and is supported by the effects of mutations within the acidic patch of C3d that slow or diminish association. Our data are in agreement with previous experimental mutagenesis and binding studies and computational studies. Although the C3d acidic patch may be locally destabilizing because of unfavorable Coulombic interactions of like charges, it contributes to the acceleration of association. Therefore, acceleration of function through electrostatic steering takes precedence to stability. The site of interaction between C3d and CR2 has been the target for delivery of CR2-bound nanoparticle, antibody, and small molecule biomarkers, as well as potential therapeutics. A detailed knowledge of the physicochemical basis of C3d:CR2 association may be necessary to accelerate biomarker and drug discovery efforts
Ultrafast Insulator-Metal Phase Transition in VO2 Studied by Multiterahertz Spectroscopy
The ultrafast photoinduced insulator-metal transition in VO2 is studied at
different temperatures and excitation fluences using multi-THz probe pulses.
The spectrally resolved mid-infrared response allows us to trace separately the
dynamics of lattice and electronic degrees of freedom with a time resolution of
40 fs. The critical fluence of the optical pump pulse which drives the system
into a long-lived metallic state is found to increase with decreasing
temperature. Under all measurement conditions we observe a modulation of the
eigenfrequencies of the optical phonon modes induced by their anharmonic
coupling to the coherent wave packet motion of V-V dimers at 6.1 THz.
Furthermore, we find a weak quadratic coupling of the electronic response to
the coherent dimer oscillation resulting in a modulation of the electronic
conductivity at twice the frequency of the wave packet motion. The findings are
discussed in the framework of a qualitative model based on an approximation of
local photoexcitation of the vanadium dimers from the insulating state.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures submitted to Physical Review
Neutron star properties with relativistic equations of state
We study the properties of neutron stars adopting relativistic equations of
state of neutron star matter, calculated in the framework of the relativistic
Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation for electrically charge neutral neutron
star matter in beta-equilibrium. For higher densities more baryons (hyperons
etc.) are included by means of the relativistic Hartree- or Hartree-Fock
approximation. The special features of the different approximations and
compositions are discussed in detail. Besides standard neutron star properties
special emphasis is put on the limiting periods of neutron stars, for which the
Kepler criterion and gravitation-reaction instabilities are considered.
Furthermore the cooling behaviour of neutron stars is investigated, too. For
comparison we give also the outcome for some nonrelativistic equations of
state.Comment: 43 pages, 22 ps-figures, to be published in the International Journal
of Modern Physics
Real-time observation of interfering crystal electrons in high-harmonic generation
Accelerating and colliding particles has been a key strategy to explore the
texture of matter. Strong lightwaves can control and recollide electronic
wavepackets, generating high-harmonic (HH) radiation which encodes the
structure and dynamics of atoms and molecules and lays the foundations of
attosecond science. The recent discovery of HH generation in bulk solids
combines the idea of ultrafast acceleration with complex condensed matter
systems and sparks hope for compact solid-state attosecond sources and
electronics at optical frequencies. Yet the underlying quantum motion has not
been observable in real time. Here, we study HH generation in a bulk solid
directly in the time-domain, revealing a new quality of strong-field
excitations in the crystal. Unlike established atomic sources, our solid emits
HH radiation as a sequence of subcycle bursts which coincide temporally with
the field crests of one polarity of the driving terahertz waveform. We show
that these features hallmark a novel non-perturbative quantum interference
involving electrons from multiple valence bands. The results identify key
mechanisms for future solid-state attosecond sources and next-generation
lightwave electronics. The new quantum interference justifies the hope for
all-optical bandstructure reconstruction and lays the foundation for possible
quantum logic operations at optical clock rates
Delta Self-Consistent Field as a method to obtain potential energy surfaces of excited molecules on surfaces
We present a modification of the SCF method of calculating energies
of excited states, in order to make it applicable to resonance calculations of
molecules adsorbed on metal surfaces, where the molecular orbitals are highly
hybridized. The SCF approximation is a density functional method
closely resembling standard density functional theory (DFT), the only
difference being that in SCF one or more electrons are placed in higher
lying Kohn-Sham orbitals, instead of placing all electrons in the lowest
possible orbitals as one does when calculating the ground state energy within
standard DFT. We extend the SCF method by allowing excited electrons to
occupy orbitals which are linear combinations of Kohn-Sham orbitals. With this
extra freedom it is possible to place charge locally on adsorbed molecules in
the calculations, such that resonance energies can be estimated. The method is
applied to N, CO and NO adsorbed on different metallic surfaces and
compared to ordinary SCF without our modification, spatially
constrained DFT and inverse-photoemission spectroscopy (IPES) measurements.
This comparison shows that the modified SCF method gives results in
close agreement with experiment, significantly closer than the comparable
methods. For N adsorbed on ruthenium (0001) we map out a 2-dimensional part
of the potential energy surfaces in the ground state and the 2-resonance.
Finally we compare the SCF approach on gas-phase N and CO, to
higher accuracy methods. Excitation energies are approximated with accuracy
close to that of time-dependent density functional theory, and we see very good
agreement in the minimum shift of the potential energy surfaces in the excited
state compared to the ground state.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
First-principles investigation of Ag-Cu alloy surfaces in an oxidizing environment
In this paper we investigate by means of first-principles density functional
theory calculations the (111) surface of the Ag-Cu alloy under varying
conditions of pressure of the surrounding oxygen atmosphere and temperature.
This alloy has been recently proposed as a catalyst with improved selectivity
for ethylene epoxidation with respect to pure silver, the catalyst commonly
used in industrial applications. Here we show that the presence of oxygen leads
to copper segregation to the surface. Considering the surface free energy as a
function of the surface composition, we construct the convex hull to
investigate the stability of various surface structures. By including the
dependence of the free surface energy on the oxygen chemical potential, we are
able compute the phase diagram of the alloy as a function of temperature,
pressure and surface composition. We find that, at temperature and pressure
typically used in ethylene epoxidation, a number of structures can be present
on the surface of the alloy, including clean Ag(111), thin layers of copper
oxide and thick oxide-like structures. These results are consistent with, and
help explain, recent experimental results.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Management Choices: Native, Interseeded Native, or Tame Pastures
The objective of the 3-year grazing study was reported in this bulletin was to develop effective, economical, and sustained beef cattle production on native and tame pastures with and without energy supplementation. The three pasture systems studied were native range, interseeded native range, and a tame pasture series
- …