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Corporate Governance for a Changing World: Report of a Global Roundtable Series
Positive allosteric modulators of the a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor
L-glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) and plays a fundamental role in the control of motor function, cognition and mood. The physiological effects of glutamate are mediated through two functionally distinct receptor families. While activation of metabotropic (G-protein coupled) glutamate receptors results in modulation of neuronal excitability and transmission, the ionotropic glutamate receptors (ligand-gated ion channels) are responsible for mediating the fast synaptic response to extracellular glutamate
Rapid Maize Leaf and Immature Ear Responses to UV-B Radiation
Because of their sessile lifestyle, plants have evolved adaptations to environmental factors, including UV-B present in solar radiation. To gain a better understanding of the initial events in UV-B acclimation, we have analyzed a 10âmin to 1âh time course of transcriptome responses in irradiated and shielded leaves, and immature maize ears to unravel the systemic physiological and developmental responses in exposed and shielded organs. After 10âmin of UV-B exposure, 262 transcripts are changed by at least two-fold in irradiated leaves, and this number doubles after 1âh. Indicative of the rapid modulation of transcription, 130 transcripts are only changed after 10âmin. This is true not only in irradiated leaves, but also in shielded tissues. After 10âmin of exposure, the overlap in transcriptome changes in irradiated and shielded organs is significant; however, after 30âmin of UV-B, there are only two transcripts showing similar UV-B regulation between the three organs; 35 are similarly regulated in both IL and SL. Therefore, at longer irradiation times, there is more specificity of responses, and these are organ-specific. We suggest that early signaling in different tissues may be elicited by common signaling pathways, while at longer exposure times responses become more specific. To identify metabolites as possible signaling molecules, we looked for compounds that increased within 5â90âmin in both irradiated and shielded leaves, to explain the kinetics of profound transcript changes within 1âh. We found that myoinositol is one such candidate metabolite; and we also demonstrate that if 0.1âmM myoinositol is applied to leaves of greenhouse maize, some metabolites that are changed by UV-B are also changed similarly by the chemical treatment. Therefore, this metabolite can partially mimic UV irradiation
An early evaluation of the 2050 Calculator international outreach programme
This paper presents the findings of an early evaluation of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Changeâs 2050 Calculator International Outreach Programme. The programme supported eleven countries to develop their own versions of the 2050 Calculator. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders who were involved directly and indirectly in the development of the 2050 Calculators, this paper evaluates the process of developing these tools in different national contexts and discusses the lessons learnt so far. The findings discussed include the original motivations for involvement and how these evolved through the project, and the process of stakeholder engagement. The latter was expected to be a key benefit of the Calculator, and one which would open up debate about long term energy futures. While the teams developing the Calculators faced challenges, including data availability, political buy-in, and defining scenario trajectories, a flexible approach enabled countries to develop Calculators that were tailored to their national objectives and political environments. Overall, the 2050 Calculators have led to a wide range of benefits and there is ongoing commitment to develop new iterations and applications to use these Calculators to support planning of, and debate on, future energy and emissions trajectories
Lesions of the ventral hippocampus attenuate the acquisition but not expression of signâtracking behavior in rats
Individual variation in the attribution of motivational salience to rewardârelated cues is believed to underlie addiction vulnerability. Pavlovian conditioned approach measures individual variation in motivational salience by identifying rats that are attracted to and motivated by reward cues (signâtrackers) or motivationally fixed on the reward itself (goalâtrackers). Previously, it has been demonstrated that signâtrackers are more vulnerable to addictionâlike behavior. Moreover, signâtrackers release more dopamine in the nucleus accumbens than goalâtrackers in response to rewardârelated cues, and signâ but not goalâtracking behavior is dopamineâdependent. In the present study, we investigated whether the ventral hippocampus, a potent driver of dopaminergic activity in the nucleus accumbens, modulates the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian conditioned approach behavior. In Experiment 1, lesions of the ventral, but not dorsal or total hippocampus, decreased signâtracking behavior. In Experiment 2, lesions of the ventral hippocampus did not affect the expression of signâ or goalâtracking behaviors nor conditioned reinforcement. In addition, temporary inactivation of the ventral subiculum, the main output pathway of the ventral hippocampus, did not affect the expression of signâ or goalâtracking behaviors. Highâpressure liquid chromatography of nucleus accumbens tissue punches revealed that ventral hippocampal lesions decreased levels of homovanillic acid and the homovanillic acid/dopamine ratio (a marker of dopamine release and metabolism) in only signâtrackers, and decreased accumbal norepinephrine levels in both signâ and goalâtrackers. These results suggest that the ventral hippocampus is important for the acquisition but not expression of signâtracking behavior, possibly as a result of altered dopamine and norepinephrine in the nucleus accumbens. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134415/1/hipo22619.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134415/2/hipo22619_am.pd
Rats that sign-track are resistant to Pavlovian but not instrumental extinction
Individuals vary in the extent to which they attribute incentive salience to a discrete cue (conditioned stimulus; CS) that predicts reward delivery (unconditioned stimulus; US), which results in some individuals approaching and interacting with the CS (sign-trackers; STs) more than others (goal-trackers; GTs). Here we asked how periods of non-reinforcement influence conditioned responding in STs vs. GTs, in both Pavlovian and instrumental tasks. After classifying rats as STs or GTs by pairing a retractable lever (the CS) with the delivery of a food pellet (US), we introduced periods of non-reinforcement, first by simply withholding the US (i.e., extinction training; experiment 1), then by signaling alternating periods of reward (R) and non-reward (NR) within the same session (experiments 2 and 3). We also examined how alternating R and NR periods influenced instrumental responding for food (experiment 4). STs and GTs did not differ in their ability to discriminate between R and NR periods in the instrumental task. However, in Pavlovian settings STs and GTs responded to periods of non-reward very differently. Relative to STs, GTs very rapidly modified their behavior in response to periods of non-reward, showing much faster extinction and better and faster discrimination between R and NR conditions. These results highlight differences between Pavlovian and instrumental extinction learning, and suggest that if a Pavlovian CS is strongly attributed with incentive salience, as in STs, it may continue to bias attention toward it, and to facilitate persistent and relatively inflexible responding, even when it is no longer followed by reward
Hyperfine frequency shift in two-dimensional atomic hydrogen
We propose the explanation of a surprisingly small hyperfine frequency shift
in the two-dimensional (2D) atomic hydrogen bound to the surface of superfluid
helium below 0.1 K. Owing to the symmetry considerations, the microwave-induced
triplet-singlet transitions of atomic pairs in the fully spin-polarized sample
are forbidden. The apparent nonzero shift is associated with the
density-dependent wall shift of the hyperfine constant and the pressure shift
due to the presence of H atoms in the hyperfine state not involved in the
observed transition. The interaction of adsorbed atoms with one
another effectively decreases the binding energy and, consequently, the wall
shift by the amount proportional to their density. The pressure shift of the
resonance comes from the fact that the impurity -state atoms
interact differently with the initial -state and final -state atoms and
is also linear in density. The net effect of the two contributions, both
specific for 2D hydrogen, is comparable with the experimental observation. To
our knowledge, this is the first mentioning of the density-dependent wall
shift. We also show that the difference between the triplet and singlet
scattering lengths of H atoms, pm, is exactly twice smaller
than the value reported by Ahokas {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf101},
263003 (2008).Comment: 4 pages, no figure
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