1,920 research outputs found
Central neural circuitry mediating courtship song perception in male
Animals use acoustic signals across a variety of social behaviors, particularly courtship. In Drosophila, song is detected by antennal mechanosensory neurons and further processed by second-order aPN1/aLN(al) neurons. However, little is known about the central pathways mediating courtship hearing. In this study, we identified a male-specific pathway for courtship hearing via third-order ventrolateral protocerebrum Projection Neuron 1 (vPN1) neurons and fourth-order pC1 neurons. Genetic inactivation of vPN1 or pC1 disrupts song-induced male-chaining behavior. Calcium imaging reveals that vPN1 responds preferentially to pulse song with long inter-pulse intervals (IPIs), while pC1 responses to pulse song closely match the behavioral chaining responses at different IPIs. Moreover, genetic activation of either vPN1 or pC1 induced courtship chaining, mimicking the behavioral response to song. These results outline the aPN1-vPN1-pC1 pathway as a labeled line for the processing and transformation of courtship song in males
Structure of poly(propyl ether imine) (PETIM) dendrimer from fully atomistic molecular Dynamics Simulation and by Small Angle X-ray scattering
We study the structure of carboxylic acid terminated neutral poly (propyl
ether imine) (PETIM) dendrimer from generation 1 through 6 (G1-G6) in a good
solvent (water) by fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We
determine as a function of generation such structural properties as: radius of
gyration, shape tensor, asphericity, fractal dimension, monomer density
distribution, and end-group distribution functions. The sizes obtained from the
MD simulations have been validated by Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS)
experiment on dendrimer of generation 2 to 4 (G2-G4). A good agreement between
the experimental and theoretical value of radius of gyration has been observed.
We find a linear increase in radius of gyration with the generation. In
contrast, Rg scales as ~ N^x with the number of monomers. We find two distinct
exponents depending on the generations: x = 0.47 for G1-G3 and x = 0.28 for
G3-G6 which reveals their non-space filling nature. In comparison with the
amine terminated PAMAM dendrimer, we find Rg of G-th generation PETIM dendrimer
is nearly equal to that of (G+1)-th generation of PAMAM dendrimer as observed
by Maiti et. al. [Macromolecules,38, 979 2005]. We find substantial back
folding of the outer sub generations into the interior of the dendrimer. Due to
their highly flexible nature of the repeating branch units, the shape of the
PETIM dendrimer deviates significantly from the spherical shape and the
molecules become more and more spherical as the generation increases. The
interior of the dendrimer is quite open with internal cavities available for
accommodating guest molecules suggesting using PETIM dendrimer for guest-host
applications. We also give a quantitative measure of the number of water
molecules present inside the dendrimer.Comment: 33 page
Space efficient opposed-anvil high-pressure cell and its application to optical and NMR measurements up to 9 GPa
We have developed a new type of opposed-anvil high pressure cell with
substantially improved space efficiency. The clamp cell and the gasket are made
of non-magnetic Ni-Cr-Al alloy. Non-magnetic tungsten carbide (NMWC) is used
for the anvils. The assembled cell with the dimension \phi 29mm \times 41mm is
capable of generating pressure up to 9 GPa over a relatively large volume of 7
mm3. Our cell is particularly suitable for those experiments which require
large sample space to achieve good signal-to-noise ratio, such as the nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) experiment. Argon is used as the pressure transmitting
medium to obtain good hydrostaticity. The pressure was calibrated in situ by
measuring the fluorescence from ruby through a transparent moissanite (6H-SiC)
window. We have measured the pressure and temperature dependences of the 63Cu
nuclear-quadrupole-resonance (NQR) frequency of Cu2O, the in-plane Knight shift
of metallic tin, and the Knight shift of platinum. These quantities can be used
as reliable manometers to determine the pressure values in situ during the
NMR/NQR experiments up to 9 GPa.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in J. Phys.
Soc. Jp
Pressure-induced metallization in solid boron
Different phases of solid boron under high pressure are studied by first
principles calculations. The -B structure is found to be stable
up to 270 GPa. Its semiconductor band gap (1.72 eV) decreases continuously to
zero around 160 GPa, where the material transforms to a weak metal. The
metallicity, as measured by the density of states at the Fermi level, enhances
as the pressure is further increased. The pressure-induced metallization can be
attributed to the enhanced boron-boron interactions that cause bands overlap.
These results are consist with the recently observed metallization and the
associated superconductivity of bulk boron under high pressure (M.I.Eremets et
al, Science{\bf 293}, 272(2001)).Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
Pressure Tuning of the Charge Density Wave in the Halogen-Bridged Transition-Metal (MX) Solid
We report the pressure dependence up to 95 kbar of Raman active stretching
modes in the quasi-one-dimensional MX chain solid . The data
indicate that a predicted pressure-induced insulator-to-metal transition does
not occur, but are consistent with the solid undergoing either a
three-dimensional structural distortion, or a transition from a charge-density
wave to another broken-symmetry ground state. We show that such a transition
cacan be well-modeled within a Peierls-Hubbard Hamiltonian. 1993 PACS:
71.30.+h, 71.45.Lr, 75.30.Fv, 78.30.-j, 81.40.VwComment: 4 pages, ReVTeX 3.0, figures available from the authors on request
(Gary Kanner, [email protected]), to be published in Phys Rev B Rapid
Commun, REVISION: minor typos corrected, LA-UR-94-246
CRLX101, a Nanoparticle–Drug Conjugate Containing Camptothecin, Improves Rectal Cancer Chemoradiotherapy by Inhibiting DNA Repair and HIF1α
Novel agents are needed to improve chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer. In this study, we assessed the ability of CRLX101, an investigational nanoparticle-drug conjugate containing the payload camptothecin (CPT), to improve therapeutic responses as compared to standard chemotherapy. CRLX101 was evaluated as a radiosensitizer in colorectal cancer cell lines and murine xenograft models. CRLX101 was as potent as CPT in vitro in its ability to radiosensitize cancer cells. Evaluations in vivo demonstrated that the addition of CRLX101 to standard chemoradiotherapy significantly increased therapeutic efficacy by inhibiting DNA repair and HIF-1α pathway activation in tumor cells. Notably, CRLX101 was more effective than oxaliplatin at enhancing the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy, with CRLX101 and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) producing the highest therapeutic efficacy. Gastrointestinal toxicity was also significantly lower for CRLX101 compared to CPT when combined with radiotherapy. Our results offer a preclinical proof of concept for CRLX101 as a modality to improve the outcome of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer treatment, in support of ongoing clinical evaluation of this agent (LCC1315 {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT02010567","term_id":"NCT02010567"}}NCT02010567)
On the Hydrogen Atom via Wigner-Heisenberg Algebra
We extend the usual Kustaanheimo-Stiefel mapping to study and
discuss a constrained super-Wigner oscillator in four dimensions. We show that
the physical hydrogen atom is the system that emerges in the bosonic sector of
the mapped super 3D system.Comment: 14 pages, no figure. This work was initiated in collaboration with
Jambunatha Jayaraman (In memory), whose advises and encouragement were
fundamental. http://www.cbpf.b
The Nature of Electronic States in Atomically Thin MoS2 Field-Effect Transistors
We present low temperature electrical transport experiments in five field
effect transistor devices consisting of monolayer, bilayer and trilayer MoS2
films, mechanically exfoliated onto Si/SiO2 substrate. Our experiments reveal
that the electronic states in all films are localized well up to the room
temperature over the experimentally accessible range of gate voltage. This
manifests in two dimensional (2D) variable range hopping (VRH) at high
temperatures, while below \sim 30 K the conductivity displays oscillatory
structures in gate voltage arising from resonant tunneling at the localized
sites. From the correlation energy (T0) of VRH and gate voltage dependence of
conductivity, we suggest that Coulomb potential from trapped charges in the
substrate are the dominant source of disorder in MoS2 field effect devices,
which leads to carrier localization as well.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; ACS Nano (2011
Type IIB orientifolds on Gepner points
We study various aspects of orientifold projections of Type IIB closed string
theory on Gepner points in different dimensions. The open string sector is
introduced, in the usual constructive way, in order to cancel RR charges
carried by orientifold planes. Moddings by cyclic permutations of the internal
N=2 superconformal blocks as well as by discrete phase symmetries are
implemented. Reduction in the number of generations, breaking or enhancements
of gauge symmetries and topology changes are shown to be induced by such
moddings. Antibranes sector is also considered; in particular we show how non
supersymmetric models with antibranes and free of closed and open tachyons do
appear in this context. A systematic study of consistent models in D=8
dimensions and some illustrative examples in D=6 and D=4 dimensions are
presented.Comment: 67 pages, no figures References added, typos correcte
Oscillations of a solid sphere falling through a wormlike micellar fluid
We present an experimental study of the motion of a solid sphere falling
through a wormlike micellar fluid. While smaller or lighter spheres quickly
reach a terminal velocity, larger or heavier spheres are found to oscillate in
the direction of their falling motion. The onset of this instability correlates
with a critical value of the velocity gradient scale
s. We relate this condition to the known complex rheology of wormlike
micellar fluids, and suggest that the unsteady motion of the sphere is caused
by the formation and breaking of flow-induced structures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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