Dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity in an amygdala inhibitory circuit controls fear memory expression

Of the numerous events that occur in daily life, we readily remember salient information, but do not retain most less-salient events for a prolonged period. Although some of the episodes contain putatively emotional aspects, the information with lower saliency is rarely stored in neural circuits via an unknown mechanism. We provided substantial evidence indicating that synaptic plasticity in the dorsal ITC of amygdala allows for selective storage of salient emotional experiences, while it deters less-salient experience from entering long-term memory. After activation of D4R or weak fear conditioning, STDP stimulation induces LTD in the LA-ITC synapses. This form of LTD is dependent upon presynaptic D4R, and is likely to result from enhancement of GABA release. Both optogenetic abrogation of LTD and ablation of D4R at the dorsal ITC in vivo lead to heightened and over-generalized fear responses. Finally, we demonstrated that LTD was impaired at the dorsal ITC of PTSD model mice, which suggests that maladaptation of GABAergic signaling and the resultant LTD impairment contribute to the endophenotypes of PTSD.118Ysciescopu

Dimensional Crossover driven by Magnetic Ordering in Optical Conductivity of Pr_{1/2}Sr_{1/2}MnO_3

We investigated optical properties of Pr_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3, which has the A-type antiferromagnetic ordering at a low temperature. We found that T- dependence of spectral weight transfer shows a clear correlation with the magnetic phase transition. In comparison with the optical conductivity results of Nd_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3, which has the CE-type antiferromagnetic charge ordering, we showed that optical properties of Pr_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3 near the Neel temperature could be explained by a crossover from 3D to 2D metals. Details of spectral weight changes are consistent with the polaron picture.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL at June

Identification of postsynaptic phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) roles for synaptic plasticity using chemically induced dimerization

Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), one of the key phospholipids, directly interacts with several membrane and cytosolic proteins at neuronal plasma membranes, leading to changes in neuronal properties including the feature and surface expression of ionotropic receptors. Although PIP2 is also concentrated at the dendritic spines, little is known about the direct physiological functions of PIP2 at postsynaptic as opposed to presynaptic sites. Most previous studies used genetic and pharmacological methods to modulate enzymes that alter PIP2 levels, making it difficult to delineate time-or region-specific roles of PIP2. We used chemically-induced dimerization to translocate inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase (Inp54p) to plasma membranes in the presence of rapamycin. Upon redistribution of Inp54p, long-Term depression (LTD) induced by low-frequency stimulation was blocked in the mouse hippocampal CA3-CA1 pathway, but the catalytically-dead mutant did not affect LTD induction. Collectively, PIP2 is critically required for induction of LTD whereas translocation of Inp54p to plasma membranes has no effect on the intrinsic properties of the neurons, basal synaptic transmission, long-Term potentiation or expression of LTD. ? 2017 The Author(s).111sciescopu

Melting of Charge/Orbital Ordered States in Nd1/2_{1/2}Sr1/2_{1/2}MnO3_3: Temperature and Magnetic Field Dependent Optical Studies

We investigated the temperature ($T=$ 15 $\sim$ 290 K) and the magnetic field ($H=$ 0 $\sim$ 17 T) dependent optical conductivity spectra of a charge/orbital ordered manganite, Nd$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$. With variation of $T$ and $H$, large spectral weight changes were observed up to 4.0 eV. These spectral weight changes could be explained using the polaron picture. Interestingly, our results suggested that some local ordered state might remain above the charge ordering temperature, and that the charge/orbital melted state at a high magnetic field (i.e. at $H=$ 17 T and $$ 4.2 K) should be a three dimensional ferromagnetic metal. We also investigated the first order phase transition from the charge/orbital ordered state to ferromagnetic metallic state using the $T$- and $H$% -dependent dielectric constants $\epsilon_1$. In the charge/orbital ordered insulating state, $\epsilon_1$ was positive and $d\epsilon_1/d\omega \approx 0$. With increasing $T$ and $H$, $\epsilon_1$ was increased up to the insulator-metal phase boundaries. And then, $\epsilon_1$ abruptly changed into negative and $d\epsilon_1/d\omega >0$, which was consistent with typical responses of a metal. Through the analysis of $\epsilon_1$ using an effective medium approximation, we found that the melting of charge/orbital ordered states should occur through the percolation of ferromagnetic metal domains.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Comparison of computed tomographic findings in pulmonary mucormycosis and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis

AbstractBecause there are no available molecular markers for pulmonary mucormycosis (PM), which has low culture sensitivity, early diagnosis and treatment rely heavily on imaging modes such as computed tomography (CT). However, there are limited data comparing CT findings for PM with those for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA). Adult patients who met the modified criteria for proven and probable PM (over an 11-year period) and IPA (over a 6-year period, owing to the availability of the galactomannan assay) according to the modified European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Mycosis Study Group definitions were retrospectively enrolled. IPA cases were selected at a 1 : 4 (PM/IPA) ratio. Thoracic CT scans were reviewed by two experienced radiologists blinded to the patients' demographics and clinical outcomes. A total of 24 patients with PM, including 20 (83%) with proven PM and four (17%) with probable PM, and 96 patients with IPA, including 12 (13%) with proven IPA and 84 (87%) with probable IPA, were eventually analysed. The reverse halo sign was more common in patients with PM (54%) than in those with IPA (6%, p < 0.001), whereas some airway-invasive features, such as clusters of centrilobular nodules, peribronchial consolidations, and bronchial wall thickening, were more common in patients with IPA (IPA 52% vs. PM 29%, p 0.04; IPA 49% vs. PM 21%, p 0.01; IPA 34% vs. PM 4%, p 0.003, respectively). The reverse halo sign was more common, and airway-invasive features were less common, in patients with PM than in those with IPA. These findings may help physicians to initiate Zygomycetes-active antifungal treatment earlier

A Detailed Monte-Carlo Simulation for the Belle TOF System

We have developed a detailed Monte Carlo simulation program for the Belle TOF system. Based on GEANT simulation, it takes account of all physics processes in the TOF scintillation counters and readout electronics. The simulation reproduces very well the performance of the Belle TOF system, including the dE/dx response, the time walk effect, the time resolution, and the hit efficiency due to beam background. In this report, we will describe the Belle TOF simulation program in detail.Comment: To be submitted to NI

Photoemission and x-ray absorption study of MgC_(1-x)Ni_3

We investigated electronic structure of MgC_(1-x)Ni_3 with photoemission and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Both results show that overall band structure is in reasonable agreement with band structure calculations including the existence of von Hove singularity (vHs)near E_F. However, we find that the sharp vHs peak theoretically predicted near the E_F is substantially suppressed. As for the Ni core level and absorption spectrum, there exist the satellites of Ni 2p which have a little larger energy separation and reduced intensity compared to the case of Ni-metal. These facts indicate that correlation effects among Ni 3d electrons may be important to understand various physical properties.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Optical Evidence of Multiphase Coexistence in Single Crystalline (La,Pr,Ca)MnO3

We investigated temperature (T)- and magnetic field-dependent optical conductivity spectra (\s\w) of a La_5/8-yPr_yCa_3/8MnO_3 (y~0.35) single crystal, showing intriguing phase coexistence at low T. At T_C < T < T_CO, a dominant charge-ordered phase produces a large optical gap energy of ~0.4 eV. At T < T_C, at least two absorption bands newly emerge below 0.4 eV. Analyses of (\s\w) indicate that the new bands should be attributed to a ferromagnetic metallic and a charge-disordered phase that coexist with the charge-ordered phase. This optical study clearly shows that La_5/8-yPrCa_3/8MnO_3 (y~0.35) is composed of multiphases that might have different lattice strains.Comment: A single file with 9 figures embedded, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Generation of functional cardiomyocytes from the synoviocytes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis via induced pluripotent stem cells

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. This study aimed to generate and characterise cardiomyocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of RA patients. Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) from patients with RA and osteoarthritis (OA) were successfully reprogrammed into RA-iPSCs and OA-iPSCs, respectively. The pluripotency of iPSCs was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunofluorescence staining. Established iPSCs were differentiated into cardiomyocytes using a small molecule-based monolayer differentiation protocol. Within 12 days of cardiac differentiation from patient-specific and control-iPSCs, spontaneously beating cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) were observed. All iPSC-CMs exhibited a reliable sarcomeric structure stained with antibodies against cardiac markers and similar expression profiles of cardiac-specific genes. Intracellular calcium signalling was recorded to compare calcium-handling properties among cardiomyocytes differentiated from the three groups of iPSCs. RA-iPSC-CMs had a lower amplitude and a shorter duration of calcium transients than the control groups. Peak tangential stress and the maximum contractile rate were also decreased in RA-iPSC-CMs, suggesting that contractility was reduced. This study demonstrates the successful generation of functional cardiomyocytes from pathogenic synovial cells in RA patients through iPSC reprogramming. Research using RA-iPSC-CMs might provide an opportunity to investigate the pathophysiology of cardiac involvement in RA

Efficient Triangle Counting in Large Graphs via Degree-based Vertex Partitioning

The number of triangles is a computationally expensive graph statistic which is frequently used in complex network analysis (e.g., transitivity ratio), in various random graph models (e.g., exponential random graph model) and in important real world applications such as spam detection, uncovering of the hidden thematic structure of the Web and link recommendation. Counting triangles in graphs with millions and billions of edges requires algorithms which run fast, use small amount of space, provide accurate estimates of the number of triangles and preferably are parallelizable. In this paper we present an efficient triangle counting algorithm which can be adapted to the semistreaming model. The key idea of our algorithm is to combine the sampling algorithm of Tsourakakis et al. and the partitioning of the set of vertices into a high degree and a low degree subset respectively as in the Alon, Yuster and Zwick work treating each set appropriately. We obtain a running time $O \left(m + \frac{m^{3/2} \Delta \log{n}}{t \epsilon^2} \right)$ and an $\epsilon$ approximation (multiplicative error), where $n$ is the number of vertices, $m$ the number of edges and $\Delta$ the maximum number of triangles an edge is contained. Furthermore, we show how this algorithm can be adapted to the semistreaming model with space usage $O\left(m^{1/2}\log{n} + \frac{m^{3/2} \Delta \log{n}}{t \epsilon^2} \right)$ and a constant number of passes (three) over the graph stream. We apply our methods in various networks with several millions of edges and we obtain excellent results. Finally, we propose a random projection based method for triangle counting and provide a sufficient condition to obtain an estimate with low variance.Comment: 1) 12 pages 2) To appear in the 7th Workshop on Algorithms and Models for the Web Graph (WAW 2010