Characterization of a Structural Intermediate of Flavivirus Membrane Fusion

Viral membrane fusion proceeds through a sequence of steps that are driven by triggered conformational changes of viral envelope glycoproteins, so-called fusion proteins. Although high-resolution structural snapshots of viral fusion proteins in their prefusion and postfusion conformations are available, it has been difficult to define intermediate structures of the fusion pathway because of their transient nature. Flaviviruses possess a class II viral fusion protein (E) mediating fusion at acidic pH that is converted from a dimer to a trimer with a hairpin-like structure during the fusion process. Here we show for tick-borne encephalitis virus that exposure of virions to alkaline instead of acidic pH traps the particles in an intermediate conformation in which the E dimers dissociate and interact with target membranes via the fusion peptide without proceeding to the merger of the membranes. Further treatment to low pH, however, leads to fusion, suggesting that these monomers correspond to an as-yet-elusive intermediate required to convert the prefusion dimer into the postfusion trimer. Thus, the use of nonphysiological conditions allows a dissection of the flavivirus fusion process and the identification of two separate steps, in which membrane insertion of multiple copies of E monomers precedes the formation of hairpin-like trimers. This sequence of events provides important new insights for understanding the dynamic process of viral membrane fusion

Phase‐amplitude coupling profiles differ in frontal and auditory cortices of bats

Neural oscillations are at the core of important computations in the mammalian brain. Interactions between oscillatory activities in different frequency bands, such as delta (1–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz) or gamma (>30 Hz), are a powerful mechanism for binding fundamentally distinct spatiotemporal scales of neural processing. Phase‐amplitude coupling (PAC) is one such plausible and well‐described interaction, but much is yet to be uncovered regarding how PAC dynamics contribute to sensory representations. In particular, although PAC appears to have a major role in audition, the characteristics of coupling profiles in sensory and integration (i.e. frontal) cortical areas remain obscure. Here, we address this question by studying PAC dynamics in the frontal‐auditory field (FAF; an auditory area in the bat frontal cortex) and the auditory cortex (AC) of the bat Carollia perspicillata. By means of simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in frontal and auditory cortices examining local‐field potentials (LFPs), we show that the amplitude of gamma‐band activity couples with the phase of low‐frequency LFPs in both structures. Our results demonstrate that the coupling in FAF occurs most prominently in delta/high‐gamma frequencies (1‐4/75‐100 Hz), whereas in the AC the coupling is strongest in the delta‐theta/low‐gamma (2‐8/25‐55 Hz) range. We argue that distinct PAC profiles may represent different mechanisms for neuronal processing in frontal and auditory cortices, and might complement oscillatory interactions for sensory processing in the frontal‐auditory cortex network

Three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the evolution of magnetic fields in Fanaroff-Riley class II radio sources

Radio observations of Fanaroff-Riley class II sources often show correlations between the synchrotron emission and the linear-polarimetric distributions. Magnetic position vectors seem to align with the projected emission of both the radio jets and the sources' edges. Using statistics we study such relation as well as its unknown time evolution via synthetic polarisation maps of model FR II sources formed in 3D-MHD numerical simulations of bipolar, hypersonic and weakly magnetised jets. The magnetic field is initially random with a Kolmogorov power spectrum, everywhere. We investigate the structure and evolution of magnetic fields in the sources as a function of the power of jets and the observational viewing angle. Our synthetic polarisation maps agree with observations, showing B-field vectors which are predominantly aligned with the jet axis, and show that magnetic fields inside sources are shaped by the jets' backflow. Polarimetry is found to correlate with time, the viewing angle and the jet-to-ambient density contrast. The magnetic structure inside thin elongated sources is more uniform than inside more spherical ones. We see jets increase the magnetic energy in cocoons in proportion to the jet velocity and the cocoon width. Filaments in the synthetic emission maps suggest turbulence develops in evolved sources.Comment: Accepted for publication in the MNRAS. 21 pages, 11 figure

Diffusion Monte Carlo calculations for the ground states of atoms and ions in neutron star magnetic fields

The diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method is extended to solve the old theoretical physics problem of many-electron atoms and ions in intense magnetic fields. The feature of our approach is the use of adiabatic approximation wave functions augmented by a Jastrow factor as guiding functions to initialize the quantum Monte Carlo prodecure. We calcula te the ground state energies of atoms and ions with nuclear charges from Z= 2, 3, 4, ..., 26 for magnetic field strengths relevant for neutron stars.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of the "9th International Conference on Path Integrals - New Trends and Perspectives", Max-Planck-Institut fur Physik komplexer Systeme, Dresden, Germany, September 23 - 28, 2007, to be published as a book by World Scientific, Singapore (2008

Echolocation-related reversal of information flow in a cortical vocalization network

The mammalian frontal and auditory cortices are important for vocal behavior. Here, using local-field potential recordings, we demonstrate that the timing and spatial patterns of oscillations in the fronto-auditory network of vocalizing bats (Carollia perspicillata) predict the purpose of vocalization: echolocation or communication. Transfer entropy analyses revealed predominant top-down (frontal-to-auditory cortex) information flow during spontaneous activity and pre-vocal periods. The dynamics of information flow depend on the behavioral role of the vocalization and on the timing relative to vocal onset. We observed the emergence of predominant bottom-up (auditory-to-frontal) information transfer during the post-vocal period specific to echolocation pulse emission, leading to self-directed acoustic feedback. Electrical stimulation of frontal areas selectively enhanced responses to sounds in auditory cortex. These results reveal unique changes in information flow across sensory and frontal cortices, potentially driven by the purpose of the vocalization in a highly vocal mammalian model

Density-Functional-Theory Calculations of Matter in Strong Magnetic Fields: II. Infinite Chains and Condensed Matter

We present new, ab initio calculations of the electronic structure of one-dimensional infinite chains and three-dimensional condensed matter in strong magnetic fields ranging from B=10^12 G to 2x10^15 G, appropriate for observed magnetic neutron stars. At these field strengths, the magnetic forces on the electrons dominate over the Coulomb forces, and to a good approximation the electrons are confined to the ground Landau level. Our calculations are based on the density functional theory, and use a local magnetic exchange-correlation function appropriate in the strong field regime. The band structures of electrons in different Landau orbitals are computed self-consistently. Numerical results of the ground-state energies and electron work functions are given for one-dimensional chains of H, He, C, and Fe. Fitting formulae for the B-dependence of the energies are also provided. For all the field strengths considered in this paper, hydrogen, helium, and carbon chains are found to be bound relative to individual atoms (although for B less than a few x 10^12 G, the relative binding between C and C_infinity is small). Iron chains are significantly bound for B>10^14 G and are weakly bound if at all at B<10^13 G. We also study the cohesive property of three-dimensional condensed matter of H, He, C, and Fe at zero pressure, constructed from interacting chains in a body-centered tetragonal lattice. Such three-dimensional condensed matter is found to be bound relative to individual atoms, with the cohesive energy increasing rapidly with increasing B.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figures. Minor changes, figure omissions. Phys. Rev. A in pres

Tonotopically Arranged Traveling Waves in the Miniature Hearing Organ of Bushcrickets

Place based frequency discrimination (tonotopy) is a fundamental property of the coiled mammalian cochlea. Sound vibrations mechanically conducted to the hearing organ manifest themselves into slow moving waves that travel along the length of the organ, also referred to as traveling waves. These traveling waves form the basis of the tonotopic frequency representation in the inner ear of mammals. However, so far, due to the secure housing of the inner ear, these waves only could be measured partially over small accessible regions of the inner ear in a living animal. Here, we demonstrate the existence of tonotopically ordered traveling waves covering most of the length of a miniature hearing organ in the leg of bushcrickets in vivo using laser Doppler vibrometery. The organ is only 1 mm long and its geometry allowed us to investigate almost the entire length with a wide range of stimuli (6 to 60 kHz). The tonotopic location of the traveling wave peak was exponentially related to stimulus frequency. The traveling wave propagated along the hearing organ from the distal (high frequency) to the proximal (low frequency) part of the leg, which is opposite to the propagation direction of incoming sound waves. In addition, we observed a non-linear compression of the velocity response to varying sound pressure levels. The waves are based on the delicate micromechanics of cellular structures different to those of mammals. Hence place based frequency discrimination by traveling waves is a physical phenomenon that presumably evolved in mammals and bushcrickets independently

The Hydrodynamics of Astrophysical jets: Scaled Experiments and Numerical Simulations

Context. In this paper we study the propagation of hypersonic hydrodynamic jets (Mach number >5) in a laboratory vessel and make comparisons with numerical simulations of axially symmetric flows with the same initial and boundary conditions. The astrophysical context is that of the jets originating around young stellar objects (YSOs). Aims. In order to gain a deeper insight into the phenomenology of YSO jets, we performed a set of experiments and numerical simulations of hypersonic jets in the range of Mach numbers from 10 to 20 and for jet-to-ambient density ratios from 0.85 to 5.4, using different gas species and observing jet lengths of the order of 150 initial radii or more. Exploiting the scalability of the hydrodynamic equations, we intend to reproduce the YSO jet behaviour with respect to jet velocity and elapsed times. In addition, we can make comparisons between the simulated, the experimental, and the observed morphologies. Methods. In the experiments the gas pressure and temperature are increased by a fast, quasi-isentropic compression by means of a piston system operating on a time scale of tens of milliseconds, while the gas density is visualized and measured by means of an electron beam system. We used the PLUTO software for the numerical solution of mixed hyperbolic/parabolic conservation laws targeting high Mach number flows in astrophysical fluid dynamics. We considered axisymmetric initial conditions and carried out numerical simulations in cylindrical geometry. The code has a modular flexible structure whereby different numerical algorithms can be separately combined to solve systems of conservation laws using the finite volume or finite difference approach based on Godunov-type schemes. Results. The agreement between experiments and numerical simulations is fairly good in most of the comparisons. The resulting scaled flow velocities and elapsed times are close to the ones shown by observations. The morphologies of the density distributions agree with the observed ones as well. Conclusions. The laboratory and the simulated hypersonic jets are all pressure matched, i.e. their axial regions are almost isentropic at the nozzle exit. They maintain their collimation for long distances in terms of the initial jet radii, without including magnetic confinement effects. This yields a qualitatively good agreement with the observed YSO jet morphologies. It remains to be seen what happens when non-axially symmetric perturbations of the flow are imposed at the nozzle, both in the experiment and in the simulation

Simulations of multiphase turbulence in jet cocoons

M. Krause and P. Alexander, 'Simulations of multiphase turbulence in jet cocoons', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 376, pp. 465-478, April 2007, the version of record is available online at doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11480.x. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 RASThe interaction of optically emitting clouds with warm X-ray gas and hot, tenuous radio plasma in radio jet cocoons is modelled by 2D compressible hydrodynamic simulations. The initial setup is the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability at a contact surface of density contrast 104. The denser medium contains clouds of higher density. Optically thin radiation is realized via a cooling source term. The cool phase effectively extracts energy from the other gas which is both, radiated away and used for acceleration of the cold phase. This increases the system’s cooling rate substantially and leads to a massively amplified cold mass dropout. We show that it is feasible, given small seed clouds of the order of 100 M, that all of the optically emitting gas in a radio jet cocoon may be produced by this mechanism on the propagation time-scale of the jet. The mass is generally distributed as T−1/2 with temperature, with a prominent peak at 14 000 K. This peak is likely to be related to the counteracting effects of shock heating and a strong rise in the cooling function. The volume filling factor of cold gas in this peak is of the order of 10−5–10−3 and generally increases during the simulation time. The simulations tend towards an isotropic scale-free Kolmogorov-type energy spectrum over the simulation time-scale. We find the same Mach-number density relation as Kritsuk & Norman and show that this relation may explain the velocity widths of emission lines associated with high-redshift radio galaxies, if the environmental temperature is lower, or the jet-ambient density ratio is less extreme than in their low-redshift counterparts.Peer reviewe