Tunneling studies of multilayered superconducting cuprate (Cu,C)Ba 2Ca3Cu4O12+δ

4th International Conference on New Theories, Discoveries and Applications of Superconductors and Related MaterialsPoint contact tunneling data are reported in a multilayered high-T c cuprate (Cu,C)Ba2Ca3Cu4O 12+δ with Tc = 117 K. The tunneling spectra in the superconducting state (T ≪ Tc) display spectral features such as well-defined superconducting gap peak at ±Δ as well as dip-hump structures beyond the peaks. In some cases, the spectra with two-gaps have been observed, indicating the coexistence of two inequivalent superconducting layers. The statistical distribution of superconducting gap magnitude suggests two distinct kinds of superconducting gaps that may originate from two inequivalent CuO2 planes, a characteristics of multilayered cuprates with n ≥ 3.Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; US-DOE, BES-MS under contract no. W-31-109-ENG-38; TUBITAK TBAG-2031; Turkish Academy of Sciences, Young Scientist Award Program(LO/TUBA-GEBIP/2002-1-17

Comprehensive Behavioral Analysis of Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase IV Knockout Mice

Calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase IV (CaMKIV) is a protein kinase that activates the transcription factor CREB, the cyclic AMP-response element binding protein. CREB is a key transcription factor in synaptic plasticity and memory consolidation. To elucidate the behavioral effects of CaMKIV deficiency, we subjected CaMKIV knockout (CaMKIV KO) mice to a battery of behavioral tests. CaMKIV KO had no significant effects on locomotor activity, motor coordination, social interaction, pain sensitivity, prepulse inhibition, attention, or depression-like behavior. Consistent with previous reports, CaMKIV KO mice exhibited impaired retention in a fear conditioning test 28 days after training. In contrast, however, CaMKIV KO mice did not show any testing performance deficits in passive avoidance, one of the most commonly used fear memory paradigms, 28 days after training, suggesting that remote fear memory is intact. CaMKIV KO mice exhibited intact spatial reference memory learning in the Barnes circular maze, and normal spatial working memory in an eight-arm radial maze. CaMKIV KO mice also showed mildly decreased anxiety-like behavior, suggesting that CaMKIV is involved in regulating emotional behavior. These findings indicate that CaMKIV might not be essential for fear memory or spatial memory, although it is possible that the activities of other neural mechanisms or signaling pathways compensate for the CaMKIV deficiency

BCA2/Rabring7 promotes tetherin-dependent HIV-1 restriction.

Host cell factors can either positively or negatively regulate the assembly and egress of HIV-1 particles from infected cells. Recent reports have identified a previously uncharacterized transmembrane protein, tetherin/CD317/BST-2, as a crucial host restriction factor that acts during a late budding step in HIV-1 replication by inhibiting viral particle release. Although tetherin has been shown to promote the retention of nascent viral particles on the host cell surface, the precise molecular mechanisms that occur during and after these tethering events remain largely unknown. We here report that a RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase, BCA2 (Breast cancer-associated gene 2; also called Rabring7, ZNF364 or RNF115), is a novel tetherin-interacting host protein that facilitates the restriction of HIV-1 particle production in tetherin-positive cells. The expression of human BCA2 in "tetherin-positive" HeLa, but not in "tetherin-negative" HOS cells, resulted in a strong restriction of HIV-1 particle production. Upon the expression of tetherin in HOS cells, BCA2 was capable of inhibiting viral particle production as in HeLa cells. The targeted depletion of endogenous BCA2 by RNA interference (RNAi) in HeLa cells reduced the intracellular accumulation of viral particles, which were nevertheless retained on the plasma membrane. BCA2 was also found to facilitate the internalization of HIV-1 virions into CD63(+) intracellular vesicles leading to their lysosomal degradation. These results indicate that BCA2 accelerates the internalization and degradation of viral particles following their tethering to the cell surface and is a co-factor or enhancer for the tetherin-dependent restriction of HIV-1 release from infected cells

Implications of tunneling studies on high-Tc cuprates: Superconducting gap and pseudogap

Tunneling spectra have been measured on high-Tc cuprates including single crystals Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6+δ (Bi2201) and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi2212) using superconductor-insulator-normal metal point contact or superconductor-insulator-superconductor break junction methods. The doping dependence of the energy gap parameter is similar in both Bi2212 and Bi2201, increasing monotonically to very large values in the underdoped regime even as Tc decreases. This doping dependence of superconducting gap is similar to that of pseudogap temperature, T*, indicating this is consistent with the scenario whereby the low-energy pseudogap is due to some type of precursor of superconductivity. The high-energy feature observed as the hump structure may be another kind of pseudogap whose energy scale is much larger than superconducting gap, and it may be magnetic in origin