2,972 research outputs found
Presynaptic Localization of Sodium/Calcium Exchangers in Neuromuscular Preparations
Calcium ions play a critical role in neurotransmitter release. The cytosolic Ca 2+ concentration ([Ca2+]cyt) at nerve terminals must therefore be carefully controlled. Several different mechanisms, including a plasmalemmal Na/Ca exchanger, are involved in regulating [Ca2+]cyta We employed immunofluorescence microscopy with polyclonal antiserum raised against dog cardiac sarcolemmal Na/Ca exchanger to determine the distribution of the exchanger in vertebrate neuromuscular preparations. Our data indicate that the Na/Ca exchanger is concentrated at the neuromuscular junctions of the rat diaphragm. The exchanger is also present in the nonjunctional sarcolemma, but at a much lower concentration than in the junctional regions. Denervation markedly lowers the concentration of the exchanger in the junctional regions; this implies that the Na/Ca exchanger is concentrated in the presynaptic nerve terminals. In Xenopus laevis nerve and muscle cell cocultures, high concentrations of the exchanger are observed along the neurites as well as at the nerve terminals. The high concentrations of Na/Ca exchanger at presynaptic nerve terminals in vertebrate neuromuscular preparations suggest that the exchanger may participate in the Ca-dependent regulation of neurotransmitter release. The Na/Ca exchanger is also abundant in developing neurites and growth cones, where it may also be important for Ca2+ homeostasis
Temperature and magnetic field dependence of the lattice constant in spin-Peierls cuprate CuGeO_3 studied by capacitance dilatometry in fields up to 16 Tesla
We present high resolution measurements of the thermal expansion coefficient
and the magnetostriction along the a-axis of CuGeO_3 in magnetic fields up to
16 Tesla. From the pronounced anomalies of the lattice constant a occurring for
both temperature and field induced phase transitions clear structural
differences between the uniform, dimerized, and incommensurate phases are
established. A precise field temperature phase diagram is derived and compared
in detail with existing theories. Although there is a fair agreement with the
calculations within the Cross Fisher theory, some significant and systematic
deviations are present. In addition, our data yield a high resolution
measurement of the field and temperature dependence of the spontaneous strain
scaling with the spin-Peierls order parameter. Both the zero temperature values
as well as the critical behavior of the order parameter are nearly field
independent in the dimerized phase. A spontaneous strain is also found in the
incommensurate high field phase, which is significantly smaller and shows a
different critical behavior than that in the low field phase. The analysis of
the temperature dependence of the spontaneous strain yields a pronounced field
dependence within the dimerized phase, whereas the temperature dependence of
the incommensurate lattice modulation compares well with that of the
dimerization in zero magnetic field.Comment: 25 pages, 15 Figs., to appear in Phys. Rev. B55 (Vol.5
Differential tangential expansion as a mechanism for cortical gyrification.
Gyrification, the developmental buckling of the cortex, is not a random process-the forces that mediate expansion do so in such a way as to generate consistent patterns of folds across individuals and even species. Although the origin of these forces is unknown, some theories have suggested that they may be related to external cortical factors such as axonal tension. Here, we investigate an alternative hypothesis, namely, whether the differential tangential expansion of the cortex alone can account for the degree and pattern-specificity of gyrification. Using intrinsic curvature as a measure of differential expansion, we initially explored whether this parameter and the local gyrification index (used to quantify the degree of gyrification) varied in a regional-specific pattern across the cortical surface in a manner that was replicable across independent datasets of neurotypicals. Having confirmed this consistency, we further demonstrated that within each dataset, the degree of intrinsic curvature of the cortex was predictive of the degree of cortical folding at a global and regional level. We conclude that differential expansion is a plausible primary mechanism for gyrification, and propose that this perspective offers a compelling mechanistic account of the co-localization of cytoarchitecture and cortical folds
Exchange Instabilities in Semiconductor Double Quantum Well Systems
We consider various exchange-driven electronic instabilities in semiconductor
double-layer systems in the absence of any external magnetic field. We
establish that there is no exchange-driven bilayer to monolayer charge transfer
instability in the double-layer systems. We show that, within the unrestricted
Hartree-Fock approximation, the low density stable phase (even in the absence
of any interlayer tunneling) is a quantum ``pseudospin rotated'' spontaneous
interlayer phase coherent spin-polarized symmetric state rather than the
classical Ising-like charge-transfer phase. The U(1) symmetry of the double
quantum well system is broken spontaneously at this low density quantum phase
transition, and the layer density develops quantum fluctuations even in the
absence of any interlayer tunneling. The phase diagram for the double quantum
well system is calculated in the carrier density--layer separation space, and
the possibility of experimentally observing various quantum phases is
discussed. The situation in the presence of an external electric field is
investigated in some detail using the
spin-polarized-local-density-approximation-based self-consistent technique and
good agreement with existing experimental results is obtained.Comment: 24 pages, figures included. Also available at
http://www-cmg.physics.umd.edu/~lzheng/preprint/ct.uu/ . Revised final
version to appear in PR
Bidirectional Psychoneuroimmune Interactions in the Early Postpartum Period Influence Risk of Postpartum Depression
More than 500,000 U.S. women develop postpartum depression (PPD) annually. Although psychosocial risks are known, the underlying biology remains unclear. Dysregulation of the immune inflammatory response and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis are associated with depression in other populations. While significant research on the contribution of these systems to the development of PPD has been conducted, results have been inconclusive. This is partly because few studies have focused on whether disruption in the bidirectional and dynamic interaction between the inflammatory response and the HPA axis together influence PPD. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that disruption in the inflammatory-HPA axis bidirectional relationship would increase the risk of PPD. Plasma pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were measured in women during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and on Days 7 and 14, and Months 1, 2, 3, and 6 after childbirth. Saliva was collected 5 times the day preceding blood draws for determination of cortisol area under the curve (AUC) and depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Survey (EPDS). Of the 152 women who completed the EPDS, 18% were depressed according to EDPS criteria within the 6 months postpartum. Cortisol AUC was higher in symptomatic women on Day 14 (p = .017). To consider the combined effects of cytokines and cortisol on predicting symptoms of PPD, a multiple logistic regression model was developed that included predictors identified in bivariate analyses to have an effect on depressive symptoms. Results indicated that family history of depression, day 14 cortisol AUC, and the day 14 IL8/IL10 ratio were significant predictors of PPD symptoms. One unit increase each in the IL8/IL10 ratio and cortisol AUC resulted in 1.50 (p = 0.06) and 2.16 (p = 0.02) fold increases respectively in the development of PPD. Overall, this model correctly classified 84.2% of individuals in their respective groups. Findings suggest that variability in the complex interaction between the inflammatory response and the HPA axis influence the risk of PPD
Lifetimes of quasiparticles and collective excitations in hot QED plasmas
The perturbative calculation of the lifetime of fermion excitations in a QED
plasma at high temperature is plagued with infrared divergences which are not
eliminated by the screening corrections. The physical processes responsible for
these divergences are the collisions involving the exchange of longwavelength,
quasistatic, magnetic photons, which are not screened by plasma effects. The
leading divergences can be resummed in a non-perturbative treatement based on a
generalization of the Bloch-Nordsieck model at finite temperature. The
resulting expression of the fermion propagator is free of infrared problems,
and exhibits a {\it non-exponential} damping at large times: , where is the plasma
frequency and .Comment: LaTex file, 57 pages, 11 eps figures include
The nonlinear Schroedinger equation for the delta-comb potential: quasi-classical chaos and bifurcations of periodic stationary solutions
The nonlinear Schroedinger equation is studied for a periodic sequence of
delta-potentials (a delta-comb) or narrow Gaussian potentials. For the
delta-comb the time-independent nonlinear Schroedinger equation can be solved
analytically in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions and thus provides useful
insight into the features of nonlinear stationary states of periodic
potentials. Phenomena well-known from classical chaos are found, such as a
bifurcation of periodic stationary states and a transition to spatial chaos.
The relation of new features of nonlinear Bloch bands, such as looped and
period doubled bands, are analyzed in detail. An analytic expression for the
critical nonlinearity for the emergence of looped bands is derived. The results
for the delta-comb are generalized to a more realistic potential consisting of
a periodic sequence of narrow Gaussian peaks and the dynamical stability of
periodic solutions in a Gaussian comb is discussed.Comment: Enhanced and revised version, to appear in J. Nonlin. Math. Phy
Proposal of an extended t-J Hamiltonian for high-Tc cuprates from ab initio calculations on embedded clusters
A series of accurate ab initio calculations on Cu_pO-q finite clusters,
properly embedded on the Madelung potential of the infinite lattice, have been
performed in order to determine the local effective interactions in the CuO_2
planes of La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 compounds. The values of the first-neighbor
interactions, magnetic coupling (J_{NN}=125 meV) and hopping integral
(t_{NN}=-555 meV), have been confirmed. Important additional effects are
evidenced, concerning essentially the second-neighbor hopping integral
t_{NNN}=+110meV, the displacement of a singlet toward an adjacent colinear
hole, h_{SD}^{abc}=-80 meV, a non-negligible hole-hole repulsion
V_{NN}-V_{NNN}=0.8 eV and a strong anisotropic effect of the presence of an
adjacent hole on the values of the first-neighbor interactions. The dependence
of J_{NN} and t_{NN} on the position of neighbor hole(s) has been rationalized
from the two-band model and checked from a series of additional ab initio
calculations. An extended t-J model Hamiltonian has been proposed on the basis
of these results. It is argued that the here-proposed three-body effects may
play a role in the charge/spin separation observed in these compounds, that is,
in the formation and dynamic of stripes.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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