Challenges for Opioid Receptor Nomenclature

Recent developments in the study of the structure and function of opioid receptors raise significant challenges for the definition of individual receptor types and the development of a nomenclature that precisely describes isoforms that may subserve different functions in vivo. Presentations at the 2013 meeting of the International Narcotics Research Conference in Cairns, Australia, considered some of the new discoveries that are now unravelling the complexities of opioid receptor signalling. Variable processing of opioid receptor messenger RNAs may lead to the presence of several isoforms of the μ receptor. Each opioid receptor type can function either as a monomer or as part of a homo- or heterodimer or higher multimer. Additionally, recent evidence points to the existence of agonist bias in the signal transduction pathways activated through μ receptors, and to the presence of regulatory allosteric sites on the receptors. This brief review summarizes the recent discoveries that raise challenges for receptor definition and the characterization of signal transduction pathways activated by specific receptor forms. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed section on Opioids: New Pathways to Functional Selectivity. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2015.172.issue-2.NHMRC 104596

Туризм и внешняя торговля АР Крым: географические аспекты современного развития

Целью данной статьи является оценка современного состояния внешней торговли АР Крым и ее составляющей – туристской деятельности

One loop photon-graviton mixing in an electromagnetic field: Part 2

In part 1 of this series compact integral representations had been obtained for the one-loop photon-graviton amplitude involving a charged spin 0 or spin 1/2 particle in the loop and an arbitrary constant electromagnetic field. In this sequel, we study the structure and magnitude of the various polarization components of this amplitude on-shell. Explicit expressions are obtained for a number of limiting cases.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figure

Large orders in strong-field QED

We address the issue of large-order expansions in strong-field QED. Our approach is based on the one-loop effective action encoded in the associated photon polarisation tensor. We concentrate on the simple case of crossed fields aiming at possible applications of high-power lasers to measure vacuum birefringence. A simple next-to-leading order derivative expansion reveals that the indices of refraction increase with frequency. This signals normal dispersion in the small-frequency regime where the derivative expansion makes sense. To gain information beyond that regime we determine the factorial growth of the derivative expansion coefficients evaluating the first 80 orders by means of computer algebra. From this we can infer a nonperturbative imaginary part for the indices of refraction indicating absorption (pair production) as soon as energy and intensity become (super)critical. These results compare favourably with an analytic evaluation of the polarisation tensor asymptotics. Kramers-Kronig relations finally allow for a nonperturbative definition of the real parts as well and show that absorption goes hand in hand with anomalous dispersion for sufficiently large frequencies and fields.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure

Dispersive properties of quasi-phase-matched optical parametric amplifiers

The dispersive properties of non-degenerate optical parametric amplification in quasi-phase-matched (QPM) nonlinear quadratic crystals with an arbitrary grating profile are theoretically investigated in the no-pump-depletion limit. The spectral group delay curve of the amplifier is shown to be univocally determined by its spectral power gain curve through a Hilbert transform. Such a constraint has important implications on the propagation of spectrally-narrow optical pulses through the amplifier. In particular, it is shown that anomalous transit times, corresponding to superluminal or even negative group velocities, are possible near local minima of the spectral gain curve. A possible experimental observation of such effects using a QPM Lithium-Niobate crystal is suggested.Comment: submitted for publicatio