14,917 research outputs found
Electrochemical reduction of carbamazepine in ethanol and water solutions using a glassy carbon electrode
The electrochemical reduction of carbamazepine in ethanol and water using a glassy carbon electrode has been studied. In all experimental conditions of scan rate and concentration of carbamazepine an irreversible cathodic wave was observed by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Electrochemical parameters and a plausible EqC mechanism have been reported from the electrochemical measurements and digital simulation. The values of thermodynamic E1/2 were correlated with solvent polarity parameters that it can be interesting for biological, pharmaceutical and forensic purposes. Limits of Detection (LOD) for DPV are 1.1 and 9.0 g/mL (4.65x10-6 and 3.81x10-5 M) in ethanol and water, respectively. The precision and recoveries obtained for tablets and plasma samples showed that the method could be successfully used for analysis
Kato square root problem with unbounded leading coefficients
We prove the Kato conjecture for elliptic operators,
, with a
complex measurable bounded coercive matrix and a measurable
real-valued skew-symmetric matrix in with entries in
;\, i.e., the domain of is the Sobolev space
in any dimension, with the estimate
Cerebellum Transcriptome of Mice Bred for High Voluntary Activity Offers Insights into Locomotor Control and Reward-Dependent Behaviors.
The role of the cerebellum in motivation and addictive behaviors is less understood than that in control and coordination of movements. High running can be a self-rewarding behavior exhibiting addictive properties. Changes in the cerebellum transcriptional networks of mice from a line selectively bred for High voluntary running (H) were profiled relative to an unselected Control (C) line. The environmental modulation of these changes was assessed both in activity environments corresponding to 7 days of Free (F) access to running wheel and to Blocked (B) access on day 7. Overall, 457 genes exhibited a significant (FDR-adjusted P-value < 0.05) genotype-by-environment interaction effect, indicating that activity genotype differences in gene expression depend on environmental access to running. Among these genes, network analysis highlighted 6 genes (Nrgn, Drd2, Rxrg, Gda, Adora2a, and Rab40b) connected by their products that displayed opposite expression patterns in the activity genotype contrast within the B and F environments. The comparison of network expression topologies suggests that selection for high voluntary running is linked to a predominant dysregulation of hub genes in the F environment that enables running whereas a dysregulation of ancillary genes is favored in the B environment that blocks running. Genes associated with locomotor regulation, signaling pathways, reward-processing, goal-focused, and reward-dependent behaviors exhibited significant genotype-by-environment interaction (e.g. Pak6, Adora2a, Drd2, and Arhgap8). Neuropeptide genes including Adcyap1, Cck, Sst, Vgf, Npy, Nts, Penk, and Tac2 and related receptor genes also exhibited significant genotype-by-environment interaction. The majority of the 183 differentially expressed genes between activity genotypes (e.g. Drd1) were under-expressed in C relative to H genotypes and were also under-expressed in B relative to F environments. Our findings indicate that the high voluntary running mouse line studied is a helpful model for understanding the molecular mechanisms in the cerebellum that influence locomotor control and reward-dependent behaviors
High spatial resolution and high contrast optical speckle imaging with FASTCAM at the ORM
In this paper, we present an original observational approach, which combines,
for the first time, traditional speckle imaging with image post-processing to
obtain in the optical domain diffraction-limited images with high contrast
(1e-5) within 0.5 to 2 arcseconds around a bright star. The post-processing
step is based on wavelet filtering an has analogy with edge enhancement and
high-pass filtering. Our I-band on-sky results with the 2.5-m Nordic Telescope
(NOT) and the lucky imaging instrument FASTCAM show that we are able to detect
L-type brown dwarf companions around a solar-type star with a contrast DI~12 at
2" and with no use of any coronographic capability, which greatly simplifies
the instrumental and hardware approach. This object has been detected from the
ground in J and H bands so far only with AO-assisted 8-10 m class telescopes
(Gemini, Keck), although more recently detected with small-class telescopes in
the K band. Discussing the advantage and disadvantage of the optical regime for
the detection of faint intrinsic fluxes close to bright stars, we develop some
perspectives for other fields, including the study of dense cores in globular
clusters. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that high
contrast considerations are included in optical speckle imaging approach.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE conference - Ground-based and Airborne
Instrumentation for Astronomy III (Conference 7735), San Diego 201
The Low Redshift survey at Calar Alto (LoRCA)
The Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the power spectrum of
galaxies provides a standard ruler to measure the accelerated expansion of the
Universe. To extract all available information about dark energy, it is
necessary to measure a standard ruler in the local, z<0.2, universe where dark
energy dominates most the energy density of the Universe. Though the volume
available in the local universe is limited, it is just big enough to measure
accurately the long 100 Mpc/h wave-mode of the BAO. Using cosmological N-body
simulations and approximate methods based on Lagrangian perturbation theory, we
construct a suite of a thousand light-cones to evaluate the precision at which
one can measure the BAO standard ruler in the local universe. We find that
using the most massive galaxies on the full sky (34,000 sq. deg.), i.e. a
K(2MASS)<14 magnitude-limited sample, one can measure the BAO scale up to a
precision of 4\% and 1.2\% using reconstruction). We also find that such a
survey would help to detect the dynamics of dark energy.Therefore, we propose a
3-year long observational project, named the Low Redshift survey at Calar Alto
(LoRCA), to observe spectroscopically about 200,000 galaxies in the northern
sky to contribute to the construction of aforementioned galaxy sample. The
suite of light-cones is made available to the public.Comment: 15 pages. Accepted in MNRAS. Please visit our website:
http://lorca-survey.ft.uam.es
Predicting Isoform-Selective Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors via Machine Learning and Rationalizing Structural Features Important for Selectivity
Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) catalyze the physiological hydration of carbon dioxide and are among the most intensely studied pharmaceutical target enzymes. A hallmark of CA inhibition is the complexation of the catalytic zinc cation in the active site. Human (h) CA isoforms belonging to different families are implicated in a wide range of diseases and of very high interest for therapeutic intervention. Given the conserved catalytic mechanisms and high similarity of many hCA isoforms, a major challenge for CA-based therapy is achieving inhibitor selectivity for hCA isoforms that are associated with specific pathologies over other widely distributed isoforms such as hCA I or hCA II that are of critical relevance for the integrity of many physiological processes. To address this challenge, we have attempted to predict compounds that are selective for isoform hCA IX, which is a tumor-associated protein and implicated in metastasis, over hCA II on the basis of a carefully curated data set of selective and nonselective inhibitors. Machine learning achieved surprisingly high accuracy in predicting hCA IX-selective inhibitors. The results were further investigated, and compound features determining successful predictions were identified. These features were then studied on the basis of X-ray structures of hCA isoform-inhibitor complexes and found to include substructures that explain compound selectivity. Our findings lend credence to selectivity predictions and indicate that the machine learning models derived herein have considerable potential to aid in the identification of new hCA IX-selective compounds
Large ferroelectric polarization in the new double perovskite NaLaMnWO induced by non-polar instabilities
Based on density functional theory calculations and group theoretical
analysis, we have studied NaLaMnWO compound which has been recently
synthesized [Phys. Rev. B 79, 224428 (2009)] and belongs to the family of double perovskites. At low temperature, the structure has
monoclinic symmetry, with layered ordering of the Na and La ions and
rocksalt ordering of Mn and W ions. The Mn atoms show an antiferromagnetic
(AFM) collinear spin ordering, and the compound has been reported as a
potential multiferroic. By comparing the low symmetry structure with a parent
phase of symmetry, two distortion modes are found dominant. They
correspond to MnO and WO octahedron \textit{tilt} modes, often
found in many simple perovskites. While in the latter these common tilting
instabilities yield non-polar phases, in NaLaMnWO the additional presence
of the - cation ordering is sufficient to make these rigid unit modes
as a source of the ferroelectricity. Through a trilinear coupling with the two
unstable tilting modes, a significant polar distortion is induced, although the
system has no intrinsic polar instability. The calculated electric polarization
resulting from this polar distortion is as large as 16 . Despite its secondary character, this polarization is coupled with
the dominant tilting modes and its switching is bound to produce the switching
of one of two tilts, enhancing in this way a possible interaction with the
magnetic ordering. The transformation of common non-polar purely steric
instabilities into sources of ferroelectricity through a controlled
modification of the parent structure, as done here by the cation ordering, is a
phenomenon to be further explored.Comment: Physical Chemistry Chemical physics (in press
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