The role of opioid and nitrergic systems in dual modulation of seizure susceptibility

Epilepsy is a chronic disorder presented by recurrent episodes of seizures and affect worldwide individuals. The underlying mechanism of seizure is still elusive. Hence, there is still a need to determine the contribution of various systems in neurobiology and treatment of seizure. Evidence shows that opioid and nitrergic systems within the brain interact to modulate various physiological and pathological conditions including memory, pain, reward, addiction, depression, and seizure. Various studies revealed that diverse dose of opioids such as morphine has dual modulation in seizure susceptibility. For instance, it is reported that morphine at lower doses (0.5, 1, and 3 mg/kg) exerts an anticonvulsant effect in experimental seizure models, whereas at higher doses (15, 30, and 60 mg/kg) it could exacerbate the seizure. Similarly, nitrergic system has also been observed to possess dual effects in modulating the seizure threshold. Therefore, understanding of opioidergic and nitrergic systems interaction in seizure seems important to achieve the successful goal of seizure management. This review aimed to clarify and provide insight into how opioidergic and nitrergic systems interact in brain and mediate seizure behavior. © 2020 UNIV CARLOSIII MADRID. All rights reserved

Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7  fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale

Searches for electroweak neutralino and chargino production in channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) are presented based on the electroweak pair production of neutralinos and charginos, leading to decay channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons and undetected lightest SUSY particles (LSPs). The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 19.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected in 2012 with the CMS detector at the LHC. The main emphasis is neutralino pair production in which each neutralino decays either to a Higgs boson (h) and an LSP or to a Z boson and an LSP, leading to hh, hZ, and ZZ states with missing transverse energy (E-T(miss)). A second aspect is chargino-neutralino pair production, leading to hW states with E-T(miss). The decays of a Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair, to a photon pair, and to final states with leptons are considered in conjunction with hadronic and leptonic decay modes of the Z and W bosons. No evidence is found for supersymmetric particles, and 95% confidence level upper limits are evaluated for the respective pair production cross sections and for neutralino and chargino mass values

Measurement of vector boson production cross sections and their ratios using pp collisions at √s = 13.6 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract available from publisher's website

Searches for exclusive Higgs boson decays into D⁎γ and Z boson decays into D0γ and Ks0γ in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for exclusive decays of the Higgs boson into D⁎γ and of the Z boson into D0γ and Ks0γ can probe flavour-violating Higgs boson and Z boson couplings to light quarks. Searches for these decays are performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136.3 fb−1 collected at s=13TeV between 2016–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In the D⁎γ and D0γ channels, the observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits on the respective branching fractions are B(H→D⁎γ)<1.0(1.2)×10−3, B(Z→D0γ)<4.0(3.4)×10−6, while the corresponding results in the Ks0γ channel are B(Z→Ks0γ)<3.1(3.0)×10−6

Combination of searches for heavy spin-1 resonances using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into diferent pairings of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq, bb, tt¯, and tb) or third-generation leptons (τν and τ τ ) are included in this kind of combination for the frst time. A simplifed model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confdence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion

Beam-induced backgrounds measured in the ATLAS detector during local gas injection into the LHC beam vacuum

Inelastic beam-gas collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), within a few hundred metres of the ATLAS experiment, are known to give the dominant contribution to beam backgrounds. These are monitored by ATLAS with a dedicated Beam Conditions Monitor (BCM) and with the rate of fake jets in the calorimeters. These two methods are complementary since the BCM probes backgrounds just around the beam pipe while fake jets are observed at radii of up to several metres. In order to quantify the correlation between the residual gas density in the LHC beam vacuum and the experimental backgrounds recorded by ATLAS, several dedicated tests were performed during LHC Run 2. Local pressure bumps, with a gas density several orders of magnitude higher than during normal operation, were introduced at different locations. The changes of beam-related backgrounds, seen in ATLAS, are correlated with the local pressure variation. In addition the rates of beam-gas events are estimated from the pressure measurements and pressure bump profiles obtained from calculations. Using these rates, the efficiency of the ATLAS beam background monitors to detect beam-gas events is derived as a function of distance from the interaction point. These efficiencies and characteristic distributions of fake jets from the beam backgrounds are found to be in good agreement with results of beam-gas simulations performed with theFluka Monte Carlo programme

Ion Transport and Electrochemical Properties of Fluorine-Free Lithium-Ion Battery Electrolytes Derived from Biomass

Unlike conventional electrolytes, ionic liquid (IL)-based electrolytes offer higher thermal stability, acceptable ionic conductivity, and a higher electrochemical stability window (ESW), which are indispensable for the proper functioning of Li-ion batteries. In this study, fluorine-free electrolytes are prepared by mixing the lithium furan-2-carboxylate [Li(FuA)] salt with the tetra(n-butyl)phosphonium furan-2-carboxylate [(P4444)(FuA)] IL in different molar ratios. The anion of these electrolytes is produced from biomass and agricultural waste on a large scale and, therefore, this study is a step ahead toward the development of renewable electrolytes for batteries. The electrolytes are found to have Tonset higher than 568 K and acceptable ionic conductivities in a wide temperature range. The pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR) analysis has confirmed that the (FuA)- anion diffuses faster than the (P4444)+ cation in the neat (P4444)(FuA) IL; however, the anion diffusion becomes slower than cation diffusion by doping Li salt. The Li+ ion interacts strongly with the carboxylate functionality in the (FuA)- anion and diffuses slower than other ions over the whole studied temperature range. The interaction of the Li+ ion with the carboxylate group is also confirmed by 7Li NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The transference number of the Li+ ion is increased with increasing Li salt concentration. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) suggests lithium underpotential deposition and bulk reduction at temperatures above 313 K

Effect of Aromaticity in Anion on the Cation-Anion Interactions and Ionic Mobility in Fluorine-Free Ionic Liquids

© 2020 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. Ionic liquids (ILs) composed of tetra(n-butyl)phosphonium [P4444]+ and tetra(n-butyl)ammonium [N4444]+ cations paired with 2-furoate [FuA]-, tetrahydo-2-furoate [HFuA]-, and thiophene-2-carboxylate [TpA]- anions are prepared to investigate the effects of electron delocalization in anion and the mutual interactions between cations and anions on their physical and electrochemical properties. The [P4444]+ cations-based ILs are found to be liquids, while the [N4444]+ cations-based ILs are semi-solids at room temperature. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed higher decomposition temperatures and differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed lower glass transition temperatures for phosphonium-based ILs than the ammonium-based counterparts. The ILs are arranged in the decreasing order of their ionic conductivities as [P4444][HFuA] (0.069 mS cm-1) > [P4444][FuA] (0.032 mS cm-1) > [P4444][TpA] (0.028 mS cm-1) at 20 °C. The oxidative limit of the ILs followed the sequence of [FuA]-> [TpA]-> [HFuA]-, as measured by linear sweep voltammetry. This order can be attributed to the electrons' delocalization in [FuA]- and in [TpA]- aromatic anions, which has enhanced the oxidative limit potentials and the overall electrochemical stabilities

Structural and ion dynamics in fluorine-free oligoether carboxylate ionic liquid-based electrolytes

© 2020 American Chemical Society Here, we investigate the physicochemical and electrochemical properties of fluorine-free ionic liquid (IL)-based electrolytes with two different cations, tetrabutylphosphonium, (P4,4,4,4)+, and tetrabutylammonium, (N4,4,4,4)+, coupled to a new anion, 2-[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethoxy]acetate anion (MEEA)−, for both neat and (P4,4,4,4)(MEEA) also doped with 10−40 mol % of Li(MEEA). We find relatively weaker cation−anion interactions in (P4,4,4,4)(MEEA) than in (N4,4,4,4)(MEEA), and for both ILs, the structural flexibility of the oligoether functionality in the anion results in low glass transition temperatures, also for the electrolytes made. The pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG NMR) data suggest faster diffusion of the (MEEA)− anion than (P4,4,4,4)+ cation in the neat IL, but the addition of a Li salt results in slightly lower mobility of the former than the latter and lower ionic conductivity. This agrees with the combined 7Li NMR and attenuated total reflection−Fourier transform infrared (ATR−FTIR) spectroscopy data, which unambiguously reveal preferential interactions between the lithium cations and the carboxylate groups of the IL anions, which also increased as a function of the lithium salt concentration. In total, these systems provide a stepping stone for further design of fluorine-free and low glass transition temperature IL-based electrolytes and also stress how crucial it is to control the strength of ion−ion interactions