92 research outputs found
Opposite, bidirectional shifts in excitation and inhibition in specific types of dorsal horn interneurons are associated with spasticity and pain post-SCI
Spasticity, a common complication after spinal cord injury (SCI), is frequently accompanied by chronic pain. The physiological origin of this pain (critical to its treatment) remains unknown, although spastic motor dysfunction has been related to the hyperexcitability of motoneurons and to changes in spinal sensory processing. Here we show that the pain mechanism involves changes in sensory circuits of the dorsal horn (DH) where nociceptive inputs integrate for pain processing. Spasticity is associated with the DH hyperexcitability resulting from an increase in excitation and disinhibition occurring in two respective types of sensory interneurons. In the tonic-firing inhibitory lamina II interneurons, glutamatergic drive was reduced while glycinergic inhibition was potentiated. In contrast, excitatory drive was boosted to the adapting-firing excitatory lamina II interneurons while GABAergic and glycinergic inhibition were reduced. Thus, increased activity of excitatory DH interneurons coupled with the reduced excitability of inhibitory DH interneurons post-SCI could provide a neurophysiological mechanism of central sensitization and chronic pain associated with spasticity
Experimental studies of thorium ions implantation from pulse laser plasma into thin silicon oxide layers
We report the results of experimental studies related to implantation of
thorium ions into thin silicon dioxide by pulsed plasma fluxes expansion.
Thorium ions were generated by laser ablation from a metal target, and the
ionic component of the laser plasma was accelerated in an electric field
created by the potential difference (5, 10 and 15 kV) between the ablated
target and SiO2/Si(001) sample. Laser ablation system installed inside the
vacuum chamber of the electron spectrometer was equipped with YAG:Nd3+ laser
having the pulse energy of 100 mJ and time duration of 15 ns in the Q-switched
regime. Depth profile of thorium atoms implanted into the 10 nm thick
subsurface areas together with their chemical state as well as the band gap of
the modified silicon oxide at different conditions of implantation processes
were studied by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Reflected
Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (REELS) methods. Analysis of chemical
composition showed that the modified silicon oxide film contains complex
thorium silicates. Depending on local concentration of thorium atoms, the
experimentally established band gaps were located in the range of 6.0 - 9.0 eV.
Theoretical studies of optical properties of the SiO2 and ThO2 crystalline
systems have been performed by ab initio calculations within hybrid functional.
Optical properties of the SiO2/ThO2 composite were interpreted on the basis of
Bruggeman effective medium approximation. A quantitative assessment of the
yield of isomeric nuclei in "hot" laser plasma at the early stages of expansion
has been performed. The estimates made with experimental results demonstrated
that the laser implantation of thorium ions into the SiO2 matrix can be useful
for further research of low-lying isomeric transitions in 229Th isotope with
energy of 7.8(0.5) eV
Multifractal analysis of stress time series during ultrathin lubricant film melting
Melting of an ultrathin lubricant film confined between two atomically flat
surfaces is we studied using the rheological model for viscoelastic matter
approximation. Phase diagram with domains, corresponding to sliding, dry, and
two types of friction regimes has been built taking into account
additive noises of stress, strain, and temperature of the lubricant. The stress
time series have been obtained for all regimes of friction using the
Stratonovich interpretation. It has been shown that self-similar regime of
lubricant melting is observed when intensity of temperature noise is much
larger than intensities of strain and stress noises. This regime is defined by
homogenous distribution, at which characteristic stress scale is absent. We
study stress time series obtained for all friction regimes using multifractal
detrended fluctuation analysis. It has been shown that multifractality of these
series is caused by different correlations that are present in the system and
also by a power-law distribution. Since the power-law distribution is related
to small stresses, this case corresponds to self-similar solid-like lubricant.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, 41 reference
Melting Point and Lattice Parameter Shifts in Supported Metal Nanoclusters
The dependencies of the melting point and the lattice parameter of supported
metal nanoclusters as functions of clusters height are theoretically
investigated in the framework of the uniform approach. The vacancy mechanism
describing the melting point and the lattice parameter shifts in nanoclusters
with decrease of their size is proposed. It is shown that under the high vacuum
conditions (p<10^-7 torr) the essential role in clusters melting point and
lattice parameter shifts is played by the van der Waals forces of
cluster-substrate interation. The proposed model satisfactorily accounts for
the experimental data.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Flavored exotic multibaryons and hypernuclei in topological soliton models
The energies of baryon states with positive strangeness, or anti-charm
(-beauty) are estimated in chiral soliton approach, in the "rigid oscillator"
version of the bound state soliton model proposed by Klebanov and Westerberg.
Positive strangeness states can appear as relatively narrow nuclear levels
(Theta-hypernuclei), the states with heavy anti-flavors can be bound with
respect to strong interactions in the original Skyrme variant of the model (SK4
variant). The binding energies of anti-flavored states are estimated also in
the variant of the model with 6-th order term in chiral derivatives in the
lagrangian as solitons stabilizer (SK6 variant). The latter variant is less
attractive, and nuclear states with anti-charm or anti-beauty can be unstable
relative to strong interactions. The chances to get bound hypernuclei with
heavy antiflavors are greater within "nuclear variant" of the model with
rescaled model parameter (Skyrme constant e or e' decreased by ~30%) which is
expected to be valid for baryon numbers greater than B ~10. The rational map
approximation is used to describe multiskyrmions with baryon number up to ~30
and to calculate the quantities necessary for their quantization (moments of
inertia, sigma-term, etc.).Comment: 24 pages, 7 table
- …