Single-channel behavior of heteromeric α1β glycine receptors: an attempt to detect a conformational change before the channel opens

The α1β heteromeric receptors are likely to be the predominant synaptic form of glycine receptors in the adult. Their activation mechanism was investigated by fitting putative mechanisms to single-channel recordings obtained at four glycine concentrations (10-1000 µM) from rat {alpha}1{beta} receptors, expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. The adequacy of each mechanism, with its fitted rate constants, was assessed by comparing experimental dwell time distributions, open-shut correlations, and the concentration-open probability (Popen) curve with the predictions of the model. A good description was obtained only if the mechanism had three glycine binding sites, allowed both partially and fully liganded openings, and predicted the presence of open-shut correlations. A strong feature of the data was the appearance of an increase in binding affinity as more glycine molecules bind, before the channel opens. One interpretation of this positive binding cooperativity is that binding sites interact, each site sensing the state of ligation of the others. An alternative, and novel, explanation is that agonist binding stabilizes a higher affinity form of the receptor that is produced by a conformational change ("flip") that is separate from, and precedes, channel opening. Both the "interaction" scheme and the flip scheme describe our data well, but the latter has fewer free parameters and above all it offers a mechanism for the affinity increase. Distinguishing between the two mechanisms will be important for our understanding of the structural dynamics of activation in the nicotinic superfamily and is important for our understanding of mutations in these receptors

Stability properties of black holes in self-gravitating nonlinear electrodynamics

We analyze the dynamical stability of black hole solutions in self-gravitating nonlinear electrodynamics with respect to arbitrary linear fluctuations of the metric and the electromagnetic field. In particular, we derive simple conditions on the electromagnetic Lagrangian which imply linear stability in the domain of outer communication. We show that these conditions hold for several of the regular black hole solutions found by Ayon-Beato and Garcia.Comment: 15 pages, no figure

"No-Scalar-Hair" Theorems for Nonminimally Coupled Fields with Quartic Self-Interaction

Self-gravitating scalar fields with nonminimal coupling to gravity and having a quartic self-interaction are considered in the domain of outer communications of a static black hole. It is shown that there is no value of the nonminimal coupling parameter $\zeta$ for which nontrivial static black hole solutions exist. This result establishes the correctness of Bekenstein ``no-scalar-hair'' conjecture for quartic self-interactions.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX

Nutritional composition of omnivorous and carnivorous wild freshwater fish from Tagus river basin

Portugal is one of the countries in the world with highest per capita fish consumption (59.9 kg/year) (1), mainly saltwater fish from Atlantic Northwest and marine aquaculture. However, in the interior of Portugal is traditional the consumption of wild freshwater fish (common carp [CC], iberian barbel [IB], crucian carp [CrC] and largemouth bass [LB]). These species are very interesting as game fishing and also very important in the local cuisine due to their characteristic flavor.CERNAS-IPCB [UIDB/00681/2020] funding by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SVtL: System Verification through Logic: tool support for verifying sliced hierarchical statecharts

SVtL is the core of a slicing-based verification environment for UML statechart models. We present an overview of the SVtL software architecture. Special attention is paid to the slicing approach. Slicing reduces the complexity of the verification approach, based on removing pieces of the model that are not of interest during verification. In [18] a slicing algorithm has been proposed for statecharts, but it was not able to handle orthogonal regions efficiently. We optimize this algorithm by removing false dependencies, relying on the broadcasting mechanism between different parts of the statechart model

Tricritical gravity waves in the four-dimensional generalized massive gravity

We construct a generalized massive gravity by combining quadratic curvature gravity with the Chern-Simons term in four dimensions. This may be a candidate for the parity-odd tricritical gravity theory. Considering the AdS$_4$ vacuum solution, we derive the linearized Einstein equation, which is not similar to that of the three dimensional (3D) generalized massive gravity. When a perturbed metric tensor is chosen to be the Kerr-Schild form, the linearized equation reduces to a single massive scalar equation. At the tricritical points where two masses are equal to -1 and 2, we obtain a log-square wave solution to the massive scalar equation. This is compared to the 3D tricritical generalized massive gravity whose dual is a rank-3 logarithmic conformal field theory.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, version to appear in EPJ

Nutritional assessment of fresh, salted and soaked European catfish

The European catfish (Silurus glanis Linnaeus, 1758) is an invasive fish species in Portugal and it is the largest-bodied European freshwater fish.CERNAS-IPCB [UIDB/00681/2020] funding by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bismuth molybdate catalysts prepared by mild hydrothermal synthesis: Influence of pH on the selective oxidation of propylene

A series of bismuth molybdate catalysts with relatively high surface area was prepared via mild hydrothermal synthesis. Variation of the pH value and Bi/Mo ratio during the synthesis allowed tuning of the crystalline Bi-Mo oxide phases, as determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. The pH value during synthesis had a strong influence on the catalytic performance. Synthesis using a Bi/Mo ratio of 1/1 at pH ≥ 6 resulted in γ-Bi$_{2}$MoO$_{6}$, which exhibited a better catalytic performance than phase mixtures obtained at lower pH values. However, a significantly lower catalytic activity was observed at pH = 9 due to the low specific surface area. γ- Bi$_{2}$MoO$_{6}$ synthesized with Bi/Mo = 1/1 at pH = 6 and 7 exhibited relatively high surface areas and the best catalytic performance. All samples prepared with Bi/Mo = 1/1, except samples synthesized at pH = 1 and 9, showed better catalytic performance than samples synthesized with Bi/Mo = 2/3 at pH = 4 and 9 and γ-Bi2MoO6 synthesized by co-precipitation at pH = 7. At temperatures above 440 °C, the catalytic activity of the hydrothermally synthesized bismuth molybdates started to decrease due to sintering and loss of surface area. These results support that a combination of the required bismuth molybdate phase and a high specific surface area is crucial for a good performance in the selective oxidation of propylene