656 research outputs found
Alien Registration- Finnerty, John W. (Portland, Cumberland County)
https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/21777/thumbnail.jp
Pansynaptic Enlargement at Adult Cortical Connections Strengthened by Experience
Behavioral experience alters the strength of neuronal connections in adult neocortex. These changes in synaptic strength are thought to be central to experience-dependent plasticity, learning, and memory. However, it is not known how changes in synaptic transmission between neurons become persistent, thereby enabling the storage of previous experience. A long-standing hypothesis is that altered synaptic strength is maintained by structural modifications to synapses. However, the extent of synaptic modifications and the changes in neurotransmission that the modifications support remain unclear. To address these questions, we recorded from pairs of synaptically connected layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the barrel cortex and imaged their contacts with high-resolution confocal microscopy after altering sensory experience by whisker trimming. Excitatory connections strengthened by experience exhibited larger axonal varicosities, dendritic spines, and interposed contact zones. Electron microscopy showed that contact zone size was strongly correlated with postsynaptic density area. Therefore, our findings indicate that whole synapses are larger at strengthened connections. Synaptic transmission was both stronger and more reliable following experience-dependent synapse enlargement. Hence, sensory experience modified both presynaptic and postsynaptic function. Our findings suggest that the enlargement of synaptic contacts is an integral part of long-lasting strengthening of cortical connections and, hence, of information storage in the neocorte
Changing Hydrozoan Bauplans by Silencing Hox-Like Genes
Regulatory genes of the Antp class have been a major factor for the invention and radiation of animal bauplans. One of the most diverse animal phyla are the Cnidaria, which are close to the root of metazoan life and which often appear in two distinct generations and a remarkable variety of body forms. Hox-like genes have been known to be involved in axial patterning in the Cnidaria and have been suspected to play roles in the genetic control of many of the observed bauplan changes. Unfortunately RNAi mediated gene silencing studies have not been satisfactory for marine invertebrate organisms thus far. No direct evidence supporting Hox-like gene induced bauplan changes in cnidarians have been documented as of yet. Herein, we report a protocol for RNAi transfection of marine invertebrates and demonstrate that knock downs of Hox-like genes in Cnidaria create substantial bauplan alterations, including the formation of multiple oral poles (“heads”) by Cnox-2 and Cnox-3 inhibition, deformation of the main body axis by Cnox-5 inhibition and duplication of tentacles by Cnox-1 inhibition. All phenotypes observed in the course of the RNAi studies were identical to those obtained by morpholino antisense oligo experiments and are reminiscent of macroevolutionary bauplan changes. The reported protocol will allow routine RNAi studies in marine invertebrates to be established
Search for Pauli Exclusion Principle Violating Atomic Transitions and Electron Decay with a P-type Point Contact Germanium Detector
A search for Pauli-exclusion-principle-violating K-alpha electron transitions
was performed using 89.5 kg-d of data collected with a p-type point contact
high-purity germanium detector operated at the Kimballton Underground Research
Facility. A lower limit on the transition lifetime of 5.8x10^30 seconds at 90%
C.L. was set by looking for a peak at 10.6 keV resulting from the x-ray and
Auger electrons present following the transition. A similar analysis was done
to look for the decay of atomic K-shell electrons into neutrinos, resulting in
a lower limit of 6.8x10^30 seconds at 90 C.L. It is estimated that the MAJORANA
DEMONSTRATOR, a 44 kg array of p-type point contact detectors that will search
for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76-Ge, could improve upon these
exclusion limits by an order of magnitude after three years of operation
Multifluorescence High-Resolution Episcopic Microscopy for 3D Imaging of Adult Murine Organs
3D microscopy of large biological samples (>0.5 cm3) is transforming biological research. Many existing techniques require trade‐offs between image resolution, sample size, and method complexity. A simple robust instrument with the potential to conduct large‐volume 3D imaging currently exists in the form of the optical high‐resolution episcopic microscopy (HREM). However, the development of the instrument to date is limited to single‐fluorescent wavelength imaging with nonspecific eosin staining. Herein, developments to realize the potential of the HREM to become multifluorescent high‐resolution episcopic microscopy (MF‐HREM) are presented. MF‐HREM is a serial‐sectioning and block‐facing wide‐field fluorescence imaging technique, which does not require tissue clearing or optical sectioning. Multiple developments are detailed in sample preparation and image postprocessing to enable multiple specific stains in large samples and show how these enable segmentation and quantification of the data. The application of MF‐HREM is demonstrated in a variety of biological contexts: 3D imaging of whole tumor vascular networks and tumor cell invasion in xenograft tumors up to 7.5 mm3 at resolutions of 2.75 μm, quantification of glomeruli volume in the adult mouse kidney, and quantification of vascular networks and white‐matter track orientation in adult mouse brain
The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR: A Search for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay of Germanium-76
The {\sc Majorana} collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double beta
decay using Ge, which has been shown to have a number of advantages in
terms of sensitivities and backgrounds. The observation of neutrinoless
double-beta decay would show that lepton number is violated and that neutrinos
are Majorana particles and would simultaneously provide information on neutrino
mass. Attaining sensitivities for neutrino masses in the inverted hierarchy
region, meV, will require large, tonne-scale detectors with extremely
low backgrounds, at the level of 1 count/t-y or lower in the region of
the signal. The {\sc Majorana} collaboration, with funding support from DOE
Office of Nuclear Physics and NSF Particle Astrophysics, is constructing the
{\sc Demonstrator}, an array consisting of 40 kg of p-type point-contact
high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, of which 30 kg will be enriched
to 87% in Ge. The {\sc Demonstrator} is being constructed in a clean
room laboratory facility at the 4850' level (4300 m.w.e.) of the Sanford
Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, SD. It utilizes a compact graded
shield approach with the inner portion consisting of ultra-clean Cu that is
being electroformed and machined underground. The primary aim of the {\sc
Demonstrator} is to show the feasibility of a future tonne-scale measurement in
terms of backgrounds and scalability.Comment: Proceedings for the MEDEX 2013 Conferenc
Status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR experiment
The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR neutrinoless double beta-decay experiment is
currently under construction at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in
South Dakota, USA. An overview and status of the experiment are given.Comment: 8 pages, proceeding from VII International Conference on
Interconnections between Particle Physics and Cosmology (PPC 2013), submitted
to AIP proceeding
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