1,297 research outputs found
Human ether-à-go-go gene potassium channels are regulated by EGFR tyrosine kinase
Human ether á-go-go gene potassium channels (hEAG1 or Kv10.1) are expressed in brain and various human cancers and play a role in neuronal excitement and tumor progression. However, the functional regulation of hEAG channels by signal transduction is not fully understood. The present study was therefore designed to investigate whether hEAG1 channels are regulated by protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) in HEK 293 cells stably expressing hEAG1 gene using whole-cell patch voltage-clamp, immunoprecipitation, Western blot, and mutagenesis approaches. We found that the selective epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase inhibitor AG556 (10μM), but not the platelet growth factor receptor (PDGFR) kinase inhibitor AG1295 (10μM) or the Src-family inhibitor PP2 (10μM), can inhibit hEAG1 current, and the inhibitory effect can be reversed by the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) inhibitor orthovanadate. Immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis revealed that tyrosine phosphorylation level of hEAG1 channels was reduced by AG556, and the reduction was significantly countered by orthovanadate. The hEAG1 mutants Y90A, Y344A and Y485A, but not Y376A and Y479A, exhibited reduced response to AG556. Interestingly, the inhibition effect of AG556 was lost in triple mutant hEAG1 channels at Y90, Y344, and Y485 with alanine. These results demonstrate for the first time that hEAG1 channel activity is regulated by EGFR kinase at the tyrosine residues Tyr 90, Try 344, and Try 485. This effect is likely involved in regulating neuronal activity and/or tumor growth. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.postprin
Spin-polarized transport in a lateral two-dimensional diluted magnetic semiconductor electron gas
The transport property of a lateral two-dimensional diluted magnetic
semiconductor electron gas under a spatially periodic magnetic field is
investigated theoretically. We find that the electron Fermi velocity along the
modulation direction is highly spin-dependent even if the spin polarization of
the carrier population is negligibly small. It turns out that this
spin-polarized Fermi velocity alone can lead to a strong spin polarization of
the current, which is still robust against the energy broadening effect induced
by the impurity scattering.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Appl. Phys. Let
Identifying rodent olfactory bulb structures with micro-DTI
Conference Theme: Personalized Healthcare Through TechnologyOlfactory bulb (OB) is one of the most developed systems in rodent models with complex neuronal organization and anatomical structures. MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a non-invasive technique to probe tissue microstructures by examining the diffusion characteristics of water molecules. This paper presents how different OB layers can be identified and quantitatively characterized by micro-DTI using a specially constructed micro-imaging radio frequency (RF) coil. High spatial resolution and high signal to noise ratio (SNR) DTI images of ex vivo rat OBs were obtained. Distinct contrasts were observed between various olfactory bulb layers in trace map, fractional anisotropy (FA) map and FA color map, all in consistence with the known OB neuroanatomy. These experimental results demonstrate the utility of micro-DTI in investigation of complex OB organization. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versio
Interplay between s-d exchange interaction and Rashba effect: spin-polarized transport
We investigate the spin-polarized transport properties of a two-dimensional
electron gas in a n-type diluted magnetic narrow gap semiconductor quantum well
subjected to a perpendicular magnetic and electric field. Interesting beating
patterns in the magneto resistance are found which can be tuned significantly
by varying the electric field. A resonant enhancement of spin-polarized current
is found which is induced by the competition between the s-d exchange
interaction and the Rashba effect [Y. A. Bychkov and E. I. Rashba, J. Phys. C
17, 6039 (1984)].Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Appl. Phys. Lett. (in press
Resonant Subband Landau Level Coupling in Symmetric Quantum Well
Subband structure and depolarization shifts in an ultra-high mobility
GaAs/Al_{0.24}Ga_{0.76}As quantum well are studied using magneto-infrared
spectroscopy via resonant subband Landau level coupling. Resonant couplings
between the 1st and up to the 4th subbands are identified by well-separated
anti-level-crossing split resonance, while the hy-lying subbands were
identified by the cyclotron resonance linewidth broadening in the literature.
In addition, a forbidden intersubband transition (1st to 3rd) has been
observed. With the precise determination of the subband structure, we find that
the depolarization shift can be well described by the semiclassical slab plasma
model, and the possible origins for the forbidden transition are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Tuning the vertical location of helical surface states in topological insulator heterostructures via dual-proximity effects
In integrating topological insulators (TIs) with conventional materials, one crucial issue is how the topological surface states (TSS) will behave in such heterostructures. We use first-principles approaches to establish accurate tunability of the vertical location of the TSS via intriguing dual-proximity effects. By depositing a conventional insulator (CI) overlayer onto a TI substrate (Bi2Se3 or Bi2Te3), we demonstrate that, the TSS can float to the top of the CI film, or stay put at the CI/TI interface, or be pushed down deeper into the otherwise structurally homogeneous TI substrate. These contrasting behaviors imply a rich variety of possible quantum phase transitions in the hybrid systems, dictated by key material-specific properties of the CI. These discoveries lay the foundation for accurate manipulation of the real space properties of TSS in TI heterostructures of diverse technological significance
Fractional quantum Hall effect in the absence of Landau levels
It has been well-known that topological phenomena with fractional
excitations, i.e., the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) \cite{Tsui1982}
will emerge when electrons move in Landau levels. In this letter, we report the
discovery of the FQHE in the absence of Landau levels in an interacting fermion
model. The non-interacting part of our Hamiltonian is the recently proposed
topologically nontrivial flat band model on the checkerboard lattice
\cite{sun}. In the presence of nearest-neighboring repulsion (), we find
that at 1/3 filling, the Fermi-liquid state is unstable towards FQHE. At 1/5
filling, however, a next-nearest-neighboring repulsion is needed for the
occurrence of the 1/5 FQHE when is not too strong. We demonstrate the
characteristic features of these novel states and determine the phase diagram
correspondingly.Comment: 6 pages and 4 figure
Coverage Analysis for Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks with Imperfect Beam Alignment
OAPA Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications is a promising approach to satisfy the increasing high data rate requirement of next generation mobile communications. This paper studies the downlink coverage performance of mmWave cellular networks with imperfect beam alignment. An enhanced antenna model is adopted to model the directional antenna beamforming pattern, in which the mainlobe beamwidth and directivity gain can be expressed as functions of the number of elements in the antenna array. After deriving the probability density function of the distance between mobile station (MS) and its serving base station (BS), the directivity gain with imperfect beam alignment is obtained as a discrete random variable. Then, a computationally tractable expression is obtained for the coverage probability of mmWave cellular networks.This generalized expression can be applied in different blockage regimes, e.g. general blockage regime (GBR), full-blockage regime (FBR) and non-blockage regime (NBR) with or without beam alignment errors. Numerical results show that small beam alignment errors will not deteriorate the coverage performance significantly, and the antenna array with the less number of elements provides higher robustness against the beam alignment errors. Moreover, when the beam alignment error is small enough, the coverage performance can be improved by increasing the BS intensity and the number of elements in the antenna array
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