Functional Identification of Neuroprotective Molecules

The central nervous system has the capacity to activate profound neuroprotection following sub-lethal stress in a process termed preconditioning. To gain insight into this potent survival response we developed a functional cloning strategy that identified 31 putative neuroprotective genes of which 28 were confirmed to provide protection against oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) or excitotoxic exposure to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) in primary rat cortical neurons. These results reveal that the brain possesses a wide and diverse repertoire of neuroprotective genes. Further characterization of these and other protective signals could provide new treatment opportunities for neurological injury from ischemia or neurodegenerative disease

Influence of titanium and oxygen vacancies on the transport and conducting properties of barium titanate

The transport and conducting properties of oxygen and titanium deficient cubic barium titanate (BT) were studied using atomistic simulations. The thermal expansion coefficient is shown to decrease when the number of titanium and oxygen vacancies increases. The influence of point defect concentration on the diffusion and conduction activation energies is determined, and the values are in good agreement with available experimental results. We also considered the defect energetics for formation of Ti and O vacancies using two proven interatomic potential models. Lattice static simulations reveal that strong binding energies exist for the trimer defect arrangement of VO-VTi-VO, and that they are similar to the formation enthalpy of rutile TiO2, implying that a strong driving force for the formation of this cluster defect is present. The results reported here can provide some helpful guidelines for optimization of the properties and functionalities of BT based on titanium and oxygen vacancies

Influence of titanium and oxygen vacancies on the transport and conducting properties of barium titanate

© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. The transport and conducting properties of oxygen and titanium deficient cubic barium titanate (BT) were studied using atomistic simulations. The thermal expansion coefficient is shown to decrease when the number of titanium and oxygen vacancies increases. The influence of point defect concentration on the diffusion and conduction activation energies is determined, and the values are in good agreement with available experimental results. We also considered the defect energetics for formation of Ti and O vacancies using two proven interatomic potential models. Lattice static simulations reveal that strong binding energies exist for the trimer defect arrangement of VO-VTi-VO, and that they are similar to the formation enthalpy of rutile TiO2, implying that a strong driving force for the formation of this cluster defect is present. The results reported here can provide some helpful guidelines for optimization of the properties and functionalities of BT based on titanium and oxygen vacancies.status: publishe