8,368 research outputs found
Microglial K(+) channel expression in young adult and aged mice.
The K(+) channel expression pattern of microglia strongly depends on the cells' microenvironment and has been recognized as a sensitive marker of the cells' functional state. While numerous studies have been performed on microglia in vitro, our knowledge about microglial K(+) channels and their regulation in vivo is limited. Here, we have investigated K(+) currents of microglia in striatum, neocortex and entorhinal cortex of young adult and aged mice. Although almost all microglial cells exhibited inward rectifier K(+) currents upon membrane hyperpolarization, their mean current density was significantly enhanced in aged mice compared with that determined in young adult mice. Some microglial cells additionally exhibited outward rectifier K(+) currents in response to depolarizing voltage pulses. In aged mice, microglial outward rectifier K(+) current density was significantly larger than in young adult mice due to the increased number of aged microglial cells expressing these channels. Aged dystrophic microglia exhibited outward rectifier K(+) currents more frequently than aged ramified microglia. The majority of microglial cells expressed functional BK-type, but not IK- or SK-type, Ca(2+) -activated K(+) channels, while no differences were found in their expression levels between microglia of young adult and aged mice. Neither microglial K(+) channel pattern nor K(+) channel expression levels differed markedly between the three brain regions investigated. It is concluded that age-related changes in microglial phenotype are accompanied by changes in the expression of microglial voltage-activated, but not Ca(2+) -activated, K(+) channels
A General Algorithm for Sampling Rare Events in Non-Equilibrium and Non-Stationary Systems
Although many computational methods for rare event sampling exist, this type
of calculation is not usually practical for general nonequilibrium conditions,
with macroscopically irreversible dynamics and away from both stationary and
metastable states. A novel method for calculating the time-series of the
probability of a rare event is presented which is designed for these
conditions. The method is validated for the cases of the Glauber-Ising model
under time-varying shear flow, the Kawasaki-Ising model after a quench into the
region between nucleation dominated and spinodal decomposition dominated phase
change dynamics, and the parallel open asymmetric exclusion process (p-o ASEP).
The method requires a subdivision of the phase space of the system: it is
benchmarked and found to scale well for increasingly fine subdivisions, meaning
that it can be applied without detailed foreknowledge of the physically
important reaction pathways.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Solid-solid phase transition in hard ellipsoids
We present a computer simulation study of the crystalline phases of hard
ellipsoids of revolution. A previous study [Phys. Rev. E, \textbf{75}, 020402
(2007)] showed that for aspect ratios the previously suggested
stretched-fcc phase [Mol. Phys., \textbf{55}, 1171 (1985)] is unstable with
respect to a simple monoclinic phase with two ellipsoids of different
orientations per unit cell (SM2). In order to study the stability of these
crystalline phases at different aspect ratios and as a function of density we
have calculated their free energies by thermodynamic integration. The
integration path was sampled by an expanded ensemble method in which the
weights were adjusted by the Wang-Landau algorithm.
We show that for aspect ratios the SM2 structure is more stable
than the stretched-fcc structure for all densities above solid-nematic
coexistence. Between and our calculations reveal a
solid-solid phase transition
Sequencing Chess
We analyze the structure of the state space of chess by means of transition
path sampling Monte Carlo simulation. Based on the typical number of moves
required to transpose a given configuration of chess pieces into another, we
conclude that the state space consists of several pockets between which
transitions are rare. Skilled players explore an even smaller subset of
positions that populate some of these pockets only very sparsely. These results
suggest that the usual measures to estimate both, the size of the state space
and the size of the tree of legal moves, are not unique indicators of the
complexity of the game, but that topological considerations are equally
important
Percolation in suspensions of polydisperse hard rods : quasi-universality and finite-size effects
We present a study of connectivity percolation in suspensions of hard
spherocylinders by means of Monte Carlo simulation and connectedness
percolation theory. We focus attention on polydispersity in the length, the
diameter and the connectedness criterion, and invoke bimodal, Gaussian and
Weibull distributions for these. The main finding from our simulations is that
the percolation threshold shows quasi universal behaviour, i.e., to a good
approximation it depends only on certain cumulants of the full size and
connectivity distribution. Our connectedness percolation theory hinges on a
Lee-Parsons type of closure recently put forward that improves upon the
often-used second virial approximation [ArXiv e-prints, May 2015, 1505.07660].
The theory predicts exact universality. Theory and simulation agree
quantitatively for aspect ratios in excess of 20, if we include the
connectivity range in our definition of the aspect ratio of the particles. We
further discuss the mechanism of cluster growth that, remarkably, differs
between systems that are polydisperse in length and in width, and exhibits
non-universal aspects.Comment: 7 figure
Novel crystal phase in suspensions of hard ellipsoids
We present a computer simulation study on the crystalline phases of hard
ellipsoids of revolution. For aspect ratios greater than or equal to 3 the
previously suggested stretched-fcc phase [D. Frenkel and B. M. Mulder, Mol.
Phys. 55, 1171 (1985)] is replaced by a novel crystalline phase. Its unit cell
contains two ellipsoids with unequal orientations. The lattice is simple
monoclinic. The angle of inclination of the lattice, beta, is a very soft
degree of freedom, while the two right angles are stiff. For one particular
value of beta, the close-packed version of this crystal is a specimen of the
family of superdense packings recently reported [Donev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
92, 255506 (2004)]. These results are relevant for studies of nucleation and
glassy dynamics of colloidal suspensions of ellipsoids.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
How Close to Two Dimensions Does a Lennard-Jones System Need to Be to Produce a Hexatic Phase?
We report on a computer simulation study of a Lennard-Jones liquid confined
in a narrow slit pore with tunable attractive walls. In order to investigate
how freezing in this system occurs, we perform an analysis using different
order parameters. Although some of the parameters indicate that the system goes
through a hexatic phase, other parameters do not. This shows that to be certain
whether a system has a hexatic phase, one needs to study not only a large
system, but also several order parameters to check all necessary properties. We
find that the Binder cumulant is the most reliable one to prove the existence
of a hexatic phase. We observe an intermediate hexatic phase only in a
monolayer of particles confined such that the fluctuations in the positions
perpendicular to the walls are less then 0.15 particle diameters, i. e. if the
system is practically perfectly 2d
Response of mouse epidermal cells to single doses of heavy-particles
The survival of mouse epidermal cells to heavy-particles has been studied In Vivo by the Withers clone technique. Experiments with accelerated helium, lithium and carbon ions were performed. The survival curve for the helium ion irradiations used a modified Bragg curve method with a maximum tissue penetration of 465 microns, and indicated that the dose needed to reduce the original cell number to 1 surviving cell/square centimeters was 1525 rads with a D sub o of 95 rads. The LET at the basal cell layer was 28.6 keV per micron. Preliminary experiments with lithium and carbon used treatment doses of 1250 rads with LET's at the surface of the skin of 56 and 193 keV per micron respectively. Penetration depths in skin were 350 and 530 microns for the carbon and lithium ions whose Bragg curves were unmodified. Results indicate a maximum RBE for skin of about 2 using the skin cloning technique. An attempt has been made to relate the epidermal cell survival curve to mortality of the whole animal for helium ions
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