Novel form of adaptation in mouse retinal rods speeds recovery of phototransduction

Photoreceptors of the retina adapt to ambient light in a manner that allows them to detect changes in illumination over an enormous range of intensities. We have discovered a novel form of adaptation in mouse rods that persists long after the light has been extinguished and the rod's circulating dark current has returned. Electrophysiological recordings from individual rods showed that the time that a bright flash response remained in saturation was significantly shorter if the rod had been previously exposed to bright light. This persistent adaptation did not decrease the rate of rise of the response and therefore cannot be attributed to a decrease in the gain of transduction. Instead, this adaptation was accompanied by a marked speeding of the recovery of the response, suggesting that the step that rate-limits recovery had been accelerated. Experiments on knockout rods in which the identity of the rate-limiting step is known suggest that this adaptive acceleration results from a speeding of G protein/effector deactivation

Time, institutional support and quality of decision making in child protection:A cross-country analysis

This paper examines perceptions of time and institutional support for decision making and staff confidence in child welfare staffs ultimate decisions – examining differences and similarities between and within the service-oriented Nordic countries (Norway and Finland) and the risk-oriented Anglo-American countries (England and California). The study identifies a high degree of work pressure across all the countries, lines of predominantly vertical institutional support and relatively high confidence in decisions. Finland stands out with higher perceived work pressure and with a horizontal support line, whereas England stands out with workers having a lower degree of confidence in their own and others’ decisions

Recoverin Regulates Light-dependent Phosphodiesterase Activity in Retinal Rods

The Ca2+-binding protein recoverin may regulate visual transduction in retinal rods and cones, but its functional role and mechanism of action remain controversial. We compared the photoresponses of rods from control mice and from mice in which the recoverin gene was knocked out. Our analysis indicates that Ca2+-recoverin prolongs the dark-adapted flash response and increases the rod's sensitivity to dim steady light. Knockout rods had faster Ca2+ dynamics, indicating that recoverin is a significant Ca2+ buffer in the outer segment, but incorporation of exogenous buffer did not restore wild-type behavior. We infer that Ca2+-recoverin potentiates light-triggered phosphodiesterase activity, probably by effectively prolonging the catalytic activity of photoexcited rhodopsin

The Arecibo Galaxy Environments survey IV: the NGC7448 region and the HI mass function

In this paper we describe results from the Arecibo Galaxy Environments Survey (AGES). The survey reaches column densities of ~3x10^18 cm^-2 and masses of ~10^7 M_O, over individual regions of order 10 sq deg in size, out to a maximum velocity of 18,000 km s^-1. Each surveyed region is centred on a nearby galaxy, group or cluster, in this instance the NGC7448 group. Galaxy interactions in the NGC7448 group reveal themselves through the identification of tidal tails and bridges. We find ~2.5 times more atomic gas in the inter-galactic medium than in the group galaxies. We identify five new dwarf galaxies, two of which appear to be members of the NGC7448 group. This is too few, by roughly an order of magnitude, dwarf galaxies to reconcile observation with theoretical predictions of galaxy formation models. If they had observed this region of sky previous wide area blind HI surveys, HIPASS and ALFALFA, would have detected only 5% and 43% respectively of the galaxies we detect, missing a large fraction of the atomic gas in this volume. We combine the data from this paper with that from our other AGES papers (370 galaxies) to derive a HI mass function with the following Schechter function parameters alpha=-1.52+/-0.05, M^*=5.1+/-0.3x10^9 h_72^-2 M_O, phi=8.6+/-1.1x10-3 h_72^3 Mpc^-3 dex-1. Integrating the mass function leads to a cosmic mass density of atomic hydrogen of Omega_HI=5.3+/-0.8x10^-4 h_72^-1. Our mass function is steeper than that found by both HIPASS and ALFALFA (alpha=1.37 and 1.33 respectively), while our cosmic mass density is consistent with ALFALFA, but 1.7 times larger than found by HIPASS

On the influence of the mean-free-path parameter on intranuclear cascade calculations

In a recent letter GINOCCHIO and BLANN (2) compared results of intranuclear cascade model (ICM) calculations obtained either with a nucleon mean-free-path (mfp) in nuclear matter corresponding to free 3~-2C scattering cross-sections, or with a four times longer mfp. The latter assumption was reported to give far poorer agreement with the experimental data; and this conclusion was reported as evidence in favour of the use of the shorter mfp values in pre-equilibrium decay models, whose alternate formulations have been lately discussed at some length (2.6). We maintain tha t ICI~[ calculations performed with the free ~ ~ scatter mfp in general do not afford an accurate reproduction of the excitation functions of reactions induced by protons of some tens of MeV, and of the energy integrated spectra of the emitted particles. In fact, published results of ICM calculations have shown a systematic tendency to underestimate the emission of high-energy particles, and to overestimate compound-nucleus production. We made this statement, which agrees with an opinion already expressed by MILLER (D, on the basis of the findings of several works cited in ref. (2). Our belief is further supported by other results of BERTINI et al. (S) (e l . Specifically fig. 4 thereof), and even by the figures reported by the authors of ref. (1). However, in spite of such inadequacies of the ICM calculations, the model seems to retain a good measure of appeal as an intui t ive tool much in use for practical purposes

JVLA overview of the bursting H2_2O maser source G25.65+1.05

The source G25.65+1.05 (RAFGL7009S, IRAS 18316-0602) is the least studied of the three regions of massive star formation known to show exceptionally powerful H$_2$O maser bursts. We report spectral line observations of the H$_2$O maser at 22 GHz, the methanol maser transitions at 6.7, 12.2 and 44 GHz, and the continuum in these same frequency bands with The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) at the post-burst epoch of 2017. For the first time, maps of 22 GHz H$_2$O and 44 GHz CH$_3$OH maser spots are obtained and the absolute position of the 22 GHz H$_2$O bursting feature is determined with milliarcsecond precision. We detected four continuum components, three of which are closely spaced in a linear orientation, suggesting a physical link between them

Cubic optical nonlinearity of free electrons in bulk gold

A fast (τresponse &lt;90 fs) free-electron spin-flipping frequency-degenerate nonlinearity with a significant value of |χ(3)xxyy(ω,ω,ω,-ω) χ(3)xyyx(ω,ω,ω,-ω)| ~ 10-8 esu has been observed in bulk gold at 1260 nm by use of a new pump-probe polarization-sensitive technique. <br/

Chandra Observation of the Cluster Environment of a WAT Radio Source in Abell 1446

Wide-angle tail (WAT) radio sources are often found in the centers of galaxy clusters where intracluster medium (ICM) ram pressure may bend the lobes into their characteristic C-shape. We examine the low redshift (z=0.1035) cluster Abell 1446, host to the WAT radio source 1159+583. The cluster exhibits possible evidence for a small-scale cluster-subcluster merger as a cause of the WAT radio source morphology. This evidence includes the presence of temperature and pressure substructure along the line that bisects the WAT as well as a possible wake of stripped interstellar material or a disrupted cool core to the southeast of the host galaxy. A filament to the north may represent cool, infalling gas that's contributing to the WAT bending while spectroscopically determined redshifts of member galaxies may indicate some component of a merger occurring along the line-of-sight. The WAT model of high flow velocity and low lobe density is examined as another scenario for the bending of 1159+583. It has been argued that such a model would allow the ram pressure due to the galaxy's slow motion through the ICM to shape the WAT source. A temperature profile shows that the cluster is isothermal (kT= 4.0 keV) in a series of annuli reaching a radius of 400 kpc. There is no evidence of an ongoing cooling flow. Temperature, abundance, pressure, density, and mass profiles, as well as two-dimensional maps of temperature and pressure are presented.Comment: 40 AASTeX pages including 15 postscript figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Rank rigidity for CAT(0) cube complexes

We prove that any group acting essentially without a fixed point at infinity on an irreducible finite-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex contains a rank one isometry. This implies that the Rank Rigidity Conjecture holds for CAT(0) cube complexes. We derive a number of other consequences for CAT(0) cube complexes, including a purely geometric proof of the Tits Alternative, an existence result for regular elements in (possibly non-uniform) lattices acting on cube complexes, and a characterization of products of trees in terms of bounded cohomology.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figures. Revised version according to referee repor

Precession of a Freely Rotating Rigid Body. Inelastic Relaxation in the Vicinity of Poles

When a solid body is freely rotating at an angular velocity ${\bf \Omega}$, the ellipsoid of constant angular momentum, in the space $\Omega_1, \Omega_2, \Omega_3$, has poles corresponding to spinning about the minimal-inertia and maximal-inertia axes. The first pole may be considered stable if we neglect the inner dissipation, but becomes unstable if the dissipation is taken into account. This happens because the bodies dissipate energy when they rotate about any axis different from principal. In the case of an oblate symmetrical body, the angular velocity describes a circular cone about the vector of (conserved) angular momentum. In the course of relaxation, the angle of this cone decreases, so that both the angular velocity and the maximal-inertia axis of the body align along the angular momentum. The generic case of an asymmetric body is far more involved. Even the symmetrical prolate body exhibits a sophisticated behaviour, because an infinitesimally small deviation of the body's shape from a rotational symmetry (i.e., a small difference between the largest and second largest moments of inertia) yields libration: the precession trajectory is not a circle but an ellipse. In this article we show that often the most effective internal dissipation takes place at twice the frequency of the body's precession. Applications to precessing asteroids, cosmic-dust alignment, and rotating satellites are discussed.Comment: 47 pages, 1 figur