Homoclinic bifurcation in a Hodgkin-Huxley model of thermally sensitive neurons

We study global bifurcations of the chaotic attractor in a modified Hodgkin-Huxley model of thermally sensitive neurons. The control parameter for this model is the temperature. The chaotic behavior is realized over a wide range of temperatures and is visualized using interspike intervals. We observe an abrupt increase of the interspike intervals in a certain temperature region. We identify this as a homoclinic bifurcation of a saddle-focus fixed point which is embedded in the chaotic attractors. The transition is accompanied by intermittency, which obeys a universal scaling law for the average length of trajectory segments exhibiting only short interspike intervals with the distance from the onset of intermittency. We also present experimental results of interspike interval measurements taken from the crayfish caudal photoreceptor, which qualitatively demonstrate the same bifurcation structure. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.     

Silver oligomer and single fullerene electronic properties revealed by a scanning tunnelling microscope

Clusters on surfaces have been investigated with low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. Constant current spectra acquired on Ag oligomers and one-dimensional chains on a Ag(111) reveal a single resonance peak whose energy shifts towards the Fermi level with increasing cluster size. Next, controlled and reproducible contact between a STM tip and a C₆₀ molecule adsorbed on Cu(100) is reported. The transition from tunnelling to contact is discussed in terms of local heating of the tip-molecule junction.     

Lifetimes of electrons in the Shockley surface state band of Ag(111)

We present a theoretical many-body analysis of the electron–electron (e–e) inelastic damping rate Γ of electron-like excitations in the Shockley surface state band of Ag(111). It takes into account ab initio band structures for both bulk and surface states. Γ is found to increase more rapidly as a function of surface state energy E than previously reported, thus leading to an improved agreement with experimental data. PACS 73.20.At; 68.37.Ef; 72.15.Lh     

Evidence for a wide extra-astrocytic distribution of S100B in human brain

Background  

S100B is considered an astrocytic in-situ marker and protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or serum are often used as biomarker for astrocytic damage or dysfunction. However, studies on S100B in the human brain are rare. Thus, the distribution of S100B was studied by immunohistochemistry in adult human brains to evaluate its cell-type specificity.     

Interpolation on Sparse Grids and Tensor Products of Nikol'skij–Besov Spaces

We investigate the order of convergence of periodic interpolation on sparse grids (blending interpolation) in the framework of tensor products of Nikol'skij–Besov spaces. To this end, we make use of the uniformity of the considered tensor norms and provide a unified approach to error estimates for the interpolation of univariate periodic functions from Nikol'skij–Besov spaces.     

Multiple Eigenvalues in Spectral Analysis for Solving QBD Processes

A number of authors have recently suggested solving quasi birth-and-death (QBD) processes through the use of eigenvalue-based methods. These methods take on a special form when there are multiple eigenvalues present. We investigate this problem in a general setting as well as in the context of a specific preemptive priority queueing model.