Intermediates involved in serotonin oxidation catalyzed by Cu bound Aβ peptides

The degradation of neurotransmitters is a hallmark feature of Alzheimer''s disease (AD). Copper bound Aβ peptides, invoked to be involved in the pathology of AD, are found to catalyze the oxidation of serotonin (5-HT) by H₂O₂. A combination of EPR and resonance Raman spectroscopy reveals the formation of a Cu(ii)–OOH species and a dimeric, EPR silent, Cu₂O₂ bis-μ-oxo species under the reaction conditions. The Cu(ii)–OOH species, which can be selectively formed in the presence of excess H₂O₂, is the reactive intermediate responsible for 5-HT oxidation. H₂O₂ produced by the reaction of O₂ with reduced Cu(i)–Aβ species can also oxidize 5-HT. Both these pathways are physiologically relevant and may be involved in the observed decay of neurotransmitters as observed in AD patients.

The mononuclear copper hydroperoxo species (Cu(ii)–OOH) of Cu–Aβ is the active oxidant responsible for serotonin oxidation by Cu–Aβ in the presence of physiologically relevant oxidants like O₂ and H₂O₂, which can potentially cause oxidative degradation of neurotransmitters, a marker of Alzheimer''s disease.     

Influence of magnetic quantization on the effective electron mass in Kane-type semiconductors

Summary We study the effective electron mass at the Fermi level in Kane-type semiconductors on the basis of fourth order in effective mass theory and taking into account the interactions of the conduction electrons, heavy holes, light holes and split-off holes, respectively. The results obtained are then compared to those derived on the basis of the well-known three-band Kane model. It is found, takingn-Hg_1−x Cd _x Te as an example, that the effective electron mass at the Fermi level in accordance with fourth-order model depends on the Fermi energy, magnetic quantum number and the electron spin respectively due to the influence of band nonparabolicity only. The dependence of effective mass on electron spin is due to spin-orbit splitting parameter of the valence band in three-band Kane model and the Fermi energy due to band nonparabolicity in two-band Kane model. The same mass exhibits an oscillatory magnetic-field dependence for all the band models as expected since the origin of oscillations in the effective mass in nonparabolic compounds is the same as that of the Shubnikov-de Hass oscillations. In addition, the corresponding results for parabolic energy bands have been obtained from the generalized expressions under certain limiting conditions.     

Acoustic NMR in spin-1 systems

Acoustic magnetic resonance, both pulsed and continuous has been discussed in terms of the Bloch-Wangsness-Redfield formulation of the magnetic resonance phenomenon. The quadrupolar mechanism has been taken for the spin-phonon coupling and the mutual interaction has been treated in the ‘effective field approximation’. The expressions for the power absorbed both for Δm=±1 and Δm=±2 have been obtained. It is found that from the measurements of the relaxation parameters for Δm=±1 and Δm=±2 it is possible to estimate the non-secular contributions to the line-width. The power absorbed in pulse excitation comes out to be small for short pulse (short compared to the relaxation parameter) and it reduces to the value obtained in continuous excitation for a long pulse. It is seen that for a given pulse-width the signal decreases with the increase of the relaxation parameter and this happens as temperature is lowered. The saturation of electromagnetic signal in presence of the acoustic excitation has also been studied. The analysis indicates that the relaxation parameter obtained from the plot of the relative signal (〈〉_ω/〈〉₀) vs the acoustic frequency ω, is always less than its true value which can be determined by observing the frequency dependence of the relative fractional signal defined as [(〈〉₀?〈〉_ω)/〈〉_ω]/[(〈〉₀?〈〉_2ω0)/〈〉_2ω0].     

Influence of alloy composition on the diffusivity-mobility ratio in n-channel inversion layers on ternary semiconductors

An expression is derived for the diffusivity-mobility ratio of the carriers in n-channel inversion layers on semiconductors like the ternary compounds which have strongly non-parabolic energy bands. The dependence of the ratio on alloy composition is also studied under the weak-field limit taking n-channel Hg_1–xCd_x.Te as an example.On leave of absence fromthe Department of Physics, Patna University, Patna, India.     

Meniscus instability in a thin elastic film

A new kind of meniscus instability leading to the formation of stationary fingers with a well-defined spacing has been observed in experiments with elastomeric films confined between a plane rigid glass and a thin curved glass plate. The wavelength of the instability increases linearly with the thickness of the confined film, but it is remarkably insensitive to the compliance and the energetics of the system. However, lateral amplitude (length) of the fingers depends on the compliance of the system and on the radius of curvature of the glass plate. A simple linear stability analysis is used to explain the underlying physics and the key observed features of the instability.     

Analysis of Bragg reflection waveguides with finite cladding: An accurate matrix method formulation

Ideal Bragg reflection waveguides (BRWs) are assumed to have an infinitely extended periodic cladding whereas in practice, the cladding of BRWs is of a finite extent. Bloch theorem is widely used to analyze the propagation characteristics of the BRWs. Since Bloch theorem is ideally valid only for an infinitely extended periodic medium, its application to study such BRWs is an approximation. We present a matrix method for a more accurate analysis of finite-clad BRWs and estimate the extent of errors involved in the values of the propagation constant obtained by the Bloch wave formalism. The proposed method can be used to obtain the mode effective indices as well as the radiation loss of a finite-clad BRW without resorting to solving any complex transcendental equation. In addition, since the method does not inherently assume a periodic cladding, it can also be used to analyze symmetric multi-channel BRWs, chirped structures and directional couplers.     

Simple theoretical analysis of the thermoelectric power in quantum dot superlattices of non-parabolic heavily doped semiconductors with graded interfaces under strong magnetic field

We study theoretically the thermoelectric power in the presence of a large magnetic field (TPM) in heavily doped III–V, II–VI, PbTe/PbSnTe, strained layer and HgTe/CdTe quantum dot superlattices (QDSLs) with graded structures on the basis of newly formulated electron energy spectra and compare the same with that of the constituent materials. It has been found, taking heavily doped GaAs/Ga_1−xAl_xAs, CdS/CdTe, PbTe/PbSnTe, InAs/GaSb and HgTe/CdTe QDSLs as examples, that the TPM increases with increasing inverse electron concentration and film thickness, respectively, in different oscillatory manners and the nature of oscillations is totally band structure dependent. We have also suggested the experimental methods of determining the Einstein relation for the diffusivity–mobility ratio, the Debye screening length and the electronic contribution to the elastic constants for materials having arbitrary dispersion laws.