Comment on "Auditory-nerve first-spike latency and auditory absolute threshold: a computer model" [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 406-417 (2006)

A recent paper by Meddis [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 406-417 (2006)] shows that an existing model of the auditory nerve [Meddis and O'Mard, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 3787-3798 (2005)] is consistent with experimentally-measured first-spike latencies in the auditory nerve [Heil and Neubauer, J. Neurosci. 21, 7404-7415 (2001)]. The paper states that this consistency emerges because in the model, the calcium concentration inside the inner hair cell builds up over long periods of time (up to at least 200 ms) during tone presentation. It further states that integration over long time-scales happens despite the very short time constants (< 1 ms) used for the calcium dynamics. This letter demonstrates that these statements are incorrect. It is shown by simulation that calcium concentration inside the hair cell stage of the Meddis model rapidly reaches a steady state within a few milliseconds of a stimulus onset, exactly as expected from the short time-constant in the simple first-order differential equation used to model the calcium concentration. The success of the Meddis model in fitting experimental data actually confirms earlier results [Krishna, J. Comput. Neurosci. 13, 71-91 (2002a)] that show that the experimental data are a natural result of stochasticity in the synaptic events leading up to spike-generation in the auditory nerve; integration over long time scales is not necessary to model the experimental data.     

Synthesis, structures and reactions of cyclometallated gold complexes containing (2-diphenylarsino-n-methyl)phenyl (n = 5, 6)

Reaction of (C6H3-2-AsPh2-n-Me)Li (n = 5 or 6) with [AuBr(AsPh3)] at -78 degrees C gives the corresponding cyclometallated gold(I) complexes [Au2[(mu-C6H3-n-Me)AsPh2]2] [n = 5, (1); n = 6, (9)]. 1 undergoes oxidative addition with halogens and with dibenzoyl peroxide to give digold(II) complexes [Au2X2[(mu-C6H3-5-Me)AsPh2]2] [X = Cl (2a), Br (2b), I (2c) and O2CPh (3)] containing a metal-metal bond between the 5d9 metal centres. Reaction of 2a with AgO2CMe or of 3 with C6F5Li gives the corresponding digold(II) complexes in which X = O2CMe (4) and C6F5 (6), respectively. The Au-Au distances increase in the order 4 < 2a < 2b < 2c < 6, following the covalent binding tendency of the axial ligand. Like the analogous phosphine complexes, 2a-2c and 6 in solution rearrange to form C-C coupled digold(I) complexes [Au2X2[mu-2,2-Ph2As(5,5-Me2C6H3C6H3)AsPh2]] [X = Cl (5a), X = Br (5b), X = I (5c) and C6F5 (7)] in which the gold atoms are linearly coordinated by As and X. In contrast, the products of oxidative additions to 9 depend markedly on the halogens. Reaction of 9 with chlorine gives the gold(I)-gold(III) complex, [ClAu[mu-2-Ph2As(C6H3-6-Me)]AuCl[(6-MeC6H3)-2-AsPh2]-kappa2As,C] (10), which contains a four-membered chelate ring, Ph2As(C6H3-6-Me), in the coordination sphere of the gold(III) atom. When 10 is heated, the ring is cleaved, the product being the digold(I) complex [ClAu[mu-2-Ph2As(C6H3-6-Me)]Au[AsPh2(2-Cl-3-Me-C6H3)]] (11). Reaction of 9 with bromine at 50 degrees C gives a monobromo digold(I) complex (12), which is similar to 11 except that the 2-position of the substituted aromatic ring bears hydrogen instead halogen. Reaction of 9 with iodine gives a mixture of a free tertiary arsine, (2-I-3-MeC6H3)AsPh2 (13), a digold diiodo compound (14) analogous to 11, and a gold(I)-gold(III) zwitterionic complex [I2Au(III)[(mu-C6H3-2-AsPh2-6-Me)]2Au(I)] (15) in which the bridging units are arranged head-to-head between the metal atoms. The structures of 2a-2c and 4-15 have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The different behaviour of 1 and 9 toward halogens mirrors that of their phosphine analogues; the 6-methyl substituent blocks C-C coupling of the aryl residues in the initially formed oxidative addition product. In the case of 9, the greater lability of the Au-As bond in the initial oxidative addition product may account for the more complex behaviour of this system compared with that of its phosphine analogue.     

Electrostatically mediated specific adsorption of small molecules in metallo-organic frameworks

We investigate the interaction of ethylene and ethane with a Cu-tricarboxylate complex and show that at low loadings the lighter molecule has a higher binding energy as a result of an increased interaction with the framework Cu and stronger hydrogen bonding with the basic framework oxygens. This leads to selective adsorption of ethylene by a factor of about 2 at low pressure, which is overcome by the stronger van der Waals interaction of ethane at high loadings, explaining recent literature data. The results suggest the possibility of separation of light hydrocarbons at low pressures or in trace amounts.     

On the dynamics of the TPPS4 aggregation in aqueous solutions: successive formation of H and J aggregates

The dynamics of aggregation of meso-tetrakis (p-sulfonatofenyl) porphyrin (TPPS4) in function of its concentration, pH and ionic strength was studied by optical absorption, fluorescence and resonance light scattering (RLS) techniques. In the region of pH, where TPPS4 exists in biprotonated form, the addition of NaCl induces the TPPS4 aggregation due to the formation of the "cloud" of counter ions around the TPPS4 molecule thus reducing electrostatic repulsion between the porphyrin molecules. The formation of this "cloud" shifts the pKa value to acid region (from 5.0 in the absence of salt to 4.5 at [NaCl] = 0.4 M), reduces the TPPS4 absorption in all spectral range and quantum yield and lifetime of fluorescence (from 0.27 to 0.17 and from 4.00+/-0.04 to 3.00+/-0.03 ns in the absence of salt and in the presence of NaCl, respectively). The aggregation process involves two successive stages: initially H aggregates are formed, which in time are transformed in J ones. The existence of these two stages was confirmed by the fluorescence and RLS data. The kinetics of the formation of J aggregates is characterized by the induction time t1 and the average growth time t2, which depend on both TPPS4 and salt concentrations. The induction period t1 appears as a result of initial formation of H aggregates and their successive transformation in J ones. At very high TPPS4 concentrations, the J aggregates are united in more complex structures such as hollow cylinders or helixes.     

Charged-particle multiplicity density at midrapidity in central Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[S(NN)] = 2.76 TeV

The first measurement of the charged-particle multiplicity density at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair √ S NN = 2.76 TeV is presented. For an event sample corresponding to the most central 5% of the hadronic cross section, the pseudorapidity density of primary charged particles at midrapidity is 1584 ± 4(stat) ± 76(syst), which corresponds to 8.3 ± 0.4(syst) per participating nucleon pair. This represents an increase of about a factor 1.9 relative to pp collisions at similar collision energies, and about a factor 2.2 to central Au-Au collisions at √ S NN = 2.76 TeV. This measurement provides the first experimental constraint for models of nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC energies.     

Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[S(NN)] = 2.76 TeV

We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[S(NN)] =2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|η|<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2

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