Local dissipation and coupling properties of cellular oscillators: a case study on calcium oscillations

Synchronised signal transduction between cells is crucial, since it assures fast and immutable information processing, which is vital for flawless functioning of living organisms. The question arises how to recognise the ability of a cell to be easily coupled with other cells. In the present paper, we investigate the system properties that determine best coupling abilities and assure the most efficient signal transduction between cells. A case study is done for intercellular calcium oscillations. For a particular diffusion-like coupled system of cellular oscillators, we determined the minimal gap-junctional permeability that is necessary for synchronisation of initially asynchronous oscillators. Our results show that dissipation is a crucial system property that determines the coupling ability of cellular oscillators. We found that low dissipation assures synchronisation of coupled cells already at very low gap-junctional permeability, whereas highly dissipative oscillators require much higher gap-junctional permeability in order to synchronise. The results are discussed in the sense of their biological importance for systems where the synchronous responses of cells were recognised to be indispensable for appropriate physiological functioning of the tissue.     

Green pH- and magnetic-responsive hybrid hydrogels based on poly(methacrylic acid) and Eucalyptus wood nanocellulose for controlled release of ibuprofen

Cellulose - pH- and magnetic-sensitive hybrid hydrogels based on poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA), nanocellulose (NC), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and magnetite particles (MN) were prepared as...     

Hole interactions with molecular vibrations on DNA

We report on a study of the interactions between holes and molecular vibrations on dry DNA using photoinduced infrared absorption spectroscopy. Laser photoexcited holes are found to have a room-temperature lifetime in excess of tau > 1 ms, clearly indicating the presence of localization. However, from a quantitative model analysis of the frequency shifts of vibrational modes caused by the holes, we find the hole-vibrational coupling constant to be relatively small, lambda approximately 0.2. This interaction leads to a change in the conformational energy of DeltaE0 approximately 0.015 eV, which is too small to cause self-trapping at room temperature. We conclude that, at least in the dry (A) form, DNA is best understood in terms of a double chain of coupled quantum dots arising from the pseudorandom chain sequence of base pairs, in which Anderson localization prevents the formation of a metallic state.     

Burst synchronization transitions in a neuronal network of subnetworks

In this paper, the transitions of burst synchronization are explored in a neuronal network consisting of subnetworks. The studied network is composed of electrically coupled bursting Hindmarsh-Rose neurons. Numerical results show that two types of burst synchronization transitions can be induced not only by the variations of intra- and intercoupling strengths but also by changing the probability of random links between different subnetworks and the number of subnetworks. Furthermore, we find that the underlying mechanisms for these two bursting synchronization transitions are different: one is due to the change of spike numbers per burst, while the other is caused by the change of the bursting type. Considering that changes in the coupling strengths and neuronal connections are closely interlaced with brain plasticity, the presented results could have important implications for the role of the brain plasticity in some functional behavior that are associated with synchronization.     

Effects of correlated Gaussian noise on the mean firing rate and correlations of an electrically coupled neuronal network

In this paper, we examine the effects of correlated Gaussian noise on a two-dimensional neuronal network that is locally modeled by the Rulkov map. More precisely, we study the effects of the noise correlation on the variations of the mean firing rate and the correlations among neurons versus the noise intensity. Via numerical simulations, we show that the mean firing rate can always be optimized at an intermediate noise intensity, irrespective of the noise correlation. On the other hand, variations of the population coherence with respect to the noise intensity are strongly influenced by the ratio between local and global Gaussian noisy inputs. Biological implications of our findings are also discussed.     

Spatial coherence resonance on diffusive and small-world networks of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons

Spatial coherence resonance in a spatially extended system that is locally modeled by Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons is studied in this paper. We focus on the ability of additive temporally and spatially uncorrelated Gaussian noise to extract a particular spatial frequency of excitatory waves in the medium, whereby examining the impact of diffusive and small-world network topology that determines the interactions amongst coupled HH neurons. We show that there exists an intermediate noise intensity that is able to extract a characteristic spatial frequency of the system in a resonant manner provided the latter is diffusively coupled, thus indicating the existence of spatial coherence resonance. However, as the diffusive topology of the medium is relaxed via the introduction of shortcut links introducing small-world properties amongst coupled HH neurons, the ability of additive Gaussian noise to evoke ordered excitatory waves deteriorates rather spectacularly, leading to the decoherence of the spatial dynamics and with it related absence of spatial coherence resonance. In particular, already a minute fraction of shortcut links suffices to substantially disrupt coherent pattern formation in the examined system.     

Diagram,valence-to-core,and hypersatellite Kβ X-ray transitions in metallic chromium

We report on measurements of the Kβ diagram, valence-to-core (VtC), and hypersatellite X-ray spectra induced in metallic Cr by photon single and double K-shell ionization. The experiment was carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource using the seven-crystal Johann-type hard X-ray spectrometer of the beamline 6-2. For the Kβ diagram and VtC transitions, the present study confirms the line shape features observed in previous works, whereas the K^hβ hypersatellite transition was found to exhibit a complex spectral line shape and a characteristic low-energy shoulder. The energy shift of the hypersatellite relative to the parent diagram line was deduced from the measurements and compared with the result of extensive multiconfiguration Dirac–Fock (MCDF) calculations. A very good agreement between experiment and theory was found. The MCDF calculations were also used to compute the theoretical line shape of the hypersatellite. A satisfactory agreement was obtained between the overall shapes of the experimental and theoretical spectra, but deviations were observed on the low- and high-energy flanks of the hypersatellite line. The discrepancies were explained by chemical effects, which were not considered in the MCDF calculations performed for isolated atoms.     

Short monolithic columns--a breakthrough in purification and fast quantification of tomato mosaic virus

Drawbacks of conventional virus purification methods have led to the development of new, mostly chromatography-based methods. Short monolithic columns are stationary phases intended for purification of large molecules. In this work efficient chromatographic purification of tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) from plant material is described. Based on short monolithic column, the purification process was shortened from 5 days to 2 hours. High viral purity was achieved and recovery of chromatographic step was up to 90%. In addition, these columns enabled preliminary quantification of the virus in just a few minutes, much faster than other quantification methods (e.g. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or real-time polymerase chain reaction) which take 1-2 days. These results demonstrate the potential of short monolith column technology for purification and analysis of different viruses.     

What determines the inhibition effectiveness of ATA, BTAH, and BTAOH corrosion inhibitors on copper?

Three corrosion inhibitors for copper-3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (ATA), benzotriazole (BTAH), and 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (BTAOH)-were investigated by corrosion experiments and atomistic computer simulations. The trend of corrosion inhibition effectiveness of the three inhibitors on copper in near-neutral chloride solution is determined experimentally as BTAH ? ATA ? BTAOH. A careful analysis of the results of computer simulations based on density functional theory allowed to pinpoint the superior inhibiting action of BTAH and ATA as a result of their ability to form strong N-Cu chemical bonds in deprotonated form. While these bonds are not as strong as the Cl-Cu bonds, the presence of solvent favors the adsorption of inhibitor molecules onto the surface due to stronger solvation of the Cl(-) anions. Moreover, benzotriazole displays the largest affinity among the three inhibitors to form intermolecular aggregates, such as [BTA-Cu](n) polymeric complex. This is another factor contributing to the stability of the protective inhibitor film on the surface, thus making benzotriazole an outstanding corrosion inhibitor for copper. These findings cannot be anticipated on the basis of inhibitors' molecular electronic properties alone, thus emphasizing the importance of a rigorous modeling of the interactions between the components of the corrosion system in corrosion inhibition studies.     

Structure and Population of Complex Ionic Species in FeCl2 Aqueous Solution by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

Technologies for mass production require cheap and abundant materials such as ferrous chloride (FeCl₂). The literature survey shows the lack of experimental studies to validate theoretical conclusions related to the population of ionic Fe-species in the aqueous FeCl₂ solution. Here, we present an in situ X-ray absorption study of the structure of the ionic species in the FeCl₂ aqueous solution at different concentrations (1–4 molL⁻¹) and temperatures (25–80 °C). We found that at low temperature and low FeCl₂ concentration, the octahedral first coordination sphere around Fe is occupied by one Cl ion at a distance of 2.33 (±0.02) Å and five water molecules at a distance of 2.095 (±0.005) Å. The structure of the ionic complex gradually changes with an increase in temperature and/or concentration. The apical water molecule is substituted by a chlorine ion to yield a neutral Fe[Cl₂(H₂O)₄]⁰. The observed substitutional mechanism is facilitated by the presence of the intramolecular hydrogen bonds as well as entropic reasons. The transition from the single charged Fe[Cl(H₂O)₅]⁺ to the neutral Fe[Cl₂(H₂O)₄]⁰ causes a significant drop in the solution conductivity, which well correlates with the existing conductivity models.