bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STATIC STATISTICAL APPROACH TO THE BTW SANDPILE MODEL
Authors: WANG DAHUI , CHEN WEITING , YUAN QIANG , DI ZENGRU
Published: March 2006

A static statistical approach to the Bak, Tang and Wiesenfeld (BTW) sandpile model is proposed. With this approach, the exact avalanche distribution of the one-dimensional BTW sandpile is given concisely. Furthermore, we investigate the two-dimensional BTW sandpile and obtain some interesting results. First, the total particle number of the two-dimensional BTW sandpile obeys some kind of stable distribution. With the increase of the sandpile scale, the stable distribution transits from Gamma to Normal distribution. Second, when the total number of particles is fixed, the avalanche distribution is not power law. The system, however, shows a kind of "negative temperature" phenomenon when the particle number increases. Third, power law distribution of the avalanche could be viewed as the result of the superposition of a series of weighted distributions which do not yield power law.
THE MINKOWSKI-BOULIGAND DIMENSION AND THE INTERIOR-TO-EDGE RATIO OF HABITATS
Authors: IMRE A. R. , BOGAERT J.
Published: March 2006

Fragmentation processes can produce isolated patches from an originally continuous habitat. The shapes of the resulting patches are usually highly irregular. Due to this irregularity, their ability to endure external disturbances is different, which is an expression of their ecological quality. Traditionally, patch area and interior-to-edge ratios are used to characterize the quality of habitats but the latter one is not applicable under varying external disturbances. In this paper, we show that the internal Minkowski-Bouligand dimension (and the corresponding form-factor) can be used as a simple interior-to-edge function applicable on a variable edge width.
ANALYSIS OF ADHESION DISTRIBUTION OF DIFFUSION-LIMITED AGGREGATION
Authors: KITAMURA T. , HONJO H.
Published: March 2006

We analyze the adhesion probability distribution of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) assuming that a random walker directly diffuses to the adhesion position of DLA. The distribution is divided into two regions. In the region that is closer to a seed particle, the adhesion probability is described as the product between the Poisson distribution and the adhesion process. In the region that is farther from a seed particle, the distribution is understood to be the product of the Gaussian and the adhesion process. Both results are physically reasonable.
GENERATION AND PREDICTION OF SELF-SIMILAR PROCESSES BY SURROGATES
Authors: CHAKRABORTY D. , ROY T. K.
Published: March 2006

A self-similar process has power spectrum with power law depending on its self-similarity parameter H and we use this property for its generation by the method of surrogate data. The surrogates are a set of random data with the same distribution as that of the increments of the process. These are iteratively rearranged according to the rank order of a time series obtained with the same power law spectrum. The method is fast, and reliable as shown by the characteristics reproduced. It is also possible to extend this method to prediction of a self-similar process, the success of which will depend on the number of available data.
SPECTRA OF RECURRENCE DIMENSION FOR DYNAMICALLY DEFINED SUBSETS OF RAUZY FRACTALS
Authors: SIRVENT VÍCTOR F.
Published: March 2006

We compute the spectra of the recurrence dimension for dynamically defined subsets of Rauzy fractals, in the case when these sets are totally disconnected. These subsets of the Rauzy fractals are defined by subadic systems, therefore there is a well-defined dynamical system defined on them. The spectra of the recurrence dimension for adic and subadic systems was computed by the author in Sirvent,1and in the present article we extend those results to the dynamical systems mentioned before, which are geometrical realizations of these symbolic systems.

This dimension is characterized by the Poincaré recurrence of the system, and the corresponding spectrum is invariant under bi-Lipschitz transformations.

We also address the question, when the dynamically defined subsets of Rauzy Fractals are totally disconnected.
APPLICATION OF CHAOS GAME REPRESENTATION TO NONLINEAR TIME SERIES ANALYSIS
Authors: SUZUKI TOMOYA , IKEGUCHI TOHRU , SUZUKI MASUO
Published: March 2006

Iterative function systems are often used for investigating fractal structures. The method is also referred as Chaos Game Representation (CGR), and is applied for representing characteristic structures of DNA sequences visually. In this paper, we proposed an original way of plotting CGR to easily confirm the property of the temporal evaluation of a time series. We also showed existence of spurious characteristic structures of time series, if we carelessly applied the CGR to real time series. We revealed that the source of spurious identification came from non-uniformity of the frequency histograms of the time series, which is often the case of analyzing real time series. We also showed how to avoid such spurious identification by applying the method of surrogate data and introducing conditional probabilities of the time series.
LIMIT SETS OF RESTRICTED RANDOM SUBSTITUTIONS
Authors: BARBÉ ANDRÉ , VON HAESELER FRITZ , SKORDEV GENCHO
Published: March 2006

We consider a certain type of random substitution and show that the sets generated by it have almost surely the same box-counting and Hausdorff dimension, and that box-counting and Hausdorff dimension coincide.
An E box in the exon 1 promoter regulates insulin-like growth factor-I expression in differentiating muscle cells
Authors: McLellan A. S. , Kealey T. , Langlands K.
Published: March 2006

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I expression is subject to complex temporal and spatial regulation. Endocrine synthesis occurs in the liver, where transcription is initiated from promoters located in either exon 1 (P1) or in exon 2 (P2), whereas local transcription is mainly initiated from P1. IGF-I is expressed in a range of tissues and, in particular, is an important regulator of skeletal muscle mass, although the mechanisms of tissue-specific regulation remain to be fully characterized. Gene regulation in skeletal muscle is associated with the E box DNA element (5′-CANNTG-3′) recognized by myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), such as MyoD1. Transcription element profiling identified a hypothetical myogenic E box (sequence 5′-CAGCTG-3′) within P1, immediately upstream of the major muscle transcriptional start site, and we sought to test its activity in differentiating C2C12 myoblasts. We found P1-driven IGF-I mRNA expression to be associated with myogenic differentiation and, moreover, that a single base-pair mutation in the E box specifically reduced expression in myofibers. A synthetic enhancer construct containing a triplet repeat of the E box was active in muscle cells and strongly induced in myofibers. The capacity of a double-stranded IGF-I E box probe (but not one bearing a single-base pair alteration) to bind C2C12 nuclear lysates increased with myogenesis, and a transactivation assay demonstrated that the E box was recognized by E protein-MRF heterodimers. Mechanisms of tissue-specific gene activation are of increasing biological interest, and we have identified a cis-element able to direct muscle-specific IGF-I gene expression.
Ca2+-mobilizing agonists increase mitochondrial ATP production to accelerate cytosolic Ca2+ removal: aberrations in human complex I deficiency
Authors: Visch Henk-Jan , Koopman Werner J. H. , Zeegers Dimphy , van Emst-de Vries Sjenet E. , van Kuppeveld Frank J. M. , van den Heuvel Lambertus W. P. J. , Smeitink Jan A. M. , Willems Peter H. G. M.
Published: March 2006

Previously, we reported that both the bradykinin (Bk)-induced increase in mitochondrial ATP concentration ([ATP]M) and the rate of cytosolic Ca2+ removal are significantly decreased in skin fibroblasts from a patient with an isolated complex I deficiency. Here we demonstrate that the mitochondrial Ca2+ indicator rhod-2 can be used to selectively buffer the Bk-induced increase in mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]M) and, consequently, the Ca2+-stimulated increase in [ATP]M, thus allowing studies of how the increase in [ATP]M and the cytosolic Ca2+ removal rate are related. Luminometry of healthy fibroblasts expressing either aequorin or luciferase in the mitochondrial matrix showed that rhod-2 dose dependently decreased the Bk-induced increase in [Ca2+]M and [ATP]M by maximally 80 and 90%, respectively. Digital imaging microscopy of cells coloaded with the cytosolic Ca2+ indicator fura-2 revealed that, in parallel, rhod-2 maximally decreased the cytosolic Ca2+ removal rate by 20%. These findings demonstrate that increased mitochondrial ATP production is required for accelerating cytosolic Ca2+ removal during stimulation with a Ca2+-mobilizing agonist. In contrast, complex I-deficient patient fibroblasts displayed a cytosolic Ca2+ removal rate that was already decreased by 40% compared with healthy fibroblasts. Rhod-2 did not further decrease this rate, indicating the absence of mitochondrial ATP supply to the cytosolic Ca2+ pumps. This work reveals the usefulness of rhodamine-based Ca2+ indicators in examining the role of intramitochondrial Ca2+ in mitochondrial (patho) physiology.
Single plasma membrane K+ channel detection by using dual-color quantum dot labeling
Authors: Nechyporuk-Zloy Volodymyr , Stock Christian , Schillers Hermann , Oberleithner Hans , Schwab Albrecht
Published: March 2006

K+ channels are widely expressed in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, where one of their key functions is to set the membrane potential. Many K+ channels are tetramers that share common architectural properties. The crystal structure of bacterial and mammalian K+ channels has been resolved and provides the basis for modeling their three-dimensional structure in different functional states. This wealth of information on K+ channel structure contrasts with the difficulties to visualize single K+ channel proteins in their physiological environment. We describe a method to identify single Ca2+-activated K+ channel molecules in the plasma membrane of migrating cells. Our method is based on dual-color labeling with quantum dots. We show that >90% of the observed quantum dots correspond to single K+ channel proteins. We anticipate that our method can be adopted to label any other ion channel in the plasma membrane on the single molecule level.
Sex and hormonal cycle differences in rat brain levels of pain-related cannabimimetic lipid mediators
Authors: Bradshaw Heather B. , Rimmerman Neta , Krey Jocelyn F. , Walker J. Michael
Published: March 2006

One important function of endocannabinoids and related lipid mediators in mammalian central nervous system is modulation of pain. Evidence obtained during the last decade shows that altered levels of these compounds in the brain accompany decreases in pain sensitivity. Such changes, if sexually dimorphic, could account for sex differences in pain and differences that occur during different phases of the hormonal cycle in females. To examine this possibility, we measured the levels of the pain-modulatory lipids anandamide, 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, N-arachidonoyl glycine, N-arachidonoyl gamma amino butyric acid, and N-arachidonoyl dopamine in seven different brain areas (pituitary, hypothalamus, thalamus, striatum, midbrain, hippocampus, and cerebellum) in male rats, and in female rats at five different points in the estrous cycle. The cerebellum did not demonstrate a change in endocannabinoid production across the estrous cycle, whereas all other areas tested showed significant differences in at least one of the compounds measured. These changes in levels occurred predominantly within the 36-h time period surrounding ovulation and behavioral estrus. Differences between males and females were measured as either estrous cycle-independent (all estrous cycles combined) or cycle-dependent (comparisons of males to each estrous cycle). In cycle-independent analyses, small sex differences were observed in the pituitary, hypothalamus, cerebellum, and striatum, whereas no differences were observed in the thalamus, midbrain, and hippocampus. In cycle-dependent analyses, the hypothalamus and pituitary showed largest sex differences followed by the striatum, midbrain, and hippocampus, whereas no sex differences were measured in thalamus and cerebellum. These data provide a basis for investigations into how differences in sex and hormonal status play a role in mechanisms regulating endocannabinoid production and pain.
Hypoxia-inducible factors in the kidney
Authors: Haase Volker H.
Published: March 2006

Tissue hypoxia not only occurs under pathological conditions but is also an important microenvironmental factor that is critical for normal embryonic development. Hypoxia-inducible factors HIF-1 and HIF-2 are oxygen-sensitive basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, which regulate biological processes that facilitate both oxygen delivery and cellular adaptation to oxygen deprivation. HIFs consist of an oxygen-sensitive α-subunit, HIF-α, and a constitutively expressed β-subunit, HIF-β, and regulate the expression of genes that are involved in energy metabolism, angiogenesis, erythropoiesis and iron metabolism, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and other biological processes. Under conditions of normal Po2, HIF-α is hydroxylated and targeted for rapid proteasomal degradation by the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) E3-ubiquitin ligase. When cells experience hypoxia, HIF-α is stabilized and either dimerizes with HIF-β in the nucleus to form transcriptionally active HIF, executing the canonical hypoxia response, or it physically interacts with unrelated proteins, thereby enabling convergence of HIF oxygen sensing with other signaling pathways. In the normal, fully developed kidney, HIF-1α is expressed in most cell types, whereas HIF-2α is mainly found in renal interstitial fibroblast-like cells and endothelial cells. This review summarizes some of the most recent advances in the HIF field and discusses their relevance to renal development, normal kidney function and disease.
Regulation of maturation and processing of ENaC subunits in the rat kidney
Authors: Ergonul Zuhal , Frindt Gustavo , Palmer Lawrence G.
Published: March 2006

Antibodies directed against subunits of the epithelial Na channel (ENaC) were used together with electrophysiological measurements in the cortical collecting duct to investigate the processing of the proteins in rat kidney with changes in Na or K intake. When animals were maintained on a low-Na diet for 7–9 days, the abundance of two forms of the α-subunit, with apparent masses of 85 and 30 kDa, increased. Salt restriction also increased the abundance of the β-subunit and produced an endoglycosidase H (Endo H)-resistant pool of this subunit. The abundance of the 90-kDa form of the γ-subunit decreased, whereas that of a 70-kDa form increased and this peptide also exhibited Endo H-resistant glycosylation. These changes in α- and γ-subunits were correlated with increases in Na conductance elicited by a 4-h infusion with aldosterone. Changes in all three subunits were correlated with decreases in Na conductance when Na-deprived animals drank saline for 5 h. We conclude that ENaC subunits are mainly in an immature form in salt-replete rats. With Na depletion, the subunits mature in a process that involves proteolytic cleavage and further glycosylation. Similar changes occurred in α- and γ- but not β-subunits when animals were treated with exogenous aldosterone, and in β- and γ- but not α-subunits when animals were fed a high-K diet. Changes in the processing and maturation of the channels occur rapidly enough to be involved in the daily regulation of ENaC activity and Na reabsorption by the kidney.
Redistribution of distal tubule Na+-Cl−cotransporter (NCC) in response to a high-salt diet
Authors: Sandberg Monica B. , Maunsbach Arvid B. , McDonough Alicia A.
Published: March 2006

The distal convoluted tubule (DCT) apical Na+-Cl−cotransporter (NCC) is responsible for the reabsorption of 5–10% of filtered NaCl and is the target for thiazide diuretics. NCC abundance is increased during dietary NaCl restriction and by aldosterone and decreased during a high-salt (HS) diet and mineralocorticoid blockade. This study tested the hypothesis that subcellular distribution of NCC is also regulated in response to changes in dietary salt. Six-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a normal-salt diet (NS; 0.4% NaCl) for 3 wk, then switched to a HS diet (4% NaCl) for 3 wk or a low-salt diet (LS; 0.07% NaCl) for 1 wk. Under anesthesia, kidneys were excised, renal cortex was dissected, and NCC was analyzed with specific antibodies after either 1) density gradient centrifugation followed by immunoblotting or 2) fixation followed by immunoelectron microscopy. The HS diet decreased NCC abundance to 0.50 ± 0.10 of levels in LS diet (1.00 ± 0.23). The HS diet also caused a redistribution of NCC from low to higher density membranes. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that NCC resides predominantly in the apical membrane in rats fed the LS diet and increases in subapical vesicles in rats fed the HS diet. In conclusion, a HS diet provokes a rapid and persistent redistribution of NCC from apical to subapical membranes, a mechanism that would facilitate a homeostatic decrease in NaCl reabsorption in the DCT to compensate for increased dietary salt.
Influence of Cognitive Expectation on the Initiation of Anticipatory and Visual Pursuit Eye Movements in the Rhesus Monkey
Authors: de Hemptinne C. , Lefèvre P. , Missal M.
Published: March 2006

A classic paradigm to study anticipatory pursuit consists in training monkeys to look at a target that appears in the center of a visual display, disappears during a short “gap” period, then reappears and immediately starts to move. To determine the role of prior directional information on anticipatory pursuit eye movements, we trained rhesus monkeys to associate the color of a centrally presented visual cue with the direction of an upcoming target motion. In a first experiment, a gap period occurred randomly in 50% of the trials. Consequently, two possible choices of timing of target motion onset were given to subjects to guide their anticipatory responses. In a second experiment, a gap period occurred during each trial and only a single choice of timing of target motion onset was given to subjects. We found that monkeys used the learned association between the color of the cue and the direction of future target motion to voluntarily initiate anticipatory pursuit movements in the appropriate direction. Anticipatory movements could be classified in two distinct populations: early and late movements. Early movements were most frequent when prior directional information was provided and when two choices of timing of target motion onset were given. The latency of visual pursuit was shortened and its velocity was larger when prior directional information was provided. We conclude that cognitive expectation of future target motion plays a dominant role in determining characteristics of anticipatory pursuit in the monkey.
Bilateral Vestibular Loss Leads to Active Destabilization of Balance During Voluntary Head Turns in the Standing Cat
Authors: Stapley Paul J. , Ting Lena H. , Kuifu Chen , Everaert Dirk G. , Macpherson Jane M.
Published: March 2006

The purpose of this study was to determine the source of postural instability in labyrinthectomized cats during lateral head turns. Cats were trained to maintain the head in a forward orientation and then perform a rapid, large-amplitude head turn to left or right in yaw, while standing freely on a force platform. Head turns were biomechanically complex with the primary movement in the yaw plane accompanied by an ipsilateral ear-down roll and nose-down pitch. Cats used a strategy of pushing off by activating extensors of the contralateral forelimb while using all four limbs to produce a rotational moment of force about the vertical axis. After bilateral labyrinthectomy, the initial components of the head turn and accompanying postural responses were hypermetric, but otherwise similar to those produced before the lesion. However, near the time of peak yaw velocity, the lesioned cats produced an unexpected burst in extensors of the contralateral limbs that thrust the body to the ipsilateral side, leading to falls. This postural error was in the frontal (roll) plane, even though the primary movement was a rotation in the horizontal (yaw) plane. The response error decreased in amplitude with compensation but did not disappear. We conclude that lack of vestibular input results in active destabilization of balance during voluntary head movement. We postulate that the postural imbalance arises from the misperception that the trunk was rolling contralaterally, based on signals from neck proprioceptors in the absence of vestibular inputs.
Modulation of Auditory Signal-to-Noise Ratios by Efferent Stimulation
Authors: Tomchik Seth M. , Lu Zhongmin
Published: March 2006

One of the primary challenges that sensory systems face is extracting relevant information from background noise. In the auditory system, the ear receives efferent feedback, which may help it extract signals from noise. Here we directly test the hypothesis that efferent activity increases the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the ear, using the relatively simple teleost ear. Tone-evoked saccular potentials were recorded before and after efferent stimulation, and the SNR of the responses was calculated. In quiet conditions, efferent stimulation suppressed saccular responses to a tone, reducing the SNR. However, when masking noise was added, efferent stimulation increased the SNR of the saccular responses within a range of stimulus combinations. These data demonstrate that auditory efferent feedback can increase SNR in conditions where a signal is masked by noise, thereby enhancing the encoding of signals in noise. Efferent feedback thus performs a fundamental signal processing function, helping the animal to hear sounds in difficult listening conditions.
Motor Patterns in Human Walking and Running
Authors: Cappellini G. , Ivanenko Y. P. , Poppele R. E. , Lacquaniti F.
Published: March 2006

Despite distinct differences between walking and running, the two types of human locomotion are likely to be controlled by shared pattern-generating networks. However, the differences between their kinematics and kinetics imply that corresponding muscle activations may also be quite different. We examined the differences between walking and running by recording kinematics and electromyographic (EMG) activity in 32 ipsilateral limb and trunk muscles during human locomotion, and compared the effects of speed (3–12 km/h) and gait. We found that the timing of muscle activation was accounted for by five basic temporal activation components during running as we previously found for walking. Each component was loaded on similar sets of leg muscles in both gaits but generally on different sets of upper trunk and shoulder muscles. The major difference between walking and running was that one temporal component, occurring during stance, was shifted to an earlier phase in the step cycle during running. These muscle activation differences between gaits did not simply depend on locomotion speed as shown by recordings during each gait over the same range of speeds (5–9 km/h). The results are consistent with an organization of locomotion motor programs having two parts, one that organizes muscle activation during swing and another during stance and the transition to swing. The timing shift between walking and running reflects therefore the difference in the relative duration of the stance phase in the two gaits.
Cellular Mechanisms Preventing Sustained Activation of Cortex During Subcortical High-Frequency Stimulation
Authors: Iremonger Karl J. , Anderson Trent R. , Hu Bin , Kiss Zelma H. T.
Published: March 2006

Axonal excitation has been proposed as a key mechanism in therapeutic brain stimulation. In this study we examined how high-frequency stimulation (HFS) of subcortical white matter tracts projecting to motor cortex affects downstream postsynaptic responses in cortical neurons. Whole cell recordings were performed in the primary motor cortex (M1) and ventral thalamus of rat brain slices. In M1, neurons showed only an initial depolarization in response to HFS, after which the membrane potential returned to prestimulation levels. The prolonged suppression of excitation during stimulation was neither associated with GABAergic inhibition nor complete action potential failure in stimulated axons. Instead we found that HFS caused a depression of excitatory synaptic currents in postsynaptic neurons that was specific to the stimulated subcortical input. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that axonal HFS produces a functional deafferentation of postsynaptic targets likely from depletion of neurotransmitter.
Behavioral Receptive Field for Ocular Following in Humans: Dynamics of Spatial Summation and Center-Surround Interactions
Authors: Barthélemy Frédéric V. , Vanzetta Ivo , Masson Guillaume S.
Published: March 2006

Visual neurons integrate information over a finite part of the visual field with high selectivity. This classical receptive field is modulated by peripheral inputs that play a role in both neuronal response normalization and contextual modulations. However, the consequences of these properties for visuomotor transformations are yet incompletely understood. To explore those, we recorded short-latency ocular following responses in humans to large center-only and center-surround stimuli. We found that eye movements are triggered by a mechanism that integrates motion over a restricted portion of the visual field, the size of which depends on stimulus contrast and increases as a function of time after response onset. We also found evidence for a strong nonisodirectional center-surround organization, responsible for normalizing the central, driving input so that motor responses are set to their most linear contrast dynamics. Such response normalization is delayed about 20 ms relative to tracking onset, gradually builds up over time, and is partly tuned for surround orientation/direction. These results outline the spatiotemporal organization of a behavioral receptive field, which might reflect a linear integration among subpopulations of cortical visual motion detectors.
Bursting of Thalamic Neurons and States of Vigilance
Authors: Llinás Rodolfo R. , Steriade Mircea
Published: March 2006

This article addresses the functional significance of the electrophysiological properties of thalamic neurons. We propose that thalamocortical activity, is the product of the intrinsic electrical properties of the thalamocortical (TC) neurons and the connectivity their axons weave. We begin with an overview of the electrophysiological properties of single neurons in different functional states, followed by a review of the phylogeny of the electrical properties of thalamic neurons, in several vertebrate species. The similarity in electrophysiological properties unambiguously indicates that the thalamocortical system must be as ancient as the vertebrate branch itself. We address the view that rather than simply relays, thalamic neurons have sui generis intrinsic electrical properties that govern their specific functional dynamics and regulate natural functional states such as sleep and vigilance. In addition, thalamocortical activity has been shown to be involved in the genesis of several neuropsychiatric conditions collectively described as thalamocortical dysrhythmia syndrome.
Measurement of Time-Dependent Changes in the Irregularity of Neural Spiking
Authors: Davies Ronnie M. , Gerstein George L. , Baker Stuart N.
Published: March 2006

Irregularity of firing in spike trains has been associated with coding processes and information transfer or alternatively treated as noise. Previous studies of irregularity have mainly used the coefficient of variation (CV) of the interspike interval distribution. Proper estimation of CV requires a constant underlying firing rate, a condition that most experimental situations do not fulfill either within or across trials. Here we introduce a novel irregularity metric based on the ratio of adjacent intervals in the spike train. The new metric is not affected by firing rate and is very localized in time so that it can be used to examine the time course of irregularity relative to an alignment marker. We characterized properties of the new metric with simulated spike trains of known characteristics and then applied it to data recorded from 108 single neurons in the motor cortex of two monkeys during performance of a precision grip task. Fifty-six cells were antidromically identified as pyramidal tract neurons (PTNs). Sixty-one cells (30 PTNs) exhibited significant temporal modulation of their irregularity during task performance with the contralateral hand. The irregularity modulations generally differed in sign and latency from the modulations of firing rate. High irregularity tended to occur during the task phases requiring the most detailed control of movement, whereas neural firing became more regular during the steady hold phase. Such irregularity modulation could have important consequences for the response of downstream neurons and may provide insight into the nature of the cortical code.
Symbolic Cue-Driven Activity in Superior Colliculus Neurons in a Peripheral Visual Choice Task
Authors: Lee Kyoung-Min , Keller Edward L.
Published: March 2006

Recent evidence implicates the superior colliculus (SC) in cognitive processes, such as target selection and control of spatial attention, in addition to the execution of saccadic eye movements. We report here the presence of a cognitive response in some cells in the SC in a task that requires the long-term association of spatial location with an arbitrary color. In this study, using a visual choice response task, we demonstrate that visuomotor neurons in the SC were activated by the appearance of a central symbolic cue delivered outside of the visual response fields of the recorded neurons. This procedure ensures that cognitively generated activity in these SC cells is not confounded with modulation of activity from previous visual stimuli that appeared in the response field of the neurons. The experiments suggest that cognitive signals can activate SC cells by themselves instead of only being able to modulate activities already evoked by visual events. Furthermore, a substantial fraction of these cells accurately reflected cue-aligned target selection in advance of saccade initiation. Our results add further support to other studies that have demonstrated that internally generated signals exist in SC cells.
Right-Lateralized Pain Processing in the Human Cortex: An fMRI Study
Authors: Symonds Laura L. , Gordon Nakia S. , Bixby Jonathan C. , Mande Margaret M.
Published: March 2006

Neuroimaging studies of human pain have revealed a widespread “pain matrix” distributed across both hemispheres of the brain. It is not resolved whether the pain matrix is biased toward one hemisphere, although behavioral and clinical data suggest that pain is perceived differently on the two sides of the body, and several neuroimaging studies suggest that pain processing in some regions of cortex may be lateralized toward the right hemisphere. The current study used fMRI in nine subjects to determine whether acute pain is preferentially processed in one cortical hemisphere. All cortical areas that were activated during the painful simulation were investigated, and several analytic approaches were used to directly compare activated regions to similar regions in the opposite hemisphere. Results indicated that four regions of the cortical pain matrix were activated either contralaterally (somatosensory cortex) or bilaterally (mid/posterior insula, anterior insula, and posterior cingulate). In addition, activation in five cortical regions during acute pain stimulation was localized either exclusively in the right hemisphere or was strongly lateralized to the right. These five areas were in the middle frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus, medial/superior frontal gyri, and inferior parietal lobule. The location of some of these regions is consistent with the idea that there may be a right-lateralized attentional system to alert an organism to an infrequent, but behaviorally relevant, stimulus such as pain.
Head Movements Evoked by Electrical Stimulation in the Frontal Eye Field of the Monkey: Evidence for Independent Eye and Head Control
Authors: Chen L. Longtang
Published: March 2006

When the head is free to move, electrical stimulation in the frontal eye field (FEF) evokes eye and head movements. However, it is unclear whether FEF stimulation-evoked head movements contribute to shifting the line of sight, like visually guided coordinated eye-head gaze shifts. Here we investigated this issue by systematically varying initial eye (IEP) and head (IHP) positions at stimulation onset. Despite the large variability of IEP and IHP and the extent of stimulation-evoked gaze amplitudes, gaze displacement was entirely accounted for by eye (re head) displacement. Overall, the majority (3/4) of stimulation-evoked gaze shifts consisted of eye-alone movements, in which head movements were below the detection threshold. When head movements did occur, they often started late (re gaze shift onset) and coincided with rapid eye deceleration, resulting in little change in the ensuing gaze amplitudes. These head movements often reached their peak velocities over 100 ms after the end of gaze shifts, indicating that the head velocity profile was temporally dissociated from the gaze drive. Interestingly, head movements were sometimes evoked by FEF stimulation in the absence of gaze shifts, particularly when IEP was deviated contralaterally (re the stimulated side) at stimulation onset. Furthermore, head movements evoked by FEF stimulation resembled a subset of head movements occurring during visually guided gaze shifts. These unique head movements minimized the eye deviation from the center of the orbit and contributed little to gaze shifts. The results suggest that head motor control may be independent from eye control in the FEF.
Interneuron and Pyramidal Cell Interplay During In Vitro Seizure-Like Events
Authors: Ziburkus Jokubas , Cressman John R. , Barreto Ernest , Schiff Steven J.
Published: March 2006

Excitatory and inhibitory (EI) interactions shape network activity. However, little is known about the EI interactions in pathological conditions such as epilepsy. To investigate EI interactions during seizure-like events (SLEs), we performed simultaneous dual and triple whole cell and extracellular recordings in pyramidal cells and oriens interneurons in rat hippocampal CA1. We describe a novel pattern of interleaving EI activity during spontaneous in vitro SLEs generated by the potassium channel blocker 4-aminopyridine in the presence of decreased magnesium. Interneuron activity was increased during interictal periods. During ictal discharges interneurons entered into long-lasting depolarization block (DB) with suppression of spike generation; simultaneously, pyramidal cells produced spike trains with increased frequency (6–14 Hz) and correlation. After this period of runaway excitation, interneuron postictal spiking resumed and pyramidal cells became progressively quiescent. We performed correlation measures of cell-pair interactions using either the spikes alone or the subthreshold postsynaptic interspike signals. EE spike correlation was notably increased during interneuron DB, whereas subthreshold EE correlation decreased. EI spike correlations increased at the end of SLEs, whereas II subthreshold correlations increased during DB. Our findings underscore the importance of complex cell-type–specific neuronal interactions in the formation of seizure patterns.
Pleiotropic effects of noveltrans-acting loci influencing human sympathochromaffin secretion
Authors: Greenwood Tiffany A. , Rao Fangwen , Stridsberg Mats , Mahapatra Nitish R. , Mahata Manjula , Lillie Elizabeth O. , Mahata Sushil K. , Taupenot Laurent , Schork Nicholas J. , O’Connor Daniel T.
Published: March 2006

Family studies have suggested a genetic contribution to variation in blood pressure, but the genes responsible have thus far eluded identification. The use of intermediate phenotypes associated with hypertension, such as chromogranin plasma concentrations, may assist the discovery of hypertension-predisposing loci. We measured the concentrations of four chromogranin A (CHGA) and B (CHGB) peptides in 742 individuals from 235 nuclear families. The CHGA- and CHGB-derived peptides displayed significant heritability and revealed significant genetic correlations, most strikingly observed between CHGA361–372(catestatin) and CHGB439–451. A 5-cM microsatellite genome scan revealed significant and suggestive evidence for linkage on several chromosomes for three of the peptides. Subsequent bivariate linkage analysis for peptides CHGA361–372and CHGB439–451, which showed evidence for convergent linkage peaks on chromosomes 2, 7, and 13, resulted in increased evidence for linkage to these regions, suggesting pleiotropic effects of these three loci on multiple chromogranin traits. Because CHGA itself is on chromosome 14q32, and CHGB itself is on chromosome 20pter-p12, the pleiotropic regions on chromosomes 2, 7, and 13 must represent trans-acting quantitative trait loci coordinately affecting CHGA/CHGB biosynthesis and/or exocytotic secretion, likely by regulating efferent sympathetic outflow, a conclusion consistent with the in vitro studies presented here of the dual control of both exocytosis and transcription of these peptides by secretory stimuli in chromaffin cells. The results suggest a new approach to heritable autonomic control of circulation and the genetic basis of cardiovascular diseases such as systemic hypertension.
Involvement of central microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 in IL-1β-induced anorexia
Authors: Pecchi E. , Dallaporta M. , Thirion S. , Salvat C. , Berenbaum F. , Jean A. , Troadec J.-D.
Published: March 2006

In response to infection or inflammation, individuals develop a set of symptoms referred to as sickness behavior, which includes a decrease in food intake. The characterization of the molecular mechanisms underlying this hypophagia remains critical, because chronic anorexia may represent a significant health risk. Prostaglandins (PGs) constitute an important inflammatory mediator family whose levels increase in the brain during inflammatory states, and their involvement in inflammatory-induced anorexia has been proposed. The microsomal PGE synthase (mPGES)-1 enzyme is involved in the last step of PGE2 biosynthesis, and its expression is stimulated by proinflammatory agents. The present study attempted to determine whether an upregulation of mPGES-1 gene expression may account for the immune-induced anorexic behavior. We focused our study on mPGES-1 expression in the hypothalamus and dorsal vagal complex, two structures strongly activated during peripheral inflammation and involved in the regulation of food intake. We showed that mPGES-1 gene expression was robustly upregulated in these structures after intraperitoneal and intracerebroventricular injections of anorexigenic doses of IL-1β. This increase was correlated with the onset of anorexia. The concomitant reduction in food intake and central mPGES-1 gene upregulation led us to test the feeding behavior of mice lacking mPGES-1 during inflammation. Interestingly, IL-1β failed to decrease food intake in mPGES-1−/− mice, although these animals developed anorexia in response to a PGE2 injection. Taken together, our results demonstrate that mPGES-1, which is strongly upregulated during inflammation in central structures involved in feeding control, is essential for immune anorexic behavior and thus may constitute a potential therapeutic target.
Discovery of eight novel divergent homologs expressed in cattle placenta
Authors: Larson Joshua H. , Kumar Charu G. , Everts Robin E. , Green Cheryl A. , Everts-van der Wind Annelie , Band Mark R. , Lewin Harris A.
Published: March 2006

Ten divergent homologs were identified using a subtractive bioinformatic analysis of 12,614 cattle placenta expressed sequence tags followed by comparative, evolutionary, and gene expression studies. Among the 10 divergent homologs, 8 have not been identified previously. These were named as follows: cattle cerebrum and skeletal muscle-specific transcript 1 ( CSSMST1), cattle intestine-specific transcript 1 ( CIST1), hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 1 amino-terminal domain-containing protein ( HAVCRNDP), prolactin-related proteins 8, 9, and 11 ( PRP8, PRP9, and PRP11, respectively) and secreted and transmembrane protein 1A and 1B ( SECTM1A and SECTM1B, respectively). In addition, two previously known divergent genes were identified, trophoblast Kunitz domain protein 1 ( TKDP1) and a new splice variant of TKDP4. Nucleotide substitution analysis provided evidence for positive selection in members of the PRP gene family, SECTM1A and SECTM1B. Gene expression profiles, motif predictions, and annotations of homologous sequences indicate immunological and reproductive functions of the divergent homologs. The genes identified in this study are thus of evolutionary and physiological importance and may have a role in placental adaptations.
Microarray analysis of gene expression: considerations in data mining and statistical treatment
Authors: Verducci Joseph S. , Melfi Vincent F. , Lin Shili , Wang Zailong , Roy Sashwati , Sen Chandan K.
Published: March 2006

DNA microarray represents a powerful tool in biomedical discoveries. Harnessing the potential of this technology depends on the development and appropriate use of data mining and statistical tools. Significant current advances have made microarray data mining more versatile. Researchers are no longer limited to default choices that generate suboptimal results. Conflicting results in repeated experiments can be resolved through attention to the statistical details. In the current dynamic environment, there are many choices and potential pitfalls for researchers who intend to incorporate microarrays as a research tool. This review is intended to provide a simple framework to understand the choices and identify the pitfalls. Specifically, this review article discusses the choice of microarray platform, preprocessing raw data, differential expression and validation, clustering, annotation and functional characterization of genes, and pathway construction in light of emergent concepts and tools.
An Approach for Calculation of Turbulent Transfer Coefficient for Momentum inside Vegetation Canopies
Authors: Mihailovic D. T. , Lalic B. , Eitzinger J. , Malinovic S. , Arsenic I.
Published: March 2006

A method for calculating the profile of turbulent transfer coefficient for momentum inside a vegetation canopy for use in land surface schemes is presented. It is done through the following steps. First, an equation for the turbulent transfer coefficient for momentum inside a vegetation canopy using the “sandwich” approach for its representation is derived. Second, it is examined analytically to determine whether its solution is always positive. Third, the equation for the turbulent transfer coefficient is solved numerically, using an iterative procedure for calculating the attenuation factor in the expression for the wind speed inside a vegetation canopy that is assumed to be a linear combination of an exponential function and a logarithmic function. The proposed method is tested using 1) the observations for the wind profiles in a Japanese larch plantation and a pine forest and 2) the outputs for surface fluxes and total soil water content obtained by the Land–Air Parameterization Scheme (LAPS) with the forcing data and observations in a soybean field at the Caumont site in France during the 1986 growing season. Also, a test is performed that compares the proposed method with the method for calculating the turbulent transfer coefficients for momentum inside a vegetation canopy commonly used in land surface schemes.
On the Influence of Assumed Drop Size Distribution Form on Radar-Retrieved Thunderstorm Microphysics
Authors: Brandes Edward A. , Zhang Guifu , Sun Juanzhen
Published: March 2006

Polarimetric radar measurements are used to retrieve drop size distributions (DSD) in subtropical thunderstorms. Retrievals are made with the single-moment exponential drop size model of Marshall and Palmer driven by radar reflectivity measurements and with a two-parameter constrained-gamma drop size model that utilizes reflectivity and differential reflectivity. Results are compared with disdrometer observations. Retrievals with the constrained-gamma DSD model gave better representation of total drop concentration, liquid water content, and drop median volume diameter and better described their natural variability. The Marshall–Palmer DSD model, with a fixed intercept parameter, tended to underestimate the total drop concentration in storm cores and to overestimate significantly the concentration in stratiform regions. Rainwater contents in strong convection were underestimated by a factor of 2–3, and drop median volume diameters in stratiform rain were underestimated by 0.5 mm. To determine possible DSD model impacts on numerical forecasts, evaporation and accretion rates were computed using Kessler-type parameterizations. Rates based on the Marshall–Palmer DSD model were lower by a factor of 2–3 in strong convection and were higher by about a factor of 2 in stratiform rain than those based on the constrained-gamma model. The study demonstrates the potential of polarimetric radar measurements for improving the understanding of precipitation processes and microphysics parameterization in numerical forecast models.
A Simple, Efficient Solution of Flux–Profile Relationships in the Atmospheric Surface Layer
Authors: Pleim Jonathan E.
Published: March 2006

This note describes a simple scheme for analytical estimation of the surface-layer similarity functions from state variables. What distinguishes this note from the many previous papers on this topic is that this method is specifically targeted for numerical models in which simplicity and economic execution are critical. In addition, it has been in use in a mesoscale meteorological model for several years. For stable conditions, a very simple scheme is presented that compares well to the iterative solution. The stable scheme includes a very stable regime in which the slope of the stability functions is reduced to permit significant fluxes to occur, which is particularly important for numerical models in which decoupling from the surface can be an important problem. For unstable conditions, simple schemes generalized for varying ratios of aerodynamic roughness to thermal roughness (z0/z0h) are less satisfactory. Therefore, a simple scheme has been empirically derived for a fixed z0/z0h ratio, which represents quasi-laminar sublayer resistance.