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The mechanism of hetero-synaptic interaction based on spatiotemporal intracellular calcium dynamics.
No full textIn recent physiological experiments focusing on synaptic plasticity, it is shown that synaptic modifications induced at one synapse are accompanied by hetero-synaptic changes at neighbor sites (Bi, 2002). These evidences imply that the hetero-synaptic interaction plays an important role in reconfiguration of synaptic connections to form and maintain functional neural circuits (Takahashi et al., 2012). Although the mechanism of the interaction is still unclear, some physiological studies suggest that the hetero-synaptic interaction could be caused by propagation of intracellular calcium signals (Nishiyama et al., 2000). Concretely, a spike-triggered calcium increase initiates calcium ion propagation along a dendrite through activation of molecular processes at neighboring sites. Here we hypothesized that the mechanism of the hetero-synaptic interaction was based on the intracellular calcium signaling, which is regulated by interactions between NMDA receptors (NMDARs), voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) and Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) on endoplasmic reticulum (ER). To assess realizability of the hypothesized interaction mechanism, we simulated intracellular calcium dynamics at a cellular level, using the computational model that integrated the model of intracellular calcium dynamics (Keizer and Levine, 1996) and the multi-compartment neuron model (Poirazi et al., 2003). Using the proposed computational model, we induced calcium influxes at a local site in postsynaptic dendrite by controlling the spike timings of pre- and postsynaptic neurons. As a result, synchronized calcium influxes through NMDARs and VDCCs caused calcium release from ER. According to the phase plane analysis, RyR-mediated calcium release occurred when the calcium concentration in cytoplasm sufficiently increased under the condition of a high calcium concentration in ER. An NMDAR-mediated calcium influx was slow and persistent, consequently responsible for maintaining a high calcium concentration in ER. In contrast, a VDCC-mediated calcium influx was rapid and transient so that it contributed to rapid increase in calcium the concentration in cytoplasm. Taken together, it was found that calcium concentration exhibited a supralinear increase when a presynaptic spike preceded a postsynaptic one. The calcium ions released from ER diffused along cytoplasm and then activated RyRs at neighboring sites. Thus cascades of RyR activation along a dendrite contributed to propagation of calcium pulses. The range of calcium propagation was 10-100 micrometers and depended on dendritic locations because the spatial distribution of VDCC expression was not homogeneous along a dendrite. According to the experimental evidences that the outcome of synaptic plasticity depends on postsynaptic calcium concentration, it was suggested that the RyR-regulated calcium propagation could serve as the mechanism of the hetero-synaptic interaction
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Ryanodine-receptor-driven intracellular calcium dynamics underlying spatial association of synaptic plasticity
No full textAbstract Synaptic modifications induced at one synapse are accompanied by hetero-synaptic changes at neighboring sites. In addition, it is suggested that the mechanism of spatial asso-ciation of synaptic plasticity is based on intracellular calcium signaling that is mainly regulated by two types of receptors of endoplasmic reticulum calcium store: the ryanodine receptor (RyR) and the inositol triphosphate receptor (IP3R). However, it is not clear how these types of receptors regulate intracellular calcium flux and contribute to the outcome of calcium-dependent synaptic change. To understand the relation between the synaptic association and store-regulated calcium dynamics, we focused on the function of RyR calcium regulation and simulated its behavior by using a computational neuron model. As a result, we observed that RyR-regulated calcium release depended on spike timings of pre- and postsynaptic neurons. From the induction site of calcium release, the chain activation of RyRs occurred, and spike-like calcium increase propagated along the dendrite. For calcium signaling, the propagated calci-um increase did not tend to attenuate; these characteristics came from an all-or-none behavior of RyR-sensitive calcium store. Considering the role of calcium dependent synaptic plasticity, the results suggest that RyR-regulated calcium propagation in-duces a similar change at the synapses. However, according to the dependence of RyR calcium regulation on the model parameters, whether the chain activation of RyRs occurred, sensitively depended on spatial expression of RyR and nominal fluctuation of calcium flux. Therefore, calcium regulation of RyR helps initiate rather than relay calcium propagation
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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