17,951 research outputs found

    GABAC receptors: a novel receptor family with unusual pharmacology

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    GABAC-receptor channels constitute a novel class of structurally defined receptors that are composed by the recently discovered r-subunits. They conduct chloride ions, are insensitive to both bicuculline and baclofen, and are blocked by picrotoxin. They are present in the hippocampus during development and in the retina where they play a crucial role in regulating visual processing. </jats:p

    Strata-Title legislation and the impacts on homelessness

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    There are drawbacks to the way in which we build that are likely to lead to a significant spike in rental prices and place pressure on the lower end of the accommodation market, with possible increases in homelessness. Buildings age with time and as buildings age, accommodation prices fall within those buildings. Changes to strata-title laws which impact apartment buildings will are mooted that will increase the ease with which termination of strata schemes (those that cover apartment buildings) occurs. Proponents of strata termination say that it will increase the number of properties available in the long term as urban regeneration occurs. However, these will primarily be at the higher end of the accommodation market while in the short term, the number of affordable properties will continue to fall

    Whole Cell and Single Channel Properties of a New GABA Receptor Transiently Expressed in the Hippocampus.

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    1. The patch-clamp technique was used to characterize, in acutely dissociated CA3 rat hippocampal neurons, the whole cell and single channel properties of a novel response to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) present only during a restricted period of postnatal development. 2. At postnatal days 0-10 (P0-P10), both GABA (100 microM) and isoguvacine (50 microM) evoked at a holding potential of -50 mV, in symmetrical chloride solution, whole cell inward currents. Bicuculline blocked the response to isoguvacine but only reduced the response to GABA (from 512 +/- 137 pA to 60 +/- 13 pA, mean +/- SE). After P12, bicuculline abolished the response to GABA. 3. The bicuculline-insensitive GABA currents were Cl- mediated and antagonized by picrotoxin. The desensitization rate was slower than the conventional bicuculline-sensitive response. The peak to plateau ratio induced by 0.1 or 1 mM of GABA shifted from 4.6 +/- 0.4 and 17.7 +/- 2.6 to 1.5 +/- 0.1 and 3.1 +/- 0.5 in the absence or in the presence of bicuculline, respectively. The recovery from desensitization was significantly faster for the bicuculline-insensitive responses. 4. In excised outside-out patches, GABA (20 microM) activated, in the presence of bicuculline (100 microM), single channel currents having conductances of 14, 22, and 31 pS. These values were similar to those obtained in the same preparation, in the absence of bicuculline. 5. These findings suggest that this new receptor type, which mediates bicuculline-insensitive responses with slow kinetics, may potentiate the depolarizing action of GABA during a critical period of postnatal development and therefore play a crucial role in synaptogenesis. </jats:p

    Seabed foraging by Antarctic krill: Implications for stock assessment, bentho-pelagic coupling, and the vertical transfer of iron

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    A compilation of more than 30 studies shows that adult Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) may frequent benthic habitats year-round, in shelf as well as oceanic waters and throughout their circumpolar range. Net and acoustic data from the Scotia Sea show that in summer 2-20% of the population reside at depths between 200 and 2000 m, and that large aggregations can form above the seabed. Local differences in the vertical distribution of krill indicate that reduced feeding success in surface waters, either due to predator encounter or food shortage, might initiate such deep migrations and results in benthic feeding. Fatty acid and microscopic analyses of stomach content confirm two different foraging habitats for Antarctic krill: the upper ocean, where fresh phytoplankton is the main food source, and deeper water or the seabed, where detritus and copepods are consumed. Krill caught in upper waters retain signals of benthic feeding, suggesting frequent and dynamic exchange between surface and seabed. Krill contained up to 260 nmol iron per stomach when returning from seabed feeding. About 5% of this iron is labile, i.e., potentially available to phytoplankton. Due to their large biomass, frequent benthic feeding, and acidic digestion of particulate iron, krill might facilitate an input of new iron to Southern Ocean surface waters. Deep migrations and foraging at the seabed are significant parts of krill ecology, and the vertical fluxes involved in this behavior are important for the coupling of benthic and pelagic food webs and their elemental repositories

    Regressive modifications of climbing fibres following Purkinje cell degeneration in the cerebellar cortex of the adult rat

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    The role of postsynaptic neurons in the maintenance of adult terminal axon arbours was investigated in the rat olivocerebellar system. The degeneration of Purkinje cells, the main target of olivary axons in the cerebellar cortex, was obtained by intraparenchymal application of kainate. The structural features of target-deprived climbing fibres, visualized by Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin tracing, were examined from two days to six months after the lesion. Following the degeneration of its Purkinje cell, the climbing fibre underwent remarkable regressive modifications involving the disappearance of most of the terminal arborization. Never the less, atrophic arbours still spanned through the molecular layer six months after the lesion. Morphometric evaluations showed that, one week after kainate application, total arbour length was already reduced to 52% of control, whereas the number of branches and of varicosities had both dropped around 40%. This retraction process progressed in the following stages to reach its maximum at about one month after the lesion, when total length was 30% of control and only 10% of branches and varicosities were still present. Only a slight tendency to a further decrease of the values could be detected at longer survival times. Branching pattern analysis revealed that such regressive phenomena mainly involved the distal compartment of the climbing fibres, the one made of fine varicose branchlets, while sparing the proximal thick branches. In addition, the whole process appeared to follow some rather strict guiding principles leading to an ordered branch retraction, from the periphery of the arbour inwards. Finally, in order to rule out the possibility that the observed changes could be due to a direct action of kainate on climbing fibres, we designed an alternative method of killing Purkinje cells by intraparenchymal injection of propidium iodide. The structural features of climbing fibres deprived of their target by such a procedure were very similar to those shown by arbours from time-matched kainate-lesioned animals at both qualitative and quantitative levels. Our results show that target deprivation induces remarkable structural modifications in the climbing fibre, leading to the retraction of most of the arbour. Never the less, the integrity of the Purkinje cell is not necessary for the maintenance of the whole arborization since its proximal compartment is maintained in the molecular layer for several months after target degeneration. It is proposed that the Purkinje cell, most likely by acting through a contact factor, directly controls the formation and the maintenance of the distal climbing fibre branches with their varicosities, which represent the presynaptic compartment of the axonal arbour
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