Thermal hydraulics of nuclear reactor as a basis of reactor safety has a very important role in reactor design and control. The thermal-hydraulic analysis provides input data to the reactor-physics analysis, whereas the latter gives information about the distribution of heat sources, which is needed to perform the thermal-hydraulic analysis. In this study single heated channel model as a very f...

We have characterized the conduction and blocking properties of two different chloride channels from brain mitochondrial inner membranes after incorporation into planar lipid bilayers. Our experiments revealed the existence of channels with a mean conductance of 158 ± 7 and 301 ± 8 pS in asymmetrical 200 mM cis/50 mM trans KCl solutions. We determined that the channels were ten times more perme...

The state dependence of Na channel modification by the alkaloid neurotoxin veratridine was investigated with single-channel and whole-cell voltage-clamp recording in neuroblastoma cells. Several tests of whole-cell Na current behavior in the presence of veratridine supported the hypothesis that Na channels must be open in order to undergo modification by the neurotoxin. Modification was use dep...

The ion channel formed by the homologous proteins MEC-4 and MEC-10 forms the core of a sensory mechanotransduction channel in Caenorhabditis elegans. Although the products of other mec genes are key players in the biophysics of transduction, the mechanism by which they contribute to the properties of the channel is unknown. Here, we investigate the role of two auxiliary channel subunits, MEC-2 ...

Introduction Numerous studies have demonstrated the presence of potassium selective channels in membranes of internal organelles. These channels are essential to a large variety of cellular processes including intracellular Ca2+ signaling, protein recycling, charge neutralization and cell protection. In contrast to the sarcoplasmic reticulum where potassium channels have been clearly identified...

Ion channel proteins are universal devices for fast communication across biological membranes. The temporal signature of the ionic flux they generate depends on properties intrinsic to each channel protein as well as the mechanism by which it is generated and controlled and represents an important area of current research. Information about the operational dynamics of ion channel proteins can b...

The patch electrode technique was used to record single channel current pulses in tissue-cultured mouse spinal cord neurons. In agreement with earlier noise studies, channels activated by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), muscimol, and (-)-pentobarbital were found to have equal unit conductances. The kinetics of channel closing were studied by analyzing the distributions of open state lifetimes. ...

Quartz has a dissipation factor of approximately 10(-4), which is an order of magnitude less than that of the best glasses previously used to fabricate patch pipettes; it's dielectric constant of 3.8 is also lower than that of other glasses. On the basis of these electrical characteristics it is expected that patch pipettes pulled from quartz tubing will produce significantly less noise than pi...