Quantum transients are temporary features of matter waves before they reach a stationary regime. Transients may arise after the preparation of an unstable initial state or due to a sudden interaction or a change in the boundary conditions. Examples are diffraction in time, buildup processes, decay, trapping, forerunners or pulse formation, as well as other phenomena recently discovered, such as...

Growth cones of cortical axons pause for many hours in preparation for axon branching. They become large and complex compared with small advancing growth cones. We wanted to investigate whether calcium transients regulate the advance of mammalian CNS growth cones. We found that spontaneous calcium transients in developing cortical neurons have characteristic patterns, frequencies, and amplitude...

Calcium ions are known to play an important role in epileptogenesis. Although there is clear evidence for increased neuronal calcium influx during epileptiform potentials, direct measurements of the corresponding intracellular calcium transients are rare and the origin of calcium influx is not known. Therefore the spatial and temporal distribution of intracellular calcium transients during epil...

Spontaneous calcium oscillations in mushroom bodies of late stage pupal and adult Drosophila brains have been implicated in memory consolidation during olfactory associative learning (Rosay et al. 2001). The present study explores the cellular mechanisms regulating calcium dynamics in Kenyon cells, principal neurons in mushroom bodies. Fura-2 imaging demonstrates that Kenyon cells cultured from...

Oxytocin-induced Ca(2+) transients play an important role in myometrial contractions. Here, using a knockout model, we found that the enzyme CD38, responsible for the synthesis of the second messenger cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR), plays an important role in the oxytocin-induced Ca(2+) transients and contraction. We also observed that CD38 is necessary for TNF-alpha-increased agonist-stimulated Ca(...

Migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) is a key event in the formation of neointima during atherosclerosis. Fura-2 loaded VSMCs were used to investigate calcium homeostasis during cell migration. Multiple spontaneous transient increases in cytosolic free calcium [Ca(2+)](i)were observed in single human VSMCs migrating on type I collagen. Such [Ca(2+)](i)transients were dependent on th...

How often do bright optical transients occur on the sky but go unreported? To constrain the bright end of the astronomical transient function, a systematic search for transients that become bright enough to be noticed by the unaided eye was conducted using the all-sky monitors of the Night Sky Live network. Two fisheye continuous cameras (CONCAMs) operating over three years created a data base ...

[1] To investigate the possible physical mechanisms of recently observed aseismic slip events in the Cascadia, Japan and Mexico subduction zones, we apply a Dieterich-Ruina rate and state friction law to a three dimensional model of a shallow subduction fault. That is loaded by imposed steady plate slip rate far downdip along the thrust interface. Friction properties are temperature and hence d...

We used fura-2 video imaging to characterize two Ca2+ influx pathways in mouse thymocytes. Most thymocytes (77%) superfused with hypoosmotic media (60% of isoosmotic) exhibited a sharp, transient rise in the concentration of intracellular free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i). After a delay of approximately 70 s, these swelling-activated [Ca2+]i (SWAC) transients reached approximately 650 nM from resting levels ...

Thompson, Michael, Hosana Barata da Silva, Weronika Zielinska, Thomas A. White, Jeffrey P. Bailey, Frances E. Lund, Gary C. Sieck, and Eduardo N. Chini. Role of CD38 in myometrial Ca transients: modulation by progesterone. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 287: E1142–E1148, 2004. First published August 31, 2004; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00122.2004.—Oxytocin-induced Ca transients play an important role i...