Transient elevations of intracellular Ca2+ play an important role in regulating the sensitivity of olfactory transduction, but such elevations have not been demonstrated in the olfactory cilia, which are the site of primary odor transduction. To begin to understand Ca2+ signaling in olfactory cilia, we used high-resolution imaging techniques to study the Ca2+ transients that occur in salamander...

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels are critical components of the vertebrate visual transduction cascade involved in converting light-induced changes in intracellular cGMP concentrations into electrical signals that can be interpreted by the brain as visual information. To characterize regulatory mechanisms capable of altering the apparent ligand affinity of cone channels, we have expressed...

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) and hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-regulated (HCN) ion channels play crucial physiological roles in phototransduction, olfaction, and cardiac pace making. These channels are characterized by the presence of a carboxyl-terminal cyclic nucleotide-binding domain (CNBD) that connects to the channel pore via a C-linker domain. Although cyclic nucleotide b...

Activation of photoreceptor and olfactory cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels involves distinct ligand-binding and channel-gating reactions. To dissociate binding from gating, we identified the first competitive antagonists of CNG channels: specific phosphorothioate derivatives of cAMP and cGMP. We also identified membrane-permeant forms of these molecules that are antagonists and that will ...

This study aims to introduce and discuss contextual Neural Gas (CNG), a variant of the Neural Gas algorithm, which explicitly accounts for spatial dependencies within spatial data. The main idea of the CNG is to map spatially close observations to neurons, which are close with respect to their rank distance. Thus, spatial dependency is incorporated independently from the attributes of the data ...

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) evaluated the performance of diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), and hybrid electric (equipped with BAE Systems’ HybriDrive propulsion system) transit buses at New York City Transit (NYCT). CNG, Gen I and Gen II hybrid electric propulsion systems were compared on fuel economy, maintenance and operating costs per mile, and reliability. These comp...

the preparation of air–fuel mixture is considerably dependent on fluid flow dynamics to achieve improved performance, efficiency, and engine combustion in the appearance of flow. in this study, the effects of mixtures of hydrogen and compressed natural gas (cng) on a spark ignition engine are numerically considered. this article presents the results of a direct-injection engine using methane–hy...

By Gucan Dai, Ph.D. Washington State University May, 2014 Chair: Michael D. Varnum Photoreceptor cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels are critical for converting light inputs into electrical signals that are ultimately processed as visual information. However, it is not well understood how exactly photoreceptor CNG channels are regulated. Since the first study showing the direct activation of...

Cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (cng channels) in the sensory membrane of olfactory receptor cells, activated after the odorant-induced increase of cytosolic cAMP concentration, conduct the receptor current that elicits electrical excitation of the receptor neurons. We investigated properties of cng channels from frog and rat using inside-out and outside-out membrane patches excised from isola...

Sensory transduction in olfactory neurons involves the activation of a cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channel by cAMP. Previous studies identified a CNG channel alpha subunit (CNG2) and a beta subunit (CNG5), which when heterologously expressed form a channel with properties similar but not identical to those of native olfactory neurons. We have cloned a new type of CNG channel beta subunit (CNG...