Suppression of transmembrane sodium currents on the freshly isolated hippocampal neuron cell with continuous infrared light

Physiotherapeutic effects of infrared lasers have been proved in clinic.These infrared-based regulations of the bioelectrical activities can roughly be classied into enhancement and suppression of action potential(AP),which are described by sodium(Na)and potassium(K)transmembrane current equations,named as Hodgkin and Huxley(HH)-model.The enhancement effect is able to evoke or strengthen the AP when infrared light is applied.Its corresponding mechanism is commonly ascribed to the changes of the cell membrane capacitance,which is transiently increased in response to the infrared radiation.The distinctive feature of the suppression effect is to inhibit or reduce the AP by the designed protocols of infrared radiation.However,its mechanism presents more complexity than that in enhancement cases.HH-model describes how the Na current determines the initial phase of AP.So,the enhancement and suppression of AP can be also ascribed to the regulations of the corresponding Na currents.Here,a continuous infrared light at the wavelength of 980 nm(CIS-980)was employed to stimulate a freshly isolated hippocampal neuron in vitro and a suppression effect on the Na currents of the neuron cell was observed.Both Na and K currents,which are named as whole cell currents,were simultaneously recorded with the cell membrane capacitance current by using a patch clamp combined with infrared irradiation.The results demonstrated that the CIS-980 was able to reversibly increase the capacitance currents,completely suppressed Na currents,but little changed K currents,which forms the steady outward whole cell currents and plays a major role on the AP repolarization.A conrmation experiment was designed and carried out by synchronizing tens of milliseconds of infrared stimulation on the same kinds of hippocampal neuron cells.After the blocked K channel,a reduction of Na current amplitude was still recorded.This proved that infrared suppression of Na current was irrelevant to K channel.A membrane capacitance mediation process was preliminarily proposed to explain the Na channel suppression process.

The study of Seyfert 2 galaxies with and without infrared broad lines

From the literature, we construct a sample of 25 Seyfert 2 galaxies （S2s）with a broad line region （BLR） detected in near infrared （NIR） spectroscopy and 29with NIR BLRs which were not detected. We find no significant difference betweenthe nuclei luminosity （extinction-corrected [OIII] 5007） and infrared color f 60/f25between the two populations, suggesting that the non-detections of NIR BLRs couldnot be due to low AGN luminosity or contamination from the host galaxy. As ex-pected, we find significantly lower X-ray obscurations in Seyfert 2s with NIR BLRdetection, supporting the unification scheme. However, such a scheme was challengedby the detection of NIR BLRs in heavily X-ray obscured sources, especially in sixof them with Compton-thick X-ray obscuration. The discrepancy could be solved bythe clumpy torus model and we propose a toy model demonstrating that IR-thin X-ray-thick S2s could be viewed at intermediate inclinations and compared with thoseIR-thick X-ray-thick S2s. We note that two of the IR-thin X-ray-thick S2s （NGC 1386and NGC 7674） experienced X-ray transitions, i.e. from Compton-thin to Compton-thick appearance or vice versa based on previous X-ray observations, suggesting thatX-ray transitions could be common in this special class of objects.

Mid-to-Far Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies in the Spitzer First Look Survey Field

We made model fitting to the mid-to-far infrared spectral energy distributions （SEDs） for different categories of galaxies in the main extragalactic field of the Spitzer First Look Survey with the aid of spectroscopic information from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that the mid-to-far infrared SEDs of HII galaxies, mixture type galaxies and LINERs can be well fitted by the one-parameter （α） dust model of Dale et al. plus the 13 Gyr dust-free elliptical galaxy model. The statistics of α values indicates that all these galaxies tend to be quiescent, although the HII galaxies are relatively more active than the LINERs. The midinfrared SEDs of absorption galaxies are well fitted simply by the 13 Gyr dust-free elliptical galaxy template, and the near-to-mid infrared SEDs of QSOs can be represented by AGN NGC 5506.

Stellar mass estimation based on IRAC photometry for Spitzer SWIRE-field galaxies

We analyze the feasibility of estimating the stellar mass of galaxies by mid-infrared luminosities based on a large sample of galaxies cross-identified from Spitzer SWIRE fields and the SDSS spectrographic survey.We derived the formulae to calculate the stellar mass by using IRAC 3.6μm and 4.5μm luminosities.The massto-luminosity ratios of IRAC 3.6μm and 4.5μm luminosities are more sensitive to the star formation history of galaxies than to other factors,such as the intrinsic extinction,metallicity and star formation rate.To remove the effect of star formation history,we used g-r color to recalibrate the formulae and obtain a better result.Researchers must be more careful when estimating the stellar mass of low metallicity galaxies using our formulae.Due to the emission from dust heated by the hottest young stars,luminous infrared galaxies present higher IRAC 4.5μm luminosities compared to IRAC 3.6μm luminosities.For most of type-Ⅱ AGNs,the nuclear activity cannot enhance 3.6μm and 4.5μm luminosities compared with normal galaxies.Star formation in our AGNhosting galaxies is also very weak,almost all of which are early-type galaxies.

Soft X-ray Properties of Ultraluminous IRAS Galaxies

We report on the results of cross-correlation of a sample of 903 Ultraluminous IRAS galaxies (ULIRGs) with the ROSAT-All Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue and the ROSAT archived pointing observations. The sample of ULIRGs has been compiled from the recently released PSCz redshift survey. In total, 35 ULIRGs are securely detected by the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and pointing observations, five of which are blazars. The statistical properties of these sources in the soft X-ray band are determined and compared with their properties in other wavebands. We find that the ratio of the soft X-ray to the far-infrared flux spans about five orders of magnitude and reaches Values of about unity. This ratio is a good indicator of the main energy source of ULIRGs. Those with soft X-ray to far-infrared flux exceeding 0.01 are probably powered by accretion onto central supermassive black holes while those with ratios smaller than 0.001 are probably powered by starbursts or other heating processes, or are Compton thick sources. Some ULIRGs have energy contributions from both. This ratio is low for most ULIRGs and hyperluminous infrared galaxies, which explains their low detection rate by ROSAT and ASCA. We also find that some ULIRGs have a similar soft X-ray luminosity vs. temperature relation to that for groups of galaxies and elliptical galaxies, suggesting a common origin of these systems. Our study also reveals a tight correlation between the hardness ratio and the soft X-ray luminosity for Seyfert 1s/QSOs.