Reflections on CERRIE.
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Advisory Committees↗
Biomedical subjects
J A Simmons
Publications and source records attributed to J A Simmons.
Risk of cancer from diagnostic X-rays.
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Humans↗
Oscillatory magnetothermopower and resonant phonon drag in a high-mobility 2D electron gas.
Experimental and theoretical evidence is presented for new low-magnetic-field (B<5 kG) 1/B oscillations in the thermoelectric power of a high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional (2D) electron gas. The oscillations result from inter-Landau-level resonances of acoustic phonons carrying a momentum equal to twice the Fermi wave number at B=0. Numerical calculations show that both 3D and 2D phonons can contribute to this effect.
Journal Article↗
On the linear no-threshold model.
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Humans↗
Echo delay versus spectral cues for temporal hyperacuity in the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus.
Big brown bats can discriminate between echoes that alternate in delay (jitter) by as little as 10-15 ns and echoes that are stationary in delay. This delay hyperacuity seems so extreme that it has been rejected in favor of an explanation in terms of artifacts in echoes, most likely spectral in nature, that presumably are correlated with delay. Using different combinations of digital, analog, and cable delays, we dissociated the overall delay of jittering echoes from the size of the analog component of delay, which alone is presumed to determine the strength of the apparatus artifact. The bats' performance remains invariant with respect to the overall delay of the jittering echoes, not with respect to the amount of analog delay. This result is not consistent with the possible use of delay-related artifacts produced by the analog delay devices. Moreover, both electronic and acoustic measurements disclose no spectral cues or impedance-mismatch reflections in delayed signals, just time-delays. The absence of artifacts from the apparatus and the failure of overlap and interference from reverberation to account for the 10-ns result means that closing the gap between the level of temporal accuracy plausibly explained from physiology and the level observed in behavior may require a better understanding of the physiology.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Resistivity of dilute 2D electrons in an undoped GaAs heterostructure.
We report resistivity measurements from 0.03 to 10 K in a dilute high mobility 2D electron system. Using an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction in a gated field-effect transistor geometry, a wide range of densities, 0.16 x 10(10) to 7.5 x 10(10) cm(-2), are explored. For high densities, the results are quantitatively shown to be due to scattering by acoustic phonons and impurities. In an intermediate range of densities, a peak in the resistivity is observed for temperatures below 1 K. This nonmonotonic resistivity can be understood by considering the known scattering mechanisms of phonons, bulk, and interface ionized impurities. Still lower densities appear insulating to the lowest temperature measured.
Journal Article↗
Zener tunneling between landau orbits in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas.
Magnetotransport in a laterally confined two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) can exhibit modified scattering channels owing to a tilted Hall potential. Transitions of electrons between Landau levels with shifted guiding centers can be accomplished through a Zener tunneling mechanism, and make a significant contribution to the magnetoresistance. A remarkable oscillation effect in weak field magnetoresistance has been observed in high-mobility 2DEGs in GaAs -Al Ga 0.3As (0.7) heterostructures, and can be well explained by the Zener mechanism.
Journal Article↗
New class of magnetoresistance oscillations: interaction of a two-dimensional electron gas with leaky interface phonons.
We report on a new class of magnetoresistance oscillations observed in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in GaAs-Al(x)Ga(1--x)As heterostructures. Appearing in a weak magnetic field ( B < 0.3 T) and only in a narrow temperature range ( 2 K < T < 9 K), these oscillations are periodic in 1/B with a frequency proportional to the electron Fermi wave vector, k(F). We interpret the effect as a magnetophonon resonance of the 2DEG with leaky interface-acoustic phonon modes carrying a wave vector q = 2k(F). Calculations show a few branches of such modes existing on the GaAs-Al(x)Ga(1--)xAs interface, and their velocities are in quantitative agreement with the observation.
Journal Article↗
Syndrome of short stature, widow's peak, ptosis, posteriorly angulated ears, and joint problems: exclusion of the Aarskog (FGD1) gene as a candidate gene.
A syndrome encompassing postnatal onset of short stature, widow's peak, ptosis, posteriorly angulated ears, and limitation of forearm supination is reported in a boy and his mother. The boy has not yet experienced dislocation of patella or other joint anomaly except for limitation of supination of the forearms. On the other hand, the mother has a milder limitation of supination only on the left arm and is devoid of ptosis. Their condition is reminiscent of that described in the family reported by Kapur et al. [1989: Am. J. Med. Genet. 33: 357-363.], which showed an X-linked dominant mode of inheritance. DNA study on our family using an intragenic polymorphism of the Aarskog syndrome (FGD1) gene and four other adjacent markers convincingly excludes the possibility that their condition could be caused by a mutation of the FGD1 gene. Our family and the family reported by Kapur et al. may suggest segregation of a novel X-linked dominant condition.
Adult↗
Spectral cues and perception of the vertical position of targets by the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus.
Big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) were trained to discriminate between vertical angles subtended by paired beads suspended from fishing line. Bats were rewarded for choosing the smaller of the two angles presented. The difference between the angles was changed systematically using a transformed up-down procedure and the bats' ability to detect the difference was measured at different vertical locations. When the beads were centered at +20 degrees (above the horizon), at 0 degree (the horizon), and at -20 degrees (below the horizon), vertical angle acuity (VAA) was maintained between 2.9 degrees and 4.1 degrees. At more extreme vertical positions both bats showed loss of acuity; when the beads were centered around -40 degrees, VAA was 6.7 degrees or 8.3 degrees and at +40, VAA was worse than 21 degrees (the largest difference tested). When the tragi of both ears were bent down and glued to the side of the face, bats showed severe loss of acuity for beads centered at -20 degrees (VAA 18.3 degrees and 20.1 degrees), but maintained their angle acuity for beads centered at +20 degrees (VAA 3.8 degrees and 4.9 degrees). The results are consistent with the spectral cues created by the filtering of the external ear.
Acoustics↗
Neural responses to overlapping FM sounds in the inferior colliculus of echolocating bats.
The big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, navigates and hunts prey with echolocation, a modality that uses the temporal and spectral differences between vocalizations and echoes from objects to build spatial images. Closely spaced surfaces ("glints") return overlapping echoes if two echoes return within the integration time of the cochlea ( approximately 300-400 micros). The overlap results in spectral interference that provides information about target structure or texture. Previous studies have shown that two acoustic events separated in time by less than approximately 500 micros evoke only a single response from neural elements in the auditory brain stem. How does the auditory system encode multiple echoes in time when only a single response is available? We presented paired FM stimuli with delay separations from 0 to 24 micros to big brown bats and recorded local field potentials (LFPs) and single-unit responses from the inferior colliculus (IC). These stimuli have one or two interference notches positioned in their spectrum as a function of two-glint separation. For the majority of single units, response counts decreased for two-glint separations when the resulting FM signal had a spectral notch positioned at the cell's best frequency (BF). The smallest two-glint separation that reliably evoked a decrease in spike count was 6 micros. In addition, first-spike latency increased for two-glint stimuli with notches positioned nearby BF. The N(4) potential of averaged LFPs showed a decrease in amplitude for two-glint separations that had a spectral notch near the BF of the recording site. Derived LFPs were computed by subtracting a common-mode signal from each LFP evoked by the two-glint FM stimuli. The derived LFP records show clear changes in both the amplitude and latency as a function of two-glint separation. These observations in relation with the single-unit data suggest that both response amplitude and latency can carry information about two-glint separation in the auditory system of E. fuscus.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
The track structures of ionizing particles and their application to radiation biophysics. I. A new analytical method for investigating two biophysical models.
A new approach to the interpretation of the effects of radiation on cells is described, in which sample particle tracks are constructed using a Monte Carlo computer program and the exposure of cellular targets to these tracks is simulated using a second program known as BIOPHYS. Data on the shapes and DNA contents of the cell nuclei are obtained from the literature. It is assumed that the sensitive material is DNA, and that the target is divided into cubes of approximately 2 nm (the diameter of the DNA helix) per side; the numbers of these cubes containing different numbers of ionizations are derived. Two different methods of analysing the output of BIOPHYS are described. In the first, it is assumed that lethality is caused by the occurrence of a number of ionizations equal to or greater than a certain threshold in one cube; in the second method, it is assumed that only two ionizations are required, in different parts of the cube, but that only some fraction of the cube is sensitive. These models have been applied to the interpretation of the variation of radiosensitivity with a linear energy transfer (LET) of spores of Bacillus subtilis exposed wet and dry, and good fits to the published experimental data were obtained using both models. Fits to experimental data for a range of other cell lines will be presented in a second paper.
Bacillus subtilis↗
The track structures of ionizing particles and their application to radiation biophysics. II. Results for various organisms irradiated with protons, deuterons and alpha-particles.
Using knowledge of the track structure generated by ionizing particles together with details of the organisms being irradiated, the application of a new analytical method to two biophysical models to explain the inactivation of cells by radiation has been developed. It is shown that both models are equally successful in predicting experimental results and that good agreement is found with the data for single-strand phage, Bacillus subtilis spores, various strains of Escherichia coli, haploid and diploid yeast, and human diploid fibroblasts. The only significant discrepancy arose with T1-phage, for which a tentative explanation is offered. The differences in inherent radiosensitivity between organisms, after allowance is made for differences in target size, are attributed to differences in enzymatic repair systems and in the packing of the DNA.
Alpha Particles↗
Echo-delay resolution in sonar images of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus.
Echolocating big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) broadcast ultrasonic frequency-modulated (FM) biosonar sounds (20-100 kHz frequencies; 10-50 microseconds periods) and perceive target range from echo delay. Knowing the acuity for delay resolution is essential to understand how bats process echoes because they perceive target shape and texture from the delay separation of multiple reflections. Bats can separately perceive the delays of two concurrent electronically generated echoes arriving as little as 2 microseconds apart, thus resolving reflecting points as close together as 0.3 mm in range (two-point threshold). This two-point resolution is roughly five times smaller than the shortest periods in the bat's sounds. Because the bat's broadcasts are 2,000-4,500 microseconds long, the echoes themselves overlap and interfere with each other, to merge together into a single sound whose spectrum is shaped by their mutual interference depending on the size of the time separation. To separately perceive the delays of overlapping echoes, the bat has to recover information about their very small delay separation that was transferred into the spectrum when the two echoes interfered with each other, thus explicitly reconstructing the range profile of targets from the echo spectrum. However, the bat's 2-microseconds resolution limit is so short that the available spectral cues are extremely limited. Resolution of delay seems overly sharp just for interception of flying insects, which suggests that the bat's biosonar images are of higher quality to suit a wider variety of orientation tasks, and that biosonar echo processing is correspondingly more sophisticated than has been suspected.
Animals↗
Frequency tuning, latencies, and responses to frequency-modulated sweeps in the inferior colliculus of the echolocating bat, Eptesicus fuscus.
Neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of the awake big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, were examined for joint frequency and latency response properties which could register the timing of the bat's frequency-modulated (FM) biosonar echoes. Best frequencies (BFs) range from 10 kHz to 100 kHz with 50% tuning widths mostly from 1 kHz to 8 kHz. Neurons respond with one discharge per 2-ms tone burst or FM stimulus at a characteristic latency in the range of 3-45 ms, with latency variability (SD) of 50 microseconds to 4-6 ms or more. BF distribution is related to biosonar signal structure. As observed previously, on a linear frequency scale BFs appear biased to lower frequencies, with 20-40 kHz overrepresented. However, on a hyperbolic frequency (linear period) scale BFs appear more uniformly distributed, with little overrepresentation. The cumulative proportion of BFs in FM1 and FM2 bands reconstructs a scaled version of the spectrogram of FM broadcasts. Correcting FM latencies for absolute BF latencies and BF time-in-sweep reveals a subset of IC cells which respond dynamically to the timing of their BFs in FM sweeps. Behaviorally, Eptesicus perceives echo delay and phase with microsecond or even submicrosecond accuracy and resolution, but even with use of phase-locked FM and tone-burst stimuli the cell-by-cell precision of IC time-frequency registration seems inadequate by itself to account for the temporal acuity exhibited by the bat.
Animals↗
Mapping of 228 ESTs and 26 genes into an integrated physical and genetic map of human chromosome 17.
We have integrated genetic and physical mapping data for chromosome 17 subdivided into 26 bins, by using a panel of chromosome 17 deletion somatic cell hybrids. One hundred four short tandem repeat and STS markers have been localized into these bins and have enabled the ordering of 288 ESTs and 26 genes, including 142 ESTs that had not been previously sublocalized on chromosome 17. The mapping information of several genetic maps, as well as information obtained by radiation hybrid and STS content mapping of YACs, has been integrated using this hybrid panel. Although existing mapping information for chromosome 17 was generally consistent for many ESTs previously mapped, the map presented here further refines the location of ESTs, as well as demonstrating a number of discrepancies found in the 17q24-q25 region. We attribute these discrepancies to the fact that the current radiation hybrid panels were selected for retention of the thymidine kinase gene at 17q25, as well as to a low concentration of YAC contigs in this region. These data illustrate the benefit of combining multiple mapping techniques to obtain the greatest accuracy. The integration of maps developed by different methods will generate the most accurate genome maps, which may then be used for the generation of large insert clone contigs for chromosome sequencing. Additionally, accurate transcript maps generated by ESTs will greatly speed the isolation of genes linked to disease loci.
Chromosome Mapping↗