Thioflavin T (ThT) is a typical fluorescent marker for detecting the formation of amyloid fibrils, because its fluorescence intensity increases by more than 2 orders of magnitude upon complexation with the fibrils. Strong electrostatic fields on protein surfaces are known to be a significant factor in chemical reactions and biological functions. Therefore, ThT bound to amyloid fibrils must experience strong electric fields. This study employed electroabsorption and Stark fluorescence spectroscopies to clarify the effects of external electric fields on the photophysics of ThT. The absorption spectrum shows two bands ascribed to locally excited (LE) and charge transfer (CT) states. Coupling between the LE and CT states is enhanced in the presence of an external electric field, resulting in fluorescence quenching. The electric field strength of the amyloid fibril surface was inferred from the fluorescence quenching efficiency of ThT.

Background: The neural basis of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) remains unclear. Previous neuroimaging studies suggest that aberrant connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and default mode network (DMN) may play a key role in the pathophysiology of TRS. Thus, we aimed to examine the connectivity between the ACC and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a hub of the DMN, computing isolated effective coherence (iCoh), which represents causal effective connectivity. Methods: Resting-state electroencephalogram with 19 channels was acquired from seventeen patients with TRS and thirty patients with non-TRS (nTRS). The iCoh values between the PCC and ACC were calculated using sLORETA software. We conducted four-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) for iCoh values with group as a between-subject factor and frequency, directionality, and laterality as within-subject factors and post-hoc independent t-tests. Results: The ANOVA and post-hoc t-tests for the iCoh ratio of directionality from PCC to ACC showed significant findings in delta (t45 = 7.659, p = 0.008) and theta (t45 = 8.066, p = 0.007) bands in the left side (TRS < nTRS). Conclusion: Left delta and theta PCC and ACC iCoh ratio may represent a neurophysiological basis of TRS. Given the preliminary nature of this study, these results warrant further study to confirm the importance of iCoh as a clinical indicator for treatment-resistance.

Nanosized antiferromagnets show anomalously large magnetization and superparamagnetism, having complicated magnetic properties due to a competition between core and surface spins in addition to the surface-induced effect, the finite size effect, and the magnetic moment distribution. A significant distribution of magnetic moments, which are responsible for the superparamagnetism, can also exist in real ensembles of nanoparticles, making the analysis of magnetization difficult. It has been a key issue for the understanding of the complicated magnetic property to correctly separate a superparamagnetic component from an antiferromagnetic component that linearly depends on magnetic fields in the observed magnetization. Here, we report the separation of these two components observed in the magnetization of antiferromagnetic NiO nanoparticles by applying the scaling law in the magnetization of superparamagnets. The distribution of the magnetic moment was taken into account without a priori assumption of the distribution function. The magnetic moments causing superparamagnetism had a bimodal distribution with different mean values. The contribution of the two different superparamagnetic components could thus be newly clarified and was ascribed to the uncompensated spins in the core and on the surface. The magnetic structure that leads to the bimodal distribution is discussed in light of the inhomogeneity of the surface structure.

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