Prenatal maternal stress induces visceral hypersensitivity of adult rat offspring through activation of cystathionine-ß-synthase signaling in primary sensory neurons.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder of unknown etiology characterized by widespread, chronic abdominal pain associated with altered bowel movements. Increasing amounts of evidence indicate that stressors presented during gestational periods could have long-term effects on the offspring's tissue structure and function, which may predispose to gastrointestinal diseases. The aim of the present study is to determine whether prenatal maternal stressis a adverse factor affecting gastrointestinal sensitivity and to investigate possible mechanisms underlying prenatal maternal stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity in adult offspring. Prenatal maternal stress was induced in pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats by exposure to heterotypic intermitent stress from gestational day 7 to delivery. Prenatal maternal stress significantly increased visceromotor response to colorectal distention in adult offspring from the age of 6 weeks to 10 weeks. Prenatal maternal stress also enhanced neuronal excitability including depolarization of resting membrane potentials, reduction in rheobase, and an increase in the number of action potentials evoked by 2× and 3× rheobase current stimultion of colon-specific dorsal root ganglion neurons. Prenatal maternal stress remarkably enhanced expression of cystathionine-ß-synthase and Nav1.7 in T13-L2 thoracolumbar dorsal root ganglions both at protein and mRNA levels. Intraperitoneal injection of aminooxyacetic acid, an inhibitor of cystathionine-ß-synthase, attenuated prenatal maternal stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity in a dose-dependent manner. A consecutive seven-day administration of aminooxyacetic acid reversed the hyperexcitability of colon-specific dorsal root ganglion neurons and markedly reduced Nav1.7 expression. These results indicate that the presence of multiple psychophysical stressors during pregnancy is associated with visceral hypersensitivity in offspring, which is likely mediated by an upregualtion of cystathionine-ß-synthase and Nav1.7 expression. Prenatal maternal stress might be a significant contributor to irritable bowel syndrome, and cystathionine-ß-synthase might be a potential target for treatment for chronic visceral hypersensitivity in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Pauli-Rydberg-London potential: an accurate pair potential function for diatomic systems.

Based on a molecular-orbital theory for H2(+), we have proposed and tested a pair potential function form for the diatomic systems. The new form has included the Pauli repulsive term, Rydberg potential, and London inverse-sixth-power energy, and is accurate at all relevant distances and simple enough for practical application in all-atom computer simulations. We find that an "approximate" universal reduced potential curve for strongly and weakly bound diatomic molecules may exist.

Electronic and structural response of nanomaterials to ultrafast and ultraintense laser pulses.

The interaction of materials with ultrafast and ultraintense laser pulses is a current frontier of science both experimentally and theoretically. In this review, we briefly discuss some recent theoretical studies by the present authors with our method of semiclassical electron-radiation-ion dynamics (SERID). In particular, Zhou et al. and Jiang et al. respectively, determined the optimal duration and optimal timing for a series of femtosecond scale laser pulses to excite a specific vibrational mode in a general chemical system. A set of such modes can be used as a "fingerprint" for characterizing a particular molecule or a complex in a solid. One can therefore envision many applications, ranging from fundamental studies to detection of chemical or biological agents. Allen et al. proved that dimers are preferentially emitted during photofragmentation of C60 under an ultrafast and ultraintense laser pulse. For interactions between laser pulses and semiconductors, e.g., GaAs, Si and InSb, besides experimentally accessible optical properties--epsilon(omega) and chi(2)-Allen et al. offered many other indicators to confirm the nonthermal nature of structural changes driven by electronic excitations and occurring during the first few hundred femtoseconds. Lin et al. found that, after the application of a femtosecond laser pulse, excited electrons in materials automatically equilibrate to a Fermi-Dirac distribution within roughly 100 fs, solely because of their coupling to the nuclear motion, even though the resulting electronic temperature is one to two orders of magnitude higher than the kinetic temperature defined by the nuclear motion.

Comparative studies of the trans-cis photoisomerizations of azobenzene and a bridged azobenzene.

Using density-functional-based molecular dynamics simulations, we have performed comparative studies of the trans-cis isomerizations of azobenzene and bridged azobenzene (B-Ab) 5,6-dihydrodibenzo[c,g][1,2]diazocine induced by nπ* electronic excitation. The quantum yields found in our calculations, 45% for the bridged azobenzene versus 25% for azobenzene, are consistent with the experiment. Both isomerization processes involve two steps: (1) Starting from the trans structure, each molecule moves on its S(1) excited-state potential energy surface, via rotation around the NN bond, to an avoided crossing near the S(1)/S(0) conical intersection, where de-excitation occurs. (2) Subsequently, in the electronic ground state, there is further rotation around the NN bond, accompanied by twisting of the phenyl rings around their CN bonds, until the cis geometry is achieved. Because of its lower symmetry and smaller initial CNNC dihedral angle, the bridged azobenzene has a much shorter lifetime for the S(1) excited state, about 30 fs, as compared to about 400 fs for azobenzene. However, we find that the complete isomerizations have approximately the same time scales. Although the bridging feature in trans-B-Ab does not hinder rotation around the NN bond in step 1, it makes twisting of the two phenyl rings around the CN bonds much slower in step 2.

Electronic and photonic properties of doped carbon nanotubes.

The idea of doping carbon nanotubes is attractive since it provides various possibilities for controlling the physical properties of carbon nanotubes. In this review, we have summarized recent progress on the experimental and theoretical studies of carbon nanotubes doped with nonmetals, alkali metals, transition metals, and clusters. The doping effects on the electronic, magnetic, transport, and optical properties of carbon nanotubes are reviewed. The related applications of carbon nanotubes in nanoelectronics, battery, field emission, spintronics, nonlinear optics, and chemical sensors are discussed.

Exact spatiotemporal wave and soliton solutions to the generalized (3+1)-dimensional Schrödinger equation for both normal and anomalous dispersion.

We obtain exact extended traveling-wave and spatiotemporal soliton solutions to the generalized (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equations for both the normal and the anomalous dispersion.

Analytical light bullet solutions to the generalized (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

We obtain exact spatiotemporal periodic traveling wave solutions to the generalized (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation with distributed coefficients. We utilize these solutions to construct analytical light bullet soliton solutions of nonlinear optics.

Universal scaling features of spectroscopic constants for diatomic systems.

Based on a new criterion that was proposed to search for the universality of spectroscopic constants for bound ground-state diatomics [R. H. Xie and P. S. Hsu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 243201 (2006)], we have found universal scaling relations between spectroscopic constants of diatomic systems with s-, p-, and d-type valence-shell constituents. Our study suggests a useful empirical approach for the prediction of molecular spectroscopic constants.

Universal reduced potential function for diatomic systems.

The potential energy functions of 200 diatomic systems, with dissociation energies De ranging from few eV to hundreds of mueV, are well described by a new three-parameter potential energy function. Identification of the evaluated values of a dimensionless quantity, xin=L2/Ln [Ln=(n!De/fn)1/n, a scaled length parameter, and fn, the nth force constant evaluated at the equilibrium internuclear distance Re], is proposed as a reliable criterion to search for the universal scaling features of potentials and spectroscopic constants for bound diatomic systems. Our study suggests a useful approach to predicting future molecular spectroscopic constants.

Simple three-parameter model potential for diatomic systems: from weakly and strongly bound molecules to metastable molecular ions.

Based on a simplest molecular-orbital theory of H(2)(+), a three-parameter model potential function is proposed to describe ground-state diatomic systems with closed-shell and/or S-type valence-shell constituents over a significantly wide range of internuclear distances. More than 200 weakly and strongly bound diatomics have been studied, including neutral and singly charged diatomics (e.g., H(2), Li(2), LiH, Cd(2), Na(2)(+), and RbH(-)), long-range bound diatomics (e.g., NaAr, CdNe, He(2), CaHe, SrHe, and BaHe), metastable molecular dications (e.g., BeH(++), AlH(++), Mg(2)(++), and LiBa(++)), and molecular trications (e.g., YHe(+++) and ScHe(+++)).

Structure, stability, and NMR properties of lower fullerenes C38-C50 and azafullerene C44N6.

A systematic survey of the complete set of isomers of fullerenes C(38), C(40), C(42), C(44), C(46), C(48), C(50) and azafullerene C(44)N(6) is reported. All isomeric structures were optimized using first-principle density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-31G level. The isomeric structures with the lowest energies are C(38):17, C(40):38, C(42):45, C(44):75, C(44):89, C(46):109, C(48):171, and C(50):270. The ground-state structure of the azafullerene C(44)N(6) in the framework of C(50):270 has D(3) symmetry. The (13)C NMR chemical shifts and nucleus-independent chemical shifts (NICS) for the stable isomers of each fullerene are presented.

Optical excitation and absorption spectra of C50Cl10.

C50Cl10 [S. Y. Xie et al., Science 304, 699 (2004)] has been synthesized in large quantities enabling the capture of the labile fullerene C50. In this Communication, we report ab initio calculations on the optical excitation and absorption spectra of C50Cl10. We successfully explain and assign the measured UV-visible absorption spectrum of C50Cl10. The first singlet excitation for C50Cl10 is optically forbidden, and its optical absorption gap is redshifted by 0.6 eV (110 nm) relative to that of C60. We demonstrate that passivating C50 with 10 hydrogen atoms and replacing one Cl in C50Cl10 by one methoxy group lead to 100 nm blueshift and 90 nm redshift of the optical gap predicted for C50Cl10, respectively, suggesting C50 derivatives are suitable for tunable optical applications.

Tailorable acceptor C(60-n)B(n) and donor C(60-m)N(m) pairs for molecular electronics.

Our first-principles calculations demonstrate that C(60-n)B(n) and C(60-m)N(m) can be engineered as the acceptors and donors, respectively, needed for molecular electronics by properly controlling the dopant number n and m in C60. We show that acceptor C48B12 and donor C48N12 are promising components for molecular rectifiers, carbon nanotube-based n-p-n (p-n-p) transistors, and p-n junctions.

Excitations, optical absorption spectra, and optical excitonic gaps of heterofullerenes. I. C60, C59N+, and C48N12: theory and experiment.

Low-energy excitations and optical absorption spectrum of C(60) are computed by using time-dependent (TD) Hartree-Fock, TD-density functional theory (TD-DFT), TD DFT-based tight-binding (TD-DFT-TB), and a semiempirical Zerner intermediate neglect of diatomic differential overlap method. A detailed comparison of experiment and theory for the excitation energies, optical gap, and absorption spectrum of C(60) is presented. It is found that electron correlations and correlation of excitations play important roles in accurately assigning the spectral features of C(60), and that the TD-DFT method with nonhybrid functionals or a local spin density approximation leads to more accurate excitation energies than with hybrid functionals. The level of agreement between theory and experiment for C(60) justifies similar calculations of the excitations and optical absorption spectrum of a monomeric azafullerene cation C(59)N(+), to serve as a spectroscopy reference for the characterization of carborane anion salts. Although it is an isoelectronic analogue to C(60), C(59)N(+) exhibits distinguishing spectral features different from C(60): (1) the first singlet is dipole-allowed and the optical gap is redshifted by 1.44 eV; (2) several weaker absorption maxima occur in the visible region; (3) the transient triplet-triplet absorption at 1.60 eV (775 nm) is much broader and the decay of the triplet state is much faster. The calculated spectra of C(59)N(+) characterize and explain well the measured ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and transient absorption spectra of the carborane anion salt [C(59)N][Ag(CB(11)H(6)Cl(6))(2)] [Kim et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 4024 (2003)]. For the most stable isomer of C(48)N(12), we predict that the first singlet is dipole-allowed, the optical gap is redshifted by 1.22 eV relative to that of C(60), and optical absorption maxima occur at 585, 528, 443, 363, 340, 314, and 303 nm. We point out that the characterization of the UV-vis and transient absorption spectra of C(48)N(12) isomers is helpful in distinguishing the isomer structures required for applications in molecular electronics. For C(59)N(+) and C(48)N(12) as well as C(60), TD-DFT-TB yields reasonable agreement with TD-DFT calculations at a highly reduced cost. Our study suggests that C(60), C(59)N(+), and C(48)N(12), which differ in their optical gaps, have potential applications in polymer science, biology, and medicine as single-molecule fluorescent probes, in photovoltaics as the n-type emitter and/or p-type base of a p-n junction solar cell, and in nanoelectronics as fluorescence-based sensors and switches.