Little is known about how the receptive field (RF) properties of ON, OFF, and ON-OFF RGCs mature during this time because of the lack of a reliable and efficient method to classify RGCs into these subtypes. To address this deficiency, we developed an innovative variant of Spike Triggered Covariance (STC) analysis, which we term Spike Triggered Covariance – Non-Centered (STC-NC) analysis. Using a multi-electrode array (MEA), we recorded the responses

of a large population of mouse RGCs to a Gaussian Selonsertib order white noise stimulus. As expected, the Spike-Triggered Average (STA) fails to identify responses driven by symmetric static nonlinearities such as those that underlie ON-OFF center RGC behavior. The STC-NC technique, in contrast, provides an efficient means to identify ON-OFF responses and quantify their RF center sizes accurately. Using this new tool,

we find that RGCs gradually develop sensitivity to focal stimulation after eye opening, that the percentage of ON-OFF center cells decreases with age, and that RF centers of ON and ON-OFF cells become smaller. Importantly, we demonstrate for the first time that neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) regulates the S63845 manufacturer development of physiological properties of ON-OFF center RGCs. Overexpression of NT-3 leads to the precocious maturation of RGC responsiveness and accelerates the developmental decrease of RF center size in ON-OFF cells. In summary, our study introduces STC-NC analysis which successfully identifies subtype RGCs and demonstrates how RF development relates to a neurotrophic driver in the retina.”
“The time-dependent, 2[1/2]-dimensional, FLT3 inhibitor axisymmetric, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) solver, MACH2 has been upgraded to include the effects of nonequilibrium air chemistry in order to properly model weakly ionized flows over high-speed vehicles. The thermochemical model was subjected

to several validation cases such as comparisons to the experimentally deduced shock stand-off distance of nitrogen flow over spheres, the shock stand-off distance of spheres fired into air in a ballistic test facility, and the electron number density on the surface of the Ram-C re-entry experiment. Furthermore, the magnetic induction equation has been upgraded with new verified models that compute the Hall effect, ion slip terms, and an applied axial electric field. Finally, simulations of an idealized MHD electrical power generator are compared with existing analytic solutions, demonstrating the applicability of the improved numerical code to model, analyze and design MHD power generators onboard high-speed vehicles. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.