Astrocytes Learn to Detect and Signal Deviations From Critical Brain Dynamics.

Astrocytes are nonneuronal brain cells that were recently shown to actively communicate with neurons and are implicated in memory, learning, and regulation of cognitive states. Interestingly, these information processing functions are also closely linked to the brain's ability to self-organize at a critical phase transition. Investigating the mechanistic link between astrocytes and critical brain dynamics remains beyond the reach of cellular experiments, but it becomes increasingly approachable through computational studies.

The 'all comer' Coroflex Please drug-eluting stent registry in Europe and Asia - an overall and transcontinental assessment of the 10-month major adverse cardiac events.

Background: Randomized trials assess the potential of a medical device in well defined indications while "all comer studies" reveal the device performance in the real clinical environment.

Aims: This 'all comers' registry assessed the 10-month outcome of the Coroflex(®) Please drug-eluting stent in Europe and Asia by clinically driven major adverse cardiac events.

Methods: The Coroflex(®) Please Registry was an international, prospective, multicenter registry enrolling patients with symptomatic ischemic heart disease.

2D "soap"-assembly of nanoparticles via colloid-induced condensation of mixed Langmuir monolayers of fatty surfactants.

We describe a new type of colloidal 2D gels formed in mixed Langmuir monolayers of stearic acid and octadecylamine on a surface of gold hydrosol. The adsorption of gold nanoparticles on the mixed monolayer led to an increase of interactions between oppositely charged surfactants giving a "soap" of mixed fatty salt. The observed effect is equivalent to a virtual "cooling" of floating monolayer, which undergoes rapid condensation on a surface of aqueous colloid.