A benchmark experiment on (208)Pb shows that polarized proton inelastic scattering at very forward angles including 0° is a powerful tool for high-resolution studies of electric dipole (E1) and spin magnetic dipole (M1) modes in nuclei over a broad excitation energy range to test up-to-date nuclear models. The extracted E1 polarizability leads to a neutron skin thickness r(skin) = 0.156(-0.021)(+0.025) fm in (208)Pb derived within a mean-field model [Phys. Rev. C 81, 051303 (2010)], thereby constraining the symmetry energy and its density dependence relevant to the description of neutron stars.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in activity-dependent plasticity of neuronal function and network arrangement. To clarify how BDNF exerts its action, we evaluated the physiological, histological, and biochemical characteristics of cultured hippocampal neurons after long-term treatment with BDNF. Here we show that BDNF facilitates high K(+)-elicited release of GABA but not of glutamate and induces an increase in immunoreactive signals of glutamic acid decarboxylase, a GABA-synthesizing enzyme. The soma size of GABAergic neurons was enlarged in BDNF-treated cultures, whereas the average soma size of all neurons was virtually unchanged. BDNF also upregulated protein levels of GABA(A) receptors but not of glutamate receptors. These data imply that BDNF selectively advances the maturation of GABAergic synapses. However, immunocytochemical analyses revealed that a significant expression of TrkB, a high-affinity receptor for BDNF, was detected in non-GABAergic as well as GABAergic neurons. BDNF also increased to total amount of synaptic vesicle-associated proteins without affecting the number of presynaptic vesicles that can be labeled with FM1-43 after K(+) depolarization. Together, our findings indicate that BDNF principally promotes GABAergic maturation but may also potentially contribute to excitatory synapse development via increasing resting synaptic vesicles.

Scattering of protons of several hundred MeV is a promising new spectroscopic tool for the study of electric dipole strength in nuclei. A case study of 208 Pb shows that at very forward angles J π = 1 − states are strongly populated via Coulomb excitation. A separation from nuclear excitation of other modes is achieved by a multipole decomposition analysis of the experimental cross sections based on theoretical angular distributions calculated within the quasiparticle-phonon model. The B(E1) transition strength distribution is extracted for excitation energies up to 9 MeV, i.e., in the region of the so-called pygmy dipole resonance (PDR). The Coulomb-nuclear interference shows sensitivity to the underlying structure of the E1 transitions, which allows for the first time an experimental extraction of the electromagnetic transition strength and the energy centroid of the PDR.

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The isovector transitions from the ground state (g.s.) of 16 O to the negative parity states in 16 F, i.e., the J π = 0 − g.s., the 0.193 MeV, 1 − state, the 0.424 MeV, 2 − state, the 0.721 MeV, 3 − state, and the 4 − "stretched" state at 6.372 MeV, were studied by using a high resolution 16 O( 3 He,t) 16 F reaction at 140 MeV/nucleon. With the help of high energy resolution, these states were, for the first time, clearly resolved in a charge exchange reaction at an intermediate energy, which favorably excites spin-flip states. Angular distributions of the reaction cross sections were measured in the laboratory frame from 0 • to 14 • . Parameters of phenomenological effective interactions were derived so as to reproduce these angular distributions in distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) calculations. The angular distribution of the 0 − state could be reproduced well at θ c.m. < 10 • . The empirical values, however, are larger by a factor of 2-2.5 in the larger angle region, where the contribution of the so-called "condensed pion field" is expected. The high resolution also enabled the decay widths of these states to be measured.