Generator Power Optimisation for a More-Electric Aircraft by Use of a Virtual Iron Bird

A prodedure is developed to minimise the generator design power within the electric power system of a future more-/ all-electric aircraft. This allows to save weight on the generators and on other equipment of the electic power system. Execution of the optimisation procedure by hand demonstrates the complexity of the problem. An automation of the process shows the capabilities of integrated modelling, simulation and optimisation tools

Influence of acute caffeine on 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in male adult rats and relevance to caffeine-mediated psychopharmacological effects

To further characterize caffeine-mediated psychopharmacological effects, the present study investigated whether acute caffeine (3, 10, 30, 50 mg/kg i.p.) exerted any influence on the emission and features of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), which are thought to index changes involving emotional state, in male adult rats. The results obtained demonstrate that caffeine can trigger modifications in the maximum peak frequency and bandwidth of the 50-kHz range USVs. However, such an effect was not accompanied by a significant elevation in the number of 50-kHz USVs, relative to administration of vehicle. Under the same experimental conditions, acute amphetamine (2 mg/kg i.p.) robustly elevated the number of 50-kHz USVs emitted by rats, although it did not affect the maximum peak frequency and bandwidth of USVs. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative differences in the effects exerted by caffeine and amphetamine on 50-kHz USVs were observed. Taken together, these findings further clarify the features of caffeine-mediated psychopharmacological effects, and may help to elucidate the differences between the central effects of caffeine and those elicited by other psychostimulant

A Safety Analysis via Minimal Path Sets Detection for Object-Oriented Models

A new method is developed that integrates safety analysis with multi-domain object-oriented modelling. This is the contribution aimed by this paper. First, it recaps the basics of object-oriented modelling. Then, a model of a safety relevant aircraft system, a stabiliser trim system, is established using component models from generic libraries that are supplemented with failure behaviour. Next, a generic method is developed that automatically detects the minimal path sets of a technical system based on the corresponding object-oriented model, thus performing a safety analysis. Techniques from graph theory are adopted for computational efficiency and feasibility of the method. The minimal path sets detection method is exemplified by means of the established realistic system model

A Robust and Universal Metaproteomics Workflow for Research Studies and Routine Diagnostics Within 24 h Using Phenol Extraction, FASP Digest, and the MetaProteomeAnalyzer

The investigation of microbial proteins by mass spectrometry (metaproteomics) is a key technology for simultaneously assessing the taxonomic composition and the functionality of microbial communities in medical, environmental, and biotechnological applications. We present an improved metaproteomics workflow using an updated sample preparation and a new version of the MetaProteomeAnalyzer software for data analysis. High resolution by multidimensional separation (GeLC, MudPIT) was sacrificed to aim at fast analysis of a broad range of different samples in less than 24 h. The improved workflow generated at least two times as many protein identifications than our previous workflow, and a drastic increase of taxonomic and functional annotations. Improvements of all aspects of the workflow, particularly the speed, are first steps toward potential routine clinical diagnostics (i.e., fecal samples) and analysis of technical and environmental samples. The MetaProteomeAnalyzer is provided to the scientific community as a central remote server solution at www.mpa.ovgu.de.Peer Reviewe

BDNF val66met polymorphism is associated with modified experience-dependent plasticity in human motor cortex.

Motor training can induce profound physiological plasticity within primary motor cortex, including changes in corticospinal output and motor map topography. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we show that training-dependent increases in the amplitude of motor-evoked potentials and motor map reorganization are reduced in healthy subjects with a val66met polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene (BDNF), as compared to subjects without the polymorphism. The results suggest that BDNF is involved in mediating experience-dependent plasticity of human motor cortex

Alcohol-preferring P rats emit spontaneous 22-28 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations that are altered by acute and chronic alcohol experience

BACKGROUND: Emotional states are often thought to drive excessive alcohol intake and influence the development of alcohol use disorders. To gain insight into affective properties associated with excessive alcohol intake, we utilized ultrasonic vocalization (USV) detection and analyses to characterize the emotional phenotype of selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) rats; an established animal model of excessive alcohol intake. USVs emitted by rodents have been convincingly associated with positive (50-55 kHz frequency-modulated [FM]) and negative (22-28 kHz) affective states. Therefore, we hypothesized that 50-55 and 22-28 kHz USV emission patterns in P rats would reveal a unique emotional phenotype sensitive to alcohol experience. METHODS: 50-55 kHz FM and 22-28 kHz USVs elicited from male P rats were assessed during access to water, 15 and 30% EtOH (v/v). Ethanol (EtOH; n = 12) or water only (Control; n = 4) across 8 weeks of daily drinking-in-the-dark (DID) sessions. RESULTS: Spontaneous 22-28 kHz USVs are emitted by alcohol-naïve P rats and are enhanced by alcohol experience. During DID sessions when alcohol was not available (e.g., "EtOH OFF" intervals), significantly more 22-28 kHz than 50-55 kHz USVs were elicited, while significantly more 50-55 kHz FM than 22-28 kHz USVs were emitted when alcohol was available (e.g., "EtOH ON" intervals). In addition, USV acoustic property analyses revealed chronic effects of alcohol experience on 22-28 kHz USV mean frequency, indicative of lasting alcohol-mediated alterations to neural substrates underlying emotional response. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that acute and chronic effects of alcohol exposure are reflected in changes in 22-28 and 50-55 kHz FM USV counts and acoustic patterns. These data support the notion that initiation and maintenance of alcohol intake in P rats may be due to a unique, alcohol-responsive emotional phenotype and further suggest that spontaneous 22-28 kHz USVs serve as behavioral markers for excessive drinking vulnerability

Technical aspects of an impact acceleration traumatic brain injury rat model with potential suitability for both microdialysis and PtiO2 monitoring

This report describes technical adaptations of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) model-largely inspired by Marmarou-in order to monitor microdialysis data and PtiO2 (brain tissue oxygen) before, during and after injury. We particularly focalize on our model requirements which allows us to re-create some drastic pathological characteristics experienced by severely head-injured patients: impact on a closed skull, no ventilation immediately after impact, presence of diffuse axonal injuries and secondary brain insults from systemic origin...We notably give priority to minimize anaesthesia duration in order to tend to banish any neuroprotection. Our new model will henceforth allow a better understanding of neurochemical and biochemical alterations resulting from traumatic brain injury, using microdialysis and PtiO2 techniques already monitored in our Intensive Care Unit. Studies on efficiency and therapeutic window of neuroprotective pharmacological molecules are now conceivable to ameliorate severe head-injury treatment

Alcohol enhances unprovoked 22-28 kHz USVs and suppresses USV mean frequency in High Alcohol Drinking (HAD-1) male rats

Heightened emotional states increase impulsive behaviors such as excessive ethanol consumption in humans. Though positive and negative affective states in rodents can be monitored in real-time through ultrasonic vocalization (USV) emissions, few animal studies have focused on the role of emotional status as a stimulus for initial ethanol drinking. Our laboratory has recently developed reliable, high-speed analysis techniques to compile USV data during multiple-hour drinking sessions. Since High Alcohol Drinking (HAD-1) rats are selectively bred to voluntarily consume intoxicating levels of alcohol, we hypothesized that USVs emitted by HAD-1 rats would reveal unique emotional phenotypes predictive of alcohol intake and sensitive to alcohol experience. In this study, male HAD-1 rats had access to water, 15% and 30% EtOH or water only (i.e., Controls) during 8 weeks of daily 7-h drinking-in-the-dark (DID) sessions. USVs, associated with both positive (i.e., 50-55 kHz frequency-modulated or FM) and negative (i.e., 22-28 kHz) emotional states, emitted during these daily DID sessions were examined. Findings showed basal 22-28 kHz USVs were emitted by both EtOH-Naïve (Control) and EtOH-experienced rats, alcohol experience enhanced 22-28 kHz USV emissions, and USV acoustic parameters (i.e., mean frequency in kHz) of both positive and negative USVs were significantly suppressed by chronic alcohol experience. These data suggest that negative affective status initiates and maintains excessive alcohol intake in selectively bred HAD-1 rats and support the notion that unprovoked emissions of negative affect-associated USVs (i.e., 22-28 kHz) predict vulnerability to excessive alcohol intake in distinct rodent models

Neural Models of Normal and Abnormal Behavior: What Do Schizophrenia, Parkinsonism, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Depression Have in Common?

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409); National Science Foundation (IRI-97-20333