Cocaine self-administration in the mouse: A low-cost, chronic catheter preparation

Intravenous drug self-administration is the most valid animal model of human addiction because it allows volitional titration of the drug in the blood based on an individual’s motivational state together with the pharmacokinetic properties of the drug. Here we describe a reliable low-cost mouse self-administration catheter assembly and protocol that that can be used to assess a variety of drugs of abuse with a variety of protocols. We describe a method for intravenous catheter fabrication that allows for efficient and long-lasting intravenous drug delivery. The intravenous catheters remained intact and patent for several weeks allowing us to establish stable maintenance of cocaine acquisition. This was followed by a dose response study in the same mice. For collaborators interested in premade catheters for research please make a request at www.neuro-cloud.net/nature-precedings/pomerenze

Innovative housing policy tools: impact indicators in the NRRP Urban Regeneration Programmes

The topic of indicators as measurers of the effectiveness of urban and housing transformations strongly re-emerge because of the performance approach the funding of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) is based on. Within the NRRP specific programmes, the issue of performance measurability of interventions was managed with the application of different indicators and application methods. The research group had the opportunity to work on the construction of a system of indicators for a national urban regeneration programme, financed within the NRRP. This paper describes the research aimed at the definition of the indicators for evaluating the design proposals applied to the NRRP financed program called PINQuA (Innovative Programme for Housing Quality). The proposed system of indicators proved useful to promote an objective reading of the interventions and to encourage, in the design proposals application, the response to housing quality criteria aimed, among other issues, at improving the cultural condition of the contexts

Synthesis of CO and CO2 Molecules by UV Irradiation of Water Ice-covered Hydrogenated Carbon Grains

We present the results of UV irradiation with Lyα photons of carbon grains with a water ice cap at 11 K. Formation of CO and CO2 molecules takes place during irradiation. An estimation of the formation cross section of these molecules by Lyα photons has been obtained from the intensity increase of their infrared stretching bands as a function of the photon fluence. The fraction of carbon in the grains converted to CO and CO2 by UV photons is 0.06 and 0.05, respectively. The spectral profile of the CO stretching feature and that of the CO2 bending mode indicate a polar environment for these molecules. On the basis of the present laboratory results and those obtained in previous work on ion irradiation of similar samples, it has been possible to estimate the contribution of polar CO and CO2 produced on carbon grains by energetic processing to the observed column densities of these molecules for dense clouds whose visual extinction is known. A significant amount of polar CO and CO2 is produced through the mechanism we have studied. Furthermore, we have found that the laboratory profile of the bending band of CO2 produced on carbon grains is compatible with that observed toward the field star Elias 16

Solid CO_2 in low-mass young stellar objects: Comparison between Spitzer and laboratory spectra

Context. Solid interstellar CO_2 is an abundant component of ice dust mantles. Its ubiquity towards quiescent molecular clouds, as well as protostellar envelopes, has recently been confirmed by the IRS (InfraRed Spectrograph) aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. Although it has been shown that CO_2 cannot be efficiently formed in the gas phase, the CO_2 surface formation pathway is still unclear. To date several CO_2 surface formation mechanisms induced by energetic (e.g., UV photolysis and cosmic ray irradiation) and non-energetic (e.g., cold atom addition) input have been proposed. Aims. Our aim is to investigate the contribution of cosmic ray irradiation to the formation of CO_2 in different regions of the interstellar medium (ISM). To achieve this goal we compared quantitatively laboratory data with the CO_2 bending mode band profile observed towards several young stellar objects (YSOs) and a field star by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Methods. All the experiments presented here were performed at the Laboratory for Experimental Astrophysics in Catania (Italy). The interstellar relevant samples were all irradiated with fast ions (30−200 keV) and subsequently annealed in a stainless steel high vacuum chamber (P < 10^(-7) mbar). Chemical and structural modifications of the ice samples were monitored by means of infrared spectroscopy. Laboratory spectra were then used to fit some thirty observational spectra. Results. A qualitative analysis shows that a good fit can be obtained with a minimum of two components. The choice of the laboratory components is based on the chemical-physical condition of each source. A quantitative analysis of the sources with known visual extinction (A_V) and methanol abundances highlights that the solid carbon dioxide can be efficiently and abundantly formed after ion irradiation of interstellar ices in all the selected YSOs in a time compatible with cloud lifetimes (3 × 10^7 years). Only in the case of field stars can the expected CO_2 column density formed upon energetic input not explain the observed abundances. This result, to be confirmed along the line of sight to different quiescent clouds, gives an indirect indication that CO_2 can also be formed in an early cloud stage through surface reactions induced by non-energetic mechanisms. In a later stage, when ices are exposed to higher UV and cosmic ray doses, the CO_2 total abundance is strongly affected by energetic formation mechanisms. Conclusions. Our results indicate that energetic processing of icy grain mantles significantly contribute to the formation of solid phase interstellar CO_2

Analysis of the Cooling Performance of a Cylindrical Hole Designed for the Suction Side of the LS89 Vane under Transitional Conditions

Thermal performance of film cooling in a transonic high-pressure vane is studied by means of two different turbulence modelling strategies: the γ-ReΘ transition model and the fully turbulent k-ω SST model. Selected test case is the LS89 vane, appropriately modified to include a cylindrical film cooling device. The MUR237 transonic configuration is selected as representative of highly loaded vanes without shocks, with transonic Mach number over the suction side. The specifically designed cooling system is based on the non-dimensional geometrical and operating conditions of the high-pressure transonic MT1 cooled vane. Transition model constants are initially tuned to match the available experimental data for the original (uncooled) configuration. Eventually, results obtained with both models are compared with each other for several jet conditions, showing non-negligible influence of turbulence modelling on flow distribution and mixing between coolant and main-flow

Integrated Near-Infrared Band Strengths of Solid CH4 and Its Mixtures with N2

We studied icy CH4 and its mixtures with N2 (temperature 16-40 K), using near-IR transmittance spectroscopy (1.0-3.6 μm), and monitoring the film growth using interference patterns of two lasers. We measured peak position, full width at half-maximum, and strengths of the methane bands, and density and real refractive index of the icy films. Results confirm and extend but also partially contradict previous studies on similar mixtures. Experimental data can be applied to interpret observations of solar system (trans-Neptunian objects) and interstellar ices, where methane and nitrogen are believed to be present. We predict the optical depths of two methane NIR bands in the line of sight of some dense molecular clouds