Bostonia: 1998-1999, no. 1, 3-4

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Bostonia

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

The difference myth

Women are the chatty sex, using three times as many words each day as men. They are society’s great communicators. The verbal parts of their brains are larger than men’s and they are hard-wired for empathy, but they lack a natural ability to reach the top levels of math and science. Men, on the other hand, have brains that are good at understanding systems, and they are adept at acquiring and using power. They are hard-wired to excel at math and science, but lag behind women in reading ability. They talk less and are not naturally inclined toward caring for others. [...] Scientists have turned up some intriguing findings of anatomical differences between the sexes. But we know very little about their real-world effect on how boys and girls behave – meaning that any conclusions based on these findings are premature. (DIPF/Orig.

Men Are From Earth, and So Are Women. It\u27s Faulty Research That Sets Them Apart

Are American college professors unwittingly misleading their students by teaching widely accepted ideas about men and women that are scientifically unsubstantiated? Why is the dominant narrative about the sexes one of difference, even though it receives little support from carefully designed peer-reviewed studies

Lifeprints new patterns of love and work for today's women

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Non-linear relationship between hyperpolarisation and relaxation enables long distance propagation of vasodilatation

Blood flow is adjusted to tissue demand through rapidly ascending vasodilatations resulting from conduction of hyperpolarisation through vascular gap junctions. We investigated how these dilatations can spread without attenuation if mediated by an electrical signal. Cremaster muscle arterioles were studied in vivo by simultaneously measuring membrane potential and vessel diameter. Focal application of acetylcholine elicited hyperpolarisations which decayed passively with distance from the local site, while dilatation spread upstream without attenuation. Analysis of simultaneous recordings at the local site revealed that hyperpolarisation and dilatation were only linearly related over a restricted voltage range to a threshold potential, beyond which dilatation was maximal. Experimental data could be simulated in a computational model with electrotonic decay of hyperpolarisation but imposition of this threshold. The model was tested by reducing the amplitude of the local hyperpolarisation which led to entry into the linear range closer to the local site and decay of dilatation. Serial section electron microscopy and light dye treatment confirmed that the spread of dilatation occurred through the endothelium and that the two cell layers were tightly coupled. Generality of the mechanism was demonstrated by applying the model to the attenuated propagation of dilatation found in larger arteries. We conclude that long distance spread of locally initiated dilatations is not due to a regenerative electrical phenomenon, but rather a restricted linear relationship between voltage and vessel tone, which minimises the impact of electrotonic decay of voltage. Disease-related alterations in endothelial coupling or ion channel expression could therefore decrease the ability to adjust blood flow to meet metabolic demand. © 2011 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2011 The Physiological Society