Facilitation of transmitter release at squid synapses

Facilitation is shown to decay as a compound exponential with two time constants (T1, T2) at both giant and non-giant synapses in squid steilate ganglia bathed in solutions having low extracellular calcium concentrations ([Ca++]o). Maximum values of facilitation (F~) were significantly larger, and T1 was significantly smaller in giant than non-giant synapses. Decreases in [Ca++]o or increases in [Mn++]o had variable effects on T1 and F1, whereas decreases in temperature increased T~ but had insignificant effects on/'1. The growth of facilitation during short trains of equal interval stimuli was adequately predicted by the linear summation model developed by Mallart and Martin (1967.J. Physiol. (Lond.). 193: 676-694) for frog neuromuscular junctions. This result suggests that the underlying mechanisms of facilitation are similar in squid and other synapses which release many transmitter quanta.This work was supported by National Science Foundation research grant GB-36949, National Research Council (Canada) and Grass Fellowships to Dr. Charlton, and a National Institutes of Health career award (NS-00070) to Dr. Bittner.Neuroscienc

Clergy work-related psychological health : listening to the Ministers of Word and Sacrament within the United Reformed Church in England

Drawing on the classic model of balanced affect proposed by Bradburn (The structure of psychological well-being, Aldine, Chicago, IL, 1969), this study conceptualised poor work-related psychological health in terms of high levels of negative affect in the absence of acceptable levels of positive affect. In order to illuminate self-perceptions of work-related psychological health among a well-defined group of clergy, a random sample of 58 ministers of word and sacrament serving within the west midlands synod of the United Reformed Church in England completed an open-ended questionnaire concerned with the following six guiding questions. Do you enjoy your work? How would you define stress? How would you define burnout? What stresses are there in your ministry? What do you do to keep healthy? What can the church do to enhance the work-related psychological health of ministers? Content analysis highlighted the main themes recurring through these open-ended responses. The conclusion is drawn that ministers of word and sacrament within the United Reformed Church in England are exposed to a number of recurrent recognisable sources of stress. Suggestions are advanced regarding the need for future more detailed research and for the development of more effective pastoral strategies

Humanitarian Concerns and Deportation Orders Under the Immigration Act 2009: Are International Obligations Enough Protection for the Immigrant with Mental Illness?

New Zealand has long prided itself as a champion for human rights within the international community. At the same time, local immigration laws have been tightened and long-standing recognition of the rights of migrants has been eroded. One sub-class of migrants, and the focus of this article, are migrants suffering from a mental illness. This article addresses the narrow question of rights accorded these individuals under the Immigration Act 2009 in light of New Zealand's long-standing international human rights obligations. The article questions the protection afforded an individual facing deportation under this Act in light of statutory changes that no longer require an immigration officer to issue a justification for issuing an order of deportation and argues, in light of this legislative change, that a "hard look" standard of review is required if the judiciary is to continue to have any meaningful role in ensuring executive compliance with international obligations

Two-dimensional batch linear programming on the GPU

This paper presents a novel, high-performance, graphical processing unit-based algorithm for efficiently solving two-dimensional linear programs in batches. The domain of two-dimensional linear programs is particularly useful due to the prevalence of relevant geometric problems. Batch linear programming refers to solving numerous different linear programs within one operation. By solving many linear programs simultaneously and distributing workload evenly across threads, graphical processing unit utilization can be maximized. Speedups of over 22 times and 63 times are obtained against state-of-the-art graphics processing unit and CPU linear program solvers, respectively