Antidepressant suppression of REM and spindle sleep impairs hippocampus-dependent learning and memory but fosters striatal-dependent strategies

REM sleep enhances hippocampus-dependent associative memory but has little impact on striatal-dependent procedural learning. Antidepressant medications like desipramine (DMI) inhibit rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep but it is little understood how antidepressant treatments affect learning. We found that DMI strongly suppressed REM sleep in rats for several hours and impaired reconsolidation of a familiar maze and consolidation of moved baited positions (reversal learning) in a sleep-dependent fashion. Unexpectedly, DMI also reduced the spindle-rich transition-to-REM sleep state (TR) and spatial memory changes were more related to TR than to REM sleep. Working memory was unaffected, but overnight reference memory was significantly impaired and subjects increased reliance on non-hippocampal strategies. Procedural memory performance was positively correlated with increases in non-REM sleep after DMI serving to offset memory declines, partially preserving performance. Our results suggest that familiar memories are re-consolidated during REM sleep, reversal memories consolidated during TR, and procedural memories consolidated during non-REM sleep

Locating and Total Dominating Sets in Trees.

A set S of vertices in a graph G=(V,E) is a total dominating set of G if every vertex of V is adjacent to some vertex in S. In this thesis, we consider total dominating sets of minimum cardinality which have the additional property that distinct vertices of V are totally dominated by distinct subsets of the total dominating set

Exploring the Relationship Between Orpda and Teachers\u27 Conceptual Understanding of Place Value

The purpose of this case study was to understand whether or not the use of an invented number system, called Orpda, helped teachers develop a deeper understanding of place value in hopes that this will translate into their own teaching of place value concepts. Thirteen teachers enrolled in a graduate mathematics education course served as the participants for this study. Data were collected from teachers’ reflections on various activities related to Orpda, pre- and post-Orpda concept maps teachers created, online discussions between the teachers, teacher demographic sheets, and an interview with the instructor of the course. Analysis of the teachers\u27 reflections revealed that Orpda increased teachers’ attention to three critical components necessary for developing a conceptual understanding of place value, namely unitizing, regrouping, and recognizing the meaning of different place values within a multi-digit number. In addition, Orpda encouraged teachers to reflect on their own teaching of place value. Comparing the structures of the teachers\u27 pre-Orpda and post-Orpda concept maps showed changes in some cases but did not reveal clear patterns. Analysis of the categories teachers included in pre- and post-Orpda maps revealed that teachers were moving from a procedural to a more conceptual view of place value, as did the analysis of squared adjacency matrices created from each teacher\u27s pre- and post-Orpda concept maps. Four conclusions can be drawn from this study: (a) Orpda increased teachers\u27 attention to the importance of unitizing in place value, (b) Orpda encouraged teachers to reflect deeply on their thinking, (c) Concept maps show promise for revealing and documenting changes in conceptual understanding, and (d) Orpda increased teachers\u27 attention to the importance of patterns in understanding place value. Further research is needed using Orpda with different groups and numbers of teachers, and in different settings, e.g., longer full semesters and teacher professional development meetings. Research exploring the use of follow-up interviews to accompany concept maps and enhance the assessment of conceptual understanding is also recommended. This study indicates two recommendations for practice in teacher education, the importance of a classroom environment that supports reflection, and the careful choosing of activities to provide appropriate challenge

Hope as a Journey: An Ethnographic Study of the Phenomenon of Hope as Experienced by Hindu and Christian Members of the Indian Diaspora in the Metropolitan Chicago Area

This research explores hope in the lives of Indian diaspora in the US. through the ethnographic lens of qualitative research. Using participant observation, visual methods and interviewing, an 18-month study was focused on the experience of hope in the lives and reflections of Hindu and Christian Indian diaspora in and around Chicago. Through this research, this ethnographic data portrays hope as a journey over a chasm where vectors of influence converge and must be negotiated. The ethnographic accounts of hope in the lives of the Hindu and Christian diaspora suggest three main foci of hope in the population studied: the hope to be accepted, the hope to make a contribution and the hope to be true to oneself. Through the ethnographic narratives explored in three thematic chapters, this study presents new data and analyses on the roles of women in transmitting cultural and religious tradition to the next generation, on South Asian Christians in the US diaspora, and it offers “close attention” to the Indian diaspora as called for in recent literature on South Asian Diaspora

Homeowner Preference for Household-level Flood Mitigation in US: Analysis of a Discrete Choice Experiment

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a portfolio of flood risk mitigation options for high-risk homeowners, hoping to reduce flood damages. Buyout (home acquisition) and home retrofit (e.g., home elevation) are candidates available to homeowners. FEMA has recently amended and increased its buyout efforts. This study examines homeowners’ stated preference for buyout and home elevation contracts using survey data. Results indicate multiple factors influence the decision to participate in home acquisition and elevation programs. Importantly, we find that preferences vary with the timing (whether the contract is offered before or after a damage event) of the contract offered.ECU/Cambridge Open Access Publishing Agreemen

New indium Lewis acids for catalysis

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Ex-vivo perfusion bioassay : an excellent technique to measure the bioactivity of inhalable insulin coated microcrystals

Purpose: To measure the bioactivity of inhalable insulin coated microcrystals using a perfusion bioassay that measures its vasodilatory effect on smooth muscle arterial tissue. Methods: The bioactivity of an insulin protein coated microcrystal (PCMC), a potential candidate for pulmonary drug delivery and commercial insulin was determined on a Danish Myo Tech P110 pressure myograph system. 12 week old Mesenteric resistance arteries from Male Wistar rats were isolated and immersed in a physiological salt solution (PSS) and attached to 2 opposing hollow glass micro-cannula (outer diameter 80 microns). The PSS was gradually warmed to 37°C (at a pressure less than 5mm Hg) for 1hr. Subsequently the pressure was increased up to 40mm Hg over a period 15 minutes and equilibrated for a further 15 minutes after gassing with 95%O2 / 5%CO2 to achieve a pH of 7.4 at 37°C. After normalisation by two washes of 123mM KCl and exposure to 1-10mM noradrenaline the arteries were exposed intraluminally to each insulin preparation by gradual infusion directly into the lumen via a fetal microcannulae inserted to the tip of the glass mounting cannula, at a constant pressure. Results: The preliminary results (full cummulative response curve yet to be determined) demonstrate insulin mediated relaxation to noradrenaline preconstriction. The level of constriction drops from 100% to 42% as the concentration of insulin increases from -11 to -9 Log M for the PCMC compared with a drop from 100 % to 65% for the commercial insulin preparation. However the more potent vasodilatory effect found for the insulin PCMC is more likely to be a result of variance introduced in each dilution step than a real increase in potency. Conclusion: The perfusion bioassay technique provides an excellent method of measuring insulin bioactivity and indicates the insulin loaded on the microcrystal support is fully active

Stomatal Biology of CAM Plants.

Recent advances in the stomatal biology of CAM plants are reviewed, and key opportunities for future progress are identified.Natural Environment Research Council (Grant ID: 1359020

Scaling Up Local Food Sourcing: a Multi-Campus Farm to College Pilot (2015)

Presented at the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium Conference