INTRINSIC AND SYNAPTIC MECHANISMS CONTROLLING THE EXCITABILITY OF LAYER 5 CORTICOCALLOSAL AND CORTICOCOLLICULAR NEURONS IN AUDITORY CORTEX

Auditory cortex (AC) layer (L) 5B contains both corticocollicular neurons, a type of pyramidal-tract neuron projecting to the inferior colliculus, and corticocallosal neurons, a type of intratelencephalic neuron projecting to contralateral AC. It is known that these neuronal types display dichotomous in vivo responses to sound. While corticocollicular neurons display robust evoked responses to wide range of sound frequencies, corticocallosal neurons are responsive to a limited range of sound frequencies. However, the intrinsic and synaptic mechanisms shaping these dichotomous responses remain unexplored. It is also known that corticocollicular neurons are critical for learning-induced plasticity involved in relearning sound localization after monaural occlusion. This learning induced-plasticity also requires the release of acetylcholine (ACh) in the AC. However, the effect of ACh release on the excitability of corticocollicular neurons is unknown. Therefore, we recorded in brain slices of mouse AC from retrogradely labeled corticocollicular and neighboring corticocallosal neurons in L5B to identify the intrinsic and synaptic mechanisms that contribute to the in vivo responses of these neurons to sound, and to examine the effect of ACh release on corticocollicular and corticocallosal neurons to identify cell-specific mechanisms that enable corticocollicular neurons to participate in relearning sound localization. In comparison to corticocallosal neurons, corticocollicular neurons display a more depolarized resting membrane potential, faster action potentials and less spike frequency adaptation. In paired recordings between single L2/3 and labeled L5B neurons, trains of EPSCs showed no synaptic depression in L2/3→corticocollicular connections, but substantial depression in L2/3→corticocallosal connections. We propose that these differences in intrinsic and synaptic properties contribute to the dichotomous in vivo responses of corticocallosal and corticocollicular neurons to sound. Additionally, ACh release generates nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)-mediated depolarizing potentials in both corticocallosal and corticocollicular neurons, but muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR)-mediated hyperpolarizing potentials in corticocallosal neurons and mAChR-mediated prolonged depolarizing potentials in corticocollicular neurons. This prolonged mAChR-mediated depolarizing potential leads to persistent firing in corticocollicular neurons, whereas corticocallosal neurons lacking this prolonged mAChR-mediated depolarizing potential do not fire persistently. We propose that this mAChR-mediated persistent firing in corticocollicular neurons may be a mechanism required for relearning sound localization after monaural occlusion

A Commentary on Perceived Need from Indian Perspective

The current Indian health –care scenario is overwhelmed not only with burden of diseases but also with quality of care and expenditures.  The structure of this paper is interwoven around a storyline about a patient and narrations of the active actors involved in the journey of illness including patient himself. The narrations are followed by a commentary as an attempt to decipher the deeper meaning of narration from the population perspectives. The essential aim of this exercise is to establish the necessity of generalist care from a qualitative view-point in Indian context

Perceptual analysis of women on tubectomy and other family planning services: a qualitative study

Background: In our country India, Population explosion has become a major concern to all. As per NHFS 3 report, in MP 44.3%, adopted the female sterilization other methods like male sterilization 1.3%, Intrauterine devices 0.7% and pills users were 1.7%, condom 4.8%. The study probed into the reasons of female sterilization as the method of choice and to know ideas of other temporary contraceptives and male sterilization.  Methods: In the study qualitative technique was adopted to understand the perception of participants. FGD’s and in-depth interviews were conducted with residents of Ratua village between Nov 2011 - April 2012 to explore the gaps. 52 women participated in the study. They were between 20-40 years, married and had children.Results: The interview transcripts were thematically analysed. All the participants knew tubectomy operation either through health care workers, friends, relatives or media. They thought it as a better and safer way to prevent unwanted pregnancy as compared to temporary ways and male sterilization. Economic incentives were looked up as insufficient motivation for undergoing the procedure. The decision was combined and women had less freedom in decision making. All felt strongly need of having at least one son for the family progression and care provider to them during the old age. They were hesitant to use temporary methods as they had misconceptions about the adverse effects. The male sterilization was unacceptable to all the participant as they thought it causes weakness and would adversely affect the physical work performance of their husband Conclusions: Participants in the study were hesitant to use temporary contraceptive methods for the fear of adverse effects. Multiple approaches to educate and transform their misconceptions of contraceptive methods and male sterilization should be adopted.

Anti-Alzheimer Activity of Hydroalcoholic Extract of Butea monosperma leaves

Objective: The key objective of the study is to evaluate Anti-Alzheimer activity of hydroalcholic extracts of Butea monosperma leaves (BMLE) by streptozotocin induced Alzhemier. Butea monosperma (Lam.) is medium size tree belonging to family Leguminoceae. It is reported to have numerous uses in the indigenous system of medicine in India. Material and Methods: AD was induced by streptozotocin i.e. STZ (3 mg/kg, ICV) day 1st and 3rd day after surgery. Surgery was done on anesthetized rats by the help of stereotaxic apparatus. STZ induced AD rats were treated with ethanolic extracts of Butea monosperma (100 and 200 mg/kg, p.o.) for 14 days. Effect of BMLE in AD rats were assessed by estimating inflexion ratio in EPM and the alteration in the behavior (Y maze apparatus), biochemical parameter in the brain tissue acetylcholinesterase (AchE) . Result: The preliminary phytochemical investigation of BMLE showned the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, saponins, fixed oil, vitamin C, proteins and amino acids.Extracts at dose levels of 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/ kg showed a significant elevation in inflexion ratio in elevated plus maze and elevation in percentage alternation in Y-maze model. A significant decline in brain AChE level was noted in animals treated with extracts in both models. Conclusion: These results suggest that, the Anti-Alzheimer effect of BMLE might be due to enhancement of cholinergic neurotransmission through inhibition of AChE activity. Keywords: Butea monosperma, Streptozotocin, Plus Maze, Y-Maze, Acetylcholinesteras

MEMORY ENHANCING ACTIVITY OF HYDROALCOHOLIC EXTRACT OF TERMINALIA CATAPPA LEAVES

The present study was to evaluate the effect of Terminalia catappa on cognitive functions and cholinesterase (ChE) activity in scopolamine-induced amnesia in rats. The extract of Terminalia catappa was administered orally at three doses (100, 200 and 300 mg/kg) for 7 and 14 consecutive days to the respective groups of rats. Piracetam (120 mg/kg) was used as a standard nootropic agent. Learning and memory parameters were evaluated using elevated plus maze (EPM) and passive avoidance. Brain cholinesterase activity was evaluated. It was observed that Terminalia catappa at the above- mentioned doses after 7 and 14 days of administration in the respective groups significantly reversed scopolamine (1 mg/kg i.p.)- induced amnesia, as evidenced by a decrease in the transfer latency in the EPM task and step-down latency in the passive avoidance task. Terminalia catappa reduced the brain ChE activity in rats.Â

Rateless Codes for Near-Perfect Load Balancing in Distributed Matrix-Vector Multiplication

Large-scale machine learning and data mining applications require computer systems to perform massive matrix-vector and matrix-matrix multiplication operations that need to be parallelized across multiple nodes. The presence of straggling nodes -- computing nodes that unpredictably slowdown or fail -- is a major bottleneck in such distributed computations. Ideal load balancing strategies that dynamically allocate more tasks to faster nodes require knowledge or monitoring of node speeds as well as the ability to quickly move data. Recently proposed fixed-rate erasure coding strategies can handle unpredictable node slowdown, but they ignore partial work done by straggling nodes thus resulting in a lot of redundant computation. We propose a \emph{rateless fountain coding} strategy that achieves the best of both worlds -- we prove that its latency is asymptotically equal to ideal load balancing, and it performs asymptotically zero redundant computations. Our idea is to create linear combinations of the $m$ rows of the matrix and assign these encoded rows to different worker nodes. The original matrix-vector product can be decoded as soon as slightly more than $m$ row-vector products are collectively finished by the nodes. We conduct experiments in three computing environments: local parallel computing, Amazon EC2, and Amazon Lambda, which show that rateless coding gives as much as $3\times$ speed-up over uncoded schemes

Anti Collision Sensor Based Blind Stick

Visually impaired people find difficulties detecting obstacles in front of them, during walking in the street, which makes it dangerous. The smart stick comes as a proposed solution to enable them to identify the world around. In this paper we propose a solution, represented in a smart stick with ultrasonic sensor to detect any other obstacles in front, left and right of the user, within a range of four meters. Moreover, another sensor is placed at the bottom of the stick for the sake of avoiding puddles. The vibration of motor is activated when any obstacle is detected. The blind stick is integrated with ultrasonic sensor along with GPS ampGSM based Navigation/Tracking system. This proposed system uses the microcontroller ATmega 328 embedded system. The stick is capable of detecting all obstacles in the range 4 meter during 39 ms and gives a suitable respect message empowering blind to move twice his normal speed because she/he feels safe. The smart stick is of low cost, fast response, low power consumption, light weight

WOUND HEALING ACTIVITY OF THE HYDRO-ALCOHOLIC EXTRACT OF DATURA STRAMONIUM LEAVES IN WISTAR ALBINO RATS

Datura Stramonium has been known for many potential uses. Leaves of datura are used in herbal medicine especially in case of Ayurveda for asthma and bonesetting. Roasted leaves is applied over the area of relieve pain. Leaves and leaves are used in antiasthematic, antispasmodic, hypnotic & narcotic. The hydro-alcoholic extract of Datura Stramonium leaves were investigated for wound healing potential in rats. Datura Stramonium leaves were dried, crushed in coarse powder hydro-alcoholic extract was obtained and turned to 10% ointment form. In the course of this study, 18 male wistar albino rats weighing approximately 150- 180g were used in this research. Group 1 as control group, Group 2 as reference control were treated topically with Povidone-Iodine Ointment USP, Group3 as test control were treated with 10% Datura Stramonium ointment. Wound healing was monitored on days 4,8,12,16 and histopathological evaluation was carried out on the samples. Leaf extract of Datura Stramonium promotes wound healing via bactericidal activity

Deciphering conversational complexity around a diabetic patient in a web based forum

Web based conversational forums have gained momentum as an aid to clinical decision making. This paper, written in an empirical explanatory manner, attempts to understand the flow of information and the process of sense-making in one such forum (Tabula-rasa) through considering a prototype discussion among participants