Neurophysiological responses to stressful motion and anti-motion sickness drugs as mediated by the limbic system

Performance is characterized in terms of attention and memory, categorizing extrinsic mechanism mediated by ACTH, norepinephrine and dopamine, and intrinsic mechanisms as cholinergic. The cholinergic role in memory and performance was viewed from within the limbic system and related to volitional influences of frontal cortical afferents and behavioral responses of hypothalamic and reticular system efferents. The inhibitory influence of the hippocampus on the autonomic and hormonal responses mediated through the hypothalamus, pituitary, and brain stem are correlated with the actions of such anti-motion sickness drugs as scopolamine and amphetamine. These drugs appear to exert their effects on motion sickness symptomatology through diverse though synergistic neurochemical mechanisms involving the septohippocampal pathway and other limbic system structures. The particular impact of the limbic system on an animal's behavioral and hormonal responses to stress is influenced by ACTH, cortisol, scopolamine, and amphetamine

Thermodynamics and kinetics of the sulfation of porous calcium silicate

The sulfation of plasma sprayed calcium silicate in flowing SO2/air mixtures at 900 and 1000 C was investigated thermogravimetrically. Reaction products were analyzed using electron microprobe and X-ray diffraction analysis techniques, and results were compared with thermodynamic predictions. The percentage, by volume, of SO2 in air was varied between 0.036 and 10 percent. At 10 percent SO2 the weight gain curve displays a concave downward shoulder early in the sulfation process. An analytical model was developed which treats the initial process as one which decays exponentially with increasing time and the subsequent process as one which decays exponentially with increasing weight gain. At lower SO2 levels the initial rate is controlled by the reactant flow rate. At 1100 C and 0.036 percent SO2 there is no reaction, in agreement with thermodynamic predictions

Computer programs for the interpretation of low resolution mass spectra: Program for calculation of molecular isotopic distribution and program for assignment of molecular formulas

Two FORTRAN computer programs for the interpretation of low resolution mass spectra were prepared and tested. One is for the calculation of the molecular isotopic distribution of any species from stored elemental distributions. The program requires only the input of the molecular formula and was designed for compatability with any computer system. The other program is for the determination of all possible combinations of atoms (and radicals) which may form an ion having a particular integer mass. It also uses a simplified input scheme and was designed for compatability with any system

Measurements of long-lived cosmogenic nuclides in returned comet nucleus samples

Measurements of long lived cosmic ray produced radionuclides have given much information on the histories and rates of surface evolution for meteorites, the Moon and the Earth. These nuclides can be equally useful in studying cometary histories and post nebular processing of cometary surfaces. The concentration of these nuclides depends on the orbit of the comet (cosmic ray intensity changes with distance from the sun), the depth of the sampling site in the comet surface, and the rate of continuous evolution of the surface (erosion rate of surface materials). If the orbital parameters and the sampling depth are known, production rates of cosmogenic nuclides can be fairly accurately calculated by theoretical models normalized to measurement on lunar surface materials and meteoritic samples. Due to the continuous evaporation of surface materials, it is expected that the long lived radioactivities will be undersaturated. Accurate measurements of the degree of undersaturation in nuclides of different half-lives allows for the determination of the rate of surface material loss over the last few million years

A Model for the Stray Light Contamination of the UVCS Instrument on SOHO

We present a detailed model of stray-light suppression in the spectrometer channels of the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) on the SOHO spacecraft. The control of diffracted and scattered stray light from the bright solar disk is one of the most important tasks of a coronagraph. We compute the fractions of light that diffract past the UVCS external occulter and non-specularly pass into the spectrometer slit. The diffracted component of the stray light depends on the finite aperture of the primary mirror and on its figure. The amount of non-specular scattering depends mainly on the micro-roughness of the mirror. For reasonable choices of these quantities, the modeled stray-light fraction agrees well with measurements of stray light made both in the laboratory and during the UVCS mission. The models were constructed for the bright H I Lyman alpha emission line, but they are applicable to other spectral lines as well.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, Solar Physics, in pres

Neurochemical background and approaches in the understanding of motion sickness

The problems and nature of space motion sickness were defined. The neurochemical and neurophysiological bases of vestibular system function and of the expression of motion sickness wre reviewed. Emphasis was given to the elucidation of the neuropharmacological mechanisms underlying the effects of scopolamine and amphetamine on motion sickness. Characterization of the ascending reticular activating system and the limbic system provided clues to the etiology of the side effects of scopolamine. The interrelationship between central cholinergic pathways and the peripheral (autonomic) expression of motion sickness was described. A correlation between the stress of excessive motion and a variety of hormonal responses to that stress was also detailed. The cholinergic system is involved in the efferent modulation of the vestibular hair cells, as an afferent modulator of the vestibular nuclei, in the activation of cortical and limbic structures, in the expression of motion sickness symptoms and most likely underscores a number of the hormonal changes that occur in stressful motion environments. The role of lecithin in the regulation of the levels of neurotransmitters was characterized as a possible means by which cholinergic neurochemistry can be modulated

Model experiments to evaluate vortex dissipation devices proposed for installation on or near aircraft runways

The effectiveness of various vortex dissipation devices proposed for installation on or near aircraft runways is evaluated on basis of results of experiments conducted with a 0.03-scale model of a Boeing 747 transport aircraft in conjunction with a simulated runway. The test variables included type of vortex dissipation device, mode of operation of the powered devices, and altitude, lift coefficient and speed of the generating aircraft. A total of fifteen devices was investigated. The evaluation is based on time sequence photographs taken in the vertical and horizontal planes during each run

Volatile products in the corrosion of Cr, Mo, Ti and four superalloys exposed to O2 containing H2O and gaseous NaCl

Cooled target collection techniques were used to study the formation of volatile products when samples of Cr, Ti, IN-738, 713C, NASA-TRW VIA and B-1900 were exposed, at elevated temperatures, to oxidizing environments containing H2O(g) and NaCl(g). Samples were heated to 1050 C in one atmosphere of slowly flowing oxygen, saturated with water at 21 C, and containing about 50 ppm NaCl(g). Volatile products were detected for all materials except B-1900 and Ti. High pressure mass spectrometric sampling was used to directly identify volatile products emanating from samples of Cr and IN-738 subject to the above environments

Formation of Na2SO4 and K2SO4 in flames doped with sulfur and alkali chlorides and carbonates

High pressure, free-jet expansion, mass spectrometric sampling was used to identify directly and to measure reaction products formed in doped methane-oxygen flames. Flames were doped with SO2 or CH3SH and sodium or potassium chlorides or carbonates. Gaseous NA2SO4 or K2S04 molecules were formed in residence times on the order of msec for each combination of dopants used. Composition profiles of combustion products were measured and compared with equilibrium thermodynamic calculations of product composition

Gaseous sodium sulfate formation in flames and flowing gas environments

Formation of Na2SO4(g) in flames and hot flowing gas systems was studied by high pressure, free-jet expansion, modulated molecular beam mass spectrometric sampling. Fuel-lean CH4-O2 flames doped with SO2, H2O and NaCl yielded the gaseous Na2SO4 molecule in residence times of less than one millisecond. Intermediate species NaSO2(g) and NaSO3(g) were also observed and measured. Composition profiles were obtained for all reaction products. Nonflame flowing gas experiments showed that Na2SO4 and NaSO3 gaseous molecules were formed at 1140 C in mixtures of O2, H2O(g), SO2 and NaCl(g). Experimental results are compared with calculated equilibrium thermodynamic predictions