Optogenetics Applications for Treating Spinal Cord Injury

Cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) are increasing all over the world; and in USA alone, there are 273,000 patients, which not only leads to morbidity and mortality but also results in a great economic burden. Many approaches are being used at the pre-clinical and clinical level to treat SCI including therapeutic agents, surgical decompression, stem cell therapy etc. Recently, a new approach called optogenetics has emerged in which light sensitive proteins are used to switch neurons on and off, and this approach has great potential to be used as therapy due to its specificity and rapid response in milliseconds. Few animal studies have been performed so far in which the respiratory and bladder function of rats was restored through the use of optogenetics. On the basis of promising results obtained, in the future, this approach can prove to be a valuable tool to treat patients with SCI

Classification of outdoor areas to environmental zones in terms of obtrusive light

Import 05/08/2014Tato diplomová práce je zaměřena na problematiku při zatříďování venkovních prostorů do environmentálních zón z pohledu rušivého světla. Energetická vyspělost společnosti dnes umožňuje pro bezpečnost obyvatel během celých nocí osvětlovat silnice či pěší zóny, ale osvětlují se také památky a místa, u kterých by stálo za to se zamyslet, zda je opravdu potřeba na ně během nocí takto plýtvat elektrickou energií. Nejde však pouze o zbytečně spotřebovanou elektrickou energii. Jde především o případné negativní účinky na lidi a celý ekosystém, které venkovní světelné zdroje během nocí způsobují. Hlavním cílem praktické části této diplomové práci je řešit otázku nejrůznějších úskalí a kompromisů při přiřazování odpovídající environmentální zóny městu Studénce. Toto město skýtá několik zajímavých překážek pro správnou volbu environmentální zóny, které souvisí především s jeho polohou. Po přezkoumání všech kritérií a konečném zařazení města Studénky do odpovídající environmentální zóny práce pokračuje vytvořením návrhu nové osvětlovací soustavy pro fotbalový stadion v tomto městě, a to za předpokladu dodržení normativních požadavků podle předcházejícího zatřídění Studénky.The focus of this thesis deals with the proposal of environmental zones in outdoor areas as it relates to lighting. In these areas where public safety is not an issue, an energy conservation program could be considered. Not only should the unnecessary consumption of electricity be accounted for when deciding illumination requirements, but also the possible negative affects on humans and the entire ecosystem at night time, outdoor lighting may cause. From this perspective, an important aspect of this work is the different normative requirements for the correct classification of the sites in defined environmental zones. Knowledge and data is applied when recommending a specific environmental zone classification, while keeping in sight the isssues from the perspective of the Czech Republic and the concerns of the municipal significance for the city or town. The main goal of the practical part of this thesis is to address the issues of various difficulties and compromises in assigning the appropriate environmental zones of Studenka city. Mainly due to its location, this city offers some interesting obstacles when deciding the most reasonable selection of environmental zones. After reviewing all of the criteria and assigning final classifications for the zones in Studenka city, corresponding environmental work continues by creating a proposal for a new lighting system for the football stadium in the city while continuing compliance with the standards of the previous classification of Studenka.410 - Katedra elektroenergetikyvýborn

Biodiversity, drug discovery, and the future of global health:Introducing the biodiversity to biomedicine consortium, a call to action

First paragraph: Looking to nature for medicine is nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years and although modern pharmaceutical science has come a long way from those ancient roots, nature is and will always be an important source of useful compounds and inspiration. Dismissing nature in this regard is a huge mistake as evolution is the greatest problem solver and the myriad compounds produced by the immense variety of species we share the planet with have been honed by three billion years of trial and error. However, with every bit of habitat that disappears under the plough or concrete we impoverish nature and deprive ourselves of potential medicines.Additional co-authors: Uttam Babu Shrestha, Milica Pešić, Alexander Kagansk

Biodiversity, drug discovery, and the future of global health: Introducing the biodiversity to biomedicine consortium, a call to action

Looking to nature for medicine is nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years and although modern pharmaceutical science has come a long way from those ancient roots, nature is and will always be an important source of useful compounds and inspiration. Dismissing nature in this regard is a huge mistake as evolution is the greatest problem solver and the myriad compounds produced by the immense variety of species we share the planet with have been honed by three billion years of trial and error. However, with every bit of habitat that disappears under the plough or concrete we impoverish nature and deprive ourselves of potential medicines

Mouse Ability to Perceive Subjective Contours

In contrast to the previously held notion that mice have a weak visual system, it is now generally accepted that mice can perceive rather complicated figures in various contexts such as in cognitive experiments and in social settings. Here, we show that mice could even be capable of perceiving a visual illusion-subjective contours. This illusion requires the visual system to compensate for a lack of visual information in compressed 2D images on the retina. In this experiment, we trained mice to respond appropriately to a rectangle-shaped rewarded figure of specific orientation in a two-choice visual discrimination task with a touchscreen monitor. In Transfer Test 1, mice could discriminate illusory rectangle-shaped figures significantly as compared with a figure, which did not induce illusory figures. In Transfer Test 2, the choice rate of targets decreased with imperfect illusory figures, which produced weak perception of rotated or deficient inducers. Moreover, in Transfer Test 3, mice could not discriminate the low-resolution illusory figure, which also induced weak perception. These results demonstrated the possibility that mice might be useful for investigating fundamental properties of the neural visual system

Auditory-induced response in the primary sensory cortex of rodents.

The details of auditory response at the subthreshold level in the rodent primary somatosensory cortex, the barrel cortex, have not been studied extensively, although several phenomenological reports have been published. Multisensory features may act as neuronal representations of links between inputs from one sensory modality to other sensory modalities. Here, we examined the basic multisensory postsynaptic responses in the rodent barrel cortex using in vivo whole-cell recordings of neurons. We observed robust responses to acoustic stimuli in most barrel cortex neurons. Acoustically evoked responses were mediated by hearing and reached approximately 60% of the postsynaptic response amplitude elicited by strong somatosensory stimuli. Compared to tactile stimuli, auditory stimuli evoked postsynaptic potentials with a longer latency and longer duration. Specifically, auditory stimuli in barrel cortex neurons appeared to trigger "up states", episodes associated with membrane depolarization and increased synaptic activity. Taken together, our data suggest that barrel cortex neurons have multisensory properties, with distinct synaptic mechanisms underlying tactile and non-tactile responses

問3 単純化しすぎた世界 : 科学のプロフェッショナリズムがもたらす期待と脅威

『といとうとい』Vol.0掲載記事「単純化しすぎた世界 : 科学のプロフェッショナリズムがもたらす期待と脅威」を英語訳したも