Discrimination of Temporally Remote Causal Relations by Pigeons: Effects of Signals that Mediate the Temporal Gaps

The discriminative effect of the response-reinforcer relation may contribute to the change in response rates that occur when reinforcement is delayed. The present study investigated this possibility using a discrete-trials conditional discrimination procedure. Each trial began with a sample component where a variable-interval schedule was assigned either to a left or right key. The key peck that ended the schedule, which served as the sample response, in different conditions initiated delays with a signal fully mediating the delay interval, delays with a signal present only during the first second of the interval, or delays with the absence of signal. The delay in turn was followed by a choice component where one alternative was correct if the sample response had been a left-key response and the other alternative was correct if the sample had been a right-key response. Correct discrimination of the location of the sample response resulted in reinforcement. Accuracy was high with a full signal; slightly lower with a partial, relative to a full, signal; and lowest without a signal. Thus, responses producing delayed reinforcers were detected, but only when a stimulus change accompanied the response. The results parallel the way response rates change when behavior is maintained under a conventional reinforcement schedule as a result of adding delays prior to reinforcement at each type of delay. This suggests a possible role for the discriminative effect of the response-reinforcer relation in the control of behavior by (delayed) reinforcement

Child Sexual Abuse: Development of Psychiatric Disorders and Interventions

Child sexual abuse has become a serious social concern due to the recent report of its higher incidence rate than commonly believed. This form of child abuse has been proposed to bring about adverse effects on children\u27s development since more than one century ago. However, research over past decades reveals that effects of sexual abuse are extremely complex and diverse. Particularly, there appear to be many unclear factors increasing the probability for the development of psychiatric disorders in sexually abused children. The present paper investigated how child sexual abuse creates diversity over the course of the victims\u27 development from multiple perspectives. Then it attempted to find developmentally appropriate interventions for victims existing particular psychiatric symptoms

An experimental analysis of jackpotting

This experiment assessed effects of jackpotting, defined as the delivery of a larger than usual reinforcer, on responding of pigeons maintained by fixed-interval (FI) schedules. In baseline conditions, reinforcer duration was 1-s and all such reinforcers were delivered from the hopper located on the main work panel. During jackpot conditions, a 1-s reinforcer occasionally was replaced by a 7-s reinforcer (jackpot) delivered from a second hopper located at the rear of the chamber. Sham jackpot conditions also were studied. These sham conditions were identical to the jackpot conditions with one exception: A 1-s, instead of 7-s, reinforcer was delivered from the back hopper. Jackpotting occasionally suppressed rather than enhanced FI responding, which seems to contradict descriptions of its effects in the animal-training literature. While the subjects were not key pecking, however, they were inserting their heads into the back hopper. This result suggests that jackpots reinforce the consummatory response, thereby reducing the rate of operant responding. These findings may be related to incentive contrast, reinforcement omission, the concept of surprise in Pavlovian conditioning, response reinstatement, and conditioned emotional responses

Cryogenic measurement of the optical absorption coefficient in sapphire crystals at 1.064(micro)m for the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope

We have applied laser calorimetry to the measurement of optical absorption in mono-crystalline sapphire at cryogenic temperatures. Sapphire is a promising candidate for the mirror substrates of the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope. The optical absorption coefficients of different sapphire samples at a wavelength of 1.064(micro)m at 5K were found to average 90ppm/cm.Comment: 8 pages, accepted to Phys. Lett.

Conduction Effect of Thermal Radiation in a Metal Shield Pipe in a Cryostat for a Cryogenic Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector

A large heat load caused by thermal radiation through a metal shield pipe was observed in a cooling test of a cryostat for a prototype of a cryogenic interferometric gravitational wave detector. The heat load was approximately 1000 times larger than the value calculated by the Stefan-Boltzmann law. We studied this phenomenon by simulation and experiment and found that it was caused by the conduction of thermal radiation in a metal shield pipe.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to Jpn. J. Appl. Phy

Thermal-noise-limited underground interferometer CLIO

We report on the current status of CLIO (Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory), which is a prototype interferometer for LCGT (Large Scale Cryogenic Gravitational-Wave Telescope). LCGT is a Japanese next-generation interferometric gravitational wave detector featuring the use of cryogenic mirrors and a quiet underground site. The main purpose of CLIO is to demonstrate a reduction of the mirror thermal noise by cooling the sapphire mirrors. CLIO is located in an underground site of the Kamioka mine, 1000 m deep from the mountain top, to verify its advantages. After a few years of commissioning work, we have achieved a thermal-noise-limited sensitivity at room temperature. One of the main results of noise hunting was the elimination of thermal noise caused by a conductive coil-holder coupled with a pendulum through magnets.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Wave

Transcriptome Analysis for Cytoprotective Actions of Rebamipide against Indomethacin-Induced Gastric Mucosal Injury in Rats

We have reported that rebamipide, a gastroprotective drug, suppresses indomethacin-induced gastric mucosal injury in humans and rats. However, the mechanisms of the cytoprotective actions of rebamipide have not been fully addressed. In the present study, we determined mRNA expression profile of the gastric mucosa treated with indomethacin in rats, and investigated the cytoprotective effects of rebamipide against indomethacin-induced injury with a high-density oligonucleotide array (Rat Toxicology U34 GeneChip array). Gastric epithelial cells were obtained by laser-assisted microdissection. Data analysis was performed with a GeneChip Operating Software, GeneSpring software 7.0, and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Among 1,031 probes, the expression of 160 probes (15.5%) showed at least 2.0-fold up-regulation (158 probes) and down-regulation (2 probes) 2 h after indomethacin administration in comparison with the vehicle-treated rats. The pathway analysis of the up-regulated 123 probes identified the network with a highly significant score, which consisted of known clusters of cell death, cancer, and endocrine system disorders. We succeeded in listing 10 genes that were up-regulated by the treatment with indomethacin and that were down-regulated by rebamipide, including growth arrest and DNA damage-induced 45α. In conclusion, we demonstrated that cell death, especially apoptosis, pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of indomethacin-induced gastric mucosal injury, and that inhibition of apoptosis-related genes is possibly important for the cytoprotective effect of rebamipide against this injury

Cellular Injury of Cardiomyocytes during Hepatocyte Growth Factor Gene Transfection with Ultrasound-Triggered Bubble Liposome Destruction

We transfected naked HGF plasmid DNA into cultured cardiomyocytes using a sonoporation method consisting of ultrasound-triggered bubble liposome destruction. We examined the effects on transfection efficiency of three concentrations of bubble liposome (1 × 106, 1 × 107, 1 × 108/mL), three concentrations of HGF DNA (60, 120, 180 μg/mL), two insonification times (30, 60 sec), and three incubation times (15, 60, 120 min). We found that low concentrations of bubble liposome and low concentrations of DNA provided the largest amount of the HGF protein expression by the sonoporated cardiomyocytes. Variation of insonification and incubation times did not affect the amount of product. Following insonification, cardiomyocytes showed cellular injury, as determined by a dye exclusion test. The extent of injury was most severe with the highest concentration of bubble liposome. In conclusion, there are some trade-offs between gene transfection efficiency and cellular injury using ultrasound-triggered bubble liposome destruction as a method for gene transfection

ESD Protection Design Optimization Using a Mixed-Mode Simulationand

Abstract -This paper presents a new optimization method of ESD protection design using a mixed-mode ESD simulation with a calibrated model based on DC and TLP characteristics. As a result, the influence of power bus line resistance on ESD protection design is clarified using the calibrated model for each device used in ESD protection circuit. ESD surge flows into an internal circuit easily as the value of the power bus line resistance increases even if the ESD tolerance of a power clamp element is high enough