Neurophysiological modeling of bladder afferent activity in the rat overactive bladder model

The overactive bladder (OAB) is a syndrome-based urinary dysfunction characterized by “urgency, with or without urge incontinence, usually with frequency and nocturia”. Earlier we developed a mathematical model of bladder nerve activity during voiding in anesthetized rats and found that the nerve activity in the relaxation phase of voiding contractions was all afferent. In the present study, we applied this mathematical model to an acetic acid (AA) rat model of bladder overactivity to study the sensitivity of afferent fibers in intact nerves to bladder pressure and volume changes. The afferent activity in the filling phase and the slope, i.e., the sensitivity of the afferent fibers to pressure changes in the post-void relaxation phase, were found to be significantly higher in AA than in saline measurements, while the offset (nerve activity at pressure ~0) and maximum pressure were comparable. We have thus shown, for the first time, that the sensitivity of afferent fibers in the OAB can be studied without cutting nerves or preparation of single fibers. We conclude that bladder overactivity induced by AA in rats is neurogenic in origin and is caused by increased sensitivity of afferent sensors in the bladder wall

Equivalent networks for SAW gratings

An equivalent-network approach is described for the analysis of surface-acoustic-wave gratings. Circuit parameters can be theoretically determined by applying the finite-element method to an infinite array. In this approach, all of the effects of piezoelectric perturbation, mechanical perturbation, and energy storage are taken into account. To show the validity and usefulness of this approach, examples are computed for groove and metallic gratings. Both short and open circuited metallic gratings are treated. For grooves on isotropic and Y-Z LiNbO3 substrates, the dependence of reflection characteristics on groove depth is investigated. For aluminum strips on X-112°Y LiTaO3 34°Y-X quartz, Y-Z LiNbO3, and 128°Y -X LiNbO3 substrates, the dependence on metallization ratio is investigated in detai