977 research outputs found
Dopamine receptors gene expression in male rat hippocampus after administration of MDMA (Ecstasy) [La ExpresiĂłn GĂ©nica de Receptores de Dopamina en el Hipocampo de Ratas Macho DespuĂ©s de la AdministraciĂłn de MDMA (Ăxtasis)]
Ecstasy is one of the most popular amusing drugs among young people. Documents indicate some effects of Ecstasy on hippocampus and close relations between dopaminergic functions with reward learning. Therefore, the aim of this study was evaluation of the chronic effects of Ecstasy on memory in male Wistar rats and determination of dopamine receptors' gene expression in hippocampus. Forty adult male Wistar rats randomly distributed in five groups: Control, sham (received 1 ml/kg 0.9 saline) and three experimental groups were: Exp. 1 (2.5 mg/kg), Exp. 2 (5 mg/kg), and Exp. 3 (10 mg/kg) received MDMA intraperitoneally once every 7 days (3 times a day, 3 hours apart) for 4 weeks. Before the first injection animals trained in Shuttle Box memory and tested after the last injection. 24 hours after the final testing, brains of rats were dissected and hippocampus was removed and homogenized. After total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, expression of dopamine receptor genes in the hippocampus determined with Real-Time PCR. Our results showed that 2.5 and 5 mg/kg MDMA-treated groups had memory impairment. Also we found that MDMA increased the mRNA expression of dopamine receptors in hippocampus and the highest increase found in dopamine D1 receptors in the 5 mg/kg experimental group. We concluded that low doses of Ecstasy could increase Dopamine takers gene expression in hippocampus and disorder avoidance memory. But in high doses the increase in Dopamine takers gene expression was not as much as that in low doses and avoidance memory disorder was not observed. © 2015, Universidad de la Frontera. All rights reserved
Quantum Channel AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN High Electron Mobility Transistor
Scaling down the GaN channel in a double heterostructure AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN High
Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) to the thicknesses on the order of or even
smaller than the Bohr radius confines electrons in the quantum well even at low
sheet carrier densities. In contrast to the conventional designs, this Quantum
Channel (QC) confinement is controlled by epilayer design and the polarization
field and not by the electron sheet density. As a result, the breakdown field
at low sheet carrier densities increases by approximately 36% or even more
because the quantization leads to an effective increase in the energy gap. In
addition, better confinement increases the electron mobility at low sheet
carrier densities by approximately 50%. Another advantage is the possibility of
increasing the aluminum molar fraction in the barrier layer because a very thin
layer prevents material relaxation and the development of dislocation arrays.
This makes the QC especially suitable for high-voltage, high-frequency,
high-temperature, and radiation-hard applications.Comment: 7 pages 6 figure
Subwavelength fractional Talbot effect in layered heterostructures of composite metamaterials
We demonstrate that under certain conditions, fractional Talbot revivals can
occur in heterostructures of composite metamaterials, such as multilayer
positive and negative index media, metallodielectric stacks, and
one-dimensional dielectric photonic crystals. Most importantly, without using
the paraxial approximation we obtain Talbot images for the feature sizes of
transverse patterns smaller than the illumination wavelength. A general
expression for the Talbot distance in such structures is derived, and the
conditions favorable for observing Talbot effects in layered heterostructures
is discussed.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Viscous damping of r-modes: Large amplitude saturation
We analyze the viscous damping of r-mode oscillations of compact stars,
taking into account non-linear viscous effects in the large-amplitude regime.
The qualitatively different cases of hadronic stars, strange quark stars, and
hybrid stars are studied. We calculate the viscous damping times of r-modes,
obtaining numerical results and also general approximate analytic expressions
that explicitly exhibit the dependence on the parameters that are relevant for
a future spindown evolution calculation. The strongly enhanced damping of large
amplitude oscillations leads to damping times that are considerably lower than
those obtained when the amplitude dependence of the viscosity is neglected.
Consequently, large-amplitude viscous damping competes with the gravitational
instability at all physical frequencies and could stop the r-mode growth in
case this is not done before by non-linear hydrodynamic mechanisms.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, changed convention for the r-mode amplitude,
version to be published in PR
Simultaneous measurement of quality factor and wavelength shift by phase shift microcavity ring down spectroscopy
Optical resonant microcavities with ultra high quality factors are widely
used for biosensing. Until now, the primary method of detection has been based
upon tracking the resonant wavelength shift as a function of biodetection
events. One of the sources of noise in all resonant-wavelength shift
measurements is the noise due to intensity fluctuations of the laser source. An
alternative approach is to track the change in the quality factor of the
optical cavity by using phase shift cavity ring down spectroscopy, a technique
which is insensitive to the intensity fluctuations of the laser source. Here,
using biotinylated microtoroid resonant cavities, we show simultaneous
measurement of the quality factor and the wavelength shift by using phase shift
cavity ring down spectroscopy. These measurements were performed for
disassociation phase of biotin-streptavidin reaction. We found that the
disassociation curves are in good agreement with the previously published
results. Hence, we demonstrate not only the application of phase shift cavity
ring down spectroscopy to microcavities in the liquid phase but also
simultaneous measurement of the quality factor and the wavelength shift for the
microcavity biosensors in the application of kinetics measurements
Theoretical Design and FPGA-Based Implementation of Higher-Dimensional Digital Chaotic Systems
Traditionally, chaotic systems are built on the domain of infinite precision
in mathematics. However, the quantization is inevitable for any digital
devices, which causes dynamical degradation. To cope with this problem, many
methods were proposed, such as perturbing chaotic states and cascading multiple
chaotic systems. This paper aims at developing a novel methodology to design
the higher-dimensional digital chaotic systems (HDDCS) in the domain of finite
precision. The proposed system is based on the chaos generation strategy
controlled by random sequences. It is proven to satisfy the Devaney's
definition of chaos. Also, we calculate the Lyapunov exponents for HDDCS. The
application of HDDCS in image encryption is demonstrated via FPGA platform. As
each operation of HDDCS is executed in the same fixed precision, no
quantization loss occurs. Therefore, it provides a perfect solution to the
dynamical degradation of digital chaos.Comment: 12 page
The changes in fractal dimension after a maximal exertion in swimming
Quite often linear variables are not sensitive enough to explain the changes in the motor behavior of elite athletes. So, non-linear variables should be selected. The aim was to compare the fractal dimension before and after a maximal bout swimming front-crawl. Twenty-four subjects performed an all-out 100m trial swimming front-crawl. Immediately before (Pre-test) and after the trial (Post-test) a speed-meter cable was attached to the swimmerâs waist to measure the hip speed from which fractal dimension was derived. The fractal dimension showed a significant decrease with a moderate effect size between pre- and post-tests. Twenty-one out of 24 swimmers decreased the fractal dimension. As a conclusion, there is a decrease in the fractal dimension and hence in the swimming behavior complexity being under fatigue after a maximal trial.This research was funded by the grant NIE AcRF 11/13 TB.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Changes in classical kinematics and nonâlinear parameters after a maximal 100âm frontâcrawl bout
In a linear system there is proportionality
between input and output. Under this framework it is
expected that the amount of change in sports
performance must be proportional to variations in the
inputs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Changes in classical kinematics and non-linear parameters after a maximal 100-m front-crawl bout
In a linear system there is proportionality between input and output. Under this framework it is expected that the amount of change in sports performance must be proportional to variations in the inputs. However, as far as elite performance goes, this is not a straightforward assumption. Sometimes the variables selected are not sensitive enough. Hence, there is the need of having non-linear concepts underpinning such analysis. The aim was to compare classical kinematics and non-linear parameters after a maximal 100-m front-crawl bout. Twenty-four subjects (12 males and 12 females; 22.38±1.68-y) were invited to perform a 100-m freestyle race at maximal pace. Before (pre-test, i.e. rested) and immediately after (post-test, i.e. under fatigue) the maximal bout, they performed two maximal 25m swims at freestyle with push-off start. A speedo-meter cord (Swim speedo-meter, Swimsportec, Hildesheim, Germany) was attached to the swimmerâs hip (Barbosa et al., 2015) in the two 25m trials collecting the instantaneous speed. It was computed the speed fluctuation (dv; Barbosa et al., 2015), approximate entropy (ApEn; Barbosa et al., 2015) and fractal dimension (FD; Higuchi, 1988). Repeated measures ANOVAs (pre-test vs. post-test; Pâ€0.05), effect sizes (eta squared) and 95% of confidence intervals (95CI) were computed. The speed was 1.44±0.24 and 1.28±0.23m/s in the pre- and post/test, respectively (F=55.136, P<0.001)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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