Fos-expressing neuronal ensemble in rat ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes cocaine seeking but not food seeking in rats

Neuronal ensembles in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) play a role in both cocaine and palatable food seeking. However, it is unknown whether similar or different vmPFC neuronal ensembles mediate food and cocaine seeking. Here, we used the Daun02 inactivation procedure to assess whether the neuronal ensembles mediating food and cocaine seeking can be functionally distinguished. We trained male and female Fos-LacZ rats to self-administer palatable food pellets and cocaine on alternating days for 18 days. We then exposed the rats to a brief nonreinforced food- or cocaine-seeking test to induce Fos and β-gal in neuronal ensembles associated with food or cocaine seeking, respectively and infused Daun02 into vmPFC to ablate the β-gal-expressing ensembles. Two days later, we tested the rats for food or cocaine seeking under extinction conditions. Although inactivation of the food-seeking ensemble did not influence food or cocaine seeking, inactivation of the cocaine-seeking ensemble reduced cocaine seeking but not food seeking. Results indicate that the neuronal ensemble activated by cocaine seeking in vmPFC is functionally separate from the ensemble activated by food seeking

Evolution of texture and microstructure during deformation and annealing of Fe3AI based alloy

The development of texture during warm rolling and annealing of a Fe-28 at. %Al binary Fe3AIbased inter metallic alloy has been studied using the pole figure and ODF(orientation distribution) methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy have been employed to determine the constituent phases. Electron microscopy revealed that the microstructure of the starting hot rolled material comprises of a B2 phase phase matrix with DO) particles embedded within. This observation is also supported by the observed XRD data. XRD results also suggest that heavy amount of deformation can disorder the material up to a certain extent. The hot rolled material texture is characterized by the presence of a broad -fibre peak between the {I 12} and {111}positions, along with a low intensity fibre end a week fibre. Warm rolling at 500°C up to 80% deformation does not change the texture in a way apart from sharpening the starting texture components. However, warm forming in the B2 phase field, i.e. at 650°C, shows a texture transition after 60% deformation, with the texture maxima gradually shifting forwards the {OOI} position. Annealing at 750°C results in a drastic decrease in the and fibre intensities and a significant improvement of the 11-fibrewith a maxima at the {OOI} Cube location

Elastic Deformation in Ceria Nanorods via a Fluorite-to-Rutile Phase Transition

Atomistic simulations reveal that ceria nanorods, under uniaxial tension, can accommodate over 6% elastic deformation. Moreover, a reversible fluorite-to- rutile phase change occurs above 6% strain for a ceria nanorod that extends along [110]. We also observe that during unloading the stress increases with decreasing strain as the rutile reverts back to fluorite. Ceria nanorods may find possible application as vehicles for elastic energy storage

Mitigation of hydride embrittlement of zirconium by yttrium

Brittle hydrides of plate-shaped morphology are known to embrittle the host zirconium matrix. The embrittlement effect is a strong function of the aspect ratio of hydride plates and their major dimension, as thinner plates behave akin to cracks resulting in stress-concentration around their edges, especially when tensile load is acting normal to the broad face of the plates. The embrittlement of the host matrix is due to loss in load bearing area as a result of cracking of the hydride plates under load and severe localized deformation of the ligaments joining the hydride plates. In this work, mitigation of hydride embrittlement was attempted by exploiting the synergistic effect of yttrium addition to zirconium and microstructural modification of the Zr-Y alloy by quenching. This was expected to enable creation of a very high density of nucleation sites much stronger than those available otherwise and, thus, facilitate precipitation of much smaller hydrides that do not embrittle the host matrix. The results obtained in the present work on a dilute Zr-Y alloy do support this idea

Effect of the Novel Positive Allosteric Modulator of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 2 AZD8529 on Incubation of Methamphetamine Craving After Prolonged Voluntary Abstinence in a Rat Model

Cue-induced methamphetamine craving increases after prolonged forced (experimenter-imposed) abstinence from the drug (incubation of methamphetamine craving). Here, we determined whether this incubation phenomenon would occur under conditions that promote voluntary (self-imposed) abstinence. We also determined the effect of the novel metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 positive allosteric modulator, AZD8529, on incubation of methamphetamine craving after forced or voluntary abstinence