Vascular Gap Junctions Contribute to Forepaw Stimulation-Induced Vasodilation Differentially in the Pial and Penetrating Arteries in Isoflurane-Anesthetized Rats

Somatosensory stimulation causes dilation of the pial and penetrating arteries and an increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the representative region of the somatosensory cortex. As an underlying mechanism for such stimulation-induced increases in CBF, cerebral artery dilation has been thought to propagate in the vascular endothelium from the parenchyma to the brain surface. Vascular gap junctions may propagate vasodilation. However, the contribution of vascular gap junctions to cerebrovascular regulation induced by somatosensory stimulation is largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the contribution of vascular gap junctions to the regulation of the pial and penetrating arteries during neuronal activity attributed to somatosensory stimulation. Experiments were performed on male Wistar rats (age: 7–10 weeks) with artificial ventilation under isoflurane anesthesia. For somatosensory stimulation, the left forepaw was electrically stimulated (1.5 mA, 0.5 ms and 10 Hz, for 5 s). The artery in the forelimb area of the right somatosensory cortex was imaged through a cranial window using a two-photon microscope and the diameter was measured. Carbenoxolone (CBX) was intravenously (i.v.) administered, at a dose of 100 mg/kg, to block vascular gap junctions. The forepaw electrical stimulation increased the diameter of the pial and penetrating arteries by 7.0% and 5.0% of the pre-stimulus diameter, respectively, without changing the arterial pressure. After CBX administration, the change in pial artery diameter during forepaw stimulation was attenuated to 3.2%. However, changes in the penetrating artery were not significantly affected. CBF was measured using a laser speckle flowmeter, together with somatosensory-evoked potential (SEP) recorded in the somatosensory cortex. The extent of CBF increase (by 24.1% of the pre-stimulus level) and amplitude of SEP were not affected by CBX administration. The present results suggest that vascular gap junctions, possibly on the endothelium, contribute to pial artery dilation during neuronal activity induced by somatosensory stimulation

熱可塑性エラストマーとポリオレフィンから成る、ポリマーブレンドのモルフォロジーとガス透過特性 : 薄膜フィルム、三層複合中空糸膜

内容の要約広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(工学)Doctor of Engineering in Chemical Engineeringdoctora

Liste des hommes de la marechaussee en Haute-Normandie(1720-1750)

The marechaussee was a rural police force in Old Regime France, which was led by a prevot des marechaux. It served both as a royal army keeping order particulary in the countryside and on highways, and as a royal court judging without appeal such cas prevotaux as a vagabondage, mendicancy, and highway robbery. In 1720, the royal government tried to reform the marechaussee after abolishing almost its entire old organisation and reorganizing a new one. The reform established a national police network though its force was insufficient, which was deployed closely in the kingdom, put under the direct control of the Crown and had unified organisation, districts, and chain of command. We drew a list of men of the new marechaussee in Haute-Normandie (1720-1750) by refering to two registers (Y^b 858 and Y^b 859) conserved in the Historical Service of the Army (Service historique de l\u27Armee de Terre) at Vincennes (France). This is one of our preparations for analyzing the organisation and the function of the marechaussee in Haute-Normandie

Thermal Behavior and Dust Explosion Characteristics of Spent Coffee Grounds and Jatropha as Biodiesel Feedstock

PresentationThis work examined the minimum explosion limit (MEL), minimum ignition energy (MIE), cohesion, dispersibility, decomposition temperature (Td) and burning rates of spent coffee ground (SCG), jatropha kernel (JK) and jatropha shell (JS) were studied. The MIE values of oily SCG containing 21.3 wt% and oil-extracted SCG were 35 and 120 g m-3 , respectively. Moreover, cohesion of oily SCG and oil-extracted SCG were high level and low level, respectively. It was found that MIE of oily SCG containing 21.3wt% of oil was low although high cohesion. While oil-extracted jatropha kernels and shells had MEL values of 45 and 110 g m-3 , respectively. However, Oily JK containing 60.7 wt% of oil was not exploded reason for high cohesion and no form dust cloud. The MIE values of untreated SCG, oil-extracted SCG, oil-extracted JK and JS were found to be >3000, >3000, 1515, and >3000 mJ, respectively. These biomasses were needed high energy ignition for explosion. Burning rates of JK and JS were 0.21 and 0.04 mm s-1, respectively, these values were very slow compared with cellulose used as a reference materials was 0.67 mm s-1. Besides SCG were not capable of ignition. The Td of both untreated SCG and oil-extracted SCG were 240 and 241 °C while the Td of untreated JK (60.7wt% oil), oil-extracted JK, and JS were 195, 189, and 233 ̊C indicating that the ignition temperature is influenced by oil content. Consequently, the results demonstrate that oily solid biomasses such as SCG and jatropha are associated with a high risk of fire, dust explosion, and related incident

Dust Explosion Characteristics of Cellulose Acetates with Different Degrees of Acetylation

PresentationIn this work, the relation between various degrees of acetylation (CAs) of Cellulose acetate (CA) to dust explosion characteristics as minimum explosible concentration (MEC) and minimum ignition energy (MIE) have been studied. Also, we attempt to clarify the relative of moisture content and water adsorption to cellulose, cellulose ester as CA and cellulose ether as Methyl cellulose (MC), Ethyl cellulose (EC), Hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to MEC and MIE have been studied. We found that the chemical derivatives have significant on thermal behavior of cellulose which Td of CA shifted to higher temperature because of acetate derivative effect. Meanwhile, Td of cellulose ethers as MC, EC, HEC, HEC and CMC were shifted to lower temperature. Moreover, CAs was not evident effect to Td of CA. Moisture content of cellulose powder had not significant on MEC of both air dry and absolute dry powder were 55 g/m3. But, we found MEC was relative to its moisture content of CA which absolute dry was more sensitive on explosion than dry CA powder. However, MEC was consistent with the hydrophilicity index at 75%RH of dry and absolute dry of cellulose, cellulose acetate and cellulose ethers in present work. MIE was not corresponding to moisture content of cellulose ether and cellulose ester but it was relative to cellulose. The results from our experiments, comparing with CAs, chemical derivatives have more significant on moisture adsorption, thermal stability and dust explosion characteristics of cellulose

Magnetic control of heterogeneous ice nucleation with nanophase magnetite: Biophysical and agricultural implications

In supercooled water, ice nucleation is a stochastic process that requires ∼250–300 molecules to transiently achieve structural ordering before an embryonic seed crystal can nucleate. This happens most easily on crystalline surfaces, in a process termed heterogeneous nucleation; without such surfaces, water droplets will supercool to below −30 °C before eventually freezing homogeneously. A variety of fundamental processes depends on heterogeneous ice nucleation, ranging from desert-blown dust inducing precipitation in clouds to frost resistance in plants. Recent experiments have shown that crystals of nanophase magnetite (Fe_3O_4) are powerful nucleation sites for this heterogeneous crystallization of ice, comparable to other materials like silver iodide and some cryobacterial peptides. In natural materials containing magnetite, its ferromagnetism offers the possibility that magneto-mechanical motion induced by external oscillating magnetic fields could act to disrupt the water–crystal interface, inhibiting the heterogeneous nucleation process in subfreezing water and promoting supercooling. For this to act, the magneto-mechanical rotation of the particles should be higher than the magnitude of Brownian motions. We report here that 10-Hz precessing magnetic fields, at strengths of 1 mT and above, on ∼50-nm magnetite crystals dispersed in ultrapure water, meet these criteria and do indeed produce highly significant supercooling. Using these rotating magnetic fields, we were able to elicit supercooling in two representative plant and animal tissues (celery and bovine muscle), both of which have detectable, natural levels of ferromagnetic material. Tailoring magnetic oscillations for the magnetite particle size distribution in different tissues could maximize this supercooling effect

Effects of Bitter Receptor Antagonists on Behavioral Lick Responses of Mice

Bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs detect noxious compounds in the oral cavity. Recent heterologous expression studies reported that some compounds function as antagonists for human TAS2Rs. For examples, amino acid derivatives such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and Nα,Nα-bis(carboxymethyl)-L-Lysine (BCML) blocked responses to quinine mediated by human TAS2R4. Probenecid inhibited responses to phenylthiocarbamide mediated by human TAS2R38. In this study, we investigated the effects of these human bitter receptor antagonists on behavioral lick responses of mice to elucidate whether these compounds also function as bitter taste blockers. In short-term (10 s) lick tests, concentration-dependent lick responses to bitter compounds (quinine-HCl, denatonium and phenylthiourea) were not affected by the addition of GABA or BCML. Probenecid reduced aversive lick responses to denatonium and phenylthiourea but not to quinine-HCl. In addition, taste cell responses to phenylthiourea were inhibited by probenecid. These results suggest some bitter antagonists of human TAS2Rs can work for bitter sense of mouse