Modified differentials and basic cohomology for Riemannian foliations

We define a new version of the exterior derivative on the basic forms of a Riemannian foliation to obtain a new form of basic cohomology that satisfies Poincar\'e duality in the transversally orientable case. We use this twisted basic cohomology to show relationships between curvature, tautness, and vanishing of the basic Euler characteristic and basic signature.Comment: 20 pages, references added, minor corrections mad

A Genetic Animal Model of Alcoholism for Screening Medications to Treat Addiction

The purpose of this review is to present up-to-date pharmacological, genetic, and behavioral findings from the alcohol-preferring P rat and summarize similar past work. Behaviorally, the focus will be on how the P rat meets criteria put forth for a valid animal model of alcoholism with a highlight on its use as an animal model of polysubstance abuse, including alcohol, nicotine, and psychostimulants. Pharmacologically and genetically, the focus will be on the neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems that have received the most attention: cholinergic, dopaminergic, GABAergic, glutamatergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, corticotrophin releasing hormone, opioid, and neuropeptide Y. Herein, we sought to place the P rat's behavioral and neurochemical phenotypes, and to some extent its genotype, in the context of the clinical literature. After reviewing the findings thus far, this chapter discusses future directions for expanding the use of this genetic animal model of alcoholism to identify molecular targets for treating drug addiction in general

Design, synthesis, and characterization of photochromic organic compounds: Advances toward optical memory

The design, synthesis, and characterization of over 20 indolylfulgides and indolylfulgide derivatives are detailed herein. Each compound has been fully evaluated for such properties as optical absorption spectra, photostationary states, quantum yields, and photochemical and thermal stability. The parent trifluoromethyl isopropylidene indolylfulgide can undergo nearly 3000 repeated cycles of coloration and bleaching in solution before 20% loss of absorbance. The methoxy-substituted cyclohexylidene indolylfulgide degrades at only 0.006% per cycle, the strongest photochemical fatigue resistance of any fulgide reported to date. Other significant findings include the identification of the thermal decomposition pathway for the Z-form of fluorinated indolylfulgides and the production of hydrolytically stable indolylfulgimides. The UV-vis spectral characteristics of the indolylfulgimides can be predictively tuned by incorporating phenyl groups substituted with electron-withdrawing groups of varying strength. Using the information gathered in the thermal decomposition study, a new class of photochromic organic compounds (aryletheneanhydrides) has been prepared from fluorinated cycloalkylidene indolylfulgides. These compounds maintain outstanding thermal stability with both forms showing little to no loss of absorbance after 3 weeks at 80°C. Furthermore, the methoxy-substituted indolylcyclohexenylanhydride displayed outstanding photochemical stability; no discernable loss of absorbance was observed after 600 photochemical cycles. Finally, the studies have helped to advance the basic understanding of structure activity relationships for photochromic fulgides