Food-induced behavioral sensitization, its cross-sensitization to cocaine and morphine, pharmacological blockade, and effect on food intake

Repeated administration of abused drugs sensitizes their stimulant effects and results in a drug-paired environment eliciting conditioned activity. We tested whether food induces similar effects. Food-deprived male mice were given novel food during 30 min tests in a runway (FR group) that measured locomotor activity. Whereas the activity of this group increased with repeated testing, that of a group exposed to the runways but that received the food in the home cage (FH group), or of a group satiated by prefeeding before testing (SAT group), decreased. When exposed to the runways in the absence of food, the paired group was more active than the other groups (conditioned activity); no activity differences were seen in an alternative, non-food-paired, apparatus. Conditioned activity survived a 3-week period without runway exposure. Conditioned activity was selectively reduced by the opiate antagonist naltrexone (10-20 mg/kg) and by the noncompetitive AMPA receptor antagonist GYKI 52466 [1-(4-aminophenyl)-4-methyl-7,8-methylenedioxy-5H-2,3-benzodiazepine hydrochloride] (5-10 mg/kg). The D1 antagonist SCH23390 [R(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine hydrochloride] (15-30 microg/kg) and D2 antagonist sulpiride (25-125 mg/kg) reduced activity nonspecifically. A single intraperitoneal dose of cocaine (10 mg/kg) or morphine (20 mg/kg) increased activity compared with saline, the stimulant effect being larger in the FR group, suggesting "cross-sensitization" to these drugs. However, pretreatment with GYKI 52466 or naltrexone at doses that suppressed conditioned activity in FR animals suppressed cross-sensitization to cocaine. When allowed ad libitum access to food in the runway, FR mice consumed more pellets in a time-limited test. Thus, many of the features of behavioral sensitization to drugs can be demonstrated using food reward and may contribute to excessive eating

Holes and cracks in rigid foam films

The classical problem of foam film rupture dynamics has been investigated when surfaces exhibit very high rigidity due to the presence of specific surfactants. Two new features are reported. First a strong deviation to the well-known Taylor-Culick law is observed. Then, crack-like patterns can be visualized in the film; these patterns are shown to appear at a well defined deformation. The key role of surface active material on these features is quantitatively investigated, pointing the importance of surface elasticity to describe these fast dynamical processes, and thus providing an alternative tool to characterize surface elasticity in conditions extremely far from equilibrium. The origin of the cracks and their consequences on film rupturing dynamics are also discussed

Yield stress and elasticity influence on surface tension measurements

We have performed surface tension measurements on carbopol gels of different concentrations and yield stresses. Our setup, based on the force exerted by a capillary bridge on two parallel plates, allows to measure an effective surface tension of the complex fluid and to investigate the influence of flow history. More precisely the effective surface tension measured after stretching the bridge is always higher than after compressing it. The difference between the two values is due to the existence of a yield stress in the fluid. The experimental observations are successfully reproduced with a simple elasto-plastic model. The shape of successive stretching-compression cycles can be described by taking into account the yield stress and the elasticity of the gel. We show that the surface tension $\gamma_{LV}$ of yield stress fluids is the mean of the effective surface tension values only if the elastic modulus is high compared to the yield stress. This work highlights that thermodynamical quantities measurements are challenged by the fluid out-of-equilibrium state implied by jamming, even at small scales where the shape of the bridge is driven by surface energy. Therefore setups allowing deformation in opposite directions are relevant for measurements on yield stress fluids.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures in Soft Matter 201

Pretty Private Group Management

Group management is a fundamental building block of today's Internet applications. Mailing lists, chat systems, collaborative document edition but also online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter use group management systems. In many cases, group security is required in the sense that access to data is restricted to group members only. Some applications also require privacy by keeping group members anonymous and unlinkable. Group management systems routinely rely on a central authority that manages and controls the infrastructure and data of the system. Personal user data related to groups then becomes de facto accessible to the central authority. In this paper, we propose a completely distributed approach for group management based on distributed hash tables. As there is no enrollment to a central authority, the created groups can be leveraged by various applications. Following this paradigm we describe a protocol for such a system. We consider security and privacy issues inherently introduced by removing the central authority and provide a formal validation of security properties of the system using AVISPA. We demonstrate the feasibility of this protocol by implementing a prototype running on top of Vuze's DHT

Buckling of Viscous Filaments of a Fluid under Compression Stresses

International audienceWe study the compression of viscous filaments at constant velocity. If slender enough, the filament bends, a viscous analogue of Euler elastic buckling. We measure the characteristic time of this viscous buckling and discuss the link with the elastic critical compression. We show that the analogy only holds in the limit of large capillary numbers. Otherwise capillarity has a stabilizing effect, which suppresses buckling

SONDe: Contrôle de densité auto-organisante de fonctions réseaux pair à pair

http://algotel2006.lip6.fr/Longtemps dominés par les systèmes de partage de fichiers, les systèmes pair à pair s'ouvrent désormais à un large éventail d'applications telles que l'email, le DNS, la téléphonie, ou les caches répartis. Le bon fonctionnement de ces applications passe par l'utilisation de fonctions de base dont l'accès peut devenir un goulet d'étranglement si elle ne sont pas suffisamment répliquées dans le système. Dans cet article nous présentons SONDe, un algorithme qui permet une réplication automatique et adaptative de ces fonctions dans un réseau à très large échelle. Cet algorithme permet également de borner le nombre de sauts réseaux à effectuer entre un pair et une fonction, rendant ainsi prévisibles et paramétrables les latences attendues. Ceci est rendu possible grâce à une simple prise de décision basée sur l'étude du voisinage de chaque pair du réseau

Trapping Leidenfrost Drops with Crenelations

International audienceDrops placed on very hot solids levitate on a cushion of their own vapor, as discovered by Leidenfrost. This confers to these drops a remarkable mobility, which makes problematic their control and manipulation. Here we show how crenelated surfaces can be used to increase the friction of Leidenfrost drops by a factor on the order of 100, making them decelerate and be trapped on centimetric distances instead of the usual metric ones. We measure and characterize the friction force as a function of the design of the crenelations