Capsaicin- resistant arterial baroreceptors

BACKGROUND: Aortic baroreceptors (BRs) comprise a class of cranial afferents arising from major arteries closest to the heart whose axons form the aortic depressor nerve. BRs are mechanoreceptors that are largely devoted to cardiovascular autonomic reflexes. Such cranial afferents have either lightly myelinated (A-type) or non-myelinated (C-type) axons and share remarkable cellular similarities to spinal primary afferent neurons. Our goal was to test whether vanilloid receptor (TRPV1) agonists, capsaicin (CAP) and resiniferatoxin (RTX), altered the pressure-discharge properties of peripheral aortic BRs. RESULTS: Periaxonal application of 1 μM CAP decreased the amplitude of the C-wave in the compound action potential conducting at <1 m/sec along the aortic depressor nerve. 10 μM CAP eliminated the C-wave while leaving intact the A-wave conducting in the A-δ range (<12 m/sec). These whole nerve results suggest that TRPV1 receptors are expressed along the axons of C- but not A-conducting BR axons. In an aortic arch – aortic nerve preparation, intralumenal perfusion with 1 μM CAP had no effect on the pressure-discharge relations of regularly discharging, single fiber BRs (A-type) – including the pressure threshold, sensitivity, frequency at threshold, or maximum discharge frequency (n = 8, p > 0.50) but completely inhibited discharge of an irregularly discharging BR (C-type). CAP at high concentrations (10–100 μM) depressed BR sensitivity in regularly discharging BRs, an effect attributed to non-specific actions. RTX (≤ 10 μM) did not affect the discharge properties of regularly discharging BRs (n = 7, p > 0.18). A CAP-sensitive BR had significantly lower discharge regularity expressed as the coefficient of variation than the CAP-resistant fibers (p < 0.002). CONCLUSION: We conclude that functional TRPV1 channels are present in C-type but not A-type (A-δ) myelinated aortic arch BRs. CAP has nonspecific inhibitory actions that are unlikely to be related to TRV1 binding since such effects were absent with the highly specific TRPV1 agonist RTX. Thus, CAP must be used with caution at very high concentrations

Closing in on the properties of antihydrogen

Conference review, with some speculation in the closing section

The career competencies of self-initiated and assigned expatriates: assessing the development of career capital over time

Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals’ career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; ‘knowing how’, ‘knowing whom’, ‘knowing why’ and find that company assigned expatriates learn more than self-initiated expatriates. All three career capital areas benefit from international experience and all are increasingly valued over time. Based on our findings we conclude that a dynamic notion of career capital acquisition and use is needed. Managerial implications include the need for a wider view of talent management for international businesses

3-D Volumetric Evaluation of Human Mandibular Growth

Bone growth is a complex process that is controlled by a multitude of mechanisms that are not fully understood.Most of the current methods employed to measure the growth of bones focus on either studying cadaveric bones from different individuals of different ages, or successive two-dimensional (2D) radiographs. Both techniques have their known limitations. The purpose of this study was to explore a technique for quantifying the three dimensional (3D) growth of an adolescent human mandible over the period of one year utilizing cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans taken for regular orthodontic records. Three -dimensional virtual models were created from the CBCT data using mainstream medical imaging software. A comparison between computer-generated surface meshes of successive 3-D virtual models illustrates the magnitude of relative mandible growth. The results of this work are in agreement with previously reported data from human cadaveric studies and implantable marker studies. The presented method provides a new relatively simple basis (utilizing commercially available software) to visualize and evaluate individualized 3D (mandibular) growth in vivo

Heurísticas para balanceamento de carga de máquinas em infraestruturas de nuvem.

Em ambientes de Computação na Nuvem, principalmente os que utilizam o modelo de infraestrutura como um serviço, a característica de elasticidade no provisionamento de recursos traz consigo a necessidade de gerenciar os recursos físicos de forma apropriada para preservar a qualidade de serviço aos seus usuários, e o bom desempenho da infraestrutura. Este trabalho propõe heurísticas que são capazes de auxiliar no balanceamento de carga dos servidores em uma infraestrutura de nuvem, propondo migrações para diminuir a sobrecarga nos servidores que foram identificados como sobrecarregados,visto que, como passar do tempo há uma variação natural na quantidade de recursos em uso. Esta variação é uma consequência da remoção ou adição de aplicações, ou até mesmo de tentativas de melhoramento do desempenho das aplicações através do provisionamento vertical. Uma ferramenta foi implementada para fazer uso dos algoritmos das heurísticas e assim auxiliar nos experimentos para a validação das mesmas. As métricas utilizadas vem diretamente de servidores heterogêneos da nuvem OpenStack do Laboratório de Sistemas Distribuídos. Os resultados obtidos mostram que além da diminuição no consumo de CPU dos servidores dos quais que estavam sobrecarregados, também é possível melhorar o desempenho destes servidores em alguns casos.In CloudComputingenvironments,especiallythoseusingtheinfrastructureasaservice model, theelasticitycharacteristicinresourceprovisioningcomeswiththeneedtomanage resources sothequalityofservicecancontinuetobeguaranteedtousersandalsoto maintain agoodperformanceoftheinfrastructure.Thisworkproposesheuristicsthat are abletoassistintheloadbalancingoftheserversinaCloudinfrastructure,proposing migrations toreducetheoverheadintheserversthatwereidentifiedasoverloaded,since with thepassageoftimethereisanaturalvariationintheamountofresourcesinuse.This variationinaconsequenceofremovaloradditionofapplicationsandevenoftheusageof verticalscalingtoimproveapplication’sperformance.Atoolwasimplementedtomake use oftheheuristicalgorithmsandthustoaidintheexperimentsandtheirvalidation,the metrics usedcomedirectlyfromheterogeneousserversoftheOpenStackCloudofthe DistributedSystemsLaboratory.TheresultsshowthatinadditiontothedecreaseinCPU consumption ofserversthatwereoverloaded,itisalsopossibletoimprovetheperformance of theseserversinsomecases

Faculty reflect on course planning

Faculty members' beliefs about educational purpose and the nature of their academic fields strongly influence how they plan introductory courses. Interviews with 89 faculty members teaching in diverse colleges and representing eight fields also identified faculty attention to student preparation, available textbooks, and locally important factors, but little attention to alternative instructional strategies during course planning. Based on the findings, the authors have developed a tentative general model of course design and related questions to guide future study.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43602/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00992924.pd

Conference highlights of the 15th international conference on human retrovirology: HTLV and related retroviruses, 4-8 june 2011, Leuven, Gembloux, Belgium

The June 2011 15th International Conference on Human Retrovirology: HTLV and Related Viruses marks approximately 30 years since the discovery of HTLV-1. As anticipated, a large number of abstracts were submitted and presented by scientists, new and old to the field of retrovirology, from all five continents. The aim of this review is to distribute the scientific highlights of the presentations as analysed and represented by experts in specific fields of epidemiology, clinical research, immunology, animal models, molecular and cellular biology, and virology