Disruption of Bradycardia During Vigilance: Autonomic Cardiac Dysregulation is Prelude to Disinhibition, Hyperarousal, and Attention Bias in Combat Veterans with PTSD

We propose a model to account for the post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms of disinhibition, hyperarousal, and attention bias. We review the background literature which is the foundation on which our model rests, present key results of our ongoing research, and suggest testable hypotheses for further research. Our laboratory is in a Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, where we began our work with a search for the significant causes and predictors of hyperarousal in combat veterans with PTSD using eyeblink and autonomic conditioning protocols. We believe our studies will lead to integration of a treatment intervention for war veterans (and equally as well for treatment of the traumatically stressed in the general population). Our research has begun to show strong associations between lowered heart rate variability (HRV) and PTSD. Loss of bradycardia during normal vigilance is the cause of lowered HRV, which impairs appraisal of threat value of environmental stimulation, thereby leading to disinhibition, hyperarousal, and attention bias toward and away from threat. The next steps of research we plan are outlined and designed to elucidate how HRV biofeedback is a promising intervention to increase HRV during vigilance of stimuli and restore cognitive appraisal and response selection, thereby reducing PTSD symptoms and normalizing behavior

EXTRACTION OF GUM FROM ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS: PHYSICOCHEMICAL PECULIARITY AND ANTIOXIDANT PREPATENT

  Objective: This study is aimed to extract gum from Abelmoschus esculentus using ultrasonic assisted method and exploring physicochemical, functional, and antioxidant potential of gum for food and pharmaceuticals.Materials and Methods: The extraction of gum from okra was done employing ultrasound-assisted method to improvise the yield. The extracted gum was further characterized for physical properties including swelling index, solubility, water sorption time, packing and flow properties, electrical properties, zeta potential, scanning electron microscopy, and antioxidant activity.Results: The extraction yield of okra fruit gum (OFG) was found to be 31.52%±0.22% (n=3). The OFG powder obtained after lyophilization showed good flow properties as determined from the results of angle of repose (34.21°), Hausner ratio (1.14), and % compressibility (12.5%). An increase in solubility and swelling index of OFG with increase in pH of buffer from 2.0 to 7.4 was observed. The freeze dried OFG possess rough surface and zeta potential of −9.85 mV. Application of derivatized/interacted OFG gum for modification of drug release profiles is concluded from high degree of esterification of 7.8.Conclusion: The result suggest that the antioxidant activity of OFG was higher compared to corn flour gum. Thus, OFG could be utilized as natural antioxidant food ingredients and also for application in medicine and health-care products

Cholesterol - Good, Bad and the Heart

""What is this cholesterol?"" In this book entitled ""Cholesterol- Good, Bad, and the Heart"" now you got the answers given by the experts in the field. Moreover, you can explore more by reading the references/citations given in the articles of each chapter. It is still an emerging field and lot more is being discovered. You will be amazed how much knowledge is already there in this book on cholesterol. You will realize that cholesterol is an essential and extremely important building block of cell membranes and thus serves vital functions in the body. I believe this book will be incredibly powerful and useful in teaching to give new perspectives on cholesterol

INTACTE: An Interconnect Area, Delay, and Energy Estimation Tool for Microarchitectural Explorations ∗ ABSTRACT

Prior work on modeling interconnects has focused on optimizing the wire and repeater design for trading off energy and delay, and is largely based on low level circuit parameters. Hence these models are hard to use directly to make high level microarchitectural trade-offs in the initial exploration phase of a design. In this paper, we propose IN-TACTE, a tool that can be used by architects to get reasonably accurate interconnect area, delay, and power estimates based on a few architecture level parameters for the interconnect such as length, width (in number of bits), frequency, and latency for a specified technology and voltage. The tool uses well known models of interconnect delay and energy taking into account the wire pitch, repeater size, and spacing for a range of voltages and technologies. It then solves an optimization problem of finding the lowest energy interconnect design in terms of the low level circuit parameters, which meets the architectural constraints given as inputs. In addition, the tool also provides the area, energy, and delay for a range of supply voltages and degrees of pipelining, which can be used for micro-architectural exploration of a chip. The delay and energy models used by the tool have been validated against low level circuit simulations. We discuss several potential applications of the tool and present an example of optimizing interconnect design in the context of clustered VLIW architectures

[5-(1,3-Diphenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-3-phenyl-4,5-dihydropyrazol-1-yl](pyridin-4-yl)methanone

A novel pyrazoline derivative 2 was synthesized by reaction of an α,β-unsaturated ketone 1 with isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INH) in glacial acetic acid. The structure of the title compound 2 was established on basis of IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and mass spectral data

OKRA FRUIT GUM-CHITOSAN IMPREGNATED POLYMER NETWORK FILMS: FORMULATION AND SUBSTANTIAL DEPICTION

  Objective: The present research is aimed at formulation and evaluation of okra fruit gum (OFG)-chitosan (CH) impregnated polymer network films.Methods: The film forming property of the gum attained from fruits of Abelmoschus esculentus was enhanced by co-processing it with CH. Estimation of properties including swelling index (SI), film volume, volume index, film surface contact angle with buffer solutions (pH 1.2, 7.4 or 6.8), work of adhesion (Wa), and spreading coefficient was done.Results: The contact angle and SI of OFG-CH film in both acidic and alkaline buffers were witnessed to be lowest when equated with the films prepared with difference in ratios of both gum and CH. Moreover, the Wa and spreading coefficient were less for this film. These results could be attributed to the optimum interaction between –COO− groups of gum and -NH3+ groups of CH.Conclusion: The actual nature of the film found to be tough, flexible, and water resistant. Hence, the results have shown that the films produced have a high potential for use in modified drug release and in food and pharmaceuticals

INTACTE: An Interconnect Area, Delay, and Energy Estimation Tool for Microarchitectural Explorations

Prior work on modeling interconnects has focused on optimizing the wire and repeater design for trading off energy and delay, and is largely based on low level circuit parameters. Hence these models are hard to use directly to make high level microarchitectural trade-offs in the initial exploration phase of a design. In this paper, we propose INTACTE, a tool that can be used by architects toget reasonably accurate interconnect area, delay, and power estimates based on a few architecture level parameters for the interconnect such as length, width (in number of bits), frequency, and latency for a specified technology and voltage. The tool uses well known models of interconnect delay and energy taking into account the wire pitch, repeater size, and spacing for a range of voltages and technologies.It then solves an optimization problem of finding the lowest energy interconnect design in terms of the low level circuit parameters, which meets the architectural constraintsgiven as inputs. In addition, the tool also provides the area, energy, and delay for a range of supply voltages and degrees of pipelining, which can be used for micro-architectural exploration of a chip. The delay and energy models used by the tool have been validated against low level circuit simulations. We discuss several potential applications of the tool and present an example of optimizing interconnect design in the context of clustered VLIW architectures. Copyright 2007 ACM