Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in bipolar depression: Another puzzle of manic switch?

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Crown structure of Picea omorika trees in the plantation

The study was carried out in Serbian spruce (Picea omorika Panč/Purkynĕ) plantations in the western Serbia. The paper presents results of the analysis of crown development. The following elements were analyzed: total tree height, height of the crown base, absolute and relative crown length, maximal crown diameter, coefficient of crown spreading and degree of crown girth. We discuss approaches to the modeling of tree crown growth and development, growing under favorable environmental and stand conditions, without anomalies in development. In order to establish the relationship between analyzed factors, regression analyses were applied. Data fitting was by the analytic method, by the implementation of Prodan’s functions of growth, linear and parabolic function. Received models can be used for the simulation of various growth and developing processes in forest

Colloid electrohydrodynamics

This brief extracted review presents the recent development in basic and applied science and engineering of finely dispersed particles and related systems in general, but more profound and in-depth treatise are related to the liquid-liquid finely dispersed systems, i.e. emulsions and double emulsions. Twenty-five years ago, the idea, at first very fogy, came out from the pilot plant experiments related to the extraction Of uranium from wet phosphoric acid. In particular the solution of the entrainment problems, breaking of emulsions/double emulsions, as the succession of the extraction and stripping operations/processes, was performed In this pilot plant, secondary liquid-liquid phase separation loop was designed and carried out. The loop consisted of a lamellar coalescer and four flotation cells in series. Central equipment in the loop, relevant to this investigation, was the lamellar coalescer. The phase separation in this equipment is based on the action of external forces of mechanical and/or electrical origin, while adhesive processes at the inclined filling plates occur. Since many of related processes, e.g. adhesive processes, rupture processes and coalescence, were not very well understood, deeper research of these events and phenomena was a real scientific challenge

Application of Reconfigurable All-Optical Activation Unit based on Optical Injection into Bistable Fabry-P\'{e}rot Laser in Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks

In this paper we theoretically investigate application of a bistable Fabry-P\'{e}rot semiconductor laser under optical-injection as all-optical activation unit for multilayer perceptron optical neural networks. The proposed device is programmed to provide reconfigurable sigmoid-like activation functions with adjustable thresholds and saturation points and benchmarked on machine learning image recognition problems. Due to the reconfigurability of the activation unit, the accuracy can be increased by up to 2% simply by adjusting the control parameter of the activation unit to suit the specific problem. For a simple two-layer perceptron neural network, we achieve inference accuracies of up to 95% and 85%, for the MNIST and Fashion-MNIST datasets, respectively

A stochastic model of Min oscillations in Escherichia coli and Min protein segregation during cell division

The Min system in Escherichia coli directs division to the centre of the cell through pole-to-pole oscillations of the MinCDE proteins. We present a one dimensional stochastic model of these oscillations which incorporates membrane polymerisation of MinD into linear chains. This model reproduces much of the observed phenomenology of the Min system, including pole-to-pole oscillations of the Min proteins. We then apply this model to investigate the Min system during cell division. Oscillations continue initially unaffected by the closing septum, before cutting off rapidly. The fractions of Min proteins in the daughter cells vary widely, from 50%-50% up to 85%-15% of the total from the parent cell, suggesting that there may be another mechanism for regulating these levels in vivo.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures (25 figure files); published at http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/physbi

Homeostatic Modulation of Stimulation-Dependent Plasticity in Human Motor Cortex

Since recently, it is possible, using noninvasive cortical stimulation, such as the protocol of paired associative stimulation (PAS), to induce the plastic changes in the motor cortex, in humans that mimic Hebb's model of learning. Application of TMS conjugated with peripheral electrical stimulation at strictly coherent temporal manner lead to convergence of inputs in the sensory-motor cortex, with the consequent synaptic potentiation or weakening, if applied repetitively. However, when optimal interstimulus interval (ISI) for induction of LTP-like effects is applied as a single pair, Motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude inhibition is observed, the paradigm known as short-latency afferent inhibition (SLAI). Aiming to resolve this paradox, PAS protocols were applied, with 200 repetitions of TMS pulses paired with median nerve electrical stimulation, at ISI equal to individual latencies of evoked response of somatosensory cortex (N-20) (PASLTP), and at ISI of N-20 shortened for 5 msec (PASLTD) protocols that mimic LTP-like changes in the human motor cortex. MEP amplitudes before, during and after interventions were measured as an indicator based on output signals originating from the motor system. Post-intervention MEP amplitudes following the TMS protocols of PASLTP and PASLTD were facilitated and depressed, respectively, contrary to MEP amplitudes during intervention. During PASLTP MEP amplitudes were significantly decreased in case of PASLTP, while in the case of PASLTD an upward trend was observed. In conclusions, a possible explanation for the seemingly paradoxical effect of PAS can be found in the mechanism of homeostatic modulation of plasticity. Those findings indicate the existence of complex relationships in the development of plasticity induced by stimulation, depending on the level of the previous motor cortex excitability

KLINIČKA I HISTOPATOLOŠKA ISPITIVANJA LIMFOCITNOPLAZMOCITNOG DUODENITISA PASA

Hronična oboljenja tankih creva pasa su ređa od akutnih poremećaja i samim timteže se dijagnostikuju. Među ova oboljenja spada idiopatsko zapaljenje tankih creva,koje se odlikuje infi ltracijom ćelija infl amacije unutar l. propriae tankih creva, tunikemukoze tankih creva. Na osnovu kliničke slike i opšteg kliničkog pregleda moguće jepostaviti sumnju. Analizom krvne slike pasa zapaža se leukocitoza i limfocitoza, dokse biohemijskim analizama može utvrditi različit stepen hipoproteinemije i hipoalbuminemije.Specijalističkim pregledom creva endoskopom može se uočiti različitstepen promena na sluznici tankih creva, od blagog edema do ulceracija. Tek nakonbiopsije sluznice tankih creva i histopatološkog pregleda moguće je postaviti dijagnozulimfocitno-plazmocitnog duodenitisa. Iako je dijagnoza poznata, etiologija ovogoboljenja nije u potpunosti poznata, tako da je za postavljanje defi nitivne dijagnozepotrebno isključiti sva druga oboljenja sa istim ili sličnim simptomima. Tokom ovogistraživanja sprovedenog na gastroenterološkim pacijentima ambulante Klinike zamale životinje Fakulteta veterinarske medicine u Beogradu tokom oktobra, novembrai decembra 2011. godine, kod četrnaest pacijenata je dijagnostikovan hroničnilimfocitno-plazmocitni enteritis i limfocitni enteritis

Chemical Analysis of Mortars of Archeological Samples form Mediana

The aim of this study was mineralogical and chemical analysis of mortar from the floor, ceiling and wall of Stibadium B, from the archaeological site of Mediana. ICP-OES and FTIR-spectroscopy were used to determine chemical composition and some major mineralogical species. The obtained results show that lime mortar is probably used. Large contribution of silicon- and aluminum-oxides, indicate the presence of quartz and clay minerals derived from the aggregate, river sand and crushed bricks. The obtained results also show large amount of iron, manganese and copper. The determinated metals in samples from floor and wall of Stibadium B, are mostly present in oxide fraction, while in sample from ceiling, they are mostly found in silicate fraction

The process of globalization: Good and bad sides

The purpose of the paper is to point out the factual state of the globalization process, the positive and negative aspects of this process, which relate to the aspirations of world powers to shape the world in technological, economic, informational, political and cultural terms. Globalization encourages the spread of integration, market openness, capital transfer, but at the same time the emergence of spiritual and material superficialities and gaps. Therefore, many point out the downsides of this process. On the other hand, globalization has a multiple impact on the economy of all countries, and it concerns foreign direct investment and the movement of people and capital from country to country. As production at the global level is rationalized and new technologies spread, countries can increase production, and thus the level of wages and living standards, and due to the unification of various regulations between countries, trade becomes easier and more useful for all participating countries. For this and similar reasons, some authors point out the advantages of globalization over disadvantages. The aim of the paper is to point out that the advantages should not be denied, but the greater presence of disadvantages should be noticed

Butler-Volmer current equation and fractal nature correction in electrochemical energy

The Global Energy Crisis necessitated improving research into new, renewable and alternative energy sources. Due to that, our focus is on the area of some phenomena and applications where different synthetic methods and micro-structure property optimization achieved significant improvement in the electro physical properties of output materials and components. This is especially important for higher energy efficiency and electricity production (batteries and battery systems, fuel cells, and hydrogen energy).The improvement of energy storage tank capacity is one of the most important development issues in the energy sphere too. It is because of this very promising research and application area that we are expanding the knowledge on these phenomena through fractal nature analysis. So, the results obtained in the field of electrochemical energy sources, especially in electrolyte development, are taken into account the analysis of fractal nature optimization. Based on the research field of fractal material science, particularly electronic materials, we conducted research in micro-structure fractal influence in the area of electrochemistry. We investigated the consolidation parameters of Fe2O3 redox processes. The influence of activation energy, fundamental thermodynamic parameters, and also the fractal correction of electrode surface area through complex fractal dimension with recognized grains and pores, and the Brownian motion of particles is introduced. Finally, the electrochemical Butler-Volmer equation fractalization is obtained. These results practically open new frontiers in electrochemical energy processes performed through the Arrhenius equation within electrolyte bulk and electrode relations and more complete and precise energy generation