[Neuronal control of posture and locomotion in decerebrated and spinalized animals]

We have found that the brainstem-spinal cord circuitry of decerebrated cats actively maintain the equilibrium during standing, walking and imposed mechanical perturbations similar to that observed in intact animals. The corrective hindlimb motor responses during standing included redistribution of the extensor activity ipsilateral and contralateral to perturbation. The postural corrections in walking cats were due to considerable modification of EMG pattern in the limbs as well as changing of the swing-stance phases of the step cycle and ground reaction forces depending of perturbation side. Thus the basic mechanisms for balance control of decerebrated animals in these two forms of motor behavior are different. Balance-related adjustments relied entirely on the integration of somatosensory information arising from the moving hindquarters because of the suppression of vestibular, visual, and head-neck-trunk sensory input. We propose that the somatosensory input from the hindquarters in concert with the lumbosacral spinal circuitry can control the dynamics of the hindquarters sufficient to sustain balance. We found that, after isolation from the brainstem or forebrain, lumbosacral circuits receiving tonic epidural electrical stimulation can effectively control equilibrium during standing and stepping. Detailed analyses of the relationships among muscle activity, trunk kinematics, and limb kinetics indicate that spinal motor systems utilize a combination of feedback and feedforward strategies to maintain dynamic equilibrium during walking. The unexpected ability of spinal circuitries to exert efficient postural control in the presence of epidural electrical stimulation in decerebrated and spinal cats have significant implications for the potential of humans with a severe spinal cord injury to regain a significant level of functional standing and walking capacitie

Consistent theoretical model for the description of the neutron-rich fission product yields

The consistent model for the description of the independent fission product formation cross-section at light projectile energies up to about 100MeV is described. Pre-compound nucleon emission is described in the framework of the two-component exciton model using the Monte Carlo method, which allows one to incorporate a time duration criterion for the pre-equilibrium stage of the reaction. The decay of the excited compound nuclei, formed after the pre-equilibrium neutron and proton emission, is treated within the time-dependent statistical model with the inclusion of the main dynamical effects of nuclear friction on the fission width and saddle-to-scission descent time. For each member of the compound nucleus ensemble at scission point, the primary fragment isobaric chain yields are calculated using the multimodal approach with the inclusion two superasymmetric fission modes. The charge distribution of the primary fragment isobaric chains was considered as a results of frozen quantal fluctuations of the isovector nuclear matter density at the finite scission neck radius. The calculated fission product formation cross-sections in the neutron, proton, and $\gamma$ -rays induced fission of the heavy actinides are presented