Pre-gestational stress reduces the ratio of 5-HIAA to 5-HT and the expression of 5-HT1A receptor and serotonin transporter in the brain of foetal rat

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many studies have found that stress before or during pregnancy is linked to an increased incidence of behavioural disorders in offspring. However, few studies have investigated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and the serotonergic system as a consequence of pregestational stress. In the present study, we investigated the effect of pre-gestational stress on HPA axis activity in maternal rats and their foetuses and examined whether changes in HPA axis activity of maternal rats produced functional changes in the serotonergic system in the brain of foetuses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used the behavioural tests to assess the model of chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) in maternal rats. We found the activity in the open field and sucrose consumption was lower for rats with CUS than for the controls. Body weight but not brain weight was higher for control foetuses than those from the CUS group. Serum corticosterone and corticotrophin-releasing hormone levels were significantly higher for mothers with CUS before pregnancy and their foetuses than for the controls. Levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were higher in the hippocampus and hypothalamus of foetuses in the CUS group than in the controls, and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) levels were lower in the hippocampus in foetuses in the CUS group than in the control group. Levels of 5-HIAA in the hypothalamus did not differ between foetuses in the CUS group and in the control group. The ratio of 5-HIAA to 5-HT was significantly lower for foetuses in the CUS group than in the control group. Levels of 5-HT1A receptor were significantly lower in the foetal hippocampus in the CUS group than in the control group, with no significant difference in the hypothalamus. The levels of serotonin transporter (SERT) were lower in both the foetal hippocampus and foetal hypothalamus in the CUS group than in the control group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data demonstrate that pre-gestational stress alters HPA axis activity in maternal rats and their foetuses, which is associated with functional changes in 5-HT activity (5-HT, 5-HIAA and ratio of 5-HIAA to 5-HT), as well as the levels of the 5-HT1A receptor and SERT in the hippocampus and hypothalamus of foetuses.</p

Specification and Implementa-tion of a Vehicle Environment Model for the ATLAS project

In der Bachelorarbeit wird Spezifikation und Implementierung eines Fahrzeugumfeldmodells im Rahmen des ATLAS-Projektes beschreiben. Hierzu wird das Umfeldmodell definiert und erläutert, und der Aufbau des Umfeldmodells mit einer Programmiersprache abgeschlossen. Die Bachelorarbeit enthält auch Vorschläge zur Verbesserung der Generierung von CSV-Dateien und zum Speichern der Standortinformationen des Fahrzeugs. Außerdem wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Umfeldmodell und autonomem Fahren kurz beschrieben

Flux Transport Characteristics of Free Boundary Value Problems for a Class of Generalized Convection-Diffusion Equation

The similarity transformation is introduced for studying free boundary value problems for a class of generalized convection-diffusion equation. A class of singular nonlinear boundary value problems are obtained and solved by using Adomian decomposition method (ADM). The approximate solution can be expressed in terms of a rapid convergent power series with easily computable terms. The efficiency and reliability of the approximate solution are verified by numerical ones. The effects of the variable thermal conduction k(z), convection functional coefficient h(z), power law exponent n, and parameter α on the flux transport characteristics are presented graphically and analyzed in detail

Refining GPS/GLONASS Satellite Clock Offset Estimation in the Presence of Pseudo-Range Inter-Channel Biases

Because of the frequency division multiple access (FDMA) technique, Russian global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) observations suffer from pseudo-range inter-channel biases (ICBs), which adversely affect satellite clock offset estimation. In this study, the GLONASS pseudo-range ICB is treated in four different ways: as ignorable parameters (ICB-NONE), polynomial functions of frequency (ICB-FPOL), frequency-specific parameters (ICB-RF), and satellite-specific parameters (ICB-RS). Data from 110 international global navigation satellite system (GNSS) service stations were chosen to obtain the ICBs and were used for satellite clock offset estimation. The ICBs from the different schemes varied from &minus;20 ns to 80 ns. The ICB-RS model yielded the best results, improving the clock offset accuracy from 300 ps to about 100 ps; it could improve the GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP) accuracy and the converging time by approximately 50% and 30%, respectively. Along similar lines, we introduced the GPS-ICB parameters in the process of GPS satellite clock estimation and GPS/GLONASS PPP, as ICBs may exist for GPS because of different chip shape distortions among GPS satellites. This possibility was found to be the case. Further, the GPS-ICB magnitude ranged from &minus;2 ns to 2 ns, and the estimated satellite clock offsets could improve the accuracy of the GPS and combined GPS/GLONASS PPP by 10%; it also accelerated the converging time by more than 15% thanks to the GPS-ICB calibration

Water‐Soluble Nanoparticles with Twisted Double [7]Carbohelicene for Lysosome‐Targeted Cancer Photodynamic Therapy

Helicene-based therapeutic agents for organelle-targeted photodynamic therapy (PDT) involving both type I and II are challenging and still underexplored. Herein, water-soluble nanoparticles containing twisted double [7]carbohelicene (D7H-NPs) are prepared through self-assembly with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] by a nanoprecipitation method. D7H-NPs display high water solubility with an average size of 46 ± 2 nm. Notably, D7H-NPs can generate efficient singlet oxygen (1O2) and superoxide anion (O2· −) upon white light irradiation, forming the basis of PDT. Moreover, the typical accumulation in lysosomes of 4T1 cancer cells paves the way to use D7H-NPs for lysosome-targeted cancer phototherapeutics. This paper reports a promising helicene-based phototherapeutic agent involving both type I and II PDT for organelle-targeted biotherapy

Ankerite grains with dolomite cores: A diffusion chronometer for low- to medium-grade regionally metamorphosed clastic sediments

Ankerite grains with dolomite cores occur in marls, pelites, and psammites from a Buchan terrain in Maine and a Barrovian terrain in Vermont (U.S.A.). Dolomite cores are typically ≤20 μm in diameter, have sharp but irregular contacts with ankerite, and have the same crystallographic orientation as ankerite rims. Ankerite grains with dolomite cores are common in the chlorite zone, less abundant in the biotite and garnet zones, and rare (Vermont) or absent (Maine) at higher grades. The texture and crystallographic orientation of dolomite and ankerite and the sharpness of the dolomite-ankerite contact are consistent with partial replacement of detrital dolomite by ankerite by solution-reprecipitation. Metamorphic biotite is in Fe-Mg exchange equilibrium with ankerite rims but not with dolomite cores, implying that ankerite did not form long after biotite (biotite has no phlogopite cores). Possible sources of iron for the formation of ankerite are reduction of ferric iron hydroxide or the smectite-to-illite reaction during diagenesis. The sharpness of the dolomite-ankerite contact is a diffusion chronometer that constrains timescales of metamorphic process. Relatively low spatial resolution analyses of Fe/Mg across the contact with a NanoSIMS instrument and a FEG TEM give upper bounds on the thickness of the transition from ankerite to dolomite of ~2 and ~0.5 μm, respectively. Higher resolution analysis of BSE grayscale contrast with a FEG SEM gives a thickness ~100 nm. Fit of the grayscale profile to a model of one-dimensional diffusion across an infinite plane gives Dt = 10^(−15) m^2 (± a factor of 5), where D is the effective Fe-Mg interdiffusion coefficient and t is the duration of diffusion. Using the published experimental determination of D, upper bounds on the residence time of ankerite grains with dolomite cores at peak T = 400–500 °C, on the duration of linear cooling from peak T to 100 °C, and on the duration of linear heating from 100 °C to peak T followed by linear cooling to 100 °C are all 100 °C. The question is what explains the occurrence of ultrasteep composition gradients between dolomite and ankerite. Regional metamorphism on a timescale of a year or less is unrealistic. No barrier to diffusion at the dolomite-ankerite contact was observed in TEM images. Post-metamorphic formation of ankerite at very low temperature is ruled out by Fe-Mg exchange equilibrium between biotite and ankerite but not dolomite. It is unlikely that the steep composition gradients were preserved by intracrystalline pressure gradients. Alternatively, the steep composition gradients would be consistent with timescales of metamorphic process ~10^6 years or longer if D values during metamorphism were approximately six orders of magnitude or more smaller than those measured in the laboratory. The error of measurement is much less, approximately ± a factor of 2. A correction to D for the difference in P between measurements (0.1 MPa) and metamorphism (350–800 MPa) is likely an order of magnitude or less. Oxygen activity (a_(O2)), however, was 17–20 orders of magnitude larger during the laboratory measurements than during metamorphism. A correction to measured D for the difference in a_(O2_ between experiment and metamorphism appears to be the likeliest way to reconcile the steep composition gradients with realistic timescales of metamorphism. Before ankerite grains with dolomite cores are fully realized as a useful diffusion chronometer for low- and medium-grade metamorphic rocks, the rates of Fe-Mg interdiffusion in ankerite and dolomite need to be calibrated as a function of a_(O2)