Norepinephrine Protects against Methamphetamine Toxicity through β2-Adrenergic Receptors Promoting LC3 Compartmentalization

Norepinephrine (NE) neurons and extracellular NE exert some protective effects against a variety of insults, including methamphetamine (Meth)-induced cell damage. The intimate mechanism of protection remains difficult to be analyzed in vivo. In fact, this may occur directly on target neurons or as the indirect consequence of NE-induced alterations in the activity of trans-synaptic loops. Therefore, to elude neuronal networks, which may contribute to these effects in vivo, the present study investigates whether NE still protects when directly applied to Meth-treated PC12 cells. Meth was selected based on its detrimental effects along various specific brain areas. The study shows that NE directly protects in vitro against Meth-induced cell damage. The present study indicates that such an effect fully depends on the activation of plasma membrane β2-adrenergic receptors (ARs). Evidence indicates that β2-ARs activation restores autophagy, which is impaired by Meth administration. This occurs via restoration of the autophagy flux and, as assessed by ultrastructural morphometry, by preventing the dissipation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) from autophagy vacuoles to the cytosol, which is produced instead during Meth toxicity. These findings may have an impact in a variety of degenerative conditions characterized by NE deficiency along with autophagy impairment.     

Contrasting approaches to the generation of environmental improvement options for production systems

This article reviews two common types of improvement tools presently used in industry to identify opportunities to prevent or at least to reduce the environmental impacts of production systems and processes. Despite their proven ability to result in appropriate environmental improvement options in different industry sectors, their successful application is hampered by the fact that these tools do not take the specific causes of the environmental impacts of the production process into account, i.e. the question of which process features cause the environmental impacts of the production process is not raised nor is the flexibility for change of the production system taken into consideration. This paper sets the stage for a new generation of improvement tools, based on an environmental diagnosis of the production system. The diagnosis aims to result in a thorough understanding of the production system to guide and drive the identification of environmental improvement options that specifically target process-, product-, and site-specific environmental conditions. Alternative ways to develop such a diagnostic approach on the basis of presently used tools are being explored, and a synthesis thereof is proposed to achieve synergy between these contrasting approaches. Received: 7 August 2000 / Accepted: 8 November 2000     

Effects of opiate manipulations on latent inhibition in rabbits: Sensitivity of the medial septal region to intracranial treatments.

Rabbits were exposed to an auditory stimulus that was later used as a conditioned stimulus (CS). Administration of the agonist levorphanol into the medial septal region either preceding or immediately following CS preexposure sessions attenuated latent inhibition of the conditioned response. This effect was observed in animals that showed no change in long-term retention of habituation. Administration of levorphanol into the central nucleus of the amygdala, a sensitive site for opiate manipulations on aversive conditioning tasks, were ineffective. Further analysis of the effect obtained within the septal region revealed pharmacological specificity. The effect of posttraining levorphanol was also time dependent and exhibited neuroanatomical specificity. Posttraining opiate antagonist administration into the medial septum produced a modest augmentation of latent inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Component-Based Applications: A Dynamic Reconfiguration Approach with Fault Tolerance Support

This paper presents a mechanism for dynamic reconfiguration of component-based applications and its fault tolerance strategy. The mechanism, named generic connector, allows composing a component-based application as a set of services with no previous knowledge about the specific components that will provide some services. The components will be selected at runtime. The objective of this work is to offer a mechanism that tries to satisfy every invocation under its responsibility and makes failures as transparent as possible. It is an important tool to compose applications through the reuse of existing components because it frees the programmer from the task of searching components in order to use them and, also, from solving some types of failures.     

A fast procedure for manipulator inverse kinematics computation and singularities prevention

In this article, a fast procedure for numerical manipulator inverse kinematics computation and singularities prevention is presented. The approach is based upon solving a linear system and automatically calculating some parameters. These parameters are properly used in either one of two original schemes that are also proposed to induce robustness to the pseudoinverse. Furthermore, here it is also shown how to properly implement one of these schemes in conjunction with a recently developed approach for the singularities prevention of redundant manipulators. The resultant algorithms are tested on the simulation of a planar redundant manipulator. From the results obtained, it is observed that the proposed approach compares favorably with the approaches using a Gaussian elimination procedure and with pseudoinverse robustness based on a manipulability measure.     

Reoperation for prosthetic thrombosis and acute neurologic injury

Torsions of the spermatic cord occurring from the intrauterine period to the end of the first year of life are termed perinatal. These are divided into prenatal and postnatal torsions, depending on their occurrence in the intrauterine or postuterine period. From January 1984 to January 1996, 6 cases were identified at our institution, involving 4 prenatal and 2 postnatal extravaginal torsions of the spermatic cord. These cases are reviewed with regard to optimal therapeutic approaches for the treatment of both the affected gonad as well as the contralateral one, and whether the event occurred prenatally or postnatally. The authors also propose several clinical indications useful for obstetricians, pediatricians, urologists and nurses.     

Models of magnetic hysteresis based on play and stop hysterons

This paper deals with mathematical models of magnetic hysteresis implemented by assembling hysterons of play and stop type. A procedure for the identification of these models is described, and their behaviors are compared to experimental results. A comparison to the Preisach and Prandtl-Ishlinskii models is performed. It is shown that the Play-Type Model is a possible alternative to Preisach's algorithm, whereas the Stop-Type Model is apt to represent the inverse of Preisach's operator. Simulations adopting both models are reported and compared to experimental data. Moreover, an application to the analysis of a ferroresonant circuit is studied, both numerically and experimentally     

Adrenocortical and adrenomedullary homologs in eight species of adult and developing teleosts: morphology, histology, and immunohistochemistry

Morphology, histology, and immunohistochemistry of the adrenocortical and adrenomedullary homologs (adrenal glands) of the following developing and adult teleosts were examined: Salmoniformes-Oncorhynchus mykiss (rainbow trout), Salmo trutta fario (brown trout), Coregonus lavaretus (white fish); Cyprinodontiformes-Gambusia affinis (mosquito fish). Perciformes-Dicentrarchus labrax (sea bass), Sparus aurata (sea bream), Diplodus sargus (white bream), Oblada melanura (saddled bream). The anatomical relationships of the gland with the renal system and venous vessels were also noted. In adults of all species steroidogenic and catecholaminergic chromaffin cells were found in the head kidney, which is pronephric in origin and subsequently transformed into a hematopoietic lymphatic organ. In Perciformes, chromaffin cells are distributed around the anterior and posterior cardinal veins and ducts of Cuvier; in Salmoniformes, around the posterior cardinal veins and in the hematopoietic tissue; and in G. affinis, around the ducts of Cuvier and posterior cardinal veins, while a few are visible also around the sinus venosus. In Perciformes and Salmoniformes, numerous chromaffin cells are also present in the posterior kidney, derived from the opisthonephros, in contact with the caudal vein. Steroidogenic cells are always confined to the head kidney. During development chromaffin and steroidogenic cells appear early after hatching in the pronephric kidney, at the level of the ducts of Cuvier and of the cephalic part of the posterior cardinal veins. Later, chromaffin cells in Perciformes reach the anterior cardinal veins, and subsequently, in both Perciformes and Salmoniformes, they reach the developing posterior kidney. Their localization along the posterior kidney is still in progress about 4 months after hatching and is completed about a year after hatching. These findings support the concept that the structure of the adrenal gland in teleosts is intermediate between that of the other actinopterygians and that of tetrapods. The development differs from that of tetrapods in that it occurs mainly in the pronephros and only later do chromaffin cells reach the opisthonephric kidney.