κ-Opioid Signaling in the Lateral Hypothalamic Area Modulates Nicotine-Induced Negative Energy Balance

Several studies have reported that nicotine, the main bioactive component of tobacco, exerts a marked negative energy balance. Apart from its anorectic action, nicotine also modulates energy expenditure, by regulating brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and white adipose tissue (WAT) browning. These effects are mainly controlled at the central level by modulation of hypothalamic neuropeptide systems and energy sensors, such as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). In this study, we aimed to investigate the kappa opioid receptor (κOR)/dynorphin signaling in the modulation of nicotine’s effects on energy balance. We found that body weight loss after nicotine treatment is associated with a down-regulation of the κOR endogenous ligand dynorphin precursor and with a marked reduction in κOR signaling and the p70 S6 kinase/ribosomal protein S6 (S6K/rpS6) pathway in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). The inhibition of these pathways by nicotine was completely blunted in κOR deficient mice, after central pharmacological blockade of κOR, and in rodents where κOR was genetically knocked down specifically in the LHA. Moreover, κOR-mediated nicotine effects on body weight do not depend on orexin. These data unravel a new central regulatory pathway modulating nicotine’s effects on energy balance.     

Fast internal dynamics in polyelectrolyte gels measured by dynamic light scattering

Summary Dynamic light scattering was used to investigate the dynamics of sodium poly(styrene sulfonate) and fully neutralized poly(acrylic acid) gels as a function of the degree of swelling and weight ratio of cross-linking agent. It was shown that the collective diffusion coefficient increases with increasing degree of swelling and that the diffusion coefficient shows stronger concentration dependence than predicted by scaling arguments. For gel samples measured at the swelling equilibrium, the diffusion coefficient increases with increasing gel concentration for both gel systems.     

Integrated Smart Sensor Calibration

In many applications electronic sensors are used toimprove performance and reliability of measurement systems. Suchsensors should provide a correct transfer from the physical signalto be measured to the electrical output signal. One importantstep to achieve this, is to calibrate each sensor by applyingdifferent reference input signals and adjusting the sensor transferaccordingly. Besides expensive reference equipment the calibrationprocess takes much time and attention per individual sensor,which means a considerable increase in sensor production costs.By including at the sensor or sensor interface chip a programmablecalibration facility the calibration of such smart sensors caneasily be automated and can be executed for a batch of sensorsat a time, thus minimizing the calibration time and costs. Thispaper presents a calibration method and options for integrationin the smart sensor concept, in hardware as well as in software.An advantage of the proposed method is that it does not needa large matrix of calibration data, which needs to be storedin a look-up table or converted into a correction formula, butinstead it uses a step-by-step approach to correct the sensortransfer at each calibration measurement until the error is sufficientlysmall.     

Process development and adhesion behavior of electroless copper on liquid crystal polymer (LCP) for electronic packaging application

Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) has potentially a very wide application as substrate material in electronic packaging applications because of its unique advantages. The work in this paper was performed to realize the metallization of LCP for the purpose of board fabrication, and to study the adhesion between deposited copper and LCP. A homogenous electroless plated copper layer on LCP with 4 to 5 /spl mu/m thickness was achieved, while it increased up to 40 /spl mu/m with the subsequent electroplating. The timescale of etching, deposit ion rate, and pH value were gradually changing during the plating process and the influences on copper layer quality were investigated. The adhesion force of the copper-LCP layer system was measured by a shear-off-method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to check the surface morphology after etching and the interface after shearing on both the backside of the copper layer and the LCP side. The relationship between the shear-off adhesion of copper and the time of chemical etching before plating was examined, and the optimal etching time is discussed. Heat treatment after plating was used, and it was shown that this significantly improved the adhesion strength.     

A method for dynamic measurement of the resistance to dry heat exchange by footwear

Five different types of cold protective footwear have been tested with regard to their resistance to dry heat loss (i.e. the insulation) with a new electrically heated foot model. The model is able to simulate 'walking' movements in order to provide a more realistic simulation of wear conditions. Thermal insulation of shoes with and without a steel toe cap was the same. The insulating properties during simulated walking movements were 10-25% lower compared with static conditions. For two of the shoe models a significantly lower insulation value for the sole area was obtained when adding a weight of 30 kg. A significant difference could also be found between the insulation values of two different sizes of one of the models. Measurements with the standard method (EN 344) correlated well with the local insulation value of the sole part of the thermal foot. Correlation with the insulation value for the whole shoe was much less, variation was bigger and ranking in terms of cold protection differed between methods. The electrically heated foot model appears to provide a reproducible, accurate and more realistic method for measuring the insulation properties of shoes than EN 344.     

Photonic Demodulator With Sensitivity Control

A current assisted photonic demodulator for use as a pixel in a 3-D time-of-flight imager shows nearly 100% static demodulator contrast and is operable beyond 30 MHz. An integrated tunable sensitivity control is also presented for increasing the distance measurement range and avoiding unwanted saturation during integration periods. This is achieved by application of a voltage on a dedicated drain tap showing a quenching of sensor sensitivity to below 1%     

WCDMA的分层式体系结构

分层式体系结构简介 WCDMA的分层式体系结构主要负责媒体网关(MGW)的分配和移动交换中心(MSC)服务器的集中管理.它具有分布式交换功能,并集中进行运营维护和呼叫控制,可大大降低运营开销.