Restoration of blood pressure by choline treatment in rats made hypotensive by haemorrhage

1. Intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of choline (25-150 micrograms) increased blood pressure in rats made acutely hypotensive by haemorrhage. Intraperitoneal administration of choline (60 mg kg-1) also increased blood pressure, but to a lesser extent. Following i.c.v. injection of 25 micrograms or 50 micrograms of choline, heart rate did not change, while 100 micrograms or 150 micrograms i.c.v. choline produced a slight and short lasting bradycardia. Choline (150 micrograms) failed to alter the circulating residual volume of blood in haemorrhaged rats. 2. The pressor response to i.c.v. choline (50 micrograms) in haemorrhaged rats was abolished by pretreatment with mecamylamine (50 micrograms, i.c.v.) but not atropine (10 micrograms, i.c.v.). The pressor response to choline was blocked by pretreatment with hemicholinium-3 (20 micrograms, i.c.v.). 3. The pressor response to i.c.v. choline (150 micrograms) was associated with a several fold increase in plasma levels of vasopressin and adrenaline but not of noradrenaline and plasma renin. 4. The pressor response to i.c.v. choline (150 micrograms) was not altered by bilateral adrenalectomy, but was attenuated by systemic administration of either phentolamine (10 mg kg-1) or the vasopressin antagonist [beta-mercapto-beta,beta-cyclopenta-methylenepropionyl1, O-Me-Tyr2,Arg8]-vasopressin (10 micrograms kg-1). 5. It is concluded that the precursor of acetylcholine, choline, can increase and restore blood pressure in acutely haemorrhaged rats by increasing central cholinergic neurotransmission. Nicotinic receptor activation and an increase in plasma vasopressin and adrenaline level appear to be involved in this effect of choline.     

Neural network and fuzzy logic-based hybrid attitude controller designs of a fixed-wing UAV

Neural Computing and Applications - In this paper, a mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is planned to be used in applications such as spraying pesticide and weed control in agricultural areas....     

AMT 2.0: qualitative and quantitative trace analysis with extended signal temporal logic

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - We introduce in this paper $$\text {AMT} \; 2.0$$ , a tool for qualitative and quantitative analysis of hybrid continuous and...     

The role of anion additives in the electrodeposition of nickel-cobalt alloys from sulfamate electrolyte

Nickel-cobalt alloys have been deposited from sulfamate electrolyte with acetate and citrate-anion additives and evaluated for structure and properties, such as microhardness, tensile strength, internal stress and high-temperature oxidation. XRD data show that at low Co content, the alloys exhibit face-centered cubic (fcc) growth orientations. Above 60% Co, the deposit is completely hexagonal close packed (hcp) with pronounced (100) and (110) lines. It seems likely that the Ni-Co deposits from typical sulfamate electrolyte at pH 5, as well as at current density higher than 5 A/dm², include metal hydroxides. This is followed by the formation of a more strained structure. The high-temperature oxidation rate of the Ni-Co coating from sulfamate electrolyte at pH 5 is twice that of the alloy deposited from the electrolyte with anion additives. We believe that, citrate complexes of Ni and Co, which are assumed to be involved in alloy deposition, eliminate the incorporation of hydroxides into the deposits and enable low-internal-stress coating. The anion-modified bath offers stability of structure and properties of the alloy over a wide range of acidity and current density.     

A new approach for the voxelization of volumetric CSG graphs

This paper presents a new approach for the voxelization of volumetric scene graphs. The algorithm generates slices of each primitive intended to be voxelized using an FPGA based pixel processor. The Blist representation is used for the volume scene tree which reduces storage requirement for each voxel to the log(H+1) bits. The most important advantage of this voxelization algorithm is that any volume scene tree expression can be evaluated without using any computation or stack. Also the algorithm is not object specific, i.e. the same algorithm can be used for the voxelization of different types of objects (convex and concave objects, polygons, lines and surfaces).     

Age-related alterations in pre-synaptic and receptor-mediated cholinergic functions in rat brain

Fractional [3H]acetylcholine (ACh) release and regulation of release process by muscarinic receptors were studied in corpus striatum of young and aged rat brains. [3H] Quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) binding and carbachol stimulated phosphoinositide turnover, on the other hand, were compared in striatal, hippocampal and cortical tissues. High potassium (10 mM)-induced fractional [3H]ACh release from striatal slices was reduced by aging. Although inhibition of acetylcholinesterase with eserine (20 microM) significantly decreased stimulation-induced fractional [3H]ACh release in two groups of rats, this inhibition slightly lessened with aging. Incubation of striatal slices with muscarinic antagonists reversed eserine-induced inhibition in fractional [3H]ACh release with a similar order of potency (atropine = 4-DAMP > AF-DX 116 > pirenzepine) in young and aged rat striatum, but age-induced difference in stimulated ACh release was not abolish by muscarinic antagonists. These results suggested that fractional [3H]ACh release from striatum of both age groups is modulated mainly by M3 muscarinic receptor subtype. Although both muscarinic receptor density and labeling of inositol lipids with [myo-3H]inositol decreased with aging, carbachol-stimulated [3H]myo inositol-1-fosfat (IP1) accumulation was found similar in striatal, cortical and hippocampal slices.     

Design and implementation of an FPGA-based parallel graphics renderer for displaying CSG surfaces and volumes

In this paper, the design and implementation of a high-speed “CSG renderer” for displaying convex and concave objects and its performance analysis are presented. The renderer comprises a binary tree-structured depth generator that produces the depth values of a plane at each pixel on the display window simultaneously, and pipelined pixel processors that processes the depth values, a corner bender, and a frame-buffer.In this work, constructive solid geometry (CSG) scene models are used to simplify the hidden area removal and object interference testing. The field programmable gate array technology is used in the implementation.