Pharmacological dissociation between the reinforcing, sensitizing, and response-releasing functions of reward in honeybee classical conditioning.

Reserpine depletes biogenic amines from their stores in the honeybee (Apis mellifera camica) brain and leads to impaired appetitive conditioning using sucrose as a reinforcer. Compensatory injection of octopamine or dopamine directly into the brain restores these behavioral losses. Dopamine rescues the slowing-down effect on motor patterns, but not sensitization or conditioning. Octopamine leaves the motor patterns as well as sensitization unchanged but rescues conditioning. Specifically, octopamine rescues acquisition but not retrieval. Serotonin has no significant effect on sensitization but impairs conditioning. The authors conclude that octopamine is involved in selectively mediating the reinforcing but not the sensitizing or response-releasing function of the sucrose reward, whereas dopamine is selectively involved in the expression of the motor response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Energy performance contracts in the municipal sector in Norway: overcoming barriers to energy savings?

In this paper, we investigate which factors are significant for the uptake of energy performance contracts (EPCs) in Norway’s municipal sector, based on qualitative case studies. An EPC consists of a set of energy efficiency measures provided by an energy service company. The model used in Norway guarantees that savings produced by a project will finance its full cost. Estimates indicate that an EPC is a promising way of substantially increasing savings. We find that a committed individual in the administration is essential for the adoption of an EPC. Such individuals have the technical and/or economic competence to see the potential for energy savings and the organizational competence for moving an EPC through to the political level. Further, we find that the guarantee that accompanies an EPC is well suited for addressing the logic of politicians, and is crucial when the final decision is made. These findings indicate that a standard economic understanding of energy savings is not sufficient. Efforts to increase energy savings might benefit from being targeted at the contexts where measures are to be implemented and at the logic of those making energy-saving decisions.     

Fine structural characteristics of testicular cord formation in the developing rabbit gonad

This paper presents morphological (light- and electron-microscopical) evidence for the role of the mesonephros in contributing cells to the differentiating indifferent gonad and, after sexual differentiation, to the testis. A continuous process is revealed during which segregation of cells occurs from the developing and regressing mesonephros. Additionally, the complementary role of the coelomic epithelium in gonadal ridge and testis formation is demonstrated. The differentiation of testicular cords, their remodelling from a primary reticulum, and the composition and further change of the cellular content during the period after sexual differentiation is described using a computer-aided three-dimensional reconstruction system. Apart from these morphogenetic events, cytodifferentiation in the somatic cells of the indifferent gonad and of the early differentiated testis is demonstrated using indirect immunof luorescence in combination with monoclonal antibodies to the intermediate filament proteins keratin 8 and 18 and vimentin. The immunohistochemical results show that different forms of cytodifferentiation coexist among the somatic cells present in the indifferent gonad and in the testis early after sexual differentiation.     

Bandgap and electronic structure of CaSiN2: Experiment and theory

We interrogate the electronic properties of the nitridosilicate CaSiN₂ as determined using soft X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy, which probe directly the partial electronic density of states. We compare our measurements to full potential, all electron density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Good agreement between experiment and theory is obtained, and the electronic bandgap of CaSiN₂ is determined to be 3.95 ± 0.3 eV, in contrast with our predicted value of 4.78 eV that was calculated using the modified Becke–Johnson exchange-correlation functional with the DFT framework.