Adenosine A1 receptor-mediated modulation of dopamine D1 receptors in stably cotransfected fibroblast cells

The antagonistic interactions between adenosine A1 and dopamine D1 receptors were studied in a mouse Ltk- cell line stably cotransfected with human adenosine A1 receptor and dopamine D1 receptor cDNAs. In membrane preparations, both the adenosine A1 receptor agonist N6-cyclopentyladenosine and the GTP analogue guanyl-5'-yl imidodiphospate induced a decrease in the proportion of dopamine D1 receptors in a high affinity state. In the cotransfected cells, the adenosine A1 agonist induced a concentration-dependent inhibition of dopamine-induced cAMP accumulation. Blockade of adenosine A1 receptor signal transduction with the adenosine A1 receptor antagonist 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentylxanthine or with pertussis toxin pretreatment increased both basal and dopamine-stimulated cAMP levels, indicating the existence of tonic adenosine A1 receptor activation. Pretreatment with pertussis toxin also counteracted the effects of low concentrations of the A1 agonist on D1 receptor-agonist binding. The results suggest that adenosine A1 receptors antagonistically modulate dopamine D1 receptors at the level of receptor binding and the generation of second messengers.     

Effect of the anodization voltage on the pore-widening rate of nanoporous anodic alumina

ABSTRACT: A detailed study of the pore-widening rate of nanoporous anodic alumina layers as a function of the anodization voltage was carried out. The study focuses on samples produced under the same electrolyte and concentration but different anodization voltages within the self-ordering regime. By means of ellipsometry-based optical characterization, it is shown that in the pore-widening process, the porosity increases at a faster rate for lower anodization voltages. This opens the possibility of obtaining three-dimensional nanostructured nanoporous anodic alumina with controlled thickness and refractive index of each layer, and with a refractive index difference of up to 0.24 between layers, for samples produced with oxalic acid electrolytes.     

Understanding pore rearrangement during mild to hard transition in bilayered porous anodic alumina membranes

We present a systematic study about the influence of the main anodization parameters (i.e., anodization voltage ramp and hard anodization voltage) on the pore rearrangement in nanoporous anodic alumina during mild to hard anodization regime transition. To cover the ranges between mild and hard regimes, the anodization parameters were each set to three levels (i.e., 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 V s(-1) for the anodization voltage ramp and 80, 110, and 140 V for the hard anodization voltage). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first rigorous study about this phenomenon, which is quantified indirectly by means of a nickel electrodeposition. It is found that pore rearrangement takes place in a relatively random manner. Large areas of pores remain blocked when the anodization regime changes from mild to hard and, under certain anodization conditions, a pore branching takes place based on the self-ordering mechanism at work during anodization. Furthermore, it is statistically demonstrated by means of a design of experiments strategy that the effect of the anodization voltage ramp on the pore rearrangement is practically negligible in contrast to the hard anodization voltage effect. It is expected that this study gives a better understanding of structural changes in nanoporous anodic alumina when anodization is switched from mild to hard regime. Furthermore, the resulting nanostructures could be used to develop a wide range of nanodevices (e.g., waveguides, 1D photonic crystals, Fabry-Pe?rot interferometers, hybrid mosaic arrays of nanowires).     

A practical evaluation of the performance of the Impulse CoDeveloper HLS tool for implementing large-kernel 2-D filters

Bidimensional convolution is a low-level processing algorithm which is of great interest in many areas, but its high computational cost limits the size of the kernels, especially in real-time embedded systems. This work describes the process of designing 2-D filters with large kernels (up to 50 × 50 coefficients) using the Impulse CoDeveloper^TM high-level synthesis (HLS) tool. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a practical guide for designers willing to make the most of an HLS tool like Impulse CoDeveloper, and second, to compare the results, in terms of area utilization, minimum clock period and power consumption, with implementations developed using lower-level design tools. The results show that RTL-based implementations can achieve higher throughputs (up to 44 % faster) than CoDeveloper-based ones. Nevertheless, CoDeveloper can also meet the high-performance requirements of the most demanding real-time applications, but with less effort and shorter design cycles.     

Web 2.0, Language Resources and standards to automatically build a multilingual Named Entity Lexicon

This paper proposes to advance in the current state-of-the-art of automatic Language Resource (LR) building by taking into consideration three elements: (1) the knowledge available in existing LRs, (2) the vast amount of information available from the collaborative paradigm that has emerged from the Web 2.0 and (3) the use of standards to improve interoperability. We present a case study in which a set of LRs for different languages (WordNet for English and Spanish and Parole-Simple-Clips for Italian) are extended with Named Entities (NE) by exploiting Wikipedia and the aforementioned LRs. The practical result is a multilingual NE lexicon connected to these LRs and to two ontologies: SUMO and SIMPLE. Furthermore, the paper addresses an important problem which affects the Computational Linguistics area in the present, interoperability, by making use of the ISO LMF standard to encode this lexicon. The different steps of the procedure (mapping, disambiguation, extraction, NE identification and postprocessing) are comprehensively explained and evaluated. The resulting resource contains 974,567, 137,583 and 125,806 NEs for English, Spanish and Italian respectively. Finally, in order to check the usefulness of the constructed resource, we apply it into a state-of-the-art Question Answering system and evaluate its impact; the NE lexicon improves the system’s accuracy by 28.1%. Compared to previous approaches to build NE repositories, the current proposal represents a step forward in terms of automation, language independence, amount of NEs acquired and richness of the information represented.     

Usability issues in the design of an intuitive interface for planning and simulating maintenance interventions using a virtual environment

This paper presents some of the results obtained in the VRIMOR project (virtual reality for inspection, maintenance, operation and repair of nuclear power plants). The general aim was to integrate environmental scanning technologies with human modelling and radiological dose estimation tools, and to deliver an intuitive and cost-effective system for use by operators involved with interventions in radiologically controlled areas. The usability of the resulting products was one of the main success criteria. This paper describes the general approach and design mechanisms used in the HeSPI (HeSPI stands for the Spanish for Herramienta para la Simulación y Planificación de Intervenciones, or tool for the simulation and planning of interventions) tool that has been developed by one of the teams. The tool provides the designer of an intervention with a humanoid 3D model, or mannequin, that can be loaded into the desired environment and will be used by the designer as if he was manipulating a puppet, making it move around the environment and perform different kinds of actions, adopting varied postures, interacting with the objects in the environment and manipulating tools and equipment. A combination of a graphical user interface (GUI) and a voice recognition system, together with the selected design mechanisms, has proven to offer good enough interaction possibilities for this kind of desktop virtual environment.     

Artificial nutrition in the home. 1995 yearly report. NADYA-SENPE Group (Natiional Registry of Patient-Spanish Society for Parnteral and Enterlal Nutrition

This paper considers the experiences emerging from relatives whose loved ones die suddenly in a Cardiac Care Unit (CCU). It examines how best to address their needs and how to facilitate the normal grieving process during their brief yet traumatic hospital encounter. There appears to be no primary research relating specifically to sudden bereavement in a CCU. Several authors assume that findings can be applied between specialties but there is no empirical evidence to support this assumption. The research which does exist is predominantly in the areas of bereavement generally and in Accident and Emergency (A&E) in particular. This paper contains a critical examination of this literature and consideration of the extent to which findings from these fields can be relied upon to lead practice in the CCUs. It is concluded that recommendations for practice arising from such literature, e.g. those supporting the allocation of an advocate nurse to accompany relatives and allowing observation of resuscitation, may not be readily applicable to CCUs. The paper concludes with a consideration of future cardio-specific research needs.     

Sideburn reconstruction with an expanded supraauricular trapezoidal flap

Although loss of the sideburn and temporal scalp with subsequent alopecia is relatively frequent as a consequence of traumatic, surgical, and iatrogenic processes, not many techniques of sideburn reconstruction have been reported. We present a two-stage technique to correct the long-sideburns when there is an associated temporal alopecic defect due to trauma or surgery by means of an expanded supra-auricular trapezoidal flap. The method can achieve not only a satisfactory appearance of the sideburn but also a normal capillary line from the occipital to the frontal region.