Depression as a dynamical disease

Mathematical models are helpful in the understanding of diseases through the use of dynamical indicators. A previous study has shown that brain activity can be characterized by a decrease of dynamical complexity in depressive subjects. The present paper confirms and extends these conclusions through the use of recent methodological advances: first episode and recurrent patients strongly differ in their dynamical response to therapeutic interventions. These results emphasize the need for clinical follow-ups to avoid recurrence and the necessity of specific therapeutic intervention in the case of recurrent patients.     

Effects of lung volume and fatigue on evoked diaphragmatic phonomyogram in normal subjects

BACKGROUND: A diaphragmatic phonomyogram (PMG) evoked by maximal phrenic nerve stimulation at end expiratory lung volume (FRC) has been previously described as a good index of changes in diaphragmatic contractility with fatigue. A study was undertaken to assess whether this conclusion could be extended to different lung volumes. METHODS: Diaphragmatic compound motor action potentials (CMAPs) were recorded on each side of the chest by the means of surface electrodes placed over the eight intercostal spaces in five healthy subjects. Diaphragmatic PMGs from both sides were recorded with condenser microphones fixed to the skin close to the CMAP recording electrodes. Oesophageal and gastric balloon tipped catheters were employed to measure transdiaphragmatic pressure twitches (TwPDI) which served as the standard measure of changes in diaphragmatic contractility. PMG and TwPDI responses were compared at different lung volumes over inspiratory capacity both before and after fatiguing inspiratory resistive loading. RESULTS: No consistent relationship was found in different subjects or on different days in the same subject between PMG and lung volume or between PMG and TwPDI. However, the PMG:CMAP ratio from both sides at any given lung volume decreased after fatigue in roughly the same proportion as the TwPDI. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that, although PMG can detect changes in diaphragmatic contractility caused by fatigue in normal subjects, lung volume changes need to be controlled and each subject should serve as his or her own control.     

Potential-time measurements on mild steel in etch primer solutions

Experiments were carried out in a two pack system; polyvinyl butyral, zinc tetroxychromate in one pack, and phosphoric acid in the other with an isopropanol solvent in both packs. This study examines the functions of the phosphoric acid and the chromate containing pigment separately by utilising the feature that the alcohol dispersed components have sufficient conductivity to carry out potential-time measurements in the wet components before and during mixing.     

Hereditary neuralgic amyotrophy and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies: two distinct clinical, electrophysiologic, and genetic entities

Fistulas secondary to Crohn's disease occur in about 33% of patients. A colobronchial fistula complicating Crohn's disease is very rare, having been reported only twice previously. We present an unusual fistula secondary to Crohn's colitis that originated from the splenic flexure and crossed the diaphragm to involve the bronchial tree.     

Direct optical injection locking of 20 GHz superlattice oscillators

For the first time, a direct optically injection-locked oscillator based on the Esaki-Tsu effect in superlattices is reported. The microwave output power is -7 dBm at 20 GHz with an optical input power of -10 dBm at a wavelength of 1.3 μm     

Application of the recurrent multilayer perceptron in modelingcomplex process dynamics

A nonlinear dynamic model is developed for a process system, namely a heat exchanger, using the recurrent multilayer perceptron network as the underlying model structure. The perceptron is a dynamic neural network, which appears effective in the input-output modeling of complex process systems. Dynamic gradient descent learning is used to train the recurrent multilayer perceptron, resulting in an order of magnitude improvement in convergence speed over a static learning algorithm used to train the same network. In developing the empirical process model the effects of actuator, process, and sensor noise on the training and testing sets are investigated. Learning and prediction both appear very effective, despite the presence of training and testing set noise, respectively. The recurrent multilayer perceptron appears to learn the deterministic part of a stochastic training set, and it predicts approximately a moving average response of various testing sets. Extensive model validation studies with signals that are encountered in the operation of the process system modeled, that is steps and ramps, indicate that the empirical model can substantially generalize operational transients, including accurate prediction of instabilities not in the training set. However, the accuracy of the model beyond these operational transients has not been investigated. Furthermore, online learning is necessary during some transients and for tracking slowly varying process dynamics. Neural networks based empirical models in some cases appear to provide a serious alternative to first principles models.     

8-OH-DPAT induces a selective increase in protein intake in ageing overweight animals

We have examined the effects of a 5-HT1A receptor agonist (8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin, 8-OH-DPAT) on food preference in ageing rats that had been given a 'palatable' meal 15 min before administration of the drug. Ageing rats consumed a greater amount of the 'palatable' pre-meal than the young rats. In young rats lipids were the predominant source of calories, but in old animals lipid and protein consumption was similar. Administration of 8-OH-DPAT resulted in an increase in total caloric intake in both groups. Concomitant with this there was a significant increase in protein intake in both groups, which was most important in ageing rats, where proteins became the predominant source of calories.     

SCID-Hu mouse as a model for human lung HIV-1 infection

HIV induces a multi-organ infection with a dual tropism for both lymphocytes and monocytes/macrophages. The lung is a target both for HIV infection and HIV-related opportunistic infections. The SCID mouse has provided the opportunity to develop a small animal model for HIV infection. However, HIV-1 infection of the human fetal thymus and liver (SCID Liv/Thy) implanted in these mice occurred only after direct intraimplant injection of HIV-1 and the resultant HIV-1 infection was restricted to the human thymus. Here we report that human foetal lung can develop in SCID Liv/Thy mice resulting in the development of normal human alveolar and bronchiolar lung compartments which can be productively infected with cell-free HIV-1 virus, leading to a systemic and bifocal infection. This SCID-Hu model should be useful for studying AIDS physiopathology, human viruses with lung tropism and for helping to define gene therapy protocols in lung human cells in vivo.