Fast Positive Feedback Between the Adrenocortical Stress Response and a Brain Mechanism Involved in Aggressive Behavior.

Aggressive behavior induces an adrenocortical stress response, and sudden stressors often precipitate violent behavior. Experiments in rats revealed a fast, mutual, positive feedback between the adrenocortical stress response and a brain mechanism controlling aggression. Stimulation of the aggressive area in the hypothalamus rapidly activated the adrenocortical response, even in the absence of an opponent and fighting. Hypothalamic aggression, in turn, was rapidly facilitated by a corticosterone injection in rats in which the natural adrenocortical stress response was prevented by adrenalectomy. The rapidity of both effects points to a fast, mutual, positive feedback of the controlling mechanisms within the time frame of a single conflict. Such a mutual facilitation may contribute to the precipitation and escalation of violent behavior under stressful conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ring‐opening polymerization of lactones initiated by diphenylzinc–coinitiator systems

Diphenylzinc, alone or in combination with water and butanone as coinitiators, was used as a polymerization initiator system for a variety of lactones at varying temperatures. The resulting data indicate that the course of the polymerization is greatly influenced by the lactone structure, as well as by the molar ratio of coinitiator to diphenylzinc. When used alone, diphenylzinc exhibited high activity as an initiator in δ‐valerolactone polymerizations, although it was less efficient when used in the β‐butyrolactone and the β‐propiolactone polymerizations. Activity in the polymerization of β‐lactones was increased by adding small amounts of butanone or water. It was also observed that the diphenylzinc–butanone combination was more effective than the diphenylzinc–water mixture in the polymerizations of β‐butyrolactone and β‐propiolactone. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Optically preamplified receiver performance due to VSB filtering for 40-Gb/s optical signals modulated with various formats

Optically preamplified receiver performance according to the vestigial sideband (VSB) filtering has been numerically investigated for 40-Gb/s optical signals modulated with nonreturn-to-zero, duobinary nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ), return-to-zero (RZ), carrier-suppressed RZ, and duobinary carrier-suppressed RZ formats. The VSB filtering enables the spectral widths of NRZ, duobinary NRZ, and RZ signals to be reduced without severe power penalties at the receiver. On the other hand, carrier-suppressed RZ and duobinary carrier-suppressed RZ signals have no large advantages over VSB filtering because of the characteristics of their signals. Our results suggest that RZ signals are the most suitable modulation format for VSB filtering, without considering the filter loss, because of the tolerance of the intersymbol interference and a large spectral width. However, duobinary NRZ signals are the most suitable modulation format for VSB filtering, considering the filter loss, because of their narrow spectral width.     

Nonlinearity analysis and optimization of HBTs for optical mixer designs

Two types of photo heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) to directly down-convert optical signals to electronic signals have been reported in the literature: a conventional photo-HBT in which light penetrates through the area of the base-collector junction and an HBT where light shines through the base-collector edge for higher conversion efficiency. Although the performance in relation to bias conditions has been published, the detailed analyses for identifying the parameters and bias conditions that provide optimum direct down-conversion have not been examined. This paper provides a full explanation of the operation of the down-conversion for both HBT configurations based on low-frequency analyses. Such information is useful for both understanding the nonlinear mechanisms involved and designing for maximum efficiency. In addition, a new circuit has been developed from the basic HBT down-conversion circuit that provides improved performance.     

Formulation of a ceramic ink for a wide-array drop-on-demand ink-jet printer

This paper describes the methodology for simulating a reprographic ink with a ceramic ink based on a commercially available zirconia powder for direct ceramic ink-jet printing. Of over-riding importance was matching viscosity and this was tested systematically by using a mineral oil–hexane binary system. Of secondary importance was adjustment of the pressure defect behind the nozzle to compensate for small differences in surface tension. The inks tested in the wide array print-head were based on low electrical conductivity liquids to avoid damage to the electroding system. The organic binder for the zirconia ink was paraffin wax and the dispersant was a hydroxystearic acid based polyester.     

Spectral shape tunable band-rejection filter using a long-period fiber grating with divided coil heaters

We have developed a new type of tunable band rejection filter, which provides high spectral-shaping flexibility in a wide tuning range. The filter consists of a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) with divided coil heaters. Each of the divided coil heaters is controlled individually to adjust a temperature distribution along the LPFG and to modify the spectral shape of the LPFG filter. The tunable band rejection filter is demonstrated to function properly when applied as an erbium-doped fiber amplifier gain-flattening filter.     

Radiometric sensor for temperature control of food processing

This paper describes a novel planar antenna sensor created for the purpose of noninvasive temperature measurements using microwave radiometry. In order to improve radiometric measurements in industrial applications, a new generation of sensors is introduced, composed of a metallic sheet. Simulations based upon the method of moments is used both to design and to determine their electromagnetic performances. This paper also describes a radiometric device using these sensors to measure and control the temperature of food products during deep freezing processes. The results and discussions are presented.