Performance and mood during and after gradual sleep reduction

Angiotensin is a potent dipsogenic substance and causes elevated water intake in some pathological conditions but as yet no physiological role for angiotensin in normal thirst has been proven. If angiotensin is important in normal drinking, then it should contribute to the drinking which follows water deprivation. The rehydration of bilaterally nephrectomized rats, rats with bilateral ureteric ligation and control rats was compared after 21 hours of water deprivation. The total intake during the 6 hour rehydration was the same in the 3 groups despite the differences in the level of circulating angiotensin. Thus the renal renin-angiotensin system is not essential for deprivation-induced drinking. Another way to test any contribution to drinking by angiotensin is the administration of the competitive angiotensin inhibitor, saralasin acetate. In a control experiment saralasin acetate was found to block the dipsogenic effect of intravenous angiotensin. The infusion of saralasin acetate in a wide range of doses did not, however, affect the drinking following ligation of the inferior vena cava. Thus angiotensin is not essential for drinking following caval ligation. Two possible explanations for these results are that angiotensin is not normally involved in these types of thirst or that there is redundancy in the control of drinking with compensation for blocked mechanisms.     

Mass transfer between streams of liquid and vapor during evaporation from capillaries

We have estimated the degree of departure from one-dimensionality of the relative humidity field during evaporation from a capillary, allowing for interaction of the vapor and liquid phases according to the Deryagin-Nerpin-Churaev theory. The boundary conditions for the non-one-dimensional problem have been formulated. An analytical solution has been obtained for a non-one-dimensional relative humidity field in a capillary under simplifying assumptions.     

Nonisothermal moisture transfer in closed disperse systems

This paper shows that the factors determining the magnitude of the reverse flow of moisture, which compensates the moisture transfer due to the temperature gradient, have a decisive influence on the final form of the moisture-content profile in horizontal, closed, disperse, nonisothermal systems.     

Terahertz sources and detectors and their application to biological sensing

Terahertz spectroscopy has long been used as an important measurement tool in fields such as radio astronomy, physical chemistry, atmospheric studies and plasma research. More recently terahertz technology has been used to develop an exciting new technique to investigate the properties of a wide range of biological materials. Although much research remains before a full understanding of the interaction between biomaterials and terahertz radiation is developed, these initial studies have created a compelling case for further scientific study. Also, the potential development of practical tools to detect and identify biological materials such as biological-warfare agents and food contaminants, or of medical diagnostic tools, is driving the need for improved terahertz technology. In particular, improved terahertz sources and detectors that can be used in practical spectroscopy systems are needed. This paper overviews some of the recent measurements of the terahertz spectra of biomaterials and the ongoing efforts to create an all-solid-state technology suitable not only for improved scientific experiments but also for military and commercial applications.     

Post-traumatic brain hypothermia reduces histopathological damage following concussive brain injury in the rat

The purposes of this study were (1) to document the histopathological consequences of moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) in anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats, and (2) to determine whether post-traumatic brain hypothermia (30 degrees C) would protect histopathologically. Twenty-four hours prior to TBI, the fluid percussion interface was positioned over the right cerebral cortex. On the 2nd day, fasted rats were anesthetized with 70% nitrous oxide, 1% halothane, and 30% oxygen. Under controlled physiological conditions and normothermic brain temperature (37.5 degrees C), rats were injured with a fluid percussion pulse ranging from 1.7 to 2.2 atmospheres. In one group, brain temperature was maintained at normothermic levels for 3 h after injury. In a second group, brain temperature was reduced to 30 degrees C at 5 min post-trauma and maintained for 3 h. Three days after TBI, brains were perfusion-fixed for routine histopathological analysis. In the normothermic group, damage at the site of impact was seen in only one of nine rats. In contrast, all normothermic animals displayed necrotic neurons within ipsilateral cortical regions lateral and remote from the impact site. Intracerebral hemorrhagic contusions were present in all rats at the gray-white interface underlying the injured cortical areas. Selective neuronal necrosis was also present within the CA3 and CA4 hippocampal subsectors and thalamus. Post-traumatic brain hypothermia significantly reduced the overall sum of necrotic cortical neurons (519 +/- 122 vs 952 +/- 130, mean +/- SE, P = 0.03, Kruskal-Wallis test) as well as contusion volume (0.50 +/- 0.14 vs 2.14 +/- 0.71 mm3, P = 0.004).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

New split FET technique for measurements of source seriesresistance applied to amorphous silicon thin film transistors

A split field-effect transistor (SFET) is proposed for measuring source and drain series resistances. This device is made by splitting a conventional thin-film transistor (TFT) from the source to the drain in such a way that the gate width of each half is a linear function of the distance from the source. The analysis shows that the intrinsic current-voltage characteristics of such a device should be symmetrical with respect to the polarity of the drain-to-source voltage. Hence, the observed asymmetry of the device characteristic yields direct information about the differences between source and drain series resistances, which are inversely proportional to the contact width. For an a-Si TFT it is shown that the source series resistance is proportional to the inverse square root of the drain current in a wide range of currents. The technique can be applied to a large variety of FETs. For a-Si TFTs, it provides an accurate tool for determining the effects of contact overlap, bias stress, and temperature dependences of series resistances     

Factors influencing x-ray scintillation-counter metrological-characteristic stability

Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 9, pp. 50–52, September, 1989.     

Effect of the hydrostatic pressure on the coercive force of polycrystalline garnets

The effect of hydrostatic pressure (up to 1200 bar)on the reversible and irreversible magnetization mechanisms has been investigated in YIG samples. The relations between the reversible and irreversible parts of the magnetization, previously established for samples without defect inside the grains and no applied pressure, are shown to remain valid under pressure. The product of field parameters such as coercive force Hcby magnetization parameters such as susceptibility remains constant also in samples under pressure; this fact permits a single curve, pressure independent, to be obtained. The interpretation is based on a hypothesis of a variation with the applied pressure of the domain wall topography.