GABAA, NMDA and AMPA receptors: a developmentally regulated 'ménage à trois'

The main ionotropic receptors (GABAA, NMDA and AMPA) display a sequential participation in neuronal excitation in the neonatal hippocampus. GABA, the principal inhibitory transmitter in the adult CNS, acts as an excitatory transmitter in early postnatal stage. Glutamatergic synaptic transmission is first purely NMDA-receptor based and lacks functional AMPA receptors. Therefore, initially glutamatergic synapses are 'silent' at resting membrane potential, NMDA channels being blocked by Mg2+. However, when GABA and glutamatergic synapses are coactivated during the physiological patterns of activity, GABAA receptors can facilitate the activation of NMDA receptors, playing the role conferred to AMPA receptors later on in development. Determining the mechanisms underlying the development of this 'ménage à trois' will shed light not only on the wide range of trophic roles of glutamate and GABA in the developing brain, but also on the significance of the transition from neonatal to adult forms of plasticity.     

Menadione-induced oxidative stress accelerates onset of Emory mouse cataract in vivo

This article takes issue with procedural reductionism, which is the inclination to reduce all matters of judgement and responsibility to the following of some procedure or rule. Two scenarios provide content for a discussion of professional discretion in the context of accountability. The author shows that in professional life there will always be situations that stand beyond the rules of procedures and require the unique judgement of the professional at the time. While this judgement may be determined by the facts available in a situation of uncertainty, it cannot be reduced to the facts (including facts about rules and procedures). The moral judgement will still have an essential indeterminancy about it.     

Contrast-enhanced magnetisation transfer MRI in metastatic lesions of the brain

Our purpose was to compare prospectively the sensitivity of contrast-enhanced magnetisation transfer (MT) MRI and gradient-echo (GE) T1-weighted images in metastatic disease of the brain. We studied 52 patients with brain metastases, using conventional T1-weighted GE and MT spin-echo (SE) images after the same standard dose of gadolinium. Axial 5-mm reconstructions of GE data were compared with 5-mm MT images in the same plane. Metastases were counted independently by two neuroradiologists. In 12 patients (23%) MT imaging showed more metastases than GE images (P = 0.03). We detected 68 more metastases with the former technique.     

Oscillation of the scattering time in a 2D electron system with oval antidots

Electron scattering by a single barrier is predicted to reveal singularities as the magnetic field is changed, because the number of electron collisions with the barrier dramatically increases as chaotic orbits around the barrier are changed into periodic orbits. To test this experimentally we have measured the magnetoresistance of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with a two-dimensional electron gas and a lateral lattice containing a macroscopic number of oval-shaped antidots fabricated using electron lithography. Reproducible fluctuations in the magnetoresistance are observed at low field, which are due to the oscillations of the number of electron collisions with the antidots. The number of collisions N before the electron escapes from the antidot has been calculated as a function of B in an electric field. The position of the maxima in N(B) obtained from calculations and experiment are in reasonable agreement.     

Sequential discrete multilevel automated system for recording electron-diffraction patterns

This article considers a discrete sequential multilevel automated system for recording electron-diffraction patterns. A comparative analysis is presented, along with experimental results that make it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the technical decisions on which the device is based. The general design of the system is presented. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika No. 5, pp. 16–18, May, 1996.     

Prediction of processing-induced distortion of curved flanged composite laminates

It is well known that angles in composite parts contract as they are cooled down from the curing temperature, this is often referred to as spring-in. It is caused mainly by the significantly different thermal contractions and cure shrinkage's experienced between the fibre direction and the through-thickness direction during the manufacturing process. A number of works have reported on the spring-in of straight angle composite parts. However, little has been done to investigate the distortion of curved flanged composite parts, which will distort differently owing to the introduction of the additional curvature, thus constraint.

In the present work, the distortion of the circularly curved flanged laminates is studied numerically. The finite element method is used to predict the processing-induced distortion of the part with two different approaches. In the first approach, the shear angles of the composite plies are predicted by a draping analysis. The effect of the fibre shearing on the mechanical properties of the laminates is considered in the model used to predict the distortion. The second simplified approach assumes that the in-plane properties of the laminates are isotropic. The results obtained by these two approaches are compared with those obtained experimentally.     

Theory of a novel voltage-sustaining layer for power devices

The theory of a novel voltage-sustaining layer for power devices, called a Composite Buffer layer (CB-layer for short) is proposed. The CB-layer can be implemented in several ways, one particular implementation is used here, which consists of alternating n- and p-type regions, that are parallel to the direction of the applied electric field. In the off-state, the fields induced by the depletion charges of both region types compensate each other to allowing the doping in both n-regions and p-regions to be very high without causing a reduction of the breakdown voltage. In the onstate the heavy doping ensures the voltage drop is very low and that the saturation current density high. A simple relationship between the specific on-resistance and R_on and the sustaining voltage V_B can be shown to be R_on=2.53 × 10⁻⁷bV_B^1.23 ωcm², where the breadth b (in μm) of each region is much smaller than the thickness W. The design method of the CB-layer is discussed in some detail. The simulation results are shown to be in perfect agreement with the theory. The structure has application to a wide variety of different power devices. An RMOST structure has been used to demonstrate the benefits of the technique in the paper, for which excellent performance is demonstrated.     

Inference and retrieval of facial images

Attempts have been made to extend SQL to work with multimedia databases. We are reserved on the representation ability of extended SQL to cope with the richness in content of multimedia data. In this paper we present an example of a multimedia database system, Computer Aided Facial Image Inference and Retrieval system (CAFIIR). The system stores and manages facial images and criminal records, providing necessary functions for crime identification. We would like to demonstrate some core techniques for multimedia database with CAFIIR system. Firstly, CAFIIR is a integrated system. Besides database management, there are image analysis, image composition, image aging, and report generation subsystems, providing means for problem solving. Secondly, the richness of multimedia data urges feature-based database for their management. CAFIIR is feature-based. A indexing mechanism,iconic index, has been proposed for indexing facial images using hierarchical self-organization neural network. The indexing method operates on complex feature measures and provides means for visual navigation. Thirdly, special retrieval methods for facial images have been developed, including visual browsing, similarity retrieval, free text retrieval and fuzzy retrieval.