Corticotropin-releasing factor modulates defensive-withdrawal and exploratory behavior in rats.

The role of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), an endogenous neuropeptide, in modulating species-typical responses was examined in an unfamiliar open field containing a small chamber. Rats placed in this small chamber spent most of their time withdrawn in it. However, rats given an icv injection (20 μg) of α-helical CRF(9–41), a CRF receptor antagonist, emerged from the chamber and explored the unfamiliar open field. Results of additional studies with vehicle-treated rats suggest that reexposure reduces the threatening impact of an unfamiliar open field. CRF (300 ng) injected centrally, but not peripherally, before reexposure to the test environment significantly reduced exploration in the open field and increased a pattern of defensive-withdrawal into the chamber. Data suggest that whether defensive-withdrawal or exploratory behavior is exhibited may depend on CRF actions in brain systems that mediate the perception of threat in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Active power filters — Recent advances

Power electronic loads inject harmonic currents into the utility causing overheating of power transformers and neutral wires, the power system, unpredictable performance of protection systems etc. In addition, electric resonances in such loads can also cause other undesirable phenomena like voltage fluctuations, ratio frequency interference (RFI) etc. To mitigate these undesirable effects, a new class of power electronics equipment (Active Filters) is being considered. A review of present-day solutions in the area of active filters is conducted in this paper. Finally, this paper discusses the trends in the design of active filters and the factors influencing them.     

Half-Maintainability?A Formidable Goal

A recent letter issued by HQ USAF/CV established a Double-R/Half-M policy for developing reliability and maintainability (R&M) requirements for the next generation of systems. This paper reviews the second portion of that policy, Half-M, and assesses the feasibility and implications of achieving the goal, as well as the programmatic elements considered most likely to assist in achievement of the goal. The paper discusses measures of maintainability, trends and concepts influencing maintainability, and the maintainability of current systems. The results of a survey of maintainability practitioners are presented as part of the assessment of the Half-M goal.     

电视剧DVD提升Disney第四财季业绩

美国Walt Disney公司旗下的ABC系列热门电视剧《疯狂主妇》(Desperate Housewives)、《实习医生格雷》(Grey's Anatomy)和《迷失》(Lost)的DVD光盘发行销售额使该公司2007年第四财季的净收入飙升了12%.     

The environmental impact of lightweight HCPV modules: efficient design and effective deployment

We present a life cycle analysis of a lightweight design of high concentration photovoltaic module. The materials and processes used in construction are considered to assess the total environmental impact of the module construction in terms of the cumulative energy demand and embodied greenhouse gas emissions, which were found to be 355.3 MJ and 27.9 kgCO_2eq respectively. We consider six potential deployment locations and the system energy payback times are calculated to be 0.22–0.33 years whilst the greenhouse gas payback times are 0.29–0.88 years. The emission intensities over the lifetimes of the systems are found to be 6.5–9.8 g CO_2eq/kWh, lower than those of other HCPV, PV and CSP technologies in similar locations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

State-dependent packet scheduling for QoS routing in a dynamically changing environment

The packet scheduling in router plays an important role in the sense to achieve QoS differentiation and to optimize the queuing delay, in particular when this optimization is accomplished on all routers of a path between source and destination. In a dynamically changing environment a good scheduling discipline should be also adaptive to the new traffic conditions. We model this problem as a multi-agent system in which each agent learns through continual interaction with the environment in order to optimize its own behaviour. So, we adopt the framework of Markov decision processes applied to multi-agent system and present a pheromone-Q learning approach which combines the Q-multi-learning technique with a synthetic pheromone that acts as a communication medium speeding up the learning process of cooperating agents.     

Computational modelling of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells: Challenges and opportunities

Fuel cells are still undergoing intense development, and the combination of new and optimized materials, improved product development, novel architectures, more efficient transport processes, and design optimization and integration are expected to lead to major gains in performance, efficiency, reliability, manufacturability and cost-effectiveness. Computational fuel cell engineering (CFCE) tools that allow systematic simulation, design and optimization of fuel cell systems would facilitate the integration of such advances, allow less heavy reliance on hardware prototyping, and reduce development cycles.     

Psychometric properties of the California Psychological Inventory Socialization scale in treatment-seeking alcoholics.

Sociopathy has been identified as a prominent factor affecting the development and treatment of alcoholism. The present report examines the psychometric properties of a scale used to assess sociopathy, the California Psychological Inventory Socialization scale (CPI-So). The participants were 1,627 alcoholic adults taking part in a national trial of patient-treatment matching. The distribution of CPI-So scores was consistent with that of other studies of alcoholics, and the findings support the reliability and validity of the scale with this population. A principal-components analysis was generally consistent with similar analyses of nonalcoholic samples and identified 2 subscales that appear to tap previously described "personality" and "behavioral" dimensions of sociopathy. These subscales may be useful in further studies as potential bases for making patient-treatment matching decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)