Modulation of an activity response with associative and nonassociative fear in the rat: A lighting differential influences the form of defensive behavior evoked after fear conditioning

Rats confronted with the onset of a light gradient display a transient increase in locomotion called theactivity response (AR) and a dark preference (Godsil & Fanselow, 2004). These experiments demonstrate that the magnitude of the AR can be blunted with Pavlovian fear-conditioning procedures via associative and nonassociative fear. Although manifested in decreased locomotion, the blunted AR effect was not due to increased freezing or immobility behaviors. Instead, rats displayed reduced rearing and an increase in a class of behaviors calledstationary activity. These results suggest that the lighting differential supplied by the cue influences the topography of defensive behavior and reduces the expression of freezing. This procedure provides a means by which to examine learned and unlearned defensive responses to the same stimulus.     

Study of C-Reactive Protein and Myocardial Infarction in the Indian Population

To analyse the association of high sensitivity C-reactive (hsCRP) protein levels and −717A/G single nucleotide polymorphism of CRP with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the Indian population. Study population included 100 MI cases wherein 32 patients had experienced previous MI (MI-Group-1), 68 MI cases were recruited at presentation (MI-Group-2) and equal number of age and gender matched healthy individuals. hsCRP levels were determined by ELISA and genotyping of −717A/G was carried out by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction digestion method. The −717A/G genotypes did not influence hsCRP level and their distribution did not differ between groups. However, in the present study hsCRP demonstrated significant correlation with BMI in controls of both the genders and with triglycerides in females of AMI at presentation who otherwise are with low risk profile. Identifying traditional risk factors associated with inflammation may help in controlling the acute event.     

A Comparative Study of Bone Scan Findings and Serum Levels of Tumor Marker CA15-3 in Patients with Breast Carcinoma

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies in the world. Available staging procedures to detect breast cancer are bone scan, chest X-ray, liver ultrasonography, computerized tomography, estimation of tumor markers like carbohydrate antigen (CA15-3) and carcino embryonic antigen. These procedures are expensive and may not be required in all cases. Out of 70 patients studied, 55 had normal CA15-3 and 15 had elevated levels of Ca15-3. Eight (14.5%) of the 55 patients with normal CA15-3 had abnormal bone scan. Fifteen patients had CA15-3 levels above the normal range and among these 9 (60%) had abnormal bone scan. While prime facie it would appear that a high level of CA15-3 correlate with abnormal bone scan, it is also true that the numbers are small at present and conclusions about the validity of CA15-3 as marker of bone metastasis may be premature.     

Current status and development of percutaneous coronary intervention in China

##正##Dr.Gruntzig et al.(1979) successfully completed the world's first percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI),a percutaneous transluminal coronary     

Mathematical models of canine right and left atria cardiomyocytes

The aim of this study is to build two mathematical models of canine ionic currents specific to right atria and left atria.The canine left atria mathematical model was firstly modified from the Ramirez-Nattel-Courtemanche(RNC) model using the recently available experimental data of ionic currents and was further developed based on our own experimental data.A model of right atria was then built by considering the differences between right atria and left atria.The two developed models well reproduced the exper...     

Neurochip based on light-addressable potentiometric sensor with wavelet transform de-noising

Neurochip based on light-addressable potentiometric sensor(LAPS),whose sensing elements are excitable cells,can monitor electrophysiological properties of cultured neuron networks with cellular signals well analyzed.Here we report a kind of neurochip with rat pheochromocytoma(PC12) cells hybrid with LAPS and a method of de-noising signals based on wavelet transform.Cells were cultured on LAPS for several days to form networks,and we then used LAPS system to detect the extracellular potentials with signals d...     

Congenital atresia of the left main coronary artery in an infant

Congenital atresia of the left main coronary artery is a rare occurrence, and surgical revascularizationbypass graft is required. We here report a rare case of congenital coronary anomaly in an infant. A 10-month-old male infant was admitted to the hospital with heart failure symptoms. Echocardiographic examinations revealed mitral valve regurgitation and ischemic changes of the anterolateral papillary muscle and chordae. Coronary angiography showed atresia of the left main coronary artery with a severe hypoplastic left anterior descending artery and a circumflex coronary artery. Unfortunately, sudden cardiac arrest occurred after catheterization and the infant did not recover despite of immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Further studies are needed to find a newer diagnostic method to detect coronary anomaly in an infant, and coronary angiography, if necessary, has to be performed very carefully.     

Carbon steel slag as cementitious material for self-consolidating concrete

This study deals with the recycling of carbon steel slag （CSS） to produce self-consolidating concrete （SCC）. Since the chemical composition of CSS is similar to that of Portland cement or blast furnace slag （BFS）, it is expected to behave similarly. In the current study, the pozzolanic activity index of CSS is examined. Furthermore, the use of CSS as a pozzolanic material to partially replace Portland cement in the production of SCC is tested. We designed concrete mixtures with different water-to- cementitious material ratios （w/cm） keeping water and superplasticizer （SP） contents constant. Results showed that the design and performance of all the concrete mixtures used in this investigation were comparable to those of SCC and high performance con- crete （HPC）. However, compared to ordinary plain concrete （OPC）, the additional CSS content increases the setting time. In the CSS mixtures set for 90 d, compressive strengths of 86%, 134% and 121% were attained as compared to the control concrete; the corresponding w/cm ratios were 0.28, 0.32 and 0.40, respectively. Verifying the soundness of the SCC for meeting the criteria for HPC, the ultrasonic pulse velocity （UPV） of CSS was found to be comparable to that of ordinary concrete. In conclusion, the recycling of CSS can be advantageously employed in the production of SCC.     

Tool wear criterion,tool life,and surface roughness during high-speed end milling Ti-6Al-4V alloy

The objective of the present research is to investigate the relationship among tool wear, surface topography, and surface roughness when high-speed end milling Ti-6Al-4V alloy, and also to define an optimal flank wear criterion for the cutting tool to integrate tool life and the surface roughness requirements of the finish milling process. An annealed Ti-6Al-4V alloy was selected as the workpiece material, undergoing end milling with uncoated carbide inserts. The flank wear of the insert was observed and measured with the toolmaker＇s microscope. To examine machined surfaces, 3D surface topography was provided by the white light interferometer, and the arithmetical mean roughness （Ra） was calculated with the WYKO Vision32 software. The flank wear increases with cutting time, and the maximal flank wear is set as the flank wear criterion. As the cutting process progresses, tool wear is the predominant factor affecting the variation of surface roughness. According to the plots for the tool wear propagation and surface roughness variation, an optimal flank wear criterion can be defined which integrates the tool life and the surface roughness requirements for the finish milling process.     

Numerical computations of the flow in a finite diverging channel

The flow in a finite diverging channel opening into a large space and resembling the experimental prototype of Putkaradze and Vorobieff （2006） was numerically investigated. The effects of the Reynolds number, initial condition, intersection angle, length of the wedge edges, and the outer boundary condition were examined. The numerical results showed that the flow in the wedge undergoes a change from symmetrical flow to unsymmetrical flow with a weak backflow, then a vortical （circulation） flow and finally an unsteady jet flow as the Reynolds number is increased for an intersection angle of 32° and a wedge edge of length 30 times the width of the inlet slit. For the unsteady flow, the jet attached to one side of the wedge constantly loses stability and rolls up into a mushroom-shaped vortex-pair near the outlet of the wedge. As the intersection angle is increased to 50°, a stable jet flow is observed as a new regime between the vortex and unsteady regimes. Both the intersection angle and the wedge length have negative effects on the stability of the flow, although the effect of the wedge length on the critical Reynolds number for the symmetry-breaking instability is not pronounced. The outer boundary condition was found not to affect the flow patterns inside the wedge significantly. At a certain Re regime above the onset of symmetry-breaking instability, the flows evolve into steady state very slowly except for the initial stage in the case of decreasing flow flux. Two different solutions can be observed within the normal observation time for the experiment, providing a possible explanation for the hysteresis phenomenon in the experiment.