scholarly journals Segmental Distribution of Common Synaptic Inputs to Spinal Motoneurons During Fictive Swimming in the Lamprey

1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 1156-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Buchanan ◽  
Stefan Kasicki

These experiments were designed to measure the degree of shared synaptic inputs coming to pairs of myotomal motoneurons during swimming activity in the isolated spinal cord of the lamprey. In addition, the experiments measured the decrease in the degree of shared synaptic inputs with the distance between the motoneurons to assess the segmental distribution of these shared inputs. Intracellular microelectrode recordings of membrane potential were made simultaneously on pairs of myotomal motoneurons during swimming activity induced with an excitatory amino acid. The swim cycle oscillations of motoneuron membrane potentials were removed with a digital notch filter, thus leaving the fast synaptic activities that underlie these slower oscillations. Cross-correlations of the fast synaptic activities in two simultaneously recorded motoneurons were made to measure the degree of shared inputs. The cross-correlation was done on time windows restricted to one swim cycle or to part of a swim cycle, and 50 consecutive swim cycle cross-correlograms then were averaged. The peak coefficients of the cross-correlations exhibited a wide range, even for pairs of motoneurons located near one another (range = 0.06–0.74, for pairs located within 2 segments). This observation suggests that there may be different functional classes of myotomal motoneurons with inputs originating from different sets of premotor interneurons. In spite of this variability, the mean peak correlation coefficients of motoneuron pairs clearly decreased with the distance between them. With separations of more than five segments, there was little or no clear correlation between the motoneurons (range = 0.04–0.10). These results suggest that common synaptic inputs to motoneurons during fictive swimming originate from local premotor interneurons and that beyond five spinal segments, common premotor inputs are rare or weak to motoneurons. Thus the premotor signals originating from the locomotor network have relatively short distribution lengths, on the order of 5 segments of 120 total spinal segments.

1999 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 2037-2045 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Buchanan

Commissural interneurons in rhythm generation and intersegmental coupling in the lamprey spinal cord. To test the necessity of spinal commissural interneurons in the generation of the swim rhythm in lamprey, longitudinal midline cuts of the isolated spinal cord preparation were made. Fictive swimming was then induced by bath perfusion with an excitatory amino acid while recording ventral root activity. When the spinal cord preparation was cut completely along the midline into two lateral hemicords, the rhythmic activity of fictive swimming was lost, usually replaced with continuous ventral root spiking. The loss of the fictive swim rhythm was not due to nonspecific damage produced by the cut because rhythmic activity was present in split regions of spinal cord when the split region was still attached to intact cord. The quality of this persistent rhythmic activity, quantified with an autocorrelation method, declined with the distance of the split spinal segment from the remaining intact spinal cord. The deterioration of the rhythm was characterized by a lengthening of burst durations and a shortening of the interburst silent phases. This pattern of deterioration suggests a loss of rhythmic inhibitory inputs. The same pattern of rhythm deterioration was seen in preparations with the rostral end of the spinal cord cut compared with those with the caudal end cut. The results of this study indicate that commissural interneurons are necessary for the generation of the swimming rhythm in the lamprey spinal cord, and the characteristic loss of the silent interburst phases of the swimming rhythm is consistent with a loss of inhibitory commissural interneurons. The results also suggest that both descending and ascending commissural interneurons are important in the generation of the swimming rhythm. The swim rhythm that persists in the split cord while still attached to an intact portion of spinal cord is thus imposed by interneurons projecting from the intact region of cord into the split region. These projections are functionally short because rhythmic activity was lost within approximately five spinal segments from the intact region of spinal cord.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Kargoll ◽  
Alexander Dorndorf ◽  
Mohammad Omidalizarandi ◽  
Jens-André Paffenholz ◽  
Hamza Alkhatib

Abstract In this contribution, a vector-autoregressive (VAR) process with multivariate t-distributed random deviations is incorporated into the Gauss-Helmert model (GHM), resulting in an innovative adjustment model. This model is versatile since it allows for a wide range of functional models, unknown forms of auto- and cross-correlations, and outlier patterns. Subsequently, a computationally convenient iteratively reweighted least squares method based on an expectation maximization algorithm is derived in order to estimate the parameters of the functional model, the unknown coefficients of the VAR process, the cofactor matrix, and the degree of freedom of the t-distribution. The proposed method is validated in terms of its estimation bias and convergence behavior by means of a Monte Carlo simulation based on a GHM of a circle in two dimensions. The methodology is applied in two different fields of application within engineering geodesy: In the first scenario, the offset and linear drift of a noisy accelerometer are estimated based on a Gauss-Markov model with VAR and multivariate t-distributed errors, as a special case of the proposed GHM. In the second scenario real laser tracker measurements with outliers are adjusted to estimate the parameters of a sphere employing the proposed GHM with VAR and multivariate t-distributed errors. For both scenarios the estimated parameters of the fitted VAR model and multivariate t-distribution are analyzed for evidence of auto- or cross-correlations and deviation from a normal distribution regarding the measurement noise.


Author(s):  
Qihang Liu ◽  
G.Q. Xu ◽  
Jie Wen ◽  
Yanchen Fu ◽  
Laihe Zhuang ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper presents a multi-condition design method for the aircraft heat exchanger (HEX), marking with light weight, compactness and wide range of working conditions. The quasi-traversal genetic algorithm (QT-GA) method is introduced to obtain the optimal values of five structural parameters including the height, the tube diameter, the tube pitch, and the tube rows. The QT-GA method solves the deficiency of the conventional GA in the convergence, and gives a clear correlation between design variables and outputs. Pressure drops, heat transfer and the weight of the HEX are combined in a single objective function of GA in the HEX design, thus the optimal structure of the HEX suitable for all the working conditions can be directly obtained. After optimization, the weight of the HEX is reduced to 2.250 kg, more than 20% lower than a common weight of around 3 kg. Based on the optimal structure, the off-design performance of the HEX is further analyzed. Results show that the extreme working conditions for the heat transfer and the pressure drops are not consistent. It proves the advance of the multi-condition design method over traditional single-condition design method. In general, the proposed QT-GA design method is an efficient way to solve the multi-condition problems related to the aircraft HEX or other energy systems.


Author(s):  
Tianshi Liu ◽  
Haiming Zhang

The cross-correlations of ambient noise or earthquake codas are massively used in seismic tomography to measure the dispersion curves of surface waves and the travel times of body waves. Such measurements are based on the assumption that these kinematic parameters in the cross-correlations of noise coincide with those in Green's functions. However, the relation between the cross-correlations of noise and Green's functions deserves to be studied more precisely. In this paper, we use the asymptotic analysis to study the dispersion relations of surface waves and the travel times of body waves, and come to the conclusion that for the spherically symmetric Earth model, when the distribution of noise sources is laterally uniform, the dispersion relations of surface waves and the travel times of SH body-wave phases in noise correlations should be exactly the same as those in Green's functions.


Author(s):  
Martina Ladrova ◽  
Radek Martinek ◽  
Jan Nedoma ◽  
Marcel Fajkus

Electromyogram (EMG) recordings are often corrupted by the wide range of artifacts, which one of them is power line interference (PLI). The study focuses on some of the well-known signal processing approaches used to eliminate or attenuate PLI from EMG signal. The results are compared using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman analysis for each tested method: notch filter, adaptive noise canceller (ANC) and wavelet transform (WT). Thus, the power of the remaining noise and shape of the output signal are analysed. The results show that the ANC method gives the best output SNR and lowest shape distortion compared to the other methods.


2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 497
Author(s):  
Alexandra V. Dyomina ◽  
Anna A. Kovalenko ◽  
Maria V. Zakharova ◽  
Tatiana Yu. Postnikova ◽  
Alexandra V. Griflyuk ◽  
...  

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are expressed predominantly on neurons and glial cells and are involved in the modulation of a wide range of signal transduction cascades. Therefore, different subtypes of mGluRs are considered a promising target for the treatment of various brain diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated the seizure-induced upregulation of mGluR5; however, its functional significance is still unclear. In the present study, we aimed to clarify the effect of treatment with the selective mGluR5 antagonist 3-[(2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl]-pyridine (MTEP) on epileptogenesis and behavioral impairments in rats using the lithium–pilocarpine model. We found that the administration of MTEP during the latent phase of the model did not improve survival, prevent the development of epilepsy, or attenuate its manifestations in rats. However, MTEP treatment completely prevented neuronal loss and partially attenuated astrogliosis in the hippocampus. An increase in excitatory amino acid transporter 2 expression, which has been detected in treated rats, may prevent excitotoxicity and be a potential mechanism of neuroprotection. We also found that MTEP administration did not prevent the behavioral comorbidities such as depressive-like behavior, motor hyperactivity, reduction of exploratory behavior, and cognitive impairments typical in the lithium–pilocarpine model. Thus, despite the distinct neuroprotective effect, the MTEP treatment was ineffective in preventing epilepsy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 4973-4977

The building norms and standards of Uzbekistan on the reinforced concrete structures do not regulate the design of hollow-core slabs of formwork-free shaping, reinforced with prestressed wire reinforcement. The manufacturing technology of such slabs allows creating a wide range of products that increase the possibility of their use in various structural systems in residential, civil and industrial buildings, but in non-seismic areas only. The aim of this work is to develop a constructive solution for the cross section of a prestressed hollow-core floor slab of bench formwork-free shaping, reinforced with high-strength wire reinforcement, in order to create a wide range of products intended for construction in seismic areas. To achieve the goal, the problem of determining the optimal combination of height and configuration parameters of the cross section of such a slab is solved, meeting the normalized operational requirements and limitations of earthquake-resistant building standards. The main variable parameters are the height and the void degree of the section, characterized by the size and shape of voids. In calculating the cross-section of a hollow-core slab when substantiating the theoretical basis for the calculation, the cross section is reduced to the equivalent I-section. As a result of research, a constructive solution was developed for the slab cross section of the maximum parameter values (the span, operational load) set by the customer. The parameters of the slab cross-section are: the height 190 mm, the hollowness 38%, the height of the upper thickened flange (compared with the height of the lower flange) of the given section is 0.27h, the height of the lower flange is 0.17h, the reduced (total) thickness of all ribs “b” is 0.32 of the width of the upper flange. The voids in the section along the height of the slab are arranged asymmetrically. A patent for a utility model has been received for the proposed constructive solution of the slab cross section.


1969 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 1023-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Honold ◽  
Stanley P. Rowland ◽  
James N. Grant

Differences in the ability of formaldehyde-crosslinked cotton fibers to swell are demonstrated in terms of alkali centrifuge values (ACV), i.e., the sorption of caustic solution of mercerizing strength. The wide range in ACV (310–50) emphasizes the extremes in sorptivity that can be achieved by differences in formaldehyde content and in method of introducing the cross links. In general, the ACV decreases with increasing formaldehyde content. However, ACV higher than that of the noncross-linked control cotton are reached for those samples in which a low percentage of formaldehyde was introduced into water-swollen fibers. Various hypotheses, based on ACV and related data, are presented pertaining to the alterations in fiber structure during the cross-linking processes and during the alkali swelling centrifuge test


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare M. Williams ◽  
Sreeja Roy ◽  
Danielle Califano ◽  
Andrew N. J. McKenzie ◽  
Dennis W. Metzger ◽  
...  

Interleukin (IL)-33 is a multifunctional cytokine that mediates type 2 dominated immune responses. In contrast, the role of IL-33 during viral vaccination, which often aims to induce type 1 immunity, has not been fully investigated. Here we examined the effects of IL-33 on influenza vaccine responses. We found that intranasal co-administration of IL-33 with an inactivated influenza virus vaccine increases the vaccine efficacy against influenza infection, not only with the homologous strain, but also heterologous strains including the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic strain. The cross-protection was dependent on group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), as the beneficial effect of IL-33 on vaccine efficacy was abrogated in ILC2-deficient C57BL/6 Il7r P Cre/+ P Rora P fl/fl P mice. Further, mechanistic studies revealed that IL-33 activated ILC2s potentiate vaccine efficacy by enhancing mucosal humoral immunity, particularly IgA responses, potentially via a Th2 cytokine dependent manner. Our results demonstrate that IL-33-mediated activation of ILC2s is a critical early event that is important for the induction of mucosal humoral immunity, which in turn is responsible for cross-strain protection against influenza. Thus, we reveal a previously unrecognized role for the IL-33/ILC2 axis in establishing broadly protective and long-lasting humoral mucosal immunity against influenza – knowledge that may help develop a universal influenza vaccine. Importance Current influenza vaccines, although capable of protecting against predicted viruses/strains included in the vaccine, are inept at providing cross-protection against emerging/novel strains. Thus, we are in critical need for a universal vaccine that can protect against a wide range of influenza viruses. Our novel findings show that a mucosal vaccination strategy involving the activation of lung ILC2s is highly effective in eliciting cross-protective humoral immunity in the lungs. This suggests that the biology of lung ILC2s can be exploited to increase the cross-reactivity of commercially available influenza subunit vaccines.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Odetti ◽  
Federica Braga ◽  
Fabio Brunetti ◽  
Massimo Caccia ◽  
Simone Marini ◽  
...  

<p>The IT-HR InnovaMare project, led by the Croatian Chamber of Economy, puts together policy instruments and key players for development of innovative technologies for the sustainable development of the Adriatic Sea (https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/innovamare). The project aims at enhancing the cross-border cooperation among research, public and private stakeholders through creation of a Digital Innovation Hub (DIH). The goal is to increase effectiveness of innovation in underwater robotics and sensors to achieve and maintain a healthy and productive Adriatic Sea, as one of the crucial and strategic societal challenges existing at the cross-border level. Within InnovaMare, CNR ISMAR and INM institutes and OGS, in cooperation with the University of Zagreb and other project partners, contribute to developing a solution to access and monitor extremely shallow water by means of portable, modular, reconfigurable and highly maneuverable robotic vehicles. The identified vehicle is SWAMP, an innovative highly modular catamaran ASV recently developed by CNR-INM. SWAMP is characterised by small size, low draft, new materials, azimuth propulsion system for shallow waters and modular WiFi-based hardware&software architecture. Two SWAMP vehicles will be enhanced with a series of kits, tools and sensors to perform a series of strategic actions in the environmental monitoring of the Venice Lagoon: <br>i) An air-cushion-system-kit will be designed and developed. The vehicle will become a side-wall air-cushion-vehicle with reduction of drag and increase in speed. This will also increase the payload with a reduction of draft. <br>ii) An intelligent winch kit with a communication cable for the management of underwater sensors and tools.<br>iii) A GPS-RTK kit for highly accurate positioning in the range of centimeters.<br>iv) An Autonomous programmable device for image acquisition and processing based on the Guard1 camera. This camera acquires images content and, by means of a supervised machine learning approach, recognises/classifies features such as fish, zooplankton, seabed, infrastructures. The system is conceived for autonomous monitoring activities extended in time in fixed or mobile platforms.<br>v) A Multibeam Echo-sounder (MBES) coupled with an IMU (for pitch-roll compensation). MBES data can be used, also coupled with Cameras Imagery, through image-detection techniques for reconstruction and comprehensive knowledge of underwater environment and infrastructures. Possible analyses in coastal areas are: seabed mapping also for cultural heritage, offshore structures and resources and monitoring of biodiversity, hydrocarbon, marine litter, pollution.<br>vi) An underwater Radiometer for multiple analysis: temporal dynamics of optical properties of water; temporal dynamics of water turbidity from water reflectance; submerged vegetation and water depth mapping in optically shallow water; produce reference data for validation of satellite data.<br>vii) Automatic Nutrient Analyzer for real-time nutrient monitoring. This sensor measures nitrate with high accuracy over a wide range of environmental conditions (including extremely turbid and high CDOM conditions), from blue-ocean nitraclines to storm runoff in rivers and streams. <br>The final result of this pilot action is the creation of an innovative prototype platform for sea environmental monitoring. This will be validated through the analysis of results and draw up of guidelines for the improvement of underwater conditions.</p>


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