Selective delivery of laser energy to biological tissue based on refractive-index differences

We report a novel method for selective laser energy delivery into biological tissues based on refractive-index differences. As a specific example, Ho:YAG laser energy is delivered into fat preferentially over other soft tissue, despite the fact that water has a higher absorption coefficient at this wavelength than fat.     

Raman spectroscopy reveals differences in collagen secondary structure which relate to the levels of mineralisation in bones that have evolved for different functions

Bone is a composite material comprising a collagen fibril scaffold surrounded by crystals of carbonated‐hydroxyapatite mineral. It is well established that the relative proportions of mineral and collagen in mature bone are not definite and are adapted in order to ‘tune’ its mechanical properties. It is not known, however, how the mineral to collagen ratio is controlled. This paper uses Raman spectroscopy (which permits the probing of both the mineral and the collagen phases of bone) to explore the hypothesis that the control mechanism is related to the nature of the collagen and that bones with different levels of mineralisation have qualitatively different collagen. Raman spectra of functionally adapted bones with varying levels of mineralisation are presented and features that indicate the differences in the collagen's secondary structure (amide I band profiles) and post‐translational modification (hydroxyproline/proline ratios) are highlighted. The study demonstrates that Raman spectroscopy can provide a means to investigate the mechanisms that control the mineral to collagen ratio of bone. Understanding these mechanisms could pave the way towards the therapeutic alteration of the mineral to collagen ratio and, thus, the control of the mechanical properties of bone. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual differences in the sensitivity to pitch direction

It is commonly assumed that one can always assign a direction-upward or downward-to a percept of pitch change. The present study shows that this is true for some, but not all, listeners. Frequency difference limens (FDLs, in cents) for pure tones roved in frequency were measured in two conditions. In one condition, the task was to detect frequency changes; in the other condition, the task was to identify the direction of frequency changes. For three listeners, the identification FDL was about 1.5 times smaller than the detection FDL, as predicted (counterintuitively) by signal detection theory under the assumption that performance in the two conditions was limited by one and the same internal noise. For three other listeners, however, the identification FDL was much larger than the detection FDL. The latter listeners had relatively high detection FDLs. They had no difficulty in identifying the direction of just-detectable changes in intensity, or in the frequency of amplitude modulation. Their difficulty in perceiving the direction of small frequency/pitch changes showed up not only when the task required absolute judgments of direction, but also when the directions of two successive frequency changes had to be judged as identical or different.     

Indication of the Expression of Transgene in Rice Plant Based on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Technique Ⅱ——Growth Monitoring of Samples in the Contrast Experiment

Since the complication of monitoring and evaluating the problems about the transgenic expression and its impacts on the receptor in the transgenic crop breeding and other relevant evaluated works, the authors in the present work tried to assess the differences of spectral parameters of the transgenic rice in contrast with its parent group quantitatively and qualitatively, fulfilling the growth monitoring of the transgenic samples. The spectral parameters (spectral morphological characteristics and indices) chosen are highly related to internal or external stresses to the receipts, and thus could be applied as indicators of biophysical or biochemical processes changes of plant. By ASD portable field spectroradiometer with high-density probe, fine foliar spectra of 8 groups were obtained. By analyzing spectral angle and continuum removal, the spectral morphological differences and their locations of sample spectra were found which could be as auxiliary priori knowledge for quantitative analysis. By investigating spectral indices of the samples, the quantitative differences of spectra were revealed about foliar chlorophyll a+b and carotenoid content. In this study both the spectral differences between transgenic and parent groups and among transgenic groups were investigated. The results show that hyperspectral technique is promising and a helpful auxiliary tool in the study of monitoring the transgenic crop and other relevant researches. By this technique, quantitative and qualitative results of sample spectra could be provided as prior knowledge, as certain orientation, for laboratory professional advanced transgenic breeding study.     

An analytical expression for the specific capacity of lithium ion cells

The concentration of lithium ions in the cathode of lithium ion cells has been obtained by solving the materials balance equation $$\frac{{\partial c}}{{\partial t}} = \varepsilon ^{1/2} D\frac{{\partial ^2 c}}{{\partial x^2 }} + \frac{{aj_n (1--t_ + )}}{\varepsilon }$$ by Laplace transform. On the assumption that the cell is fully discharged when there are zero lithium ions at the current collector of the cathode, the discharge timet _d is obtained as $$\tau = \frac{{r^2 }}{{\pi ^2 \varepsilon ^{1/2} }}\ln \left[ {\frac{{\pi ^2 }}{{r^2 }}\left( {\frac{{\varepsilon ^{1/2} }}{J} + \frac{{r^2 }}{6}} \right)} \right]$$ which, when substituted into the equationC=It _d /M, whereI is the discharge current andM is the mass of the separator and positive electrode, an analytical expression for the specific capacity of the lithium cell is given as $$C = \frac{{IL_c ^2 }}{{\pi {\rm M}D\varepsilon ^{1/2} }}\ln \left[ {\frac{{\pi ^2 }}{2}\left( {\frac{{FDc_0 \varepsilon ^{3/2} }}{{I(1 - t_ + )L_c }} + \frac{1}{6}} \right)} \right]$$      

Electric stimulation fMRI of the perforant pathway to the rat hippocampus

The hippocampal formation is a brain system that is implicated in learning and memory. The major input to the hippocampus arrives from the entorhinal cortex (EC) to the dentate gyrus (DG) through the perforant path. In the present work, we have investigated the functional properties of this connection by concomitantly applying electrophysiological techniques, deep-brain electric microstimulation and functional magnetic resonance imaging in anesthetized rats. We systematically delivered different current intensities at diverse stimulation frequencies to the perforant path while recording electrophysiological and blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals. We observed a linear relationship between the current intensity used to stimulate the hippocampal formation and the amplitude and extension of the induced BOLD response. In addition, we found a frequency-dependent spatial pattern of activation. With stimulation protocols and train frequencies used for kindling, the activity strongly spreads ipsilaterally through the hippocampus, DG, subiculum and EC.     

Impurity contribution to the specific heat in the Kondo model

Summary Using the Lanczos scheme (tridiagonalization) we investigate the impurity contribution to the single-impurity Kondo model. This is accomplished by obtaining the ground-state energy of aN-particle system and a (N+1)-particle system, and obtaining the functional dependence ofg(J) (whereJ is the strength of the interaction). Hereg(J) is the coefficient of a correction term which is of order 1/N. The density of states at the Fermi level is effectively changed by the factorg(J). The excess heat capacity associated with the impurity is then proportional tog(J). To speed up publication, the authors of this papers have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Three soliton contribution to the specific heat in sine-Gordon systems

The three soliton contribution to the specific heat of a classical easy-plane ferromagnet chain is calculated using asymptotic methods from the theory of differential equations depending on a large parameter.     

Logarithmic correction to the specific heat in tris-sarcosine calcium chloride

Specific heat experimental results in the 3x10^?2 ≦ | t | ≦5.5x10^?5 temperature range ($\text{t =}\text{(T?T}{}_{\mathrm{C}}\text{)}\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{C}}$) were fitted by means of the logarithmically corrected Landau theory of uniaxial dipolar ferroelectrics. The non-universal parameters b and t_O as well as the transverse and longitudinal correlation lengths at zero temperature are determined.     

Gene expression profile analysis of genes in rat hippocampus from antidepressant treated rats using DNA microarray

Background  

The molecular and biological mechanisms by which many antidepressants function are based on the monoamine depletion hypothesis. However, the entire cascade of mechanisms responsible for the therapeutic effect of antidepressants has not yet been elucidated.     

Water diffusion in the human hippocampus in epilepsy

The hippocampus plays a central role in the generation and propagation of seizures in patients with complex partial seizures. Hippocampal sclerosis (HS) is a common structural abnormality in patients with refractory epilepsy. The aim of this study was to quantify diffusion in the hippocampus in patients with epilepsy to evaluate the diffusion changes associated with HS. We scanned 20 subjects (14 patients and 6 controls) with a 1.5T magnetic resonance (MR) system using a cardiac-gated, navigated spin-echo diffusion-weighted sequence. Hippocampal ADC measurements were performed on maps of the ADC measured in three orthogonal directions labeled x, y, and z. The mean ADC (ADC_av) and an anisotropy index (AI) were calculated. Hippocampi which fulfilled the MR criteria for HS had a higher ADC_av (p < 0.001) and a lower AI (p = 0.04) than normal appearing hippocampi in patients and hippocampi in controls. These results imply a loss of structural organization in sclerotic hippocampi and an expansion of the extracellular space. Quantitative measurements of diffusion can be used as an independent parameter for the identification and characterization of abnormal hippocampi in epilepsy.     

Listener sensitivity to individual talker differences in voice-onset-time

Recent findings in the domains of word and talker recognition reveal that listeners use previous experience with an individual talker's voice to facilitate subsequent perceptual processing of that talker's speech. These findings raise the possibility that listeners are sensitive to talker-specific acoustic-phonetic properties. The present study tested this possibility directly by examining listeners' sensitivity to talker differences in the voice-onset-time (VOT) associated with a word-initial voiceless stop consonant. Listeners were trained on the speech of two talkers. Speech synthesis was used to manipulate the VOTs of these talkers so that one had short VOTs and the other had long VOTs (counterbalanced across listeners). The results of two experiments using a paired-comparison task revealed that, when presented with a short- versus long-VOT variant of a given talker's speech, listeners could select the variant consistent with their experience of that talker's speech during training. This was true when listeners were tested on the same word heard during training and when they were tested on a different word spoken by the same talker, indicating that listeners generalized talker-specific VOT information to a novel word. Such sensitivity to talker-specific acoustic-phonetic properties may subserve at least in part listeners' capacity to benefit from talker-specific experience.     

Efficient systemic DNA delivery to the tumor by self-assembled nanoparticle

There are few techniques to measure in situ the size distribution and density of fluidized nanoparticle agglomerates. Visualization techniques, which are the most applied approach, currently have two important limitations: (1) they do not allow a continuous determination of the terminal velocity of the agglomerates, because it is necessary to stop the fluidization and (2) often, the agglomerates are tracked in very dilute zones of the bed, typically in the splash zone, where agglomerates are likely not representatives for the agglomerates in the whole bed. In this communication, we propose a sampling technique that allows to determine the size distribution and terminal velocity of fluidized agglomerates larger than ～20 μm continuously, in situ, and allows to work with concentrations of agglomerates higher than other reported techniques.     

Sex differences in human cardiovascular responses to external excitation

Summary The purpose of this study was to investigate the sex particularities in human cardiovascular responses to different external influences using the traditional physiological approach and non-traditional methods of dynamical systems theory. Measurements were taken in 21 healthy women and 15 men exposed to noise stress, passive coping, and in 35 women and 25 men exposed to double mental arithmetic stress, active coping. Results showed that, firstly, cardiovascular reactivity in men and women was determined by the type of stress. Thus, in a majority of humans heart rate did not change during noise but increased during mental stress, blood pressure decreased during noise but increased during mental stress. Secondly, results demonstrated the significant sex differences in the basal and stress cardiovascular activity. So, the women showing the greater basal and stress heart rate displayed the hypotensive responses to passive coping more often and the hypertensive responses to active coping less often than men. Thirdly, the changes in normalized entropy of the electrocardiogram signal, reflecting the changes in heart physiological variability, also depended on the sex of subjects and the nature of stress. During noise normalized entropy increased in a majority of women but decreased in a majority of men. Mental stress caused both decreases and increases in normalized entropy in men and women. But the increases in normalized entropy during stress and especially during recovery were greater in women than in men. Normalized entropy was demonstrated to be a more sensitive marker of sex and individual differences in cardiovascular responses to stress than heart rate and blood pressure. Results suggest that the lower blood pressure reactions and the greater increases in normalized entropy,i.e. in physiological heart variability, may partly result in higher cardiovascular stress resistance in women relative to men. Paper presented at the International Workshop ?Fluctuations in Physics and Biology: Stochastic Resonance, Signal Processing and Related Phenomena?, Elba, 5–10 June 1994.     

Spectral differences in the ability of temporal gaps to reset the mechanisms underlying overshoot

When very brief tonal signals are presented immediately after the onset of a gated noise masker, detectability can be 10-20 dB worse than when the signal is delayed by several hundred milliseconds, an effect known as the overshoot. It has long been known that, when an "onset" is created in an otherwise continuous, broadband masker by briefly turning it off and on again, the detectability of a brief signal presented soon after this temporal gap will decline gradually as the gap is increased from a few milliseconds to a few hundred milliseconds. In other words, the auditory system recovers to its quiescent, resting state following an adequate silent interval. Here, the broadband maskers consisted of three adjacent spectral bands--one centered on the frequency of the tonal signal, one low passed below the lower edge of the center band, and one high passed above the upper edge of the center band. The signal was a 2500-Hz tone having a total duration of 6 ms. In different blocks of trials, either all three bands, only the center band, or only the two flanking bands were temporally gapped by a duration ranging from 10-300 ms. When the center band was about 750 Hz wide (about 2.5 critical bandwidths), this differential gapping process resulted in typical recovery functions when all three bands (the entire spectrum) or when just the two flanking bands were gapped. However, when only the center band was gapped, there was no evident recovery--rather, detectability remained near the signal level required with a continuous masker, even for a gap duration of 300 ms.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)