Effects of vagal nerve stimulation on laryngeal function

Functional electrical stimulation is a developing methodology that shows significant potential in the management of peripheral neuromuscular deficits. Potential applications in the head and neck area, including control of bilateral vocal fold paralysis and spasmodic dysphonia, have recently been explored. Despite promising early results, very little is known about the mechanisms of action or the long-term effects of electrical stimulation on human laryngeal function. Recent development of implantable vagal nerve stimulators as a method to control intractable seizures in individuals who have not responded to medication provides a unique opportunity to study its effect on the normal human larynx. Laryngeal and vocal function testing was studied on five individuals who had undergone vagal nerve stimulator implants for intractable seizures. Consistent abduction/adduction of the left vocal fold was achieved at 20 and 40 Hz, respectively. Higher levels of electrical stimulation produced hemispasm of the larynx. Results were consistent with studies in the literature of recurrent laryngeal nerve stimulation in animal and human models. The vagus nerve provides relatively easy access for implantation of electrodes to provide electrical stimulation to the muscles of the larynx. Vagal nerve stimulation may prove efficacious in the treatment of movement disorders of the larynx; further study is needed.     

Insulator-based dielectrophoresis of microorganisms: theoretical and experimental results

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is the motion of particles due to polarization effects in nonuniform electric fields. DEP has great potential for handling cells and is a non-destructive phenomenon. It has been utilized for different cell analysis, from viability assessments to concentration enrichment and separation. Insulator-based DEP (iDEP) provides an attractive alternative to conventional electrode-based systems; in iDEP, insulating structures are used to generate nonuniform electric fields, resulting in simpler and more robust devices. Despite the rapid development of iDEP microdevices for applications with cells, the fundamentals behind the dielectrophoretic behavior of cells has not been fully elucidated. Understanding the theory behind iDEP is necessary to continue the progress in this field. This work presents the manipulation and separation of bacterial and yeast cells with iDEP. A computational model in COMSOL Multiphysics was employed to predict the effect of direct current-iDEP on cells suspended in a microchannel containing an array of insulating structures. The model allowed predicting particle behavior, pathlines and the regions where dielectrophoretic immobilization should occur. Experimental work was performed at the same operating conditions employed with the model and results were compared, obtaining good agreement. This is the first report on the mathematical modeling of the dielectrophoretic response of yeast and bacterial cells in a DC-iDEP microdevice.     

Use of the successive self-nucleation and annealing technique to characterize <Superscript>60</Superscript>Co gamma irradiated HDPEs

The application of the Successive Self-nucleation and Annealing (SSA) thermal fractionation technique can yield detailed information of the structural changes induced in linear polyethylene by irradiation. The production of tertiary carbons during the crosslinking reactions can be equivalent to the structural heterogeneity present in branched polyethylenes since in both cases interruption of the linear crystallizable sequences occurs, and these are structural differences that can be easily detected by thermal fractionation. We demonstrate how correlations between melting point and short chain branching content employed for branched polymers can be useful to characterize the distribution of chain heterogeneity produced by crosslinking. As the radiation dose is increased and the crosslinking content also increases, the distribution of chain heterogeneity gets broader as detected by SSA. When the results are coupled with morphological observations made by transmission electron microscopy, valuable information on the morphological changes produced by crosslinking can also be ascertained, since the distribution of lamellar thicknesses substantially broadens with crosslinking. Such a broad distribution can also be predicted from SSA by simple calculations performed employing a modified version of the Gibbs–Thomson equation and is expected on the basis of random crosslinking reactions.     

Bestimmung von Kupfer

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Self-assembly of ligands designed for the building of a new type of [2 x 2] metallic grid. anion encapsulation and diffusion NMR spectroscopy

The ligands 4,6-bis(pyrazol-1-yl)pyrimidine (bpzpm), 4,6-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)pyrimidine (bpz(*)pm), 4,6-bis(4-methylpyrazol-1-yl)pyrimidine (Mebpzpm), and 3,6-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)pyridazine (ppdMe) were synthesized and were made to react with Cu(I) centers in the presence of different counteranions. Different [2 x 2] metallic grids were obtained. With ligands bpzpm, bpz*pm, and Mebpzpm, a new type of grid was obtained where the facing ligands were divergent and two counteranions (BF(4-) or PF(6-)) were hosted in the resulting cavities and exhibit C-H...F and anion...pi interactions in the solid state. The presence of methyl groups on the pyrazolyl rings induced several distortions in the structure. In complexes with the ligand ppdMe, there were found two groups of parallel ligands in the grid, and the cavities generated were smaller. The counteranions were situated outside the grid, and the facing ligands exhibited aromatic pi-pi stacking interactions. Anion-pi interactions involving the pyridazine ring were found. The behavior in solution of the new derivatives with a special emphasis on the cation-anion interactions was studied by UV-vis and NMR spectroscopy. Diffusion NMR experiments performed for some complexes allowed us to conclude that weak cation-anion interactions exist in solution, with the counteranions undergoing fast exchange on the diffusion time scale between the free and ion-paired states.     

On the decay of KCl:Cu+ fluorescence

Summary The fluorescence of Cu⁺ in KCl was investigated in the range 19–300 K, in particular by performing accurate measurements of lifetime and quantum yield. The data were found irrespective of the doping method. It was evidenced that, among the models proposed in the literature, the Pedrini model gives the most reasonable explanation for the Cu⁺ de-excitation mechanism: two excited states in thermal equilibrium are involved in the emission process, one of which is metastable and lying just below the emitting level.