Dysrhythmias of the respiratory oscillator

Breathing is regulated by a central neural oscillator that produces rhythmic output to the respiratory muscles. Pathological disturbances in rhythm (dysrhythmias) are observed in the breathing pattern of children and adults with neurological and cardiopulmonary diseases. The mechanisms responsible for genesis of respiratory dysrhythmias are poorly understood. The present studies take a novel approach to this problem. The basic postulate is that the rhythm of the respiratory oscillator can be altered by a variety of stimuli. When the oscillator recovers its rhythm after such perturbations, its phase may be reset relative to the original rhythm. The amount of phase resetting is dependent upon stimulus parameters and the level of respiratory drive. The long-range hypothesis is that respiratory dysrhythmias can be induced by stimuli that impinge upon or arise within the respiratory oscillator with certain combinations of strength and timing relative to the respiratory cycle. Animal studies were performed in anesthetized or decerebrate preparations. Neural respiratory rhythmicity is represented by phrenic nerve activity, allowing use of open-loop experimental conditions which avoid negative chemical feedback associated with changes in ventilation.In animal experiments, respiratory dysrhythmias can be induced by stimuli having specific combinations of strength and timing. Newborn animals readily exhibit spontaneous dysrhythmias which become more prominent at lower respiratory drives. In human subjects, swallowing was studied as a physiological perturbation of respiratory rhythm, causing a pattern of phase resetting that is characterized topologically as type 0. Computational studies of the Bonhoeffer-van der Pol (BvP) equations, whose qualitative behavior is representative of many excitable systems, supports a unified interpretation of these experimental findings. Rhythmicity is observed when the BvP model exhibits recurrent periods of excitation alternating with refractory periods. The same system can be perturbed to a state in which amplitude of oscillation is attenuated or abolished. We have characterized critical perturbations which induce transitions between these two states, giving rise to patterns of dysrhythmic activity that are similar to those seen in the experiments. We illustrate the importance of noise in initiation and termination of rhythm, comparable to normal respiratory rhythm intermixed with spontaneous dysrhythmias. In the BvP system the incidence and duration of dysrhythmia is shown to be strongly influenced by the level of noise. These studies should lead to greater understanding of rhythmicity and integrative responses of the respiratory control system, and provide insight into disturbances in control mechanisms that cause apnea and aspiration in clinical disease states. (c) 1995 American Institute of Physics.     

The generation and classification of tile-k-transitive tilings of the Euclidean plane,the sphere and the hyperbolic plane

Algorithms based on the theory of Delaney-Dress symbols are discussed that can be used to recursively produce all possible equivariant types of tile-k-transitive tilings of the Euclidean plane, the sphere and the hyperbolic plane, for any (reasonable)k. A number of results can be obtained using computer implementations of the algorithms.     

Rapid and simple chromatographic separation of V(V) and V(IV) using KH-phthalate and their determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

A method was developed for the chromatographic separation of V(V) and V(IV) based on the different sorption forces of these vanadium species in C18 columns in presence of KH-phthalate. The vanadium species were detected with a flame atomic absorption spectrometer with acetylene/N₂O flame. The detection limits (3σ) of V(V) and V(IV) were 0.18 μg/mL and 0.15 μg/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviations (N = 5) are 4.2% and 3.4% for 20–20 μg/mL V(V) and V(IV), respectively. The sampling frequency is 75/h. Because of the special interaction occurring between phthalate and V(IV) on the C18 column and the acetylene/N₂O flame atomic absorption detection, practically no interferences can be detected even in large inorganic matrix.     

Atomic beam scattering from single crystal surfaces

Application of atom-scattering to a variety of surface problems is expanding rapidly, owing in large part to the extreme surface- sensitivity of this probe. Helium is particularly useful because of its low mass and chemical inertness. Beams with velocity spreads of less than one percent and wavelength of the order of one Angstrom can be formed by nozzle expansion.

The scattered flux from a clean, well-ordered crystal surface contains elastic and inelastic, coherent and incoherent, components. The coherent elastic component (i.e., the specular and diffracted beams) contains information about the crystallographic structure of the outer- most atomic layer of the crystal and about the interaction potential between the crystal and the scattered particle. The latter manifests itself in the form of resonances between the incoming free-particle state, and the two-dimensional Bloch states bound in the potential well at the surface. Elastic scattering theory has reached the point where the resonance signatures in the various diffracted beams can be predicted accurately.

Crystallographic information resides in the diffracted beam intensities. Theoretical interpretation is less well advanced, though some progress has been made with “hard-wall” models. Experimental studies of reconstructed surfaces and chemisorbed overlayers appear very promising.

In inelastic scattering, energy resolution has been achieved by both time-of-flight and diffraction methods. High-resolution studies on alkali halide surfaces have led to experimental determination of Rayleighwave dispersion relations over the full Brillouin zone. Preliminary results have also been obtained on some metals.     

Experiences and practical hints on using the DDRP method,illustrated by the example of the H2 + H reaction

By using the dynamically defined reaction path (DDRP) method and starting from various initial polygons, the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) of the H₂ + H → H + H₂ reaction has been calculated. The numerical stability of the method is illustrated by the evolution phases of the reaction path. Techniques and experiences on the parameter choice and effects of the parameter values on the stability and computer time consumption are discussed. © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.