The behavior of the homozygous and heterozygous sub-types of rats which are genetically-selected for diabetes insipidus: A comparison with Long Evans and Wistar stocks

Several aspects of spontaneous and conditioned behavior (food and water intake, locomotion and emotionality, passive and active avoidance acquisition and retention) of standard (albino and pigmented) rats, and rats heterozygous (HEDI) and homozygous (HODI) for diabetes insipidus, are reviewed. As would be expected, HODI rats have been repeatedly found to consume far more fluid than either HEDI or control rats. Pigmented rats appear to be more active than albinos. HODI rats exhibit less marked emotional responses than do control rats, among which the pigmented ones exhibit the highest emotionality. Light aversion is more evident in albino than in pigmented rats. No differences are found among HEDI, HODI and normal Long Evans rats. It is quite difficult to provide a clear-cut statement concerning inter-strain differences in passive avoidance behavior, possibly because of the variety of techniques employed. In any case, HODI rats do not perform worse than normal controls do. In one-way active avoidance paradigms, pigmented rats perform better than albinos, and the performance of HODI rats does not differ from that of controls. In two-way avoidance paradigms, albinos appear to outperform pigmented rats. Once again, there are no obvious differences between HODI and control animals.In addition to indicating that HODI rats may actually be less emotional than the other groups of rats reviewed here, the studies described once again fail to confirm the previously alleged functions of vasopressin in memory consolidation.     

Sound communication inNezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae): Further evidence that signal transmission is substrate-borne

We investigated the sound communication associated with mating inNezara viridula (L.) to clarify conflicting reports on the medium through which acoustic signals are borne. Recordings made from virgin pairs ofN. viridula during precopulatory and compulatory behaviour have revealed that signals transmitted as vibrations through the substrate are a more likely means of communication than signals transmitted by a radiation of sound pressure waves through the air (at least in Australian populations). We present evidence (additional to that already in the literature) that air-borne acoustics are an unlikely mechanism of sexual communication in this species. Specifically, the recorded pulse train patterns showed no consistency or repeatability in relation to different stages of mating behaviour. In contrast, frequency spectrograms of substrate-borne signals reveal repeatable patterns that do correspond with the stage of mating behaviour.     

STABILITY CRITERIA FOR A CLASS OF UNCERTAINSYSTEMS WITH TIME—DELAY

Some stability criteria are obtained for a class of uncertain systems with time-delay usingLyapunov functional and analytic techniques. It is easy to check the criteria by making use of theboundedness of the uncertainties.     

Technical Notes ：STUDIES ON THE VALUE OF SECONDARY MARKET TO THE SUPPLY CHAIN

This paper investigates the impact of a secondary market, where retailers can buy and sell excessinventories, on the supply chain. We develop a two-period model with a single manufacturer and tworetailers. At the beginning of the first period the retailers order and receive products from themanufacturer, but at the beginning of the second period, they can trade surplus products betweenthemselves in the secondary market. We investigate the impact of the correlated dependence ofretailers' demand on both the quantity effect and the allocation effect under the secondary market.Lastly,we study potential strategies for the manufacturer to increase sales with the existence of thesecondary market.     

Aspirin-like drugs may block pain independently of prostaglandin synthesis inhibition

Summary Using flurbiprofen, a chiral anti-inflammatory and analgesic 2-arylpropionic acid derivative, the enantiomers of which are not converted to each other (less than 5%) in rats or man, we obtained evidence that prostaglandin synthesis inhibition is primarily mediating the anti-inflammatory activity but prostaglandin synthesis independent mechanisms contribute to the analgesic effects. Thus, the S-form inhibited prostaglandin synthesis, inflammation and nociception in rats. The R-form had much less effect on prostaglandin synthesis and did not affect inflammation. It did, however, block nociception in rats almost as potently as the S-form. S-flurbiprofen, in contrast to the R-form, was clearly ulcerogenic in the gastrointestinal mucosa. These results indicate additional molecular mechanisms of analgesia and suggest the use of R-arylpropionic acids as analgesics.     

FROM MANUFACTURING SCHEDULING TO SUPPLY CHAIN COORDINATION：THE CONTROL OF COMPLEXITY AND UNCERTAINTY

With time-based competition and rapid technology advancements, effective manufacturingscheduling and supply chain coordination are critical to quickly respond to changing marketconditions. These problems, however, are difficult in view of inherent complexity and variousuncertainties involved. Based on a series of results by the authors, decomposition and coordination byusing Lagrangian relaxation is identified in this paper as an effective way to control complexity anduncertainty.A manufacturing scheduling problem is first formulated within the job shop context withuncertain order arrivals, processing times, due dates, and part priorities as a separable optimizationproblem. A solution methodology that combines Lagrangian relaxation, stochastic dynamicprogramming, and heuristics is developed. Method improvements to effectively solve large problemsare also highlighted. To extend manufacturing scheduling within a factory to coordinate autonomicmembers across chains of suppliers, a decentralized supply chai     

A small GTP-binding protein dissociates from synaptic vesicles during exocytosis.

Low-molecular-weight GTP-binding proteins are strong candidates for regulators of membrane traffic. In yeast, mutations in the sec4 or ypt1 genes encoding small GTP-binding proteins inhibit constitutive membrane flow at the plasma membrane or Golgi complex, respectively. It has been suggested that membrane fusion-fission events are regulated by cycling of small GTP-binding proteins between a membrane-bound and free state, but although most of these small proteins are found in both soluble and tightly membrane-bound forms, there is no direct evidence to support such cycling. In rat brain a small GTP-binding protein, rab3A, is exclusively associated with synaptic vesicles, the secretory organelles of nerve terminals. Here we use isolated nerve terminals to study the fate of rab3A during synaptic vesicle exocytosis. We find that rab3A dissociates quantitatively from the vesicle membrane after Ca2(+)-dependent exocytosis and that this dissociation is partially reversible during recovery after stimulation. These results are direct evidence for an association-dissociation cycle of a small GTP-binding protein during traffic of its host membrane.     

The Huntington's disease candidate region exhibits many different haplotypes.

Analysis of 78 Huntington's disease (HD) chromosomes with multi-allele markers revealed 26 different haplotypes, suggesting a variety of independent HD mutations. The most frequent haplotype, accounting for about one third of disease chromosomes, suggests that the disease gene is between D4S182 and D4S180. However, the paucity of an expected class of chromosomes that can be related to this major haplotype by assuming single crossovers may reflect the operation of other mechanisms in creating haplotype diversity. Some of these mechanisms sustain alternative scenarios that do not require a multiple mutational origin for HD and/or its positioning between D4S182 and D4S180.     

PDE-Based Medial Axis Extraction and Shape Manipulation of Arbitrary Meshes

Shape skeletonization （i.e., medial axis extraction） is powerful in many visual computing applications, such as pattern recognition, object segmentation, registration, and animation. In this paper, the authors expand the use of diffusion equations combined with distance field information to approximate medial axes of arbitrary 3D differential properties. It offers an alternative solids represented by polygonal meshes based on their but natural way for medial axis extraction for commonly used 3D polygonal models. By solving the PDE along time axis, this system can not only quickly extract diffusion-based medial axes of input meshes, but also allow users to visualize the extraction process at each time step. In addition, the proposed model provides users a set of manipulation toolkits to sculpt extracted medial axes, then use diffusion-based techniques to recover corresponding deformed shapes according to the original input datasets. This skeleton-based shape manipulation offers a fast and easy way for animation and deformation of complicated mesh objects.