Comparison of the responsiveness of isolated arteries and veins taken from the same dogs 17 days apart

Summary The present experiments demonstrate that isolated arteries and veins taken from the same dogs before and after an interval of 17 days show comparable responses to adrenergic nerve stimulation, exogenous norepinephrine and depolarizing solution. They provide an acceptable model for the in vitro study of chronic influences on canine vascular responsiveness.     

Conclusion

The previous articles, demonstrating the importance of chemoreception in many aspects of fish reproduction, can be summarized in the following way.     

Influence des stimulations auditives sur le comportement sexuel du taureau

Summary In a preliminary series of experiments, it was noted that dairy bulls who refused to mount the cow for a long time, could be induced to mount it again when acoustically stimulated by specific calls of cows emitted by a magnetophone. In these conditions, the reaction time of the bulls was also shorter, while ejaculated quantities did not differ from those obtained before the experiments. It is suggested that this rather simple procedure could be helpful when the use of bulls as teasers raises difficulties.     

卟啉传感阵列图像特征值自动提取方法

针对卟啉传感阵列(PSA)图像,设计了一种特征提取算法。该算法首先利用radon变换的方法实现了PSA图像倾斜自动校正;而后通过二值投影与数学统计学结合的方法来进行网格划分,根据网格划分的卟啉点区域对图像进行局部阈值分割,从而定位出卟啉点区域,最后采用比例半径法从已定位的卟啉点区域内提取出每个卟啉点的特征。该算法解决了弱信号卟啉点识别难的问题,提取的特征值最大程度的反映了卟啉点的信息。通过对NH3、异戊二烯、庚醛等气体进行试验,结果表明该算法能够很好的提取出PSA图像中卟啉点的特征值。     

GTP-dependent twisting of dynamin implicates constriction and tension in membrane fission

Dynamin, a crucial factor in endocytosis, is a member of a family of GTPases that participates in membrane fission. It was initially proposed to act as a machine that constricts and cuts the neck of nascent vesicles in a GTP-hydrolysis-dependent reaction, but subsequent studies suggested alternative models. Here we monitored the effect of nucleotides on dynamin-coated lipid tubules in real time. Addition of GTP, but not of GDP or GTP-gammaS, resulted in twisting of the tubules and supercoiling, suggesting a rotatory movement of the helix turns relative to each other during GTP hydrolysis. Rotation was confirmed by the movement of beads attached to the tubules. Twisting activity produced a longitudinal tension that was released by tubule breakage when both ends of the tubule were anchored. Fission also occurred when dynamin and GTP were added to lipid tubules that had been generated from liposomes by the motor activity of kinesin on microtubules. No fission events were observed in the absence of longitudinal tension. These findings demonstrate a mechanoenzyme activity of dynamin in endocytosis, but also imply that constriction is not sufficient for fission. At the short necks of endocytic vesicles, other factors leading to tension may cooperate with the constricting activity of dynamin to induce fission.     

Thermal radiation scanning tunnelling microscopy

In standard near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), a subwavelength probe acts as an optical 'stethoscope' to map the near field produced at the sample surface by external illumination. This technique has been applied using visible, infrared, terahertz and gigahertz radiation to illuminate the sample, providing a resolution well beyond the diffraction limit. NSOM is well suited to study surface waves such as surface plasmons or surface-phonon polaritons. Using an aperture NSOM with visible laser illumination, a near-field interference pattern around a corral structure has been observed, whose features were similar to the scanning tunnelling microscope image of the electronic waves in a quantum corral. Here we describe an infrared NSOM that operates without any external illumination: it is a near-field analogue of a night-vision camera, making use of the thermal infrared evanescent fields emitted by the surface, and behaves as an optical scanning tunnelling microscope. We therefore term this instrument a 'thermal radiation scanning tunnelling microscope' (TRSTM). We show the first TRSTM images of thermally excited surface plasmons, and demonstrate spatial coherence effects in near-field thermal emission.