Habenular α5 nicotinic receptor subunit signalling controls nicotine intake

Genetic variation in CHRNA5, the gene encoding the α5 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit, increases vulnerability to tobacco addiction and lung cancer, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here we report markedly increased nicotine intake in mice with a null mutation in Chrna5. This effect was 'rescued' in knockout mice by re-expressing α5 subunits in the medial habenula (MHb), and recapitulated in rats through α5 subunit knockdown in MHb. Remarkably, α5 subunit knockdown in MHb did not alter the rewarding effects of nicotine but abolished the inhibitory effects of higher nicotine doses on brain reward systems. The MHb extends projections almost exclusively to the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN). We found diminished IPN activation in response to nicotine in α5 knockout mice. Further, disruption of IPN signalling increased nicotine intake in rats. Our findings indicate that nicotine activates the habenulo-interpeduncular pathway through α5-containing nAChRs, triggering an inhibitory motivational signal that acts to limit nicotine intake.     

多agent的短期负荷预测系统

将智能主体(agent)技术应用到短期负荷预测系统中,提出了基于多agent的负荷预测系统的功能分层模型。针对如何从web页面提取有用的数据并将其集成并入到数据库中这一重要问题,提出结合agent技术将HTML(hypertext markup language)页面转化为XML(extensiblemarkup language)数据源的方法,使得在论文提出的功能结构中,数据采集层除具备基本的数据采集功能外,同时具备集成web页面的数据信息到系统数据库中的功能。给出了功能agent的实现方案。最后以一个实例证明了该方法的有效性。