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Active Properties (active + property)
Selected AbstractsActive properties of motoneurone dendrites: diffuse descending neuromodulation, focused local inhibitionTHE JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 5 2008C. J. Heckman The dendrites of spinal motoneurones are highly active, generating a strong persistent inward current (PIC) that has an enormous impact on processing of synaptic input. The PIC is subject to regulation by descending neuromodulatory systems releasing the monoamines serotonin and noradrenaline. At high monoaminergic drive levels, the PIC dominates synaptic integration, generating an intrinsic dendritic current that is as much as 5-fold larger than the current entering via synapses. Without the PIC, motoneurone excitability is very low. Presumably, this descending control of the synaptic integration via the PIC is used to adjust the excitability (gain) of motoneurones for different motor tasks. A problem with this gain control is that monoaminergic input to the cord is very diffuse, affecting many motor pools simultaneously, probably including both agonists and antagonists. The PIC is, however, exquisitely sensitive to the reciprocal inhibition mediated by length sensitive muscle spindle Ia afferents and Ia interneurones. Reciprocal inhibition is tightly focused, shared only between strict mechanical antagonists, and thus can act to ,sculpt' specific movement patterns out of a background of diffuse neuromodulation. Thus it is likely that motoneurone gain is set by the interaction between diffuse descending neuromodulation and specific and focused local synaptic inhibitory circuits. [source] The action of high K+ and aglycaemia on the electrical properties and synaptic transmission in rat intracardiac ganglion neurones in vitroEXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Jhansi Dyavanapalli We have investigated the action of two elements of acute ischaemia, high potassium and aglycaemia, on the electrophysiological properties and ganglionic transmission of adult rat intracardiac ganglion (ICG) neurones. We used a whole-mount ganglion preparation of the right atrial ganglion plexus and sharp microelectrode recording techniques. Increasing extracellular K+ from its normal value of 4.7 mm to 10 mm decreased membrane potential and action potential after-hyperpolarization amplitude but otherwise had no effect on postganglionic membrane properties. It did, however, reduce the ability of synaptically evoked action potentials to follow high-frequency (100 Hz) repetitive stimulation. A further increase in K+ changed both the passive and the active membrane properties of the postganglionic neurone: time constant, membrane resistance and action potential overshoot were all decreased in high K+ (20 mm). The ICG neurones display a predominantly phasic discharge in response to prolonged depolarizing current pulses. High K+ had no impact on this behaviour but reduced the time-dependent rectification response to hyperpolarizing currents. At 20 mm, K+ practically blocked ganglionic transmission in most neurones at all frequencies tested. Aglycaemia, nominally glucose-free physiological saline solution (PSS), increased the time constant and membrane resistance of ICG neurones but otherwise had no action on their passive or active properties or ganglionic transmission. However, the combination of aglycaemia and 20 mm K+ displayed an improvement in passive properties and ganglionic transmission when compared with 20 mm K+ PSS. These data indicate that the presynaptic terminal is the primary target of high extracellular potassium and that aglycaemia may have protective actions against this challenge. [source] Fabrication and Electromechanical Characterization of a Piezoelectric Structural Fiber for Multifunctional CompositesADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 4 2009Yirong Lin Abstract The use of piezoceramic materials for structural sensing and actuation is a fairly well developed practice that has found use in a wide variety of applications. However, just as advanced composites offer numerous benefits over traditional engineering materials for structural design, actuators that utilize the active properties of piezoelectric fibers can improve upon many of the limitations encountered when using monolithic piezoceramic devices. Several new piezoelectric fiber composites have been developed; however, almost all studies have implemented these devices such that they are surface-bonded patches used for sensing or actuation. This paper will introduce a novel active piezoelectric structural fiber that can be laid up in a composite material to perform sensing and actuation, in addition to providing load bearing functionality. The sensing and actuation aspects of this multifunctional material will allow composites to be designed with numerous embedded functions, including structural health monitoring, power generation, vibration sensing and control, damping, and shape control through anisotropic actuation. This effort has developed a set of manufacturing techniques to fabricate the multifunctional fiber using a SiC fiber core and a BaTiO3 piezoelectric shell. The electromechanical coupling of the fiber is characterized using an atomic force microscope for various aspect ratios and is compared to predictions made using finite element modeling in ABAQUS. The results show good agreement between the finite element analysis model and indicate that the fibers could have coupling values as high as 68% of the active constituent used. [source] SSOR preconditioned GMRES for the FEM analysis of waveguide discontinuities with anisotropic dielectricINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NUMERICAL MODELLING: ELECTRONIC NETWORKS, DEVICES AND FIELDS, Issue 2 2004R. S. Chen Abstract The anisotropic media and active properties of the perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbers significantly deteriorate the finite element method (FEM) system condition and as a result, convergence of the iterative solver is substantially slowed down. To address this issue, the symmetric successive over-relaxation (SSOR) preconditioning scheme is applied to the generalized minimal residual (GMRES) for solving a large sparse and non-symmetric system of linear equations resulting from the analysis of ferrite waveguide device by use of edge-based FEM. Consequently, this preconditioned GMRES (PGMRES) approach can reach convergence ten times faster than GMRES for the typical structures. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Sedimentation behavior of droplets for the reactive extraction of zinc with D2EHPAAICHE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010Murat Kalem Abstract The sedimentation characteristics of the reactive standard test system zinc + D2EHPA are investigated in this work. Experiments with single droplets rising in a stagnant continuous phase have been carried out. The concentration of D2EHPA, zinc, and sulfuric acid as well as the diameter of the droplets are varied. The velocity of droplets is observed to be transient for several seconds. High mass-transfer rates increase the velocity of single droplets for the case of reactive extraction whereas for physical systems contrary behavior is observed. Therefore, droplets seem to behave principally different in reactive and physical extraction. This is explained by the interfacially active properties of D2EHPA. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010 [source] Synthesis and applications of novel fluoroalkyl end-capped cooligomers containing diphenylacetylene segments: a new approach to the surface arrangement of diphenylacetylene segments on the traditional organic polymerPOLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES, Issue 3 2010Masaki Mugisawa Abstract Fluoroalkyl end-capped cooligomers containing diphenylacetylene segments [RF -(DPMA)x -(Co-M)y - RF] were prepared by reaction of fluoroalkanoyl peroxide with 4-(phenylethynyl)phenyl methacrylate (DPMA) and radical polymerizable comonomers such as N,N -dimethylacrylamide (DMAA) and acryloylmorpholine (ACMO) under very mild conditions. Fluorinated cooligomers containing diphenylacetylene segments thus obtained exhibited a good solubility in a variety of organic solvents. These fluorinated cooligomers were also applied to the surface modification of traditional organic polymers such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to exhibit not only a good surface active property imparted by fluorine but also a fluorescent characteristic related to diphenylacetylene segments on their surface. In addition, these fluorinated cooligomers could form the nanometer size-controlled fluorinated molecular aggregates in chloroform. Interestingly, some benzenes and biphenyl (BP) derivatives could interact with these fluorinated oligomeric aggregates as guest molecules, and in particular 2-chloro-5-nitrobenzotrifluoride (CNB) was most effective for enhancing the fluorescent intensity of these guest molecules. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||