Atrial mechanoreceptors, stimulated by increased pressure or volume, elicit in healthy humans a net sympathoinhibitory response. The co-existence of an atrial reflex eliciting muscle sympathoexcitation has been postulated but undetected by conventional multi-unit muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA). We hypothesized that in response to a selective increase in atrial pressure, single-unit MS...

Recent studies have investigated the photomechanical properties of carbon nanotubes which can be utilized to construct optical actuators. In this paper we compare the photomechanical response from single-wall and multi-wall carbon nanotube/polymer systems in multilayer and nanocomposite actuator constructions. Incorporating polymers in the actuators, single-wall and multi-wall nanotubes show si...

This paper describes a methodology that system designers can use to identify, and find suitable responses for, potential failure modes (henceforth called ‘exceptions’) in multi-agent systems.

objective(s): according to the occupationally risk of infection in staff workers who have direct contact with mycobacterium species, we investigated their immunological parameters and compared with healthy purified protein derivative (ppd) negative volunteers.   materials and methods : we investigated 20 ppd positive volunteers working at tuberculin unit of razi vaccine and serum research insti...

introduction: among soil species earthworms are ubiquitous, abundant and important for soil processes, constituting the largest terrestrial faunal biomass and are also impacted by soil pollutants. the primary purpose of this study was to determine whether changes in earthworm biomass and behavior could serve as a good indicator for copper toxicity in soil systems. another aim of the study was t...

mycobacterium tuberculosis (h37rv strain) was used in this study. the bacterial cells were disintegrated by sonication. the separation and characterization of the soluble molecules were attempted by various techniques including gel filtration, ion exchange chromatographies and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, using sds and 2me. eight protein molecules with molecular weights ranging from 6.3 ...

These studies document the ability of electroporation (EP)-based DNA vaccination to induce multi-specific CTL responses to hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA vaccination in normal mice and marked immune responses to multivalent HBV DNA immunization in larger animal species. These results suggest that electroporation-mediated HBV DNA vaccination is worth pursuing as a treatment for chronic HBV infection.

In this paper we discuss ethical challenges arising around IT supported interoperability in multi-agency emergency management and explore some methodological responses.

Many sounds in the environment, including speech, are temporally dynamic. The auditory brainstem is exquisitely sensitive to temporal features of the incoming acoustic stream, and by varying the speed of presentation of these auditory signals it is possible to investigate the precision with which temporal cues are represented at a subcortical level. Therefore, to determine the effects of stimul...

Although tone-bursts have been commonly used in auditory brainstem response (ABR) evaluations for many years, national standards describing normal calibration values have not been established. This study was designed to gather normative threshold data to establish a physical reference for tone-burst stimuli that can be reproduced across clinics and laboratories. More specifically, we obtained n...