Increased activity of dopamine-containing neurons in the ventral tegmental area is necessary for the reinforcing effects of opioids and other abused drugs. Intracellular recordings from these cells in slices of rat brain in vitro showed that opioids do not affect the principal (dopamine-containing) neurons but hyperpolarize secondary (GABA-containing) interneurons. Experiments with agonists and...

The charge mode is a new mode to excite a discharge XeC1 laser based on the dynamics of a spikersustainer circuit with a magnetic pulse compressor. The breakdown voltage is higher than in any other mode, due to a very fast rise time. The higher breakdown voltage provides a wider discharge and we found that more energy can be deposited before discharge instabilities terminate the optical output....

Examines the use of query reformulation, and particularly the use of relevance feedback by users of the Excite Web search engine. A total of 985 user search sessions from a data set of 18,113 user search sessions containing 51,473 queries were examined. Includes a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 191 user sessions including more than one query, to examine patterns of user query reformul...

Not long ago, glial cells were thought to have a typical linear rectification of membrane current and lack action potentials, a defining feature of neurons. But these boundaries are blurring. Oligodendrocytic precursor cells (OPCs), identified by expression of the proteoglycan NG2, appear during early postnatal life and maintain the capacity in adulthood to proliferate into oligodendrocytes pro...

The basal forebrain (BF) plays an important role in the control of cortical activation and attention. Understanding the modulation of BF neuronal activity is a prerequisite to treat disorders of cortical activation involving BF dysfunction, such as Alzheimer's disease. Here we reveal the interaction between cholinergic neurons and cortically projecting BF GABAergic neurons using immunohistochem...

We present the Kalichord: a small, handheld electro/acoustic instrument in which the player's right hand plucks virtual strings while his left hand uses buttons to play independent bass lines. The Kalichord uses the analog signal from plucked acoustic tines to excite a physical string model, allowing a nuanced and intuitive plucking experience. First, we catalog instruments related to the Kalic...