Most knowledge on the Web is encoded as natural language text, which is convenient for human users but very difficult for software agents to understand. Even with increased use of XML-encoded information, software agents still need to process the tags and literal symbols using application dependent semantics. The Semantic Web offers an approach in which knowledge can be published by and shared ...

This study reports the first intracellular recordings obtained during spontaneous, genetically determined spike and wave discharges (SWDs) in nucleus reticularis thalami (NRT) neurons from the genetic absence epilepsy rats from Strasbourg (GAERS), a model that closely reproduces the typical features of childhood absence seizures. A SWD started with a large hyperpolarization, which was independe...

PURPOSE EEG-triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to identify areas of brain activation during spontaneous spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs) in an epileptic rat strain under awake conditions. METHODS Spontaneous absence seizures from 10 WAG/Rij rats were imaged by using T2*-weighted echo planar imaging at 4.7 Tesla. fMRI of the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD)...

OBJECTIVES This review aims to offer a critical account of recent scientific developments relevant to the hypothesis which Pierre Gloor proposed in the 1970s for the generation of spike and wave discharges (SWDs) of primary generalized absence seizures. RESULTS According to this hypothesis SWDs develop in the same circuits, which normally generate sleep spindles, by an initially cortical tran...

OBJECTIVE Glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are the key neurotransmitter systems in the cortical-thalamocortical network, involved in normal and pathologic oscillations such as spike-wave discharges (SWDs), which characterize different forms of absence epilepsy. Metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) and GABA receptors are widely expressed within this network. Herein, we examined the effects of t...

Effects of the novel anti-epileptic drug levetiracetam (50 and 100 mg/kg) on spike and wave discharges (SWDs) of WAG/Rij rats were studied. Levetiracetam decreased the incidence, average duration, total duration and peak frequency of the SWDs. There was no difference between the two doses. These results agree with results obtained in Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rat from Strasbourg (GAERS). Further...

The development of the Semantic Web has led to the proposal of several solutions concerning the retrieval of Semantic Web Documents (SWDs). However, current solutions presuppose that the query is given in a structured way using a formal language and provide no advanced means for the (semantic) alignment of the query to the contents of the Semantic Web Documents. As a consequence, many of the We...

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) can play a crucial role in the modulation of absence seizures, yet relevant biophysical mechanisms are not completely established. In this paper, on the basis of a biophysical mean-field model, we investigate a typical absence epilepsy activity by introducing slow kinetics of GABAB receptors on thalamus reticular nucleus (TRN). We find that the region of spike and s...

The encephalographic (EEG) properties of zaleplon were investigated in comparison with those of other sedative hypnotics in conscious rats with chronically implanted electrodes. The oral administration of zaleplon (0.25-1.0 mg/kg), triazolam (0.0625-0.25 mg/kg), zopiclone (1.0-4.0 mg/kg), brotizolam (0.0625-0.25 mg/kg), and nitrazepam (0.125-0.5 mg/kg) lengthened the total sleep in a dose-depen...

PURPOSE The substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNpr) is assumed to be involved in the control of several kinds of epileptic seizures, an assumption based mostly on neuropharmacologic evidence. However, only very few neurophysiological recordings from the basal ganglia support neuropharmacologic data. We investigated the electrophysiologic activity of SNpr neurons in rats with genetic absence epi...