Status epilepticus results in reversible neuronal injury in infant rat hippocampus: novel use of a marker.

Despite ready induction of severe limbic status epilepticus by systemic kainic acid (KA) in infant rats, excitotoxic neuronal injury has not been observed. The mechanisms of this resistance of the immature hippocampus to excitotoxicity are unknown. Acid fuchsin stain has been used as a marker of irreversibly injured neurons in the adult brain. We speculated that the dye might map reversibly injured neurons in the infant. Subsequent to KA-induced status epilepticus in 11-day-old rats, acid fuchsin stain was evident in the hippocampal CA3, CA1, dentate gyrus and hilus by 24 h, peaked at 48 h and disappeared by 6 days, without evidence for neuronal loss. Acid fuchsin may be a useful tool for delineating the distribution of reversibly injured immature neurons in experimental seizure paradigms

Deposition of general ellipsoidal particles

We present a systematic overview of granular deposits composed of ellipsoidal particles with different particle shapes and size polydispersities. We study the density and anisotropy of such deposits as functions of size polydispersity and two shape parameters that fully describe the shape of a general ellipsoid. Our results show that, while shape influences significantly the macroscopic properties of the deposits, polydispersity plays apparently a secondary role. The density attains a maximum for a particular family of non-symmetrical ellipsoids, larger than the density observed for prolate or oblate ellipsoids. As for anisotropy measures, the contact forces show are increasingly preferred along the vertical direction as the shape of the particles deviates for a sphere. The deposits are constructed by means of an efficient molecular dynamics method, where the contact forces are efficiently and accurately computed. The main results are discussed in the light of applications for porous media models and sedimentation processes.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Calculation of the Density of States Using Discrete Variable Representation and Toeplitz Matrices

A direct and exact method for calculating the density of states for systems with localized potentials is presented. The method is based on explicit inversion of the operator $E-H$. The operator is written in the discrete variable representation of the Hamiltonian, and the Toeplitz property of the asymptotic part of the obtained {\it infinite} matrix is used. Thus, the problem is reduced to the inversion of a {\it finite} matrix

An algorithm for series expansions based on hierarchical rate equations

We propose a computational method to obtain series expansions in powers of time for general dynamical systems described by a set of hierarchical rate equations. The method is generally applicable to problems in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics such as random sequential adsorption, diffusion-reaction dynamics, and Ising dynamics. New result of random sequential adsorption of dimers on a square lattice is presented.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages including 1 figur

Diffusional Relaxation in Random Sequential Deposition

The effect of diffusional relaxation on the random sequential deposition process is studied in the limit of fast deposition. Expression for the coverage as a function of time are analytically derived for both the short-time and long-time regimes. These results are tested and compared with numerical simulations.Comment: 9 pages + 2 figure

Investigation of the Multiple Method Adaptive Control (MMAC) method for flight control systems

The stochastic adaptive control of the NASA F-8C digital-fly-by-wire aircraft using the multiple model adaptive control (MMAC) method is presented. The selection of the performance criteria for the lateral and the longitudinal dynamics, the design of the Kalman filters for different operating conditions, the identification algorithm associated with the MMAC method, the control system design, and simulation results obtained using the real time simulator of the F-8 aircraft at the NASA Langley Research Center are discussed

Rhythmic coma in children.

We describe a syndrome of rhythmic coma in children that consists of an invariant, nonreactive, diffuse cortical activity of a specific frequency, such as alpha, beta, spindle, or theta, recorded from a comatose child. We report 11 cases of children who were found to be in rhythmic coma during their acute illnesses. Their ages ranged from 2 to 15 years, and their diagnoses included encephalitis, head trauma, seizures, near drowning, brain tumors, stroke, and metabolic derangements. The specific frequency of the electroencephalographic pattern, ie, alpha, beta, spindle, or theta, did not influence the outcome. The clinical outcome appeared to depend on the primary disease process rather than the electroencephalographic finding. The prognosis of alpha-frequency rhythmic coma as well as of rhythmic coma in general was better in children than in adults. The pathophysiology in children may be similar, ie, the interruption of reticulothalamocortical pathways by metabolic or structural abnormalities, but the expression of this deafferentation may be more varied in the developing brain. Thus, we propose the term rhythmic coma as a unified concept for alpha, beta, spindle, and theta coma in children

Glass Transition in a 2D Lattice Model

The dynamics of compaction of hard cross-shaped pentamers on the 2D square lattice is investigated. The addition of new particles is controlled by diffusive relaxation. It is shown that the filling process terminates at a glassy phase with a limiting coverage density \rho_{rcp}=0.171626(3), lower than the density of closest packing \rho_{cp}=0.2, and the long time filling rate vanishes like (\rho_{rcp}-\rho(t))^2. For the entire density regime the particles form an amorphous phase, devoid of any crystalline order. Therefore, the model supports a stable random packing state, as opposed to the hard disks system. Our results may be relevant to recent experiments studying the clustering of proteins on bilayer lipid membranes

Path-integral representation for a stochastic sandpile

We introduce an operator description for a stochastic sandpile model with a conserved particle density, and develop a path-integral representation for its evolution. The resulting (exact) expression for the effective action highlights certain interesting features of the model, for example, that it is nominally massless, and that the dynamics is via cooperative diffusion. Using the path-integral formalism, we construct a diagrammatic perturbation theory, yielding a series expansion for the activity density in powers of the time.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Identity of the universal repulsive-core singularity with Yang-Lee edge criticality

Lattice and continuum fluid models with repulsive-core interactions typically display a dominant, critical-type singularity on the real, negative activity axis. Lai and Fisher recently suggested, mainly on numerical grounds, that this repulsive-core singularity is universal and in the same class as the Yang-Lee edge singularities, which arise above criticality at complex activities with positive real part. A general analytic demonstration of this identification is presented here using a field-theory approach with separate representation of the repulsive and attractive parts of the pair interactions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure