Identifying specific prefrontal neurons that contribute to autism-associated abnormalities in physiology and social behavior.

Functional imaging and gene expression studies both implicate the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), particularly deep-layer projection neurons, as a potential locus for autism pathology. Here, we explored how specific deep-layer prefrontal neurons contribute to abnormal physiology and behavior in mouse models of autism. First, we find that across three etiologically distinct models-in utero valproic acid (VPA) exposure, CNTNAP2 knockout and FMR1 knockout-layer 5 subcortically projecting (SC) neurons consistently exhibit reduced input resistance and action potential firing. To explore how altered SC neuron physiology might impact behavior, we took advantage of the fact that in deep layers of the mPFC, dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs) are mainly expressed by SC neurons, and used D2-Cre mice to label D2R+ neurons for calcium imaging or optogenetics. We found that social exploration preferentially recruits mPFC D2R+ cells, but that this recruitment is attenuated in VPA-exposed mice. Stimulating mPFC D2R+ neurons disrupts normal social interaction. Conversely, inhibiting these cells enhances social behavior in VPA-exposed mice. Importantly, this effect was not reproduced by nonspecifically inhibiting mPFC neurons in VPA-exposed mice, or by inhibiting D2R+ neurons in wild-type mice. These findings suggest that multiple forms of autism may alter the physiology of specific deep-layer prefrontal neurons that project to subcortical targets. Furthermore, a highly overlapping population-prefrontal D2R+ neurons-plays an important role in both normal and abnormal social behavior, such that targeting these cells can elicit potentially therapeutic effects

Effect of extraction methods on physicochemical, nutritional, antinutritional, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) seed kernel oil

The effect of three different extraction methods, namely supercritical CO2, soxhlet and solvent methods on the yield, efficiency, physico-chemical properties, nutritional, anti-nutritional composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) seed kernel oil was investigated in this study. Oil extraction for SC-CO2 were 37.76 g/100g and 98.43%, observed to be higher than those of soxhlet extraction (29.12 g/100g and 76.29%), and significantly lower than solvent extraction (22.12 g/100g and 57.99%). The physico-chemical composition of the oils showed considerable variation among the extraction methods. The SC-CO2 extracted oil was found to be of superior quality, showing negligible thermal degradation and exhibited significantly (p<0.01) higher nutritional and antioxidant activity and lower anti-nutritional composition than the soxhlet and solvent extracted oils. Oils produced by SC-CO2 and soxhlet extraction methods had antimicrobial activities higher than solvent extracted oil. SCCO2 extracted oil was found to have maximum number of bioactive compounds (14 compounds) followed by solvent (8 compounds) and soxhlet (4 compounds) extracted oil. The results of the study demonstrated that SC-CO2 would be a promising process for the extraction of moringa seed kernel oil of premium quality

Flutter analysis and prevention for wings with large concentrated inertias

The influence of concentrated inertias on the flutter characteristics of a uniform cantilever wing were investigated both by experimental and by theoretical methods. The experimental work consisted of wind tunnel tests on a segmented wing model on which concentrated masses in the shape of large pods could be mounted at a number of spanwise and chordwise positions. The weight of these pods was comparable to the weight of the bare wing, and their pitching moment of inertia was varied to values up to ten times the pitching moment of inertia of the bare wing. The influence of the spanwise and chordwise position of these pods on the flutter speed was investigated. In order to assess the influence of the aerodynamic shape of the pods, four different pods were tested, each having a different aerodynamic shape. The effect of adding horizontal fins to the trailing edge of the pods was also investigated as a means of increasing the aerodynamic damping and hence the flutter stability. [Continues.

Scintillation Counters for the D0 Muon Upgrade

We present the results of an upgrade to the D0 muon system. Scintillating counters have been added to the existing central D0 muon system to provide rejection for cosmic ray muons and out-of-time background, and to provide additional fast timing information for muons in an upgraded Tevatron. Performance and results from the 1994-1996 Tevatron run are presented.Comment: 30 pages, 25 postscript figure

Investigation on Geosynthetic Reinforced Two Layered Soil System

Use of geosynthetics for flexible pavements founded on expansive soil subgrade is one of feasible and economic solution to minimize the undulation and required pavement thickness. In this present investigation the effect of inclusion of the geosynthetic reinforcement on California Bearing Ratio (CBR) value of a two layered soil system with black cotton soil at bottom and granular soil at top as a buffer layer, with different thickness configuration and geotextiles of different physical and mechanical properties was studied by laboratory and field California bearing ratio tests. Thickness of flexible pavement over the two layer soil system of different thickness configurations was estimated for unreinforced and reinforced two layered soil system by the method suggested by United States Army Corps of Engineers and Indian Road Congress. The reduction (%) in the thickness of pavement due to inclusion of geotextiles has been observed in the investigation. The reduction in thickness of pavement can be achieved up to 53.53% depending upon the thickness configuration and the type of the geotextile used. The results have shown that the field CBR tests can yield the results in conformity with the values obtained in the laboratory test

IDENTIFICATION OF RESISTANT SOURCES IN GLASS HOUSE AND FIELD EVALUATION OF SOYBEAN GENOTYPES TO ANTHRACNOSE CAUSED BY COLLETOTRICHUM TRUNCATUM (SCHW.) ANDRUS AND MOORE

Among the nineteen soybean genotypes screened by artificial inoculation with Colletotrichum truncatum, four genotypes viz., DSb 12, DSb 20, DSb 23-5 and Kalitur were found highly resistant with a disease grade of one. The eight genotypes viz., DSb1, DSb 19, DSb 21, JS 95-60, JS 97-52, TGx 1835, EC 241780 and NRC 7 showed moderately resistant reaction with disease grade of 3. The two varieties Himso 1563 and JS 335 showed highly susceptible reaction with disease severity of 9 grades. In field screening of thirteen genotypes, DSb 12 and DSb 20 were found highly resistant to the disease with a grade of one. The five genotypes viz., DSb 1, DSb 19, DSb 21, JS 95-60 and JS 97-52 are fallen under the category of moderately resistant with a disease grade of 3. The genotype JS 335 was highly susceptible to anthracnose with a maximum disease grade of nine

Fragment based tracking for scale and orientation adaptation

In this work, we propose a simple yet highly effective algorithm for tracking a target through significant scale and orientation change. We divide the target into a number of fragments and tracking of the whole target is achieved by coordinated tracking of the individual fragments. We use the mean shift algorithm to move the individual fragments to the nearest minima, though any other method like integral histograms could also be used. In contrast to the other fragment based approaches, which fix the relative positions of fragments within the target, we permit the fragments to move freely within certain bounds. Furthermore, we use a constant velocity Kalman filter for two purposes. Firstly, Kalman filter achieves robust tracking because of usage of a motion model. Secondly, to maintain coherence amongst the fragments, we use a coupled state transition model for the Kalman filter. Using the proposed tracking algorithm, we have experimented on several videos consisting of several hundred frames length each and obtained excellent results