SummaryNeurons are well suited for computations on millisecond timescales, but some neuronal circuits set behavioral states over long time periods, such as those involved in energy homeostasis. We found that multiple types of hypothalamic neurons, including those that oppositely regulate body weight, are specialized as near-perfect synaptic integrators that summate inputs over extended timescales. Excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) are greatly prolonged, outlasting the neuronal membrane time-constant up to 10-fold. This is due to the voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7 (Scn9a), previously associated with pain-sensation but not synaptic integration. Scn9a deletion in AGRP, POMC, or paraventricular hypothalamic neurons reduced EPSP duration, synaptic integration, and altered body weight in mice. In vivo whole-cell recordings in the hypothalamus confirmed near-perfect synaptic integration. These experiments show that integration of synaptic inputs over time by Nav1.7 is critical for body weight regulation and reveal a mechanism for synaptic control of circuits regulating long term homeostatic functions.

The heterogeneous stromal vascular fraction (SVF), containing adipose‐derived stem/progenitor cells (ASCs), can be easily isolated through enzymatic digestion of aspirated adipose tissue. In clinical settings, however, strict control of technical procedures according to standard operating procedures and validation of cell‐processing conditions are required. Therefore, we evaluated the efficiency and reliability of an automated system for SVF isolation from adipose tissue. SVF cells, freshly isolated using the automated procedure, showed comparable number and viability to those from manual isolation. Flow cytometric analysis confirmed an SVF cell composition profile similar to that after manual isolation. In addition, the ASC yield after 1 week in culture was also not significantly different between the two groups. Our clinical study, in which SVF cells isolated with the automated system were transplanted with aspirated fat tissue for soft tissue augmentation/reconstruction in 42 patients, showed satisfactory outcomes with no serious side‐effects. Taken together, our results suggested that the automated isolation system is as reliable a method as manual isolation and may also be useful in clinical settings. Automated isolation is expected to enable cell‐based clinical trials in small facilities with an aseptic room, without the necessity of a good manufacturing practice‐level cell processing area. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Si/III-V hybrid laser oscillating at a single wavelength was developed for use in a large-scale Si optical I/O chip. The laser had an InP-based reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) chip integrated with an Si wavelength-selection-mirror chip in a flip-chip configuration. A low coupling loss of 1.55 dB at the Si-SOA interface was accomplished by both mode-field-matching between Si-SOA waveguides and accurately controlling the bonding position. The fabricated Si hybrid laser exhibited a very low threshold current of 9.4 mA, a high output power of 15.0 mW, and a high wall-plug efficiency of 7.6% at 20 °C. Moreover, the device maintained a high output power of >10 mW up to 60°C due to the high thermal conductance between the SOA chip and Si substrate. The short cavity length of the flip-chip bonded laser expanded the longitudinal mode spacing. This resulted in temperature-stable single longitudinal mode lasing and a low RIN level of <-130 dB/Hz.

Synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum is thought to contribute to motor learning. In particular, long-term depression (LTD) at parallel fiber (PF) to Purkinje neuron (PN) excitatory synapses has attracted much attention of neuroscientists as a primary cellular mechanism for motor learning. In contrast, roles of plasticity at cerebellar inhibitory synapses in vivo remain unknown. Here, we have investigated the roles of long-lasting enhancement of transmission at GABAergic synapses on a PN that is known as rebound potentiation (RP). Previous studies demonstrated that binding of GABA A receptor with GABA A receptor-associated protein (GABARAP) is required for RP, and that a peptide that blocks this binding suppresses RP induction. To address the functional roles of RP, we generated transgenic mice that express this peptide fused to a fluorescent protein selectively in PNs using the PN-specific L7 promoter. These mice failed to show RP, although they showed no changes in the basal amplitude or frequency of miniature IPSCs. The transgenic mice also showed no abnormality in gross cerebellar morphology, LTD, or other excitatory synaptic properties, or intrinsic excitability of PNs. Next, we attempted to evaluate their motor control and learning ability by examining reflex eye movements. The basal dynamic properties of the vestibuloocular reflex and optokinetic response, and adaptation of the latter, were normal in the transgenic mice. In contrast, the transgenic mice showed defects in the adaptation of vestibulo-ocular reflex, a model paradigm of cerebellum-dependent motor learning. These results together suggest that RP contributes to a certain type of motor learning.

Use of directional antenna in the context of ad hoc wireless networks can largely reduce radio interference, thereby improving the utilization of wireless medium. Our major contribution in this paper is to devise a routing strategy, along with a MAC protocol, that exploits the advantages of directional antenna in ad hoc networks for improved system performance. In this paper, we have illustrated a MAC and routing protocol for ad hoc networks using directional antenna with the objective of effective load balancing through the selection of maximally zone disjoint routes. Zone-disjoint routes would minimize the effect of route coupling by selecting routes in such a manner that data communication over one route will minimally interfere with data communication over the others. In our MAC protocol, each node keeps certain neighborhood status information dynamically in order that each node is aware of its neighborhood and communications going on in its neighborhood at that instant of time. This status information from each node is propagated periodically throughout the network. This would help each node to capture the approximate network status periodically that helps each node to become topology-aware and aware of communications going on in the network, although in an approximate manner. With this status information, each intermediate node adaptively computes routes towards destination. The performance of the proposed framework has been evaluated on QualNet Network Simulator with DSR (as in QualNet) as a benchmark. Our proposed mechanism shows four to five times performance improvement over DSR, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of this proposal.Recently, several MAC protocols with directional antennas have been proposed in the context of ad hoc networks in order to improve the medium utilization with increased number of simultaneous communications. However, even if we have an efficient directional MAC protocol, it alone would not be able to guarantee good system performance, unless we have a proper routing strategy in place that exploits the advantages of directional antenna. Our major contribution in this paper is to devise a routing strategy, along with a MAC protocol, that exploits the advantages of directional antenna in ad hoc networks.Let us consider the scenario in Figure 1 where source S 1 is communicating with destination D 1 through N 1 and N 2 . At the same time, suppose another source S 2 also wants to communicate with destination D 2 . Suppose, there are three possible paths: {S }. If S 2 uses the first path that overlaps with the path used by S 1 , then simply using directional antenna cannot improve the routing performance. If S 2 uses the second path, then also routing performance will deteriorate because of the phenomenon known as route coupling [11,12,16]. Route coupling occurs when two routes are located physically close enough to interfere with each other during data communication. As a result, the nodes in those two routes are

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Japanese quail inoculated subcutaneously with Borrelia garinii responded to infection. B. garinii was reisolated mainly from skin and randomly from several organs between 7 and 56 days postinoculation. Skin lesions were occasionally observed in association with spirochete recovery. All birds were positive for antibody at 53 to 56 days postinoculation. These results suggest that the Japanese quail is a model for experimental infection with B. garinii and that birds are reservoirs for Lyme disease spirochetes.

Longitudinal alterations in anaerobic threshold (AT) and distance running performance were assessed three times within a 4-month period of intensive training, using 20 male, trained middle-distance runners (19-23 yr). A major effect of the high intensity regular intensive training together with 60- to 90-min AT level running training (2 d X wk-1) was a significant increase in the amount of O2 uptake corresponding to AT (VO2 AT; ml O2 X min-1 X kg-1) and in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max; ml O2 X min-1 X kg-1). Both VO2 AT and VO2max showed significant correlations (r = -0.69 to -0.92 and r = -0.60 to -0.85, respectively) with the 10,000 m run time in every test. However, further analyses of the data indicate that increasing VO2 AT (r = -0.63, P less than 0.05) rather than VO2max (r = -0.15) could result in improving the 10,000 m race performance to a larger extent, and that the absolute amount of change (delta) in the 10,000 m run time is best accounted for by a combination of delta VO2 AT and delta 5,000 m run time. Our data suggest that, among runners not previously trained over long distances, training-induced alterations in AT in response to regular intensive training together with AT level running training may contribute significantly to the enhancement of AT and endurance running performance, probably together with an increase in muscle respiratory capacity.