Extract of Ginkgo biloba leaves reverses yohimbine-induced spatial working memory deficit in rats

Extract of Ginkgo biloba is used to alleviate age-related decline in cognitive function, which may be associated with the loss of catecholamines in the prefrontal cortex. The purpose of this study was to verify whether alpha-2 adrenergic activity is involved in the facilitative effects of extract of Ginkgo biloba on prefrontal cognitive function. Male Wistar rats were trained to reach criterion in the delayed alternation task (0, 25, and 50-s delay intervals). A pilot study found that 3 or 4 mg/kg of yohimbine (intraperitoneal) reduced the choice accuracy of the delayed alternation task in a dose and delay-dependent manner, without influencing motor ability or perseverative behaviour. Acute oral pre-treatment with doses of 50, 100, or 200 mg/kg (but not 25 mg/kg) of extract of Ginkgo biloba prevented the reduction in choice accuracy induced by 4 mg/kg yohimbine. These data suggest that the prefrontal cognition-enhancing effects of extract of Ginkgo biloba are related to its actions on alpha-2-adrenoceptors.

小麦~(13)C分辨率和水分利用效率对氮素与水分的响应

水分利用效率反映了环境养分资源对植物生理状况的影响。在Ｃ3 植物中 ,碳同位素分辨率 (Δ)可用来反映植物水分利用效率 (ＷＵＥ)状况[1,2 ] ,(已被用作衡量Ｃ3 植物叶片气体交换对环境变化的指标 ,如土壤水分亏缺[3 ] 、光辐射[4] 、湿度[5 ] 、高ＣＯ2 [6] 和盐渍[7] 。植物Δ与ＷＵＥ或干物质产量间呈负相关[8] ,但Ｗｒｉｇｈｔｅｔａｌ认为正常水分条件下Δ和ＷＵＥ为负相关 ,而干旱条件下Δ和ＷＵＥ无相关性[9] ,但就Δ和ＷＵＥ关系在氮素和水分互作条件下的变化至今研究较少。由于不同资源胁迫预处理会使植物产生一系列生理适应机制[10 ] ,所以 ,我们对不同氮素溶液下培养的小麦幼苗通过添加不同量ＰＥＧ( 6 0 0 0 )来模拟水分亏缺条件 ,利用稳定性碳同位素技术探讨不同氮素营养和水分亏缺条件下小麦Δ和ＷＵＥ的关系。1　材料与方法小偃 6号小麦 (ＴｒｉｔｉｃｕｍａｅｓｔｉｖｕｍＬ .ｃｖ .ｘｉａｏｙａｎＮｏ .6 )在 2 5℃恒温、黑暗条件下于吸湿滤纸上萌发 5ｄ后 ,选长势均一的幼苗移至装蛭石和炭沙 (1∶1,ｖ/ｖ)的塑料盒中 ,每周用改良的半强度Ｈｏａｇｌａｎｄ营养液灌...

Comparative Analysis of Fatty Acid Desaturases in Cyanobacterial Genomes

Fatty acid desaturases are enzymes that introduce double bonds into the hydrocarbon chains of fatty acids. The fatty acid desaturases from 37 cyanobacterial genomes were identified and classified based upon their conserved histidine-rich motifs and phylogenetic analysis, which help to determine the amounts and distributions of desaturases in cyanobacterial species. The filamentous or N-2-fixing cyanobacteria usually possess more types of fatty acid desaturases than that of unicellular species. The pathway of acyl-lipid desaturation for unicellular marine cyanobacteria Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus differs from that of other cyanobacteria, indicating different phylogenetic histories of the two genera from other cyanobacteria isolated from freshwater, soil, or symbiont. Strain Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 was isolated from calcareous rock and lacks thylakoid membranes. The types and amounts of desaturases of this strain are distinct to those of other cyanobacteria, reflecting the earliest divergence of it from the cyanobacterial line. Three thermophilic unicellular strains, Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1 and two Synechococcus Yellowstone species, lack highly unsaturated fatty acids in lipids and contain only one Delta 9 desaturase in contrast with mesophilic strains, which is probably due to their thermic habitats. Thus, the amounts and types of fatty acid desaturases are various among different cyanobacterial species, which may result from the adaption to environments in evolution. Copyright (c) 2008 Xiaoyuan Chi et al.

Longitudinal optic phonon-plasmon coupling in delta-doped metamorphic InAlAs/InGaAs high-electron-mobility transistor structures on GaAs substrates

InAlAs/InGaAs metamorphic high-electron-mobility transistor structures with different spacer layers on GaAs substrates are characterized by Raman measurements. The influence of In0.52Al0.48As spacer thickness on longitudinal optic phonon-plasmon coupling is investigated. It is found that the intensity of GaAs-like longitudinal optic phonon, which couples with collective intersubband transitions of two-dimensional electron gas, is strongly affected by the different subband energy spacings, subband electron concentrations, and wave function distributions, which are determined by different spacer thicknesses. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

New modulation structures observed in Bi2.13Sr1.87CuO6+delta superconductors

A new two-dimensional structure modulation along c- and b-axes has been discovered in superconducting single crystals of Bi2.13Sr1.87CuO6+delta (Bi2201) by x-ray scattering. Such modulation structure does not exist in non-superconducting Bi2201 single crystals, but instead lattice distortions are observed in the a-b-plane. This phenomenon may indicate that both strain relaxation and charge modulation in the a-b-plane are important to the occurrence of superconductivity in the copper oxides.

Delta-resonance effective mass in medium

Based on the relativistic chiral effective field theory, we study the effective mass of the Delta-resonance in medium by investigating the self-energy of the Delta-resonance related to the pi N decay channel in symmetric nuclear matter. We find that the effective mass of Delta-resonance decreases evidently with increasing nuclear density rho. In our calculation, we also consider the influence of the shifts of the nucleon mass, pion mass and its decay constant due to the restoration of chiral symmetry in medium. The results are roughly consistent with the data given by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Effects of Pairing Correlations on Formation of Proton Halo in C-9

Properties for the ground state of C-9 are studied in the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory with the NLSH, NLLN and TM2 effective interactions. Pairing correlations are taken into account by a density-dependent delta-force with the pairing strength for protons determined by fitting either to the experimental binding energy or to the odd-even mass difference from the five-point formula. The effects of pairing correlations on the formation of proton halo in the ground state of C-9 are examined. The halo structure is shown to be formed by the partially occupied valence proton levels p(3/2) and p(1/2).

Low-temperature heat capacity and standard molar enthalpy of formation of 9-fluorenemethanol (C14H12O)

Low-temperature heat capacities of the 9-fluorenemethanol (C14H12O) have been precisely measured with a small sample automatic adiabatic calorimeter over the temperature range between T = 78 K and T = 390 K. The solid-liquid phase transition of the compound has been observed to be T-fus = (376.567 +/- 0.012) K from the heat-capacity measurements. The molar enthalpy and entropy of the melting of the substance were determined to be Delta(fus)H(m) = (26.273 +/- 0.013) kJ (.) mol(-1) and Delta(fus)S(m) = (69.770 +/- 0.035) J (.) K-1 (.) mol(-1). The experimental values of molar heat capacities in solid and liquid regions have been fitted to two polynomial equations by the least squares method. The constant-volume energy and standard molar enthalpy of combustion of the compound have been determined, Delta(c)U(C14H12O, s) = -(7125.56 +/- 4.62) kJ (.) mol(-1) and Delta(c)H(m)degrees(C14H12O, s) = -(7131.76 +/- 4.62) kJ (.) mol(-1), by means of a homemade precision oxygen-bomb combustion calorimeter at T = (298.15 +/- 0.001) K. The standard molar enthalpy of formation of the compound has been derived, Delta(f)H(m)degrees (C14H12O, s) = -(92.36 +/- 0.97) kJ (.) mol(-1), from the standard molar enthalpy of combustion of the compound in combination with other auxiliary thermodynamic quantities through a Hess thermochemical cycle. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preparation and electrical properties of new oxide ion conductors Ce6-xDyxMoO15-delta (0.0 <= x <= 1.8)

Ce6-xDyxMoO15-delta (0.0 <= x <= 1.8) were synthesized by modified sol-gel method. Structural and electrical properties were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The XRD patterns showed that the materials were single phase with a cubic fluorite structure. Impedance spectroscopy measurement in the temperature range between 350 degrees C and 800 degrees C indicated a sharp increase in conductivity for the system containing small amount of Dy2O3. The Ce5.6Dy0.4MoO15-delta detected to be the best conducting phase with the highest conductivity (sigma(t) = 8.93 x 10(-3) S cm(-1)) is higher than that of Ce5.6Sm0.4MoO15-delta (sigma(t) = 2.93 x 10(-3) S cm(-1)) at 800 degrees C, and the corresponding activation energy of Ce5.6Dy0.4MoO15-delta (0.994 eV) is lower than that of Ce5.6Sm0.4MoO15-delta (1.002 eV).

Synthesis and Electrical Properties of New Solid State Electrolyte Materials Ce6-xHoxMoO15-delta(0.0 <= x <= 1.2)

Ce6-xHoxMoO15-delta(0.0 <= x <= 1.2) was synthesized by modified sol-gel method and characterized by differential X-ray diffraction(XRD), Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) methods. The oxide ionic conductivity of the samples was investigated by AC impedance spectroscopy. It shows that all the samples are single phase with a cubic fluorite structure. The solid solution Ce6-xHoxMoO15-delta(x=0.6) was detected to be the best conducting phase with the highest conductivity(sigma(t)=1.05x10(-2) S/cm) at 800 degrees C and the lowest activation energy(E-a=1.09 eV). These properties suggest that this kind of material has a potential application in intermediate-low temperature solid oxide fuel cells.

Synthesis, characterization and electrical properties of solid state electrolyte materials La2-xCaxMo1.7W0.3O9-delta (0 <= x <= 0.2)

The new compounds La2-xCaxMo1.7W0.3O9-delta (0 <= x <= 0.2) in which La3+ substituted with Ca2+ were synthesized by dry-chemistry techniques based on the oxygen Ionic conductor La2Mo1.7W0.3O9. The new series were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and the electrical conductivity of samples were investigated by AC impedance spectroscopy. The lattice parameters were reduced due to the smaller atomic radius of the Ca2+ compared with that of the La3+. Furthermore, Additional oxygen vacancies were introduced into La2Mo1.7W0.3O9 lattice by substitution, and then the oxygen ionic conductivity was increased. At 550 degrees C, the conductivity increased 89.9%, that is, from 0.79 x 10(-4) S center dot cm(-1) (x=0) to 1.5 X 10(-4)S center dot cm(-1) (x=0.16, 0.2).

Preparation, structure and oxide ion conductivity in Ce6-xYxMoO15-delta (x=0.1-1.4) solid solutions

The Ce6-xYxMoO15-delta solid solution with fluorite-related structure have been characterized by differential thermal analysis/thermogravimetry (DTA/TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), IR, Raman, scanning electric microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) methods. The electric conductivity of samples is investigated by Ac impedance spectroscopy. An essentially pure oxide-ion conductivity of the oxygen-deficiency was observed in pure argon, oxygen and air. The highest oxygen-ion conductivity was found in Ce5.5Y0.5MoO15-delta ranging from 5.9 X 10(-5)(S cm(-1)) at 300 degrees C to 1.3 X 10(-2)(S cm(-1)) at 650 degrees C, respectively. The oxide-ion conductivities remained stable over 80 h-long test at 800 degrees C. These properties suggested that significant oxide-ionic conductivity exists in these materials at moderately elevated temperatures.