Investigation into the Specificity of Angiotensin II-induced Behavioral Desensitization

Angiotensin II (AngII) plays a key role in maintaining body fluid homeostasis. The physiological and behavioral effects of central AngII include increased blood pressure and fluid intake. In vitro experiments demonstrate that repeated exposure to AngII reduces the efficacy of subsequent AngII, and behavioral studies indicate that prior icv AngII administration reduces the dipsogenic response to AngII administered later. Specifically, rats given a treatment regimen of three icv injections of a large dose of AngII, each separated by 20 min, drink less water in response to a test injection of AngII than do vehicle-treated controls given the same test injection. The present studies were designed to test three potential explanations for the reduced dipsogenic potency of AngII after repeated administration. To this end, we tested for motor impairment caused by repeated injections of AngII, for a possible role of visceral distress or illness, and for differences in the pressor response to the final test injection of AngII.We found that repeated injections of AngII neither affected drinking stimulated by carbachol nor did they produce a conditioned flavor avoidance. Furthermore, we found no evidence that differences in the pressor response to the final test injection of AngII accounted for the difference in intake. In light of these findings, we are able to reject these three explanations for the observed behavioral desensitization, and, we suggest instead that the mechanism for this phenomenon may be at the level of the receptor.

Privatization in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Insights from and into the craft of interorganizational process analysis.

International efforts to help Bosnia and Herzegovina privatize its state-owned enterprises proved dif.cult, but the complex web of interorganizational relationships (IORs) among international donors, implementers, contractors, and local players, at times, seemed even more daunting to effective implementation of reforms than the technical dif.culties of the task itself. By employing a theoretical framework of IOR development over time, important stages in the evolution of the International Advisory Group on Privatization were identi.ed, and variables within each discussed. Analysis employed linear and nonlinear process logics to help explain what linked some variables withinand betweenthese various phases. Insights seemed valuable for practitioners seeking to implement interdependent tasks, organizational representatives trying to form relationships with others, and scholars trying to understand process theories of IOR formation. In addition, this research provides an introduction to the complexities of international development assistance — a crucially important and under-researched arena.

'Security Here is Not Safe': Violence, Punishment, & Space in the Contemporary U.S. Penitentiary

The US penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, was retrofitted in 2008 to offer the country’s first federal Special Management Unit (SMU) program of its kind. This model SMU is designed for federal inmates from around the country identified as the most intractably troublesome, and features double-celling of inmates in tiny spaces, in 23-hour or 24-hour a day lockdown, requiring them to pass through a two-year program of readjustment. These spatial tactics, and the philosophy of punishment underlying them, contrast with the modern reform ideals upon which the prison was designed and built in 1932. The SMU represents the latest punitive phase in American penology, one that neither simply eliminates men as in the premodern spectacle, nor creates the docile, rehabilitated bodies of the modern panopticon; rather, it is a late-modern structure that produces only fear, terror, violence, and death. This SMU represents the latest of the late-modern prisons, similar to other supermax facilities in the US but offering its own unique system of punishment as well. While the prison exists within the system of American law and jurisprudence, it also manifests features of Agamben’s lawless, camp-like space that emerges during a state of exception, exempt from outside scrutiny with inmate treatment typically beyond the scope of the law.

"Security Here is Not Safe": Violence, Punishment, and Space in the Contemporary US Penitentiary

The US penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, was retrofitted in 2008 to offer the country's first federal Special Management Unit (SMU) program of its kind. This model SMU is designed for federal inmates from around the country identified as the most intractably troublesome, and features double-celling of inmates in tiny spaces, in 23-hour or 24-hour a day lockdown, requiring them to pass through a two-year program of readjustment. These spatial tactics, and the philosophy of punishment underlying them, contrast with the modern reform ideals upon which the prison was designed and built in 1932. The SMU represents the latest punitive phase in American penology, one that neither simply eliminates men as in the premodern spectacle, nor creates the docile, rehabilitated bodies of the modern panopticon; rather, it is a late-modern structure that produces only fear, terror, violence, and death. This SMU represents the latest of the late-modern prisons, similar to other supermax facilities in the US but offering its own unique system of punishment as well. While the prison exists within the system of American law and jurisprudence, it also manifests features of Agamben's lawless, camp-like space that emerges during a state of exception, exempt from outside scrutiny with inmate treatment typically beyond the scope of the law

Testing the TICT State Hypothesis: an Investigation into the Solvatochromic Behavior of 2-Naphthalenylmethylene Malononitrile

Towards the goal of investigating the possible Twisted Intramolecular Charge Transfer (TICT) state mechanism of fluorescence emission, two aromatic dicyanovinyl compounds, 2-(naphthalene-2-ylmethylene) malononitrile (DCN) and a rigidified analogue, 3,4-dihydrophenanthren-1(2H)-ylidene)malononitrile (RDCN) were synthesized and their absorption and steady-state fluorescence emission spectra characterized. The spectral characterization was divided into two studies: first, DCN and RDCN were characterized in liquid solvents of increasing polarity; second, DCN and RDCN were characterized in viscous solvents and rigid glass media. The absorption spectra for both DCN and RDCN in all solvents demonstrated little to no solvatochromism. Emission results for DCN and RDCN in liquid solvents of increasing polarity showed DCN possessing strong solvatochromism while RDCN showed much less solvatochromism. Using the Lippert-Mataga equation, the difference between the ground and excited state dipole moment for DCN was estimated to be 8.4 + 0.4 Debye and between ~3.0 to 5.0 Debye for RDCN. Quantum yield measurements for DCN and RDCN in hexane, diethyl ether and acetonitrile were less than 0.01 and independent of polarity for both both solvents, with DCN generally possessing a quantum yield 3-4 times greater than RDCN. Experiments in glass media for DCN and RDCN showed a lessening of their solvatochromic character in both polar and non-polar glasses. These data provide strong evidence for a link between molecular flexibility and solvatochromism. However, while these data are consistent with a TICT state hypothesis for the emission mechanism, an alternative mechanism proposed by Maroncelli et al.10 involving rotation about the dicyanovinyl double bond in the excited state remains a possibility as well.