The stress experience dependent long-term depression disassociated with stress effect on spatial memory task

Behavioral stress can either block or facilitate memory and affect the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). However, the relevance of the stress experience-dependent long-term depression (SLTD) to spatial memory task is unknown. Here we have investigated the effects of acute and sub-acute elevated platform (EP) and foot shock (FS) stress on LTD induction in CA1 region of the hippocampus of anesthetized rats and spatial memory in Morris water maze. We found that LTD was facilitated by acute EP stress, but not by sub-acute EP stress that may be due to the fast adaptation of the animals to this naturalistic mild stress. However, FS stress, an inadaptable strong stress, facilitated LTD induction both in acute and sub-acute treatment. In addition, with the same stress protocols, acute EP stress impaired spatial memory but the sub-acute EP stressed animals performed the spatial memory task as well as the controls, may due to the same reason of adaptation. However, acute FS stress slightly impaired learning but sub-acute FS even enhanced memory retrieval. Our results showed that SLTD was disassociated with the effect of stress on memory task but might be related to stress experience-dependent form of aberrant memory. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Enriched environment experience overcomes the memory deficits and depressive-like behavior induced by early life stress

Stress in early life is believed to cause cognitive and affective disorders, and to disrupt hippocampal synaptic plasticity in adolescence into adult, but it is unclear whether exposure to enriched environment (EE) can overcome these effects. Here, we rep

The Malaysian experience

Integrated farming has long been practiced in Malaysia, not only to provide protein requirements needed by the family, but also as a source of income. With fish being promoted on a larger scale, the Malaysian government is providing farmers with financial assistance and hands-on training on fish culture and rice production. Systems of fodder-fish integrated farming and fish-livestock farming in mine ponds are outlined.

The water hyacinth problem and the biological control option in the highland lake region of the upper Nile basin: Uganda's experience

The rapid proliferation and extensive spread of water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes (Mart) Solms in the highland lakes of the Nile Basin within less than 15 years of introduction into the basin in the 1980s pauses potential environmental and social economic menace if the noxious weed is not controlled soon. The water weed has spread all round Lake Victoria and, in Uganda where infes tation is mos t severe, water hyacinth estimated at 1,330,000 ton smothers over 2,000 ha of the lakeshore (August,1994). Lake Kyoga which already constantly supplies River Nile with the weed is infested with over 570 ha, while over 80% of the river course in Uganda is fringed on either side with an average width of about 5m of water hyacinth. As the impact of infestation with water hyacinth on water quality and availability, transportation by water, fishing activities, fisheries ecology, hydro-power generation etc becomes clear in Uganda, serious discussion is under way on how to control and manage the noxious weed. This paper pauses some of the questions being asked regarding the possible application of mechanical and chemical means to control the water weed.Uganda has already initiated the use of biological control of water hyacinth on Lake Kyoga with a strategy to use two weevils namely Neochetinabruchi and Neochetina eichhorniae. The strategy to build capacity and infrastructure for mass multiplication and deployment of biological control of the weevils in the field developed in Uganda by the Fisheries Research Insti tu te (FIRI) and the Namulonge Agricultural and Animal production Research Insti tute (NAARI) is proposed in outline for evaluation. Plans to deploy this strategy on lake Kyoga are under way

An ecodesign model based on industry experience

With the increase in environmental legislation facing many industrial sectors organisations are now looking for ways to improve their environmental performance. To a large extent organisations have tended to concentrate on their operations inside the "factory gates" with little regard to the environmental performance of the products they produce. However, this is now changing and some organisations are beginning to take a close look at their products and their effects on the environment during its use phase as well as during the manufacture and disposal phases. At Cranfield University we have carried out a 3 year survey of US, Central European and UK companies claiming to practice ecodesign has been undertaken. Thirty electrical and electronic manufacturers were studied, some through in-depth observation of design programmes, most through semi-structured interviews. The survey and action research sought to understand the way in which these companies practised ecodesign and how they .had implemented ecodesign. A common pattern emerged from the data which suggests that companies successfully implementing ecodesign have many similar experiences. The resulting ecodesign model is presented and discussed, and the factors critical to successful implementation at various stages are explored. The factors cover a range of topics including design management, motivation, design tools, design phases, communication and the designers perspective.

A condition monitoring platform using COTS wireless sensor networks - Lessons and experience

Developments in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), wireless communication systems and ad-hoc networking have created new dimensions to improve asset management not only during the operational phase but throughout an asset's lifecycle based on using improved quality of information obtained with respect to two key aspects of an asset: its location and condition. In this paper, we present our experience as well as lessons learnt from building a prototype condition monitoring platform to demonstrate and to evaluate the use of COTS wireless sensor networks to develop a prototype condition monitoring platform with the aim of improving asset management by providing accurate and real-time information. © 2010 IEEE.

User responses to the learning demands of consumer products

Designers are typically male, under 35 years old and unimpaired. Users can be of any age and currently over 15% will have some form of impairment. As a result a vast array of consumer products suit youthful males and in many cases exclude other demographics (e.g. Keates and Clarkson, 2004). In studying the way a range of users learn how to use new products, key cognitive difficulties are revealed and linked back to the areas of the product causing the problems. The trials were structured so each user had to complete a specific set of tasks and were consistent across the user spectrum. The tasks set aimed to represent both everyday usage and less familiar functions. Whilst the knowledge gained could provide designers with valuable guidelines for the specific products examined, a more general abstraction provides knowledge of the pitfalls to avoid in the design of other product families.

Inventors and entrepreneurs in academia: What types of skills and experience matter?

This paper aims to improve our understanding of the attributes of academic researchers that influence the capacity to contribute to technical advance, by adding to the pool of technological opportunities available to industry or engaging in the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. We investigate a number of factors associated with the skills developed by academic researchers. We find that contributions to the pool of technological opportunities and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities involve different sets of skills and expertise of scientists. Our results show that the former is driven by academic scientists research excellence and discovery of earlier technological opportunities and the latter is driven by previous collaboration with industry partners, scientific breadth and experience of technological discovery. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.