Dark Part Research Articles

Dynamics of Blood Cytokine Concentrations in Rats with Different Behavioral Characteristics after Acute Stress

Changes in peripheral blood cytokine contents in behaviorally passive and active Wistar rats were assessed at different time points after acute stressing using a restraint model during the dark part of the day. In passive animals, decreases in the concentrations of most of the pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines studied were most marked immediately and particularly three days after stress. Changes in the cytokine profile of the blood following experimental stress were less marked in behaviorally active individuals: significant decreases from normal were seen only for the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1α and the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-13. In contrast to passive rats, these changes were more marked in active individuals one day after negative emotional loading. These data illustrate the specific features of the involvement of immunoactive substances in the system controlling the physiological functions and forming individual resistance to the negative sequelae of stress.

First Report of Verticillium Wilt Caused by Verticillium dahliae on Olive Trees in Croatia

In April 2015, dieback of young olive trees (Olea europaea L., cvs. Istarska bjelica and Buza) occurred in a private orchard near Vodnjan in Istria, Croatia. From total of 50 trees, eight (16%) showed symptoms of dieback, with branches that had vascular browning in cross section and attached light brown, downwardly curled leaves. A fungus was consistently isolated from surface sterilized wood pieces of diseased branches, obtained in pure cultures on potato dextrose agar (PDA) by monohyphal isolation, and incubated at 25°C in darkness. Colonies grew slowly (1.9 mm/day), and the initial white color became gradually dark. Microscopic analysis showed hyaline, septate hypha with conidiophores bearing phialides in verticillate arrangement producing hyaline, single-celled, ovoid to ellipsoid conidia, 4.8 ± 0.7 µm × 2.4 ± 0.4 µm (n = 100). Dark parts of the colonies showed abundant dark-brown microsclerotia embedded in PDA. Solitary microsclerotia (rounded, elongated, or irregular in shape) and their aggregates were 22 to 117 µm and up to 404 µm in diameter, respectively. Based on morphology, the fungus was identified as Verticillium dahliae Kleb. (Inderbitzin et al. 2011). For molecular identification, the representative isolate MTH4 was used for PCR amplification and sequencing of its ITS region (GenBank accession no. KX061497) using the primer pair ITS5/ITS4, showing 99.8% homology to reference isolate of V. dahliae (PD322, HQ206718) (Inderbitzin et al. 2011) and 100% homology to isolate SDV1025 (KC834733) (Yu et al. 2016), confirming identification based on morphology. Pathogenicity of eight isolates obtained in this study (MTH1 to MTH8) was tested on 2-year-old olive plants (cv. Oblica), three per isolate. Their roots were gently washed with tap water to remove soil and immersed for 1 h in conidial suspension (105 spores/ml) obtained from 10-day-old colonies on PDA. Control plants were treated with sterile water only. All the plants were potted in steam-sterilized soil and kept in greenhouse at 24 ± 2°C, around 70% relative humidity, and 15 h of daylight while watered twice a week. Inoculated plants, but not controls, showed leaf chlorosis after 4 to 5 weeks, and dieback by week six. Reisolations of V. dahliae from inoculated plants were attempted as described above and were successful for all but control plants, thus satisfying Koch’s postulates. This is the first report of V. dahliae causing dieback of olive in Croatia. During this study, it was observed that approximately 15% of olive trees in neighboring orchards also showed symptoms of dieback ; therefore, V. dahliae can be suspected as more widespread in Istria than was previously known, and control measures are needed. Diplodia seriata De Not., previously found to cause similar symptoms on young olive in Croatia (Kaliterna et al. 2012), was not found in this study.

Surface composition of pull-apart bands in Argadnel Regio, Europa: Evidence of localized cryovolcanic resurfacing during basin formation

We combine Galileo Solid State Imager (SSI) and Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) data to investigate the composition of pull-apart bands in Europa's Argadnel Regio. Using spectral linear mixture modeling employing cryogenic laboratory reference spectra, we find that bands of intermediate age (“grey” bands) are compositionally distinct from bands that are stratigraphically younger (“dark” bands). The grey bands have higher abundances of larger ice grains and lower abundances of hydrated salts than the dark bands; both of these tendencies are statistically significant at the 1% level. The grey and dark bands have similar abundances of hexahydrite, a material which is relatively stable under irradiation; however, the derived abundances of frozen magnesium sulfate brine and of mirabilite, which are more susceptible to fragmentation by radiation, are significantly higher in the dark bands than in the grey bands. These results are consistent with a physical model in which the differences in composition and in ice grain sizes are linked to space weathering and radiolytic processing levels; the grey bands have presumably undergone higher levels of processing, due to being exposed on Europa's surface for a longer period of time. One prominent wedge-shaped band exhibits an anomalous albedo variation across its northern portion, appearing dark in its top third, and grey in its southernmost two-thirds. We find that the dark part of the band has a modeled composition that is in-family with other dark bands, while the grey portion has a modeled composition that is indistinguishable from other grey bands in the study area. Because these variations cannot easily be attributed to the band's formation mechanism (bands open sequentially along a central axis), we surmise that the northern part has been resurfaced, probably in response to the formation of a large topographic basin that cuts through the band. Faulting accompanying basin formation may provide conduits allowing transport to the surface of materials from Europa's interior. We hypothesize that the formation of the basin resulted in fresh cryovolcanic material being deposited across the northern portion of the band, effectively “resetting” its surface age. If, as has been suggested, the giant arcuate basins resulted from an episode of true polar wander, our study may help to more tightly constrain the age of that event within Europa's geologic column.

The ghost of Taavetti Lukkarinen and the haunting legacy of a 1916 hanging site

ABSTRACTOn the fringe of the city centre of Oulu, Finland, stands a peculiar memorial commemorating the last death sentence by hanging in Finland. Here people remembered the ill-fate of Taavetti Lukkarinen, a young man in his early 30s, who was hanged for high treason by Russian officers in 1916. In 2014, archaeological excavation at the hanging tree memorial revealed an interesting group of finds consisting of a deliberately fractured proximal end of a calf tibia with two shards of clear glass and an iron wire inserted into its marrow channel, in addition to a rubber shoe heel pad. These finds can be interpreted as a deposit hidden in the base of the memorial to tie the presumably restless soul to the monument. Examples of this kind of magical thinking with connections to, for example, concealed shoes, are known from different parts of the world. The memorial of Taavetti Lukkarinen may therefore be regarded as an example of a place where both individual people and the society tried to deal with a dark and shameful part of their past.

3. Daily dynamics of states of vigilance in mice

Previous studies demonstrated that (a) mice preferentially sleep during light hours and they are preferentially awake during dark hours; (b) mice have fragmented sleep. Despite multiple investigations involving sleep-wake transitions in mice, the exact patterns of sleep-wake alternations are not known. Here we studied sleep-wake pattern distribution in 5 young adult C57BL/6 mice over 5 days using continuous LFP and EMG recordings with a resolution of 5 s. The states were automatically detected based on LFP delta power, theta power and EMG power. We found that daily distribution of states of vigilance in mice was: 12 h of wake, 10.2 h of slow-wave sleep and 1.8 h of REM and it was characterized by several hundred of transitions between different states of vigilance. The majority of detected states lasted less than 40 s. The fragmentation of states of vigilance was higher in the light part of the day and lower in first several hours of the dark part of the day when wake episodes were longer and REM sleep was almost absent. The most stable state of vigilance (longest stable segments) in mice was slow-wave sleep. The main EEG events that contribute to the delta power are slow waves. The existing methods of automatic slow wave detection were not sufficiently robust for their effective automatic recognition in non-anaesthetized mice. We developed a new method for slow wave detection based on neural network pattern recognition and classification, which allowed to retrieve various features of the slow waves in large amounts of data. As expected, we found many slow waves during slow-wave sleep. Surprisingly, isolated slow waves were also present during wake and occasionally during REM sleep. Both delta power and number of slow waves per second were the highest at the beginning of the light cycle, then gradually decreased to the end of the light cycle and reached their minimum in first 3–4 h of the dark cycle. Even though the slow-wave sleep episodes were shorter and occurred less often during dark part of the day, they had higher density in comparison to slow-wave sleep during the light part of the day. We conclude that the results of studies of normal sleep-wake cycle in C57BL/6 mice cannot be directly translated to human research or clinic. Supported by CIHR and NSERC.

Modeling red coral (Corallium rubrum) and African snail (Helixia aspersa) shell pigments: Raman spectroscopy versus DFT studies

Pigments from red coral (Corallium rubrum) and African snail (Helixia aspersa) shell were studied non‐invasively using Raman spectroscopy with 1064‐nm laser beam. The two observed bands because of organic pigments confined in biomineralized CaCO3 matrix at about 1500 and 1100 cm−1 were assigned to ν(CC) and ν(C―C), respectively. Both signals originate from polyene(s) of largely unknown structure, containing several conjugated CC bonds. The small peak at 1016 cm−1 in the Raman spectrum of coral pigment was assigned to in‐plane ―CH3 rocking or structural deformation of polyene chain because of spatial confinement in the mineral matrix. The organic pigments in red coral and snail shell were present in inorganic matrix containing aragonite (shell) and calcite (coral). In addition, using Raman spectroscopy, it was observed that aragonite was replaced by calcite as result of healing damaged parts of snail shell. This is an important finding which indicates a great potential of nondestructive Raman spectroscopy instead of X‐ray technique, as a diagnostic tool in environmental studies. To support analysis of the observed Raman spectra detailed calculations using density functional theory (DFT with B3LYP and BLYP density functionals) on structure and vibrations of model all‐trans polyenes were undertaken. DFT calculated CC and C―C stretching frequencies for all‐trans polyenes containing from 2 to 14 CC units were compared with the observed ν(CC) and ν(C―C) band positions of the studied coral and shell. Individual correction factors were used to better match theoretical wavenumbers with observed band positions in red coral and African snail. It was concluded that all‐trans polyene pigments of red coral and dark parts of African snail shell contain 11–12 and 14 CC double bond units, respectively. However, Raman spectroscopy cannot produce any clear information on the presence and nature of the end‐chain substituents in the studied pigments. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Changes in Motor Activity and the Sleep–Waking Cycle in an MPTP Model of Parkinson’s Disease in Mice

Mice with previously implanted electrodes for recording the cortical electroencephalogram and electromyograms underwent all-day baseline videopolysomnography with a 12/12 light cycle, after which animals received doses of 24 or 48 mg/kg of the neurotoxin precursor MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1.2.3.7-tetrahydropyridine) or physiological saline (controls) and recording was continued for 14 days. At the end of the experiments, morphological monitoring of the extent of lesions to the dopaminergic system was performed. Increases in motor activity and the total duration of waking during the dark part of the night were seen after administration of MPTP, as compared with controls. These changes were accompanied by decreases in the durations of rapid and (at the level of a tendency) slow-wave sleep. These changes were apparent by recording day 7 and were significant by day 14; they were more marked after treatment at a dose of 48 mg/kg than after the smaller dose. No changes were seen during the light period of the day. Morphological monitoring demonstrated a 70% reduction in the number of dopamine-containing neurons in the compact zone of the substantia nigra after administration of MPTP (48 mg/kg) and a 35% drop after MPTP (24 mg/kg).

An Improved Method to Measure the Point Spread Function of Cameras Used for Electro- and Photoluminescence Imaging of Silicon Solar Cells

When silicon solar cells are investigated by electro- or photoluminescence (PL) imaging using a silicon-based camera, photon scattering in the detector chip leads to a certain degree of blurring of the images, which can be removed by image deconvolution. The necessary point spread function (PSF) was originally measured directly by evaluating fine light spots, but this procedure needed the evaluation of several images. It was shown recently that evaluating an image with a sharp contrast edge in the middle may lead to a PSF spreading over longer distances by evaluating only one image. Here, we show that the previous backwards substitution method for obtaining this PSF does still lead to residual errors. An alternative method to derive the PSF from a measured contrast edge image is introduced here. It uses an iterative method, which leads to most precise results. In addition to the local deconvolution, nonlocal (homogeneous) light scattering is corrected. The correct reconstruction of the dark part of the image used for obtaining the PSF is a proof for the accuracy of this PSF.

A closer look at a coronal loop rooted in a sunspot umbra

Extreme UV (EUV) and X-ray loops in the solar corona connect regions of enhanced magnetic activity, but they are not usually rooted in the dark umbrae of sunspots because the strong magnetic field found there suppresses convection. This means that the Poynting flux of magnetic energy into the upper atmosphere is not significant within the umbra as long as there are no light bridges or umbral dots. Here we report a rare observation of a coronal loop rooted in the dark umbra of a sunspot without any traces of light bridges or umbral dots. We used the slit-jaw images and spectroscopic data from IRIS and concentrate on the line profiles of O IV and Si IV that show persistent strong redshifted components in the loop rooted in the umbra. Using the ratios of O IV, we can estimate the density and thus investigate the mass flux. The coronal context and temperature diagnostics of these observations is provided through the EUV channels of AIA. The coronal loop, embedded within cooler downflows, hosts supersonic downflows. The speed of more than 100 km s$^{-1}$ is on the same order of magnitude in the transition region lines of O IV and Si IV, and is even seen at comparable speed in the chromospheric Mg II lines. At a projected distance of within $1"$ of the footpoint, we see a shock transition to smaller downflow speeds of about 15 km s$^{-1}$ being consistent with mass conservation across a stationary isothermal shock. We see no direct evidence for energy input into the loop because the loop is rooted in the dark uniform part of the umbra with no light bridges or umbral dots near by. Thus one might conclude that we are seeing a siphon flow driven from the footpoint at the other end of the loop. However, for a final result data of similar quality at the other footpoint are needed, but this is too far away to be covered by the IRIS field of view.

Protective Effect of Ascorbic Acid and Ranitidine on the Indomethacin Induced Gastric Injury in Adult Albino Rats; Light and Electron Microscopy

Indomethacin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, used in the treatment of many inflammatory diseases. The major side effect limiting its clinical use is the gastric damages. The aim of this work was to study the possible protective effects of vitamin c and ranitidine on the gastric lesion induced by indomethacin in adult albino rats. Forty adult albino rats were divided into five equal groups: The control group, indomethacin group, indomethacin plus vitamin c, indomethacin plus ranitidine, and indomethacin plus both vitamin c and ranitidine. In the control group, the rats received normal daily diet for 10 days. In the indomethacin group, the rats were treated with indomethacin for 10 consecutive days. In indomethacin plus vitamin c group, the rats were treated with indomethacin as the second group, in addition to vitamin c, 5 minutes prior to the indomethacin for 10 days. In the fourth group, the rats were treated with indomethacin as the second group, and then received ranitidine 5 min prior to the indomethacin, for 10 consecutive days. The last group received the indomethacin as the second group, and then received vitamin c and ranitidine, 5 min prior to the indomethacin, daily for 10 days. After 10 days from the treatment, all the rats were anaesthetized, and the specimens of the stomach were prepared for light and electron microscopies. Indomethacin produced erosions and ulcerations of the gastric mucosa. There are focal areas of degeneration and inflammatory cell infiltration in the lamina propria, the gastric gland cells showed vacuolations, degeneration and disappearance of their nuclei. It also induced dilatation and congestion of the blood capillaries in the submucosa of the stomach, also the surface mucin layer was decreased in its thickness. Electron microscopic examination showed that: Indomethacin induced degeneration and vacuolations of the gastric gland cells, with degeneration of their mitochondria and nuclei. Chief cells showed abnormalities in their zymogenic granules which appeared with dark central part and pale periphery. Administration of vitamin c and ranitidine prior to the indomethacin intake reduced the pathogenic changes of the gastric wall, with slight return to the picture of the control group.

Spokesvultures for Ecological Awareness: An Interview with Timothy Morton

PROFESSOR TIMOTHY MORTON, Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University, delivered two lectures at the University of Manitoba in the winter of 2016: the first as the Sydney Warhaft Distinguished Visiting Speaker for the Faculty of Arts and the second as the keynote for the Faculty of Architecture's Atmosphere Conference. lectures were titled, respectively, On Ecological Touching: Knowing (as) Intimacy and Escape from Mesopotamia, 12,000 Years Too Late, the recordings of which are available on his blog, www.ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com. Professor Morton is author of Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence (Columbia, 2015), Nothing: Three Inquiries into Buddhism and Critical Theory (co-authored with Marcus Boon and Eric Cazdyn, Chicago, 2015), Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minnesota, 2013), Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality (Open Humanities, 2013), Ecological Thought (Harvard, 2010), Ecology without Nature (Harvard, 2007), seven other books, and over one hundred and twenty essays on subjects ranging from philosophy to food politics. He is also an active scholar in the field of Object-Oriented Ontology, the ooo school inaugurated by Graham Harman, Professor of Philosophy at SCI-ARC, Los Angeles. During his visit to Canada, Professor Morton graciously agreed to be interviewed by Caitlin McIntyre and Dana Medoro. McIntyre and Medoro are also animal-rights activists, working to ban the use of intensive confinement systems in Canadian animal agriculture. They started reading Professor Morton's work a few years ago, initially having been thoroughly intrigued by his concept of agrilogistics: the uncanniness of the Anthropocene, as Morton defines it, through which the entire surface of Earth has been placed at the mercy of agricultural existence, no matter how many other species die for it, no matter how crushing it becomes for fellow humans. In the interview that follows, Professor Morton discusses and expands upon many of the ideas that make their way into two of his recent books, Hyperobjects and Dark Ecology, from agrilogistics and Dasein, to gluten phobia and Marxism. interview was conducted in person, over beer, and showcases not only Morton's philosophical reflections but also his warm, wry sense of humour. TIMOTHY MORTON: Agrilogistics is a violent understanding of capital-N Nature, against which the notion of progress defines itself; domestication, agriculture, civilization--the claiming that these systems exist outside of or opposed to something called Nature. I'm not proposing we un-domesticate animals and return to a pre-Neolithic state; you can't escape civilization. It's violent to endorse that, a kind of Pol Pot ideology, in which everyone wearing glasses is now suspect, as if we can bomb ourselves back to the Stone Age. What we need to notice is that we never left the agricultural system that started twelve thousand years ago--when human civilization began--and we never left being animals ourselves. This is where something like gluten becomes a kind of evil! Two-thirds of Americans are gluten free and they don't understand why. It's the next magic bullet, announcing: The evil is in the gluten. Get rid of the gluten and everything will be fine. This new phase is worse than the Atkins diet: the get-back-to-the-Paleolithic diet (and pay no attention to your heart attack). This gluten thing is more intense, though. We've all decided that everything in our life will be okay if we have no gluten--or if we can upgrade the Roundup. That is, we think we can get agrilogistics right and return to a functioning-smoothly of the world, which never existed in the first place. At its base, this is all a desire to get rid of ambiguity--to get rid of the paradox that the world is always a functioning-malfunctioning thing. Everything is broken. lure of the idea that when things smoothly function, then the dark parts disappear: this is a metaphysical trap. …

Dusty plasma sheath-like structure in the region of lunar terminator

The main properties of the dusty plasma layer near the surface over the illuminated and dark parts of the Moon are described. They are used to realize dusty plasma behaviour and to determine electric fields over the terminator region. Possibility of the existence of a dusty plasma sheath-like structure in the region of lunar terminator is shown. The electric fields excited in the terminator region are demonstrated to be on the order of 300 V/m. These electric fields can result in rise of dust particles of the size of 2–3 μm up to an altitude of about 30 cm over the lunar surface that explains the effect of “horizon glow” observed at the terminator by Surveyor lunar lander.

Combination of contrast limited adaptive histogram equalisation and discrete wavelet transform for image enhancement

Image enhancement has an important role in image processing applications. Contrast limited adaptive histogram equalisation (CLAHE) is an effective algorithm to enhance the local details of an image. However, it faces the contrast overstretching and noise enhancement problems. To solve these problems, this study presents a novel image enhancement method, named CLAHE-discrete wavelet transform (DWT), which combines the CLAHE with DWT. The new method includes three main steps: First, the original image is decomposed into low-frequency and high-frequency components by DWT. Then, the authors enhance the low-frequency coefficients using CLAHE and keep the high-frequency coefficients unchanged to limit noise enhancement. This is because the high-frequency component corresponds to the detail information and contains most noises of original image. Finally, reconstruct the image by taking inverse DWT of the new coefficients. To alleviate over-enhancement, the reconstructed and original images are averaged using an originally proposed weighting factor. The weighting operation can control the enhancement levels of regions with different luminances in original image adaptively. This is important because bright parts of image are usually needless to be enhanced in comparison with the dark parts. Extensive experiments show that this method performs well in detail preservation and noise suppression.

A Review On High-Dynamic-Range Imaging With Its Technique

We presented a survey on High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI or HDR) is a set of methods used in the imagingand photography to reproduce a superior dynamic range of luminosity than regular digital imaging or photographic methods can do. HDR images can denote a superior range of the luminance levels than can be attained using the extra 'classical' techniques. Images such as those holding many actual-world scenes, from same bright and direct sunlight to dangerous shade or very faint nebulae. It is the often succeeded in catching and then joining numerous dissimilar exposures of the similar subject matter. A Non-HDR cameras take a photograph with some limited amount of exposure range, as finally resulting in the damage of the detail in bright or dark parts. In this paper, we are studying about HDR image, generating of HDR image and also study about image fusion and methods of image fusioning.

Foraging behaviour of a desert rodent community: habitat or moon – which is more influential?

In this field study, we questioned how diverging vegetal coverage, temperature and moonlight influence the patch use indicated by the giving-up density (GUD) of a nocturnal small mammal community in sheltered and non-sheltered food patches. We investigated the foraging strategy of a widely spread community consisting of Desert hamsters (Phodopus roborovskii), Midday gerbils (Meriones meridianus), Northern three-toed jerboas (Dipus sagitta) and Long-eared hedgehogs (Hemiechinus auritus) in the Alashan Desert, China. The aim was to analyse foraging as a result of biotic and abiotic factors in undisturbed habitats, i.e. we did not manipulate any surrounding conditions and all animals were free ranging. Three habitats were investigated, named after the dominant species: Ammopiptanthus mongolicus, Corispermum sp. and Zygophyllum pterocarpum. The following results can be summarised: (1) we found no or only slight differences for the GUD within the habitats between open and sheltered places; (2) lunar illumination affected foraging during waxing and waning moon phases within the first part of the night; (3) ambient temperature and the presence of moonlight resulted in changes in the interspecific competition that impacted the GUD; and (4) we determined prominent differences amongst habitats within the four moon phases, especially between the more covered habitats Ammopiptanthus and Zygophyllum, in contrast to the Corispermum habitat with its sparse coverage ratio. In general, foraging effort was elevated in the more covered habitats. We found a preferred foraging activity in warm and dark parts of the night which may lead to elevated inter-individual competition resulting in higher GUDs. Warmer periods were preferred in nights with constant light conditions, although resource competition was again elevated. We concluded that the foraging strategy was mainly affected by habitat, whereas moonlight and temperature modulate the resulting GUD in undisturbed environments. The availability of vegetal shelters influences foraging only in detail.

Leveraging dark silicon to optimize networks-on-chip topology

This paper presents a reconfigurable network-on-chip (NoC) for many-core chip multiprocessors (CMPs) in the dark silicon era, where a considerable part of high-end chips cannot be powered up due to the power and bandwidth walls. Core specialization, which trades off the cheaper silicon area with energy-efficiency, is a promising solution to the dark silicon challenge. This approach integrates a selection of many diverse application-specific cores into a single many-core chip. Each application then activates those cores that best match its processing requirements. Since active cores may not always form a contiguous active region in the chip, such a partially active many-core CMP requires some special on-chip communication support to optimize NoC parameters for the current set of active cores. In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable NoC that leverages inactive routers of a many-core chip to customize the topology for active cores. In this design, routers of the dark part of the chip are used as bypass switches that can set up virtual long links between distant active nodes in the network. Our experimental results show considerable reduction in NoC energy consumption and latency.

Symbiotic relationships of coral fish influence their infection by macroparasites.

Coral fish experience a very strong predation pres� sure during all their life cycle. This factor is considered to be the major evolutionary and ecological determi� nant in the ecosystem of the coral reef. Recently, mutualism and parasitism increasingly attract atten� tion. The mutualistic relationships of fishes and coral are well known. The coral colonies are reliable shelters for fish, fishes clean the corals from slime, sediments, and parasites, fertilize them, and ventilate the space inside the colony [1, 2]. Being in such a close symbi� otic association with the colony of a host coral and various symbionts, fishes are exposed to infestation with parasites, and the damage may surpass the advan� tages of mutualism. Mutualistc associations of fish with corals differ in the character of topic, trophic, and social relation� ships, as well as the duration of the existence of fish in the colony. Two types of symbiotic relationships are distinguished [3]. Inbiont fish, after the larvae settle from plankton, stay for all their remaining life within the host colony, feed on coral slime and on symbiotic invertebrates. As a rule, they are territorial and never leave the colony. Their abundance in the colony is low. Parabiont fish are closely connected with the coral during much shorter period of their life, namely, in the period of rapid growth. In the period of reproduction, they break symbiotic association and form reproduc� tive groups. Stable groups of parabionts usually consist of a few dozen fish. In the light part of the day, they stay near the host colony and feed on plankton brought by water currents. In the dark part of the day and when frightened, the fish hide inside the colony. Differences in ecology and behavior of inbionts and parabionts are unavoidably reflected in the appearance of communities of parasites in coral fish. It may be expected that inbionts, which are in close con� tact with each other and with other members of the symbiotic association within a limited space of the host coral, are exposed to higher risk of infestation with various parasites. On the other hand, the para� bionts feeding on zooplankton and symbiotic inverte� brates may get more parasites via trophic interconnec� tions. Negative influence of a high infestation with parasites may deteriorate the advantages of the symbi� otic life [4, 5]. Which type of symbiotic relationships of corallobiontic fishes has a higher risk of infestation? To answer this question, we investigated the com� munities of macroparasites of inbiont and parabiont fishes living on the mass species of scleractinian corals Pocillopora and Acropora from the coastal waters of South Vietnam (Nha Trang Bay). The material was collected in April–May 2012–2014 using light diving equipment at depths from 3 to 8 m. Separately situated colonies of corals were covered and wrapped in a piece of plankton gauze (all parabiont fishes which hid among branches of the colony were collected as a gen� eral sample, together with inbionts). Then, they were separated from substrata and placed into vessels with sea water. The fish from each colony were kept in sep� arate aerated aquaria.

효과적인 후판의 제품번호 검출 방법

In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed for detecting the product number of each thick plate and extracting each character of the product number from a image which contains several thick plates. In general, a image of thick plates contains several steal plates. To obtain the product number from the image, we first need to separate each plate. To do so, we use the line edges of thick plates and a clustering algorithm. After separating each plate, background parts are eliminated from the image of each plate. Background parts of an individual thick plate image consist of the dark part of steel and the white part of paint which is used for printing the product number. We propose a two-tiered method where dark background parts are first eliminated and then white parts are eliminated. Finally, each character is extracted from the product number image using the characteristics of product number. The results of the experiments on the various steal plates images emphasize that the proposed algorithm detects each thick plate and extracts the product number from a image effectively.

W041003 変形測定用の照射型グリッド

To measure the deformation of the structural material, an irradiated grid or grating fabrication method has been developed. Using a laser projector, squire grid or parallel grating was irradiated to the specimen that has luminous paint on the surface. After ten minutes irradiation, a grid or grating can be observed of bright and dark parts. Bright parts were irradiated by laser beam and can be observed in 1 minute. 3-point bending test was performed after ten minutes irradiation of laser, and grid could be observed during 3-point bending test. Another method of the exposure of UV light (375nm) on to the specimen surface with a grid mask was also carried out.

Effect of Calendula officinalis hydroalcoholic extract on passive avoidance learning and memory in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Background:Medicinal plants, owing to their different mechanisms such as antioxidants effects, may improve learning and memory impairments in diabetic rats. Calendula officinalis (CO), has a significant antioxidant activity.Aims:To examine the effect of hydroalcoholic extract of CO on passive avoidance learning (PAL) and memory in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic male rats.Settings and Design:A total of 32 adult male Wistar rats were randomly allocated to four groups: Control, diabetic, control + extract of CO and diabetic control + extract of CO groups with free access to regular rat diet.Subjects and Methods:Diabetes in diabetic rats was induced by single intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/kg STZ. After confirmation of diabetes, oral administration of 300 mg/kg CO extract to extract-treated groups have been done. PAL was tested 8 weeks after onset of treatment, and blood glucose and body weight were measured in all groups at the beginning and end of the experiment.Statistical Analysis Used:The statistical analysis of data was performed by ANOVA followed by least significant difference post-hoc analysis.Results:Diabetes decreased learning and memory. Effect of CO extract in retention test (after 24 and 48 h) has been shown a significant decrease in step-through latency and increase in time spent in the dark compartment part. Also the extract partially improved hyperglycemia and reduced body weight.Conclusion:Taken together, CO extract can improve PAL and memory impairments in STZ-diabetic rats. This improvement may be due to its antioxidant, anticholinergic activities or its power to reduce hyperglycemia.