A SWITCHED HYPERCHAOTIC SYSTEM AND ITS FPGA CIRCUITRY IMPLEMENTATION

This paper introduces a switched hyperchaotic system that changes its behavior randomly from one subsystem to another via two switch functions, and its characteristics of symmetry, dissipation, equilibrium, bifurcation diagram, basic dynamics have been analyzed. The hardware implementation of the system is based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). It is shown that the experimental results are identical with numerical simulations, and the chaotic trajectories are much more complex.

Brain reward circuitry:The overlapping neurobiology of trauma and substance use disorders

Mental health symptoms secondary to trauma exposure and substance use disorders(SUDs)co-occur frequently in both clinical and community samples.The possibility of a shared aetiology remains an important question in translational neuroscience.Advancements in genetics,basic science,and neuroimaging have led to an improved understanding of the neural basis of these disorders,their frequent comorbidity and high rates of relapse remain a clinical challenge.This project aimed to conduct a review of the field’s current understanding regarding the neural circuitry underlying posttraumatic stress disorder and SUD.A comprehensive review was conducted of available published literature regarding the shared neurobiology of these disorders,and is summarized in detail,including evidence from both animal and clinical studies.Upon summarizing the relevant literature,this review puts forth a hypothesis related to their shared neurobiology within the context of fear processing and reward cues.It provides an overview of brain reward circuitry and its relation to the neurobiology,symptomology,and phenomenology of trauma and substance use.This review provides clinical insights and implications of the proposed theory,including the potential development of novel pharmacological and therapeutic treatments to address this shared neurobiology.Limitations and extensions of this theory are discussed to provide future directions and insights for this shared phenomena.

Dysfunction of Fronto-Subcortical Circuitry in Fronto-Temporal Dementia

In the last years, some studies have shown that behavior disorder seems in frontotemporal dementia is related to dysfunction in the fronto-subcortical circuitry. Objectives: We did a narrative literature review concerning fronto-subcortical circuitry and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods: Manuscripts related to fronto-subcortical network and frontotemporal dementia were selected for further analysis. Results: From the executions of simple motor actions to the most complex behaviors like goal-direct behavior and social cognition, the fronto-subcortical circuitry involves an intrigued network of fibers that reaches to basal ganglia nuclei. Recently, researchers have shown five parallel fronto-subcortical circuits integrating and segregating information from the frontal cortex to basal ganglia. Understanding the relationship between the fronto-subcortical circuit dysfunctions and neurodegenerative diseases requires studying the functional anatomy and neurochemical basis involved. Conclusions: In this view, it is essential to review the functional anatomy of the fronto-subcortical network, and it’s correlated with clinical aspects to pursuing a better therapeutic approach.

A Short Glance at the Neural Circuitry Mechanism Underlying Depression

Depression leads to a large social burden because of its substantial impairment and disability in everyday activities. The prevalence and considerable impact of this disorder call for a better understanding of its pathophysiology to improve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Though productive animal models and pathophysiological theories have been documented, it is still very far to uncover the complex array of symptoms caused by depression. Moreover, the neural circuitry mechanism underlying behavioral changes in some depression-like behavior animals is still limited. Changes in the neural circuitry of amygdala, dorsal raphe nucleus, ventral tegmental area, hippocampus, locus coeruleus and nucleus accumbens are related to depression. However, the interactions between individual neural circuitry of different brain areas, have not yet been fully elucidated. The purpose of the present review is to examine and summarize the current evidence for the pathophysiological mechanism of depression, with a focus on the neural circuitry, and emphasize the necessity and importance of integrating individual neural circuitry in different brain regions to understand depression.

Evidence and explanation for the involvement of the nucleus accumbens in pain processing

The nucleus accumbens(NAc)is a subcortical brain structure known primarily for its roles in pleasure,reward,and addiction.Despite less focus on the NAc in pain research,it also plays a large role in the mediation of pain and is effective as a source of analgesia.Evidence for this involvement lies in the NAc’s cortical connections,functions,pharmacology,and therapeutic targeting.The NAc projects to and receives information from notable pain structures,such as the prefrontal cortex,anterior cingulate cortex,periaqueductal gray,habenula,thalamus,etc.Additionally,the NAc and other pain-modulating structures share functions involving opioid regulation and motivational and emotional processing,which each work beyond simply the rewarding experience of pain offset.Pharmacologically speaking,the NAc responds heavily to painful stimuli,due to its high density ofμopioid receptors and the activation of several different neurotransmitter systems in the NAc,such as opioids,dopamine,calcitonin gene-related peptide,γ-aminobutyric acid,glutamate,and substance P,each of which have been shown to elicit analgesic effects.In both preclinical and clinical models,deep brain stimulation of the NAc has elicited successful analgesia.The multi-functional NAc is important in motivational behavior,and the motivation for avoiding pain is just as important to survival as the motivation for seeking pleasure.It is possible,then,that the NAc must be involved in both pleasure and pain in order to help determine the motivational salience of positive and negative events.

Validation of a novel animal model for sciatic nerve repair with an adipose-derived stem cell loaded fibrin conduit

Despite the regenerative capabilities of peripheral nerves, severe injuries or neuronal trauma of critical size impose immense hurdles for proper restoration of neuro-muscular circuitry. Autologous nerve grafts improve re-establishment of connectivity, but also comprise substantial donor site morbidity. We developed a rat model which allows the testing of different cell applications, i.e., mesenchymal stem cells, to improve nerve regeneration in vivo. To mimic inaccurate alignment of autologous nerve grafts with the injured nerve, a 20 mm portion of the sciatic nerve was excised, and sutured back in place in reversed direction. To validate the feasibility of our novel model, a fibrin gel conduit containing autologous undifferentiated adipose-derived stem cells was applied around the coaptation sites and compared to autologous nerve grafts. After evaluating sciatic nerve function for 16 weeks postoperatively, animals were sacrificed, and gastrocnemius muscle weight was determined along with morphological parameters(g-ratio, axon density & diameter) of regenerating axons. Interestingly, the addition of undifferentiated adipose-derived stem cells resulted in a significantly improved re-myelination, axon ingrowth and functional outcome, when compared to animals without a cell seeded conduit. The presented model thus displays several intriguing features: it imitates a certain mismatch in size, distribution and orientation of axons within the nerve coaptation site. The fibrin conduit itself allows for an easy application of cells and, as a true critical-size defect model, any observed improvement relates directly to the performed intervention. Since fibrin and adipose-derived stem cells have been approved for human applications, the technique can theoretically be performed on humans. Thus, we suggest that the model is a powerful tool to investigate cell mediated assistance of peripheral nerve regeneration.

Co-localization of two-color rAAV2-retro confirms the dispersion characteristics of efferent projections of mitral cells in mouse accessory olfactory bulb

The accessory olfactory bulb(AOB), located at the posterior dorsal aspect of the main olfactory bulb(MOB), is the first brain relay of the accessory olfactory system(AOS), which can parallelly detect and process volatile and nonvolatile social chemosignals and mediate different sexual and social behaviors with the main olfactory system(MOS). However, due to its anatomical location and absence of specific markers, there is a lack of research on the internal and external neural circuits of the AOB. This issue was addressed by singlecolor labeling and fluorescent double labeling using retrograde rAAVs injected into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis(BST), anterior cortical amygdalar area(ACo), medial amygdaloid nucleus(MeA), and posteromedial cortical amygdaloid area(PMCo) in mice. We demonstrated the effectiveness of this AOB projection neuron labeling method and showed that the mitral cells of the AOB exhibited efferent projection dispersion characteristics similar to those of the MOB. Moreover, there were significant differences in the number of neurons projected to different brain regions, which indicated that each mitral cell in the AOB could project to a different number of neurons in different cortices. These results provide a circuitry basis to help understand the mechanism by which pheromone information is encoded and decoded in the AOS.

Neural control of the soleus H-reflex correlates tothe laterality pattern in limbs

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated the relationship of lower limb dominance with leftand right-handedness,supporting findings suggest that there is a role for peripheral factors in the neural control of movement.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of laterality pattern on the neural mechanisms of motor control at the peripheral level.DESIGN,TIME AND SETTING: A controlled observation experiment was performed at the Motor Diagnostics Laboratory of the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice,Poland,in June 2009.PARTICIPANTS: Twenty young male adults aged 21-23 years and presenting two laterality patterns in hand-foot combination (right handed-right footed and left handed-left footed groups) took part in the experiment.All participants were carefully screened to eliminate any neurological or muscle disease or trauma.METHODS: The experiment included a laterality evaluation and the motor evoked potentials of dominant and non-dominant limbs.Measures were done through the use of the Hoffmann-reflex (H-reflex) circuitry.The soleus H-reflex parameters elicited at rest in lower extremities were compared.The soleus H-reflex and the direct motor response were elicited in lower extremities of each participant in the same laboratory session.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Onset latencies and min-max amplitudes of the direct motor response and the H-reflex;the motor and sensory conduction velocities;and symmetry coefficients of response parameters.RESULTS: The analysis of symmetry coefficients of direct and late motor responses confirmed differences between two laterality patterns in amplitude and latency of the H-reflex as well as in a sensory conduction velocity (P < 0.05),but not in direct motor response parameters.The amplitude of the H-reflex and the calculated sensory Ia afferent conduction velocity in the dominant lower extremity were significantly depressed in the right-sided group in comparison to the left-sided group (P = 0.001).The right-sided group presented significantly higher motor fiber conduction velocity in the dominant leg than in the non-dominant leg (P = 0.006),with no similar effect in the left-sided group.CONCLUSION: The neural control of the H-reflex elicited at rest is related to the laterality pattern in hand-foot combination in healthy adults.This result strongly suggests the possible existence of intrinsic control mechanisms of afferent feedback related to functional dominance in human limbs.

Simulation and Analysis of a Compact Electronic Infrastructure for DC Micro-Grid: Necessity and Challenges

Complex circuitry of electronic infrastructure of compact micro-grids with multiple renewable energy sources feeding the loads using parallel operation of inverters acts as a deterrent in developing such systems. This paper deals with applicable techniques reducing the driving circuits in parallel power inverters used in micro-grid system (MGS), mainly focused on the distributed generation (DG) in islanded mode. The method introduced in this paper, gives a minimal and compressed circuitry that can be implemented very cost-effectively with simple components. DC micro-grids are proposed and researched for the good connection with DC output type sources such as photovoltaic (PV), fuel cell, and secondary battery. In this paper, the electronic infrastructure of micro-grid is expressed. Then discussed the reasons for its complexity and the possibility of reducing the elements of electronic circuits are investigated. The reason for this is in order to compact DC micro-grid system for electrification to places like villages. Digital Simulation in Matlab Simulink is used to show the effectiveness of this novel driver topology for parallel operating inverters (NDTPI).

Introduction and recent progress of BRAIN Initiative in the United States

The presidential research program Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies(BRAIN)Initiative was established5years ago in the United States;it has been a driving force of the United States government and private factors to promote technology development in basic and translational neuroscience research.We here summarize the research plan and recent progress in cellular neuroscience,electrical and optical engineering,chemical and systems neurobiology,and brain mapping technologies.The research plan recognizes the importance of identifying different cell populations and unknown cell types in the human brain and diseased models.Technological advances in multielectrode arrays and chemical flow measurement probes not only demonstrate the capacity of detecting neural activities in large areas,but also enable a new era of studying the neural coding information.Large-scale coordination of neuronal activity and brain mapping information will allow for the identification of therapeutic targets in neurological disorders,which is benefited by big data acquisition and analysis.Specifically,increased brain databases will expedite the dissection of thoughts,emotions,cognition,and will thereby help the development of better understanding and treatments of brain disorders.Since cell therapy demonstrates potential for regenerative medicine,the utilization of the newly advanced technologies may further improve the translational potentials and precision controls of transplanted grafts.The development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools also requires international collaborations on science,technology,advocating,healthcare and medical ethics to advance the innovation and clinical practices.

A Thermometer Based on Diverse Types Thermocouples and Resistance Temperature Detectors

A universal and low-cost temperature thermometer is realized via a special circuit,integrated circuit chip with microprocessor and analog to digital converter,and digital bus interface.Various thermocouples and resistance temperature detectors used for temperature sensing may be connected to same thermometer.A special signal condition circuitry is designed and a matching algorithm is proposed.A novel calibration method named disassembled calibration is proposed in order to enhance efficiency and flexibility for the whole system.Additionally,it presents a combination method of low order polynomial fitting and piecewise linearity for the nonlinearity calibration of the thermocouple and the resistance temperature detector.A cold junction compensation based on digital way is described.And the matching algorithm and calibration method may eliminate errors stemming from excitation voltage source and reference voltage source,and can weaken quantization error of analog to digital converter and drift of components,too.Furthermore,the 400 times oversampling is completed by sequential and equal interval sampling to upgrade accuracy of analog to digital converter from original 12 to 15 bits and to raise signal-to-noise ratio.Finally,during a long time monitoring,experiment results show that errors at each static point are less than±0.2°C for the thermocouple system and less than±0.1°C for the resistance temperature detector system.

Neural Control of Action Selection Among Innate Behaviors

Nervous systems must not only generate specific adaptive behaviors,such as reproduction,aggression,feeding,and sleep,but also select a single behavior for execution at any given time,depending on both internal states and external environmental conditions.Despite their tremendous biological importance,the neural mechanisms of action selection remain poorly understood.In the past decade,studies in the model animal Drosophila melanogaster have demonstrated valuable neural mechanisms underlying action selection of innate behaviors.In this review,we summarize circuit mechanisms with a particular focus on a small number of sexually dimorphic neurons in controlling action selection among sex,fight,feeding,and sleep behaviors in both sexes of flies.We also discuss potentially conserved circuit configurations and neuromodulation of action selection in both the fly and mouse models,aiming to provide insights into action selection and the sexually dimorphic prioritization of innate behaviors.