Ameliorating the effect of astragaloside IV on learning and memory deficit after chronic cerebral hypoperfusion in rats.

Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) has been reported to have a prominent antioxidant effect and was proposed as a promising agent for the prevention of neurodegenerative disorders accompanied by cognitive impairment. The present study investigated the ameliorating effect of AS-IV on learning and memory deficits induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion in rats. Rats were treated with two doses of AS-IV (10 and 20 mg/kg, i.

Evolution of cold-tolerant fungal symbionts permits winter fungiculture by leafcutter ants at the northern frontier of a tropical ant-fungus symbiosis.

The obligate mutualism between leafcutter ants and their Attamyces fungi originated 8 to 12 million years ago in the tropics, but extends today also into temperate regions in South and North America. The northernmost leafcutter ant Atta texana sustains fungiculture during winter temperatures that would harm the cold-sensitive Attamyces cultivars of tropical leafcutter ants. Cold-tolerance of Attamyces cultivars increases with winter harshness along a south-to-north temperature gradient across the range of A.

Thickness dependence of dielectric nonlinearity of lead zirconate titanate films.

The first-order reversal curves (FORC) distribution of PbZr(0.52)Ti(0.48)O3 thin films was characterized as a function of film thickness.

Generalized antifungal activity and 454-screening of Pseudonocardia and Amycolatopsis bacteria in nests of fungus-growing ants.

In many host-microbe mutualisms, hosts use beneficial metabolites supplied by microbial symbionts. Fungus-growing (attine) ants are thought to form such a mutualism with Pseudonocardia bacteria to derive antibiotics that specifically suppress the coevolving pathogen Escovopsis, which infects the ants' fungal gardens and reduces growth. Here we test 4 key assumptions of this Pseudonocardia-Escovopsis coevolution model.

Vibration of micromachined circular piezoelectric diaphragms.

Electrically and mechanically excited resonances in micromachined circular piezoelectric diaphragms have been investigated. The diaphragm structures were piezoelectric unimorphs consisting of Pb(Zr0.52,Ti0.