[Ear aid in Myanmar].

As the example of a small team working in Myanmar since 2010 has demonstrated, it is possible to achieve sustainable success in medical education and training in foreign countries with relatively little effort, in this case in middle ear surgery. The main requirements are outstanding communication within the team as well as with the authorities, organizations, and colleagues on site. Equally important is mindful and respectful work in the hosting country and the consideration of cultural particularities.

Monitoring of antibiotic resistance rates of Helicobacter pylori in Austrian children, 2002-2009.

We retrospectively studied antibiotic resistance rates of H. pylori and their temporal changes in children. Resistance rates were 21.

A gene-environment investigation on personality traits in two independent clinical sets of adult patients with personality disorder and attention deficit/hyperactive disorder.

While an interactive effect of genes with adverse life events is increasingly appreciated in current concepts of depression etiology, no data are presently available on interactions between genetic and environmental (G x E) factors with respect to personality and related disorders. The present study therefore aimed to detect main effects as well as interactions of serotonergic candidate genes (coding for the serotonin transporter, 5-HTT; the serotonin autoreceptor, HTR1A; and the enzyme which synthesizes serotonin in the brain, TPH2) with the burden of life events (#LE) in two independent samples consisting of 183 patients suffering from personality disorders and 123 patients suffering from adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (aADHD). Simple analyses ignoring possible G x E interactions revealed no evidence for associations of either #LE or of the considered polymorphisms in 5-HTT and TPH2.

Complementation of a phycocyanin-bilin lyase from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 with a nucleomorph-encoded open reading frame from the cryptophyte Guillardia theta.

Background: Cryptophytes are highly compartmentalized organisms, expressing a secondary minimized eukaryotic genome in the nucleomorph and its surrounding remnant cytoplasm, in addition to the cell nucleus, the mitochondrion and the plastid. Because the members of the nucleomorph-encoded proteome may contribute to essential cellular pathways, elucidating nucleomorph-encoded functions is of utmost interest. Unfortunately, cryptophytes are inaccessible for genetic transformations thus far.

Zoology meets Botany: establishing intracellular organelles by endosymbiosis.

One of the most citated characteristics of eukaryotic cells are mitochondria and in the case of phototrophic cells, the plastids. These organelles are of eubacterial origin and contain a remnant genome. Here, we present hypotheses concerning the origin of the first mitochondrium-harboring cell and show the evolution of primary, secondary and tertiary plastids.

Intracellular spheroid bodies of Rhopalodia gibba have nitrogen-fixing apparatus of cyanobacterial origin.

Nitrogen fixation is not regarded as a eukaryotic invention. The process has only been reported as being carried out by bacteria. These prokaryotes typically interact with their eukaryotic hosts as extracellular and temporary nonobligate nitrogen-fixing symbionts.

Direct evidence for local oscillatory current sources and intracortical phase gradients in turtle visual cortex.

Visual stimuli induce oscillations in the membrane potential of neurons in cortices of several species. In turtle, these oscillations take the form of linear and circular traveling waves. Such waves may be a consequence of a pacemaker that emits periodic pulses of excitation that propagate across a network of excitable neuronal tissue or may result from continuous and possibly reconfigurable phase shifts along a network with multiple weakly coupled neuronal oscillators.

Voltage-sensitive dyes for monitoring multineuronal activity in the intact central nervous system.

Optical monitoring of activity provides new kinds of information about brain function. Two examples are discussed in this article. First, the spike activity of many individual neurons in small ganglia can be determined.

Anatomical connections of auditory and lateral line areas of the dorsal telencephalon (Dm) in the osteoglossomorph teleost, Gnathonemus petersii.

Local field potentials evoked either by auditory or by mechanosensory (water displacement) lateral line stimuli were recorded in sensory subregions of the telencephalic nucleus dorsalis pars medialis (Dm) in the weakly electric fish Gnathonemus petersii. The neural tracer Neurobiotin was injected into these two physiologically defined subregions. A reciprocal connection between the two subregions of Dm, as well as cell bodies and terminals in other telencephalic regions, whose distribution was somewhat different for the two injection types, were found.

Sensory processing in the pallium of a mormyrid fish.

To investigate the functional organization of higher brain levels in fish we test the hypothesis that the dorsal gray mantle of the telencephalon of a mormyrid fish has discrete receptive areas for several sensory modalities. Multiunit and compound field potentials evoked by auditory, visual, electrosensory, and water displacement stimuli in this weakly electric fish are recorded with multiple semimicroelectrodes placed in many tracks and depths in or near telencephalic area dorsalis pars medialis (Dm). Most responsive loci are unimodal; some respond to two or more modalities.

Visual stimuli induce waves of electrical activity in turtle cortex.

The computations involved in the processing of a visual scene invariably involve the interactions among neurons throughout all of visual cortex. One hypothesis is that the timing of neuronal activity, as well as the amplitude of activity, provides a means to encode features of objects. The experimental data from studies on cat [Gray, C.

Visual motion induces synchronous oscillations in turtle visual cortex.

In mammalian brains, multielectrode recordings during sensory stimulation have revealed oscillations in different cortical areas that are transiently synchronous. These synchronizations have been hypothesized to support integration of sensory information or represent the operation of attentional mechanisms, but their stimulus requirements and prevalence are still unclear. Here I report an analogous synchronization in a reptilian cortex induced by moving visual stimuli.

Event-related potentials to omitted visual stimuli in a reptile.

Visual omitted stimulus potentials (OSPs) were recorded from awake pond turtles with arrays of 3-20 electrodes in the dorsal cortex (DC), dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR) and optic tectum. Since they are generally longer in duration than the interstimulus interval (ISI), the standard experiment is a short conditioning train of regular light or dark flashes (1-20 Hz) whose termination elicits the OSP. Tectal surface OSPs after trains > 7 Hz have 2 major positive peaks, P120-140 and P220-250 after the due-time of the first omission; after < 7 Hz down to the minimum of 1.

Plurality of viual mismatch potentials in a reptile.

Abstract Studies with auditory stimuli have established in humans that a mismatch potential (MMP) is elicited whenever a deviant stimulus is substituted for a standard stimulus in a train of monotonous standard stimuli presented at rates > 0.25 Hz. The MMP in humans is localized in the auditory cortex and is known as mismatch negativily, from its polarity in scalp recordings.

Barbiturate sensitive components of visual ERPs in a reptile.

The selective effects of methohexital anesthesia were used to differentiate components of visual event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in pond turtles (Pseudemys scripta). Tectal and forebrain omitted stimulus potentials (OSPs) were found to be particularly sensitive to the barbiturate; they are reversibly abolished while the large early wave of the forebrain flash visual evoked potential (VEP; 110-120 ms) is reduced by only 27 +/- 11% and that of the tectal VEP (55-65 ms) is increased by 40 +/- 12%. Concurrent with the decline of the OSP is the loss of late slow wave components (ca.

Respiratory function of catecholamines during the late period of avian development.

To study the function of catecholamines in the late period of avian embryogenesis, the time course of plasma catecholamines, the release of catecholamines by hypoxia and finally the effect of adrenergic agents on blood parameters and on circulation were recorded. The experiments reveal a temporary increase in plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline shortly before internal pipping occurs. On the other hand a premature increase of plasma catecholamines is induced by hypoxia.

Event-related potentials in the retina and optic tectum of fish.

1. Compound field potentials were recorded with up to 18 microelectrodes in comb, brush, or spear arrays on and in the optic tectum and with suction electrodes from the distal stump of the cut optic nerve and from the optic nerve head in the opened eye in elasmobranchs and teleosts. Diffuse light flashes of different durations and submaximal intensities were delivered in trains with regular or irregular interstimulus intervals (ISI).

The fiber composition of the abdominal vagus of the rat.

The present study provides a LM and EM inventory of the fibers of the rat abdominal vagus, including dorsal and ventral trunks and the five primary branches. Whole mounts (n = 15) were prepared to characterize the branching patterns. A set of EM samples consisting of both trunks and all branches (i.

A light and electron microscopic examination of the vagal hepatic branch of the rat.

The rat's vagal hepatic branch and associated tissues were studied using light and electron microscopy. Whole mounts, serial sections, and vascular endocasts were used to characterize the tissue from the anterior vagal trunk to the porta hepatis. Fiber number and caliber as well as intraneural organization were analyzed from complete cross-sectional electron micrographic montages of the hepatic branch sampled at its point of separation from the anterior vagal trunk.

Gold thioglucose selectively damages dorsal vagal nuclei.

To characterize the lesion produced in the medulla oblongata by gold thioglucose (GTG), the present experiment quantified the medullary damage in C57B1 mice that had become obese after treatment with 800 mg/kg of GTG at 30 days of age. At the rostrocaudal level of the area postrema, the neurotoxin destroyed up to 75% of the neurons in the medial cell column of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMX), while sparing the lateral pole of the nucleus. GTG also produced significant tissue loss in the central and commissural subnuclei of the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST).

Changes in socio-emotional behavior under imipramine treatment in normal and amygdalo-hypothalamic dogs.

The effects of imipramine on learned social responses were examined in ten dogs with dorsomedial amygdalar lesions and/or lateral hypothalamic lesions. Six of the ten dogs were also tested preoperatively. The social responses were instrumentally conditioned using social interaction with the experimenter as reinforcement (petting and verbal reassurance).

Organization and distribution of the rat subdiaphragmatic vagus and associated paraganglia.

This experiment analyzed the organization of the rat abdominal vagus. To spare delicate tissues and preserve positional information, untrimmed blocks of the subdiaphragmatic viscera (N = 22) were fixed, impregnated by using a pyridine-silver protocol, and double embedded. Each block was sectioned transversely at 7 micron, and a section every 70 micron from the diaphragm to the cardia was analyzed.

Anatomical considerations for surgery of the rat abdominal vagus: distribution, paraganglia and regeneration.

In order to provide a detailed surgical anatomy of the rat abdominal vagus, we examined pyridine silver-stained tissue from one group of normal animals and a second group that survived 9 months after vagotomy. In the normal sample, as has been established for man, there was considerable variability in the levels at which each of the vagal branches separated from the main trunks. Contrary to reports from dissection studies, most of the branches were not single fiber bundles but rather consisted of two or more separate bundles.

Training of instrumental responses in dogs socially reinforced by humans.

The motivational bases of the social reinforcement in human-dog relations were examined. In experiment I, performed on seven dogs, it was found that dogs were able to learn and sustain the natural responses of sitting, paw extension, and lying prostrate to conditional stimuli in the form of vocal commands reinforced only by social rewards given by the experimenter, such as petting and vocal encouragement. Overtraining did not produce deterioration of performance but, on the contrary, the continual decrease of latencies.