“
“Background and purpose: Studies report on the reversal of electrophysiological parameters altered by atrial tachycardia after cessation of the latter. However, there is no data concerning reversal of tachycardia-induced alterations of ion currents. Reverse remodeling of atrial ion currents (I-Ca,I-L, LDN-193189 price I-to, I-sus) was studied in our rabbit model of tachycardia-induced electrical remodeling.

Methods: Three groups each with four animals were built. Rapid atrial pacing (600/min) for 5 days was applied in all groups. Thereafter, different time intervals (5, 10, 20 days) were awaited before the patch clamp experiments.

Results: Similar to Ito

remodeling in our model, within 20 days after cessation of atrial tachycardia, time course of Ito reverse remodeling was also U-shaped. In contrast, there was no significant recovery of I-Ca,I-L which was initially reduced by rapid atrial pacing.

Conclusion: Relevance of a missing recovery of I-Ca,I-L is likely as this current is closely linked with intracellular calcium handling. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The problem of coupling a whispering gallery mode laser into an

optical fiber is considered. The whispering gallery mode laser is generated in a polymer microring formed coaxially on the optical fiber. The focus of this paper is to determine factors that influence the coupling between the laser and the fiber around which it is formed. The coupling mechanism is analyzed and it is found that when the microring and the fiber are of elliptical cross section, there exists SB273005 controllable coupling between the laser and propagation mode in the fiber. The coupling between laser mode and fiber mode is due to characteristics of Mathieu functions that describe the fields in elliptical waveguides. It is shown

that the coupling between the laser and the dominant mode in the fiber can be optimized by the designing the dimension of microring, the eccentricity of the elliptical cross section, and the material contrast between fiber and microring.”
“The aim of this study was see more to investigate the antidepressant properties of stigmas and corms of Crocus sativus L. The aqueous ethanol extract of C. sativus corms was fractionated on the basis of polarity. Among the different fractions, the petroleum ether fraction and dichloromethane fraction at doses of 150, 300, and 600 mg/kg showed significant antidepressant-like activities in dose-dependent manners, by means of behavioral models of depression. The immobility time in the forced swimming test and tail suspending test was significantly reduced by the two fractions, without accompanying changes in ambulation when assessed in the open-field test. By means of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry technique, twelve compounds of the petroleum ether fraction were identified. These data show that administration of C.