Respiratory symptoms and lung function in habitual heavy smokers of marijuana alone, smokers of marijuana and tobacco, smokers of tobacco alone, and nonsmokers

To evaluate the possible pulmonary effects of habitual marijuana smoking with and without tobacco, we administered a detailed respiratory and drug use questionnaire and/or lung function tests to young, habitual, heavy smokers of marijuana alone (n = 144) or with tobacco (n = 135) and control subjects of similar age who smoked tobacco alone (n = 70) or were nonsmokers (n = 97). Mean amounts of marijuana and/or tobacco smoked were 49 to 57 joint-years marijuana (average daily number of joints times number of years smoked) and 16 to 22 pack-years of tobacco. Among the smokers of marijuana and/or tobacco, prevalence of chronic cough (18 to 24%), sputum production (20 to 26%), wheeze (25 to 37%) and greater than 1 prolonged acute bronchitic episode during the previous 3 yr (10 to 14%) was significantly higher than in the nonsmokers (p less than 0.05, chi square). No difference in prevalence of chronic cough, sputum production, or wheeze was noted between the marijuana and tobacco smokers, nor were there additive effects of marijuana and tobacco on symptom prevalence. We noted significant worsening effects of marijuana but not to tobacco on specific airway conductance and airway resistance (tests of mainly large airways function) in men and of tobacco but not of marijuana on carbon monoxide diffusing capacity and on closing volume, closing capacity, and the slope of Phase III of the single-breath nitrogen washout curve (tests reflecting mainly small airways function) (p less than 0.03, two-way ANCOVA). No adverse interactive effects of marijuana and tobacco on lung function were found.     

Spatial and temporal EEG dynamics of motion sickness

This study investigates motion-sickness-related brain responses using a VR-based driving simulator on a motion platform with six degrees of freedom, which provides both visual and vestibular stimulations to induce motion sickness in a manner that is close to that in daily life. Subjects' brain dynamics associated with motion sickness were measured using a 32-channel EEG system. Their degree of motion sickness was simultaneously and continuously reported using an onsite joystick, providing non-stop behavioral references to the recorded EEG changes. The acquired EEG signals were parsed by independent component analysis (ICA) into maximally independent processes. The decomposition enables the brain dynamics that are induced by the motion of the platform and motion sickness to be disassociated. Five MS-related brain processes with equivalent dipoles located in the left motor, the parietal, the right motor, the occipital and the occipital midline areas were consistently identified across all subjects. The parietal and motor components exhibited significant alpha power suppression in response to vestibular stimuli, while the occipital components exhibited MS-related power augmentation in mainly theta and delta bands; the occipital midline components exhibited a broadband power increase. Further, time series cross-correlation analysis was employed to evaluate relationships between the spectral changes associated with different brain processes and the degree of motion sickness. According to our results, it is suggested both visual and vestibular stimulations should be used to induce motion sickness in brain dynamic studies.     

Long-term effect of heme oxygenase (HO)-1 induction in glomerular immune injury

In a rat model of macrophage-dependent glomerular immune injury induced by administration of antibody against the glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM), the authors assessed the anti-proteinuric effect of Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1) induction. Rats received anti-GBM antibody alone, anti-GBM antibody and treatment with the HO-1 inducer, hemin, or non-immune serum (controls). Urine protein, creatinine, and nitrite/nitrate excretion were measured on days 5, 7, and 14 after administration of the anti-GBM antibody. In hemin-treated animals with anti-GBM antibody-induced immune injury, HO-1 immunolocalized in macrophages infiltrating glomeruli and in tubular epithelial cells. In these animals, proteinuria was decreased. There was also a decrease in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels without a change in serum creatinine or systemic blood pressure. The observations establish the anti-proteinuric effect of hemin induction. This effect could be mechanistically linked to blunting of the ability of infiltrating macrophages to cause injury or to changes in tubular handling of filtered protein.     

Alpha modulation in parietal and retrosplenial cortex correlates with navigation performance

The present study investigated the brain dynamics accompanying spatial navigation based on distinct reference frames. Participants preferentially using an allocentric or an egocentric reference frame navigated through virtual tunnels and reported their homing direction at the end of each trial based on their spatial representation of the passage. Task-related electroencephalographic (EEG) dynamics were analyzed based on independent component analysis (ICA) and subsequent clustering of independent components. Parietal alpha desynchronization during encoding of spatial information predicted homing performance for participants using an egocentric reference frame. In contrast, retrosplenial and occipital alpha desynchronization during retrieval covaried with homing performance of participants using an allocentric reference frame. These results support the assumption of distinct neural networks underlying the computation of distinct reference frames and reveal a direct relationship of alpha modulation in parietal and retrosplenial areas with encoding and retrieval of spatial information for homing behavior.     

Inhibition control and error processing in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An event-related potentials study

We studied inhibitory control and error processing in a task requiring inhibition of a motor response. Behavioral and ERP indices were recorded in fourteen ADHD and fourteen healthy children aged between 6 and 10 years during the Stop signal task (SST). The ADHD group made more variable in RT and showed less accuracy, more omissions and choice errors. Also, the ADHD group had a tendency toward a lower probability of inhibition and a longer Stop signal reaction time. The ADHD group also displayed a flatter response inhibition slope compared to the control group. Smaller P1 in ADHD group reflected that the ADHD group has less efficient attention than the control group. Furthermore, the ADHD group showed normal ERN, reduced Pe (retrieved from response-locked epochs), and reduced LPW (retrieved from Stop signal-locked epochs), suggesting that they might be normal in early error monitoring process related to error detection, but show abnormal in later error monitoring process associated with a conscious evaluation of the error. Behavioral and ERP data of the present study show deficient selective attention, inhibitory control, and error processing in children of ADHD.     

Computer system for four-dimensional transesophageal echocardiographic image reconstruction.

This paper presents a system for reconstructing a four-dimensional (4D) heart-beating image from transesophageal echocardiographic (TEE) data acquired with a rotational approach. The system consists of the necessary processing modules for two-dimensional (2D) echocardiogram reformation and 3D/4D-image reconstruction. These include the modules of image decoding, image re-coordinating, and three-dimensional (3D) volume rendering. The system is implemented under PC platform with Windows 95 operating system (with Intel Pentium-166 CPU, 64 MB RAM on board, and 2.0 GB hard disk capacity). It takes 6 min to reconstruct a 4D echocardiographic data set. The resultant 2D/3D/4D echocardiographic image provide the tools for investigating the phenomenon of heart beating, exploring the heart structure, and reformatting the 2D echocardiograms in an arbitrary plane. The functions provided by the system can be applied for further studies, such as 3D cardiac shape analysis, cardiac function measurement, and so forth.     

Superoxide dismutase mimetic preserves the glomerular capillary permeability barrier to protein

Overproduction of superoxide (O2*) occurs in glomerular disease and may overwhelm the capacity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), thereby intensifying oxidant injury by O2* and related radical species that disrupt the glomerular capillary permeability barrier to protein. We examined the efficacy of the SOD mimetic tempol in preserving glomerular permeability to protein using 1) a rat model of glomerular immune injury induced by an antiglomerular basement membrane antibody (anti-GBM), and 2) isolated rat glomeruli in which injury was induced by the cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha). To induce glomerular immune injury, rats received anti-GBM using a protocol that results in prominent infiltration of glomeruli by macrophages and in which macrophage-derived TNFalpha has been shown to mediate albuminuria. To increase glomerular capillary permeability to albumin (P(alb)) ex vivo, isolated glomeruli were incubated with TNFalpha at concentrations (0.5-4.0 microg/ml) known to stimulate O2* production. Increments in P(alb) were detected by measuring changes in glomerular volume in response to an applied oncotic gradient. Significant increases in the urine excretion of albumin and F(2alpha)-isoprostane were observed in rats with glomerular immune injury without a significant change in systolic blood pressure. Tempol treatment significantly reduced urine isoprostane and albumin excretion. In isolated glomeruli, TNFalpha increased P(alb) and tempol abrogated this effect, both in a dose-dependent manner. These observations indicate that SOD mimetics can preserve the glomerular permeability barrier to protein under conditions of oxidative stress from O2* production.