The Segway Human Transporter (HT) is a one person dynamically selfbalancing transportation vehicle. The Segway Robot Mobility Platform (RMP) is a modification of the HT capable of being commanded by a computer for autonomous operation. With these platforms, we propose a new domain for human-robot coordination through a competitive game: Segway Soccer. The players include robots (RMPs) and human...

Regulation of urea concentration in the renal medullary interstitium is important for maintenance of hypertonicity and therefore the osmotic driving force for water reabsorption. Studies in Sprague-Dawley rats showed that restriction of water intake for 3 days results in upregulation of urea transporter (UT) mRNA in the inner stripe of outer medulla of the kidney (2.9-kb UT2) but not in the inn...

To investigate functional changes in the brain serotonin transporter (SERT) after chronic antidepressant treatment, several techniques were used to assess SERT activity, density, or its mRNA content. Rats were treated by osmotic minipump for 21 d with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) paroxetine or sertraline, the selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor desipramine (DMI), ...

BACKGROUND Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) is a definitive treatment for anaemia in chronic kidney disease (CKD). During long-term rHuEpo treatment most patients develop and show persistent iron deficiency in spite of oral iron supplementation. Abnormalities of iron absorption and transport in the duodenum may contribute to this deficiency. METHODS To investigate changes in iron abs...

Although peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARdelta) has been implicated in energy metabolism and lipid oxidation process, detailed roles of PPARdelta in lipid homeostasis under pathologic conditions still remain controversial. Thus, we investigated the effect of PPARdelta ligand L-165041 on Western diet-induced fatty liver using low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient (LDLR...

Müller cells are principal glial cells in rat retina and have attracted much attention in glaucoma studies. However, it is not clear whether adenosine and adenosine receptor (AR) antagonists play any roles in the regulation of potassium channels in Müller cells and subsequently in the promotion of glutamine synthetase (GS) and L-Glutamate/L-Aspartate Transporter (GLAST) functions. We found that...

Long-term administration of 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR) mimics the effects of endurance exercise by activating AMP kinase and by increasing skeletal muscle expression of GLUT4 glucose transporter. AICAR is an intermediate in the purine de novo synthesis, and its tissue concentrations can be increased, in vivo, by low doses of methotrexate (MTX) through the inhibition o...

Modafinil (MO) an inhibitor of the dopamine transporter was initially approved to treat narcolepsy, a sleep related disorder in humans. One interesting "side-effect" of this drug, which emerged from preclinical and clinical studies, is the facilitation of cognitive performance. So far, this was primarily shown in appetitive learning paradigms, but it is yet unclear whether MO exerts a more gene...

Occupational exposure to organophosphate (OPs) pesticides is reported to increase in the risk of developing anxiety and depression. Preclinical studies using OP levels, which inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity, support the clinical observations, but little is known of the effects of exposure below this threshold. We examined the effects of low level OP exposure on behaviours and neurochemist...

A series of drugs have been reported to increase memory performance modulating the dopaminergic system and herein modafinil was tested for its working memory (WM) enhancing properties. Reuptake inhibition of dopamine, serotonin (SERT) and norepinephrine (NET) by modafinil was tested. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups (modafinil-treated 1-5-10 mg/kg body weight, trained...