Operant behavior sometimes occurs in bouts characterized by an initiation rate, within-bout response rate, and bout length. The generality of this structure was tested using high-rate nose-poking in mice. Reinforcement of short interresponse times produced high response rates while a random-interval schedule held reinforcement rates constant. BALB/c mice produced bouts that were more frequent, ...

A recent study by Dr. Maria Antonietta De Luca demonstrated intravenous (IV) selfadministration responding (nose-poking) of an endogenous compound in an experimentally naïve, adult rat species [1]. Surprisingly, response-dependent changes of visual stimulus were not presented in the study when the compound was injected. This finding is very unique since there is few if any endogenous compounds ...

Testing rodents in their home cages has become increasingly popular. A new low-cost computer-controlled operant panel was designed, which can be placed inside the home cage. A pilot study was carried out, using a decisionmaking protocol, which was adapted from the original maze rodent Iowa Gambling Task (r-IGT). Male adult rats were tested in their home cages, containing the operant panel provi...

Micro-scale changes in earthworm communities and ground cover types were studied along five transect lines in an unmanaged beech forest (Fontainebleau forest, France). Spatial patterns were interpreted to the light of interactions between earthworm species and forest architecture, ground vegetation and quantity as well as quality of litter. The anecic Lumbricus terrestris was associated with pa...

Betacyanins and anthocyanins, two main red flower pigments, never occur together in the same plant. Although the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway has been well analyzed, the biosynthetic genes and the regulatory mechanism of the betacyanin biosynthesis are still obscure. We cloned two cDNAs of DOPA dioxygenase from Phytolacca americana, PaDOD1 and PaDOD2, that may be involved in the betalain bi...

From time to time someone makes us think about the way that doctors speak and write English, both in note taking and in writing for publications. Asher “revelled in the clinical paradox and the unusual; delighted in poking fun at authority and pomposity; a modern Don Quixote.” He opened our eyes to how medical authors are adept at using arcane words and jargon, mixing them in unwieldy sentences...

We calculate the stress tensor for a quasi-spherical vesicle and we thermally average it in order to obtain the actual, mechanical, surface tension tau of the vesicle. Both closed and poked vesicles are considered. We recover our results for tau by differentiating the free energy with respect to the proper projected area. We show that tau may become negative well before the transition to oblate...

This article attempts to explain how Li Yu 李漁 (1611–80), China’s “first professional writer,” made himself indispensable to the literati culture upon which he socially and financially depended by writing, commenting on, and performing chuanqi傳奇, or plays in the characteristic Southern style. This article analyzes four plays based on Li’s own short stories and theorizes their appeal to seventeen...

The estimation of reward outcomes for action candidates is essential for decision making. In this study, we examined whether and how the uncertainty in reward outcome estimation affects the action choice and learning rate. We designed a choice task in which rats selected either the left-poking or right-poking hole and received a reward of a food pellet stochastically. The reward probabilities o...