Synchronization of Fibroblasts Ex Vivo in Psychopharmacology

The central oscillator for the inner clock is the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus. Furthermore, many peripheral oscillators are present in tissues such as skin. Human derived fibroblasts provide an advantageous model to study circadian rhythmicity as well as the influence of pharmacological drugs on circadian gene expression. Importantly, the synchronization of the circadian system of fibroblasts can be done by different methods. The review presents an overview of the current knowledge of different synchronization methods mostly used in mice or rat fibroblasts. Furthermore, the review sums up and discusses the role of norepinephrine as a possible synchronizer agent.

Clima ambientale e clima emotivo: due pilastri evolutivi poco tangibili ma tremendamente importanti per la nostra vita

Our evolutionary history is based on four fundamental pillars: physical activity, nutrition, inner mood and external environment. We live at the rhythm of an inner clock that leads everything we do, the so called circadian rhythm. The circadian system, that is ubiquitous across species, generates ~24 h rhythms in virtually all biological processes, and allows them to anticipate and adapt to the 24 h day/night cycle, thus ensuring optimal physiological function. During the day our organism spends its energy in order to complete catabolic pathways which help us in our relationship with the external environment, while at night anabolic pathways, repairing, strengthening and growth-orientated, prevails. External environment can influence both our circadian rhythm and our body chemistry. Within the last 100 years, environmental conditions are extremely changed: the artificial light (also by televisions screens, smartphones and computers) is lighting up our world 24 hours a day, the background noise is a constant in our everyday life and the air pollution represent risk factors for our health and well-being by causing or facilitating diseases. Also our inner mood, emotions and environment are crucial for human beings’ and planet’s health and for the future of mankind. (healthy_habits)

CHAOTIC IMPULSE RADIO: A NOVEL CHAOTIC SECURE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

A chaotic impulse radio system is an ultrawide-band communication system that uses a train of very narrow baseband impulses as a carrier. In the transmitter of a chaotic impulse radio system, a message signal is modulated by two kinds of pulse carriers. Firstly, a frequency modulation is used to modulate the message signal into a subcarrier that functions as the clock pulses of a chaotic circuit. Driven by the modulated clock pulses, the chaotic circuit outputs a chaotic impulse positioning sequence which generates the positions of the carrier impulses. The specially designed chaotic circuit in the transmitter guarantees that the time intervals between the carrier impulses are chaotic. Thus the energy of the impulse carrier is distributed evenly over the entire bandwidth. In the receiver of a chaotic impulse radio system the message signal is demodulated in two stages. At the first stage, the time interval between two consecutive impulses is recovered. At the second stage, a simple algorithm based on the knowledge of the chaotic circuit in the transmitter is used to calculate partially the locations of the inner clock pulses which in turn are used to demodulate the message signal. No synchronization at any level is needed in this chaotic impulse radio system. The security of this chaotic impulse radio system depends on the hardware parameters of the chaotic circuit and the inner clock pulse train. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the design procedure of an example of this chaotic impulse radio system.