The influence of hostility on the lateralized tasks of cardiovascular regulation, verbal fluency, nonverbal fluency, and dichotic listening was assessed. Twenty-four subjects divided into two groups, high- and low-hostile men underwent physiological measurements of SBP, DBP, and HR before and after verbal and figural fluency tasks, which were used as stressors. In addition, subsequent to the administration of each fluency task, dichotic listening performance was evaluated across unfocused, focus left, and focus right trials. It was expected that high-hostile men would produce results indicative of differential right hemisphere activation when compared with low-hostile men. In addition, it was predicted that high-hostile men would display a weakness in both the performance of the right-frontal nonverbal fluency task and in their ability to maintain relative cardiovascular stability subsequent to the presentation of that stressor. As predicted, high-hostile men produced more perseverative errors than did low hostile men on this task. Further, subsequent to administration of the nonverbal fluency task, high-hostile men produced a reliable increase in blood pressure when compared to baseline and to low-hostile males. Differences in dichotic listening performance were also expected as a function of the fluency tasks. It was predicted that high-hostile men would evidence a priming effect in that a left-ear bias would be detected after the nonverbal fluency task but not the verbal fluency task. This was indeed the case. However, interestingly, the low-hostile men also displayed a priming effect at the left ear during the nonverbal fluency condition. Results are discussed within the context of the functional cerebral systems of emotion and arousal. Implications for further research are explored. / Ph. D.

Herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are major human pathogens. HSV establishes latency in the nervous system and reactivates to cause recurrent disease, resulting in transmission of progeny virions to naïve individuals. Though HSV-1 and HSV-2 share similar structure and genes, they have distinctive recurrence profiles. Generally, HSV-1 reactivation is associated with disease 'above the waist' and HSV-2 reactivation is associated with disease 'below the waist'. This phenomenon was described decades ago but still remains unexplained. The mechanism of HSV latent infection in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) has been extensively investigated, especially with in sensory neurons. Another component of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), autonomic neurons, were also known to be infected with HSV productively and latently, but largely ignored because of the assumption that there is no difference in the pathogenesis of HSV in the neurons and that both HSV-1 and HSV-2 behave in the same way in different types of neurons. However, autonomic neurons differ in physiological function compared to sensory neurons. Activation factors of autonomic neurons, such as emotional stress, trauma and hormonal fluctuation, are also known HSV reactivation triggering factors. Therefore, I hypothesized that autonomic neurons innervating the site of HSV infection are responsible the different reactivation frequencies of HSV-1 and HSV-2 after peripheral invasion. In this report, the role of autonomic neurons in HSV pathogenesis were examined using the female guinea pig reactivation model. Major findings of this report are that 1) parasympathetic ganglia innervating the ocular region support latent infection of HSV-1 selectively, thus contributing the more frequent HSV-1 reactivation, 2) mixed autonomic ganglia in the genital area support HSV-2 latent infection selectively, and 3) sympathetic neurons in the genital region supported productive and latent infection of HSV-1 and HSV-2 differently. All of the results in this report indicate that autonomic neurons play a distinctive role in HSV pathogenesis compared to the sensory neurons and are responsible for the different reactivation frequencies of HSV-1 and HSV-2. This report raises the importance of autonomic neurons in HSV pathogenesis and challenges the paradigm of HSV pathogenesis. / Ph. D.

No / Purpose: Evidence exists for an additional inhibitory accommodative control system mediated by the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This work aims to show the relative prevalence of sympathetic inhibition in young emmetropic and myopic adults, and to evaluate the effect of sympathetic facility on accommodative and oculomotor function. Methods: Profiling of ciliary muscle innervation was carried out in 58 young adult subjects (30 emmetropes, 14 early onset myopes, 14 late onset myopes) by examining post-task open-loop accommodation responses, recorded continuously by a modified open-view infrared optometer. Measurements of amplitude of accommodation, tonic accommodation, accommodative lag at near, AC/A ratio, and heterophoria at distance and near were made to establish a profile of oculomotor function. Results: Evidence of sympathetic inhibitory facility in ciliary smooth muscle was observed in 27% of emmetropes, 21% of early-onset myopes and 29% of late-onset myopes. Twenty-six percent of all subjects demonstrated access to sympathetic facility. Closed-loop oculomotor function did not differ significantly between subjects with sympathetic facility, and those with sympathetic deficit. Conclusions: Emmetropic and myopic groups cannot be distinguished in terms of the relative proportions having access to sympathetic inhibition. Presence of sympathetic innervation does not have a significant effect on accommodative function under closed-loop viewing conditions.

The influence of autonomic activation in response to controllable versus noncontrollable stress, anger imagery induction, and relaxation imagery was studied among 80 participants between the ages of 18 and 34. Participants differed in level of trait hostility as assessed by the Irritability Subscale of The Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (Buss & Durkee,1957) and the Ho scale of the Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory (Cook & Medley, 1954). Groups were further subdivided with regards to either having a positive family history of cardiovascular disease or having no significant history. Results were obtained through analyses of electrocardiograph R-R intervals which produced an index of autonomic nervous system activation. Findings supported hypotheses involving the relations between autonomic balance and stress and hostility for the female and male populations. Among both populations, parasympathetic regulation was diminished during anger induction for individuals with high levels of trait hostility and having a family history of cardiovascular disease. Similar results were obtained for men during relaxation imagery induction.

Baroreflex function and cardiovascular responses to lower body negative pressure during selective autonomic blockade were evaluated in endurance exercise trained (ET) and untrained (UT) men. Baroreflex function was evaluated using a progressive intravenous infusion of phenylephrine HCL (PE) to a maximum of 0.12 mg/min. Heart rate, arterial blood pressure, cardiac output and forearm blood flow were measured at each infusion rate of PE. The reduction in forearm blood flow and concomitant rise in forearm vascular resistance was the same for each subject group. However, the heart rate decreases per unit increase of systolic or mean blood pressure were significantly (P<.05) less in the ET subjects (0.91 ± 0.30 versus 1.62 ± 0.28 for UT). During progressive lower body negative pressure with no drug intervention, the ET subjects had a significantly (P<.05) greater fall in systolic blood pressure (33.8 ± 4.8 torr versus 16.7 ± 3.9 torr). However, the change in forearm blood flow or resistance was not significantly different between groups. Blockade of parasympathetic receptors with atropine (0.04 mg/kg) eliminated the differences in response to lower body negative pressure. Blockade of cardiac sympathetic receptors with metoprolol (0.02 mg/kg) did not affect the differences observed during the control test. It was concluded that the ET subjects were less effective in regulating blood pressure than the UT subjects, because of 1) an attenuated baroreflex sensitivity, and 2) parasympathetic-mediated depression of cardiac and vasoconstrictive responses to the hypotensive stress.

Les infrastructures de calcul scientifique sont en constante évolution, et l’émergence de nouvelles technologies nécessite l’évolution des mécanismes d’ordonnancement qui leur sont associé. Durant la dernière décennie, l’apparition du modèle Cloud a suscité de nombreux espoirs, mais l’idée d’un déploiement et d’une gestion entièrement automatique des plates-formes de calcul est jusque la resté un voeu pieu. Les travaux entrepris dans le cadre de ce doctorat visent a concevoir un moteur de gestion de workflow qui intègre les logiques d’ordonnancement ainsi que le déploiement automatique d’une infrastructure Cloud. Plus particulièrement, nous nous intéressons aux plates-formes Clouds disposant de système de gestion de données de type DaaS (Data as a Service). L’objectif est d’automatiser l’exécution de workflows arbitrairement complexe, soumis de manière indépendante par de nombreux utilisateurs, sur une plate-forme Cloud entièrement élastique. Ces travaux proposent une infrastructure globale, et décrivent en détail les différents composants nécessaires à la réalisation de cette infrastructure :• Un mécanisme de clustering des tâches qui prend en compte les spécificités des communications via un DaaS ;• Un moteur décentralisé permettant l’exécution des workflows découpés en clusters de tâches ;• Un système permettant l’analyse des besoins et le déploiement automatique. Ces différents composants ont fait l’objet d’un simulateur qui a permis de tester leur comportement sur des workflows synthétiques ainsi que sur des workflows scientifiques réels issues du LBMC (Laboratoire de Biologie et Modélisation de la Cellule). Ils ont ensuite été implémentés dans l’intergiciel Diet. Les travaux théoriques décrivant la conception des composants, et les résultats de simulations qui les valident, ont été publié dans des workshops et conférences de portée internationale. / The constant development of scientific and industrial computation infrastructures requires the concurrent development of scheduling and deployment mechanisms to manage such infrastructures. Throughout the last decade, the emergence of the Cloud paradigm raised many hopes, but achieving full platformautonomicity is still an ongoing challenge. Work undertaken during this PhD aimed at building a workflow engine that integrated the logic needed to manage workflow execution and Cloud deployment on its own. More precisely, we focus on Cloud solutions with a dedicated Data as a Service (DaaS) data management component. Our objective was to automate the execution of workflows submitted by many users on elastic Cloud resources.This contribution proposes a modular middleware infrastructure and details the implementation of the underlying modules:• A workflow clustering algorithm that optimises data locality in the context of DaaS-centeredcommunications;• A dynamic scheduler that executes clustered workflows on Cloud resources;• A deployment manager that handles the allocation and deallocation of Cloud resources accordingto the workload characteristics and users’ requirements. All these modules have been implemented in a simulator to analyse their behaviour and measure their effectiveness when running both synthetic and real scientific workflows. We also implemented these modules in the Diet middleware to give it new features and prove the versatility of this approach.Simulation running the WASABI workflow (waves analysis based inference, a framework for the reconstruction of gene regulatory networks) showed that our approach can decrease the deployment cost byup to 44% while meeting the required deadlines.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) remains a significant cause for morbidity and mortality in North America. Bladder dysfunction following SCI is very common and could lead to severe complications including renal failure and autonomic dysreflexia (AD). AD involves life threatening episodes of hypertension in patients with SCI above T6 level. Current management protocols for AD are symptomatic and usually ineffective. Botulinum toxin-A (BTX-A), has been successfully used recently in SCI patients because it reduces the detrusor contractility via inhibiting acetylcholine release from efferent nerve endings. Recent evidence, however, suggests a sensory involvement via modulation of sensory neuropeptides, neurotransmitters, and receptors. It is still, however, unclear whether BTX-A can affect putative spinal neurons involved in AD. In this study we demonstrated that intravesical BTX-A treatment has blocked AD in rats with T4-SCI, and also provided a novel mechanism for the control of autonomic dysreflexia via a minimally invasive treatment modality.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) remains a significant cause for morbidity and mortality in North America. Bladder dysfunction following SCI is very common and could lead to severe complications including renal failure and autonomic dysreflexia (AD). AD involves life threatening episodes of hypertension in patients with SCI above T6 level. Current management protocols for AD are symptomatic and usually ineffective. Botulinum toxin-A (BTX-A), has been successfully used recently in SCI patients because it reduces the detrusor contractility via inhibiting acetylcholine release from efferent nerve endings. Recent evidence, however, suggests a sensory involvement via modulation of sensory neuropeptides, neurotransmitters, and receptors. It is still, however, unclear whether BTX-A can affect putative spinal neurons involved in AD. In this study we demonstrated that intravesical BTX-A treatment has blocked AD in rats with T4-SCI, and also provided a novel mechanism for the control of autonomic dysreflexia via a minimally invasive treatment modality.

Thesis (M.Ost.)--Unitec New Zealand, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-99).

Individual differences in autonomic nervous system responsiveness have been linked to a variety of physical disorders and personality and behavioral tendencies. The present study attempted to correlate specific personality characteristics hypothesized to be associated with either sympathetic or parasympathetic dominance based on the work of M. A. Wenger. The Clinical Analysis Questionnaire Personality Inventory, a physical disorders questionnaire, a self-report stress measure, and seven psychophysiologic tests were administered to 60 undergraduate students in an introductory psychology class at North Texas State University. The results provided limited support for the hypotheses. A skewed population with 50 of the 60 subjects achieving scores indicative of sympathetic dominance occurred. Statistical comparison (t-tests) of the CAQ personality traits, and clinical factor scores of these 50 subjects labeled sympathetic dominant with CAQ norms for college students revealed means on five personality traits and three clinical factors were significantly different for the sympathetic dominant group at the .05 or greater level of significance. These findings were interpreted as limited support for Wenger's work and for the positions of Acker and Kagan that individuals with more reactive sympathetic nervous systems tend to have difficulty binding anxiety, poor emotional controls and outlets, ambivalence about interpersonal relationships, and a need for group acceptance.