In an irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) rat model, S. chinensis reversed the exaggerated visceral nocicptive responses (judged by abdominal withdrawal reflex and electromyographic measurement) to colorectal distension induced by neonatal maternal separation. Relief of visceral hypersensitivity by S. chinensis could be related to the decrease of elevated 5-HT level and the reduction in 5-HT3 receptor expression in colon. / In summary, given the modulatory effects on intestinal motility and visceral sensation, Schisandra chinensis would be potentially useful for the treatment of relieving diarrhea and visceral pain symptoms in IBS patients. Schisandra lignans, the major absorbable components, can be regarded as the active ingredients in S. chinensis for the potential treatment of IBS. / Schisandra chinensis, which is named "Wu-Wei-Zi" in Chinese Pin Yin, is widely used in Chinese medicine as an astringent, tonic and sedative agent. Dibenzo[a,c]-cyclooctadiene lignans are the major components of this herb. In the present study, the chemical constituents of S. chinensis were first characterized. A HPLC-DAD method was developed and validated for quantitative analysis of four major Schisandra lignans, namely, schisandrin (SCH-1), gomisin A (SCH-2), deoxyschisandrin (SCH-3) and gamma-schisandrin (SCH-4), in the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of S. chinensis. The ethanolic extract contains higher amount of lignan components than aqueous extract. The HPLC method has also been employed to obtain chromatographic fingerprintings to distinguish S. chinensis from a related species, S. sphenanthera. / The modulatory effects of both S. chinensis extracts and four major lignans on intestinal motility were evaluated using in vitro intestinal motility assays. The tested compounds induced relaxation on guinea pig ileum contracted by acetylcholine, serotonin and electrical field stimulation, as well as on rat colon with spontaneous contractility. While SCH-3 was most potent in inhibiting sensorimotor response in guinea pig ileum, SCH-1 displayed the highest potency of inhibition on spontaneous contraction of rat colon. / The relaxant effect on rat colon induced by SCH-1 has been demonstrated to involve two or more non-adrenergic non-cholinergic mediators. Nitric oxide was likely to be one of the inhibitory transmitters that involved cGMP-dependent pathways, whereas the non-nitrergic component was apamin-sensitive, but probably excluded vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and adenosine. / With the aid of HPLC-DAD-MS for qualitative and quantitative analyses, the absorption of S. chinensis in the rat everted gut sac and human Caco-2 monolayer in vitro models have been profiled. Fifteen Schisandra lignans were identified as the major absorbable components of S. chinensis in these models. Transport study on SCH-1 has shown a passive diffusion pathway with high permeability. In an in vivo study, metabolites of Schisandra lignans could be found in rat plasma after a single oral administration of S. chinensis extract. The plasma pharmacokinetics of S. chinensis in rats was further evaluated using simultaneous quantification of four representative Schisandra lignans (SCH-1, SCH-2, SCH-3 and SCH-4). / Yang, Jiaming. / Adviser: Chun-Tao Che. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-283). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’interroger l’expérience d’Alain Robbe-Grillet. Il s’agit de mettre en relief le monde imaginaire du Nouveau Romancier, principalement les différents rapports qui se tissent entre la littérature et la perception. La façon dont ce que ressent l’écrivain intègre l’imaginaire littéraire est au centre de cette recherche. Les rapports de l’écrivain au monde, sollicitent différents registres sensitifs. Ses personnages manifestent sans cesse des perceptions visuelles, auditives, gustatives, olfactives et tactiles, qui alimentent leur imaginaire et mettent au devant de la scène ce qu’ils éprouvent. Mais chaque réalité, aussi familière soit-elle, est vécue et ressentie de manière étrange. L’étrangeté est au coeur des réalités, des motifs spatiaux, temporels et plus largement culturels, à la fois identifiables et méconnaissables. Dominée par de multiples métamorphoses perceptives, l’écriture n’échappe pas à l’ambigüité qui finit par devenir la norme. À vrai dire, telle est la condition de l’être. Le romancier exploite aussi la création littéraire pour dire la singularité du personnage. Les animaux sont objets d’expériences vécues et traduisent la subversion de l’être sous des formes diverses. De ce fait, le personnage est confiné dans l’isolement, où il vit sa liberté et considère comme vérité ce qu’il ressent. Ses vêtements, son corps, son nom… fragilisent l’identité et érotisent une écriture sous l’emprise de la subjectivité. / This thesis questions Alain Robbe-Grillet’s concept of experience. The idea is to underline the imaginary world of the Nouveau Romancier, mainly the different relationships that are developing between literature and perception. The way sensation embeds literary imagination is central to this research. The writer’s perceptions of the world calls for several sensory dimensions. Robbe-Grillet’s characters are always experiencing visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactile perceptions, which feed their imagination and emphasis what they feel. But each reality, as familiar as it can be, is lived and felt in a strange way. Strangeness is at the centre of realities, spatial and temporal motives and more widely cultural motives, which are identifying and unrecognizing at the same time. As it is overcome by several perceptual metamorphoses, writing itself cannot escape its ambiguity, which’s becoming its norm. So is the condition of the being. The writer also exploits literary creation to depict the singularity of characters. Animals are objects of lived experiences and represent the subversion of the being through different shapes. Consequently, the character is confined to isolation, where he experiences his freedom and considers what he feels as the truth. His clothes, his body, his name weaken his identity and eroticise the writing due under influence of subjectivity.

<p>In everyday life we perform motor behaviours that have no apparent instrumental function. Are these correlated to sensation seeking and do they differ depending on what situations we are in? University students in Örebro (N=108), participated in the study. The participants were asked to fill out a double questionnaire containing the sensation seeking scale and another one for measuring non-productive motor behaviours. The non-productive motor behaviours were not correlated to the sensation seeking scale. The behaviours where reported in a way that suggest that they are more than just random occurrences. We tend to perform more of these behaviours if we need to make an effort to stay concentrated.</p> / <p>Vi utför i vårt vardagliga liv motoriska beteenden som inte har någon uppenbar instrumentell funktion. Är dessa korrelerade till sensation seeking och skiljer de sig beroende på i vilken situation vi är i? Universitetsstudenter i Örebro (N=108) deltog i studien. Deltagarna ombads att fylla i ett dubbelt frågeformulär innehållande sensation seeking skalan samt ytterligare ett formulär för att mäta icke-produktiva motoriska beteenden. De icke-produktiva beteendena visade sig inte vara korrelerade till sensation seeking. Beteendena rapporterades på ett sätt som tyder på att de är mer än slumpmässiga företeelser. Vi tenderar att utföra fler av dessa beteende ju mer vi behöver anstränga oss för att koncentrera oss.</p>

In everyday life we perform motor behaviours that have no apparent instrumental function. Are these correlated to sensation seeking and do they differ depending on what situations we are in? University students in Örebro (N=108), participated in the study. The participants were asked to fill out a double questionnaire containing the sensation seeking scale and another one for measuring non-productive motor behaviours. The non-productive motor behaviours were not correlated to the sensation seeking scale. The behaviours where reported in a way that suggest that they are more than just random occurrences. We tend to perform more of these behaviours if we need to make an effort to stay concentrated. / Vi utför i vårt vardagliga liv motoriska beteenden som inte har någon uppenbar instrumentell funktion. Är dessa korrelerade till sensation seeking och skiljer de sig beroende på i vilken situation vi är i? Universitetsstudenter i Örebro (N=108) deltog i studien. Deltagarna ombads att fylla i ett dubbelt frågeformulär innehållande sensation seeking skalan samt ytterligare ett formulär för att mäta icke-produktiva motoriska beteenden. De icke-produktiva beteendena visade sig inte vara korrelerade till sensation seeking. Beteendena rapporterades på ett sätt som tyder på att de är mer än slumpmässiga företeelser. Vi tenderar att utföra fler av dessa beteende ju mer vi behöver anstränga oss för att koncentrera oss.

Är dykare spänningssökare? Är män mer spänningssökande än kvinnor? 51 dykare, 27 män och 24 kvinnor, läts fylla i enkäten Sensation seeking scale version 5 (SSS-V). Sensation seeking scale har utvecklats av Marvin Zuckerman med kollegor sedan 1960-talet och mäter graden av spänningssökande personlighetsdrag, på engelska: sensation seeking. Enkäten har visat sig valid på flera hundra studier men har bara testats på dykare ett fåtal gånger. Hypoteserna är att dykare är mer spänningssökande än normalpopulationen (H1) och att dykande män är mer spänningssökande än dykande kvinnor (H2). Kontrollgruppen består av psykologistudenter från Delware University mellan år 1986 och 1992, 410 män och 807 kvinnor. Resultatet visar med statistisk signifikant säkerhet att dykare är mer spänningssökande än normalpopulationen och att dykande män är mer spänningssökande än dykande kvinnor. Validitet och alternativ till Sensation seeking scale m.m. tas upp i diskussionsdelen.

In cross-cultural studies, respondents from specific cultures may have different product preferences and scale usage. Combining data from different cultures will result in departures from the basic assumptions of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and loss of power in testing capability of finding product and culture differences. However, the result of violations on power of ANOVA is unknown by sensory researchers. The objectives of this research were by simulating consumer product evaluation data, to evaluate the robustness and testing power of ANOVA under different cross-cultural situations. The study was conducted in two parts. First, an Empirical Logit simulation model was employed for generating sensory data. This model included respondent, product, consumer segment and product by segment interaction effects. Four underlying distributions: Binomial, Beta-Binomial, Hypergeometric, and Beta-Hypergeometric were used to increase or decrease the dispersion of the responses. Alternatively, instead of using these four distributions, the same applications were achieved by a binning step. The entire simulation procedure including the Empirical Logit model and the binning step was called Discrete Empirical Logit model. In the second part of the study, the Discrete Empirical Logit model was chosen to generate specified data sets under six different cross-cultural cases. After analyzing these data sets by ANOVA reduced and full models, the empirical power of ANOVA under different cases was calculated and compared. The results showed that both Beta-Hypergeometric and Discrete Empirical Logit were flexible on simulating sensory responses, but the Discrete Empirical Logit was relatively simple to use. Comparing with the ANOVA reduced model, the full model gave better information on evaluating the case that segments differ in product preferences. This suggested segmentation was very important in cross-cultural data analysis. Under the situations that sample sizes were equal and respondents performed consistently within segment (MSE ≈ 1), ANOVA was very robust to different scale usage, losing at worst 18% in power. From the scope of this study, we recommend using the ANOVA full model in the cross-cultural research. Results from different cultures could be combined when consistency within segments was high. / Graduation date: 2003

Je considère deux pratiques « somatiques » nées dans le même contexte culturel des années 70 aux États-Unis, l'une héritière de la postmodern dance — le Contact Improvisation —, l'autre s'inscrivant dans le champ émergeant de l'Éducation Somatique — le Body-Mind Centering. Je m'intéresse à elles en tant qu'elles expérimentent des discours, des pratiques et des savoirs sur les rapports entre le corps et l'esprit, ou encore la « conscience corporelle ». À la croisée de l'anthropologie somatique et de la sociologie des sciences, l'enquête porte sur des expériences qui questionnent l'évidence de notre conception « moderne » de l'« intériorité », réduite à sa part mentale, et qui contestent le partage selon lequel tout ce qui se manifeste « à la surface » du corps est une affaire publique tandis que tout ce qui s'y passe « en profondeur » est une affaire privée. Elle suit des praticiens qui font de leur « intériorité » un lieu de pratique et d'apprentissage, presque un lieu d'intervention publique, en construisant des sensations à la fois intérieures et publiques Ces pratiques instaurent la possibilité de se rendre sensible à des « entités intérieures » (internal material) qui comptent comme autant de ressources pour danser, improviser, composer et, plus largement, sentir, se relier et connaître. Cette recherche documente ce travail de « mise en culture des sens intérieurs » (Luhrmann) par lequel d'autres « versions » (Despret) de l'« intériorité », de la « sensation » et de la « conscience » se mettent à exister, à compter et à guider ceux qui apprennent à les cultiver. Au final, cette thèse ne fait rien de plus que de poser la question « qui danse ? », en s'obligeant toutefois à donner suffisamment d'épaisseur spéculative à cette interrogation pour que l'enquête puisse témoigner du nombre et de la variété de ceux que la réponse requiert et engage. / This inquiry considers two different somatic practices coming from the same cultural context: 70's in United States. One emerged whithin Postmodern dance experimentations — Contact Improvisation —, the other belongs to the “somatics” field (Hanna) — Body-Mind Centering. Both practices experiment discourses, knowledge and experiences on the binding of body and mind. The inquiry aims to document the ways practitioners, thanks to their inner sensations and specific training of their attention, allow their “interiority” to transform into a place for practicing and learning, or even into a public space. I intend to describe these practises as practices enhancing an « inner sense cultivation » (Luhrmann) revealing the opportunity for what we normally call « interiority », « sensation » or « body consciousness » to exist in other « versions » (Despret). Somehow, it just points out a recurrent question: “who does the dancing?”. And it brings another one: How could we force ourselves to detail our answers so that these new ‘versions' might start to vividly enter the dance?

In the first part, diploma thesis presents theoretical background of well-being and sensation seeking tendency concepts. By analysing available resources in Czech and foreign literature it presents current theoretical understanding of these concepts and discusses their relationship to other psyche phenomena. In the empirical part, research hypotheses about existence of the relationship between well-being represented by SWLS questionnaire (Satisfaction With Life Scale; Diener et al., 1985) and sensation seeking tendency represented by SSS V scale (Sensation Seeking Scale V; Zuckerman, 1979) are examined. As support, Ten-item personality inventory TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003) is used. Two groups of respondents participated in the study: Czech (N = 137) and Slovak (N = 181) which were considered one sample (N = 318). Pearson correlation and hierarchical regression analysis showed negligible significant relationship (r = 0,12; p < 0,05) between sub-scale Experience Seeking (ES) and SWLS. However, EC score did not predict SWLS variance. Overall, study failed to accept hypothesis of existence of the relationship between SWLS and SSS V and hypothesis of mutual independence was accepted. Furthermore, the thesis deals with closer analysis of the results and personality predictors of SWLS. Keywords:...

Le rôle des cellules de Merkel dans la sensibilité cutanée reste imprécis. Elles assurent la décharge continue du récepteur de Merkel lors d'une pression sur la peau, mais on ne connait ni les autres stimuli capables de les activer, ni les médiateurs régulant leur activité. Cette ignorance est en partie liée à la difficulté d'isoler ces cellules qui ne représentent que 3 à 5% des cellules de la peau.Dans ce travail nous avons développé une technique de culture des cellules de Merkel à partir de peau humaine, en utilisant un tri cellulaire basé sur l'expression du récepteur CD56. Nous avons alors montré que les cellules de Merkel sont thermosensibles. Leur sensibilité aux températures fraiches est associée au fonctionnement du canal TRPM8. Cette sensibilité thermique ne module pas le fonctionnement du récepteur à une stimulation tactile. En revanche, les contacts entre les fibres cutanées C et Aδ, qui sont connues pour véhiculer les sensations thermiques, et les cellules de Merkel suggèrent que ces récepteurs pourraient intervenir aussi dans la thermosensation. Nous proposons donc pour la première fois que les récepteurs de Merkel soient aussi des récepteurs thermosensibles assurant une détection concordante de la pression et de la température cutanée. / The role of Merkel cells in cutaneous sensitivity remains imprecise. They provide continuous discharge of the receptor to a pressure. Nevertheless, other stimuli able to activate this complex, mediators regulating their activity are unknown. This ignorance is partly related to the difficulty to isolate these cells that represent only 3 to 5 % of skin cells.In this work, we have developed a Merkel cells cultured technique from human skin, using cell sorting based on the expression of the CD56 receptor. In this work, we show that Merkel cells are temperature sensitive. Their cool sensitivity is associated to TRPM8 channel. This thermal sensitivity does not modulate the discharge of the receptors during tactile stimulation. However, contacts between cutaneous Aδ and C fibres, which are known to carry the thermal sensations, and Merkel cells suggest that these receptors may also be involved in thermosensation. We propose for the first time that Merkel receptors are also temperature sensitive receptors providing a concurring detection of cutaneous pressure and temperature.

Human adolescents exhibit higher levels of sensation seeking behaviour than younger or older individuals, and sensation seeking is higher in males than females from adolescence onwards. Data suggest that changes in gonadal hormone levels during adolescence and differences in the dopamine neurotransmitter system are the bases for why some people exhibit sensation seeking behaviour while others do not. However, causal relationships between physiology and behaviour have been difficult to establish in humans. In order to explore the physiological influences on novelty-seeking behaviour, we looked at response to novelty in a laboratory rodent. This research examined responses to novelty in the conditioned place preference (CPP) task and the novel object recognition (NOR) task in Lister-hooded rats, and assessed the benefits and limitations of each methodology. While the CPP task was not found to provide a reliable measure of response to novelty, the NOR task was more successful. In order to understand the ontogeny of sex differences in novelty responses, both males and females were tested from adolescence through to adulthood. While no sex difference was found in adults in the NOR test, mid-adolescent males exhibited higher novelty preference behaviour than either younger or older males, or females at each stage of development. Since gonadal hormones levels rise during adolescence, a pharmacological agent (a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone antagonist) was used to suppress gonadal hormone levels from early adolescence before again examining responses on the NOR test at mid-adolescence. Gonadal hormone suppression from early adolescence onwards eliminated the sex difference in the NOR test at mid-adolescence by reducing the male response to novelty, while no difference was measured in the female animals. These findings suggest that gonadal hormones play a significant role in the development of response to novelty, especially in males, and the implications for our understanding of human sensation-seeking behaviour are discussed.