Epilepsy is known to cause alterations in neural networks. However, many details of these changes remain poorly understood. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in the properties of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons and their synaptic inputs in a rat lithium–pilocarpine model of epilepsy. In the chronic phase of the model, we found a marked loss of pyramidal neurons in the CA1 area. However, the membrane properties of the neurons remained essentially unaltered. The results of the electrophysiological and morphological studies indicate that the direct pathway from the entorhinal cortex to CA1 neurons is reinforced in epileptic animals, whereas the inputs to them from CA3 are either unaltered or even diminished. In particular, the dendritic spine density in the str. lacunosum moleculare, where the direct pathway from the entorhinal cortex terminates, was found to be 2.5 times higher in epileptic rats than in control rats. Furthermore, the summation of responses upon stimulation of the temporoammonic pathway was enhanced by approximately twofold in epileptic rats. This enhancement is believed to be a significant contributing factor to the heightened epileptic activity observed in the entorhinal cortex of epileptic rats using an ex vivo 4-aminopyridine model.

Results of the development of a mathematical model of turbulent flows in bubbly media are presented. The proposed model is based on the Euler-Euler approach to the description of multiphase flows, which is supplemented by the k-ω-SST model of turbulence with some modifications that make possible (i) the generation of turbulence due to the relative motion of phases and (ii) the turbulence-induced dispersion of bubbles. Investigations performed using the proposed model and the corresponding numerical code provided detailed information on the structure of turbulent flows in bubble columns. The results of calculations show good coincidence with experimental data.

The present study is focused on the investigation of motion of bubble-liquid medium inside the bubble columns or vertical pipes with account of polydisperse phenomena by the means of numerical simulation. The underlying mathematical model is based on the Euler- Euler approach with interphase interaction described by the momentum and mass transfer between phases, along with the k-w-SST turbulence model which includes turbulence generation by the bubble motion and bubble path dispersion. Polydispersion is taken into account by the multi-class model with piecewise-constant distribution of bubble sizes per cell. Simulation of downward flow inside the straight vertical pipe resulted in maximum of the bubble void fraction close to the pipe center which is in good correlation with the experimental data. Simulation of multiphase flow inside rectangular bubble column with off-center sparger resulted in vertical bubble-liquid jet which is biased towards nearby wall with the correct prediction of attachment point location.

Epilepsy is known to cause alterations in neural networks. However, many details of these changes remain poorly understood. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in the properties of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons and their synaptic inputs in a rat lithium-pilocarpine model of epilepsy. In the chronic phase of the model, we found a marked loss of pyramidal neurons in the CA1 area. However, the membrane properties of the neurons remained essentially unal-tered. The results of the electrophysiological and morphological studies indicate that the direct pathway from the entorhinal cortex to CA1 neurons is reinforced in epileptic animals, whereas the inputs to them from CA3 are either unaltered or even diminished. In particular, the dendritic spine density in the str. lacunosum moleculare, where the direct pathway from the entorhinal cortex ter-minates, was found to be 2.5 times higher in epileptic rats than in control rats. Furthermore, the summation of responses upon stimulation of the temporoammonic pathway was enhanced by approximately twofold in epileptic rats. This enhancement is believed to be a significant con-tributing factor to the heightened epileptic activity observed in the entorhinal cortex of epileptic rats using an ex vivo 4-aminopyridine model.

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the effect of different discrete representations of the continuous bubble size distribution function on the flow structure in a bubble column reactor. Poly- and monodisperse media were considered, such that the mathematical expectation of the bubble size in the polydisperse case was equal to the bubble size in the monodisperse case at the same volumetric bubble contents. For these computations the normalized variances of the velocity profiles of the carrier and the disperse phases, the volume fraction of the disperse phase, and the specific area of the interfacial surface were determined. The normalized variances were calculated from a reference scenario with a detailed resolution of the bubble size distribution function with ten bubble classes. It was shown that with increase of the average bubble sizes mono- and polydisperse approaches provide converging solutions. A modified hybrid discretization of the bubble size distribution function with four classes of bubbles was shown to predict the flow structure with normalized variance less than 5% over the entire computational domain for all monitored parameters.