John W Sundsten

Knowledge-based client-server approach to structural information retrieval: the Digital Anatomist Browser.

Structural information can be defined as data and knowledge about biological objects ranging in size from molecules to the whole body. A framework is described for organizing structural information around a well-defined set of terminology and semantic relationships, and for disseminating multimedia structural information by means of a wide-area information server that is accessible over the internet. A Macintosh-based client of this server, called the Digital Anatomist Browser, has been used to teach neuroanatomy for the last 2 years. The client-server approach provides each student unlimited access to a rapidly growing knowledge base of structural biology that, while immediately useful for anatomy teaching, has the potential to be an organizing framework for other kinds of medical knowledge as well.

ALTERATIONS IN WATER INTAKE AND CORE TEMPERATURE IN BABOONS DURING HYPOTHALAMIC THERMAL STIMULATION

The baboon can serve as an excellent experimental animal for the study of hypothalamic regulatory mechanisms. It is adaptable to chronic maintenance in restraining chairs, thus permitting the use of indwelling catheters and probes. Moreover, the relatively large size of this animals skull and brain makes it feasible to mount appropriate apparatus for modifying and recording temperatures at specific points within the central nervous system. A series of studies was recently undertaken in this laboratory concerning hypothalamic control of, and possible interactions among, the pituitary gland, body temperature, and alimentation. (Sundsten & Matheson, 1966 & 1967). The present data concern water intake and core temperatures in the unanesthetized chaired baboon at normal, cold, and warm environmental temperatures and during direct cooling and warming of the preoptic-anterior hypothalamus (POAH) with chronically implanted thermodes.