Two recently built vihuelas, quasi-replicas of the Spanish Renaissance guitar, one with a small body and one sound hole and one with a large body with five sound holes, together with a classical guitar are investigated. Frequency dependent radiation strengths are measured using a 128 microphone array, back-propagating the frequency ...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To detect subtle hearing changes by measuring otoacoustic emissions in patients treated with a first dose of cisplatin. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective study. METHODS: We recruited 26 patients (mean age at treatment, 11.3 years) into this prospective study conducted at a tertiary academic referral center. Audiograms and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions ...

Circadian and seasonal rhythms are a fundamental feature of all living organisms and their organelles. Biological rhythms are responsible for daily food intake; the period of hunger and satiety is controlled by the central pacemaker, which resides in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus, and communicates with tissues via ...

To compare the performance of the Marco Nidek ARK-530A autorefractor pupillometer function and the Keeler PupilScan II pupillometer (study pupillometer) against the clinical standard NeurOptics PLR-200 pupillometer (standard pupillometer) for measurement of the dark-adapted pupil diameter. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, ...

The delivered dose of high-energy photon beams is measured with radiochromic film. Previous studies sought to improve the system sensitivity of radiochromic film dosimetry by use of band-pass filters. However, band-pass filters reduce the scanning light intensity. To avoid a reduction of the signal-to-noise ratio, one must increase the scanner ...

To investigate the roles of G protein receptor kinases (GRKs) in the light responses of vertebrate photoreceptors, we generated transgenic zebrafish lines, the rods of which express either cone GRK (GRK7) or rod GRK (GRK1) in addition to the endogenous GRK1, and we then measured the electro-physiological characteristics of single-cell ...

AIM: (i) To map the spatial distribution of absolute visual field loss (AL) in patients exposed to vigabatrin and to compare the findings with AL in normal individuals, and (ii) to describe the relationship between the major risk factors for absolute loss (gender, age, cumulative dose), and the severity of ...

Despite a high level of sound exposure and a fairly large selection of earplugs available, musicians have often been reported to use personal hearing protectors only seldom. For better hearing conservation, it is important to identify and eliminate the causes for the low motivation to use hearing protection. We explored ...

The perception of spatially distributed sound sources was investigated by conducting two listening experiments in anechoic conditions with 13 loudspeakers evenly distributed in the frontal horizontal plane emitting incoherent noise signals. In the first experiment, widely distributed sound sources with gaps in their distribution emitted pink noise. The results indicated ...

Aims:  The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate and compare the effects of synchronized dual-pulse gastric electrical stimulation (SDPS) and conventional gastric electrical stimulation (CGES) on antral contractions, gastric tone, and autonomic functions. Methods:  Seven female hound dogs implanted with four pairs of electrodes on gastric serosa were ...

PURPOSE: To evaluate a novel respiratory motion compensation strategy combining gated beam delivery with the mean target position (MTP) concept for pulmonary stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four motion compensation strategies were compared for 10 targets with motion amplitudes between 6mm and 31mm: the internal target volume concept ...

Whether position and orientation shifts induced by monocular context also act as a disparity for purposes of stereoscopy was investigated experimentally in order to examine the extent to which lateral spatial localization and stereoscopic depth share circuitry. A monocular tilt illusion in a line does not lead to a commensurate ...

The acromial tracker is used to measure scapular rotations during dynamic movements. The method has low accuracy in high elevations and is sensitive to its attachment location on the acromion. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the attachment position and shoulder orientation during calibration on ...

Two different and generally noncomplimentary disruptions of timing by pharmacological agents have been found. One is a lateral shift of the psychophysical curve for time, indicating a subjective shortening or lengthening of time, whereas the other is a flattening of the curve and decrease in temporal accuracy. This study assessed ...

This study is aimed at providing a dosimetric evaluation of the irregular motion of lung tumors due to variations in patients' respiration. Twenty-three lung cancer patients are retrospectively enrolled in this study. The motion of the patient clinical target volume is simulated and two types of irregularities are defined: characteristic ...

Do reach-to-grasp (prehension) movements require a metric representation of three-dimensional (3D) layouts and objects? We propose a model relying only on direct sensory information to account for the planning and execution of prehension movements in the absence of haptic feedback and when the hand is not visible. In the present ...

Depth-ambiguous point-light walkers (PLWs) elicit a facing bias: Observers perceive a PLW as facing toward them more often than as facing away (Vanrie,Dekeyser, & Verfaillie, Perception, 33, 547-560, 2004). While the facing bias correlates with the PLW's perceived gender (Brooks et al., Current Biology, 18, R728-R729, 2008; Schouten, Troje, Brooks, ...

Static and dynamic observers provided binocular and monocular estimates of the depths between real objects lying well beyond interaction space. On each trial, pairs of LEDs were presented inside a dark railway tunnel. The nearest LED was always 40 m from the observer, with the depth separation between LED pairs ...

This study investigates several sources of uncertainty associated with the application of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to personal dosimetry. A commercial OSL system based on Al(2)O(3):C was used for this study. First, it is demonstrated that the concept of repeated evaluation (readout) of the same dosemeter, often referred to as ...

The hormone leptin controls food intake and body weight through its receptor in the hypothalamus, and may modulate physiological functions such as reproduction, sleep or circadian timing. In the present study, the effects of leptin on the resetting of the circadian clock, the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and on the ...

To determine the tracking factor by studying the relationship between kidney and diaphragm motions and to compare the efficiency of the gating-and-following and gating-only algorithms in reducing motion artifacts in navigator-gated scans. Diaphragm and kidney motions were measured by using real-time TrueFISP sequences from 10 healthy human volunteers to determine ...

Vertical depth migrations into shallower waters at night by the chambered cephalopod Nautilus were first hypothesized early in the early 20(th) Century. Subsequent studies have supported the hypothesis that Nautilus spend daytime hours at depth and only ascend to around 200 m at night. Here we challenge this idea of ...

The focus in the research on biological motion perception traditionally has been restricted to the visual modality. Recent neurophysiological and behavioural evidence, however, supports the idea that actions are not represented merely visually but rather audiovisually. The goal of the present study was to test whether the perceived in-depth orientation ...

We present the first thermospheric wind measurements using a Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne (DASH) spectrometer and the oxygen red-line nightglow emission. The ground-based observations were made from Washington, DC and include simultaneous calibration measurements to track and correct instrument drifts. Even though the measurements were made under challenging thermal and ...

We identified a strong temporal correlation between three distinct types of slow earthquakes distributed over 100 kilometers along the dip of the subducting oceanic plate at the western margin of the Nankai megathrust rupture zone, southwest Japan. In 2003 and 2010, shallow very-low-frequency earthquakes near the Nankai trough as well ...

We present an experimental realization of differential spectral responsivity measurement by using a light-emitting diode (LED)-based integrating sphere source. The spectral irradiance responsivity is measured by a Lambertian-like radiation field with a diameter of 40 mm at the peak wavelengths of the 35 selectable LEDs covering a range from 280 ...

Correctly integrating sensory information across different modalities is a vital task, yet there are illusions which cause the incorrect localization of multisensory stimuli. A common example of these phenomena is the "ventriloquism effect". In this illusion, the localization of auditory signals is biased by the presence of visual stimuli. For ...

Timing of the mammalian circadian clock of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is regulated by photic input from the retina. Retinorecipient units entrain rhythmicity of SCN pacemaker cells in part through their release of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). The underlying nature of this process is conjectural, however, as in-vivo SCN VIP ...

The circadian clock in the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) can be entrained by light cycles longer than the normal 24-h light/dark (LD) cycle, but little is known about the effect of such cycles on circadian clocks outside the SCN. Here we examined the effect of exposure to a 26-h T ...

An intrinsic clock enables an organism to anticipate environmental changes and use energy sources more efficiently, thereby conferring an adaptive advantage. Having an intrinsic clock to orchestrate rhythms is also important for human health. The use of systems biology approaches has advanced our understanding of mechanistic features of circadian oscillators ...

The circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) develops gradually during the prenatal and early postnatal period. In the rat, this period lasts from around the 15th day of gestation until the 10th day of postnatal development. The circadian system of fetuses and newborn pups is entrained mostly by nonphotic ...

Ankle inversion injuries are common, yet little is known about the error associated with different positions as inversion depth increases. In this study, absolute judgments made without feedback were used to measure discrimination of different extents of ankle inversion which arose from active movements made to physical stops by 20 ...

The ability of the circadian pacemaker within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to respond to light stimulation in a phase-specific manner constitutes the basis for photic entrainment of circadian rhythms. The neural basis for this phase specificity is unclear. We asked whether a lack of synchrony between SCN neurons, as reflected ...

Cells possess internal ∼24 hr or circadian clocks that synchronize physiological processes with daily cycles of light and nutrient availability. In this issue, Asher et al. (2010) find that PARP-1 (poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1) modifies components of the clock machinery in response to feeding, providing a mechanism for how metabolic rhythms ...

BRAND's Essence of Chicken (BEC) has been widely used as a traditional remedy by people in Southeast Asia, which is proved to have an effect on the central nervous system (CNS) and autonomic nervous system (ANS). However, whether and how BEC consumption may affect mammalian circadian system is still largely ...

During the last decade, tremendous progress has been made in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the plant circadian clock in Arabidopsis thaliana, mainly taking advantage of the availability of its entire genomic sequence. It is also well understood how the clock controls the photomorphogenesis of seedlings, including the shade avoidance ...

Circadian clocks in peripheral organs are tightly coupled to cellular metabolism and are readily entrained by feeding-fasting cycles. However, the molecular mechanisms involved are largely unknown. Here we show that in liver the activity of PARP-1, an NAD(+)-dependent ADP-ribosyltransferase, oscillates in a daily manner and is regulated by feeding. We ...

The biological clock, present in nearly all eukaryotes, has evolved such that organisms can adapt to our planet's rotation in order to anticipate the coming day or night as well as unfavorable seasons. As all modern high-precision chronometers, the biological clock uses oscillation as a timekeeping element. In this review, ...

African mole-rats (family Bathyergidae) are strictly subterranean rodent species that are rarely exposed to environmental light. Morphological and physiological adaptations to the underground environment include a severely reduced eye size and regressed visual system. Responses of the circadian system to light, however, appear to be intact, since mole-rats are able ...

Timekeeping is important at two levels: to time changes in physiology and behavior within each day and within each year. For the former, birds have a system of at least three independent circadian clocks present in the retina of the eyes, the pineal gland, and the hypothalamus. This differs from ...

The photoreceptor and PAS/LOV protein VIVID (VVD) modulates blue-light signaling and influences light and temperature responses of the circadian clock in Neurospora crassa. One of the main actions of VVD on the circadian clock is to influence circadian clock phase by regulating levels of the transcripts encoded by the central ...

Daily and annual changes in ambient illumination serve as specific stimuli that associate light with time and regulate the physiology of the organism through the eye. The eye acts as a dual sense organ linking light and vision, and detecting light that provides specific stimuli for non-classical photoreceptors located in ...

The daily light dark cycle is the most salient entraining factor for the circadian system. However, in modern society, darkness at night is vanishing as light pollution steadily increases. The impact of brighter nights on wild life ecology and human physiology is just now being recognized. In the present study, ...

Light signaling pathways and circadian clocks are inextricably linked and have profound effects on behavior in most organisms. Here, we used chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing to uncover direct targets of the Neurospora crassa circadian regulator White Collar Complex (WCC). The WCC is a blue-light receptor and the key transcription factor ...

Cannabinoids, the primary active agent in drugs of abuse such as marijuana and hashish, tend to generate a distorted sense of time. Here we study the effect of cannabinoids on the brain's circadian clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), using patch clamp and cell-attached electrophysiological recordings, RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, and behavioral analysis. ...

Mammalian circadian rhythms are controlled by endogenous biological oscillators, including a master clock located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). Since the period of this oscillation is of approximately 24 h, to keep synchrony with the environment, circadian rhythms need to be entrained daily by means of Zeitgeber ("time giver") ...

Jet lag encompasses a range of psycho- and physiopathological symptoms that arise from temporal misalignment of the endogenous circadian clock with external time. Repeated jet lag exposure, encountered by business travelers and airline personnel as well as shift workers, has been correlated with immune deficiency, mood disorders, elevated cancer risk, ...

Daily brain rhythmicity, which controls the sleep-wake cycle and neuroendocrine functions, is generated by an endogenous circadian timing system. Within the multi-oscillatory circadian network, a master clock is located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus, whose main synchroniser (Zeitgeber) is light. In contrast, imposed meal times and temporally restricted ...

Timing is essential, but circadian clocks, which play a crucial role in timekeeping, are almost unaddressed in evolutionary ecology. A key property of circadian clocks is their free-running period length (τ), i.e. the time taken for a full cycle under constant conditions. Under laboratory conditions, concordance of τ with the ...

The mammalian endogenous circadian clock, the suprachiasmatic nuclei, receives environmental inputs, namely the light-dark cycle, through photopigments located in the eye and from melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells. The authors investigated the influence of light wavelength and intensity on the synchronization of the rest-activity rhythm of the gray mouse lemur, a ...