Plasma cell dyscrasias are frequently associated with kidney disease through the production of monoclonal immunoglobulin but with a diverse set of pathologic renal patterns. While almost all patients with a renal biopsy showing a cast nephropathy have myeloma, kidney involvement associated with pathological immunoglobulin light chains and lymphoma is rare. ...

Understanding esthetic design is not enough if restorations are to withstand the forces of function. Dentists also must understand the relationships of incisal tables, the interincisal angle, disclusion forces, and the implications of changing those parameters when restoring the anterior dentition. While canine-protected occlusion is often a goal, it may ...

The mammalian circadian timing system is organized in a hierarchy, with the master clock residing in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus and subsidiary peripheral clocks in other brain regions as well as peripheral tissues. Since the local oscillators in most cells contain a similar molecular makeup to that ...

The pronounced daily variation in the release of adrenal hormones has been at the heart of the deciphering and understanding of the circadian timing system. Indeed, the first demonstration of an endocrine day/night rhythm was provided by Pincus (1943), by showing a daily pattern of 17-keto-steroid excretion in the urine ...

Advances in the sensitivity of molecular techniques during the 1990s led to a flurry of studies that supported the existence of extra-adrenal sites of aldosterone production in various tissues including the brain and the heart. Subsequent work was often conflicting or ambiguous, leading many to question whether extra-adrenal aldosterone was ...

OBJECTIVES: Abdominal intensity-modulated radiation therapy and proton therapy require quantification of target and organ motion to optimize localization and treatment. Although addressed in adults, there is no available literature on this issue in pediatric patients. We assessed physiologic renal motion in pediatric patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Twenty free-breathing pediatric patients ...

Strong negative reactions, physical symptoms, and behavioral disruptions due to environmental odors are common in the adult population. We investigated relationships among such environmental chemosensory responsivity (CR), personality traits, affective states, and odor perception. Study 1 showed that CR and neuroticism were positively correlated in a sample of young adults ...

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of falls. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of obesity on balance recovery using an ankle strategy. In addition, computer simulations to understand how increased inertia and weight associated with obesity independently influence balance recovery. Ten normal weight (BMI: ...

For targeted prevention of falls, it is necessary to identify individuals with balance impairments. To test the sensitivity of measures of variability, local stability and orbital stability of trunk kinematics to balance impairments during gait, we used galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) to impair balance in 12 young adults while walking ...

In this Letter we show that interferometers with unbalanced arm lengths can be balanced using optical elements with appropriate group delays. For matched group delays of the arms, the balanced interferometer becomes insensitive to the frequency noise of the source. For experimental illustration, a ring resonator is employed as a ...

Humans spontaneously select a step frequency that minimizes the energy expenditure of walking. This selection might be embedded within the neural circuits that generate gait, so that the optimum is pre-programmed for a given walking speed. Or perhaps step frequency is directly optimized, based on sensed feedback of energy expenditure. ...

Knowledge of the hormonal pathway controlling genotype-specific norms of reaction would shed light on the ecological factors to which each genotype is adapted. Environmentally mediated changes in the sign and magnitude of covariations between heritable melanin-based colouration and fitness components are frequent, revealing that extreme melanin-based phenotypes can display different ...

Individually specific acoustic signals in birds are used in territorial defence. These signals enable a reduction of energy expenditure due to individual recognition between rivals and the associated threat levels. Mechanisms and acoustic cues used for individual recognition seem to be versatile among birds. However, most studies so far have ...

Recent theories posit a mirror-matching system mapping observed actions onto one's own motor system. Determining whether this system makes a distinction between goal-directed and non-goal-directed actions is crucial for the understanding of its function. The present study tested whether motor interference between observed and executed actions, which is thought to ...

Motion sickness has been defined as a set of physiological signs and symptoms produced as a result of prolonged sensory conflict in central nervous system vestibular centers. It has long been noted that the particular pattern of motion sickness signs and symptoms does not fit the conventional "fight or flight ...

Methylene Blue (MB), following its introduction to biology in the 19th century by Ehrlich, has found uses in various areas of medicine and biology. At present, MB is the first line of treatment in methemoglobinemias, is used frequently in the treatment of ifosfamide-induced encephalopathy, and is routinely employed as a ...

We investigated the effects of balance difficulty on contingent negative variation (CNV) and postural preparation against perturbation. Thirteen subjects were perturbed by a backward floor translation (S2) after an auditory warning stimulus. To alter balance difficulty, subjects maintained standing posture from four initial positions before perturbation. The position of the ...

The aim of this study was to compare the energy cost of obese and non-obese teenagers while walking at their preferred speed and different stride frequencies. Twelve obese and twelve non-obese teenagers walked continuously on the treadmill at their most comfortable speed for 6 periods of 4min each. Each period ...

The philosophical implications of Jaak Panksepp's affective neuroscience comprise a significant form of skepticism regarding our capacities as agents. This is clear in two ways. (1) Panksepp's methods of inquiry support a corollary to Dobzhansky's famous maxim concerning evolution: nothing in mammalian psychology makes sense except in light of ancient ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of playing experience on the kinematic characteristics of the goal shooting action in netball players. Six county-level junior and six senior goal shooters took part in the study. They were asked to perform eight shots at goal and were equipped ...

With half-sized cupula, the semicircular canal nerve potentials decreased under slow stimulus, thus potentially leading to reduced caloric response. This also suggests that shrunken cupula may cause dizziness because of its hypermobility. To examine the physiological effect of half-sized cupula on the semicircular canal nerve potential. The isolated cupula of ...

Bleeding is the most important problem in neuroendoscopic procedures. The visibility of the bleeding point for a long period of time is very crucial for the surgeon to stop the bleeding. In this study, the performances of a near-infrared camera (NIRC) and a visible light camera (VLC), which is widely ...

Because we are a cooperative species, understanding the goals and intentions of others is critical for human survival. In this fMRI study, participants viewed reaching behaviors in which one of four animated characters moved a hand towards one of two objects and either (a) picked up the object, (b) missed ...

In our research, people use actions to expose hidden targets as planar images displayed either in situ or ex situ (displaced remotely). We show that because ex situ viewing impedes relating actions to their perceptual consequences, it impairs localizing targets, including compensating for surface deformation, and directing movement toward them. ...

Using a two-step approach, Van Soest et al. (2010) recently questioned the pertinence of the conclusions drawn by Bootsma and Van Wieringen (1990) with respect to the visual regulation of an exemplary rapid interceptive action: the attacking forehand drive in table tennis. In the first step, they experimentally compared the ...

Having control over an entity or even an entire process is arguably the ultimate demonstration of its understanding and it will enable its potential to be fully exploited. With this in mind, chemists have not only been creating and optimizing a myriad of different catalysts for most (relevant) chemical reactions ...

Prioritization of affective events may occur via two parallel pathways originating from the retina-a parvocellular (P) pathway projecting to ventral-stream structures responsible for object recognition or a faster and phylogenetically older magnocellular (M) pathway projecting to dorsal-stream structures responsible for localization and action. It has previously been demonstrated that retinal ...

Self-other discrimination was investigated with point-light displays in which actions were presented with or without additional auditory information. Participants first executed different actions (dancing, walking and clapping) in time with music. In two subsequent experiments, they watched point-light displays of their own or another participant's recorded actions, and were asked ...

Observers are able to judge quite accurately the weights lifted by others. Only recently, neuroscience has focused on the role of the motor system to accomplish this task. In this respect, a previous transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study showed that the muscular force requirements of an observed action are encoded ...

A method for evaluating, at video rate, the quality of actions for a single camera while mapping unknown indoor environments is presented. The strategy maximizes mutual information between measurements and states to help the camera avoid making ill-conditioned measurements that are appropriate to lack of depth in monocular vision systems. ...

We present the first database of communicative interactions reproduced through point-light displays (Communicative Interaction Database). The database contains 20 communicative interactions performed by male and by female couples. For each action, we provide movie files from four different viewpoints, as well as text files with the 3-D spatial coordinates of ...

Spontaneous Frequency Bursts (SFBs) are a newly discovered form of long-distance neural coordination. They have several distinctive properties, including near-simultaneity of occurrence (+/-25-50 ms) across distant brain regions and high within- and across-site coherence in multiple low and high frequency bands, presumably requiring high axonal, dendritic and vascular integrity. We ...

Perception of the final position of a moving object or creature is distorted forward along its actual or implied motion path, thus enabling anticipation of its forthcoming position. In a previous research, we demonstrated that viewing static snapshots that imply body actions activates the human motor system. What remains unknown, ...

Observers are remarkably sensitive to point-light displays of human movement. The Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS) and premotor cortex are implicated in the visual perception of point-light human actions and the integration of perceptual signals across modalities. These neurophysiological findings suggest that auditory information might impact visual sensitivity to point-light displays ...

This study aimed at comparing elite (i.e., Euro League and Italian "Serie A1") and sub-elite (Italian "Serie B") matches. A notational analysis was performed on 17 men's water polo matches during the 2005-2006 season to evaluate the following technical and tactical parameters of the offensive play: frequency of occurrence of ...

This paper presents a method for obtaining the motion segmentation and 3D localization of multiple mobile robots in an intelligent space using a multi-camera sensor system. The set of calibrated and synchronized cameras are placed in fixed positions within the environment (intelligent space). The proposed algorithm for motion segmentation and ...

We used Goldmann kinetic perimetry to compare how training and congenital auditory deprivation may affect the size of the visual field. We measured the ability of action video game players and deaf observers to detect small moving lights at various locations in the central (around 30 degrees from fixation) and ...

An important aspect of volition is the internal decision whether to act or to withhold an action. We used EEG frequency analysis of sensorimotor rhythms to investigate brain activity when people prepare and then cancel a voluntary action. Participants used a rotating clock-hand to report when they experienced the intention ...

Biological motion perception is influenced by observers' familiarity with the observed action. Here, we used classical dance as a means to investigate how visual and motor experience modulates perceptual mechanism for configural processing of actions. Although some ballet moves are performed by only one gender, male and female dancers train ...

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We propose a new view-invariant measure for action recognition. For this purpose, we introduce the idea that the motion of an articulated body can be decomposed into rigid motions of planes defined by triplets of body points. Using the fact that the homography induced by the motion of a triplet ...

We report on the observation of the Seebeck ratchet effect. The effect is measured in semiconductor heterostructures with a one-dimensional lateral potential excited by terahertz radiation. The photocurrent generation is based on the combined action of a spatially periodic in-plane potential and a spatially modulated light, which gives rise to ...

In this article we discuss both merits and limitations of the ideomotor approach to action control and action imitation. In the first part, we give a brief outline of ideomotor theory and its functional implications for imitation and related kinds of behaviours. In the subsequent sections, we summarize pertinent experimental ...

Humans often have to modify the timing and/or type of their planned actions on the basis of new sensory information. In the present experiments, participants planned to make a right index finger keypress 3 s after a warning stimulus but on some trials were interrupted by a temporally unpredictable auditory ...

Previous study has shown that if we observe another person operating a tool or physical device, then the action rule of the observed action is automatically activated and can subsequently facilitate own actions. In this study, the mechanisms responsible for this automatic priming of actions are investigated. In two experiments, ...

We demonstrate that channelrhodopsin-2 (CR), a light-gated ion channel that is conventionally activated by using visible-light excitation, can also be activated by using IR two-photon excitation (TPE). An empirical estimate of CR's two-photon absorption cross-section at lambda = 920 nm is presented, with a value (260 +/- 20 GM) indicating ...

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the bidirectional coupling of perception and action in the context of object manipulations and motion perception. Participants prepared to grasp an X-shaped object along one of its 2 diagonals and to rotate it in a clockwise- or a counterclockwise direction. Action execution had to ...

Motion smoothness is critical in transmitting implicit information of body action, such as aesthetic qualities in dance performances. We expected that the perception of motion smoothness would be characterized by great intersubject variability deriving from differences in personal backgrounds and attitudes toward expressive body actions. We used functional magnetic resonance ...

The cerebellum has traditionally been viewed as a brain structure subserving skilled motor behaviors. However, the cerebellum might be involved not only in movement coordination, but also in action observation and understanding of others' actions. Veridical visual perception of human body motion is of immense importance for a variety of ...

This meta-analysis explores the role of the mirror and mentalizing systems in the understanding of other people's action goals. Based on over 200 fMRI studies, this analysis demonstrates that the mirror system - consisting of the anterior intraparietal sulcus and the premotor cortex - is engaged when one perceives articulated ...