Freezing rain is a major atmospheric hazard in mid-latitude nations of the globe. Among all Canadian hydrometeorological hazards, freezing rain is associated with the highest damage costs per event. Using synoptic weather typing to identify the occurrence of freezing rain events, this study estimates changes in future freezing rain events under future climate scenarios for south-central Canada....

Background: This study was set up to evaluate the effect of ovarian tissue slow freezing on in vitro growth and pattern of maturation genes expression in mouse preantral follicles encapsulated within alginate hydrogel. Materials and Methods: Ovaries of 12-14 days old female NMRI mice were randomly allocated into control and slow freezing groups. In slow freezing group, ovaries were equilibrated...

A sperm cryopreservation protocol requiring dimethylacetamide (DMA, 6%) as a cryoprotectant was optimized via assays involving different prefreezing equilibration times (1, 10, 30, 60, and 120 min at 5°C) and different freezing rates achieved by the following: 1) using nitrogen vapor to reduce the temperature from 5°C to -85°C at 10°C/min (slow freezing rate); 2) using a biological freezer unit...

Freezing of gait is a devastating symptom of advanced Parkinson’s disease yet the neural correlates of this phenomenon remain poorly understood. In this study, severity of freezing of gait was assessed in 18 patients with Parkinson’s disease on a series of timed ‘up and go’ tasks, in which all patients suffered from episodes of clinical freezing of gait. The same patients also underwent functio...

Bubble formation in the conduits of woody plants sets a challenge for uninterrupted water transportation from the soil up to the canopy. Freezing and thawing of stems has been shown to increase the number of air-filled (embolized) conduits, especially in trees with large conduit diameters. Despite numerous experimental studies, the mechanisms leading to bubble formation during freezing have not...

The fact that the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) and inferior colliculus (IC), together with superior colliculus, medial hypothalamus and amygdala, constitute the brain aversion system has been well-established. Stepwise increases in the intensity of electrical stimulation of dPAG or IC cause freezing and escape responses, which are followed by a freezing behavior that lasts after the interr...

BACKGROUND Pure akinesia with gait freezing is a rare syndrome with few autopsied cases. Severe freezing of gait occurs in the absence of bradykinesia and rigidity. Most autopsies have revealed progressive supranuclear palsy. We report the clinical and postmortem findings of two patients with pure akinesia with gait freezing, provide video recordings of these patients, and review the literature...

Ice may form by both homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing nucleation processes in clouds at temperatures below -3 5øC. Most investigations have focused on the former process. This paper presents results from adiabatic parcel model calculations that include the effects of both freezing processes in unactivated solution droplets. Uncertainties in predicting the homogeneous freezing rates are di...