Understanding how nervous systems exploit task-relevant properties of sensory stimuli to perform natural tasks is fundamental to the study of perceptual systems. However, there are few formal methods for determining which stimulus properties are most useful for a given natural task. As a consequence, it is difficult to develop principled models for how to compute task-relevant latent variables ...

A survey was conducted in the northern district of Yamaguchi, Japan to determine the relationship between neurological diving accidents and risk factors among commercial breath-hold divers (Ama). A questionnaire was distributed to 381 Ama divers who are members of the Ama diving union. We sought information on their dive practices (depth of single dive, single dive time, surface interval, lengt...

BACKGROUND Human placental villous cytotrophoblasts exhibit relative externalization of negatively charged moieties to the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane during the time of syncytialization rendering their reactivity to positively charged cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) during the window of implantation and early placentation. Vaginal administration of a synthetic CAMP, Ala(8,13,1...

Maternal age of 35 years and over has increased in Western countries as well as in Finland during the last decades. The purpose of this retrospective register-based study was to explore the risks and complications related to pregnancy and birth of women aged 35 years or older, when comparing them to younger women aged less than 35 years old. Pregnancy outcomes and complications were observed in...

THE INTERNET HAS PERMITTED physicians, other health care professionals, patients, and other consumers to quickly access medical information in unprecedented volume. Such access has the potential to speed the transformation of the patient-physician relationship from that of physician authority ministering advice and treatment (with sometimes questionable patient understanding and adherence to re...

OBJECTIVE We investigated the clinical significance of incidental diffuse thyroid uptake (DTU) on (18)F-FDG PET in subjects without a history of cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study included 2062 studies from adults who underwent (18)F-FDG PET as a cancer screening program. Subjects were divided into the following two groups: with (group I) or without (group II) DTU. The presence of DTU a...

AIM To determine the prevalence and significance of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC)-specific autoantibodies in first-degree relatives (FDRs) of Greek PBC patients. METHODS The presence of antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) and PBC-specific antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were determined using indirect immunofluorescence assays, dot-blot assays, and molecularly based enzyme-linked immunosorbent a...