PURPOSE To explore the distribution of guanylyl cylase-activating proteins 1 and 2 (GCAP1 and GCAP2) in the mammalian retina. METHODS Cryostat and vibratome vertical sections and wholemount retinas from mouse, rat, cat, bovine, monkey, and human eyes were prepared for immunocytochemistry and viewing by light and confocal microscopy. RESULTS In all mammalian retinas investigated, intense GCA...

In the rod and frame test (RFT), participants are asked to set a tilted visual linear marker (i.e., a rod), embedded in a square, to the subjective vertical, irrespective of the surrounding frame. People not influenced by the frame tilt are defined as field-independent, while people biased in their rod verticality perception are field-dependent. Performing RFT requires the integration of propri...

Visual-vestibular and postural interactions can act as cues that trigger motion sickness and can also have a role in some anxiety disorders. We explore a method to detect individual sensitivity to visual-vestibular unusual patterns, which can signal a vulnerability to develop motion sickness and possibly anxiety disorders such as a fear of heights and panic. 65 undergraduate students were recru...

PURPOSE To obtain and analyze scotopic increment threshold functions to test the hypothesis that rod photoreceptor immaturity accounts for the elevation of infants' over controls' dark-adapted thresholds and elevation of parafoveal over peripheral thresholds in infants. METHODS Using a preferential looking method, thresholds for detection of 2(o), 50 msec, blue stimuli presented 10(o) (parafo...

Rod bipolar cells in the macaque monkey retina were labeled by three antibodies: an antibody against the alpha- and beta-subspecies of protein kinase C (PKC), a polyclonal antiserum against the L7 protein from mouse cerebellum, and a monoclonal antibody against rabbit olfactory bulb (MAb 115A 10). The MAb 115A10 antibody also labeled some cone bipolar and some amacrine cells. The antibody again...

Spatial disorientation associated to decrease of sensorimotor performance may result in observers evolving in changing gravitoinertial field as created in aircrafts and other high dynamics modern vehicles. We have investigated the influence of body support orientation on the perception of egocentric and exocentric reference frames in 8 observers standing 80 cm off-center on a platform rotating ...

Self-assembling, light harvesting arrays of organic chromophores can be templated using the tobacco mosaic virus coat protein (TMVP). The efficiency of energy transfer within systems containing a high ratio of donors to acceptors shows a strong dependence on the TMVP assembly state. Rod and disk assemblies derived from a single stock of chromophore-labeled protein exhibit drastically different ...

We have prepared organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells possessing an ideal bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure using the self-assembly of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) as the donor material and fullerene (C(60)) as the acceptor. The variable self-assembly behavior of CuPc on a diverse range of substrates (surface energies) allowed us to control the morphology of the interface and the degree of carrie...

Several experiments investigated the theory that there is a tendency to interpret the axes of a large tilted frame of reference as surrogates of the main axes of the environment. Therefore there is a tendency to perceive such a frame as either upright or as less tilted thanit is--righting-- and, accordingly, to perceive a vertical rod as tilted in the opposite direction--the rod-and-frame effec...