This study is aimed at clarifying the relative importance of the specific character of the nuclei and of the duration of supercooling in heterogeneous freezing nucleation by immersed impurities. Laboratory experiments were carried out in which sets of water drops underwent multiple cycles of freezing and melting. The drops contained suspended particles of mixtures of materials; the resulting fr...

Considerable evidence indicates an important role for amygdaloid nuclei in both the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian fear conditioning. Recent reports from my laboratory have focused on the impact of neurotoxic lesions of the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) on conditional freezing behavior in rats. In these studies, I have observed severe effects of posttraining BLA lesions on ...

Freezing of eggs or ovarian tissue to preserve fertility for cancer patients has been studied since 1994 with Gosden’s original paper in sheep, and before that in smaller mammals for decades prior. Clinically, this tactic has enjoyed great success. Despite the rising popularity of vitrification for egg freezing, it is often done incorrectly, forgetting the original principles Kuwayama establish...

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...