OBJECTIVE Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common median nerve entrapment neuropathy characterized by pain, paresthesias, diminished peripheral nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and maladaptive functional brain neuroplasticity. We evaluated structural reorganization in brain gray (GM) and white (WM) matter and whether such plasticity is linked to altered median nerve function in CTS. METHODS W...

A core goal for neuroscientists is to understand the physiological processes behind memory, learning, and cognition. By developing computational models of the brain, scientists can simulate how neurons interact with each other and study these interactions more closely. However, these simulations often require technical expertise to create and can be difficult to analyze due to a lack of compreh...

Despite centuries of investigation, the function of the maxillary sinus (MS) and underlying patterns governing its form remain elusive. In this study, we articulate a methodology for collecting volumetric data for the MS and nasal cavity (NC) from computed tomography (CT) scans and report details for a small sample of 39 dried human crania of known ecogeographic provenience useful for assessing...

The present study was designed to examine the development of structural changes, characteristic of diabetic neuropathy, in chronic galactosemia and their responsiveness to inhibition of the polyol-pathway. Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 70-90 g were given a 50% galactose diet continued for 4 or 8 months. Half of these animals were simultaneously given the aldose reductase inhibitor (ARI) WAY 121-...

OBJECTIVES Non-invasive prenatal testing for fetal trisomy 21 (T21) by massively parallel shotgun sequencing (MPSS) is available for clinical use but its efficacy is limited by several factors, e.g. the proportion of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma and sequencing depth. Existing algorithms discard DNA reads from the chromosomes for which testing is not being performed (i.e. those other t...

After induction of diabetes with streptozocin (STZ-D) in rats, we measured vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) content in sciatic nerve and spinal cord obtained from nondiabetic, untreated STZ-D, and insulin-treated STZ-D rats. Eight weeks after the onset of diabetes, caudal nerve conduction velocity (NCV) in the untreated STZ-D rats (n = 13) was slower than in the controls (n = 11; mean +/...

Two hundred California students, 18 to 25 years old, were tested for nerve conduction velocity (NCV) in the arm and in the visual pathway of the brain, simple and choice reaction times, and Raven's Progressive Matrices test for nonverbal intelligence. Contrary to a prediction based on theoretical grounds, and also to one study, arm NCV did not correlate with this intelligence measure. It also d...

Most plant viruses depend on vectors for their survival and spread. Most vectors are piercing-sucking insects that transmit plant viruses in either the circulative virus (CV) or noncirculative virus (NCV). NCV are carried on the lining cuticle of vectors stylets. CVs cross the vectors’ gut, move internally to the salivary glands (SG), cross the SG membranes to be ejected upon feeding. Transmiss...

AIMS To investigate the association between sequence variants in the promoter region of the oestrogen receptor-alpha (ER-alpha) gene and the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 503 subjects undergoing coronary angiography (mean age 63+/-12 years, 72% men, 28% women). Coronary artery disease extent was assessed by the number of: (1) major coro...

[1] Boltzmann’s H function was evaluated using 10 years of 1-min distribution functions. These results were used to study the long-term averaged spatial distributions of four entropy parameters. The average entropy density sa(x), where a = i for ions and a = e for electrons, increased when moving Earthward or toward the flanks. The magnitudes of these entropy changes were similar for ions and e...