The aim of this study was to determine the effect of chronic crowding on the cardiovascular system of Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Rats were randomly divided into the control (480 cm(2) per rat) or crowded (200 cm(2) per rat) group for eight weeks. Body weight, blood pressure (BP), heart rate and plasma nitrate/nitrite levels of the crowded rats were not different from controls at the end of the ex...

Intracellular vesicle fusion is mediated by SNAREs and Sec1/Munc18 (SM) proteins. Despite intensive efforts, the SNARE-SM mediated vesicle fusion reaction has not been faithfully reconstituted in biochemical assays. Here, we present an unexpected discovery that macromolecular crowding is required for reconstituting the vesicle fusion reaction in vitro. Macromolecular crowding is known to profou...

Vehicular ad hoc networks are an emerging technology with an extensive capability in various applications including vehicles safety, traffic management and intelligent transportation systems. Considering the high mobility of vehicles and their inhomogeneous distributions, designing an efficient routing protocol seems necessary. Given the fact that a road is crowded at some sections and is not c...

PURPOSE Children may be tested with a variety of visual acuity (VA) charts during their ophthalmic care and differences between charts can complicate the interpretation of VA measurements. This study compared VA measurements across four pediatric charts with Sloan letters and identified chart design features that contributed to inter-chart differences in VA. METHODS VA was determined for righ...

Exposure to crowding is said to be aversive, yet people also seek out and enjoy crowded situations. We surveyed participants at two crowd events to test the prediction of self-categorization theory that variable emotional responses to crowding are a function of social identification with the crowd. In data collected from participants who attended a crowded outdoor music event (n = 48), identifi...