BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that the human circadian system is maximally sensitive to short-wavelength (blue) light. Whether this sensitivity can be utilized to increase the size of phase shifts using light boxes and protocols designed for practical settings is not known. We assessed whether bright polychromatic lamps enriched in the short-wavelength portion of the visible light spec...

BACKGROUND Early, intensive treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with the combination of (initially high dose) prednisolone, methotrexate and sulfasalazine (COBRA therapy) considerably lowers disease activity and suppresses radiological progression, but is infrequently prescribed in daily practice. Attenuating the COBRA regimen might lessen concerns about side effects, but the efficacy of suc...

PURPOSE Biochemical research has demonstrated that lutein and zeaxanthin, the two macular carotenoids, are bleachable pigments. Further, evidence suggests that exposure to UV light can degrade plasma carotenoid levels in vivo. The present study investigated the effects of exposure to normal levels of light on the levels of lutein and zeaxanthin in the retina. METHODS The optical density of ma...

This study examines the relative contribution of the senses of sight and smell to detection of explosives in dogs. Six sniffer dogs were required to detect explosives in a controlled (indoors) and uncontrolled (field track) environment, under both virtually dark (very low light intensity) and full light conditions. Detection percentages, search duration, and sniffing and panting frequencies wer...

nifedipine (nif) a 1, 4-dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonist, undergoes photodegradation to nitroso analogues of dehydronifedipine (ndnif) when exposed to sunlight. photodegradation products of nif have no clinical activity, so different formulations of nif must remain unchanged. if nif preparations become unstable in exposure to light, they could cause therapeutic failure. the present st...

abstract this research was conducted to study the effects of different light colors on growth indices (growth rate and specific growth rate), feed conversion and survival rate in tiger barb (barbus tetazone) fish for 6 weeks. 120 fish with an average weight 75 ±0.02 were respectively divided in four groups of white, natural, green and blue colors (with three replicates for each treatment). fish...

With the recent Ž nancial crises in Asia, Russia and Brazil, the resurgence of debate on the ‘management’ of globalisation has thrown into doubt a number of the ‘certainties’ which policy makers constructed to deal with the ‘uncertainties’ of a post-Cold War, globalising world order. These ‘certainties’ centred around the dominance of the ‘Washington Consensus’, the euphoria of ‘globalisation ’...

BACKGROUND: In a previous study, when adult subjects were exposed to a level of 400 lux light for more than 30 min or a level of 300 lux light for more than 2 hours, salivary melatonin concentration during the night dropped lower than when the subjects were exposed to dim illumination. It was suggested that such light exposure in adolescents or children during the first half of subjective night...

An understanding of the capabilities of the Mica mote light sensors is currently limited. To determine how much information data from the light sensors reveals about the environment, we performed a series of experiments designed to test the sensitivity of the light sensors to the time of day, the presence/absence of close objects, and different colors. Measuring the ambient light alone, we disc...