Burt introduced 1983 'equivalent weighting function': \Iterative pyramid generation is equivalent to convolving the image g 0 with a set of 'equivalent weighting functions' h l :" g l = h l g 0 = h g l?1 ; l > 1. It allowed him to study the eeects of iterated reduction (e.g. the low-pass character of Gaussian pyramids) using the single parameter h l without giving up the eecient iterative compu...

Dual graph contraction reduces the number of vertices and of edges of a pair of dual image graphs while, at the same time, the topological relations among the 'surviving' components are preserved. Repeated application produces a stack of successively smaller graphs: a pair of dual irregular pyramids. The process is controlled by selected decimation parameters which consist of a subset of surviv...

Objectives: The results of a few studies about the effects of ankle brace on muscles function during the performance of different tasks are contradictory. Moreover, the effect of brace on the co-contraction of ankle muscles is undiscovered. Therefore, the present study investigated the effect of brace usage on the ankle muscles activity and co-contraction during single-leg landing. Methods: Fi...

Introduction: Thymol has negative ionotropic effect on heart and has direct effect on calcium release from sarcoplasmic reticulum. Some of the herbal plants just like carum copticum consist of thymol. The postganglionic neurons of the gastrointestinal parasympathetic system are located mainly in the myenteric and submucosal plexuses. Stimulation of these parasympathetic nerves causes general...

OBJECTIVE To investigate intestinal motility changes due to uremia, and the effect of pretreatment with erythropoietin. METHODS This randomized control study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt from September 2010 to July 2011. Forty adult female Wistar albino rats were allocated into 3 groups: control group, gentamicin-treat...

We present a fluorescence recovery after photobleaching-based method for monitoring the progression of septal Z-ring contraction in dividing Escherichia coli cells. In a large number of cells undergoing division, we irreversibly bleached cytosolically expressed Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein on one side of the septal invagination and followed the fluorescence relaxation on both sides of the...

Contractile actomyosin bundles are critical for numerous aspects of muscle and nonmuscle cell physiology. Due to the varying composition and structure of actomyosin bundles in vivo, the minimal requirements for their contraction remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that actin filaments and filaments of smooth muscle myosin motors can self-assemble into bundles with contractile elements that eff...

It was previously found that transgenic mice that overexpress the calpain inhibitor calpastatin (CsTg) have an approximately 3-fold increase in GLUT4 protein in their skeletal muscles. Despite the increase in GLUT4, which appears to be due to inhibition of its proteolysis by calpain, insulin-stimulated glucose transport is not increased in CsTg muscles. PKB (Akt) protein level is reduced approx...

ATP exhibits vascular pressor and depressor responses in a dose- and tone-dependent manner. The vascular site of ATP-induced contraction or dilation has not previously been characterized. Using the vascular occlusion technique, we investigated the effects of ATP in isolated rat lungs perfused with autologous blood (hematocrit = 20%) and described its action during resting and elevated tone in t...