This report includes the clinical, radiological, morbid anatomical, and histological findings in the lungs of a man who for a continuous period of 45 years had been engaged in the loading and unloading of coal in ships and trains. He presented as a case of congestive cardiac failure with signs of severe pulmonary hypertension. The chief feature in the lungs was the presence of silicoticlike nod...

The molecular deformation of cotton cellulose whisker/epoxy resin (CW/EP) and tunicate whisker/poly(vinyl) acetate (TW/PVAc) composites were investigated using Raman spectroscopy. A shift in the 1095 cm Raman peak position is recorded for samples deformed in both tension and compression, which corresponds to the molecular deformation of the cellulose chains within the whiskers. Cyclic molecular...

In this work the annual plant called Luffa cylindrica (LC) has been characterized and used to prepare macroscopic lignocellulosic fibers and cellulosic nanoparticles, viz. microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) and whiskers, each of which can be used as a reinforcing phase in bionanocomposites. The morphological, chemical, and physical properties of LC fibers were first characterized. The contents of...

In this paper, we have developed a facile MgCl₂-assissted hydrothermal synthesis route to grow tubular aragonite whiskers on a large scale. The products have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The results show the as-grown product is pure tubular aragonite crystalline whiskers with a diameter of 5-10 mm and a lengt...

Npas4 has recently been identified as an important factor in brain plasticity, particularly in mechanisms of inhibitory control. Little is known about Npas4 expression in terms of cortical plasticity. In the present study expressions of Npas4 and the archetypal immediate early gene (IEG) c-Fos were investigated in the barrel cortex of mice after sensory deprivation (sparing one row of whiskers ...

Visualization and tracking of the facial whiskers is required in an increasing number of rodent studies. Although many approaches have been employed, only high-speed videography has proven adequate for measuring whisker motion and deformation during interaction with an object. However, whisker visualization and tracking is challenging for multiple reasons, primary among them the low contrast of...

Rats use their whiskers to locate and discriminate tactile features of their environment. Mechanoreceptors surrounding each whisker encode and transmit sensory information from the environment to the brain via afferents whose cell bodies lie in the trigeminal ganglion (Vg). These afferents are classified as rapidly (RA) or slowly (SA) adapting by their response to stimulation. The activity of t...

TiB-reinforced Ti–3Al–2.5V, in which the TiB whiskers are oriented parallel to direction of heat extrusion, was fabricated via powder metallurgy. To investigate effects whisker volume fraction on fatigue properties four-point bending tests were conducted plate-type specimens having varying and orientation. The limit life Ti–3Al–2.5V that loading tended be increase with increasing fraction, wher...

The present study examined the human ability to learn a new sensory modality, specifically “whisking”. An experimental apparatus containing artificial whiskers, force sensors, position sensors and computer interface was developed. Twelve participants took part in an experiment containing three tasks: pole localization in the radial dimension, roughness estimation, and object recognition. All ta...

Damage or deprivation of a localized region of the skin surface has been shown to induce a selective expansion of adjacent skin surface representations in the adult somatosensory cortex. Here, we use repeated optical imaging in conjunction with single unit recordings to assess the plasticity of a single whisker's functional representation in the adult rat. We observed a large-scale expansion of...