It is commonly accepted that the cochlea emits sound by a backward traveling wave along the cochlear partition. This belief is mainly based on an observation that the group delay of the otoacoustic emission measured in the ear canal is twice as long as the forward delay. In this study, the otoacoustic emission was measured in the gerbil under anesthesia not only in the ear canal but also at the...

In recent years there has been increasing concern regarding the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on aquatic organisms. Daphnia, a well-studied genus of freshwater zooplankton, employs two mechanisms of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) repair that are temperature-dependent: photoenzymatic repair (PER, light-dependent repair), and nucleotide excision repair (NER, light-independent repai...

Environmental xenoestrogen contaminant bisphenol A (BPA), widely used as a monomer in the manufacture of epoxy, polycarbonate plastics and polystyrene resins. However, exposure to BPA has raised concerns, and the negative impacts of its exposure on reproduction have been controversial. The purpose of this work was directed to assess the potential adverse effects of BPA on dam rats and their fir...

Heightened concern over endocrine-disrupting chemicals is driven by the hypothesis that they could reduce reproductive success and affect wildlife populations, but there is little evidence for this expectation. The pharmaceutical ethynylestradiol (EE2) is a potent endocrine modulator and is present in the aquatic environment at biologically active concentrations. To investigate impacts on repro...

Environmental stressors including protein malnutrition (PMN) during pre-, neo- and post-natal age have been documented to affect cognitive development and cause increased susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders. Most studies have addressed either of the three windows and that does not emulate the clinical conditions of intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR). Such data fail to provide a co...

The thymus determines the spectrum of the receptor specificities of differentiating T cells for self-H-2; however, the phenotypic expression of T cell's specificity for self plus virus is determined predominantly by the H-2 type of the antigen presenting cells of the peripheral lymphoreticular system. Furthermore, virus specific helper T cells are essential for the generation of virus-specific ...

Environmental toxicants such as chemicals, heavy metals, and pesticides have been shown to promote transgenerational inheritance of abnormal phenotypes and/or diseases to multiple subsequent generations following parental and/or ancestral exposures. This study was designed to examine the potential transgenerational action of the environmental toxicant trichloroethane (TCE) on transmission of li...

Several recent studies have proposed that coagulation is triggered during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery by extrinsic pathway activation involving factor VIIa generation, but the methodology was indirect. Therefore, 12 patients were studied during routine cardiac and cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Samples were taken before, during, and after bypass from the perfusate, from the aorta (retrograd...

A genetic variation in the prothrombin gene, the G-->A transition at nucleotide 20210, is a risk factor for venous thrombosis in heterozygotes and is associated with increased prothrombin activity. The homozygous phenotype and the extent of thrombin generation in heterozygous and homozygous subjects are unknown. We investigated a family that included 2 homozygous and 5 heterozygous carriers of ...

Although in vitro studies have been invaluable in revealing the complex biochemistry of the blood coagulation system, the mechanisms involved during the in vivo response to hypercoagulable stimuli are still unclear. We have used plasma-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) to study the mechanisms by which the coagulation system is activated in vivo during human cardiopulmonary bypas...