The somatosensory barrel cortex in rodents contains a topographic map of the facial whiskers where each cortical barrel is tuned to a corresponding whisker. However, exactly when this correspondence is established during development and how precise the functional topography of the whisker protomap is at birth, before the anatomical formation of barrels, are questions that remain unresolved. Her...

Purpose – This paper aims to present the results of physical analysis that was conducted on Toyota’s electronic engine control system including accelerator pedal position sensors (APPSs). The paper overviews the analyses and focuses on the discovery of tin whiskers found in the accelerator pedal assembly, which are an electrical failure concern. Design/methodology/approach – Analytical techniqu...

The in-situ formation of dispersed polyaramide whiskers during melt processing of polymers represents a new route to thermoplastic and elastomeric organic microcomposites. When N-(p-aminobenzoy1)-caprolactam (PAC) is injected into melts of high molecular weight polyamide-6 or dihydroxy-terminated poly(oxytetramethylene) liquid rubber, stable dispersions of polymeric whiskers are formed. At temp...

We have previously demonstrated that exposure of adult rat to a type of enriched environment, known as 'naturalistic habitat' (NH), induces extensive functional plasticity in the whiskers' representations within the primary somatosensory cortex. Here we have investigated the molecular basis for such functional plasticity involved in this model. Based on the role of BDNF on synaptic plasticity a...

Whisker plucking in developing and adult rats provides a convenient method of temporarily altering tactile input for the purposes of studying experience-dependent plasticity in the somatosensory cortex. Yet, a comprehensive examination of the effect of whisker plucking on the response properties of whisker follicle-innervating trigeminal ganglion (NVg) neurons is lacking. We used extracellular ...

(1) Background: Sensing of critical events or flow signatures in nature often presents itself as a coupled interaction between fluid and arrays slender flexible beams, such wind-hairs whiskers. It is hypothesized that important information gained highly noisy environments by the inter-correlation within array. (2) Methods: The present study uses model sea lion head with artificial whiskers form...