Rats discriminate surface textures using their whiskers (vibrissae), but how whiskers extract texture information, and how this information is encoded by the brain, are not known. In the resonance model, whisker motion across different textures excites mechanical resonance in distinct subsets of whiskers, due to variation across whiskers in resonance frequency, which varies with whisker length....

Although the neurobiology of rodent facial whiskers has been studied intensively, little is known about sensing in other vibrissae. Here we describe the under-investigated submandibular "whisker trident" on the rat's chin. In this three-whisker array, a unique unpaired midline whisker is laterally flanked by two slightly shorter whiskers. All three whiskers point to the ground and are curved ba...

Calcium phosphate [single-phase hydroxyapatite (HA, Ca(10)(PO(4))(6)(OH)(2)), single-phase tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP, Ca(3)(PO(4))(2)), and biphasic HA-TCP] whiskers were formed by using a novel microwave-assisted molten salt mediated process. Aqueous solutions containing NaNO(3), HNO(3), Ca(NO(3))(2) x 4H(2)O, and KH(2)PO(4) (with or without urea) were used as starting reagents. These sol...

Cu₆Sn₅ whiskers precipitated in Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu/Cu interconnection in concentrator silicon solar cells solder layer were found and investigated after reflow soldering and during aging. Ag₃Sn fibers can be observed around Cu₆Sn₅ whiskers in the matrix microstructure, which can play an active effect on the reliability of interconnection. Different morphologies of Cu₆Sn₅ whiskers can be observed, and...

Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) often live in dark and turbid waters, where their mystacial vibrissae, or whiskers, play an important role in orientation. Besides detecting and discriminating objects by direct touch, harbor seals use their whiskers to analyze water movements, for example those generated by prey fish or by conspecifics. Even the weak water movements left behind by objects that hav...

Hydroxyapatite (HA) whiskers have been synthesized using a number of chemical solution methods, including the chelate decomposition method. Numerous previous studies have investigated the effects of the reagents, reagent concentrations, solution pH, and reaction temperature on HA whisker morphology and composition. However, purely kinetic effects, such as the reaction heating and stirring rates...

To address several fundamental questions regarding how multiwhisker tactile stimuli are integrated and processed by the trigeminal somatosensory system, a novel behavioral task was developed that required rats to discriminate the width of either a wide or narrow aperture using only their large mystacial vibrissae. Rats quickly acquired this task and could accurately discriminate between apertur...

High-quality ultra-long alloyed CdS(x)Se(1)(-)(x) (0 < or = x < or = 1) whiskers were obtained by a simple thermal evaporation route. The near band-edge emission in these whiskers can be effectively guided at the sub-millimeter scale under continuous-wave laser excitation. As good optical waveguide cavities, the whiskers exhibit stimulated emissions under pulsed light excitation at room tempera...

A novel, one-pot technique of synthesizing calcium phosphate whiskers was developed. Commercially available b-tricalcium phosphate (b-Ca3(PO4)2) powders were aged in unstirred 30% H2O2 solutions at 901C for 48 h in ordinary glass media bottles. Resultant samples consisted of whiskers (200 nm wide and 5 lmlong) of a biphasic mixture of octacalcium phosphate (OCP: Ca8H2(PO4)6 . 5H2O) and carbonat...

Male Wistar rats were exposed to two types of magnesium sulphate whiskers by inhalation for six hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks (sub-chronic study), or for one year (chronic study) to clarify the biological effects of the whiskers. There were few whiskers detected in the rat lungs even at one day after the exposure, suggesting that they are dissolved and eliminated rapidly from th...