Marine benthic communities face multiple anthropogenic pressures that compromise the future of some of the most biodiverse and functionally important ecosystems in the world. Yet one of the pressures these ecosystems face, night-time lighting, remains unstudied. Light is an important cue in guiding the settlement of invertebrate larvae, and altering natural regimes of nocturnal illumination cou...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the exposure to dim light during sleep on the brain activation while conducting tasks requiring working memory. 23 young healthy subjects participated in this study. The subjects were instructed to sleep in a polysomnography room with no light exposure on the first night and under a dim light condition of 5 lux or 10 lux on the second night....

Inducible gene expression appears to be an essential event that couples light to entrainment of the master mammalian circadian clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Recently, we reported that light triggers phase-dependent activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, a major regulator of protein synthesis, in the SCN, thus raising t...

This paper describes a methodology for modelling light pollution using geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technology. The proposed approach attempts to address the issue of environmental assessment in sensitive suburban areas. The modern way of life in developing countries is conductive to environmental degradation in urban and suburban areas. One specific parameter ...

Results of the first comprehensive light pollution survey in Hong Kong are presented. The night-sky brightness was measured and monitored around the city using a portable light-sensing device called the Sky Quality Meter over a 15-month period beginning in March 2008. A total of 1,957 data sets were taken at 199 distinct locations, including urban and rural sites covering all 18 Administrative ...

The Arabidopsis early flowering 3 (elf3) mutation causes arrhythmic circadian output in continuous light, but there is some evidence of clock function in darkness. Here, we show conclusively that normal circadian function occurs with no alteration of period length in elf3 mutants in dark conditions and that the light-dependent arrhythmia observed in elf3 mutants is pleiotropic on multiple outpu...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the exposure to dim light during sleep on the brain activation while conducting tasks requiring working memory. 23 young healthy subjects participated in this study. The subjects were instructed to sleep in a polysomnography room with no light exposure on the first night and under a dim light condition of 5 lux or 10 lux on the second night....

The circadian clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) organizes autonomic and behavioral rhythms into a near 24 hr time that is adjusted daily to the solar cycle via a direct projection from the retina, the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). This neuronal pathway costores the neurotransmitters PACAP and glutamate, which seem to be important for light-induced resetting of the clock. At t...

The mammalian suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) can be synchronized by light, with direct glutamatergic input from the retina. Input to the SCN from the intergeniculate leaflet contains neuropeptide Y (NPY) and can modulate photic responses. NPY can reduce the phase-resetting effect of light or glutamate. We investigated the effect of NPY applied in vitro on light-induced phase shifts of the SCN neu...

Within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus, circadian timekeeping and resetting have been shown to be largely dependent on both membrane depolarization and intracellular second-messenger signaling. In both of these processes, voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) mediate voltage-dependent calcium influx, which propagates neural impulses by stimulating vesicle fusion and insti...