INTRODUCTION The vertebrate inner ear mediates hearing and balance through a complex arrangement of mechanosensory hair cells, nonsensory supporting cells and sensory neurons. All of these cell types derive from the otic placode, a transient ectodermal thickening adjacent to the developing hindbrain (Barald and Kelley, 2004; Fritzsch et al., 2006). Otic placode formation is a multistep process ...

4,013,510 A 3, 1977 Frommer et al. .......... 195/31 R 4,518,581 A 5/1985 Miyake et al. ................ 424/48 4.902,674. A * 2/1990 Speights ...................... 514, 23 5,141,858 A 8/1992 Paul et al. ..................... 435/97 5,332,667 A * 7/1994 Kado et al. ... ... 435,101 5,840,705 A 1 1/1998 Tsukada et al. ............... 514,43 6,645,515 B1 * 1 1/2003 Fukata et al. ............... 4...

A recent report from the US Center for Mental Health Services estimates that on average individuals with serious mental illness are dying 25 years prematurely, with major causes of death being chronic, tobacco-related diseases (Colton & Manderscheid, 2006). The mentally ill are at elevated risk for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer, compared to age-matched controls (Brown et al...

Regarding our article on the association of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) with increased Alzheimer’s disease risk, Bowen et al, Froehner and Wirth, Leow et al, and Brady et al highlight a number of significant considerations that will prove important in the design of future studies that investigate the association of ADT and Alzheimer’s disease. We agree with Bowen et al and Leow et al tha...

Reliable global estimates of forest biomass and its dynamics are critically important for understanding the global carbon cycle and its dynamics (e.g., Bellassen et al. 2011). Many studies have been published regarding the estimation of above-ground biomass using airborne or satellite analog lidar systems (e.g., Nelson et al. 1988; Naesset 2002; Drake et al. 2003; Popescu et al. 2003; Lim and T...

Thymic epithelial tumors account for 15-21.7% of mediastinal tumors and 47% of anterior mediastinal tumors (Chen et al., 2002; Engels and Pfeiffer, 2003). Until 2004, there was a wide range of pathological classifications for thymic tumors (Travis et al., 2004; Okumura et al., 2008). The World Health Organization (WHO) updated the pathological classification in 2004, and thymic tumors are now c...

5,442,672 A * 8/1995 Bjorkholm et al. ............. .. 378/4 6,103,350 A * 8/2000 Grangeat et al. ......... .. 428/1951 6,507,633 Bl 1/2003 Elbakri et 31. 6,754,298 B2 6/2004 Fessler 6,768,782 B1 7/2004 Hsieh et al. 6,850,585 B2 2/2005 Hsieh et al. 6,907,102 B1 * 6/2005 Sauer et al. ................... .. 378/19 7,103,204 B1 * 9/2006 Celler et al. ................ .. 382/131 7,221,728 B2 5/2007...