A previously unidentified morbillivirus was isolated from two harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) that had died in the Dutch Waddensea (North Sea) in 1990. This porpoise morbillivirus (PMV) and a dolphin morbillivirus (DMV), which had recently caused a heavy mortality in Mediterranean striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), were compared antigenically with other members of the genus Morbill...

Integrating auditory and motor information often requires precise timing as in speech and music. In humans, the position of the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) in the dorsal auditory stream renders this area a node for auditory-motor integration. Yet, it remains unknown whether the PMv is critical for auditory-motor timing and which activity increases help to preserve task performance following i...

Pointing is the most convenient communication in social interaction: its gesture is highly visible and is found in all cultures with the identical form. However, the brain mechanisms of communicative pointing are still unknown. The pointing is, from a psychological point of view, considered to develop from grasping attempt with help from others. Thus, we hypothesized that pointing deficits woul...

Automatic mimicry is based on the tight linkage between motor and perception action representations in which internal models play a key role. Based on the anatomical connection, we hypothesized that the direct effective connectivity from the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) to the ventral premotor area (PMv) formed an inverse internal model, converting visual representation into a moto...

OBJECTIVE The integrated prospective payment program (IPP), which encourages the integrated care of mechanically ventilated patients in order to reduce the heavy utilization of high-cost ICUs, has been implemented by Taiwan's Bureau of National Health Insurance since July 2000. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of this program on weaning, hospital stay, mortality, and cost for pati...

Circulating plasma microvesicles (PMVs) and their microRNA content are involved in the development of atherosclerosis and could serve as biomarkers for cardiovascular disease (CVD) progression. However, little is known on how smoking influences the levels of PMVs and microRNA signatures in vivo. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of smoking on circulating PMV levels and CVD-related ...

BACKGROUND Patent medicine vendors (PMV) provide antimalarial treatment and care throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and can play an important role in the fight against malaria. Their close-to-client infrastructure could enable lifesaving artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) to reach patients in time. However, systematic assessments of drug sellers' performance quality are crucial if their ro...

In this paper, the interior permanent-magnet vernier (PMV) machines and conventional PMV machine are quantitatively compared regarding requirements for electric automatic guided vehicles (AGV). The key feature of is to place middle iron pole sandwiched by PMs in slots between salient rotor poles. As a result, three types with different PM arrangements, namely two V-type (V-PMV) one U-type (U-PM...

Optimal time to perform percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty (PMV) for patients with significant mitral stenosis (MS) and atrial fibrillation (AF) remains controversial. We sought to identify prognostic factors and evaluate long-term clinical outcomes after PMV of 77 consecutive patients with MS with a mitral valve area (MVA) <1.5 cm2. According to baseline heart rhythm, these patients were divide...

Maternal aggression is under the control of a wide variety of factors that prime the females for aggression or trigger the aggressive event. Maternal attacks are triggered by the perception of sensory cues from the intruder, and here we have identified a site in the hypothalamus of lactating rats that is highly responsive to the male intruder--the ventral premammillary nucleus (PMv). The PMv is...