African clawed toads (Xenopus laevis) sense the distance of lateral line stimuli.

Sighted African clawed toads use their lateral lines to detect stimulus distance, although accuracy and precision are poorer than for stimulus direction. Single surface wave trains elicited discrete turns and/or swims towards the wave origin. Most responses were brief, ending with the toad stationary (70% overall; 54-86% individual toads) or pausing before turning away (11%; 1-24%).

Self-reported oral health care and access to oral health information among pregnant women in Wellington, New Zealand.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to gain an understanding of pregnant women's oral health care practices, access to information, and dental care usage in New Zealand, and to investigate whether these differed between sociodemographic groups.

Methods: One researcher visited 69 antenatal classes in the Wellington region to explain the study. Women self-completed the questionnaire and returned it by post.

Prey-capture in the African clawed toad (Xenopus laevis): comparison of turning to visual and lateral line stimuli.

Separately delivered visual and lateral line stimuli elicit similar but not identical orientation and approach by intact, sighted Xenopus. Response frequencies for visual stimuli declined sharply for distant or caudal stimuli while those for lateral line stimuli changed little. Turn angles correlated highly with stimulus angles but were smaller on average, so regression slopes were less than one.

Neuropeptide Y in the human thyroid gland.

Autonomic nerve fibers immunoreactive to Neuropeptide Y (ir-NPY) were counted in tissue samples from human thyroid glands. Samples were taken from the non-pathological parts of gland material removed surgically from nine female patients suffering from struma nodosa or solitary adenoma. The ir-NPY fiber population was subdivided into fibers associated with blood vessels (perivascular innervation) and fibers either attached to the wall epithelium of the follicles or coursing within the gland's connective tissue (extravascular innervation).

Analysis of surface wave direction by the lateral line system of Xenopus: source localization before and after inactivation of different parts of the lateral line.

The turning responses of clawed toads (Xenopus laevis) to surface waves were examined in animals with an intact lateral line or with different combinations of lateral lines reversibly inactivated by CoCl2. The responses were characterized with respect to response frequency, turning accuracy, turning side, response time, and swim distance. After the inactivation most animals still responded to surface waves but the responses were different from those of animals with an intact lateral line.