Galileo Galilei's vision of the senses.

Neuroscientists have become increasingly aware of the complexities and subtleties of sensory processing. This applies particularly to the complex elaborations of nerve signals that occur in the sensory circuits, sometimes at the very initial stages of sensory pathways. Sensory processing is now known to be very different from a simple neural copy of the physical signal present in the external world, and this accounts for the intricacy of neural organization that puzzled great investigators of neuroanatomy such as Santiago Ramón Y Cajal a century ago.

The surface and deep structure of the waterfall illusion.

The surface structure of the waterfall illusion or motion aftereffect (MAE) is its phenomenal visibility. Its deep structure will be examined in the context of a model of space and motion perception. The MAE can be observed following protracted observation of a pattern that is translating, rotating, or expanding/contracting, a static pattern appears to move in the opposite direction.

Contribution of vitreous cytology to final clinical diagnosis fifteen-year review of vitreous cytology specimens from one institution.

Purpose: To assess the contribution of vitreous cytologic evaluation to the diagnosis of clinically undiagnosed vitritis.

Design: Retrospective chart review and database study.

Participants: Two hundred seventy-eight eyes of 255 patients who had diagnostic vitrectomies.

Vision and visualization.

The art of visual communication is not restricted to the fine arts. Scientists also apply art in communicating their ideas graphically. Diagrams of anatomical structures, like the eye and visual pathways, and figures displaying specific visual phenomena have assisted in the communication of visual ideas for centuries.

Beyond body experiences: phantom limbs, pain and the locus of sensation.

Reports of perceptual experiences are found throughout history. However, the phenomena considered worthy of note have not been those that nurture our survival (the veridical features of perception) but the oddities or departures from the common and commonplace accuracies of perception. Some oddities (like afterimages) could be experienced by everyone, whereas others were idiosyncratic.

Control of shell colour changes in the lobster, Panulirus cygnus.

The transition from juvenile to adult in the Australian western rock lobster, Panulirus cygnus (George), is preceded by a mass migration from inshore nursery reefs to offshore breeding grounds. Associated with this migration is a moult which results in the animals that are due to migrate undergoing characteristic colour change from deep red to pale pink, known as the ;white' phase, which is believed to be triggered by environmental factors. To investigate this phenomenon, the colour change of wild-caught animals was measured over two separate years in response to two important modifiers of crustacean shell colour, dietary carotenoid and background substrate colour.

Premature termination codons in PRPF31 cause retinitis pigmentosa via haploinsufficiency due to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay.

Dominant mutations in the gene encoding the mRNA splicing factor PRPF31 cause retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary form of retinal degeneration. Most of these mutations are characterized by DNA changes that lead to premature termination codons. We investigated 6 different PRPF31 mutations, represented by single-base substitutions or microdeletions, in cell lines derived from 9 patients with dominant retinitis pigmentosa.

Understanding concerns about interventions to promote forgiveness: A review of the literature.

A new area in psychotherapy practice and research has arisen addressing therapeutic interventions to explicitly promote forgiveness. There is wide variation in the response to this new area including enthusiastic acceptance, wary openness, and vigorous opposition. Unfortunately, these reactions are not often based on a thorough understanding of the empirical literature and result in concerns about using forgiveness interventions in therapy that may or may not be warranted.

Seeing double and depth with Wheatstone's stereograms.

Charles Wheatstone, in his classic paper on the invention of the stereoscope, concluded "...

Examining art: dissociating pattern and perceptual influences on oculomotor behaviour.

When observing art the viewer's understanding results from the interplay between the marks made on the surface by the artist and the viewer's perception and knowledge of it. Here we use a novel set of stimuli to dissociate the influences of the marks on the surface and the viewer's perceptual experience upon the manner in which the viewer inspects art. Our stimuli provide the opportunity to study situations in which (1) the same visual stimulus can give rise to two different perceptual experiences in the viewer, and (2) the visual stimuli differ but give rise to the same perceptual experience in the viewer.

Artful visions.

Visual artists and visual scientists are often concerned with examining the same spatial phenomena, but the methods they adopt differ radically. Scientists try to discover new facts regarding old phenomena; they rarely discover new phenomena but different conditions under which the old ones operate (perhaps using some novel apparatus for generating stimuli). Artists are concerned with arranging phenomena in a manner that has not been seen before, or perhaps to increase the spectators' awareness of the phenomena.

Control of Meloidogyne chitwoodi in Potato with Shank-injected Metam Sodium and other Nematicides.

Metam sodium (MS) is often applied to potato fields via sprinkler irrigation systems (water-run, WR) to reduce propagules of soil-borne pathogenic fungi, particularly Verticillium dahliae, to prevent yield loss from potato early dying disease. However, this procedure has not been effective for controlling quality defects in tubers caused by Columbia root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne chitwoodi). In five trials from 1996 to 2001, application of MS by soil shank injection (SH) provided better control and tuber quality than that generally obtained by WR MS, in three of five trials.

Ex vivo optical coherence tomography and laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy imaging of murine gastrointestinal tract.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy each have clinical potential in identifying human gastrointestinal (GI) pathologies, yet their diagnostic capability in mouse models is unknown. In this study, we combined the 2 modalities to survey the GI tract of a variety of mouse strains and ages and to sample dysplasias and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) of the intestines. Segments (length, 2.

Image, eye, and retina (invited review).

Advances in understanding the initial stages of the visual process have been made over the centuries. This heritage will be reviewed with respect to the passage of light through the eye, as well as its gross anatomy and microscopic structure. The links between image formation in the camera and the eye were integrated with the anatomy of the eye in the seventeenth century.

Genotoxicity assessed by the comet and GPA assays following in vitro exposure of human lymphoblastoid cells (H9) or perinatal exposure of mother-child pairs to AZT or AZT-3TC.

The genotoxicity of zidovudine (AZT) based treatments was investigated in human H9 lymphoblastoid cells in an in vitro study and in red blood cells (RBCs) from perinatally exposed HIV-1-infected mothers and their infants in an observational cohort study. Exposure of H9 cells for 24 hr to AZT produced dose-dependent increases in Comet assay tail moment (TM) when electrophoresed at pH 13.0, but not at pH 12.

Plasma and cellular markers of 3'-azido-3'-dideoxythymidine (AZT) metabolism as indicators of DNA damage in cord blood mononuclear cells from infants receiving prepartum NRTIs.

Several systemic and cellular markers of 3'-azido-3'-dideoxythymidine (AZT) metabolism and AZT incorporation into nuclear DNA were measured in cord blood from uninfected infants born to HIV-1-infected mothers receiving prepartum therapies based on AZT or AZT in combination with 2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thiacytidine (3TC). In addition, the relationships among these pharmacological end points, levels of AZT-DNA incorporation, and the previously reported mutagenic responses in these infants were evaluated. AZT- and 3TC-specific radioimmunoassays (RIAs), or HPLC coupled with AZT-RIA, were used to measure plasma levels of AZT and the AZT-glucuronide, and cellular levels of AZT, phosphorylated AZT, and DNA incorporation of AZT or 3TC in cord blood mononuclear cells from treated infants compared with unexposed controls born to HIV-uninfected mothers.