Impact of Paternal Age at Conception on Human Health.

Background: The effect of maternal age at conception on various aspects of offspring health is well documented and often discussed. We seldom hear about the paternal age effect on offspring health, although the link is now almost as solid as with maternal age. The causes behind this, however, are drastically different between males and females.

Short-term monocular patching boosts the patched eye's response in visual cortex.

Purpose: Several recent studies have demonstrated that following short-term monocular deprivation in normal adults, the patched eye, rather than the unpatched eye, becomes stronger in subsequent binocular viewing. However, little is known about the site and nature of the underlying processes. In this study, we examine the underlying mechanisms by measuring steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) as an index of the neural contrast response in early visual areas.

Steady-state contrast response functions provide a sensitive and objective index of amblyopic deficits.

Purpose: Visual deficits in amblyopia are neural in origin, yet are difficult to characterize with functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI). Our aim was to develop an objective electroencephalography (EEG) paradigm that can be used to provide a clinically useful index of amblyopic deficits.

Methods: We used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to measure full contrast response functions in both amblyopic (n = 10, strabismic or mixed amblyopia, mean age: 44 years) and control (n = 5, mean age: 31 years) observers, both with and without a dichoptic mask.

Attention modulation of stimulus rivalry under swapping paradigm.

Stimulus rivalry refers to the sustained periods of perceptual dominance that occur when different visual stimuli are swapped at a regular rate between eyes. This phenomenon is thought to involve mainly eye-independent mechanisms. Although several studies have reported that attention can increase image predominance in conventional binocular rivalry, it is unknown whether attention can specifically modulate stimulus rivalry.

Stereoselective reduction of ketones by Daucus carota hairy root cultures.

Reduction of acetophenone by Daucus carota hairy root cultures afforded (S)-phenylethanol in high yield (96%) and excellent enantiomeric excess (ee>or=98%). Aromatic ketones, keto esters, and a simple aliphatic ketone were reduced with good stereoselectivity (ee=62-98%) and moderate to high chemical yields (25-90%).

Thaxtomin A induces programmed cell death in Arabidopsis thaliana suspension-cultured cells.

Thaxtomin A is the main phytotoxin produced by Streptomyces scabiei, the causative agent of common scab disease of potato. Pathogenicity of S. scabiei is dependent on the production of thaxtomin A which is required for the development of disease symptoms, such as growth inhibition and cell death.