Search results for " Threshold"
showing 10 items of 497 documents
Multicenter investigation of 1,036 subjects using a standardized method for the assessment of olfactory function combining tests of odor identificati…
2000
“Sniffin’ Sticks” is a test of nasal chemosensory performance that is based on penlike odor-dispensing devices. It is comprised of three tests of olfactory function: tests for odor threshold, discrimination and identification. Previous work has already established its test-retest reliability and validity in comparison to established measures of olfactory sensitivity. The results of this test are presented as a composite TDI score – i.e., the sum of results obtained for threshold, discrimination and identification measures. The present multicenter investigation aimed at providing normative values in relation to different age groups. To this end, 966 patients were investigated in 11 centers. …
A putative social chemosignal elicits faster cortical responses than perceptually similar odorants.
2006
Social chemosignals, so-called pheromones, have recently attracted much attention in that effects on women's psychophysiology and cortical processing have been reported. We here tested the hypothesis that the human brain would process a putative social chemosignal, the endogenous steroid endrostadienone, faster than other odorants with perceptually matched intensity and hedonic characteristics. Chemosensory event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded in healthy women. ERP analyses indicate that androstadienone was processed significantly faster than the control odorants. Androstadienone elicited shorter latencies for all recorded ERP components but most so for the late positivity. This fin…
Wavelength-codified fiber laser hydrogen detector
2005
We report a scheme for an optical hydrogen detector that codifies the information in wavelength. The system is based on an erbium-doped fiber laser with two coupled cavities and a Palladium-coated tapered fiber within one of the laser cavities. The tapered fiber acts as the hydrogen-sensing element. When the sensing element is exposed to a hydrogen atmosphere, its attenuation decreases changing the cavity losses. This change leads the system to switch lasing from the wavelength of the auxiliary cavity to the characteristic wavelength of the cavity which contains the sensing element. The detection level can be shifted by adjusting the reflective elements of the cavity containing the sensing …
Detection of local tourism systems by threshold accepting
2015
Despite the importance of tourism as a leading industry in the development of a country’s economy, there is a lack of criteria and methodologies for the detection, promotion, and governance of local tourism systems. We propose a quantitative approach for the detection of local tourism systems the size of which is optimal with respect to geographical, economic, and demographical criteria: we formulate the problem as an optimisation problem and we solve it by a metaheuristic approach; then we compare the obtained results with standard clustering approaches and with an exact optimisation solver. Results show that our approach requires low computational times to provide results that are better …
Clustering local tourism systems by threshold acceptance
2015
Despite the importance of tourism as a leading industry in the development of a country’s economy, there is a lack of criteria and methodologies for the detection, promotion and governance of local tourism systems. We propose a quantitative approach for the detection of local tourism systems that are optimal with respect to geographical, economic, and demographical criteria. To this end, we formulate the issue as an optimization problem, and we solve it by means of Threshold Acceptance, a meta-heuristic algorithm which does not require us to predefine the number of clusters and also does not require all geographic areas to belong to a cluster.
Self-sustained coherent phonon generation in optomechanical cavities
2016
Optical forces can set tiny objects in states of mechanical self-sustained oscillation, spontaneously generating periodic signals by extracting power from steady sources. Miniaturized self-sustained coherent phonon sources are interesting for applications such as mass-force sensing, intra-chip metrology and intra-chip time-keeping among others. In this paper, we review several mechanisms and techniques that can drive a mechanical mode into the lasing regime by exploiting the radiation pressure force in optomechanical cavities, namely stimulated emission, dynamical back-action, forward stimulated Brillouin scattering and self-pulsing.
An acute exposure to ozone impairs human olfactory functioning
2018
Ozone is a ubiquitous and irritant gas. We questioned whether an acute exposure to 0.2 ppm ozone impaired olfactory functioning.Healthy, normosmic subjects were exposed according to a parallel group design either to 0.2 ppm ozone (n = 15) or to sham (n = 13) in an exposure chamber for two hours. Possible irritating effects were assessed by questionnaire (range 0-5). The detection threshold of n-butanol was measured with the Sniffin' Sticks test before and after exposure. Olfactory thresholds were logarithmized and a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements was carried out to test the effects of exposure (ozone vs. sham) and time (before vs. after exposure). Additional…
Peripheral Acute Pain Mechanisms
1995
Many studies in several species, including humans, have identified a subset of primary afferent nerve fibres that are activated by potential or actual tissue-damaging stimuli. Discharge patterns of these nociceptive afferents faithfully reproduce some aspects of the applied stimuli (e.g. shape of the stimulus-response function) but not others (e.g. time-course of a sustained stimulus). Since primary nociceptive afferents provide the input to the central nervous system, their encoding properties have to be considered when studying central processing. On the other hand, pain perception correlates with some aspects of nociceptor discharges (e.g. fatigue with repetition of brief heat pulses), b…
Capsaicin differentially modulates voltage-activated calcium channel currents in dorsal root ganglion neurones of rats
2005
It is discussed whether capsaicin, an agonist of the pain mediating TRPV1 receptor, decreases or increases voltage-activated calcium channel (VACC) currents (ICa(V)). ICa(V) were isolated in cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurones of rats using the whole cell patch clamp method and Ba 2+ as charge carrier. In large diameter neurones (>35Am), a concentration of 50AM was needed to reduce ICa(V) (activated by depolarizations to 0 mV) by 80%, while in small diameter neurones (30Am), the IC50 was 0.36 AM. This effect was concentration dependent with a threshold below 0.025 AM and maximal blockade (>80%) at 5AM. The current–voltage relation was shifted to the hyperpolarized direction with an…
Gadd45α modulates aversive learning through post‐transcriptional regulation of memory‐related mRNA s
2018
Abstract Learning is essential for survival and is controlled by complex molecular mechanisms including regulation of newly synthesized mRNAs that are required to modify synaptic functions. Despite the well‐known role of RNA‐binding proteins (RBPs) in mRNA functionality, their detailed regulation during memory consolidation is poorly understood. This study focuses on the brain function of the RBP Gadd45α (growth arrest and DNA damage‐inducible protein 45 alpha, encoded by the Gadd45a gene). Here, we find that hippocampal memory and long‐term potentiation are strongly impaired in Gadd45a‐deficient mice, a phenotype accompanied by reduced levels of memory‐related mRNAs. The majority of the Ga…