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Approximate location of the 12th meridian in the hand and the forearm in relation to median artery and median nerve.

CMC15 is the last of the series “Carlsberg Meridian Catalogue, La Palma” and comprises all the observations made between March 1999 and March 2011 with the Carlsberg Automatic Meridian Circle in El Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma (Spain). The catalogues CMC12, CMC13, and CMC14 are superseded by this one. It contains more than 122 million observations of right ascension, declination, and magnitude of stars in the magnitude range of 9m < r′ < 17m and declination range of –40° < δ < +50°. The catalogue internal errors in astrometry are below 30 mas in both coordinates for stars brighter than r′ = 13, reaching 60 mas for r′ = 16. The internal magnitude error is below 0.020 mag for stars brighter than r′ = 13, and about 0.090 mag for r′ = 16. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Background: Meridian Massage is a traditional practice that manually stimulates the body's meridian system – the same network of vital energy channels used in acupuncture. The present study was to assess the effect of Meridian Massage on physical growth and infants' health as perceived by mothers. Methods: A study was conducted in a community health center in Korea. A total of 169 healthy infant–mother dyads were assigned to the Meridian Massage group (n= 89) or the gentle touch massage group (n= 80), based on the mother's preference. All massages were conducted by the mothers for 15 min per session, one time daily over a course of 6 weeks. In each group, the infant's weights, heights, and the number of days with illness as perceived by mothers and related clinic visits were measured. Results: Significant differences were observed in weight and height after 6 weeks between the Meridian group and the gentle touch massage group (P < 0.001). Infants in the Meridian Massage group showed a significantly different number of days with perceived clinic visits compared to those in the control group (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Meridian Massage may facilitate physical growth and improve infants' health outcome as perceived by mothers. A randomized controlled trial is required to further explore the effects of Meridian Massage in early infancy.

Exactly 500 years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus drew a lattice of lines on a panel above the doorway to his rooms at Olsztyn Castle, then in the Bishopric of Warmia. Although its design has long been regarded as some kind of reflecting vertical sundial, the exact astronomical designation of the lines and related measuring techniques remained unknown. Surprisingly, Copernicus did not refer to his new observational methods in his principal work, \textit{De Revolutionibus}. A data analysis of a 3D model of the panel has, at last, solved the mystery: Copernicus created a new type of measuring device -- a heliograph with a non-local reference meridian -- to precisely measure ecliptic longitudes of the Sun around the time of the equinoxes. The data, 3D model and modeling results of our analysis are open access and available in the form of digital (Jupyter) notebooks.

Aim. To examine the effects of Meridian acupressure on the functions of affected upper extremities, activity of daily living and depression for stroke patients. Background. The handicaps of stroke patients necessitate multidisciplinary rehabilitation, which is aimed at decreasing the consequences of the illness in daily functions. In traditional Chinese medicine, Meridian acupressure has been used for rehabilitation of affected upper extremities of hemiplegia stroke patients in clinical practice. Design. Randomised clinical trial. Method. Sample was 56 consecutive stroke patients in K Oriental hospital. Meridian acupressure was applied every day for 10 min per time in the experimental group (28 subjects) for two weeks. Routine care only was applied in the control group (28 subjects). Measures were a hand dynamometer for grip power, a 15-point graphic rating scale for pain, the distance round the index finger for oedema, electrogoniometry for the passive ROM of the upper extremities, the activity of daily living scale for activity of daily living and the six-face rating scale for depression. Data were collected from March 2003–September 2004. Results. There were significant differences in functions of affected upper extremities, activity of daily living and depression between experimental and control group. Conclusions. Meridian acupressure was an effective intervention for improving the movement of the affected upper extremities, increasing activity of daily living and decreasing depression of hemiplegia stroke patients. Relevance to clinical practice. Health professionals need to consider an array of methods including Meridian acupressure for the rehabilitation of stroke patients. Meridian acupressure has the potential as an alternative nursing intervention for multidisciplinary rehabilitation of stroke patients in practice.

According to conventional wisdom within the acupuncture community, acupuncture points and meridians are special conduits for electrical signals. This view gained popularity after anecdotal reports and clinical studies asserted that these anatomical structures are characterized by lower electrical impedance compared to adjacent controls. To ascertain whether evidence exists to support or refute this claim, we conducted a systematic review of studies directly evaluating the electrical characteristics of acupuncture structures and appropriate controls. We searched seven electronic databases until August 2007, hand-searched references, and consulted technical experts. We limited the review to primary data human studies published in English. A quality scoring system was created and employed for this review. A total of 16 articles representing 18 studies met inclusion criteria: 9 examining acupuncture points and 9 examining meridians. Five out of 9 point studies showed positive association between acupuncture points and lower electrical resistance and impedance, while 7 out of 9 meridian studies showed positive association between acupuncture meridians and lower electrical impedance and higher capacitance. The studies were generally poor in quality and limited by small sample size and multiple confounders. Based on this review, the evidence does not conclusively support the claim that acupuncture points or meridians are electrically distinguishable. However, the preliminary findings are suggestive and offer future directions for research based on in-depth interpretation of the data.

A numerical study has been performed on the proposed bio-fluid dynamics model to explore and provide some human meridian characteristics. The proposed meridian model involves tissue fluids, which contain ions and nutrition, in the meridian passage. The tissue fluid under investigation can interact with the blood in the capillary vessel at the acupuncture points a through a complex electro-osmosis transport process occurring in the meridian path. The investigated physical domain consists of a meridian path having three acupuncture points, namely, gall bladder 37, 38, 39, which are connected with their associated small meridian bodies. Based on the proper physiological coefficients, the simulated mean velocity of the tissue fluid has the result of 3.37 cm/min, and is observed to increase and decrease with the hydraulic pressure of the arteriole with the maximum and minimum values of 4.34 and 2.40 cm/min, respectively. Our simulated results are in good agreement with the experimental findings reported in the literature. In the meridian, both blood and tissue fluid flows exhibited complex electro-osmosis nonlinear behaviour. The immediate response due to the externally applied acupuncture is analysed to reveal the elliptic meridian nature, which is intrinsic in the body fluid. The interaction between the body fluid and blood is as the master and mother, and the influence of the blood circulation on the meridian system and vice versa are also analysed in detail. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Summary. An article on the orientation of Roman camps and forts, published in this journal, based its conclusions on faulty statistical analysis. Its only verifiable claim is that the surveyors of Roman camps seem to have preferred orientations within ten degrees of the meridian. Its other claims are not supported. The supposed anomalies of orientation do not need to be explained.

We provide strong experimental evidence for an upper bound on the number of endpoints of the cut locus from a point on a 2-surface of revolution. This bound is equal to the minimal number of intervals of monotone non-increasing or non-decreasing Gaussian curvature along one meridian from one pole to the other.

A postmodern Western novel, such as Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (1985), presents a story world where the conventional distinctions between heroes and villains are meaningless, since the people involved in settling and resettling the frontier all are motivated by greed and selfishness. Such a story world reminds us of mythographic genres such as the classic epic, and intertextualities with Greek and Judaeo-Christian narratives are endemic. In particular, the reader is invited by McCarthy's use of paratext, such as chapter titles, to see the novel as an instance of katabasis. This paper reads McCarthy's novel as having the dual function of de-mythologizing and re-mythologizing the American West, showing that in order to read the West with fresh eyes we must first read it through the old lens of classical literature, and that via a feedback loop the reading of McCarthy's novel changes our understanding of classical mythographic literature as well.

The dense-pack grid is commonly used to get a synoptic view of the sub-photospheric dynamics when using ring diagram analysis (Haber et al 2002). This grid is based on a fixed distribution of patches in central meridian distance (cmd) at all latitudes. A shortcoming of the dense-pack grid is that the true motion of tracked areas at slower rotating latitudes is not handled correctly. For instance, a 15° × 15° area, centered at a cmd of 0° and a latitude of 60°, that rotates only 12° in 1664 minutes (ring day), is considered tobe centered at cmd = 15° in the subsequent ring day. In order to avoid this issue, another distribution is suggested where the grid point in central meridian distance is latitude dependant (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Latitude effect of geomagnetic disturbances during the geomagnetic storm on April 6, 2000 is analyzed by using minute average of H and D components at a low-latitude geomagnetic meridian chain stations. The main characteristics are as follows. (1) SC range of H component decreases and the decreasing rate increases with decreasing latitudes during sudden commencement; (2) The range of the second peak for H component and the duration of the initial phase decrease with decreasing latitudes in the initial phase; (3) H component decreases speedily and the range of variation increases with decreasing latitudes in the main phase; (4) The H component increases by two steps in the recovery phase. H component increases quickly and the increasing range decreases with decreasing latitudes at the former step. The increasing rate of H component decreases at the later step. Finally, the intimate relationship between the latitudinal effect of the geomagnetic storm and the space current system is discussed.

Objectives The aim of this study was to detect the influences of laser acupuncture (LA) at non-acupoint and two adjacent acupoints of pericardium meridian on the releases of nitric oxide (NO) and soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) in 20 healthy subjects. Methods Different intensities (12 mW, 24 mW, 48 mW) infrared laser were used for irradiating Jianshi (PC5), Ximen (PC4) acupoints and non-acupoint for 20 min, 40 min, respectively. Semi-circular tubes were taped to the skin surface and filled with NO-scavenging compound for 20 min to capture NO and sGC which were measured using spectrophotometry in a blinded fashion. Results As the increase in the intensity of LA stimulation, the levels of NO releases over acupoints all were significantly increased, NO releases in non-acupoints following the same treatment only changed slightly, sGC amounts were observably enhanced over acupoints, but did not any change in non-acupoint area. Different intensities LA treatments can sensitively affect the NO and sGC releases over acupoints. This indicated that LA-induced the releases of the NO and sGC were specific to acupoints. Conclusions This is the first evidence reporting that LA induced significant elevations of NO-sGC releases over acupoints, the enhanced signal molecules contribute to local circulation, which improves the beneficial effects of the therapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

An overview is given of the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope on La Palma, which is one of the oldest robotic telescopes, having started observing on La Palma in 1984. In the spring of 1997, a further stage of automation was made when we converted the telescope to remote operation. Since then, the telescope has been operated over the Internet from Britain, Denmark or Spain. In 1997, a CCD camera, operating in a drift-scan mode, was installed. A year later the telescope underwent a major upgrade and a larger 2k × 2k CCD camera was installed, with a Sloan r′ filter. With the new system, the magnitude limit is r′ = 17 and the positional accuracy is in the range 0.03″ to 0.05″. The main task of the project is to map the sky in the declination range —3° to +50°, with the aim of providing an astrometric and photometric catalogue that can accurately transfer the Hipparcos/Tycho reference frame to Schmidt plates. We will release the first data by the end of 2001. Using the photometric information, extinction data for La Palma is also provided.

Finding charts and photoelectric magnitudes of stars in the UBVR system in 26 fields of the MEGA programme are presented. This part of the photometric survey near the Main Galactic Meridian includes the fields with right ascentions 8h < α < 16h30m and declinations −2° < δ < 58°. Together with the finding charts of 2.5° × 2.5° the equatorial coordinates of the stars are given for epoch and equinox 1950. Photometric properties of the night sky at the Mount Terskol observatory near Mount Elbrus are derived from the photoelectric observations.

The calculation or estimation of dioptric power or surface curvature from meridional measurements is an important problem with applications in a number of areas. By phrasing the problem in terms of matrices and applying new results in the mathematics of matrices one is able to reformulate the problem into a standard form that is well known in mathematics and statistics. As a result the solution can be written down directly. The method copes with any number of measurements along any number of meridians, including repeated measurements along the same meridian, and is more general than methods previously proposed. It gives least-squares and best estimates of the true surface curvature or dioptric power. Being phrased in standard statistical terms the method lends itself readily to extension to related types of problems such as least-squares estimation under certain types of constraints. Matrix methods employed in this paper are likely to find wider application in optometry and the vision sciences.

The Simulated Annealing, SA, technique is applied to maximize the magnitude of external hydrostatic pressure for bowed out shells for which, the shape of the meridian is sought. A global maximum offers a 40% increase in load carrying capacity over the mass equivalent cylindrical shell of the same mass whilst the SA heuristic proves to be computationally affordable.

The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest. Stephen H. Lekson. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1999. 233 pp.

An algorithm based on a new formulation of problem is used in generating the co-ordinates of the meridian of the drop-shaped tank. The stresses and moments of this form, due to the varying hydrostatic pressure head, are obtained by a finite element simulation and the usefulness of this approach is assessed.

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SUMMARY The Meridian Sand is recognized as neritic bar sand because it is overlain and underlain by prodominantly marine strata, contains a marine microfauna and is glauconitic. Cross-bedding is the large scale planar type and has a regional variance of 10,302. No maximum is present where dip azimuths of sets are plotted on a stereogram. It is suggested that the wave path, topography of the depositional surface, and local rates of subsidence varied during deposition of the cross-bedded sand resulting in a uniform distribution of the cross-bedding sets.

Continuous structure change in the necking part of the cold-drawn polyethylene has been examined by the wide- small-angle x-ray diffractions. A specially designed microbeam x-ray camera which permits both wide- and small-angle diagrams to be obtained at the same position at the same time was used. With increasing draw ratio, along the center axis of the specimen, first the crystallites are aligned with the a axes perpendicular to the draw direction; this is followed by a gradual orientation of the c axis to the draw direction. On the other hand, an isotropic ring-shaped small-angle halo continuously changes to an elliptical halo with its minor axis on the meridian. After this stage, a meridional scattering in layer streaks appears superposed on the flat elliptical halo, then the elliptical halo disappears and the layer streaks on the meridian remain, and finally the quadrant meridional scattering appears as diffuse layer streaks with intensity maxima on both sides of the meridian. On the stream line, nearly the same variations of the wide- and small-angle diagrams as those on the center axis are observed; however, the meridian of each diagram is not parallel to the draw direction but coincides with the tangent of the stream line at each irradiated position. The stream line was conventionally defined so as to divide the y coordinates from the center axis to the surface at every point on the line into the same ratio. One characteristic diagram along the stream line is a small-angle oblique two-point pattern, appearing as off-meridian layer streaks. From each wide-angle diagram, the average orientation angle between the c axis and the meridian, degree of crystallite parallelity, and the apparent crystallite size were estimated. The Bragg distance, identity period along the meridian, and the azimuthal angle on the film between the meridian and the direction from center to the diffraction peak were determined by the small-angle scattering. In considering these results, a series of plausible models for continuous structure change in necking is presented.

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