Utricle (ear)

The utricle, or utriculus (Latin: utriculus, diminutive of uter, meaning "leather bag"), along with the saccule, is one of the two otolith organs located in the vertebrate inner ear. The utricle and the saccule are parts of the balancing apparatus (membranous labyrinth) located within the vestibule of the bony labyrinth (small oval chamber).

These use small stones and a viscous fluid to stimulate hair cells to detect motion and orientation. The utricle detects linear accelerations and head-tilts in the horizontal plane.

Structure

The utricle is larger than the saccule and is of an oblong form, compressed transversely, and occupies the upper and back part of the vestibule, lying in contact with the recessus ellipticus and the part below it. The macula utricle is a thickening in the wall of the utricle where the epithelium contains vestibular hair cells that allows a person to perceive changes in longitudinal acceleration as well as effects of gravity.

The gelatinous layer and the statoconia together are referred to as the otolithic membrane, where the tips of the stereocilia and kinocilium are embedded. When the head is tilted such that gravity pulls on the statoconia the gelatinous layer is pulled in the same direction also causing the sensory hairs to bend.

Ear

The ear is the organ of the sense of hearing, and in mammals is also an organ of balance. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of the auricle or pinna, and the ear canal. The middle ear includes the tympanic cavity and the three ossicles. The inner ear consists of the bony labyrinth which contains the semicircular canals, and the utricle and saccule of the vestibular system, to do with balance, and the cochlea a part of the auditory system.

The ear develops from the first pharyngeal pouch and six small swellings that develop in the early embryo called otic placodes, which are derived from ectoderm.

A number of conditions may relate to the ear, including hearing loss, tinnitus and balance disorders including vertigo, however these may also relate to diseases affecting the pathways in the brain relating to hearing and balance.

Although the entire organ is considered as the ear, it is often just referred to as the visible outer part. In most mammals, the visible ear is a flap of tissue that is also called the pinna (or auricle in humans) and is the first stage in hearing. The ears of vertebrates are placed somewhat symmetrically on either side of the head, an arrangement that aids sound localization.

EAR (file format)

EAR (Enterprise ARchive) is a file format used by Java EE for packaging one or more modules into a single archive so that the deployment of the various modules onto an application server happens simultaneously and coherently. It also contains XML files called deployment descriptors which describe how to deploy the modules.

Ant, Maven, or Gradle can be used to build EAR files.

File structure

An EAR file is a standard JAR file (and therefore a Zip file) with a .ear extension, with one or more entries representing the modules of the application, and a metadata directory called META-INF which contains one or more deployment descriptors.

Module

Developers can embed various artifacts within an EAR file for deployment by application servers:

Ear (disambiguation)

The ear is the sense organ that detects sound.

Ear may also refer to:

EAR may refer to: