Pramipexole protective effect on rotenone induced neurotoxicity in mice

Introduction: 
Pramipexole is a new dopaminergic drug which has been approved for PD treatment. However, we tried to find a new capacity for this drug rather than symptomatic effect. 

Materials and Methods: 
A chronic rotenone model with daily oral dose of 30mg/kg was induced in mice. Pramipexole was tried in a new approach where the treatment began in the middle of rotenone course with oral dose 1mg/kg/day of pramipexole. 

Results: 
Further analysis of behavioral tests and immunohistochemistry revealed success of pramipexole in improving the rotenone intoxicated mice. 

Conclusion: 
These results showed possible beneficial effects of pramipexole against rotenone-induced neurotoxicity

Evaluation of pain perception associated with maxillary first molars distalization in the presence of maxillary third molars versus extracted third molars using infra-zygomatic mini-screws: A randomized clinical trial

Aim: The purpose of this randomized clinical trial was to compare the pain associated with distalizing maxillary first molars with the presence versus extraction of unerupted third molars using infra-zygomaic mini -screws in a group of adolescent female patients. Study design: This randomized clinical trial (parallel group design) was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Dentistry, Future University in Egypt Materials and methods: 30 patients requiring bilateral maxillary molar distalization using infra-zygomatic mini-implant were randomly allocated to third molar extraction (TME) or third Molar presence (TMP) groups All patients were asked to assess their pain levels on the day of the mini-implant insertion procedure and after 24 hours, 72 hours, and 1 week using a numeric pain rating scale. Additionally, Each patient completed a numeric pain rating scale form on the day of mini-screw loading, 3 days, 1 week, and 2 weeks following appliance fixation. Every patient received three copies, and the first, third, and sixth appliance activations required the same pain response. Results: At the mini-implant site, the mean pain scores in the TMP and TME on the same day for screw insertion were 5.27±2.08 and 4.89±1.99, respectively. And faded away gradually in both groups. Throughout the distalization phase, the average pain severity at the maxillary molar site on the day of mini-implant loading was 4.2±1.46 in the TMP group and 4.13±2.2 in the TME group. That subsides gradually to mild pain after one week of each appliance activation. comparable results found between both groups Conclusion: Pain experienced by the patient during maxillary molar distalization is comparable regardless of the presence or absence of the third molar. The insertion of infra-zygomatic screws caused moderate to modest discomfort in both groups. The distalization procedure was associated with mild to moderate discomfort, which progressively subsided after the loading day

Parkinson's Disease: Is It a Toxic Syndrome?

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the neurodegenerative diseases which we can by certainty identify its pathology, however, this confidence disappeares when talking about the cause. A long history of trials, suggestions, and theories tried linking PD to a specific causation. In this paper, a new suggestion is trying to find its way, could it be toxicology? Can we—in the future—look to PD as an occupational disease, in fact, many clues point to the possible toxic responsibility—either total or partial—in causing this disease. Searching for possible toxic causes for PD would help in designing perfect toxic models in animals

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels: smart state of-the-art platforms for cardiac tissue engineering

Biomedicine and tissue regeneration have made significant advancements recently, positively affecting the whole healthcare spectrum. This opened the way for them to develop their applications for revitalizing damaged tissues. Thus, their functionality will be restored. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) using curative procedures that combine biomolecules, biomimetic scaffolds, and cells plays a critical part in this path. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels (SRHs) are excellent three-dimensional (3D) biomaterials for tissue engineering (TE) and various biomedical applications. They can mimic the intrinsic tissues’ physicochemical, mechanical, and biological characteristics in a variety of ways. They also provide for 3D setup, adequate aqueous conditions, and the mechanical consistency required for cell development. Furthermore, they function as competent delivery platforms for various biomolecules. Many natural and synthetic polymers were used to fabricate these intelligent platforms with innovative enhanced features and specialized capabilities that are appropriate for CTE applications. In the present review, different strategies employed for CTE were outlined. The light was shed on the limitations of the use of conventional hydrogels in CTE. Moreover, diverse types of SRHs, their characteristics, assembly and exploitation for CTE were discussed. To summarize, recent development in the construction of SRHs increases their potential to operate as intelligent, sophisticated systems in the reconstruction of degenerated cardiac tissues

Socially sensitive lactation: Exploring the social context of breastfeeding

Many women report difficulties with breastfeeding and do not maintain the practice for as long as intended. Although psychologists and other researchers have explored some of the difficulties they experience, fuller exploration of the relational contexts in which breastfeeding takes place is warranted to enable more in-depth analysis of the challenges these pose for breastfeeding women. The present paper is based on qualitative data collected from 22 first-time breastfeeding mothers through two phases of interviews and audio-diaries which explored how the participants experienced their relationships with significant others and the wider social context of breastfeeding in the first five weeks postpartum. Using a thematic analysis informed by symbolic interactionism, we develop the overarching theme of ‘Practising socially sensitive lactation’ which captures how participants felt the need to manage tensions between breastfeeding and their perceptions of the needs, expectations and comfort of others. We argue that breastfeeding remains a problematic social act, despite its agreed importance for child health. Whilst acknowledging the limitations of our sample and analytic approach, we suggest ways in which perinatal and public health interventions can take more effective account of the social challenges of breastfeeding in order to facilitate the health and psychological well-being of mothers and their infants

Glucose‐lowering medication associated with weight loss may limit the progression of diabetic neuropathy in type 2 diabetes

Aim: Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in type 2 diabetes (T2D). This study investigated the effect of glucose lowering medication associated with weight change on DPN. Methods: Participants with T2D were grouped based on whether their glucose lowering medications were associated with weight gain (WG) or weight loss (WL). They underwent clinical, metabolic testing and assessment of neuropathic symptoms, vibration perception threshold (VPT), sudomotor function and corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) at baseline and follow‐up between 4 and 7 years. Results: Of 76 participants, 69.7% were on glucose lowering medication associated with WG, and 30.3% were on glucose lowering medication associated with WL. At baseline, participants in the WG group had a significantly longer duration of diabetes (p < .01), higher douleur neuropathique en 4 (DN4) score (p < .0001) and VPT (p = .01) compared with those in the WL group. Over a 56‐month period, participants in the WG group showed no significant change in body weight (p = .11), HbA1c (p = .18), triglycerides (p = .42), DN4 (p = .11), VPT (p = .15) or Sudoscan (p = .43), but showed a decline in corneal nerve fiber density (CNFD), corneal nerve branch density (CNBD) and corneal nerve fiber length (CNFL) (p < .0001). Participants in the WL group showed a reduction in weight (p = .01) and triglycerides (p < .05), no change in DN4 (p = .30), VPT (p = .31) or Sudoscan (p = .17) and a decline in the corneal nerve branch density (p < .01). Conclusions: Participants treated with glucose lowering medication associated with weight gain had worse neuropathy and greater loss of corneal nerves during follow‐up, compared to patients treated with medication associated with weight loss

Traffic control using WiMAX with Dual Trigger Handover

[abstract not available

New hybrid frequency reuse method for packet loss minimization in LTE network

This paper investigates the problem of inter-cell interference (ICI) in Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile systems, which is one of the main problems that causes loss of packets between the base station and the mobile station. Recently, different frequency reuse methods, such as soft and fractional frequency reuse, have been introduced in order to mitigate this type of interference. In this paper, minimizing the packet loss between the base station and the mobile station is the main concern. Soft Frequency Reuse (SFR), which is the most popular frequency reuse method, is examined and the amount of packet loss is measured. In order to reduce packet loss, a new hybrid frequency reuse method is implemented. In this method, each cell occupies the same bandwidth of the SFR, but the total system bandwidth is greater than in SFR. This will provide the new method with a lot of new sub-carriers from the neighboring cells to reduce the ICI which represents a big problem in many applications and causes a lot of packets loss. It is found that the new hybrid frequency reuse method has noticeable improvement in the amount of packet loss compared to SFR method in the different frequency bands. Traffic congestion management in Intelligent Transportation system (ITS) is one of the important applications that is affected by the packet loss due to the large amount of traffic that is exchanged between the base station and the mobile node. Therefore, it is used as a studied application for the proposed frequency reuse method and the improvement in the amount of packet loss reached 49.4% in some frequency bands using the new hybrid frequency reuse method