Dexmedetomidine, an alpha 2A receptor agonist, triggers seizures unilaterally in GAERS during the pre-epileptic phase: does the onset of spike-and-wave discharges occur in a focal manner?

IntroductionThe genetic absence epilepsy rat from Strasbourg (GAERS) is a rat model for infantile absence epilepsy with spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs). This study aimed to investigate the potential of alpha 2A agonism to induce seizures during the pre-epileptic period in GAERS rats.MethodsStereotaxic surgery was performed on male pups and adult GAERS rats to implant recording electrodes in the frontoparietal cortices (right/left) under anesthesia (PN23–26). Following the recovery period, pup GAERS rats were subjected to electroencephalography (EEG) recordings for 2 h. Before the injections, pup epileptiform activity was examined using baseline EEG data. Dexmedetomidine was acutely administered at 0.6 mg/kg to pup GAERS rats 2–3 days after the surgery and once during the post-natal (PN) days 25–29. Epileptiform activities before injections triggered unilateral SWDs and induced sleep durations, and power spectral density was evaluated based on EEG traces.ResultsThe most prominent finding of this study is that unilateral SWD-like activities were induced in 47% of the animals with the intraperitoneal dexmedetomidine injection. The baseline EEGs of pup GAERS rats had no SWDs as expected since they are in the pre-epileptic period but showed low-amplitude non-rhythmic epileptiform activity. There was no difference in the duration of epileptiform activities between the basal EEG groups and DEX-injected unilateral SWD-like-exhibiting and non-SWD-like activities groups; however, the sleep duration of the unilateral SWD-like-exhibiting group was shorter. Power spectrum density (PSD) results revealed that the 1.75-Hz power in the left hemisphere peaks significantly higher than in the right.DiscussionAs anticipated, pup GAERS rats in the pre-epileptic stage showed no SWDs. Nevertheless, they exhibited sporadic epileptiform activities. Specifically, dexmedetomidine induced SWD-like activities solely within the left hemisphere. These observations imply that absence seizures might originate unilaterally in the left cortex due to α2AAR agonism. Additional research is necessary to explore the precise cortical focal point of this activity

Yaşlılık ve Giyilebilir Teknolojiler

Yaşlılık, yaşam sürecinin çocukluk, erişkinlik gibi doğal adımlarından biri olup doğumla başlayan ve ölümden önceki hem zihinsel hem de fiziksel olarak bağımsızlıktan bağımlı hale geçilen dönemdir. Yaşlı giysileri; hareketleri kısıtlamayan, giyilip çıkarılması rahat, temizlik ve bakımı kolay olmalıdır. Teknolojik ve toplumsal açıdan 2015-2025 yılları, "Giyilebilir Çağ" olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Bu dönem, disiplinler arası çalışmalarla giyilebilir ürünlerin tasarlanmasına ve bunların günlük yaşamda kullanılabilir hale gelmesine olanak sağlamıştır. Gelişen teknolojiyle birlikte sağlık sorunlarının kontrol altına alınması ve hayat kalitesinin artırılmasına yönelik çalışmalar hız kazanmıştır. Bu çalışmayla birlikte artan yaşlı nüfusa yönelik yapılan akıllı giysi uygulamaları incelenmiş ve bu giysilerin sağladığı avantajlar araştırılmıştır

Evaluation of Fabric Properties and Developing Undershirt Designs for Elderly Women

The issue of clothing is one of the problems that come with ageing. Despite the need, there is no undershirt for women aged 65 and over in the market. In this study, first, a survey was conducted on the issuesfaced by women over the age of 65 while using undershirt. The functional and comfortable special undershirt for summer and winter was designed to solve and eliminate the problems by analysing the obtained results. In the study, first, 95%cotton/5%elastane, 95%bamboo/5%elastane, 95%viscose/5%elastane, cotton/bamboo/elastane, and cotton/viscose/elastane blended fabrics were produced in a single jersey knitting structure for summer undershirt. 100% cotton fabric was produced in the interlock knitting structure for winter undershirt. Second, these fabrics were pretreated and the finishing treatments to provide some functional properties such as softness (cationic, microemulsion and macroemulsion silicones) and antibacterial properties were applied to these fabrics. After the finishing treatments, tests and analyses were carried out, and the fabric weight, elasticity and bursting strength tests were carried out to determine the physical properties of the fabrics. To determine the comfort properties of the fabrics, air permeability, water vapour permeability and thermal comfort properties tests were performed. According to the results, the functional and comfortable summer and winter undershirt were determined and produced for older women. At the end of the study, the opinions and suggestions of the people who wore them were evaluated by making clothing trials with the women's undershirts produced.Research Foundation of Ege University [FHD-2020-22396]This work was supported by the Research Foundation of Ege University under Grant [No: FHD-2020-22396]. The authors thank to the Research Foundation of Ege University