1,476 research outputs found
The somatotopy of the spinal cord: a comprehensive descrption.
For the benefit of medical students, in this paper we examine the somatotopic organization of the spinal cord, which shows a similar organization in mammalians. The dorsal horn is comprised of sensory nuclei with deutoneurons; the lateral horn contains preganglionic visceral motoneurons; the ventral horn is subdivided into a medial column innervating the paravertebral muscles, a central column, C3-C6, innervating the diaphragm, and a lateral column innervating the limb muscles. In the lateral column of the ventral horn, the dorsal motoneuron groups innervate the intrinsc arm muscles; the dorsal posterior motoneuron groups innervate hand muscles; the lateroventral motoneuron groups innervate the shoulder. Furthermore, the rostral and caudal motoneuron groups innervate the proximal and the distal muscles, respectively. In cat spinal cord, the medial columns 1-2 innervate the paravertebral muscles, and columns 3-6 are divisible into groups, each innervating specific muscle groups. In human spinal cord, 11 motor columns have been identified: column 1 is located in the medial part and columns 2-11 in the lateral part of the ventral horn. Columns 1-2 extend to S3, while columns 3-8 are confined to the cervical and T1 segments, and columns 9-11 are situated in the lumbosacral segments
Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and oxytocin-expression in the adult and mouse cerebellum
Abstract
Background: Many studies are in the literature on the ANP and oxytocin-presence in the brain, but very few studies
with controversial results are reported on the presence of these peptides in the cerebellum. This immunohistochemical
study investigates on the ANP and oxytocin-presence in the cerebellum of the adult rat and mouse rodents.
Results: This study, firstly, evidences the ANP- immunopositivity in cerebellar cortex of both rat and mouse rodents. In
rat the molecular layer presents some few immunopositive fibers, but no neuron resulted immunopositive; the
granular and Purkinje cells are immunopositive. In mouse the cerebellar cortex ANP-immunopositivity is present in all
layers. The oxytocin-presence in the rat the afferent fibers are immunopositive are in the granular layer; in mouse the
OT-immunopositivity is in the molecular layer only.
Conclusions: This study, firstly, shows that ANP and OT are present in the cerebellar cortex both in rat and mouse
rodents. In the mouse cerebellar cortex ANP-presence is more diffuse and OT- localization differences in the two species
SOMATOTOPIC ORGANIZATION OF THE CRANIAL NERVE NUCLEI INVOLVED IN EYE MOVEMENTS: III, IV, VI.
The oculomotor nucleus is divided into: 1. somatic medial column innervating the superior rectus muscle
and somatic lateral column, further subdivided into a lateral column innervating the inferior rectus,
inferior oblique and medial rectus muscles; 2. central nucleus innervating the levator palpebrae superioris
muscle; 3. visceral nucleus innervating the pupillary sphincter muscle, consisting of the following two
groups of neurons: cholinergic, preganglionic neurons supplying the ciliary ganglion, termed the Edinger-
Westphal preganglionic (EWpg) neuron population, and the centrally projecting, peptidergic neurons,
termed the Edinger-Westphal centrally projecting (EWcp) population. A detailed understanding of the
position of both nuclei and their subgroups supplying the individual muscles is an essential prerequisite
for eye movement assessment, offering a simple clinical method for diagnosing eventual dysfunctions of
eye movement generation pathways
Presence of atrial natriuretic factor in normal and hyperplastic human prostate and its relationship with oxytocin localisation
In this work, we showed the presence of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) in human prostate and compared its localisation in normal and hyperplastic conditions. ANF was localised in epithelial and stromal cells, being increased in hyperplasia, mainly in the stromal component. Moreover, we compared ANF and oxytocin positivity in the same glands, focusing on the possible relationship between the paracrine effects of these two hormones
Oxytocin and vasopressin expression in the turbinates of patients with chronic sinusitis
Many peptides are present in the nasal mucosa, but few studies have investigated the presence or absence of the oxytocin and vasopressin peptides. This immunohistochemical study on the inferior turbinates of patients affected by chronic sinusitis shows, for the first time, that these peptides are present in the epithelium of both nasal mucosa and glands. Their presence could be related to the presence of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), like previously demonstrated in other organs such as heart and prostate, since in some circumstances they play in antagonism
A hierarchical scheduling model for component-based real-time systems
In this paper, we propose a methodology for developing component-based real-time systems based on the concept of hierarchical scheduling. Recently, much work has been devoted to the schedulability analysis of hierarchical scheduling systems, in which real-time tasks are grouped into components, and it is possible to specify a different scheduling policy for each component. Until now, only independent components have been considered. In this paper, we extend this model to tasks that interact through remote procedure calls. We introduce the concept of abstract computing platform on which each component is executed. Then, we transform the system specification into a set of real-time transactions and present a schedulability analysis algorithm. Our analysis is a generalization of the holistic analysis to the case of abstract computing platforms. We demonstrate the use of our methodology on a simple example
Analysis of oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos
We briefly review the current status of standard oscillations of atmospheric
neutrinos in schemes with two, three, and four flavor mixing. It is shown that,
although the pure \nu_\mu-->\nu_\tau channel provides an excellent 2\nu fit to
the data, one cannot exclude, at present, the occurrence of additional
subleading \nu_\mu-->\nu_e oscillations (3\nu schemes) or of sizable
\nu_\mu-->\nu_s oscillations (4\nu schemes). It is also shown that the wide
dynamical range of energy and pathlength probed by the Super-Kamiokande
experiment puts severe constraints on nonstandard explanations of the
atmospheric neutrino data, with a few notable exceptions.Comment: Talk at the 19th International Conference on Neutrino Physics and
Astrophysics - Neutrino 2000 (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, 16-21 June 2000
Molecular analysis of sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric genes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common genetic heart disorder characterized by
unexplained left ventricle hypertrophy associated with non-dilated ventricular chambers. Several genes
encoding heart sarcomeric proteins have been associated to HCM, but a small proportion of HCM patients
harbor alterations in other non-sarcomeric loci. The variable expression of HCM seems influenced by genetic
modifier factors and new sequencing technologies are redefining the understanding of genotype–phenotype
relationships, even if the interpretations of the numerous identified variants pose several challenges.
Methods and results: We investigated 62 sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric genes in 41 HCM cases and in
3 HCM-related disorders patients. We employed an integrated approach that combines multiple tools for
the prediction, annotation and visualization of functional variants. Genotype–phenotype correlations
were carried out for inspecting the involvement of each gene in age onset and clinical variability of HCM. The
80% of the non-syndromic patients showed at least one rare non-synonymous variant (nsSNV) and among
them, 58% carried alterations in sarcomeric loci, 14% in desmosomal and 7% in other non-sarcomeric ones
without any sarcomere change. Statistical analyses revealed an inverse correlation between the number of
nsSNVs and age at onset, and a relationship between the clinical variability and number and type of variants.
Conclusions: Our results extend the mutational spectrum of HCM and contribute in defining the molecular
pathogenesis and inheritance pattern(s) of this condition. Besides, we delineate a specific procedure for the
identification of the most likely pathogenetic variants for a next generation sequencing approach embodied in
a clinical context
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