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This study investigates the use of Transverse Electric (TE) and Transverse Magnetic (TM) modes in sophisticated optical systems, with a specific emphasis on their influence on fiber optic communications, laser technology, optical sensors, and photonics. Through the use of intricate simulations, we demonstrate how these modes increase transmission efficiency, improve the quality of laser beams, and augment sensor precision. The research emphasizes the crucial significance of TE and TM modes in enhancing the efficiency of optical devices and offers valuable insights for future advancements in optical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, cyst hydatid disease (CHD) or cystic echinococcosis (CE) is publicly known as "dog cyst", a fatal and serious disease not only affects livestock husbandry and human health but also brings about economic loss to our country. According to the data of the Ministry of Health; number of annual cases was 408 in 2008, and this number reached 1,867 by the end of 2019. Cystic echinococcosis is especially taken up during childhood and emerged at an older age. They become exposed to the eggs of the tapeworm after close contact with an infected dog or its contaminated environment. The infected dogs also pass in their feces E. granulosus eggs that adhere to the dogs' hairs, and pass on to the children who are in the course of playful and intimate contact with the infected dogs. This study was to create the awareness of risk factors of CE among 10 different districts of Izmir province. Awareness raising seminars are essential component of this study because local people living in CE endemic areas, are crucial to continue and sustain the long-time effort that is needed to tackle this disease. In each district, 3 awareness raising seminars were held to the target groups: (a) in schools for students, teachers, administrators, (b) for general public, (c) for healthcare professionals. 4090 students attended to the trainings, 242 administrators and teachers who attended to the presentations together with the students, 524 people were attended to the trainings and 327 health workers attended to the trainings from different institutions. This study helped improving this situation by organising educational events for the rural populations for preventing transmission of the disease. This is the first educational intervention study regarding creating awareness on CE in Izmir Province which includes 10 districts between January 2019 to January 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed to examine the effects of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on endothelial dysfunction in rats with exercise-induced oxidative stress. Tests were performed on male (n=32) young adult Sprague-Dawley rats (12 weeks of age). The experimental animals were divided into four groups in equal numbers. Group 1: General control group; Group 2: Swimming control group. Group 3: CAPE supplemented general control group. Group 4: CAPE supplemented swimming group. Furthermore, animals used in the experiment were made to do exhaustion practice toward the end of the examination. Plasma and liver tissue asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) concentrations were not significantly (p<0.05) increased in rats with acute swimming exercise compared to controls. Blood and liver cytokines levels were expanded in comparison to control group and CAPE groups (p<0.05). Total antioxidant status (TAS) levels in acute swimming exercise groups reduced compared to the control group. Besides, total oxidant status (TOS) levels were considerably elevated compared to the control and CAPE groups. In this study, acute swimming exercise induced that oxidative stress could cause early onset of endothelial damage. Besides, CAPE can demonstrate protective effects on endothelial damage, inflammation and oxidative stress axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate whether Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISA) and Western Blotting (WB) methods could contribute to the assessment of clinical outcomes in genotype-defined cystic echinococcosis (CE) patients. Twenty-nine human isolates and blood samples have been taken from patients who underwent surgery or percutaneous aspiration (PAIR) for therapeutic purposes at Ege University and Manisa Celal Bayar University Hospitals. All sera of patients were screened for the presence of E. granulosus IgG antibodies using in-house approved ELISA and WB methods. According to the ELISA results, five patients had high, thirteen patients had medium and eight patients had low specific antibody level response which ranged 1/640 -1/5000. Despite confirmed WB positivity three patients were found to be negative by ELISA. Immunoblot analysis of EgAg showed many protein bands with size of 8, 12, 20, 22, 24, 36, 75 and 90 kDa. Among of them, 8 – 12 kDa bands (90 %), 20 – 22 kDa and 36 kDa bands presented strong reactivity against human serum specimens. No serum samples from healthy control reacted with EgAg. Phylogenetic analysis of resulting COX1 and NAD1sequences has revealed that all patients in our study were infected with the E. granulosus G1-G3 genotype. There was no consistent correlation between results of ELISA and WB, the number or size of cysts and genotype. Our study brings a unique contribution in terms of relationship between serological investigation, disease genotypes and clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The relationship between extraesophageal reflux and chronic rhinosinusitis remains a controversial feature in the literature. Recently some research has been done to prove this relationship and it found that there was relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease with the occurrence of chronic rhinosinusitis. This research aimed to determine and analyze the presence and levels of pepsin and pH in nasal secretions due to extraesophageal reflux amongpatients with chronic rhinosinusitis concerning to complaints of laryngopharyngeal Reflux. Method: The research was an analytical research with cross-sectional design. The research involved 27 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, who were divided into two groups. Group 1 consisting of 8 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis accompanied with complaints of laryngopharyngeal reflux, and group 2 consisting of 19 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis without complaints of laryngopharyngeal reflux. The laryngopharyngeal reflux was determined from the questionnaires value of Reflux Symptom Index>13 and Reflux Finding Score determined by a flexible nasolaryngoendos copy examination with score >7. The level of pepsin and pH of both groups of patients were examined from the nasal secretion. The examination of pepsin using ELISA method and pH level measurement was using by pHmetri. Result: Characteristic of respondence, 82.0% of respondence were their ages over 25 years old and 59.3% of them were females. 29.6% of chronic rhinosinusitis patients were accompanied by pharyngeal larynx reflux. Pepsin was found in all nasal secretions of chronic rhinosinusitis patients. Pepsin level of nasal secretions among Chronic Rhinosinusitis patients was 19.00 to 75.80 pg/ml with median 52.20 pg/ml. The pH level of nasal secretions among chronic rhinosinusitis patients were ranged from 6.00 to 6.80 with median of 6,39. Analysis by Mann-Whitney U-test revealed a significant change difference (p<0,05) between the two group. The level of pepsin was higher in the group chronic rhinosinusitis patients than complaints of laryngopharyngeal Reflux patients. The pH levels not statistically significant difference (p> 0.05) although it was found that the degree of acidity was higher (pH <6.5) in chronic rhinosinusitis patients than complaints of laryngopharyngeal reflux. Conclusion: Extraesophageal reflux may be one of the factors that can cause chronic rhinosinusitis or aggravate chronic rhinosinusitis caused by infection or allergies. The presence of pepsin with high acidity (pH <6.5) can cause irritation of thelarynx mucosa, pharynx and sinonasal.So, the assessment of RSI, RFS, and pepsin and antirefluks therapy (PPI) is recommended to people with chronic rhinosinusitis who do not respond well or recurrent with standard chronic rhinosinusitis treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Herpes esophagitis is uncommon disease caused by Herpes simplex virus (HSV). While the disease most often occurs in immunocompromised patients, including post-chemotherapy, immunosuppression with organ transplants, and in AIDS, Herpes esophagitis can also occur in immunocompetent individuals.Case Presentation: We report a case of herpes esophagitis in a 72 year- old woman who was presumed to be immunocompromised following prolonged radiotherapy and chemotherapy for lymphoma. Her main symptom was epigastric pain. Upper endoscopy showed multiple rounded ulcers in lower esophagus. The diagnosis was confirmed histologically by multiple biopsies. The patient received Valacyclovir for 2 weeks and started to get better within 3 days of treatment.Conclusion: Although there are few published cases of Herpes esophagitis disease in the medical literature, we recommend that this disease should be considered as one of the differential diagnoses when assessing immuno-compromised patients presenting with non-specific abdominal symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a man presenting with unusual neurological manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) including pachymeningitis, aseptic meningitis and encephalitis with grossly elevated cerebrospinal fluid protein, responding to immunosuppression. Initially he had intermittent dysarthria, dysphasia and unilateral upper limb weakness. One month later he experienced dysphasia, right-sided hemiparesis and confusion. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis showed a white cell count of 70 x 106/litre and an unusually elevated protein level of 5.39 g/litre. An MRI brain showed dural and leptomeningeal enhancement compatible with a meningitic process. He improved with cefotaxime and aciclovir. On day seven of antimicrobials he developed left-sided weakness, sensory inattention and a left homonymous hemianopia. He responded well to intravenous methylprednisolone. On switching to oral prednisolone he developed expressive dysphasia, a right inferior quadrantanopia and seizures. His bloods were suggestive of macrophage activation syndrome. The patient improved with methylprednisolone and intravenous immunoglobulins, and the improvement was sustained on switching back to oral prednisolone. The prevalence of neuropsychiatric manifestations of SLE varies between 14 and 80% and according to the American College of Rheumatology includes 19 conditions. This case is unique because although some features were in keeping with aseptic meningitis the MRI appearances were also suggestive of pachymeningitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time H.264/AVC high definition video encoding represents a challenging workload to most existing programmable processors. The new technologies of programmable processors such as Graphic Processor Unit (GPU) and multicore Digital signal Processor (DSP) offer a very promising solution to overcome these constraints. In this paper, an optimized implementation of H264/AVC video encoder on a single core among the six cores of TMS320C6472 DSP for Common Intermediate Format (CIF) (352x288) resolution is presented in order to move afterwards to a multicore implementation for standard and high definitions (SD, HD). Algorithmic optimization is applied to the intra prediction module to reduce the computational time. Furthermore, based on the DSP architectural features, various structural and hardware optimizations are adopted to minimize external memory access. The parallelism between CPU processing and data transfers is fully exploited using an Enhanced Direct Memory Access controller (EDMA). Experimental results show that the whole proposed optimizations, on a single core running at 700 MHz for CIF resolution, improve the encoding speed by up to 42.91%. They allow reaching the real-time encoding 25 f/s without inducing any Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) degradation or bit-rate increase and make possible to achieve real time implementation for SD and HD resolutions when exploiting multicore features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The administration of probiotic bacteria for health benefit has rapidly expanded in recent years, with a global market worth $32.6 billion predicted by 2014. The oral administration of most of the probiotics results in the lack of ability to survive in a high proportion of the harsh conditions of acidity and bile concentration commonly encountered in the gastrointestinal tract of humans. Providing probiotic living cells with a physical barrier against adverse environmental conditions is therefore an approach currently receiving considerable interest. Probiotic encapsulation technology has the potential to protect microorganisms and to deliver them into the gut. However, there are still many challenges to overcome with respect to the microencapsulation process and the conditions prevailing in the gut. This review focuses mainly on the methodological approach of probiotic encapsulation including biomaterials selection and choice of appropriate technology in detailed manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal areas of south-west Iberia and north-west Morocco host numerous megaclast accumulations thought to have been emplaced by high-energy waves, namely by the major tsunami related to the 1 November 1755 AD earthquake. New observations were carried out along several transects from Rabat and Larache areas, using statistical methods applied to boulder size. The main results are (a) the boulders belong to two or three sources located within the Pleistocene-Holocene formations of both areas, but only from a single source at Harhoura; (b) the boulders in Larache are generally small, thin and show a normal polarity, whereas those of Rabat are much larger and are often overturned; (c) the directions of inclination of imbricate boulders are variable at Rabat (N, NW and W), whereas they are constant in Larache (WNW); (d) the blocks were displaced for distances up to 150 m in Rabat, while the displacement of the Larache boulders was stopped by the MHW cliff; (e) the hydrodynamic equations suggest that tsunami waves, with maximum amplitudes of 5-11 m in Rabat and 4.5 m in Larache, were responsible for the displacement of the largest boulders, whereas storms may have displaced smaller ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of the game form training method on strength parameters of soccer players. Fourteen male soccer players were used as subjects. The players studying in the Physical Education and Sports College at Selcuk University were 18-26 years old. The average age of them was 22.56 ± 1.29 years and the average height of the subjects was 1.80 ± 0.07 cm. Trainings have been performed for 8 weeks and three days a week (Monday- Wednesday-Friday) and each of them lasted for 30 minutes in the olympic soccer field ground of BESYO (Physical Education and Sport Collage). Subjects were allowed to play football match 30 minutes with 7×7 game form training method between two goal post. The subjects were tested in pre and post training season. The following parameters were tested and measured; height and weight, percent body fat, hand grip strength, leg strength, back strength and vertical jump. The differences between pre and post training were calculated with "t" test at the 0.05 confidence level. There were significant differences at the 0.05 confidence level between pre and post training in body weight, percent body fat, relative hand grip strength, leg and relative leg strength, relative back strength, anaerobic and relative anaerobic power, 30m sprint and vertical jump (P<0.05). There were no significant differences at the 0.05 confidence level between pre and post training in hand grip strength and back strength (P>0.05). As a result, it could be concluded that the applied game formation training had positive effects on strength parameters of soccer players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Genetic variation in the gene for interleukin-6 (IL-6) contributes to the pathogenesis of inflammatory arthritis, but the role, if any, of epigenetic variability has not been reported. The aims of this study were to compare the DNA methylation status of the IL6 promoter in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and control subjects and to study the effects on gene expression. METHODS: Genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from RA patients and healthy controls. Macrophages from healthy controls were isolated and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Methylation status was determined using bisulfite genomic sequencing and IL6 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Gel shift assays were performed with methylated or unmethylated probes and HeLa cell nuclear extract. RESULTS: The proximal CpG motifs (-666 to +27) were predominantly unmethylated and the upstream motifs (-1099 to -1001) were highly methylated in PBMCs from patients and controls. Methylation of individual CpG motifs was similar, except at -1099C, which was less methylated in the patients than in the controls (58% versus 98%; P = 1 x 10(-6)). To test whether this observation might relate to gene regulation, LPS-stimulated macrophages were grouped according to their IL6 mRNA stimulation index (SI). The level of methylation at -1099C was significantly lower in the group with high (SI >75) compared with the group with low (SI <10) induced mRNA levels (71% versus 93%; P = 0.007). Gel shift assays revealed decreased protein binding to the -1099C unmethylated probe. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that methylation of a single CpG in the IL6 promoter region may affect IL6 gene regulation and may play a role in the pathogenesis of RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the plasma levels of a range of inflammatory proteins have utility as biomarkers of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS: Plasma proteins (n = 163) were profiled in 44 patients with RA diagnosed according to the American College of Rheumatology 1987 criteria (22 with active and 22 with quiescent disease) and in 16 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The utility of a subset of differentially expressed proteins as predictors of RA disease activity was investigated using partial least-squares discriminant analysis, and their response to therapeutic intervention was evaluated in plasma from an additional cohort of 16 patients with active RA treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFalpha). RESULTS: The protein profiling study identified 25 proteins that were differentially expressed in plasma samples from patients with active RA (P for the false discovery rate

Objectives. This is a family-based association study to investigate the genetic contribution of tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2 ) to disease susceptibility in 380 UK systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) families, consisting of parents and affected offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this work, we are concerning by the improvement of optimized static heuristic in distributed and heterogeneous architecture. Thus, in order to take into account the load-balancing criterion, a need for a dynamic model is related to the use of heuristic based on list scheduling, The greedy list algorithms are well adapted, for they help the designer to rapidly obtain an efficient implementation and so to shorten development cycle of an application. This paper presents a dynamic model based on agent concept, coupled with an off line (static) heuristic. Our model has been simulated in programming parallel environment Xpvm. We show the integration of our model in the transformations flow, that implicates a heuristic to generating a real time distributed executive. This integration will be implemented in system level CAD software tool called SynDEx which, is a seamless flow based on graphs transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present a popular lossless compression/decompression algorithm, GZIP, and the study to implement it on an FPGA-based architecture, the ADM-XRC board from ALPHA DATA parallel system ltd. The algorithm is lossless, and applied to “bi-level” images of large size (A0 format). It ensures a minimum compression rate for the images we are considering. It aims to decrease storage requirements and transfer times, which are critical for wide format printing systems. In a wide format document industry, raster data are most of time processed in an uncompressed format, in order to apply processing (P) before printing (p). An example of a copy chain is composed of scanner, set of processing operations, storage, link and printer. We propose to use a compressed format as the new data-flow representation to improve the performances of the printing system. For example, the compression (C) is applied as soon as the data are produced by the scanner, and decompression (D) is performed at the last stage, before printing. The set of processing is applied to compressed images. The proposed architecture for the compressor is based on a hash table and the decompressor is based on a parallel decoder of the Huffman codes. We implemented the proposed architecture for compression and decompression algorithms on FPGA Xilinx Virtex XCV 400. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To test the interrater reliability of the revised British Isles Lupus Assessment Group 2004 (BILAG-2004) index for the assessment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) activity. METHODS: Patients with SLE were recruited from 11 centers. Two physician raters separately assessed the patients' disease activity using the BILAG-2004 index in routine clinical practice. Scores ranged from A (for very active disease) to E (for inactivity). Two reliability exercises were performed. Changes were made to the index after the first exercise (E1), and additional training was provided to the raters before the second exercise (E2). E1 and E2 involved 12 and 14 raters, respectively. Interrater reliability was assessed using kappa statistics and intraclass correlation coefficients. Levels of agreement and the extent of major disagreement were also examined. Major disagreement was defined as a score difference between raters of A versus C, D, or E or B versus D or E. RESULTS: For each exercise, 97 patients were recruited. In E1, the mean age of the patients was 42.3 years (range 18.5-82.2 years), 89.7% were women, and 74.2% were white, 8.2% were Afro-Caribbean, and 13.4% were South Asian, and in E2, the mean age was 43.7 years (range 17.7-75 years), 90.7% were women, and 68% were white, 15.5% were Afro-Caribbean, and 11.3% were South Asian. The mean disease duration was 9.4 years (range 0-32.1 years) for patients in E1 and 10 years (range 0-34.8 years) in E2. There was improvement in the interrater reliability and the level of agreement from E1 to E2. Further improvement was achieved after removal of poorly performing items. CONCLUSION: The BILAG-2004 index is a reliable tool to assess SLE activity. The use of a well-defined glossary and training of raters are essential to ensure the optimal performance of the index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

—Prerif Ridges are located at the frontal part of the Rif Cordillera, which develops at the Eurasian-African plate boundary. The ridges are formed by recent tectonic structures that also deform foreland basins (Saïss and Gharb basins) and the foreland (Moroccan Meseta). The position of the ridges is the consequence of inversion tectonics undergone in the area. The ENE-WSW trend of the northern edge of the Neogene Saïss basin is determined by the location of Mesozoic basins. Although Prerif ridges probably started to develop since the Early Miocene, the most active deformation phase affecting Pliocene rocks consisted of N-S to NW-SE oriented compression. Striated pebbles show that this compression has prolate stress ellipsoids. The deformation produces southwards vergent folds and NNW-SSE striae on reverse faults at the base of the ridges. The flexure of the Paleozoic basement by the emplacement of the Ridges produced extensional deformation and the development of the Saïss foreland basin. The extension in this basin is oblate and features a well determined NNE-SSW trend near the Ridges, whereas it becomes prolate and pluridirectional near the foreland edge represented by the Rabat region. This part of the Moroccan Meseta, commonly considered to be stable, is deformed by sets of orthogonal joints and faults with short slip that affect up to Quaternary sediments. Southwestward, the Meseta rocks are also deformed by transcurrent faults, which indicate NW-SE and N-S trends of compression. The NW-SE approximation of Eurasia and Africa determines a regional stress field with the same trend of compression. Regional stresses are notably disturbed by the development of the active structures in the Rif, which exhibit alternating trends of compression and extension. The clearest evidence of the relationship between the local deformation and the general plate motion is found at the deformation front of the Cordillera, that is, the Prerif Ridges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system, and a key neurotransmitter in prefrontal cortical function. Converging lines of evidence implicate prefrontal cortical dysfunction in the neurobiology of schizophrenia. Thus, aberrant glutamate neurotransmission may underlie schizophrenia and other complex disorders of behavior. Group II metabotropic receptors (mGluRs) are important modulators of glutamatergic and non-glutamatergic neurotransmission. Moreover, in an animal model, an agonist for group II mGluRs has been shown to reverse the behavioral, locomotor, and cognitive effects of the psychotomimetic drug phencyclidine. Accordingly, group II mGluRs constitute attractive targets for the pharmacotherapeutics and study of schizophrenia. Using immunocytochemistry and Western immunoblotting, we compared the localization and levels of group II mGluRs in Brodmann's area 46 of the dorsolaterai prefrontal cortex from patients with schizophrenia and normal subjects. Consistent with previous reports, we found that immunolabeling of group II mGluRs is prominent in Brodmann's area 46. The majority of labeling was present on axon terminals distributed in a lamina-specific fashion. No apparent difference in the cellular localization or laminar distribution of immunoreactive group II mGluRs was noted between the two diagnostic groups. Similarly, the levels of receptor immunoreactivity determined by quantitative Western immunoblotting were comparable between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. We conclude that while the function of group II mGiuRs in Brodmann's area 46 of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be altered in patients with schizophrenia, this is not evident at the level of protein expression using an antibody against mGluR2 and mGluR3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Signalling through tyrosine kinase receptor B (trkB) influences neuronal survival, differentiation and synaptogenesis. trkB exists in a full-length form (trkBTK+ ), which contains a catalytic tyrosine kinase (TK) domain, and a truncated form (trkBTK– ), which lacks this domain. In the rodent brain, expression of trkBTK+ decreases and trkBTK– increases during postnatal life. We hypothesized that both forms of trkB receptor mRNA would be present in the human neocortex and that the developmental profile of trkB gene expression in human may be distinct from that in rodent. We detected both trkBTK+ and trkBTK– mRNA in RNA extracted from multiple human brain regions by Northern blot. Using in situ hybridization, we found trkBTK+ mRNA in all cortical layers, with highest expression in layer IV and intermediate-to-high expression in layers III and V of the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. trkBTK+ mRNA was present in neurons with both pyramidal and nonpyramidal shapes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. trkBTK+ mRNA levels were significantly increased in layer III in young adults as compared with infants and the elderly. In the elderly, trkBTK+ mRNA levels were reduced markedly in all cortical layers. Unlike the mRNA encoding the full-length form of trkB, trkBTK– mRNA was distributed homogeneously across the grey matter, and trkBTK– mRNA levels increased only slightly during postnatal life. The results suggest that neurons in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are responsive to neurotrophins throughout postnatal life and that this responsiveness may be modulated during the human lifespan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopamine afferents from the mesencephalon appear to play a critical role in the normal development and cognitive functions of multiple areas of the primate cerebral cortex. In some regions, such as the prefrontal and motor cortices, dopamine innervation changes substantially during postnatal development. However, little is known about the postnatal maturation of dopamine afferents to the primate rostral entorhinal cortex, a periallocortical region that receives a dense dopamine innervation in adults. In this study, we used immunocytochemical techniques and antibodies against tyrosine hydroxylase and the dopamine transporter to examine the postnatal development of dopamine axons in the rostral subdivision of macaque monkey entorhinal cortex. Within animals, the axons labeled with each antibody did not differ in overall density or laminar distribution. Across development, the density of dopamine axons in layers I and VI did not change appreciably. In contrast, the density of labeled exons in layer III significantly increased by a factor of three between birth and 5-7 months of age. The timing of this change differs substantially from that observed in prefrontal cortex, where peak dopamine innervation occurs between 2 and 3 years of age. These findings, in concert with other data, suggest that developmental changes in the dopamine innervation of cortical regions may parallel the functional maturation of those areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part II. Discusses the treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Aim of surgery; Administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; Complementary medicine.