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•Contaminated opium or other illicit drugs may be a potential source of lead poisoning.•Lead poisoning may provoke various types of neuromuscular disorders.•Types include polyneuropathy, motor neuron disorder, and multiple mononeuropathies.•Lead poisoning needs to be ruled out in opium users with neurologic disorders.•Such disorders are treatable and respond favorably to chelation therapy.

Salinity is a major constraint to crop productivity and mechanisms of plant responses to salinity stress are extremely complex. “Hordeum marinum” is a salt tolerant barley species, which could be a good source to evaluate salt-tolerance patterns. Proteomics is a powerful technique to identify proteins involved in plant adaptation to stresses. We applied a proteomic approach to better understanding the mechanism of plant responses to salinity in a salt-tolerant genotype of barley. At the 4-leaf stage, plants were exposed to 0 (control treatment) or 300 mM NaCl (salt treatment). Salt treatment was maintained for 3 weeks. Total proteins of leaf 4 were extracted and separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. More than 290 protein spots were reproducibly detected. Of these, 20 spots showed significant changes to salt treatment compared to the control: 19 spots were upregulated and 1 spot was absent. Using MALDI-TOF/TOF MS, we identified 20 cellular proteins which represented 11 different proteins and were classified into five categories. These proteins were involved in various cellular functions. Upregulation of proteins which involved in protein processing (ribosomal protein, cullin family, cp31AHv protein and RNA recognition motif (RRM) superfamily), photosynthesis (Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rubisco) and Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activase (rubisco activase)), energy metabolism (cytosolic malate dehydrogenase (cyMDH) and fructokinase), oxygen species scavenging and defense (cystatin and thioredoxin) may increase plant adaptation to salt stress.

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), an inherited and progressive muscle disorder, is among the most common hereditary muscle disorders. From a clinical vantage point, FSHD is characterized by weakness of the facial, shoulder (often with scapular winging), arm (including biceps and triceps) and abdominal muscles. Forearm muscles are usually spared and weakness is usually asymmetrical. Over the past few decades, muscle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become established as a reliable and accurate noninvasive tool for the diagnosis and assessment of progression in neuromuscular diseases, showing specific patterns of muscle involvement for a number of myopathies. More recently, MRI has been used to noninvasively identify quantitative biomarkers, allowing evaluation of the natural progression of disease and assessment of therapeutic interventions. In the present review, the intention was to present the most significant MRI developments related to diagnosis and pattern recognition in FSHD and to discuss its capacity to provide outcome measures.

Hordeum spontaneum(wild barley) is a good gene source to improve salt tolerance in barley because it rapidly hybridizes and recombines with barley cultivars. Proteomics can assist in identifying proteins associated with a certain environmental or developmental signal. We employed a proteomic approach to understand the mechanisms of plant responses to salinity in a salt tolerant accession of H. spontaneum. At the 4-leaf stage, wild barley plants were exposed to 0 (control treatment) or 300 mM NaCl (salt treatment). The salt treatment lasted 3 weeks. Total proteins of leaf 4 were extracted and separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. More than 500 protein spots were reproducibly detected. Of these, 29 spots showed significant differences between salt treatment and control. Using MALDI-TOF-TOF MS, we identified 29 cellular proteins, which represented 16 different proteins. These were classified into six categories and a group with unknown biological function. The proteins identified were involved in many different cellular functions. Three spots were identified as unknown proteins; searching in the NCBI database revealed that there was a 71% match with clathrin assembly protein putative [Ricinus communis], a 67% match with actin binding protein [Zea mays], and a 66% match with phosphatidylinositol kinase [Arabidopsis thaliana]. Other proteins identified included ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco), oxygen-evolving enhancer protein (OEE), photosystem II reaction centerWprotein (Psbw), ribosomal proteins, chloroplast RNA binding protein (ChRBP), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), thioredoxin h (Trx), nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK), profilin, translationally-controlled tumor protein (TCTP), polyamine oxidase (PAO) and universal stress protein family (USP).

Background:Plasma ceruloplasmin (Cp) has been shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and also to be associated with obesity. However, it is not known whether weight loss could decrease the plasma Cp levels. Aim:To investigate the effect of diet-induced weight loss on plasma Cp in obese women. Subjects and methods:Sixty-seven healthy obese women [age =33.4±8.7 yr, body mass index (BMI) =36.0±4.8 kg/m2] were entered into a medically supervised program aimed at reducing body weight by 10% or more. Weight loss was achieved through a diet providing a daily energy deficit of 500–1000 kcal/day. In addition, all patients were prescribed to use 50 g of a fiber supplement per day. For all subjects, assessment of dietary intake, anthropometric indices, and plasma levels of C-reactive protein and Cp was performed at the first visit and repeated at 12thweek of follow-up. Results:By completing the program, weight (Δ=-9.5%, p<0.0001), BMI (Δ=−9.7%, p<0.0001), waist-circumference (Δ=−6.1 %, p<0.0001), and triceps skin-fold thickness (Δ=−14.9%, p<0.0001) significantly decreased. Plasma Cp significantly decreased after 12 weeks of dietary intervention (33.6±5.6 mg/dl vs 25.2±5.8 mg/dl, p<0.0001). Percent change in Cp was correlated with percent change in waist-circumference (r=446, p=0.015). Conclusion:Our study suggests that an improved body composition induced by restriction of energy intake is associated with decreased serum concentrations of Cp in obese women which in turn might have reduced the subjects’ risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

This paper proposes a tracking controller for position and speed tracking of dc motors using the input-output linearization technique. This technique is based on canceling the nonlinearities in the dc motor model and finding a direct relationship between the motor output and input quantities. Performance of the controller is evaluated by forcing the position or speed of the motor to follow a desired trajectory under variable load torques. Simulation results show that effective tracking of dc motors can be achieved via the proposed control strategy, thus making it suitable for high performance dc motor tracking applications.

In the present work, adenosine agonists and antagonists on apomorphine-induced yawning in rats was investigated. Subcutaneous (SC) injection of apomorphine (0.02, 0.05 and 0.1 mg/kg) induced dose-dependent yawning behaviour in rats. Intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of different doses of the drug (1, 3, 5 µg/rat) also caused a dose-related yawning. ICV administration of the adenosine receptor agonists 5-N-ethylcarboxami-doadenosine (NECA) and N6-cyclohexyladenosine (CHA) decreased apomorphine-induced yawning. The response induced by the adenosine agonists was reduced by 8-phenyladenosine (8-PT) pretreatment. The yawning induced by SC and ICV administration of apomorphine was decreased by ICV or IP injection of theophylline, respectively. It is concluded that at least A1 adenosine receptors may exert negative influence on the apomorphine-induced yawning. However, the exact mechanism(s) of adenosine receptors in this behaviour remain to be established.

Background: Dental pulp stones are discrete calcifications in the pulp chamber which are often seen in deciduous and permanent teeth. It has been hypothesised that atherosclerosis can be associated with their development. Objective: To determine whether a higher prevalence of dental pulp stones is correlated with coronary artery stenosis. Clinical setting: Sixty-one patients aged 20-55 years referred to Afshar Heart Center for invasive coronary angiography were invited to undergo panoramic dental radiography. The panoramic radiographs were independently examined for the presence of pulp stones. Results: Pulp stones were present in 82% (31/38) of patients with at least one clinically significant coronary artery stenosis and in 48% (11/23) of patients with normal coronary angiography. They were present in 13% of the teeth in the former group and in 5% of the teeth in the latter. The findings show a statistically significant association between coronary artery stenosis and presence of pulp stones (odds ratio 4.83, 95% confidence interval 1.5-15.4). Conclusion: Coronary artery stenosis and dental pulp calcification are significantly associated. Dental radiography has the potential to be used as a rapid screening method for the early detection of coronary artery stenosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dental pulp stones are discrete calcifications in the pulp chamber which are often seen in deciduous and permanent teeth. It has been hypothesised that atherosclerosis can be associated with their development. Objective: To determine whether a higher prevalence of dental pulp stones is correlated with coronary artery stenosis. Clinical setting: Sixty-one patients aged 20-55 years referred to Afshar Heart Center for invasive coronary angiography were invited to undergo panoramic dental radiography. The panoramic radiographs were independently examined for the presence of pulp stones. Results: Pulp stones were present in 82% (31/38) of patients with at least one clinically significant coronary artery stenosis and in 48% (11/23) of patients with normal coronary angiography. They were present in 13% of the teeth in the former group and in 5% of the teeth in the latter. The findings show a statistically significant association between coronary artery stenosis and presence of pulp stones (odds ratio 4.83, 95% confidence interval 1.5-15.4). Conclusion: Coronary artery stenosis and dental pulp calcification are significantly associated. Dental radiography has the potential to be used as a rapid screening method for the early detection of coronary artery stenosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]