Plos One
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Lateral balance is a critical factor in keeping the human body upright during walking. Two important mechanisms for balance control are the stepping strategy, in which the foot placement is changed in the direction of a sensed fall to modulate how the gravitational force acts on the body, and the lateral ankle strategy, in which the body mass is actively accelerated by an ankle torque. Currently, there is minimal evidence about how these two strategies complement one another to achieve upright balance during locomotion. ⋯ The temporal delay between these two mechanisms suggests that they independently contribute to upright balance during locomotion, potentially in a serially coordinated manner. Modeling results indicate that without the lateral ankle strategy, a much larger step width is required to maintain upright balance, suggesting that the small but early CoP shift induced by the lateral ankle strategy is critical for upright stability during locomotion. The relative importance of each mechanism and how neurological disorders may affect their implementation remain an open question.
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Preeclampsia is a leading cause of perinatal maternal-foetal mortality and morbidity. The aim of this study is to identify the key microRNAs and genes in preeclampsia and uncover their potential functions. We downloaded the miRNA expression profile of GSE84260 and the gene expression profile of GSE73374 from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. ⋯ KEGG analysis showed that the up-regulated DEGs were enriched in the Hippo signalling pathway and pathways in cancer. A PPI network of the DEGs was constructed by using Cytoscape software, and FOS, STAT1, MMP14, ITGB1, VCAN, DUSP1, LDHA, MCL1, MET, and ZFP36 were identified as the hub genes. The current study illustrates a characteristic microRNA profile and gene profile in preeclampsia, which may contribute to the interpretation of the progression of preeclampsia and provide novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for preeclampsia.
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Visualisation of nigrosome 1, a substructure of the healthy substantia nigra, was restricted in susceptibility weighted MR imaging in almost all patients with Parkinson's disease studied so far. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of visibility of this substructure in subjects without Parkinson's disease and to examine the potential link between increasing brain iron accumulation with age and its detectability. ⋯ Aging with a related increase in iron concentration probably does not affect the visibility of nigrosome 1 at 7T SWI MRI. Our results support the role of this feature as a future differential diagnostic tool but further large-scale prospective studies are needed to better define the extent of a "limited visibility" to which an individual can be considered healthy.
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Clinical Trial
Anesthetic action on the transmission delay between cortex and thalamus explains the beta-buzz observed under propofol anesthesia.
In recent years, more and more surgeries under general anesthesia have been performed with the assistance of electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors. An increase in anesthetic concentration leads to characteristic changes in the power spectra of the EEG. Although tracking the anesthetic-induced changes in EEG rhythms can be employed to estimate the depth of anesthesia, their precise underlying mechanisms are still unknown. ⋯ Moreover, considering the action of propofol on the transmission delay between cortex and thalamus, the model reveals that the beta-buzz may result from a prolongation of the transmission delay by increasing propofol concentration. A corresponding relationship between transmission delay and anesthetic blood concentration is derived. Finally, an analytical stability study demonstrates that increasing propofol concentration moves the systems resting state towards its stability threshold.
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The lorazepam-diazepam protocol had been proved to rapidly and effectively relieve catatonia in patients with schizophrenia or mood disorder. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of lorazepam-diazepam protocol in catatonia due to general medical conditions (GMC) and substance. ⋯ Our results showed that the lorazepam-diazepam protocol could rapidly and effectively relieve catatonia due to GMC and substance.