Flexible Marker Research Articles

Basal ganglia and kinematics modulation: Insights from Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases

Movement kinematic variables related to force production can be modulated to respond appropriately to different contexts. We previously showed that in a choice-reaction time and a predictable timed-response task, normal subjects perform reaching movements to the same targets with two different kinematic patterns, a marker of flexibility. Here, we used the two tasks to determine whether basal ganglia are involved in the selection and modulation of movement kinematics and therefore in flexible force production.We tested seventeen patients in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, eleven pre-symptomatic Huntington’s disease carriers and sixteen age-matched normal controls with the above-mentioned motor tasks.In both patient groups, the difference in kinematics (movement duration, peak velocity and acceleration) between the two tasks was significantly reduced compared to controls, indicating a limited range of choices or flexibility. However, this reduction was skewed in opposite directions in the two disorders, with force production being generally higher in Huntington’s carriers and lower in Parkinson’s patients compared to controls.We conclude that basal ganglia are involved in adapting movement to different contexts and selecting the appropriate movement force. The opposite trends in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease suggest that such regulation might depend on the balance between the outputs of direct and indirect pathways.

Effect of Lonicerae Flos extracts on reflux esophagitis with antioxidant activity

To observe the effects of traditional antiinflammatory medicine Lonicerae Flos (LF) on rat reflux esophagitis (RE) induced by pylorus and forestomach ligation compared with the well-known proton antioxidant, alpha-tocopherol. Rats were pretreated with three different dosages of LF (500, 250 and 125 mg/kg) orally, once a day for 14 d before pylorus and forestomach ligation. Nine hours after pylorus and forestomach ligation, changes to the stomach and esophagus lesion areas, gastric volumes, acid and pepsin outputs, antioxidant effects, esophageal lipid peroxidation, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), myeloperoxidase and glutathione (GSH) levels, and collagen contents (marker of flexibility) were observed on the esophageal and fundic histopathology. The results were compared with an alpha-tocopherol (once orally, 1 h before operation, 30 mg/kg) treated group in which the effects on RE were already confirmed. Pylorus and forestomach ligations caused marked increases of gross esophageal and gastric mucosa lesion areas, which corresponded with histopathological changes. In addition, increases of esophageal lipid peroxidation, decreases of SOD, CAT, and GSH-free radical scavengers, increases of collagen were observed. However, these pylorus and forestomach ligation induced RE were dose-dependently inhibited by treatment of 500, 250 and 125 mg/kg of LF extract, mediated by antioxidant effects. RE at 250 mg/kg showed similar effects alpha-tocopherol. The results suggest that antioxidant effects of LF could attenuate the severity of RE and prevent the esophageal mucosal damage, and validate its therapeutic use in esophageal reflux disease.

The Underground Railroad: an encyclopedia of people, places, and operations

As the Seattle protests over the formation of the WTO showed all too clearly, there is a strong need for in-depth understanding of how the globalization of the world economy is affecting the economic, political, and social development of the individual nation-states. This book provides a detailed and authoritative examination of the on-going issues related to globalization, such as the increasingly unfair distribution of the world's resources, and how this phenomenon is involving wildly disparate countries. While the main focus of the book is the United States, with its flexible markers, wide social differences, and its breath-taking level of economic expansion, extensive attention is also given to the other major players, including the European Union and those central and eastern European nations who very much want to become member countries, as well as China, India, Japan, Russia, and Southeast Asia.

Flexible marker set for human gait analysis

A redundant flexible set of 44 skin markers has been developed to study human gait. In practice, only subsets of the marker system are used for individual gait studies. Software structure allows extreme flexibility in specific marker selection sites. Analysis of identical kinematic studies with different marker sets demonstrates the inherent inaccuracies of rotational wands and skin marker sets that have been commonly used for motion analysis.