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PubMed2005

Reproduction concepts and practices in ancient Egypt mirrored by modern medicine.

The treasured ancient papyri provide a glimpse into understanding of common concepts and practices in ancient Egypt. The Kahun gynecological papyrus and other texts unveil the traditions of reproduction, conception and delivery. This article addresses the rationale of beliefs and practices of that era. Frequently, the reason for common traditions exercised at the time is based on medical knowledge of female anatomy and physiology during pregnancy. Surprisingly some of the remedies commonly used in ancient Egypt were recently explored and found intriguing. This paper was aimed to look at the reflection of archaic practices and concepts of ancient Egypt by the modern mirror of evidence-based medicine.

Contraception↗
PubMed2006

Assessment of mucoadhesion by a resonant mirror biosensor.

The aim of this study was to add knowledge to the existing theories of mucoadhesion and to review mucoadhesive polymers based on their ability to form non-covalent bonds with mucus glycoprotein. Resonant mirror biosensor was used to study the candidate mucoadhesive polymers hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, Carbopol, hyaluronate, alginate and chitosan. Bovine submaxillary mucin was chosen as substrate, representing the major glycosylated protein in mucus. For comparison, non-glycosylated bovine serum albumin was used as an alternative substrate. The results of this study reveal that there is a clear correlation between the ionization state of the polymer, which is dependent on the pH of the surrounding environment, and its binding behavior. Ionizable polymers need to be in their unionized state to be able to form non-covalent bonds with mucus glycoprotein. Acidic polymers display binding behavior only at pH around or lower than their corresponding pK(a) values and basic polymers vice versa. Chitosan was found to be the most mucoadhesive polymer. Unionizable polymers like hydroxypropyl methylcellulose did not display any affinity for mucus glycoprotein. Unionized amino- and carboxyl groups on polymers were found to be important structural feature of polymer for the formation of weak chemical bonds to mucus glycoproteins.

Acrylic Resins↗
PubMed2006

Lymphocyte numbers and subsets in the human blood. Do they mirror the situation in all organs?

Lymphocyte numbers in the blood are used to evaluate the immune status on a daily basis in medicine. Several studies have documented the normal ranges of lymphocytes and lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood. A variety of techniques and criteria have revealed clear differences between the lymphocyte subsets in childhood and adolescence. Race and gender are also variables for blood lymphocytes, and even environmental factors seem to influence the numbers of some lymphocyte populations. However, do all these variations in lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood mirror changes in the lymphocyte populations of the whole body, or is it just a result of different migratory habits of cells? The factors influencing the distribution of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood with regard to the different abilities of T and B cells to migrate to distinct lymphoid or non-lymphoid tissue are summarized. In addition it will be described how the removal of organs (e.g. thymus, spleen, liver) influences the distribution of lymphocytes in the blood. All these parameters should be considered not only in the clinical situation when the immune status of a patient is extrapolated from the lymphocyte numbers in the blood, but also when interpreting treatment effects in patients.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

The reliability and reproducibility of foot type measurements using a mirrored foot photo box and digital photography compared to caliper measurements.

UNLABELLED: The height of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) is thought to be a predisposing factor to various lower extremity injuries. Discrepancy exists as to whether MLA height plays a role in injury prevention. The purpose of this study was to determine the intertester and intratester reliability, and the validity of the mirrored foot photo box (MFPB) and caliper measurements to radiographic measurements. METHODS: Thirty subjects with equal numbers of men and women were recruited. Both feet were tested (n=60) in a 90% weight bearing stance. A set of anatomic landmarks were palpated, marked, and measured using a caliper, MFPB, and radiographs. The protocol was completed by two testers on 2 days approximately 1 week apart. Intertester and intratester reliability were determined using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)(2,k) and the ICC(2,1), respectively. Validity of both measurement techniques to radiographic measurements was determined using the ICC(2,k). RESULTS: The intertester reliability ranged from 0.991 to 0.577, while the intratester reliability ranged from 0.994 to 0.527, with first metatarsal angle being the only variable with poor reliability. Most variables demonstrated acceptable validity between the MFPB and the caliper measurements, and acceptable validity between the MFPB and calipers compared to radiographic measurements. The MFPB took 51.3+/-19.6s per foot while the caliper measurements averaged 227.4+/-68.9s to complete the measurements. DISCUSSION: The MFPB is as reliable as the caliper measurements, and offers better intertester reliability. Both the caliper and MFPB measurements demonstrated acceptable validity to radiographic measurements and testing time was reduced when using the MFPB compared to calipers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Recurrent metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma presenting as consecutive "mirror image" intracerebral haematomas.

A 34-year old man with a past history of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) complained of headache and visual disturbance. Neuroimaging revealed a right occipital haematoma with rim enhancement and at operation, a metastasis from the primary malignancy was found. Five months after surgery and subsequent adjuvant therapy, he presented with blindness. On neuroimaging, a left occipital haematoma was seen. The patient refused surgical intervention. HCC usually has an aggressive clinical course; therefore, recurrent cerebral metastasis is an uncommon clinical problem. "Mirror-image" metastasis, with bleeding in both hemispheres, is rare and has not been reported. We suggest that these metastases occur due to microscopic seeding via an arterial route, and that spread via a venous route, such as occurs through Batson's plexus, is unlikely.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Interaction of daunomycin antibiotic with human serum albumin: investigation by resonant mirror biosensor technique, fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular modeling methods.

Daunomycin (DM) is a clinically used antitumor anthracycline antibiotic, which is transported primarily by human serum albumin (HSA) in the blood. Binding characteristics are therefore of interest for both the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of DM. A new optical biosensor technique based on the resonant mirror was used to characterize interaction of DM with HSA at different temperatures and the affinity constants were obtained. The HSA-DM interaction is exothermic with having favorable enthalpy and entropy followed by the integrated van't Hoff equation analysis. Fluorescence studies showed that DM has an ability to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA through a static quenching procedure according to the Stern-Volmer equation and DM displays a pH-dependent binding affinity to HSA. Molecular modeling calculations showed that the DM binds HSA to a non-classical drug binding site and further analysis of the binding site of DM within the HSA molecule suggested that hydrophobic contacts, hydrogen bond formation and electrostatic interactions account for the binding of DM.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2005

Mirrored EMG activity during unimanual rhythmic movements.

We studied instances of mirror movements--in the form of coherent EMG activity of the muscles in the arm not intended to move--during the performance of a unimanual rhythmic task in healthy adults. Epochs of involuntary muscle activity were detected and analyzed using time-resolved spectral methods. The observed frequency and phase locking between EMG patterns derived from homologous extensor muscles indicated the presence of neural cross-talk, which is relevant to the study of interlimb coordination.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Self-organization of distributedly represented multiple behavior schemata in a mirror system: reviews of robot experiments using RNNPB.

The current paper reviews a connectionist model, the recurrent neural network with parametric biases (RNNPB), in which multiple behavior schemata can be learned by the network in a distributed manner. The parametric biases in the network play an essential role in both generating and recognizing behavior patterns. They act as a mirror system by means of self-organizing adequate memory structures. Three different robot experiments are reviewed: robot and user interactions; learning and generating different types of dynamic patterns; and linguistic-behavior binding. The hallmark of this study is explaining how self-organizing internal structures can contribute to generalization in learning, and diversity in behavior generation, in the proposed distributed representation scheme.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed2005

Self-face recognition activates a frontoparietal "mirror" network in the right hemisphere: an event-related fMRI study.

Self-recognition has been demonstrated by a select number of primate species and is often used as an index of self-awareness. Whether a specialized neural mechanism for self-face recognition in humans exists remains unclear. We used event-related fMRI to investigate brain regions selectively activated by images of one's own face. Ten right-handed normal subjects viewed digital morphs between their own face and a gender-matched familiar other presented in a random sequence. Subjects were instructed to press a button with the right hand if the image looked like their own face, and another button if it looked like a familiar or scrambled face. Contrasting the trials in which images contain more "self" with those containing more familiar "other" revealed signal changes in the right hemisphere (RH) including the inferior parietal lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, and inferior occipital gyrus. The opposite contrast revealed voxels with higher signal intensity for images of "other" than for "self" in the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus. Additional contrasts against baseline revealed that activity in the "self" minus "other" contrasts represent signal increases compared to baseline (null events) in "self" trials, while activity in the "other" minus "self" contrasts represent deactivations relative to baseline during "self" trials. Thus, a unique network involving frontoparietal structures described as part of the "mirror neuron system" in the RH underlies self-face recognition, while regions comprising the "default/resting state" network deactivate less for familiar others. We provide a model that reconciles these findings and previously published work to account for the modulations in these two networks previously implicated in social cognition.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Investigating the human mirror neuron system by means of cortical synchronization during the imitation of biological movements.

The human mirror neuron system (MNS) has recently been a major topic of research in cognitive neuroscience. As a very basic reflection of the MNS, human observers are faster at imitating a biological as compared with a non-biological movement. However, it is unclear which cortical areas and their interactions (synchronization) are responsible for this behavioural advantage. We investigated the time course of long-range synchronization within cortical networks during an imitation task in 10 healthy participants by means of whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG). Extending previous work, we conclude that left ventrolateral premotor, bilateral temporal and parietal areas mediate the observed behavioural advantage of biological movements in close interaction with the basal ganglia and other motor areas (cerebellum, sensorimotor cortex). Besides left ventrolateral premotor cortex, we identified the right temporal pole and the posterior parietal cortex as important junctions for the integration of information from different sources in imitation tasks that are controlled for movement (biological vs. non-biological) and that involve a certain amount of spatial orienting of attention. Finally, we also found the basal ganglia to participate at an early stage in the processing of biological movement, possibly by selecting suitable motor programs that match the stimulus.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Neural mechanisms of imitation and 'mirror neuron' functioning in autistic spectrum disorder.

An association between autistic spectrum disorder and imitative impairment might result from dysfunction in mirror neurons (MNs) that serve to relate observed actions to motor codings. To explore this hypothesis, we employed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol previously used to identify the neural substrate of imitation, and human MN function, to compare 16 adolescent males of normal intelligence with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and age, sex and IQ matched controls. In the control group, in accord with previous findings, we identified activity attributable to MNs in areas of the right parietal lobe. Activity in this area was less extensive in the ASD group and was absent during non-imitative action execution. Broca's area was minimally active during imitation in controls. Differential patterns of activity during imitation and action observation in ASD and controls were most evident in an area at the right temporo-parietal junction also associated with a 'theory of mind' (ToM) function. ASD participants also failed to show modulation of left amygdala activity during imitation that was evident in the controls. This may have implications for understanding the imitation of emotional stimuli in ASD. Overall, we suggest that ASD is associated with altered patterns of brain activity during imitation, which could stem from poor integration between areas serving visual, motor, proprioceptive and emotional functions. Such poor integration is likely to adversely affect the development of ToM through imitation as well as other aspects of social cognitive function in ASD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Exploring the functional and anatomical bases of mirror-image and anatomical imitation: the role of the frontal lobes.

Humans are the most imitative species on earth, but how imitation is accomplished and which areas of the brain are directly involved in different kinds of imitation is still under debate. One view is that imitation entails representing observed behaviours as a set of hierarchically organised goals, which subsequently drive the construction of an action pattern [Bekkering, H., Wohlschläger, A., & Gattis, M. (2000). Imitation of gestures in children is goal-directed. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 153-164; Wohlschläger, A., Gattis, M., & Bekkering, H. (2003). Action generation and action perception in imitation: An instance of the ideomotor principle. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 358, 501-515]. On this view, when working memory resources are limited, only the goals at the top-end of the hierarchy will be accurately reproduced. In the present study, neurologically intact participants and patients with frontal and non-frontal lesions were asked to make imitative responses that were either mirror-image (e.g., the observer's right side corresponding to the model's left side) or anatomically (e.g., the observer's right side corresponding to the model's right side) matching. Experiment 1 confirmed that individuals with brain damage, though globally impaired compared with neurologically intact controls, nevertheless followed the same goal hierarchy. However, there was a selective deficit in performing anatomical imitation for the frontal group. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the problem for frontal patients stemmed from an impaired ability to remember and reproduce incompatible stimulus-response mappings, which is fundamental for the selection of the appropriate frame of reference during anatomical imitation.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Roles of different subtypes of opioid receptors in mediating the ventrolateral orbital cortex opioid-induced inhibition of mirror-neuropathic pain in the rat.

Previous studies have demonstrated that opioid receptors in the prefrontal ventrolateral orbital cortex (VLO) are involved in anti-nociception. The aim of this current study was to examine whether opioid receptors in the VLO have effects on the hypersensitivity induced by contralateral L5 and L6 spinal nerve ligation (SNL), termed as mirror neuropathic pain (MNP) in the male rat. Morphine (1.0, 2.5, 5.0 microg) microinjected into the VLO contralateral to the SNL depressed the mechanical paw withdrawal assessed by von Frey filaments and the cold plate (4 degrees C)-induced paw lifting in a dose-dependent manner on the side without SNL. These effects were antagonized by microinjection of the non-selective opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (1.0 mug) into the same VLO site. Microinjection of endomorphin-1 (5.0 microg), a highly selective mu-opioid receptor agonist, and [d-Ala(2), d-Leu(5)]-enkephalin (DADLE, 10 microg), a delta-/mu-receptor agonist, also depressed the MNP. The effects of both drugs were blocked by selective mu-receptor antagonist beta-funaltrexamine (beta-FNA, 3.75 microg), but the effect of the DADLE was not influenced by the selective delta-receptor antagonist naltrindole (5.0 microg). Microinjection of the kappa-opioid receptor agonist spiradoline mesylate salt (U-62066) (100 microg) had no effect on the MNP. These results suggest that the VLO is involved in opioid-induced inhibition of the MNP and the effect is mediated by mu- (but not delta- and kappa-) opioid receptors.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed2004

Excitation wavelength dependent surface-enhanced Raman spectra of a dipping film of azobenzene-containing long-chain fatty acid on a silver mirror.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of dipping films of azobenzene-containing long-chain fatty acids, nAmH (n=8, 12, m=3, 5), on silver mirrors measured with a wide range of excitation wavelengths in the 457.9-1064 nm region is reported. The obtained Raman spectra show great SERS effect even with the 1064 nm excitation, and the excitation with 457.9, 476.5, and 488.0 nm gives surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) due to the resonance effect of the symmetry-forbidden n-pi* transition of the azo group. Of particular note in the present study is that the SERS spectra with the excitation in the 532-1064 nm region yield Raman bands whose frequencies are almost identical to those bands in Raman spectra of nAmH in solid state while the SERRS spectra with the excitation in the 457.9-514.5 nm region show not only a set of bands which correspond to those of nAmH in the solid state but also a set of bands whose frequencies show a significant shift from those of the bands of nAmH in the solid state. These observations lead us to conclude that there are two kinds of molecular aggregates in the dipping films of azobenzene-containing long-chain fatty acid in which azobenzene moieties are condensed to form small bundles.

Azo Compounds↗
PubMed2005

Comparative study of the estrogenic responses of mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio) exposed to treated municipal sewage effluent (Lisbon) during two periods in different seasons.

To assess the estrogenic potency of the treated domestic sewage effluent from a sewage treatment plant (STP) located in Lisbon (Chelas), 60 mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio) were exposed to different concentrations of the sewage effluent (0%, 25%, 50% and 100%) for two periods of 28 days in two different seasons (winter/spring). Vitellogenin induction in males was used as a biomarker of exposure to xenoestrogens. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were taken for vitellogenin analysis and the fish were sacrificed and dissected. Gonad samples were taken for histological evaluation of the sewage effects. The results showed an increase in vitellogenin induction in exposed fish, both males and females, depending on the different dilutions of the sewage effluent. In comparison with controls, the gonadosomatic index decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in fish exposed to 100% treated effluent. Although statistically not significant, the hepatosomatic index (HSI) was high in all exposed fish. Histological abnormalities in fish gonads were evaluated and related to the different percentages of sewage effluent. Seasonal variations found in estrogenic responses were attributed to weather influences on sewage dilution.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Lactate: mirror and motor of tumor malignancy.

A number of studies have shown that malignant transformation is associated with an increase in glycolytic flux and in anaerobic and aerobic cellular lactate excretion. Using quantitative bioluminescence imaging in various primary carcinomas in patients (uterine cervix, head and neck, colorectal region) at first diagnosis of the disease, we showed that lactate concentrations in tumors in vivo can be relatively low or extremely high (up to 40 micromol/g) in different individual tumors or within the same lesion. In all tumor entities investigated, high concentrations of lactate were correlated with a high incidence of distant metastasis already in an early stage of the disease. Low lactate tumors ( 8 micromol/g). Lactate dehydrogenase was found to be upregulated in most of these tumors compared with surrounding normal tissue. Numerous recent reports support these data by showing various biological activities of lactate that can enhance the malignant behavior of cancer cells. These mechanisms include the activation of hyaluronan synthesis by tumor-associated fibroblasts, upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor and of hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha, and direct enhancement of cellular motility that generates favorable conditions for metastatic spread. Thus, lactate accumulation not only mirrors but also actively enhances the degree of tumor malignancy. We propose that determination of lactate in primary tumors may serve as a basis of a novel metabolic classification, which can lead to an improvement of prognosis and therapy in clinical oncology.

Cell Hypoxia↗
PubMed2004

FOXP2 and the mirror system.

An inherited deficit in spoken language has been associated with a mutation in the forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) gene on chromosome 7. A recent functional magnetic resonance imaging study has linked the deficit to underactivity in Broca's area during word generation, which in turn suggests a possible link between FOXP2 and the mirror-neuron system observed in the primate homologue of Broca's area. This link might have implications for the evolution of Broca's area and its role in speech.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Mirror image condylar hyperplasia in two siblings.

A Hispanic family with an unusual clinical and radiological pattern of condylar hyperplasia is presented. Mirror images of condylar hyperplasia, malocclusion of teeth, and shift of midline of the mandible were seen in two brothers. The father had a similar abnormality of his left mandibular condyle. The condylar hyperplasia in this family indicates that mandibular condylar hyperplasias could be genetic in origin, possibly Y-linked or autosomal dominant.

Adult↗