Levodopa (l-dopa) therapy is still considered the gold-standard in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. However, the synaptic and cellular mechanisms involved in the amelioration of motor symptoms during this treatment are still unclear. To address this issue, we analysed the physiological and pharmacological properties of striatal glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic transmission in an experi...

The progressive degeneration of the dopamine neurons of the pars compacta of substantia nigra and the consequent loss of the dopamine innervation of the striatum leads to the impairment of motor behavior in Parkinson's disease. Accordingly, an efficient therapy of the disease should protect and regenerate the dopamine neurons of the substantia nigra and the dopamine innervation of the striatum....

Striatal neurons can be either projection neurons or interneurons, with each type exhibiting distinct susceptibility to various types of brain damage. In this study, 6-hydroxydopamine was injected into the right medial forebrain bundle to induce dopamine depletion, and/or ibotenic acid was injected into the M1 cortex to induce motor cortex lesions. Immunohistochemistry and western blot assay sh...

Resolvers are transducers that are used to sense the angular position of rotational machines. The analog resolver is necessary to use resolver to digital converter. Among the RDC software method, angle tracking observer (ATO) is the most popular method. In an actual resolverbased position sensing system, amplitude imbalance dominantly distorts the estimate position information of ATO. Minority ...

Introduction: β-carbolines (BCs) are heterocyclic indole alkaloids found in human body, grilled meat, alcoholic beverages and tobacco smoke. Based on the present reports, there are controversies about the role of these compounds in the pathophysiology of Parkinson' disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of norharman, a BC, in the prevention, exacerbation or creatio...

In this paper, we present and demonstrate a rotational energy harvesting generator and a method to improve its power density at low operational speeds. The electro-mechanical behavior of the generator is described using direct current (DC) motor theory. Reported results from a previously designed and tested maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit are discussed. The effects of imposing a cur...