The status of olfactory function and the striatal dopaminergic system in drug-induced parkinsonism

Olfactory impairment has been reported in drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP), but the relationship between dopaminergic dysfunction and smell deficits in DIP patients has not been characterized. To this end, we studied 16 DIP patients and 13 patients affected by Parkinson's disease (PD) using the "Sniffin' Sticks" test and [(123)I] FP-CIT SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography). DIP patients were divided based on normal (n = 9) and abnormal (n = 7) putamen dopamine transporter binding. Nineteen healthy age- and sex-matched subjects served as controls of smell function. Patients with DIP and pathological putamen uptake had abnormal olfactory function. In this group of patients, olfactory TDI scores (odor threshold, discrimination and identification) correlated significantly with putamen uptake values, as observed in PD patients. By contrast, DIP patients with normal putamen uptake showed odor functions-with the exception of the threshold subtest-similar to control subjects. In this group of patients, no significant correlation was observed between olfactory TDI scores and putamen uptake values. The results of our study suggest that the presence of smell deficits in DIP patients might be more associated with dopaminergic loss rather than with a drug-mediated dopamine receptor blockade. These preliminary results might have prognostic and therapeutic implications, as abnormalities in these individuals may be suggestive of an underlying PD-like neurodegenerative process.

Real-time image processing for crop/weed discrimination in maize fields

This paper presents a computer vision system that successfully discriminates between weed patches and crop rows under uncontrolled lighting in real-time. The system consists of two independent subsystems, a fast image processing delivering results in real-time (Fast Image Processing, FIP), and a slower and more accurate processing (Robust Crop Row Detection, RCRD) that is used to correct the first subsystem's mistakes. This combination produces a system that achieves very good results under a wide variety of conditions. Tested on several maize videos taken of different fields and during different years, the system successfully detects an average of 95% of weeds and 80% of crops under different illumination, soil humidity and weed/crop growth conditions. Moreover, the system has been shown to produce acceptable results even under very difficult conditions, such as in the presence of dramatic sowing errors or abrupt camera movements. The computer vision system has been developed for integration into a treatment system because the ideal setup for any weed sprayer system would include a tool that could provide information on the weeds and crops present at each point in real-time, while the tractor mounting the spraying bar is moving

Dissertazione istorico-politica, e legale sopra la natura, e qualità delle città di Piacenza, e Parma.

ICCU

Quaresimale del padre Jacopo Giroust della Compagnia di Gesú /

Mode of access: Internet.

Acta sanctorum martyrum Orientalium et Occidentalium in duas partes distributa adcedunt Acta s. Symeonis stylitae omnia nunc primum sub auspiciis Johannis V. Lusitanorum regis e Bibliotheca Vaticana prodeunt Stephanus Evodio Assemani archiepiscopis Apamensis Chaldaicum textum recensuit, notis vocalibus animavit, Latine vertit, admonitionibus, perpetuisque adnotationibus illustravit

Mode of access: Internet.