Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia are the major symptoms of the disease. These motor impairments are often accompanied by affective and emotional dysfunctions which have been largely studied over the last decade. The aim of this study was to investigate emotional processing organization in the brain of patients with Parkinson’s disease and to explore whether there are differences between recognition of different types of emotions in Parkinson’s disease. We examined 18 patients with Parkinson’s disease (8 men, 10 women) with no history of neurological or psychiatric comorbidities. All these patients underwent identical brain blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging for emotion evaluation. Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging results revealed that the occipito-temporal cortices, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, basal ganglia, and parietal cortex which are involved in emotion processing, were activated during the functional control. Additionally, positive emotions activate larger volumes of the same anatomical entities than neutral and negative emotions. Results also revealed that Parkinson’s disease associated with emotional disorders are increasingly recognized as disabling as classic motor symptoms. These findings help clinical physicians to recognize the emotional dysfunction of patients with Parkinson’s disease.
White reinforcement fillers such as precipitated silica inclusions are traditionally used in order to increase tear resistance and reduce internal heating of technical rubber components. In this work, two precipitated silicas, which essentially differ in their specific surface area, are incorporated into a natural rubber matrix and investigated according to their mechanical behaviour and fatigue lifetime. To this end, cyclic tension/compression and torsion tests have been carried out on dogbone shaped specimens. All tests have been performed until a visible millimetric crack appears on the outer surface of the specimens. Microscopic examinations are utilised in order to find out the crack growth mechanisms in both materials.While a significant difference has been observed in terms of mechanical properties, the fatigue curves seem to merge into a unique diagram for both reinforced rubber materials. The location and the orientation of the cracks are taken into account by using the largest principal stress. Furthermore, a statistical analysis is performed based upon the amount of specific inclusions per cm 3 of the rubber compound.
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