Parkinson’s disease (PD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and multiple system atrophy (MSA) are distinctive neurodegenerative disorders, which manifest similar motor features. Their differentiation is crucial but difficult. Dysfunctional speech, especially dysprosody, is a common symptom accompanying PD, PSP, and MSA from early stages. We hypothesized that automated analysis of monologue ...

This study evaluates the diagnostic value of morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the differential diagnosis among Parkinson's disease (PD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). We studied 21 PD cases, 11 MSA-c, 8 MSA-p and 20 PSP cases. Midbrain area (Ams), pons area (Apn), middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP) and superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) we...

Kingdon's multiple streams approach has recently been applied to study implementation across sectors or levels of government. Building on these contributions, we suggest that two streams are especially important in shaping implementation: organizational problem constructions, and political pressure from the centre. These variables produce a four-way typology of implementation modes. We test the...

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) exhibits widespread astrogliosis together with α-synuclein (α-syn) glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) in mature oligodendrocytes. We quantified astrocyte activation by morphometric analysis of MSA cases, and investigated the correlation to GCI proximity. Using Imaris software, we obtained "skinned" three-dimensional models of GFAP-positive astrocytes in MSA and co...

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by striatonigral degeneration and olivo-pontocerebellar atrophy. The histopathological hallmark of MSA is glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCI) within oligodendrocytes, accompanied by neuronal degeneration. MSA is a synucleinopathy, and α-Synuclein (α-Syn) is the major protein constituent of the GCI. It is uncl...

The development of natural language processing tools for dialects faces the severe problem of lack of resources. In cases of diglossia, as in Arabic, one variant, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), has many resources that can be used to build natural language processing tools. Whereas other variants, Arabic dialects, are resource poor. Taking advantage of the closeness of MSA and its dialects, one w...

Sixteen patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable multiple system atrophy (MSA) were examined clinically by MRI and by 123I-iodobenzamide single photon emission computed tomography (IBZM-SPECT). The clinical records of another 16 patients were also analysed retrospectively. On the basis of their clinical presentation, patients were subdivided into those with prominent parkinsonism (MSA-P, ...

HIGHLIGHTS Serum Hcy was higher in MSA patients when compared to healthy subjects, particularly in male patients.Serum UA was lower in MSA patients when compared healthy subjects, particularly in male patients.Serum Hcy levels were significantly positively correlated with the severity of MSA.The ROC curve for the combination of Hcy and UA showed potential diagnostic value in discriminating MSA ...

Objective: We performed H-MR spectroscopy (H-MRS) on multiple brain regions to determine the metabolite pattern and diagnostic utility of H-MRS in multiple system atrophy (MSA). Methods: Examining single voxels at 3.0 T, we studied metabolic findings of the putamen, pontine base, and cerebral white matter in 24 MSA patients (predominant cerebellar ataxia (MSA-C), n = 13), parkinsonism (MSA-P), ...

[1] The past decade has seen significant progress in characterizing uncertainty in environmental systems models, through statistical treatment of incomplete knowledge regarding parameters, model structure, and observational data. Attention has now turned to the issue of model structural adequacy (MSA, a term we prefer over model structure “error”). In reviewing philosophical perspectives from t...