Nine young (5-22 years of age) and ten adult (30-91 y) presumptively healthy subjects were recorded during 10 minutes in supine position. Each individual traces was divided into non-overlapping segments each with 500 data points, and kernel nonlinear estimation was performed. Noise free Realizations (NFR) were generated for each nonlinearly estimated segment. We obtained that 72.8% (657 out of 902 analyzed NFR) of the NFR were periodic, corresponding to limit cycle attractors. Besides, 14.4% of the attractors were chaotic, and 7.4% of the NFR corresponded to point attractors. In 47 NFR (5.2%) the appearance was either periodic or chaotic, but their amplitude was less than 10% of the original trace. We classified these traces as 'quasi-punctual'. Thus, besides previously described periodic attractors, chaotic, quasi-punctual and point attractors may be found. Proportions for each type of attractors varied among subjects, and periodic attractors were more abundant among older subjects (p<0.05). We interpret these results as an evidence of maturation of the nonlinear cardiovascular dynamics. We stress that the contribution of stochastic influences into the PPG signal cannot be omitted. Limit cycle dynamics apparently warranties a better robustness of the system. Since PPG's stochastic component is a fractal motion, the study of the interaction between this fractal component and the low-dimensional nonlinear system need to be theoretically handled to understand their implications for cardiovascular physiology.

The effects of chronic consumption of nutmeg commonly used as a spice in various dishes, as components of teas and soft drinks or mixed in milk and alcohol on the lateral geniculate body of adult wistar rats was studied. The rats of both sexes, with average weight of 200g were randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. The rats in the treatment group (n=8) received 2g of nutmeg thoroughly mixed with the feeds on a daily basis for thirty-two days. The control group (n=8) received equal amount of feeds daily without nutmeg added for thirty-two days. The growers mash feeds was obtained from Edo Feeds and Flour Mill Limited, Ewu, Edo State, Nigeria and the rats were given water liberally. The rats were sacrificed on the thirty-three day of the experiment. The lateral geniculate body was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for histological study. The findings indicate that rats in the treated group showed some cellular degenerative changes like sparse cellular population, pyknotic nuclei with some microcystic changes, edema and vacuolations in the stroma of the treated lateral geniculate body as compared to that of the control group.

The purpose of this study is to establish the chronological changes in knee alignment pattern in normal South-East Nigerian children aged between 0 and 5 years. A total number of 1450 subjects (680 males and 770 females) were used for the study. The intercondylar/intermalleolar distances were measured using a vernier caliper with the subjects standing erect in anatomical position to determine straight knee, genu valgum and genu varum. The data was analysed with Microsoft Excel version 2007. The prevalence was presented as percentage (%). The result showed that the subjects have varum by the first year of life, prevalently genu valgum in type by the second year, valgum by the third year, neutral by the fourth and fifth year.

Tamoxifen, is a selective modulator (competitive inhibition) of estrogen receptors, and it has antifibrotic properties which are used for treating retroperitoneal fibrosis, peritoneal sclerosis associated to peritoneal dialysis, desmoids tumors and in some cases of sclerodermia. In the present article, it is presented the hypothesis of a potential use of tamoxifen as a non immunosuppressant treatment for NSF in patients who have no contraindication for receiving it.

SUMMARY: Drug Information Center (DIC) is a basic activity in Hospital Pharmacy. With internet, database and software's incorporation, the DICs has been modificated in the last years. In this article, we present our experience during 8 years (2001-2008)