Neuropsychological diagnostics in Ethiopia - challenges and chances among considerations regarding differential diagnosis (literature overview)

Background Neuropsychological tests can provide crucial information regarding the consideration of psychiatric differential diagnosis. This is especially important in developing countries like Ethiopia where advanced imaging is not widely available.Methods A detailed literature search was conducted using the search engines Pubmed, Science Direct, Web of Science and Google Scholar from February 2013 until May 2014. Selecting the identified studies pragmatically depending on the content, twenty-six studies were included.Results The administration of tests developed in Western-European settings to the African culture presents enormous challenge. Among these are especially the influence of low level of literacy, familiarity with the testing material, cultural aspects regarding social behavior and sense of time, cultural differences regarding cognitive functions and lack of norms. At the same time, there are opportunities for different fields of application, especially when considering the diagnosis of dementia and in the assessment of frontal lobe lesions. Assessment of cognitive flexibility appears to be an important way to differentiate between affective disorders and schizophrenia.Conclusions In conclusion, we suggest a „basic set of neuropsychological tests“ for application in psychiatric facilities in low income countries like Ethiopia, which mostly includes nonverbal tests. By using these tests, some of the challenges found during the literature search can be overcome. Additionally, they might provide extra information for diagnostic issues. However, they might have to be adapted to the Ethiopian culture.Key words: Cognition; Culture-fair; Ethiopian; Low-Income; Neuropsychology; Psychiatr

An EKF observer to estimate semi-autogenous grinding mill hold-ups

A non-linear observer model of a semi-autogenous grinding mill is developed. The observer model distinguishes between the volumetric hold-up of water, solids, and the grinding media in the mill. Solids refer to all ore small enough to discharge through the end-discharge grate, and grinding media refers to the rocks and steel balls. The rocks are all ore too large to discharge from the mill. The observer model uses the accumulation rate of solids and the mill’s discharge rate as parameters. It is shown that with mill discharge flow-rate, discharge density, and volumetric hold-up measurements, the model states and parameters are linearly observable. Although instrumentation at the mill discharge is not yet included in industrial circuits because of space restrictions, this study motivates the benefits to be gained from including such instrumentation. An extended Kalman filter is applied in simulation to estimate the model states and parameters from data generated by a semi-autogenous mill simulation model from literature. Results indicate that if sufficiently accurate measurements are available, especially at the discharge of the mill, it is possible to reliably estimate grinding media, solids and water hold-ups within the mill. Such an observer can be used as part of an advanced process control strategy.The first author gratefully appreciates support from the University of Pretoria postgraduate study abroad bursary programme. The second author gratefully acknowledges financial support provided by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in the form of an APART-fellowship at the Automation and Control Institute of Vienna University of Technology. The third author gratefully acknowledges financial support provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, and the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development. The fourth author would like to acknowledge the support of the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant No.90533).http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jprocont2018-03-31hb2017Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineerin

Evaluation of Presumably Disease Causing SCN1A Variants in a Cohort of Common Epilepsy Syndromes

A. Palotie on työryhmän jäsen.Objective The SCN1A gene, coding for the voltage-gated Na+ channel alpha subunit NaV1.1, is the clinically most relevant epilepsy gene. With the advent of high-throughput next-generation sequencing, clinical laboratories are generating an ever-increasing catalogue of SCN1A variants. Variants are more likely to be classified as pathogenic if they have already been identified previously in a patient with epilepsy. Here, we critically re-evaluate the pathogenicity of this class of variants in a cohort of patients with common epilepsy syndromes and subsequently ask whether a significant fraction of benign variants have been misclassified as pathogenic. Methods We screened a discovery cohort of 448 patients with a broad range of common genetic epilepsies and 734 controls for previously reported SCN1A mutations that were assumed to be disease causing. We re-evaluated the evidence for pathogenicity of the identified variants using in silico predictions, segregation, original reports, available functional data and assessment of allele frequencies in healthy individuals as well as in a follow up cohort of 777 patients. Results and Interpretation We identified 8 known missense mutations, previously reported as pathogenic, in a total of 17 unrelated epilepsy patients (17/448; 3.80%). Our re-evaluation indicates that 7 out of these 8 variants (p.R27T; p.R28C; p.R542Q; p.R604H; p.T1250M; p.E1308D; p.R1928G; NP_001159435.1) are not pathogenic. Only the p. T1174S mutation may be considered as a genetic risk factor for epilepsy of small effect size based on the enrichment in patients (P = 6.60 x 10(-4); OR = 0.32, fishers exact test), previous functional studies but incomplete penetrance. Thus, incorporation of previous studies in genetic counseling of SCN1A sequencing results is challenging and may produce incorrect conclusions.Peer reviewe

Structural Stability

IASS-IACM 2008 Session: Structural Stability -- Session Organizer: Herbert MANG (Technical University of Vienna) -- Plenary Lecture: Abstract, Slides and Video: "Answers to three not quite straightforward questions in structural stability" by Andreas STEINBOECK, Gerhard HOEFINGER, Xin JIA, Herbert A. MANG (Technical University of Vienna) -- Keynote Lecture: "Limit-point and postbuckling behavior of steel trusses under thermal and mechanical loadings" by Yeong Bin YANG , T.J. LIN (National Taiwan University) -- "Modeling thin-walled cold-formed steel members and systems" by Benjamin W. SCHAFER , R. H. SANGREE, Cristopher MOEN, M. SEIF, Y. SHIFFERAW, V. ZEINODDINI, Z. J. LI, O. IUORIO, Y. GUAN (Johns Hopkins University) -- "Multi parametrical instability of straight bars" by Jan B. OBREBSKI (Warsaw University of Technology) -- "The effect of predetermined delaminations on buckling and post-buckling behavior of spatial composite timber beams and frames" by Miran SAJE , Urban RODMAN, Dejan ZUPAN, Igor PLANINC (University of Ljubljana) -- Keynote Lecture: "Buckling and sensitivity analysis of imperfect shells involving contact" by Karl SCHWEIZERHOF , Eduard EWERT (University of Karlsruhe) -- Keynote Lecture: "Determining the stability of tensegrities and generic global rigidity" by Robert CONNELLY (Cornell University) -- "Initial imperfection identification in shell buckling problems" by Christopher J. STULL , Christopher J. EARLS, Wilkins AQUINO (Cornell University) -- "Buckling phenomena, analysis and design of axially compressed cylindrical shells with co-existent external pressure" by Werner GUGGENBERGER , Medhanye B. TEKLEAB (TU Graz