Familial Facial Palsy: A Case Series of Six Families from the Northern State, Sudan

Familial facial palsy is uncommon, accounting only for 4–14% of Bell’s palsy cases. We report six families with single or recurrent episodes of familial facial palsy from Northern State, Sudan. The first family had two brothers with single episodes of Bell’s palsy. The index case of the second family was a 19-year-old female who and nine other members of her family had a single or recurrent episodes of Bell’s palsy. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth families had eight, five, four, and five members, respectively, who developed either single or recurrent episodes of Bell’s palsy. None of the index cases or other members of the six families who were examined showed evidence of facial swelling or fissured tongue suggestive of Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome. Literature review revealed two studies on Bell’s palsy from Sudan but no studies on familial facial palsy. The mode of inheritance was either autosomal dominant with variable penetrance or autosomal recessive. In the second family, there could be a possibility of autosomal recessive  inheritance due to increased number of cases after consanguineous marriage. Steroids remain the mainstay of treatment together with protective eye regimens. The role of physiotherapy, although widely used, is controversial. Genetic analysis is recommended and family history should be considered in patients with Bell’s palsy. Keywords: Bell’s palsy, familial facial palsy, Northern State, Suda

A coupled FEM/BEM approach and its accuracy for solving crack problems in fracture mechanics

AbstractThe finite element (FEM) and the boundary element methods (BEM) are well known powerful numerical techniques for solving a wide range of problems in applied science and engineering. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so that it is desirable to develop a combined finite element/boundary element method approach, which makes use of their advantages and reduces their disadvantages. Several coupling techniques are proposed in the literature, but until now the incompatibility of the basic variables remains a problem to be solved. To overcome this problem, a special super-element using boundary elements based on the usual finite element technique of total potential energy minimization has been developed in this paper. The application of the most commonly used approaches in finite element method namely quarter-point elements and J-integrals techniques were examined using the proposed coupling FEM–BEM. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach have been assessed for the evaluation of stress intensity factors (SIF). It was found that the FEM–BEM coupling technique gives more accurate values of the stress intensity factors with fewer degrees of freedom

Hantavirus-driven PD-L1/PD-L2 upregulation: An imperfect viral immune evasion mechanism

Viruses often subvert antiviral immune responses by taking advantage of inhibitory immune signaling. We investigated if hantaviruses use this strategy. Hantaviruses cause viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) which is associated with strong immune activation resulting in vigorous CD8+ T cell responses. Surprisingly, we observed that hantaviruses strongly upregulate PD-L1 and PD-L2, the ligands of checkpoint inhibitor programmed death-1 (PD-1). We detected high amounts of soluble PD-L1 (sPD-L1) and soluble PD-L2 (sPD-L2) in sera from hantavirus-infected patients. In addition, we observed hantavirus-induced PD-L1 upregulation in mice with a humanized immune system. The two major target cells of hantaviruses, endothelial cells and monocyte-derived dendritic cells, strongly increased PD-L1 and PD-L2 surface expression upon hantavirus infection in vitro. As an underlying mechanism, we found increased transcript levels whereas membrane trafficking of PD-L1 was not affected. Further analysis revealed that hantavirus-associated inflammatory signals and hantaviral nucleocapsid (N) protein enhance PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression. Cell numbers were strongly reduced when hantavirus-infected endothelial cells were mixed with T cells in the presence of an exogenous proliferation signal compared to uninfected cells. This is compatible with the concept that virus-induced PD-L1 and PD-L2 upregulation contributes to viral immune escape. Intriguingly, however, we observed hantavirus-induced CD8+ T cell bystander activation despite strongly upregulated PD-L1 and PD-L2. This result indicates that hantavirus-induced CD8+ T cell bystander activation bypasses checkpoint inhibition allowing an early antiviral immune response upon virus infection

PREVALENCE AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF EXTENDED SPECTRUM β-LACTAMASES IN KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE ISOLATES FROM CANCER PATIENTS AND OTHERS

Objective: Klebsiella pneumoniae is highly prevalent in hospitals and causes many nosocomial infections. The study sought to determine prevalence rates of extended spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) in clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae from Cairo, Egypt and to detect the ESBL-encoding genes in the isolates.Methods: K. pneumoniae isolates were collected through two-year period (2011-2012). Identification of K. pneumoniae was carried out using automated Microscan and standard biochemical tests. ESBL pattern and minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were detected using Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines and confirmatory tests. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction for ESBL-encoding genes and plasmid profiling were performed.Results: In the present work; 112 isolates, 75 of them from cancer patients, were characterized. High proportion (52 of 112, 46 %â€) of ESBLs among the isolates were detected. Highest prevalence of ESBLs was seen among cancer patients, 39 isolates of 75 (52%). Plasmid profile for ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae isolates showed different sizes and numbers of plasmids in all isolates. MICs for all ESBL-producing isolates revealed high resistance rates with tetracycline (100%), cefepime (96%), gentamycin (90%) and ciprofloxacin (79%). Whereas, only two isolates (4%) were resistant to both carbapenem drugs tested, imipenem and meropenem. blaTEM, blaSHV, and bla CTX-M were performed for all ESBL-producing isolates. Five patterns of ESBL-encoding genes were detected. The most prevalent ESBL-encoding gene was blaTEM;alone in 40% and with other ESBL-encoding gene(s) in 48% of the isolates.Conclusion: High prevalence of ESBL (46%) in our isolates suggesting the need for continuous monitoring of emergence of this pattern in our region.Â

NDM-1 and OXA-163 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates in Cairo, Egypt, 2012

Here we describe carbapenem resistance determinants in two Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates recovered from two hospitalised patients in the same intensive care unit of a cancer hospital in Cairo, Egypt. PCR and sequencing were used to detect and characterise β-lactamase genes. Clonal relationships between the isolates were analysed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The first K. pneumoniae isolate carried the blaNDM-1 gene and the second isolate carried the blaOXA-163 gene. Both isolates co-expressed the extended-spectrum β-lactamase CTX-M-15. The two isolates belonged to different sequence types (STs), ST11 and ST16, respectively. No history of travel was established for the two patients. The first identification of NDM-1-producing K. pneumoniae in Egypt adds further evidence to the spread of NDM-1-producing Gram-negative micro-organisms in North Africa. The additional detection of blaOXA-163 in a K. pneumoniae isolate confirms its endemic presence in a critical healthcare setting of this geographic area

Biodiesel production from high acid value waste cooking oil using supercritical methanol: Esterification kinetics of free fatty acids

In this study, low quality waste cooking oil with high total acid value, has been used for biodiesel production. The main factors affecting the reaction has been analysed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). A quadratic model representing the interrelationships between reaction variables and free fatty acids (FFA) conversion has been developed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used for checking the significance of the predicted model. Numerical optimisation concluded the optimum conditions for maximum conversion of FFA at methanol to oil (M:O) molar ratio, temperature, pressure and time of 35:1, 260oC, 110 bar and 16 minutes, respectively for 98% conversion. The predicted optimum conditions have been validated experimentally resulting in 97.7% conversion of FFA with 0.3% relative error. Kinetic and thermodynamic data of the esterification reaction has been studied resulting in pseudo first order reaction with reaction rate constant (k) of 0.00103 s-1, activation energy of 34.5 kJ/mol and Arrhenius constant of 1.26 s-1. Finally, a kinetic reaction has been simulated resulting in 97% conversion of FFA with 0.716% relative error from the experimental results

Antenna-coupled spintronic terahertz emitters driven by a 1550 nm femtosecond laser oscillator

We demonstrate antenna-coupled spintronic terahertz (THz) emitters excited by 1550 nm, 90 fs laser pulses. Antennas are employed to optimize THz outcoupling and frequency coverage of ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic metallic spintronic structures. We directly compare the antenna-coupled devices to those without antennas. Using a 200 μm H-dipole antenna and an ErAs:InGaAs photoconductive receiver, we obtain a 2.42-fold larger THz peak-peak signal, a bandwidth of 4.5 THz, and an increase in the peak dynamic range (DNR) from 53 dB to 65 dB. A 25 μm slotline antenna offered 5 dB larger peak DNR and a bandwidth of 5 THz. For all measurements, we use a comparatively low laser power of 45 mW from a commercial fiber-coupled system that is frequently employed in table-top THz time-domain systems. This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through Project Nos. 290319996/TRR173, 318612841, and 278381540/PR1413/3-1 (REPHCON) and project B02 of the SFB/TRR227 Ultrafast Spin Dynamics. We further acknowledge CST for the EM Simulation solver

Screening of Guava genotypes to natural infestation of fruit flies (Diptera:Tephritidae) in River Nile, Sennar and North Kordofan States, Sudan

The infesting species and their infestation indices of fruit flies were determined for guava genotypes (Psidium guajava L.),grown in River Nile, Sennar and North Kordofan States during the period from June to August 2010 .Twenty genotypes were selected from each state to be evaluated ,where ten mature fruits from each genotypes were harvested randomly from insecticide unsprayed trees. Fruits were brought to the laboratory and placed in individual plastic vials containing sand at the bottom to obtain the pupae. Infestation indices were estimated by means of total number of pupae/fruit. Pupal viability was then calculated based on the percentage of pupae resulted in fly emergence. Data was analyzed using analysis of variance and Duncan multiple range test for mean separations. Results showed that Guava fruits were infested by four fruit fly species Ceratitis cosyra, C.quinaira, C capitata and Bactrocera dorsalis constitute (82.2), (0.8), (16.7), (0.3% ) and 28.35 ,0.01 ,10.1 and 61.56% in River Nile and Sennar States respectively. While in North Kordofan State guava fruits were infested by C.cosyra, C.capitat and B.dorsalis 98.4,0.4 and 1.2% respectively. All the evaluated genotypes in River Nile and Sennar States were infested by the fruit fly with varying degrees only two genotypes 15 red flesh fruit and 19 white flesh fruit in Kordofan state were found free from fruit fly infestation. Infestation was much higher in Sennar and River Nile states (32 and 29 pupae/fruit) respectively compared to North Kordofan (1.6 pupae/fruit).The higher infestation rate occurred in ripe guava fruits (33) compared to 18 and 6 pupae/fruit in mature green and immature green fruit respectively