Bilateral foot drop linked to rapid intentional weight loss and long distance walking.

There are many causes of acute onset foot drop ranging from deep fibular nerve or sciatic nerve injury caused by trauma or a compressive mass such as a neuroma, to spinal cord disorders like disc herniation causing L4-5 radiculopathy, and various muscular dystrophies affecting the tibialis anterior muscle responsible for foot dorsiflexion and eversion. Even brain disorders like MS, stroke or ALS can result in foot drop. We present a case of bilateral foot drop as a complication of rapid 70 lb weight loss which was described in literature previously as “slimmer’s palsy”

The Role of Stenting in Management of Isolated Symptomatic Basilar Artery Stenosis

Isolated basilar artery stenosis (BAS) is a rare etiology of ischemic neurologic conditions. First-line treatment of symptomatic stenosis is typically medical therapy as outlined in the Warfarin–Aspirin Symptomatic Intracranial Disease (WASID) trial and the Stenting versus Aggressive Medical Therapy for Intracranial Arterial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) trial.1,2 We present the case of a male in his 60s with isolated BAS who failed maximal medical treatment but experienced a decrease in transient ischemic attacks and acute ischemic stroke occurrences after angioplasty and stenting

Violencia Intrafamiliar sufrida por las mujeres de la Comunidad de Nueva Vida del Municipio de Ciudad Sandino, Managua, en el periodo comprendido de Agosto a Noviembre del año 2015

La violencia intrafamiliar hacia la mujer representa un grave problema social y de salud pública el cual se da a nivel mundial, y Nicaragua no es la excepción reportándose casos de femicidios en aumento a lo largo de los años. A pesar de los esfuerzos hechos por el Estado y las diferentes organizaciones que trabajan en la prevención de la violencia hacia la mujer, de género y violencia intrafamiliar no se termina de erradicar su prevalencia. Los efectos físicos y psicológicos que vive una víctima de violencia intrafamiliar son devastadores en sus vidas y conlleva de mucho tiempo y esfuerzo ser sanados. La presente investigación tiene por objetivo analizar las formas de abuso, sus causas y consecuencias que afectan a las mujeres víctimas de violencia intrafamiliar y su entorno social de la Comunidad de Nueva Vida del municipio de Ciudad Sandino, Managua. Este estudio corresponde al enfoque cualitativo, utilizando la técnica de la entrevista abierta. La muestra se retomada de un estudio socioeconómico realizado en esta Comunidad por estudiantes de la UCA en el 2011, Las estadísticas señalan que 100 mujeres son afectadas por el fenómeno de la violencia intrafamiliar, se utilizó este como el universo de la investigación y la muestra fue de cinco mujeres que sufren violencia intrafamiliar. Información proporcionada por la organización REDES DE SOLIDARIDAD, ubicada en la comunidad. Se obtuvo como resultados que las formas de abuso más común son: físico, psicológico, económico y patrimonial, según las entrevistas realizadas; entre las causas que la generan están el consumo de alcohol, machismo y dependencia económica, es la principal del porque las mujeres no abandonan a sus parejas, Como consecuencias el miedo, inseguridades, y depresión, el cuadro de la violencia intrafamiliar en la Comunidad Nueva Vida es un problema latente del vivir de las mujeres e hijos e hijas que sufren violencia en sus hogares

Relatedness affects the density, distribution and phenotype of colonisers in four sessile marine invertebrates

Genetic diversity has emerged as an important source of variation in the ecological properties of populations, but there are few studies of genetic diversity effects on colonisation processes. This relative scarcity of studies is surprising given the influence of colonisation on species coexistence, invasion, and population persistence. Here, we manipulated relatedness in experimental populations of colonising larvae in four sessile marine invertebrates. We then examined the influence of coloniser relatedness on the number, spatial arrangement and phenotype of colonisers following permanent settlement. Overall, relatedness influenced colonisation in all four species, but the effects of relatedness on colonisation differed among species. The variable responses of species to manipulations of relatedness likely reflect differences in intensity of inter-and intra-specific competition among adults, as well as the differential consequences of larval behaviours for each species. Relatedness appears to play an underappreciated role in the colonisation process, and we recommend that future studies of genetic diversity effects consider not only adult stages -the focus of most work to date -but also the importance of genetic diversity in early life history stages

11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 regulates glucocorticoid-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle

OBJECTIVE: Glucocorticoid excess is characterized by increased adiposity, skeletal myopathy, and insulin resistance, but the precise molecular mechanisms are unknown. Within skeletal muscle, 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1) converts cortisone (11-dehydrocorticosterone in rodents) to active cortisol (corticosterone in rodents). We aimed to determine the mechanisms underpinning glucocorticoid-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle and indentify how 11beta-HSD1 inhibitors improve insulin sensitivity. \ud RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Rodent and human cell cultures, whole-tissue explants, and animal models were used to determine the impact of glucocorticoids and selective 11beta-HSD1 inhibition upon insulin signaling and action. \ud RESULTS: Dexamethasone decreased insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, decreased IRS1 mRNA and protein expression, and increased inactivating pSer$^{307}$ insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1. 11beta-HSD1 activity and expression were observed in human and rodent myotubes and muscle explants. Activity was predominantly oxo-reductase, generating active glucocorticoid. A1 (selective 11beta-HSD1 inhibitor) abolished enzyme activity and blocked the increase in pSer$^{307}$ IRS1 and reduction in total IRS1 protein after treatment with 11DHC but not corticosterone. In C57Bl6/J mice, the selective 11beta-HSD1 inhibitor, A2, decreased fasting blood glucose levels and improved insulin sensitivity. In KK mice treated with A2, skeletal muscle pSer$^{307}$ IRS1 decreased and pThr$^{308}$ Akt/PKB increased. In addition, A2 decreased both lipogenic and lipolytic gene expression.\ud CONCLUSIONS: Prereceptor facilitation of glucocorticoid action via 11beta-HSD1 increases pSer$^{307}$ IRS1 and may be crucial in mediating insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. Selective 11beta-HSD1 inhibition decreases pSer$^{307}$ IRS1, increases pThr$^{308}$ Akt/PKB, and decreases lipogenic and lipolytic gene expression that may represent an important mechanism underpinning their insulin-sensitizing action

Transient topographical disorientation due to right-sided hippocampal hemorrhage

Introduction: Topographical disorientation is defined as the inability to recognize familiar or unfamiliar environments. While its slowly progressive development is a common feature of neurodegenerative processes like Alzheimer's dementia, acute presentations are less frequent and mostly caused by strategic lesions within the cerebral navigation network. Depending on the lesion site, topographical disorientation can originate from deficits in landmark recognition and utilization for route planning (egocentric navigation deficit), or disturbance of an overarching cognitive map of the spatial environment (allocentric navigation deficit). However, objective measurements of spatial navigation performance over time are largely missing in patients with topographical disorientation. Methods: We here report a 55-year-old patient with acute topographical disorientation as the single symptom of right-sided hippocampal hemorrhage and present quantitative gaze-monitoring head camera-based analyses of his path-finding strategy and visual exploration behavior in a real space navigation paradigm. Results: The patient exhibited severe allocentric and also egocentric navigation deficits during the acute phase, shown by higher error rates at finding target items. In addition, he showed a more extensive use of search saccades toward, and fixations on, landmarks that could potentially serve as spatial cues. These deficits had been completely compensated for after four months, when the patient performed unremarkably in the real space navigation task, and used even more strongly allocentric path optimization strategies than age-matched controls. Conclusions: This case report highlights the integral function and right-sided dominance of the hippocampal formation in the cerebral navigation network in humans. It shows that the cognitive map can be restored completely despite a residual hippocampal lesion, which illustrates the enormous plasticity of the cerebral navigation network in humans

The correlation of dust and gas emission in star-forming environments

We present ammonia maps of portions of the W3 and Perseus molecular clouds in order to compare gas emission with submillimetre continuum thermal emission which are commonly used to trace the same mass component in star-forming regions, often under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). The Perseus and W3 star-forming regions are found to have significantly different physical characteristics consistent with the difference in size scales traced by our observations. Accounting for the distance of the W3 region does not fully reconcile these differences, suggesting that there may be an underlying difference in the structure of the two regions. Peak positions of submillimetre and ammonia emission do not correlate strongly. Also, the extent of diffuse emission is only moderately matched between ammonia and thermal emission. Source sizes measured from our observations are consistent between regions, although there is a noticeable difference between the submillimetre source sizes with sources in Perseus being significantly smaller than those in W3. Fractional abundances of ammonia are determined for our sources which indicate a dip in the measured ammonia abundance at the positions of peak submillimetre column density. Virial ratios are determined which show that our sources are generally bound in both regions, although there is considerable scatter in both samples. We conclude that sources in Perseus are bound on smaller scales than in W3 in a way that may reflect their previous identification as low- and high-mass, respectively. Our results indicate that assumptions of local thermal equilibrium and/or the coupling of the dust and gas phases in star-forming regions may not be as robust as commonly assumed

Star formation towards the Scutum tangent region and the effects of Galactic environment

By positional matching to the catalogue of Galactic Ring Survey molecular clouds, we have derived distances to 793 Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) sources out of a possible 806 located within the region defined by Galactic longitudes l = 28.5 degr to 31.5 degr and latitudes |b| < 1 degr. This section of the Galactic Plane contains several major features of Galactic structure at different distances, mainly mid-arm sections of the Perseus and Sagittarius spiral arms and the tangent of the Scutum-Centarus arm, which is coincident with the end of the Galactic Long Bar. By utilising the catalogued cloud distances plus new kinematic distance determinations, we are able to separate the dense BGPS clumps into these three main line-of-sight components to look for variations in star-formation properties that might be related to the different Galactic environments. We find no evidence of any difference in either the clump mass function or the average clump formation efficiency (CFE) between these components that might be attributed to environmental effects on scales comparable to Galactic-structure features. Despite having a very high star-formation rate, and containing at least one cloud with a very high CFE, the star formation associated with the Scutum-Centarus tangent does not appear to be in any way abnormal or different to that in the other two spiral-arm sections. Large variations in the CFE are found on the scale of individual clouds, however, which may be due to local triggering agents as opposed to the large-scale Galactic structure.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Amount of intergalactic dust: constraints from distant supernovae and thermal history of intergalactic medium

This paper examines the allowed amount of IG (intergalactic) dust, which is constrained by extinction and reddening of distant SNe and thermal history of IGM (intergalactic medium) affected by dust photoelectric heating. Based on the observational cosmic star formation history, we find an upper bound of $\chi$, the mass ratio of the IG dust to the total metal in the Universe, as \chi\la 0.1 for 10 {\rm \AA} \la a \la 0.1 \micron and \chi\la 0.1(a/0.1 \micron)^{-1} for 0.1 \micron\la a\la1\micron, where $a$ is a characteristic grain size of the IG dust. This upper bound of $\chi\sim0.1$ suggests that the dust-to-metal ratio in the IGM is smaller than the current Galactic value. The corresponding allowed density of the IG dust increases from $\sim10^{-34}$ g cm$^{-3}$ at $z=0$ to $\sim10^{-33}$ g cm$^{-3}$ at $z\sim1$, and keeps almost the value toward higher redshift. This causes IG extinction of \la 0.2 mag at the observer's $B$-band for $z\sim 1$ sources and that of \la 1 mag for higher redshift sources. Furthermore, if $E(B-V)\sim 0.1$ mag at the observer's frame against z\ga1 sources is detected, we can conclude that a typical size of the IG dust is \la 100 \AA. The 2175 \AA absorption feature of small graphite may be found as a local minimum at $z\sim2.5$ in a plot of the observed $E(B-V)$ as a function of the source redshift. Finally, the IGM mean temperature at z\la1 can be still higher than $10^{4}$ K, provided the size of the IG dust is \la100 \AA.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS accepte