Ictal verbal help-seeking: Occurrence and the underlying etiology.

PURPOSE: Ictal verbal help-seeking has never been systematically studied before. In this study, we evaluated a series of patients with ictal verbal help-seeking to characterize its frequency and underlying etiology. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all the long-term video-EEG reports from Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center over a 12-year period (2004-2015) for the occurrence of the term help in the text body. All the extracted reports were reviewed and patients with at least one episode of documented ictal verbal help-seeking in epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) were studied. For each patient, the data were reviewed from the electronic medical records, EMU report, and neuroimaging records. RESULTS: During the study period, 5133 patients were investigated in our EMU. Twelve patients (0.23%) had at least one episode of documented ictal verbal help-seeking. Nine patients (six women and three men) had epilepsy and three patients (two women and one man) had psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). Seven out of nine patients with epilepsy had temporal lobe epilepsy; six patients had right temporal lobe epilepsy. CONCLUSION: Ictal verbal help-seeking is a rare finding among patients evaluated in epilepsy monitoring units. Ictal verbal help-seeking may suggest that seizures arise in or propagate to the right temporal lobe

In-field assessment of change-of-direction ability with a single wearable sensor.

The Agility T-test is a standardized method to measure the change-of-direction (COD) ability of athletes in the field. It is traditionally scored based on the total completion time, which does not provide information on the different CODs. Augmenting the T-test with wearable sensors provides the opportunity to explore new metrics. Towards this, data of 23 professional soccer players were recorded with a trunk-worn GNSS-IMU (Global Navigation Satellite System-Inertial Measurement Unit) device. A method for detecting the four CODs based on the wavelet-denoised antero-posterior acceleration signal was developed and validated using video data (60 Hz). Following this, completion time was estimated using GNSS ground speed and validated with the photocell data. The proposed method yields an error (mean ± standard deviation) of 0 ± 66 ms for the COD detection, - 0.16 ± 0.22 s for completion time, and a relative error for each COD duration and each sequential movement durations of less than 3.5 ± 16% and 7 ± 7%, respectively. The presented algorithm can highlight the asymmetric performance between the phases and CODs in the right and left direction. By providing a more comprehensive analysis in the field, this work can enable coaches to develop more personalized training and rehabilitation programs

Effects of Cholesterol in Stress-Related Neuronal Death—A Statistical Analysis Perspective

The association between plasma cholesterol levels and the development of dementia continues to be an important topic of discussion in the scientific community, while the results in the literature vary significantly. We study the effect of reducing oxidized neuronal cholesterol on the lipid raft structure of plasma membrane. The levels of plasma membrane cholesterol were reduced by treating the intact cells with methyl-ß-cyclodextrin (MßCD). The relationship between the cell viability with varying levels of MßCD was then examined. The viability curves are well described by a modified form of the empirical Gompertz law of mortality. A detailed statistical analysis is performed on the fitting results, showing that increasing MßCD concentration has a minor, rather than significant, effect on the cellular viability. In particular, the dependence of viability on MßCD concentration was found to be characterized by a ~25% increase per 1 μM of MßCD concentration

Studies on the host range of Septoria species on cereals and some wild grasses in Iran

In an attempt to determine the host range of Septoria species, 27 species/varieties of cereals and certain wild grasses were examined with inoculation experiments under controlled conditions. Most Septoria species were each pathogenic only on a particular host plant, and wild grasses played only a minor role as alternative hosts for these fungi. Septoria tritici isolates from Triticum aestivum infected T. aestivum, T. durum, T. dicoccum and T. compactum, species that may provide a primary inoculum source for S. tritici. Septoria isolates from Aegilops tauschii, Lolium loliaceum, Lophochloa phleoides, Phalaris paradoxa and Hordeum glaucum were pathogenic only on their original hosts. S. passerinii isolates from Hordeum vulgare and H. distichon were pathogenic on all Hordeum species/cultivars tested except H. glaucum. Thus various Hordeum species may play a role in the epidemiology of Septoria diseases on barley

Ileal intussusception secondary to both lipoma and angiolipoma: a case report

Lipoma and angiolipoma are common benign neoplasms that occur in the subcutaneous tissue and rarely in the gastrointestinal tract. These tumors are usually asymptomatic but may present with abdominal pain, bleeding and obstruction. We present a 53-years-old woman with abdominal discomfort for several weeks accompanied with bloody diarrhea and recurrent vomiting. Ileo-ileal invagination was diagnosed by computed tomography scan. Laparotomy revealed five intraluminal masses that caused intussusception. Histopathological study showed that one was angiolipoma and other lesions were lipoma. We have described some aspects of diagnosis and treatment of this rare cause of intestinal intussusception

A computational fluid dynamics study of laminar forced convection improvement of a non-Newtonian hybrid nanofluid within an annular pipe in porous media

Porous inserts and nanofluids are among the conventional methods for the amelioration of heat transfer in industrial systems. The heat transfer rate could also be improved by utilizing porous substances with a higher thermal conductivity in these systems. This research work presents a two-dimensional (2D) numerical examination of the laminar forced convection of an Al2O3-CuO-carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) non-Newtonian hybrid nanofluid within an annular pipe in a porous medium. The porous medium was inserted within two inner or outer wall cases. For hybrid nanofluid flow modeling in porous media, a Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer formulation was employed. Additionally, a power-law technique was utilized as a fluid viscosity model for the considered non-Newtonian fluid. The governing equations were discretized according to the finite volume method (FVM) using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package ANSYS-FLUENT. The cylinder walls’ thermal boundary conditions were exposed to a constant heat flux. For various Darcy numbers, the impacts of different volume fractions of the hybrid nanofluid (0% to 5%), the total Nusselt number, the pressure drop, and the performance number (PN) were evaluated. The outcomes indicate that the heat transfer coefficient increases considerably with a decrease in the Darcy number (0.1 to 0.0001), as well as with an increase in the porous thickness ratio. Moreover, it was found that the nanoparticles’ increased volume fraction would ameliorate the heat transfer and, more considerably, the PN factor. Furthermore, according to the outcomes in both cases I and II for a constant porous thickness ratio and Darcy number (rp=1,Da=0.0001) and a high volume fraction (φ=5%), the maximum total Nusselt number reached 1274.44. Moreover, applying a volume fraction of 5% with Da=0.1 and rp=1 reached the highest value of the PN index equal to 7.61, which is augmented as roughly 88% compared to the case of a zero volume fraction

N�89 and C�274 Truncated Enzymes of Chondroitinase ABC I Regain More Imperturbable Microenvironments Around Structural Components in Comparison to their Wild Type

Immune response stimulation and inactivation of chondroitinase ABC I in physiological condition have been limited its use in various clinical conditions as a bacterial enzyme drug. In the present study, we have investigated some structural and functional features of N�89, C�274 and N�89C�274; three designed truncated cABC I, in order to clarify the unclear role of two terminal parts of cABC I i.e., the 1�89 and 747�1021 amino acids sequences of the full length enzyme through truncation. As a result, the numbers of potential epitopes, the susceptibility to trypsin digestion, ANS fluorescence spectra, and fluorescence quenching using KI and acrylamide were diminished for N�89 and C�274 in comparison to the wild type. Secondary and tertiary structure investigation for N�89 and C�274 revealed that the intrinsic fluorescence was increased and Far-UV CD spectra were changed accordingly. Relative to the wild type enzyme, 0.164, 0.195 remaining activity and lack of activity was shown with the zymographic assay for N�89, C�274 and N�89C�274 variants, respectively. The diminished enzyme activity and structural changes suggested a reorientation of microenvironments interactions including cation�� interactions around structural elements toward lowering regional mobility. Constructing applicable truncated cABC I with improved features could be regarded as a strategy to regain new possible functional advantages over the full length enzyme. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Validity, practical utility, and reliability of the activPAL in preschool children

<p>Purpose: With the increasing global prevalence of childhood obesity, it is important to have appropriate measurement tools for investigating factors (e.g. sedentary time) contributing to positive energy balance in early childhood. For pre-school children, single unit monitors such as the activPALTM are promising. However, validation is required as activity patterns differ from adults.</p> <p>Methods: Thirty pre-school children participated in a validation study. Children were videoed for one hour undertaking usual nursery activity while wearing an activPALTM. Video (criterion method) was analyzed on a second-by-second basis to categorise posture and activity. This was compared with the corresponding activPALTM output. In a subsequent sub-study investigating practical utility and reliability, 20 children wore an activPALTM for seven consecutive 24-hour periods.</p> <p>Results: A total of 97,750 seconds of direct observation from 30 children were categorized as sit/lie (46%), stand (35%), walk (16%); with 3% of time in nonsit/lie/upright postures (e.g. crawl/crouch/kneel-up). Sensitivity for the overall total time matched seconds detected as activPALTM ‘sit/lie’ was 86.7%, specificity 97.1%, and positive predictive value (PPV) 96.3%. For individual children, the median (interquartile range) sensitivity for activPALTM sit/lie was 92.8% (76.1-97.4), specificity 97.3% (94.9-99.2), PPV 97.0% (91.5-99.1). The activPALTM underestimated total time spent sitting (mean difference -4.4%, p<0.01), and overestimated time standing (mean difference 7.1%, p<0.01). There was no difference in overall % time categorised as ‘walk’ (p=0.2). The monitors were well tolerated by children during a seven day period of free-living activity. In the reliability study, at least five days of monitoring were required to obtain an intraclass correlation coefficient of ≥0.8 for time spent sit/lie according to activPALTM output.</p> <p>Conclusion: The activPAL had acceptable validity, practical utility, and reliability for the measurement of posture and activity during freeliving activities in pre-school children.</p&gt