555 research outputs found
The impact of epilepsy surgery on sex hormones and the menstrual cycle in female patients
AbstractWe investigated the impact of temporal lobe epilepsy surgery on sex hormones and menstrual cycles. Sixteen female patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were investigated prior to surgery and 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. The patients received carbamazepine (CBZ) as monotherapy (10 patients ) or in combination with other antiepileptic drugs (six patients ). Antiepileptic drugs were maintained after surgery. During the 1-year follow-up after surgery eight patients (50%) remained completely free of seizures. In another four patients (25%) only rare disabling seizures occurred. There were no significant differences between pre-surgical and post-surgical serum concentrations of testosterone, free testosterone, prolactin, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, growth hormone, cortisol and sex hormone binding globulin. There was, however, a significant increase in serum androstenedione concentration 6 months post-surgically (P< 0.02). Documentation of menstrual cycles in addition to laboratory parameters revealed individual post-surgical changes of the menstrual cycle in eight patients . Four patients had a change in menstrual periodicity: two patients with complete seizure control had regular cycles instead of oligomenorrhoea and two patients with incomplete seizure control had oligomenorrhoea instead of regular cycles. These data indicate that at least in some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy surgical treatment influences menstrual periodicity
Multiscale investigations in a mesoscale catchment ? hydrological modelling in the Gera catchment
International audienceThe application of the hydrological process-oriented model J2000 (J2K) is part of a cooperation project between the Thuringian Environmental Agency (ThĂŒringer Landesanstalt fĂŒr Umwelt und Geologie ? TLUG) and the Department of Geoinformatics of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena focussing on the implementation of the EU water framework directive (WFD). In the first project phase J2K was parametrised and calibrated for a mesoscale catchment to quantify if it can be used as hydrological part of a multi-objective tool-box needed for the implementation of the WFD. The main objectives for that pilot study were: The development and application of a suitable distribution concept which provide the spatial data basis for various tasks and which reflects the specific physiogeographical variability and heterogeneity of river basins adequately. This distribution concept should consider the following constraints: The absolute number of spatial entities, which forms the basis for any distributive modelling should be as small as possible, but the spatial distributed factors, which controls quantitative and qualitative hydrological processes should not be generalised to much. The distribution concept of hydrological response units HRUs (FlĂŒgel, 1995) was selected and enhanced by a topological routing scheme (Staudenrausch, 2001) for the simulation of lateral flow processes. J2K should be calibrated for one subbasin of the pilot watershed only. Then the parameter set should be used on the other subbasins (referred as transfer basins) to investigate and quantify the transferability of a calibrated model and potential spatial dependencies of its parameter set. In addition, potential structural problems in the process description should be identified by the transfer to basins which show a different process dominance as the one which was used for calibration does. Model calibration and selection of efficiency criteria for the quantification of the model quality should be based on a comprehensive sensitivity and uncertainty analysis (BĂ€se, 2005) and multi-response validations with independent data sets (Krause and FlĂŒgel, 2005) carried out in advance in the headwater part of the calibration basin. To obtain good results in the transfer basins the calibrated parameter set could be adjusted slightly. This step was considered as necessary because of specific constraints which were not of significant importance in the calibration basin. This readjustment should be carried out on parameters which show a sensitive reaction on the identified differences in the environmental setup. Potential scaling problems of the process description, distribution concept or model structure should be identified by the comparison of the modelling results obtained in a small headwater region of the calibration basin with observed streamflow to find out if the selected efficiency measures show a significant change
How can hydrological modeling help to understand process dynamics in sparsely gauged tropical regions - case study Mata Ătlantica, Brazil.
Suited for Success? : Suits, Status, and Hybrid Masculinity
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Men and Masculinities, March 2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X17696193, published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved.This article analyzes the sartorial biographies of four Canadian men to explore how the suit is understood and embodied in everyday life. Each of these men varied in their subject positionsâbody shape, ethnicity, age, and gender identityâwhich allowed us to look at the influence of menâs intersectional identities on their relationship with their suits. The men in our research all understood the suit according to its most common representation in popular culture: a symbol of hegemonic masculinity. While they wore the suit to embody hegemonic masculine configurations of practiceâpower, status, and rationalityâmost of these men were simultaneously marginalized by the gender hierarchy. We explain this disjuncture by using the concept of hybrid masculinity and illustrate that changes in the style of hegemonic masculinity leave its substance intact. Our findings expand thinking about hybrid masculinity by revealing the ways subordinated masculinities appropriate and reinforce hegemonic masculinity.Peer reviewe
Review: âGimme fiveâ: future challenges in multiple sclerosis. ECTRIMS Lecture 2009
This article is based on the ECTRIMS lecture given at the 25th ECTRIMS meeting which was held in DĂŒsseldorf, Germany, from 9 to 12 September 2009. Five challenges have been identified: (1) safeguarding the principles of medical ethics; (2) optimizing the risk/benefit ratio; (3) bridging the gap between multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalitis; (4) promoting neuroprotection and repair; and (5) tailoring multiple sclerosis therapy to the individual patient. Each of these challenges will be discussed and placed in the context of current research into the pathogenesis and treatment of multiple sclerosis
Modelagem de processos hidrolĂłgicos em bacias de mesoescala escassamente monitoradas na Mata AtlĂąntica, RJ, Brasil.
A Bacia HidrogrĂĄfica do Guapi-Macacu (BHGM), situada na regiĂŁo metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, Ă© responsĂĄvel pelo abastecimento de mais de dois milhĂ”es de pessoas. A regiĂŁo Ă© sujeita a inundaçÔes e deslizamentos no perĂodo chuvoso, e escassez hĂdrica na estação seca, com riscos para o abastecimento domĂ©stico e agrĂcola nos anos de menor precipitação. Ferramentas de modelagem podem colaborar para a gestĂŁo integrado de recursos hĂdricos e apoiar a tomada de decisĂŁo. Este estudo utilizou o modelo hidrolĂłgico J2K, desenvolvido na plataforma Jena Adaptable Modeling System (JAMS), para representar o comportamento hidrolĂłgico da BHGM. Os procedimentos de parametrização e calibração do modelo foram baseados em dados de campo e de sĂ©ries temporais meteorolĂłgicas e de vazĂŁo. O modelo parametrizado para a BHGM foi aplicado numa bacia adjacente, a Bacia Dois Rios (BHDR). Os indicadores de desempenho do modelo foram satisfatĂłrios a bons para ambas as bacias e mostraram a viabilidade de aplicar conjuntos de parĂąmetros obtidos a partir de bacias instrumentadas em Ăąmbito regional, i.e., em bacias semelhantes quanto Ă s caracterĂsticas geomorfolĂłgicas e climatolĂłgicas
Design, Commissioning and Performance of the PIBETA Detector at PSI
We describe the design, construction and performance of the PIBETA detector
built for the precise measurement of the branching ratio of pion beta decay,
pi+ -> pi0 e+ nu, at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The central part of the
detector is a 240-module spherical pure CsI calorimeter covering 3*pi sr solid
angle. The calorimeter is supplemented with an active collimator/beam degrader
system, an active segmented plastic target, a pair of low-mass cylindrical wire
chambers and a 20-element cylindrical plastic scintillator hodoscope. The whole
detector system is housed inside a temperature-controlled lead brick enclosure
which in turn is lined with cosmic muon plastic veto counters. Commissioning
and calibration data were taken during two three-month beam periods in
1999/2000 with pi+ stopping rates between 1.3*E3 pi+/s and 1.3*E6 pi+/s. We
examine the timing, energy and angular detector resolution for photons,
positrons and protons in the energy range of 5-150 MeV, as well as the response
of the detector to cosmic muons. We illustrate the detector signatures for the
assorted rare pion and muon decays and their associated backgrounds.Comment: 117 pages, 48 Postscript figures, 5 tables, Elsevier LaTeX, submitted
to Nucl. Instrum. Meth.
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