Risk factors for cluster seizures in canine idiopathic epilepsy

Cluster seizures (CS), two or more seizures within a 24-hour period, are reported in 38–77% of dogs with idiopathic epilepsy (IE). Negative outcomes associated with CS include a reduced likelihood of achieving seizure freedom, decreased survival time and increased likelihood of euthanasia. Previous studies have found factors including breed, sex and neuter status are associated with CS in dogs with IE; however, only one UK study in a multi-breed study of CS in IE patients exists to the author's knowledge, and thus further data is required to confirm these results. Data from 384 dogs treated at a multi-breed canine specific epilepsy clinic were retrospectively collected from electronic patient records. 384 dogs were included in the study, of which nearly half had a history of CS (49.1%). Dogs with a history of CS had a younger age at onset than those without (p = 0.033). In a multivariate model, three variables predicted risk of CS: a history of status epilepticus (p = 0.047), age at seizure onset (p = 0.066) and breed (German Shepherd Dog) (p < 0.001). Dogs with a history of status epilepticus and dogs with an older age at seizure onset were less likely to be affected by cluster seizures. German Shepherd Dogs (71% experiencing CS) were significantly more likely to suffer from CS compared to Labrador Retrievers (25%) (p < 0.001). There was no association between sex, neuter status, body size and CS. Further studies into the pathophysiology and genetics of CS are required to further understand this phenomenon

Derivation of the human embryonic stem cell line RCe014-A (RC-10)

AbstractThe human embryonic stem cell line RCe012-A (RC-8) was derived from a frozen and thawed day 5 embryo cultivated to the blastocyst stage. The embryo was voluntarily donated as unsuitable and surplus to fertility requirements following ethics committee approved informed consent under licence from the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The cell line shows normal pluripotency marker expression and differentiation to the three germ layers in vitro. It has a normal 46XX female karyotype and microsatellite PCR identity, HLA and blood group typing data is available

Derivation of the human embryonic stem cell line RCe010-A (RC-6)

AbstractThe human embryonic stem cell line RCe010-A (RC-6) was derived from a frozen and thawed blastocyst voluntarily donated as unsuitable and surplus to fertility requirements following ethics committee approved informed consent under licence from the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The cell line shows normal pluripotency marker expression and differentiation to the three germ layers in vitro. It has a normal 46XY male karyotype and microsatellite PCR identity, HLA and blood group typing data are available

Derivation of the human embryonic stem cell line RCe011-A (RC-7)

The human embryonic stem cell line RCe011-A (RC-7) was derived from a failed to fertilise oocyte voluntarily donated as unsuitable and surplus to fertility requirements following ethics committee approved informed consent under licence from the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The cell line shows normal pluripotency marker expression and differentiation to the three germ layers in vitro. It has a normal 46XY male karyotype and microsatellite PCR identity, HLA and blood group typing data are available

TDP-43 in the hypoglossal nucleus identifies amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

The hypoglossal nucleus was recently identified as a key brain region in which the presence of TDP-43 pathology could accurately discriminate TDP-43 proteinopathy cases with clinical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The objective of the present study was to assess the hypoglossal nucleus in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), and determine whether TDP-43 in this region is associated with clinical ALS. Twenty-nine cases with neuropathological FTLD-TDP and clinical bvFTD that had not been previously assessed for hypoglossal TDP-43 pathology were included in this study. Of these 29 cases, 41% (n = 12) had a dual diagnosis of bvFTD-ALS at presentation, all 100% (n = 12) of which demonstrated hypoglossal TDP-43 pathology. Of the 59% (n = 17) cohort that presented with pure bvFTD, 35% (n = 6) were identified with hypoglossal TDP-43 pathology. Review of the case files of all pure bvFTD cases revealed evidence of possible or probable ALS in 5 of the 6 hypoglossal-positive cases (83%) towards the end of disease, and this was absent from all cases without such pathology. In conclusion, the present study validates grading the presence of TDP-43 in the hypoglossal nucleus for the pathological identification of bvFTD cases with clinical ALS, and extends this to include the identification of cases with possible ALS at end-stage

Derivation of the clinical grade human embryonic stem cell line RCe017-A (RC-13)

The human embryonic stem cell line RCe017-A (RC-13) was derived under quality assured compliance with UK regulation, European Union Directives and International guidance for tissue procurement, processing and storage according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. The cell line was derived from a frozen and thawed blastocyst stage embryo voluntarily donated as unsuitable or surplus to fertility requirements following informed consent. RCe017-A (RC-13) shows normal pluripotency marker expression and differentiation to the three germ layers in vitro. It has a mixed 47XY, +12/48XY, +1, +12 male karyotype and microsatellite PCR identity, HLA and blood group typing data are available

Derivation of the clinical grade human embryonic stem cell line RCe021-A (RC-17)

AbstractThe human embryonic stem cell line RCe020-A (RC-16) was derived under quality assured compliance with UK regulation, European Union Directives and International guidance for tissue procurement, processing and storage according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. The cell line was derived from a failed to fertilise oocyte voluntarily donated as unsuitable or surplus to fertility requirements following informed consent. RCe020-A (RC-16) shows normal pluripotency marker expression and differentiates to mesoderm and potentially ectoderm in vitro. It has an abnormal 47XX, +14, i(20)(q10) female karyotype and microsatellite PCR identity, HLA and blood group typing data is available

Calculation of the Flux of Atmospheric Neutrinos

Atmospheric neutrino-fluxes are calculated over the wide energy range from 30 MeV to 3,000 GeV for the study of neutrino-physics using the data from underground neutrino-detectors. The atmospheric muon-flux at high altitude and at sea level is studied to calibrate the neutrino-fluxes at low energies and high energies respectively. The agreement of our calculation with observations is satisfactory. The uncertainty of atmospheric neutrino-fluxes is also studied.Comment: 51 page

Development and production of good manufacturing practice grade human embryonic stem cell lines as source material for clinical application

AbstractFrom 2006 to 2011, Roslin Cells Ltd derived 17 human embryonic stem cells (hESC) while developing (RCM1, RC-2 to -8, -10) and implementing (RC-9, -11 to -17) quality assured standards of operation in a facility operating in compliance with European Union (EU) directives and United Kingdom (UK) licensure for procurement, processing and storage of human cells as source material for clinical application, and targeted to comply with an EU Good Manufacturing Practice specification. Here we describe the evolution and specification of the facility, its operation and outputs, complementing hESC resource details communicated in Stem Cell Research Lab Resources

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR