Familial Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis in Blacks

Hypokalemic periodic paralysis is an uncommon disease that has rarely been reported in blacks. Historical, clinical, and pathological findings in three black patients, in addition to those previously reported in the literature, suggest that the spectrum of the disease is identical in both blacks and whites. Considering the disease as either different or unknown in the black population is probably not justified

Scientific management as applied to a South African sweet factory

From Chapter 1: Among the many problems that the sweet industry in this country has had to overcome was the prejudice which favoured imported confectionery as against the local product. Fortunately this prejudice is slowly disappearing, firstly because imported sweets are largely unobtainable, and, secondly because the quality of the South African manufactured article has improved tremendously. Both the quantity and value of sweets produced in this country have increased over the last decade..

A Simple Proof of the Non-Renormalization of the Chern-Simons Coupling

We give a very simple proof that the renormalization of the Chern-Simons coupling in the Wilsonian effective action is exhausted at one-loop. Our proof can apply to arbitrary 2+1-dimensional abelian as well as nonabelian gauge theories without a bare Chern-Simons coupling, including any non-renormalizable interactions and non-minimal couplings. Our proof reveals that small (but not large) gauge invariance is enough to ensure the absence of higher order corrections.Comment: LaTex, 8 pages, no figures. to appear in Physics Letters

Offset Lock with 440 GHz Range using Electro-Optic Modulation

Offset locking is a popular method for stabilizing laser frequency, which is crucial to many physics experiments. Wide range offset locks are desirable, as they increase the span of usable frequencies in an experiment. Here, we experimentally realize a wide-range offset lock using a beat-note setup combined with electro-optic phase modulation. By using frequency down-conversion of the beat note and locking to sidebands generated by electro-optic modulation, we achieve an offset range of $\pm$ 220.1 GHz with offset frequency fluctuations under 0.1 Hz, enabling an optical heterodyne offset lock with the largest known range of any such lock. The relative simplicity of our setup provides a compelling method for locking at offsets in the hundreds of GHz range.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Genetic polymorphisms in chronic hyperplastic sinusitis with nasal polyposis

Objectives/Hypothesis: Although many proinflammatory cytokines have been identified in nasal polyp tissue, the initial trigger that causes this inflammation characterized by edema, lymphocytosis, and eosinophilia, is still unknown. The purpose of the present study is to identify the presence of genetic polymorphisms in proinflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and chemokine genes that might contribute to genetic susceptibility to chronic hyperplastic sinusitis with nasal polyposis (CHSwNP). Study Design: Case control study. Methods: Buccal swabs were taken from the left and right oral mucosal surfaces from 179 patients with CHSwNP and 153 nonpolyposis controls with the Purgene DNA purification protocol (Gentra). Genotyping assays for cytokine gene loci were performed on 14 cytokine genes using the iPlex Gold and the Mass Array Compact system (Sequenom, San Diego, CA). Tests of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium proportions were performed separately in the cases and controls. Tests for evidence of association between alleles at each single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and case-control status were performed using unconditional logistic regression. Results: The frequency of the A allele in a SNP located in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-Α (rs1800629) is significantly different in patients with nasal polyposis versus controls without nasal polyposis, 18.6% and 11.5%, respectively with an individuals' odds of susceptibility to nasal polyps increasing almost two-fold (odds ratio, 1.86; confidence interval, 1.4–3.09) given at least one copy of the A allele at this SNP. All other cytokine gene polymorphisms of both inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and chemokine genes were not statistically different between the two groups. Conclusions: TNF-Α-308, a SNP in the promoter region of this cytokine gene is associated with increased odds of developing nasal polyposis. TNF-Α is a potent immuno-mediator and proinflammatory cytokine that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a large number of human diseases. The location of this gene on the short arm of chromosome 6, with the major histocompatibility complex genes and complement, has raised the probability that polymorphism within this locus may contribute to a genetic association of this region of the genome with a wide variety of infectious and autoimmune diseases. Laryngoscope, 2009Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63071/1/20239_ftp.pd

Automatic quality assessment in structural brain magnetic resonance imaging

MRI has evolved into an important diagnostic technique in medical imaging. However, reliability of the derived diagnosis can be degraded by artifacts, which challenge both radiologists and automatic computer-aided diagnosis. This work proposes a fully-automatic method for measuring image quality of three-dimensional (3D) structural MRI. Quality measures are derived by analyzing the air background of magnitude images and are capable of detecting image degradation from several sources, including bulk motion, residual magnetization from incomplete spoiling, blurring, and ghosting. The method has been validated on 749 3D T(1)-weighted 1.5T and 3T head scans acquired at 36 Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study sites operating with various software and hardware combinations. Results are compared against qualitative grades assigned by the ADNI quality control center (taken as the reference standard). The derived quality indices are independent of the MRI system used and agree with the reference standard quality ratings with high sensitivity and specificity (>85%). The proposed procedures for quality assessment could be of great value for both research and routine clinical imaging. It could greatly improve workflow through its ability to rule out the need for a repeat scan while the patient is still in the magnet bore

Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting scalar fields in curved spacetime

We consider the model of self-interacting complex scalar fields with a rigid gauge invariance under an arbitrary gauge group $G$. In order to analyze the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation finite temperature and the possibility of a finite background charge is included. Different approaches to derive the relevant high-temperature behaviour of the theory are presented.Comment: 28 pages, LaTe