Acute transverse myelitis at the conus medullaris level after rabies vaccination in a patient with Behçet's disease

Case report: A 25-year-old man with Behçet's disease was admitted because of weakness of the lower limbs and difficulty in urination. He had received a rabies vaccination 2 months previous because he had been bitten by a dog. Findings: Clinical and laboratory findings supported acute transverse myelitis. A hyperintense lesion and expansion at the level of conus medullaris was detected on spinal magnetic resonance imaging. Conclusion: Although neurologic involvement is one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity in Behçet's disease, the factors that aggravate the involvement of the nervous system are still unclear. Vaccination may have been the factor that had activated autoimmune mechanisms in this case. To our knowledge, involvement of the conus medullaris in Behçet's disease after rabies vaccination has not been reported.Indications:For prevention of rabies in a patient who was bitten by a dog. Coexisting diseases: Behcet's disease, relapsing aphthous stomatitis and genital ulcerations.Patients:One 25-year-old male patient.TypeofStudy:A case report describing acute transverse myelitis at the conus medullaris level after Rabipur vaccination in a patient with Behcet's disease.AdverseEffects:1 patient developed acute transverse myelitis at the conus medullaris characterized by weakness of lower limbs, urinary retention, severe backache, difficulty with urination and defecation, hypoesthesia below the level of L1, absence of lower extremities vibratory and position senses, absence of deep tendon reflexes in the lower extremities, detrusor atony, and atrophy and fasciculations of the left leg muscles.AuthorsConclusions:Involvement of the conus medullaris in Behcet's disease after rabies vaccination has not been reported previously in the literature. The possibility of an activating factor (eg, vaccination) other than infection has never been mentioned in Neuro-Behcet syndrome. Understanding the activating factors may be helpful for the prevention of neurological involvement and is important for planning follow up and understanding the prognosis. Further reports and investigations are needed.FreeText:Tests: cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leukocyte and protein level; muscle strength using Medical Research Council grade scoring; spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); vibratory and position senses; and deep tendon reflexes. The active substance of the rabies vaccine was an inactivated rabies virus.Results:Two months after the administration of the rabies vaccine, the patient experienced weakness of lower limbs which was preceded by severe backache for 12 hours and urinary retention. The weakness progressively worsened, and he began experiencing difficulty with urination and defecation. Muscle strength score was 2/5 at proximal left lower limb, 1/5 at distal left lower limb, 3/-5 at proximal right lower limb, and 1/5 at distal right lower limb. Atrophy and fasciculations of the left leg muscles were noted. There was hypoesthesia below the level of lumbar 1 (L1), and lower extremities demonstrated absence of vibratory and position senses. Absence of deep tendon reflexes was noted in the lower extremities, and plantar responses were extensor bilaterally. CSF examination revealed 110 leukocytes/mm3 with no microorganisms and elevated protein level (114 mg/dL). Spine MRI showed hyperintense lesion and expansion at the level of the conus medullaris. The patient was treated with methylprednisolone, azathioprine, and physiotherapy. He also required intermittent catheterization for urinary retention. After a year, a complete resolution of symptoms was observed and spinal MRI became normal.DosageDuration:Dosage not stated; given on the day of the bite and on the 3rd and 7th days thereafter

Transient electromyographic findings in serotonergic toxicity due to combination of essitalopram and isoniazid

Here, we report a case of serotonergic toxicity due to combination of essitalopram and isoniazid, which was rarely reported before. Moreover, we observed transient neurogenic denervation potentials in needle electromyography, which disappeared with the treatment of serotonergic toxicity. As to our best knowledge, this is the first case, reporting transient electromyographic changes probably due to serotonergic toxicity

The most plausible explanation of the cyclical period changes in close binaries: the case of the RS CVn-type binary WW Dra

We searched the orbital period changes in 182 EA-type (including the 101 Algol systems used by \cite{hal89}), 43 EB-type and 53 EW-type binaries with known both the mass ratio and the spectral type of their secondary components. We reproduced and improved the same diagram as Hall's (1989) according to the new collected data. Our plots do not support the conclusion derived by \cite{hal89} that all cases of cyclical period changes are restricted to binaries having the secondary component with spectral types later than F5. The presence of period changes also among stars with secondary component of early type indicates that the magnetic activity is one cause, but not the only one, for the period variation. It is discovered that cyclic period changes, likely due to the presence of a third body are more frequent in EW-type binaries among close binaries. Therefore, the most plausible explanation of the cyclical period changes is the LTTE via the presence of a third body. By using the century-long historical record of the times of light minimum, we analyzed the cyclical period change in the Algol binary WW Dra. It is found that the orbital period of the binary shows a $\sim112.2 \textbf{\textrm{yr}}$ cyclic variation with an amplitude of $\sim0.1977\textbf{\textrm{days}}$. The cyclic oscillation can be attributed to the LTTE via a third body with a mass no less than $6.43 M_{\odot}$. However, no spectral lines of the third body were discovered indicating that it may be a candidate black hole. The third body is orbiting the binary at a distance shorter than 14.4 AU and it may play an important role in the evolution of this system.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, published by MNRA

Genetic diversity of wild and cultivated grapevine accessions from southeast Turkey

INRA UMR 1334 AGAP, Equipe DAVEM = Diversité et Adaptation de la Vigne et des Espèces MéditerranéennesWild grapevine genetic diversity in southeast Turkey has not been documented to date. In the present work, in order to clarify the relationships between wild and cultivated grape accessions from southeastern Turkey, 22 nuclear and three chloroplast microsatellite loci were used on 21 wild grapevine Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sylvestris (Gmelin) and 13 cultivated grapevine Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa accessions. The number of alleles per SSR locus ranged from 4 (VVIn16) to 20 (VVIv67) and the mean allele number per locus was 10.09. Expected locus heterozygosity ranged from 0.586 (locus VVIb01) to 0.898 (locus (VVIv67)). The three cpSSR molecular markers presented variation in size both in cultivars and in wild Turkish accessions. Two size variants were detected for cpSSR3 (106 and 107 bp) for cpSSR5 (104 and 105 bp), and for cpSSR10 (115 and 116 bp). The six alleles in wild grapevines fell into three haplotypes B, C and D. A genetic structure according to accessions taxonomic status (wild or cultivated) was revealed by UPGMA analysis. This highlighted a clear separation between domesticated and wild accessions in Turkish germplasm. The results pointed out the need to further collect and characterize this wild and cultivated grapevine germplasm

Glorifying the past in the Ottoman court: Tercüme-i Şakâ'ikû'n-nu'mânîye

This article focuses on the illustrated manuscript of Şakâ'ikû'n-nu'mânîye, which was written in Arabic in 1558 by the Ottoman scholar Taşköprîzâde Ahmed (1495-1561) and translated into Turkish by Muhtasibzâde Mehmed Hâkî (d. 1567). During the reign of Osman II (1618-22) an illustrated version of Tercüme-i Şakâ'ikû'n-nu'mânîye was prepared on the decree of Gürcü Mehmed Paşa, the second vizier to the Sultan. This illustrated manuscript occupies a very significant place among Ottoman book illustrations since it is the only illustrated scholar biography known to exist. After dwelling on the preparation process of the illustrated manuscript, this study discusses the iconographic meaning of the drawings in the manuscript and explains why the Court of Osman II may have felt the need to have an illustrated version of Tercüme-i Şakâ'ikû'nnu'mânîye prepared so many years after the work was written. For this purpose the study looks into not only the political situation of the Ottoman Court in the 17th Century but also the role played by illustrated books in the struggle for power among various authorities in Court. In this regard, the study also provides an account of the concerns the Court may have felt during the preparation of the iconographic program of Tercüme-i Şakâ'ikû'n-nu'mânîye. All these suggest that Tercüme-i Şakâ'ikû'n-nu'mânîye was not just an illustrated scholar biography but a political instrument conveying a variety of messages through its content and iconography in the changing atmosphere of the 17th Century Ottoman Court. © Ahmet Yesevi University Board of Trustees

An illustrated Mecmua: The Commoner's voice and the iconography of the court in seventeenth-century Ottoman painting

A small Mecmua, a seventeenth-century manuscript that includes a variety of narratives and paintings and is currently housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, is a rare example of commercial painting production outside the Ottoman palace workshop. The Mecmua includes nineteen single-page portraits of sultans, specific individuals, and heroes of popular literature as well as paintings of animals. Most of the illustrations are accompanied by texts that relate a brief story about the depicted person. Using the Mecmua as an example, I will attempt in this essay to show how certain aspects of popular painting functioned in two specific environments. I will describe how court-based narratives and images became popularized; how the interaction between two spheres, the court and the city, was manifested in the oral literary tradition and visual culture; and how text and images changed as a result. In addition, this essay will address the following questions: what was the relationship between images and text? Were they changed at the same time? Did the text change in different ways than the images did? Was the textual transformation more substantial when compared to the images, or vice versa

Martin Greve (ed.), Writing the History of “Ottoman Music” (2015)

no abstract --- JSTOR link to article (restricted access) https://www.jstor.org/stable/4465115