Isolated Paralysis of the Adductor Pollicis: A Case Report

We report a case of isolated paralysis of the right adductor pollicis in a 30-year-old woman. Electromyographic study showed involvement of the deep motor branch of the ulnar nerve. A ganglion and an anomalous muscle were both ruled out clinically and by MRI as a possible cause of the paralysis. At surgical exploration, we found a fibrous band joining the pisiform and the hook of the hamate bone that compressed the deep motor branch of the ulnar nerve. The fibrous band was excised, and a neurolysis of the motor branch of the ulnar nerve was performed. At followup, eight months later, the patient had fully recovered strength of the adductor muscle

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The Overlooked Potential of Generalized Linear Models in Astronomy - I: Binomial Regression

Revealing hidden patterns in astronomical data is often the path to fundamental scientific breakthroughs; meanwhile the complexity of scientific inquiry increases as more subtle relationships are sought. Contemporary data analysis problems often elude the capabilities of classical statistical techniques, suggesting the use of cutting edge statistical methods. In this light, astronomers have overlooked a whole family of statistical techniques for exploratory data analysis and robust regression, the so-called Generalized Linear Models (GLMs). In this paper -- the first in a series aimed at illustrating the power of these methods in astronomical applications -- we elucidate the potential of a particular class of GLMs for handling binary/binomial data, the so-called logit and probit regression techniques, from both a maximum likelihood and a Bayesian perspective. As a case in point, we present the use of these GLMs to explore the conditions of star formation activity and metal enrichment in primordial minihaloes from cosmological hydro-simulations including detailed chemistry, gas physics, and stellar feedback. We predict that for a dark mini-halo with metallicity $\approx 1.3 \times 10^{-4} Z_{\bigodot}$, an increase of $1.2 \times 10^{-2}$ in the gas molecular fraction, increases the probability of star formation occurrence by a factor of 75%. Finally, we highlight the use of receiver operating characteristic curves as a diagnostic for binary classifiers, and ultimately we use these to demonstrate the competitive predictive performance of GLMs against the popular technique of artificial neural networks.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Computin

Photo-Protective Mechanisms and the Role of Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Activity in a Facultative CAM Plant Exposed to Long-Term Water Deprivation

The Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathway helps plants to alleviate the oxidative stress under drought, but the shift to CAM-idling may expose plants to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species causing cell damages. The facultative CAM species Portulacaria afra L., was subjected to long-term water deprivation to assess the photo-protective strategies and the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity during water stress and plant capability to recover from the stress. Measurements of titratable acidity, chlorophyll fluorescence emission, and antioxidant activity were performed during the stress and rewatering. Under water deprivation, plants shifted from C3 to CAM metabolism, reaching the CAM-idling status at the end of the stress period. The daily variation of the titratable acidity and PARP activity increased at the beginning of stress and declined with stress progression, reaching the lowest value at the end of stress treatment. H2 O2 content, superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) activities increased with the severity of water stress. The photochemical processes remained high during the entire stress period indicating the presence of alternative sinks to CO2 fixation. The elevated activity of catalase under severe water stress suggests the occurrence of photorespiration in sustaining the photosynthetic electron transport under CAM-idling condition. The overall data indicate that scavenger enzymes, photorespiration and PARP activity modulation contribute to the strong resistance of P. afra to severe water stress, preserving the functioning of photosynthetic apparatus and ensuring plant recovery with rewatering

Radiographic classification of coronal plane femoral deformities in polyostotic fibrous dysplasia

Fibrous dysplasia of bone is a skeletal dysplasia with a propensity to affect the femur in its polyostotic form, leading to deformity, fracture, and pain. The proximal femur is most commonly involved with a tendency to distal progression, thereby producing the typical shepherd's crook deformity. However, there are few data on the spectrum and progression of femoral deformities in polyostotic fibrous dysplasia

Framework for resilience analysis of EU buildings

This report summarises the activities of the JRC institutional work package related to the resilience of the European building stock. It covers the fundamental components of seismic risk assessment studies, namely hazard (national design codes and recent research results), exposure (inventory of the European building stock) and vulnerability (fragility curves for reinforced concrete and masonry buildings). In addition, the report examines the resilience of the built environment with focus on the modelling of the post-event recovery process. Lastly, a workplan to integrate these components for the analysis of the resilience of the European building stock is put forward.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building