Collaural fistula: a case report

Cervico-aural [collaural fistula] fistula is rare and it accounts for less than 5% of branchial cleft anomalies. In this paper, we report one such case of a 9 year old girl who was presented to us with two discharging cutaneous openings on the right side; one in the floor of the external auditory canal and another in the neck at the junction of the upper 2/3rd and lower third of the sternomastoid muscle along its anterior border

FracDetect: A novel algorithm for 3D fracture detection in digital fractured rocks

Fractures have a governing effect on the physical properties of fractured rocks, such as permeability. Accurate representation of 3D fractures is, therefore, required for precise analysis of digital fractured rocks. However, conventional segmentation methods fail to detect and label the fractures with aperture sizes near or below the resolution of 3D micro-computed tomographic (micro-CT) images, which are visible in the greyscale images, and where greyscale intensity convolution between different phases exists. In addition, conventional methods are highly subjective to user interpretation. Herein, a novel algorithm for the automatic detection of fractures from greyscale 3D micro-CT images is proposed. The algorithm involves a low-level early vision stage, which identifies potential fractures, followed by a high-level interpretative stage, which enforces planar continuity to reject false positives and more reliably extract planar fractures from digital rock images. A manually segmented fractured shale sample was used as the groundtruth, with which the efficacy of the algorithm in 3D fracture detection was validated. Following this, the proposed and conventional methods were applied to detect fractures in digital fractured coal and shale samples. Based on these analyses, the impact of fracture detection accuracy on the analysis of fractured rocks' physical properties was inferred

Pleckstrin Homology Domain 1 of Mouse R1-Syntrophin Binds Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-Bisphosphate †

ABSTRACT: Mouse R1-syntrophin sequences were produced as chimeric fusion proteins in bacteria and found to bind phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns4,5P 2 ). Half-maximal binding occurred at 1.9 µM PtdIns4,5P 2 and when 1.2 PtdIns4,5P 2 were added per syntrophin. Binding was specific for PtdIns4,5P 2 and did not occur with six other tested lipids including the similar phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate. Binding was localized to the N-terminal pleckstrin homology domain (PH1); the second, C-terminal PH2 domain did not bind lipids. Key residues in PtdIns4,5P 2 binding to a PH domain were found to be conserved in R-syntrophins' PH1 domains and absent in PH2 domains, suggesting a molecular basis for binding

Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in the Assessment of Dysfunctional Breathing.

Dysfunctional breathing (DB) is a disabling condition which affects the biomechanical breathing pattern and is challenging to diagnose. It affects individuals in many circumstances, including those without underlying disease who may even be athletic in nature. DB can also aggravate the symptoms of those with established heart or lung conditions. However, it is treatable and individuals have much to gain if it is recognized appropriately. Here we consider the role of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in the identification and management of DB. Specifically, we have described the diagnostic criteria and presenting symptoms. We explored the physiology and pathophysiology of DB and physiological consequences in the context of exercise. We have provided examples of its interplay with co-morbidity in other chronic diseases such as asthma, pulmonary hypertension and left heart disease. We have discussed the problems with the current methods of diagnosis and proposed how CPET could improve this. We have provided guidance on how CPET can be used for diagnosis, including consideration of pattern recognition and use of specific data panels. We have considered categorization, e.g., predominant breathing pattern disorder or acute or chronic hyperventilation. We have explored the distinction from gas exchange or ventilation/perfusion abnormalities and described other potential pitfalls, such as false positives and periodic breathing. We have also illustrated an example of a clinical pathway utilizing CPET in the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with suspected DB

The I4U Mega Fusion and Collaboration for NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation 2016

The 2016 speaker recognition evaluation (SRE'16) is the latest edition in the series of benchmarking events conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I4U is a joint entry to SRE'16 as the result from the collaboration and active exchange of information among researchers from sixteen Institutes and Universities across 4 continents. The joint submission and several of its 32 sub-systems were among top-performing systems. A lot of efforts have been devoted to two major challenges, namely, unlabeled training data and dataset shift from Switchboard-Mixer to the new Call My Net dataset. This paper summarizes the lessons learned, presents our shared view from the sixteen research groups on recent advances, major paradigm shift, and common tool chain used in speaker recognition as we have witnessed in SRE'16. More importantly, we look into the intriguing question of fusing a large ensemble of sub-systems and the potential benefit of large-scale collaboration.Peer reviewe

Role of metabolically active hormones in the insulin resistance associated with short-term glucocorticoid treatment

BACKGROUND: The mechanisms by which glucocorticoid therapy promotes obesity and insulin resistance are incompletely characterized. Modulations of the metabolically active hormones, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), ghrelin, leptin and adiponectin are all implicated in the development of these cardiovascular risk factors. Little is known about the effects of short-term glucocorticoid treatment on levels of these hormones. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Using a blinded, placebo-controlled approach, we randomised 25 healthy men (mean (SD) age: 24.2 (5.4) years) to 5 days of treatment with either placebo or oral dexamethasone 3 mg twice daily. Fasting plasma TNFα, ghrelin, leptin and adiponectin were measured before and after treatment. RESULTS: Mean changes in all hormones were no different between treatment arms, despite dexamethasone-related increases in body weight, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol and insulin. Changes in calculated indices of insulin sensitivity (HOMA-S, insulin sensitivity index) were strongly related to dexamethasone treatment (p < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Our data do not support a role for TNF alpha, ghrelin, leptin or adiponectin in the insulin resistance associated with short-term glucocorticoid treatment

Identification of TNF-alpha-Responsive Promoters and Enhancers in the Intestinal Epithelial Cell Model Caco-2

The Caco-2 cell line is one of the most important in vitro models for enterocytes, and is used to study drug absorption and disease, including inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. In order to use the model optimally, it is necessary to map its functional entities. In this study, we have generated genome-wide maps of active transcription start sites (TSSs), and active enhancers in Caco-2 cells with or without tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α stimulation to mimic an inflammatory state. We found 520 promoters that significantly changed their usage level upon TNF-α stimulation; of these, 52% are not annotated. A subset of these has the potential to confer change in protein function due to protein domain exclusion. Moreover, we locate 890 transcribed enhancer candidates, where ∼50% are changing in usage after TNF-α stimulation. These enhancers share motif enrichments with similarly responding gene promoters. As a case example, we characterize an enhancer regulating the laminin-5 γ2-chain (LAMC2) gene by nuclear factor (NF)-κB binding. This report is the first to present comprehensive TSS and enhancer maps over Caco-2 cells, and highlights many novel inflammation-specific promoters and enhancers

Continuous Evolution of Statistical Estimators for Optimal Decision-Making

In many everyday situations, humans must make precise decisions in the presence of uncertain sensory information. For example, when asked to combine information from multiple sources we often assign greater weight to the more reliable information. It has been proposed that statistical-optimality often observed in human perception and decision-making requires that humans have access to the uncertainty of both their senses and their decisions. However, the mechanisms underlying the processes of uncertainty estimation remain largely unexplored. In this paper we introduce a novel visual tracking experiment that requires subjects to continuously report their evolving perception of the mean and uncertainty of noisy visual cues over time. We show that subjects accumulate sensory information over the course of a trial to form a continuous estimate of the mean, hindered only by natural kinematic constraints (sensorimotor latency etc.). Furthermore, subjects have access to a measure of their continuous objective uncertainty, rapidly acquired from sensory information available within a trial, but limited by natural kinematic constraints and a conservative margin for error. Our results provide the first direct evidence of the continuous mean and uncertainty estimation mechanisms in humans that may underlie optimal decision making

What Do Human Parasites Do with a Chloroplast Anyway?

The malaria parasite has a chloroplast, which is a holdover from its algal past. The authors discuss the fascinating biology of this organelle and its promise for treatment in light of a seminal new study

A microfluidic device with fluorimetric detection for intracellular components analysis

An integrated microfluidic system that coupled lysis of two cell lines: L929 fibroblasts and A549 epithelial cells, with fluorescence-based enzyme assay was developed to determine β-glucocerebrosidase activity. The microdevice fabricated in poly(dimethylsiloxane) consists of three main parts: a chemical cell lysis zone based on the sheath flow geometry, a micromeander and an optical fibers detection zone. Unlike many methods described in literature that are designed to analyse intracellular components, the presented system enables to perform enzyme assays just after cell lysis process. It reduces the effect of proteases released in lysis process on determined enzymes. Glucocerebrosidase activity, the diagnostic marker for Gaucher’s disease, is the most commonly measured in leukocytes and fibroblasts using 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-D-glucopyranoside as synthetic β-glucoside. The enzyme cleavage releases the fluorescent product, i.e. 4-methylumbelliferone, and its fluorescence is measured as a function of time. The method of enzyme activity determination described in this paper was adapted for flow measurements in the microdevice. The curve of the enzymatic reaction advancement was prepared for three reaction times obtained from application of different flow rates of solutions introduced to the microsystem. Afterwards, determined β-glucocerebrosidase activity was recalculated with regard to 105 cells present in samples used for the tests. The obtained results were compared with a cuvette-based measurements. The lysosomal β-glucosidase activities determined in the microsystem were in good correlation with the values determined during macro-scale measurements