Septic Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis: An Unusual and Fatal Disease

BackgroundSeptic cavernous sinus thrombosis (CST) is a rare and fatal disease. Clinical presentations in the early stage are nonspecific, and the sensitivity of cranial axial computed tomography (CT) with thick section is low. This study analyzed the clinical manifestation and neuroimaging findings in patients with septic CST in a medical center in Taiwan.MethodsThis retrospective case series included nine patients with septic CST who had typical symptoms and clinical course, evidence of infection, and imaging studies which demonstrated cavernous sinus lesion, and who were treated between 1995 and 2003 at National Taiwan University Hospital.ResultsSeven (77.8 %) patients were more than 50 years old. Five (55.6%) had diabetes, and three (33.3%) had hematologic diseases. All cases were associated with paranasal sinusitis. The most frequent initial symptom was headache (66.7%), followed by ophthalmic complaints (diplopia or ophthalmoplegia, 55.6%; blurred vision or blindness, 55.6%), and ptosis (44.4%). Initial cranial images failed to identify CTS in all patients. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or coronal contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) with thin section confirmed the diagnosis. Fungi were the most common pathogens (55.6%). The inhospital case-fatality rate was high (44.4%).ConclusionDue to the high case-fatality rate and low yield rate of blood cultures, fungal CST should be suspected in an immunocompromised patient with ophthalmic complaints that progress from one eye to the other. Coronal thin-section CECT may be a useful alternative to MRI as a diagnostic modality for this condition

Comparison Electrochemical Performances of Spherical LiFePO4/C Cathode Materials at Low and High Temperatures

AbstractThe spherical LiFePO4/C composite material was prepared by the solid-state method and a spray dry method. The surface modification was conducted on spherical LFP/C composite by using 3wt.% Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) to improve the rate capability and cycle stability properties at a low temperature of -20oC and a high temperature of 55oC. The characteristic properties were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), AC impedance method, and galvanostatic charge-discharge method. For comparison, the as-prepared LiFePO4/C cathode, SP LFP/C composite, and 3%LTO-modified spherical LiFePO4/C composite are studied and compared. As a result, the LTO-modified spherical LiFePO4/C composite displays the discharge capacities of 150, 145, 135, 110, 95 and 90 mAh g-1 at 0.1C, 0.2C, 0.5C, 1C, 3C and 5C rates, respectively. It is demonstrated that the LTO-modified spherical LiFePO4/C composite material exhibit a good candidate for application in Li ion batteries

Application of Multiple Sensors in Monitoring Land Subsidence in Central Taiwan

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

2-{5-[N-(2-Pyridyl)carbamo­yl]pentan­amido}pyridinium hexa­fluoro­phosphate

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C16H19N4O2 +·PF6 −, the cations and anions are situated on centres of inversion. Thus, the N—H H atom is disordered over both N atoms due to symmetry. In the crystal, mol­ecules are connected via N—H⋯F and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The cation adopts the ⋯AAA⋯ trans conformation in the solid state

Poly[diaqua­(μ2-oxalato-κ4 O 1,O 2:O 1′,O 2′)(μ2-pyrazine-2-carboxyl­ato-κ4 N 1,O:O,O′)neodymium(III)]

In the title complex, [Nd(C5H3N2O2)(C2O4)(H2O)2]n, the NdIII atom is ten-coordinated by one N atom and three O atoms from two pyrazine-2-carboxyl­ate ligands, four O atoms from two oxalate ligands and two water mol­ecules in a distorted bicapped square-anti­prismatic geometry. The two crystallographically independent oxalate ligands, each lying on an inversion center, act as bridging ligands, linking Nd atoms into an extended zigzag chain. Neighboring chains are linked by the pyrazine-2-carboxyl­ate ligands into a two-dimensional layerlike network in the (10) plane. The layers are further connected by O—H⋯O and O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional supra­molecular network

An optimized procedure greatly improves EST vector contamination removal

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The enormous amount of sequence data available in the public domain database has been a gold mine for researchers exploring various themes in life sciences, and hence the quality of such data is of serious concern to researchers. Removal of vector contamination is one of the most significant operations to obtain accurate sequence data containing only a cDNA insert from the basecalls output by an automatic DNA sequencer. Popular bioinformatics programs to accomplish vector trimming include LUCY, cross_match and SeqClean.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In a recent study, where the program SeqClean was used to remove vector contamination from our test set of EST data compiled through various library construction systems, however, a significant number of errors remained after preliminary trimming. These errors were later almost completely corrected by simply using a re-linearized form of the cloning vector to compare against the target ESTs. The modified trimming procedure for SeqClean was also compared with the trimming efficiency of the other two popular programs, LUCY2, and cross_match. Using SeqClean with a re-linearized form of the cloning vector significantly surpassed the other two programs in all tested conditions, while the performance of the other two programs was not influenced by the modified procedure. Vector contamination in dbEST was also investigated in this study: 2203 out of the 48212 ESTs sampled from dbEST (2007-04-18 freeze) were found to match sequences in UNIVEC.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Vector contamination remains a serious concern to the data quality in the public sequence database nowadays. Based on the results presented here, we feel that our modified procedure with SeqClean should be recommended to all researchers for the task of vector removal from EST or genomic sequences.</p

Diagnosis and molecular characterization of rabies virus from a buffalo in China: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rabies virus (RABV) can infect many different species of warm-blooded animals. Glycoprotein G plays a key role in viral pathogenicity and neurotropism, and includes antigenic domains that are responsible for membrane fusion and host cell receptor recognition.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A case of buffalo rabies in China was diagnosed by direct fluorescent antibody test, G gene reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and RABV mouse inoculation test. Molecular characterization of the RABV was performed using DNA sequencing, phylogenetic analysis and amino acid sequence comparison based on the G gene from different species of animals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results confirmed that the buffalo with suspected rabies was infected by RABV, which was genetically closely related to HNC (FJ602451) that was isolated from cattle in China in 2007. Comparison of the G gene among different species of animal showed that there were almost no amino acid changes among RABVs isolated from the same species of animals that distributed in a near region. However, there were many changes among RABVs that were isolated from different species of animal, or the same species from different geographic regions. This is believed to be the first case report of buffalo rabies in China, and the results may provide further information to understand the mechanism by which RABV breaks through the species barrier.</p