Does Neurological Examination Change With Resolution of PLEDs on EEG in Non-Anoxic Patients: A Prospective Observational Study

We present a prospective observational study of 18 consecutive non-anoxic patients with Periodic Lateralized Epileptiform Discharges (PLEDS) on their EEG, who were followed acutely till resolution of their PLEDS. We followed their electroencephalographic and clinical courses. 13 of the 18 patients were discharged from the hospital at their baseline mental status, 3 died in the hospital and 2 patients did not show any clinical improvement. All the 13 patients who improved showed complete resolution of PLEDS on their follow-up EEG. The 3 patients who died showed severe diffuse cerebral dysfunction without PLEDS on their follow-up EEGs. Of the 2 patients with no improvement, one showed severe diffuse cerebral dysfunction and the other showed persistent intermittent PLEDS which were state dependent. All patients received anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). Structural versus non-structural PLEDs etiology made no difference in terms of the discharged patients’ outcome. Our study thus far suggests that a majority of the patients showed neurological improvement with resolution of PLEDS on their EEG. 4 of the 5 patients who did not improve showed severe diffuse cerebral dysfunction on their EEG and 1 showed intermittent PLEDS. All the patients who did poorly had initially presented with multiple convulsive generalized seizures and had multiple medical complications. We would like to see if this trend continues in a larger cohort of patients

SOS Message Distribution for Searching Disaster Victims

This chapter presents the design and implementation of the SOSCast application which enables SOS message distribution for searching victims in a disaster-damaged area. During catastrophic disasters such an earthquake or tsunami, people may be injured or trapped in fallen buildings and debris. In situations like these, it is critical that rescue operations must be done within the first 72 h to save many lives. It is also during these events where communication infrastructures are severely damaged, and thus, makes it difficult for victims to ask for help due to the absence of communication channels. By using the SOSCast application in such scenario, victims are able to exchange SOS messages automatically by communicating directly among smartphones with less operation. By collecting these SOS messages, rescuers can find the existences of the victims as mapped on their smartphones. We have shown in our preliminary experiment within a residential area that SOSCast is capable of determining the existence of a propagator based on the collected SOS messages

Calibration of Smartphone-Based Weather Measurements Using Pairwise Gossip

Accurate and reliable daily global weather reports are necessary for weather forecasting and climate analysis. However, the availability of these reports continues to decline due to the lack of economic support and policies in maintaining ground weather measurement systems from where these reports are obtained. Thus, to mitigate data scarcity, it is required to utilize weather information from existing sensors and built-in smartphone sensors. However, as smartphone usage often varies according to human activity, it is difficult to obtain accurate measurement data. In this paper, we present a heuristic-based pairwise gossip algorithm that will calibrate smartphone-based pressure sensors with respect to fixed weather stations as our referential ground truth. Based on actual measurements, we have verified that smartphone-based readings are unstable when observed during movement. Using our calibration algorithm on actual smartphone-based pressure readings, the updated values were significantly closer to the ground truth values

The novel PIAS-like protein hZimp10 is a transcriptional co-activator of the p53 tumor suppressor

The tumor suppressor, p53, plays critical roles in the cell cycle progression, DNA repair and apoptosis. The PIAS proteins (protein inhibitor of activated STAT) were originally identified as inhibitors of the JAK-STAT pathway. Subsequently, crosstalk between the PIAS proteins and other signaling pathways has been shown to be involved in various cellular processes. Particularly, previous studies have demonstrated that PIAS proteins regulate p53-mediated transcription through sumoylation. hZimp10, also named zmiz1, is a novel PIAS-like protein and functions as a transcriptional co-activator. We recently identified p53 to be an hZimp10 interacting protein in the yeast two-hybrid screen. The interaction between p53 and hZimp10 was confirmed by GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays. Co-localization of p53 and hZimp10 proteins was also observed within cell nuclei by immunostaining. Moreover, we show that expression of exogenous hZimp10 enhances the transcriptional activity of p53 and knockdown of endogenous hZimp10 reduces the transcriptional activity of p53. Furthermore, using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, we demonstrate that hZimp10 binds to p53 on the p21 promoter. Finally, p53-mediated transcription is significantly impaired in Zimp10 null embryonic fibroblasts. Taken together, these results provide the first line of evidence to demonstrate a role for Zimp10 in regulating p53 function

Clustered Coding Variants in the Glutamate Receptor Complexes of Individuals with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Current models of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder implicate multiple genes, however their biological relationships remain elusive. To test the genetic role of glutamate receptors and their interacting scaffold proteins, the exons of ten glutamatergic ‘hub’ genes in 1304 individuals were re-sequenced in case and control samples. No significant difference in the overall number of non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) was observed between cases and controls. However, cluster analysis of nsSNPs identified two exons encoding the cysteine-rich domain and first transmembrane helix of GRM1 as a risk locus with five mutations highly enriched within these domains. A new splice variant lacking the transmembrane GPCR domain of GRM1 was discovered in the human brain and the GRM1 mutation cluster could perturb the regulation of this variant. The predicted effect on individuals harbouring multiple mutations distributed in their ten hub genes was also examined. Diseased individuals possessed an increased load of deleteriousness from multiple concurrent rare and common coding variants. Together, these data suggest a disease model in which the interplay of compound genetic coding variants, distributed among glutamate receptors and their interacting proteins, contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders

Discovery of common and rare genetic risk variants for colorectal cancer.

To further dissect the genetic architecture of colorectal cancer (CRC), we performed whole-genome sequencing of 1,439 cases and 720 controls, imputed discovered sequence variants and Haplotype Reference Consortium panel variants into genome-wide association study data, and tested for association in 34,869 cases and 29,051 controls. Findings were followed up in an additional 23,262 cases and 38,296 controls. We discovered a strongly protective 0.3% frequency variant signal at CHD1. In a combined meta-analysis of 125,478 individuals, we identified 40 new independent signals at P < 5 × 10-8, bringing the number of known independent signals for CRC to ~100. New signals implicate lower-frequency variants, Krüppel-like factors, Hedgehog signaling, Hippo-YAP signaling, long noncoding RNAs and somatic drivers, and support a role for immune function. Heritability analyses suggest that CRC risk is highly polygenic, and larger, more comprehensive studies enabling rare variant analysis will improve understanding of biology underlying this risk and influence personalized screening strategies and drug development.Goncalo R Abecasis has received compensation from 23andMe and Helix. He is currently an employee of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Heather Hampel performs collaborative research with Ambry Genetics, InVitae Genetics, and Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc., is on the scientific advisory board for InVitae Genetics and Genome Medical, and has stock in Genome Medical. Rachel Pearlman has participated in collaborative funded research with Myriad Genetics Laboratories and Invitae Genetics but has no financial competitive interest

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049