Posterior interosseous nerve palsy secondary to pigmented villonodular synovitis of the elbow: Case report and review of literature

SummaryLocal tumor compression is the main mechanical cause of posterior interosseous nerve (PIN) palsy. The reported cases of these tumors do not include that of pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS). Here, we report a case of a 53-year-old male with a 9-year history of painless swelling in his left elbow and a few months of progressive weakness in his left hand. Imaging identified the mass, and histological examination of the biopsy specimens revealed PVNS. The mass was compressing the nerve at the arcade of Frohse, and we performed a complete resection of the mass. Following removal of the mass, the patient regained complete function in his left upper extremity, and no local recurrence has been detected after 2 postoperative years. The possibility of PVNS should be considered in the differential diagnosis of PIN palsy

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Entrepreneurial Orientation: A Replication Note

There is a small body of literature linking attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its symptoms to entrepreneurial manifestations. Some studies take a subclinical perspective by studying the presence of symptoms, while other studies take a clinical perspective by studying the formal diagnosis of ADHD. The entrepreneurial manifestations examined range from entrepreneurial intention to the choice to become self-employed and from entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to entrepreneurial success. Despite its prominence in the entrepreneurship literature, to date only one study tested for a link with EO. The present study aims to replicate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and EO using a large data set of French small business owners. We do so by discriminating between the two dimensions of ADHD, namely attention-deficit and hyperactivity, as well as the three dimensions of EO, namely innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking. We do not find a link between ADHD and EO, although we do find a positive link between ADHD and the risk-taking subdimension of EO. Hyperactivity symptoms are positively related to EO, which is mainly driven by the subdimensions proactiveness and risk-taking. We do not find a link between attention-deficit symptoms and EO, though there is a negative link between attention-deficit and proactiveness

Distillation of Liquid Xenon to Remove Krypton

A high performance distillation system to remove krypton from xenon was constructed, and a purity level of Kr/Xe = $\sim 3 \times 10^{-12}$ was achieved. This development is crucial in facilitating high sensitivity low background experiments such as the search for dark matter in the universe.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

Effects of single therapeutic doses of promethazine, fexofenadine and olopatadine on psychomotor function and histamine-induced wheal- and flare-responses: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study in healthy volunteers

Since most first-generation antihistamines have undesirable sedative effects on the central nervous systems (CNS), newer (second-generation) antihistamines have been developed to improve patients’ quality of life. However, there are few reports that directly compare the antihistaminic efficacy and impairment of psychomotor functions. We designed a double-blind, placebo controlled, crossover study to concurrently compare the clinical effectiveness of promethazine, a first-generation antihistamine, and fexofenadine and olopatadine, second-generation antihistamines, by measuring their potency as peripheral inhibitors of histamine-induced wheal and flare. Further, we investigated their sedative effects on the CNS using a battery of psychomotor tests. When single therapeutic doses of fexofenadine (60 mg), olopatadine (5 mg) and promethazine (25 mg) were given in a double-blind manner to 24 healthy volunteers, all antihistamines produced a significant reduction in the wheal and flare responses induced by histamine. In the comparison among antihistamines, olopatadine showed a rapid inhibitory effect compared with fexofenadine and promethazine, and had a potent effect compared with promethazine. In a battery of psychomotor assessments using critical flicker fusion, choice reaction time, compensatory tracking, rapid visual information processing and a line analogue rating scale as a subjective assessment of sedation, promethazine significantly impaired psychomotor function. Fexofenadine and olopatadine had no significant effect in any of the psychomotor tests. Promethazine, fexofenadine and olopatadine did not affect behavioral activity, as measured by wrist actigraphy. These results suggest that olopatadine at a therapeutic dose has greater antihistaminergic activity than promethazine, and olopatadine and fexofenadine did not cause cognitive or psychomotor impairment

Very High-Energy Gamma-Ray Observations of PSR B1509-58 with the CANGAROO 3.8m Telescope

The gamma-ray pulsar PSR B1509-58 and its surrounding nebulae have been observed with the CANGAROO 3.8m imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope. The observations were performed from 1996 to 1998 in Woomera, South Australia, under different instrumental conditions with estimated threshold energies of 4.5 TeV (1996), 1.9 TeV (1997) and 2.5 TeV (1998) at zenith angles of ~30 deg. Although no strong evidence of the gamma-ray emission was found, the lowest energy threshold data of 1997 showed a marginal excess of gamma-ray--like events at the 4.1 sigma significance level. The corresponding gamma-ray flux is calculated to be (2.9 +/- 0.7) * 10^{-12}cm^{-2}s^{-1} above 1.9 TeV. The observations of 1996 and 1998 yielded only upper limits (99.5% confidence level) of 1.9 * 10^{-12}cm^{-2}s^{-1} above 4.5 TeV and 2.0 * 10^{-12}cm^{-2}s^{-1} above 2.5 TeV, respectively. Assuming that the 1997 excess is due to Very High-Energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from the pulsar nebula, our result, when combined with the X-ray observations, leads to a value of the magnetic field strength ~5 micro G. This is consistent with the equipartition value previously estimated in the X-ray nebula surrounding the pulsar. No significant periodicity at the 150ms pulsar period has been found in any of the three years' data. The flux upper limits set from our observations are one order of magnitude below previously reported detections of pulsed TeV emission.Comment: Accepted to publication in Astrophys. Journal, 25 pages, 2 figure

Role of Esrrg in the Fibrate-Mediated Regulation of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Human ApoA-I Transgenic Mice

We have used a new ApoA-I transgenic mouse model to identify by global gene expression profiling, candidate genes that affect lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in response to fenofibrate treatment. Multilevel bioinformatical analysis and stringent selection criteria (2-fold change, 0% false discovery rate) identified 267 significantly changed genes involved in several molecular pathways. The fenofibrate-treated group did not have significantly altered levels of hepatic human APOA-I mRNA and plasma ApoA-I compared with the control group. However, the treatment increased cholesterol levels to 1.95-fold mainly due to the increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. The observed changes in HDL are associated with the upregulation of genes involved in phospholipid biosynthesis and lipid hydrolysis, as well as phospholipid transfer protein. Significant upregulation was observed in genes involved in fatty acid transport and β-oxidation, but not in those of fatty acid and cholesterol biosynthesis, Krebs cycle and gluconeogenesis. Fenofibrate changed significantly the expression of seven transcription factors. The estrogen receptor-related gamma gene was upregulated 2.36-fold and had a significant positive correlation with genes of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism and mitochondrial functions, indicating an important role of this orphan receptor in mediating the fenofibrate-induced activation of a specific subset of its target genes.National Institutes of Health (HL48739 and HL68216); European Union (LSHM-CT-2006-0376331, LSHG-CT-2006-037277); the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens; the Hellenic Cardiological Society; the John F Kostopoulos Foundatio

Narcissism and entrepreneurship: Evidence from six datasets

Widespread attention is being paid to the alleged rise of narcissism in people in general and business leaders in particular. Surprisingly, hardly any studies have focused on the link between narcissism and entrepreneurship. Using self-reported data from 4798 respondents from three countries, we explore the associations between trait narcissism and six different entrepreneurial aspects that represent the entire entrepreneurial process. Overall, our findings suggest that a positive link exists between narcissism and entrepreneurship that is particularly salient in the early stage of the entrepreneurial process (e.g., entrepreneurial intention) and in the individual aspects of entrepreneurship (e.g., entrepreneurial orientation, well-being of the entrepreneur). Our additional analyses reveal that the adaptive aspect of narcissism (i.e., leadership/authority) is most consistently linked to entrepreneurship and that the links between narcissism and entrepreneurship are predominately linear. Finally, our findings are largely robust when different sets of controls are added

Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks

In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge, and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control, learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity, localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature, and identify topics that require more research attention in the future

Clinical disorders affecting mesopic vision

Vision in the mesopic range is affected by a number of inherited and acquired clinical disorders. We review these conditions and summarize the historical background, describing the clinical characteristics alongside the genetic basis and molecular biological mechanisms giving rise to rod and cone dysfunction relevant to twilight vision. The current diagnostic gold standards for each disease are discussed and curative and symptomatic treatment strategies are summarized