Altered brain connectivity in sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) revealed using resting-state fMRI.

The circumstances surrounding SUDEP suggest autonomic or respiratory collapse, implying central failure of regulation or recovery. Characterisation of the communication among brain areas mediating such processes may shed light on mechanisms and noninvasively indicate risk. We used rs-fMRI to examine network properties among brain structures in people with epilepsy who suffered SUDEP (n = 8) over an 8-year follow-up period, compared with matched high- and low-risk subjects (n = 16/group) who did not suffer SUDEP during that period, and a group of healthy controls (n = 16). Network analysis was employed to explore connectivity within a 'regulatory-subnetwork' of brain regions involved in autonomic and respiratory regulation, and over the whole-brain. Modularity, the extent of network organization into separate modules, was significantly reduced in the regulatory-subnetwork, and the whole-brain, in SUDEP and high-risk. Increased participation, a local measure of inter-modular belonging, was evident in SUDEP and high-risk groups, particularly among thalamic structures. The medial prefrontal thalamus was increased in SUDEP compared with all other control groups, including high-risk. Patterns of hub topology were similar in SUDEP and high-risk, but were more extensive in low-risk patients, who displayed greater hub prevalence and a radical reorganization of hubs in the subnetwork. SUDEP is associated with reduced functional organization among cortical and sub-cortical brain regions mediating autonomic and respiratory regulation. Living high-risk subjects demonstrated similar patterns, suggesting such network measures may provide prospective risk-indicating value, though a crucial difference between SUDEP and high-risk was altered connectivity of the medial thalamus in SUDEP, which was also elevated compared with all sub-groups. Disturbed thalamic connectivity may reflect a potential non-invasive marker of elevated SUDEP risk

Colorimetric Determination of Cefadroxil and Ceftriazone in Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms

Purpose: To develop a simple, rapid and selective method for the spectrophotometric determination of cefadroxil and ceftriaxone using 1, 2- napthaquinone-4- sulfonic acid sodium.Methods: The method was based on the derivatization of cefadroxil and ceftriaxone with 1, 2-naphthaquinone-4- sulfonic acid sodium in alkaline medium to yield orange-colored products.Results: The reaction products of cefadroxil and ceftriaxone at their respective max of 475 and 480 nm showed linearity in the concentration range of 10 - 100 and 25 - 175 ìg/ml, respectively. Relative standard deviations of 0.82 % for cefadroxil and 0.95 % for ceftriaxone were obtained. Recoveries of cefadroxil tablets and ceftriaxone injection were in the range of 100.66 ± 0.98 and 99.38 ± 0.84 %, respectively.Conclusion: Recovery studies gave satisfactory results indicating that none of the major additives/excipients interfered with the assay method. Therefore, the proposed method is simple, rapid, precise and convenient for the assay of cefadroxil and ceftriaxone in commercial preparations

Investigation on the consequential features of Southwest Monsoon-2007 Onset and Super cyclone "Gonu" using Satellite, Model and Ground-based data

Onset features of the Summer monsoon-2007 were analyzed using data from five different sources, namely,the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3-hourly rainfall, National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) wind reanalysis data set, NOAA Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR), cloud imageries from the meteosat satellite,cloud base height and cloud occurrence frequency from a ground-based Vaisala Laser Ceilometer at Thiruvananthapuram. On the day of onset, 33 mm of rainfall was registered by TRMM satellite over south Kerala region with 80% cloud frequency and an averaged cloud base height of 2 km. On the next day, the formation of ‘Gonu’ super cyclone as a consequence of the convergence of monsoon onset surge in the Arabian Sea has caused the dissipation of cloud bands in the Arabian Sea and in the Bay of Bengal, except over the region of the system. This caused a lull situation for about ten days after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared monsoon onset. In fact, the remarkable characteristics of onset, such as deepening of westerlies and strengthening of low level jet streams were observed only after two weeks of IMD declared monsoon onset. Another unique behavior of 2007 monsoon onset was that the Arabian Sea branch of monsoon onset surge has advanced faster than the Bay of Bengal branch in the early stage

Primary systemic amyloidosis: a case report

Primary amyloidosis is a group of monoclonal plasma cell disorders, characterized by extracellular deposition of immunoglobulin light chain fibrils in multiple organs leading to progressive multiorgan dysfunction. It is a rare disease which usually occurs in elderly persons and has a poor prognosis. We report a 72-year-old male patient with chronic abdominal distension, bilateral pitting pedal edema with nephrotic range proteinuria and amyloid deposition in liver and bone marrow. Immunoelectrophoresis of serum demonstrated the presence of immunoglobulin light chains of the circulating monoclonal protein. He was treated with IV bortezomib and IV dexamethasone

Cholecystocutaneous Fistula Secondary to Chronic Calculous Cholecystitis

Spontaneous cholecystocutaneous fistula is an exceptionally unusual complication of chronic calculous cholecystitis now. The remarkable drop in incidence is probably associated with the introduction of antimicrobial therapy and early surgical management of biliary tract disease. We report a case of spontaneous cholecystocutaneous fistula in a patient who presented with an abscess in the right upper quadrant

A Comprehensive Workflow for General-Purpose Neural Modeling with Highly Configurable Neuromorphic Hardware Systems

In this paper we present a methodological framework that meets novel requirements emerging from upcoming types of accelerated and highly configurable neuromorphic hardware systems. We describe in detail a device with 45 million programmable and dynamic synapses that is currently under development, and we sketch the conceptual challenges that arise from taking this platform into operation. More specifically, we aim at the establishment of this neuromorphic system as a flexible and neuroscientifically valuable modeling tool that can be used by non-hardware-experts. We consider various functional aspects to be crucial for this purpose, and we introduce a consistent workflow with detailed descriptions of all involved modules that implement the suggested steps: The integration of the hardware interface into the simulator-independent model description language PyNN; a fully automated translation between the PyNN domain and appropriate hardware configurations; an executable specification of the future neuromorphic system that can be seamlessly integrated into this biology-to-hardware mapping process as a test bench for all software layers and possible hardware design modifications; an evaluation scheme that deploys models from a dedicated benchmark library, compares the results generated by virtual or prototype hardware devices with reference software simulations and analyzes the differences. The integration of these components into one hardware-software workflow provides an ecosystem for ongoing preparative studies that support the hardware design process and represents the basis for the maturity of the model-to-hardware mapping software. The functionality and flexibility of the latter is proven with a variety of experimental results

The relevance of outsourcing and leagile strategies in performance optimization of an integrated process planning and scheduling

Over the past few years growing global competition has forced the manufacturing industries to upgrade their old production strategies with the modern day approaches. As a result, recent interest has been developed towards finding an appropriate policy that could enable them to compete with others, and facilitate them to emerge as a market winner. Keeping in mind the abovementioned facts, in this paper the authors have proposed an integrated process planning and scheduling model inheriting the salient features of outsourcing, and leagile principles to compete in the existing market scenario. The paper also proposes a model based on leagile principles, where the integrated planning management has been practiced. In the present work a scheduling problem has been considered and overall minimization of makespan has been aimed. The paper shows the relevance of both the strategies in performance enhancement of the industries, in terms of their reduced makespan. The authors have also proposed a new hybrid Enhanced Swift Converging Simulated Annealing (ESCSA) algorithm, to solve the complex real-time scheduling problems. The proposed algorithm inherits the prominent features of the Genetic Algorithm (GA), Simulated Annealing (SA), and the Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). The ESCSA algorithm reduces the makespan significantly in less computational time and number of iterations. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been shown by comparing the results with GA, SA, Tabu, and hybrid Tabu-SA optimization methods

Acute encephalitis syndrome surveillance, Kushinagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2011-2012

In India, quality surveillance for acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), including laboratory testing, is necessary for understanding the epidemiology and etiology of AES, planning interventions, and developing policy. We reviewed AES surveillance data for January 2011-June 2012 from Kushinagar District, Uttar Pradesh, India. Data were cleaned, incidence was determined, and demographic characteristics of cases and data quality were analyzed. A total of 812 AES case records were identified, of which 23\% had illogical entries. AES incidence was highest among boys<6 years of age, and cases peaked during monsoon season. Records for laboratory results (available for Japanese encephalitis but not AES) and vaccination history were largely incomplete, so inferences about the epidemiology and etiology of AES could not be made. The low-quality AES/Japanese encephalitis surveillance data in this area provide little evidence to support development of prevention and control measures, estimate the effect of interventions, and avoid the waste of public health resources

Should physical activity recommendations be ethnicity-specific? Evidence from a cross-sectional study of south Asian and European men

Background Expert bodies and health organisations recommend that adults undertake at least 150 min.week−1 of moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA). However, the underpinning data largely emanate from studies of populations of European descent. It is unclear whether this level of activity is appropriate for other ethnic groups, particularly South Asians, who have increased cardio-metabolic disease risk compared to Europeans. The aim of this study was to explore the level of MPA required in South Asians to confer a similar cardio-metabolic risk profile to that observed in Europeans undertaking the currently recommended MPA level of 150 min.week−1.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods Seventy-five South Asian and 83 European men, aged 40–70, without cardiovascular disease or diabetes had fasted blood taken, blood pressure measured, physical activity assessed objectively (using accelerometry), and anthropometric measures made. Factor analysis was used to summarise measured risk biomarkers into underlying latent ‘factors’ for glycaemia, insulin resistance, lipid metabolism, blood pressure, and overall cardio-metabolic risk. Age-adjusted regression models were used to determine the equivalent level of MPA (in bouts of ≥10 minutes) in South Asians needed to elicit the same value in each factor as Europeans undertaking 150 min.week−1 MPA.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Findings For all factors, except blood pressure, equivalent MPA values in South Asians were significantly higher than 150 min.week−1; the equivalent MPA value for the overall cardio-metabolic risk factor was 266 (95% CI 185-347) min.week−1.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusions South Asian men may need to undertake greater levels of MPA than Europeans to exhibit a similar cardio-metabolic risk profile, suggesting that a conceptual case can be made for ethnicity-specific physical activity guidance. Further study is needed to extend these findings to women and to replicate them prospectively in a larger cohort.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt