Giant Intradural Mucocele in a Patient with Adult Onset Seizures

A rare case of mucopyocele in a patient who presented with epileptic seizures is reported. The computed tomography scan (CT) and the magnetic resonance (MR) imaging revealed an intradural extension of a giant fronto-ethmoidal mucopyocele, eroding the cribriform plate and compressing both frontal lobes. The lesion was removed by craniotomy with elimination of the mass effect and reconstruction of the anterior skull base. An intracranial-intradural mucopyocele is an extremely rare cause of generalized convulsion as a presenting symptom, with only 6 cases reported in the literature. The total removal of the lesion associated with anterior fossa reconstruction is the treatment of choice

Improving the Potency of N-Aryl-2,5-dimethylpyrroles against Multidrug-Resistant and Intracellular Mycobacteria

A series of N-phenyl-2,5-dimethylpyrrole derivatives, designed as hybrids of the antitubercular agents BM212 and SQ109, have been synthesized and evaluated against susceptible and drug-resistant mycobacteria strains. Compound 5d, bearing a cyclohexylmethylene side chain, showed high potency against M. tuberculosis including MDR-TB strains at submicromolar concentrations. The new compound shows bacteriostatic activity and low toxicity and proved to be effective against intracellular mycobacteria too, showing an activity profile similar to isoniazid

Peri-ampullary mixed acinar-endocrine carcinoma

Mixed acinar-endocrine carcinomas (MAEC) are rare tumors of the pancreas. We present the case of a patient with periampullary tumor that presented with painless jaundice and after investigation was found to have MAEC. He underwent pancreaticoduo-dunectomy with tumor free margins and negative lymph nodes. The patient presented with local recurrence and liver metastasis after 1 year and is on chemotherapy with stable lesions 30 months after the diagnosis

Neural mechanisms of interstimulus interval-dependent responses in the primary auditory cortex of awake cats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Primary auditory cortex (AI) neurons show qualitatively distinct response features to successive acoustic signals depending on the inter-stimulus intervals (ISI). Such ISI-dependent AI responses are believed to underlie, at least partially, categorical perception of click trains (elemental vs. fused quality) and stop consonant-vowel syllables (eg.,/da/-/ta/continuum).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Single unit recordings were conducted on 116 AI neurons in awake cats. Rectangular clicks were presented either alone (single click paradigm) or in a train fashion with variable ISI (2–480 ms) (click-train paradigm). Response features of AI neurons were quantified as a function of ISI: one measure was related to the degree of stimulus locking (temporal modulation transfer function [tMTF]) and another measure was based on firing rate (rate modulation transfer function [rMTF]). An additional modeling study was performed to gain insight into neurophysiological bases of the observed responses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the click-train paradigm, the majority of the AI neurons ("synchronization type"; <it>n </it>= 72) showed stimulus-locking responses at long ISIs. The shorter cutoff ISI for stimulus-locking responses was on average ~30 ms and was level tolerant in accordance with the perceptual boundary of click trains and of consonant-vowel syllables. The shape of tMTF of those neurons was either band-pass or low-pass. The single click paradigm revealed, at maximum, four response periods in the following order: 1st excitation, 1st suppression, 2nd excitation then 2nd suppression. The 1st excitation and 1st suppression was found exclusively in the synchronization type, implying that the temporal interplay between excitation and suppression underlies stimulus-locking responses. Among these neurons, those showing the 2nd suppression had band-pass tMTF whereas those with low-pass tMTF never showed the 2nd suppression, implying that tMTF shape is mediated through the 2nd suppression. The recovery time course of excitability suggested the involvement of short-term plasticity. The observed phenomena were well captured by a single cell model which incorporated AMPA, GABA_A, NMDA and GABA_Breceptors as well as short-term plasticity of thalamocortical synaptic connections.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Overall, it was suggested that ISI-dependent responses of the majority of AI neurons are configured through the temporal interplay of excitation and suppression (inhibition) along with short-term plasticity.</p

Phylogeography of Aegean green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup): continental hybrid swarm vs. insular diversification with discovery of a new island endemic

BACKGROUND: Debated aspects in speciation research concern the amount of gene flow between incipient species under secondary contact and the modes by which post-zygotic isolation accumulates. Secondary contact zones of allopatric lineages, involving varying levels of divergence, provide natural settings for comparative studies, for which the Aegean (Eastern Mediterranean) geography offers unique scenarios. In Palearctic green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup or Bufotes), Plio-Pleistocene (~ 2.6 Mya) diverged species show a sharp transition without contemporary gene flow, while younger lineages, diverged in the Lower-Pleistocene (~ 1.9 Mya), admix over tens of kilometers. Here, we conducted a fine-scale multilocus phylogeographic analysis of continental and insular green toads from the Aegean, where a third pair of taxa, involving Mid-Pleistocene diverged (~ 1.5 Mya) mitochondrial lineages, earlier tentatively named viridis and variabilis, (co-)occurs. RESULTS: We discovered a new lineage, endemic to Naxos (Central Cyclades), while coastal islands and Crete feature weak genetic differentiation from the continent. In continental Greece, both lineages, viridis and variabilis, form a hybrid swarm, involving massive mitochondrial and nuclear admixture over hundreds of kilometers, without obvious selection against hybrids. CONCLUSIONS: The genetic signatures of insular Aegean toads appear governed by bathymetry and Quaternary sea level changes, resulting in long-term isolation (Central Cyclades: Naxos) and recent land-bridges (coastal islands). Conversely, Crete has been isolated since the end of the Messinian salinity crisis (5.3 My) and Cretan populations thus likely result from human-mediated colonization, at least since Antiquity, from Peloponnese and Anatolia. Comparisons of green toad hybrid zones support the idea that post-zygotic hybrid incompatibilities accumulate gradually over the genome. In this radiation, only one million years of divergence separate a scenario of complete reproductive isolation, from a secondary contact resulting in near panmixia