Limb amputations in fixed dystonia: a form of body integrity identity disorder?

Fixed dystonia is a disabling disorder mainly affecting young women who develop fixed abnormal limb postures and pain after apparently minor peripheral injury. There is continued debate regarding its pathophysiology and management. We report 5 cases of fixed dystonia in patients who sought amputation of the affected limb. We place these cases in the context of previous reports of patients with healthy limbs and patients with chronic regional pain syndrome who have sought amputation. Our cases, combined with recent data regarding disorders of mental rotation in patients with fixed dystonia, as well as previous data regarding body integrity identity disorder and amputations sought by patients with chronic regional pain syndrome, raise the possibility that patients with fixed dystonia might have a deficit in body schema that predisposes them to developing fixed dystonia and drives some to seek amputation. The outcome of amputation in fixed dystonia is invariably unfavorable

Development and characterization of PLGA nanospheres and nanocapsules containing xanthone and 3-methoxyxanthone

The aim of the present work was to develop and characterize two different nanosystems, nanospheres and nanocapsules, containing either xanthone (XAN) or 3-methoxyxanthone (3-MeOXAN), with the final goal of improving the delivery of these poorly water-soluble compounds. The xanthones-loaded nanospheres (nanomatrix systems) and nanocapsules (nanoreservoir systems), made of poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), were prepared by the solvent displacement technique. The following characteristics of nanoparticle formulations were determined: particle size and morphology, zeta potential, incorporation efficiency, thermal behaviour, in vitro release profiles and physical stability at 4 degrees C. The nanospheres had a mean diameter 77%) were higher than those corresponding to nanospheres for both xanthones. The release of 3-MeOXAN from nanocapsules was similar to that observed for the correspondent nanoemulsion, indicating that drug release is mainly governed by its partition between the oil core and the external aqueous medium. In contrast, the release of XAN from nanocapsules was significantly slower than from the nanoemulsion, a behaviour that suggests an interaction of the drug with the polymer. Nanocapsule formulations exhibited good physical stability at 4 degrees C during a 4-month period for XAN and during a 3-month period for 3-MeOXAN

mtDNA copy number associated with age of onset in familial amyloid polyneuropathy

background Transthyretin-related familial amyloid polyneuropathy (TTR-Fap Val30Met) shows a wide variation in age-at-onset (aO) between generations and genders, as in portuguese families, where women display a later onset and a larger anticipation (>10 years). Mitochondrial DNa (mtDNa) copy number was assessed to clarify whether it has a modifier effect on aO variability in portuguese patients. Methods The mtDNa copy number of 262 samples (175 Val30Met TTR carriers and 87 controls (proven Val30Val)) was quantified by quantitative real-time pcR. statistical analysis was performed using IBM spss V.23 software. results This study shows that Val30Met TTR carriers have a significantly higher (p<0.001) mean mtDNa copy number than controls. Furthermore, the highest mtDNa copy number mean was observed in early-onset patients (aO <40 years). Importantly, early-onset offspring showed a significant increase (p=0.002) in the mtDNa copy number, when compared with their late aO parents. Conclusions The present findings suggest, for the first time, that mtDNa copy number may be associated with earlier events and may therefore be further explored as a potential biomarker for follow-up of TTR-Fap Val30Met carriers.DS and MA-F are recipients of an FCT fellowship (SFRH/BD /91160/2012 and SFRH/BD/101352/2014, respectively). Our funding sources supported the data collection and analysis, but did not play a role in the study design, in interpretation of data, in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the paper for publication

Pre-cooling for endurance exercise performance in the heat: a systematic review.

PMCID: PMC3568721The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/166. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Endurance exercise capacity diminishes under hot environmental conditions. Time to exhaustion can be increased by lowering body temperature prior to exercise (pre-cooling). This systematic literature review synthesizes the current findings of the effects of pre-cooling on endurance exercise performance, providing guidance for clinical practice and further research

New approaches to measuring anthelminthic drug efficacy: parasitological responses of childhood schistosome infections to treatment with praziquantel

By 2020, the global health community aims to control and eliminate human helminthiases, including schistosomiasis in selected African countries, principally by preventive chemotherapy (PCT) through mass drug administration (MDA) of anthelminthics. Quantitative monitoring of anthelminthic responses is crucial for promptly detecting changes in efficacy, potentially indicative of emerging drug resistance. Statistical models offer a powerful means to delineate and compare efficacy among individuals, among groups of individuals and among populations.; We illustrate a variety of statistical frameworks that offer different levels of inference by analysing data from nine previous studies on egg counts collected from African children before and after administration of praziquantel.; We quantify responses to praziquantel as egg reduction rates (ERRs), using different frameworks to estimate ERRs among population strata, as average responses, and within strata, as individual responses. We compare our model-based average ERRs to corresponding model-free estimates, using as reference the World Health Organization (WHO) 90 % threshold of optimal efficacy. We estimate distributions of individual responses and summarize the variation among these responses as the fraction of ERRs falling below the WHO threshold.; Generic models for evaluating responses to anthelminthics deepen our understanding of variation among populations, sub-populations and individuals. We discuss the future application of statistical modelling approaches for monitoring and evaluation of PCT programmes targeting human helminthiases in the context of the WHO 2020 control and elimination goals

Microscopic Realization of the Kerr/CFT Correspondence

Supersymmetric M/string compactifications to five dimensions contain BPS black string solutions with magnetic graviphoton charge P and near-horizon geometries which are quotients of AdS_3 x S^2. The holographic duals are typically known 2D CFTs with central charges c_L=c_R=6P^3 for large P. These same 5D compactifications also contain non-BPS but extreme Kerr-Newman black hole solutions with SU(2)_L spin J_L and electric graviphoton charge Q obeying Q^3 \leq J_L^2. It is shown that in the maximally charged limit Q^3 -> J_L^2, the near-horizon geometry coincides precisely with the right-moving temperature T_R=0 limit of the black string with magnetic charge P=J_L^{1/3}. The known dual of the latter is identified as the c_L=c_R=6J_L CFT predicted by the Kerr/CFT correspondence. Moreover, at linear order away from maximality, one finds a T_R \neq 0 quotient of the AdS_3 factor of the black string solution and the associated thermal CFT entropy reproduces the linearly sub-maximal Kerr-Newman entropy. Beyond linear order, for general Q^3<J_L^2, one has a finite-temperature quotient of a warped deformation of the magnetic string geometry. The corresponding dual deformation of the magnetic string CFT potentially supplies, for the general case, the c_L=c_R=6J_L CFT predicted by Kerr/CFT.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

An exact expression to calculate the derivatives of position-dependent observables in molecular simulations with flexible constraints

In this work, we introduce an algorithm to compute the derivatives of physical observables along the constrained subspace when flexible constraints are imposed on the system (i.e., constraints in which the hard coordinates are fixed to configuration-dependent values). The presented scheme is exact, it does not contain any tunable parameter, and it only requires the calculation and inversion of a sub-block of the Hessian matrix of second derivatives of the function through which the constraints are defined. We also present a practical application to the case in which the sought observables are the Euclidean coordinates of complex molecular systems, and the function whose minimization defines the constraints is the potential energy. Finally, and in order to validate the method, which, as far as we are aware, is the first of its kind in the literature, we compare it to the natural and straightforward finite-differences approach in three molecules of biological relevance: methanol, N-methyl-acetamide and a tri-glycine peptideComment: 13 pages, 8 figures, published versio

Nonlinear vortex light beams supported and stabilized by dissipation

We describe nonlinear Bessel vortex beams as localized and stationary solutions with embedded vorticity to the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with a dissipative term that accounts for the multi-photon absorption processes taking place at high enough powers in common optical media. In these beams, power and orbital angular momentum are permanently transferred to matter in the inner, nonlinear rings, at the same time that they are refueled by spiral inward currents of energy and angular momentum coming from the outer linear rings, acting as an intrinsic reservoir. Unlike vortex solitons and dissipative vortex solitons, the existence of these vortex beams does not critically depend on the precise form of the dispersive nonlinearities, as Kerr self-focusing or self-defocusing, and do not require a balancing gain. They have been shown to play a prominent role in "tubular" filamentation experiments with powerful, vortex-carrying Bessel beams, where they act as attractors in the beam propagation dynamics. Nonlinear Bessel vortex beams provide indeed a new solution to the problem of the stable propagation of ring-shaped vortex light beams in homogeneous self-focusing Kerr media. A stability analysis demonstrates that there exist nonlinear Bessel vortex beams with single or multiple vorticity that are stable against azimuthal breakup and collapse, and that the mechanism that renders these vortexes stable is dissipation. The stability properties of nonlinear Bessel vortex beams explain the experimental observations in the tubular filamentation experiments.Comment: Chapter of boo