Cerebrospinal fluid markers of neuronal and glial cell damage in patients with autoimmune neurologic syndromes with and without underlying malignancies

Autoimmune neurologic syndromes can be paraneoplastic (associated with malignancies and/or onconeural antibodies), or non-paraneoplastic. Their clinical presentation is often similar. As prognosis is related to malignancy treatment, better biomarkers are needed to identify patients with malignancy. We investigated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers of neuronal (neurofilament light chain, NFL and total tau protein, T-tau) and glial (glial fibrillary acidic protein) damage. CSF-NFL and T-tau were increased in both paraneoplastic and non-paraneoplastic autoimmune syndromes. Patients with manifest malignancies were older, had less epilepsy, more focal central and peripheral neurological signs and symptoms, and worse long-term outcome, than those without malignancy. CSF-NFL-levels predicted long-term outcome but were not diagnostic for malignancy, after age adjustment

One- and two-stage surgical revision of peri-prosthetic joint infection of the hip: a pooled individual participant data analysis of 44 cohort studies.

One-stage and two-stage revision strategies are the two main options for treating established chronic peri-prosthetic joint infection (PJI) of the hip; however, there is uncertainty regarding which is the best treatment option. We aimed to compare the risk of re-infection between the two revision strategies using pooled individual participant data (IPD). Observational cohort studies with PJI of the hip treated exclusively by one- or two-stage revision and reporting re-infection outcomes were retrieved by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform; as well as email contact with investigators. We analysed IPD of 1856 participants with PJI of the hip from 44 cohorts across four continents. The primary outcome was re-infection (recurrence of infection by the same organism(s) and/or re-infection with a new organism(s)). Hazard ratios (HRs) for re-infection were calculated using Cox proportional frailty hazards models. After a median follow-up of 3.7 years, 222 re-infections were recorded. Re-infection rates per 1000 person-years of follow-up were 16.8 (95% CI 13.6-20.7) and 32.3 (95% CI 27.3-38.3) for one-stage and two-stage strategies respectively. The age- and sex-adjusted HR of re-infection for two-stage revision was 1.70 (0.58-5.00) when compared with one-stage revision. The association remained consistently absent after further adjustment for potential confounders. The HRs did not vary importantly in clinically relevant subgroups. Analysis of pooled individual patient data suggest that a one-stage revision strategy may be as effective as a two-stage revision strategy in treating PJI of the hip

Use of Mobile Phones to Support Coursework: Evidence from Wa Polytechnic, Ghana

The recent use of the mobile phone as a learning tool in tertiary institutions in Ghana has generated a lot of academic interest. What has even become more interesting is how the mobile phone and its usage can be  adopted to respond to different educational environments as well as teaching and learning  experiences. But there seems to be little research on how students of Wa Polytechnic fully explore the  mobile phone technology in their coursework. This paper investigates how students of Wa Polytechnic use the mobile phone as an interactive medium to access educational content to support coursework and the challenges that confront them. The survey approach was employed for the research and a simple random sampling technique was used to select 300 respondents from a population of 1,269 students. The study  revealed that 82% of the students use mobile phone to support coursework. The major challenge that  faces students as they use mobile phones to support coursework is poor network service. Other  relatively moderate challenges include inadequate knowledge in the use of mobile phones, faulty mobile phones, and lack of Microsoft Office applications in their mobile phones. The study recommends the  introduction of Mobile Service System Design and Assembling and Repair of Mobile Phones as courses  incorporating the use of mobile phones. Mobile service providers should innovatively improve network stability during school sessions for students to effectively use mobile phone to support course work.Keywords: Mobile Phone, Coursework, Interactive Medium, Mobile Service Provider, Mobile Phone Subscription

Segmentation of Salient Closed Contours from Real Images

Using a saliency measure based on the global property of contour closure, we have developed a method that reliably segments out salient contours bounding unknown objects from real edge images. The measure also incorporates the Gestalt principles of proximity and smooth continuity that previous methods have exploited. Unlike previous measures, we incorporate contour closure by finding the eigen-solution associated with a stochastic process that models the distribution of contours passing through edges in the scene. The segmentation algorithm utilizes the saliency measure to identify multiple closed contours by finding strongly-connected components on an induced graph. The determination of strongly-connected components is a direct consequence of the property of closure. We report for the first time, results on large real images for which segmentation takes an average of about 10 secs per object on a general-purpose workstation. The segmentation is made efficient for such large images by exploiting the inherent symmetry in the task

Particle Image Classification in Digital Holographic Microscopy by Normalized Cross Correlation

Digital holographic microscopy is a promising technique for micro-scale fluid and solid measurements. It offers numerical advantage for digital image post-processing through manipulation of amplitude and phase embedded in the digital hologram. Previously, an off-axis digital holographic microscope was utilized to investigate aggregation of artificial platelets in the blood vessel. To mimic blood flow parameters to the minutest details, a cylindrical micro-channel was employed but this introduced astigmatism in the reconstructed particle images. This paper proposes the application of normalized cross correlation in feature matching technique so that astigmatic image can be efficiently classified prior to digital aberration correction. Here, automatic image classification relies on the computed normalized cross correlation coefficients with two dissimilar (astigmatic and focused) reference images. The method successfully classified eight images as astigmatic out of three hundred randomly chosen images. Limitation of the present method is also discussed. The method is foreseen useful for automatic image classification of a considerably large number of images usually acquired in digital holographic microscopy

Mineral nutrient contents of some potato accessions of USA and Bangladesh

Twenty two potato accessions from USA were evaluated for nutrient contents. Two Bangladeshi varieties were also included for comparison. Nutritional analyses were performed in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, BAU during November, 2014 to April, 2015. Considering macro nutrient content, the highest values of N, P, K and S were found in the accession AC 10062 whereas Ca and Mg contents were found highest in Bangladeshi variety Cardinal and USA accessions AC 10073, respectively. In case of micro nutrient, the maximum amounts of Cu, Mn, B and Zn were observed in accession AC 10110, AC 10069, AC 10073 and AC 10109, respectively. Significant positive correlations were observed between N-P, N-K and K-Mn contents while K-Mg, Mn-B and Cu-B contents were negatively correlated. Considering all the parameters studied, the USA accession AC 10062, AC 10069 and AC 10110 were nutritionally superior to Bangladeshi variety Diamant and Cardinal. The accession AC 10062 was found as the best USA accession to produce nutrient rich potato in Bangladesh

Mostra "La Isla del Alfabeto. Aprender a leer en el mundo"

La mostra "La Isla del Alfabeto" (Madrid, 9 ott. 2014-15 gen. 2015) nasce da progetto di studio e di ricerca sviluppato da un \ue9quipe internazionale di storici dell\u2019educazione, coordinata dal direttore del CEINCE, il prof. Aust\uedn Escolano, e costituita dai professori Antonio Castillo e Ver\uf3nica Sierra dell\u2019Universit\ue0 di Alcal\ue1 de Henares, e dai professori Kira Mahamud e Miguel Somoza dell\u2019UNED (Universidad a distancia de Madrid), \ue9quipe che ha coinvolto diverse istituzioni culturali di vari paesi, tra le quali si pu\uf2 annoverare anche il Museo della scuola \u201cPaolo e Ornella Ricca\u201d dell\u2019Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Macerata. La domanda chiave dalla quale muove tale progetto, come si pu\uf2 intuire, \ue8 apparentemente molto semplice: \ubfC\uf3mo apprendimos a leer? In realt\ue0, la risposta a questa domanda pone davanti a tanti nuclei di complessit\ue0, che risultato ancora pi\uf9 ardui da sciogliere se si intende affrontarli, come ha fatto l\u2019\ue9quipe che ha lavorato al progetto della mostra, adottando una prospettiva internazionale. Le soluzioni adottate nella mostra risultano decisamente vincenti, perch\ue9 mantengono la complessit\ue0 all\u2019interno di un impianto di allestimento lineare ed immediatamente comprensibile. Esta exposici\uf3n muestra, en perspectiva hist\uf3rica, c\uf3mo hemos aprendido a leer, y c\uf3mo nos hemos constituido en sujetos lectores. La exposici\uf3n est\ue1 organizada en cinco puentes. El primero es una invitaci\uf3n a entrar en el territorio tem\ue1tico de la Isla del Alfabeto. El segundo ofrece una visi\uf3n del aprendizaje lector en los siglos modernos, desde la implantaci\uf3n de la imprenta a la Enciclopedia. El tercero y el cuarto muestran el desarrollo del mito de la alfabetizaci\uf3n universal, desde la era de las revoluciones hasta el final del \ufaltimo siglo.Y el quinto puente plantea los cambios operados en el aprendizaje lector en los \ufaltimos a\uf1os, tras el despegue del giro digital. Cada uno de estos espacios ofrece materiales que permiten comprender el proceso que han seguido las personas y las sociedades en la iniciaci\uf3n y difusi\uf3n de la lectura como competencia cultural