Brainstem encephalitis with Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease

A case of young woman is described who developed clinical and MRI features of brainstem encephalitis in the setting of fever and cervical lymphadenopathy. Lymph node biopsy revealed histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis (Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease), which may reflect host response to an unspecified immune insult

PO10.19 clinical spectrum of pseudo seizures at a tertiary care hospital Karachi: a video EEG based study

Background: Nonepileptic seizures are involuntary episodes of movement, sensation, or behaviors (e.g., vocalization, crying and other expressions of emotion), that do not result from abnormal cortical discharges. The events typically occur in teenage patients with anxiety and affective disorders. Psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, drugs, hypnosis and placebo are mainstay of treatment. There is no published data on clinical characteristics of pseudo-seizures from Pakistan. The objective of our study is to describe the clinical characteristics of pseudoseizures in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This is a descriptive study. Patients with pseudo-seizures were identified from departmental Video EEG monitoring register, over a period of three years (2004 2006). Their neurophysiologic and video recording data was reviewed and their demographic, clinical and neurophysiologic data was recorded and analyzed. SPSS version 15.0 was used for analysis. Results: A total of 132 patients underwent video EEG during the period and 51 (38%) had pseudo-seizures. Their mean age was 26.7±15.3 years. Thirty-two (63%) were female and 19 (37%) were male. Twelve (23.5%) patients were known epileptics. Median recording time was 24 (range; 0.33 55) hours and median number of events was 3 (range; 1 14). Limb movements were most common manifestation (67%) followed by muteness with no response to verbal commands (49%), behavioral symptoms (35.5%), ocular findings i.e. eye blinking and closure (25.5%), depressed conscious level (13.7%), headache (10%) and GI symptoms (10%). Six (11.8%) patients experienced epileptic seizures, in addition to pseudo-seizures. Conclusions: Pseudo-seizures are common in patients referred for video EEG monitoring. It is more common in young women. Limb movements, muteness and behavioral symptoms are most common manifestations. The pseudo-seizures and epileptic seizures may coexist in the same patient

Physical activity, smoking, and genetic predisposition to obesity in people from Pakistan:the PROMIS study

Background: Multiple genetic variants have been reliably associated with obesity-related traits in Europeans, but little is known about their associations and interactions with lifestyle factors in South Asians. Methods: In 16,157 Pakistani adults (8232 controls; 7925 diagnosed with myocardial infarction [MI]) enrolled in the PROMIS Study, we tested whether: a) BMI-associated loci, individually or in aggregate (as a genetic risk score - GRS), are associated with BMI; b) physical activity and smoking modify the association of these loci with BMI. Analyses were adjusted for age, age(2), sex, MI (yes/no), and population substructure. Results: Of 95 SNPs studied here, 73 showed directionally consistent effects on BMI as reported in Europeans. Each additional BMI-raising allele of the GRS was associated with 0.04 (SE = 0.01) kg/m(2) higher BMI (P = 4.5 x 10(-14)). We observed nominal evidence of interactions of CLIP1 rs11583200 (P-interaction = 0.014), CADM2 rs13078960 (P-interaction = 0.037) and GALNT10 rs7715256 (P-interaction = 0.048) with physical activity, and PTBP2 rs11165643 (P-interaction = 0.045), HIP1 rs1167827 (P-interaction = 0.015), C6orf106 rs205262 (P-interaction = 0.032) and GRID1 rs7899106 (P-interaction = 0.043) with smoking on BMI. Conclusions: Most BMI-associated loci have directionally consistent effects on BMI in Pakistanis and Europeans. There were suggestive interactions of established BMI-related SNPs with smoking or physical activity

Analyzing ML-Based IDS over Real-Traffic

The rapid growth of computer networks has caused a significant increase in malicious traffic, promoting the use of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) to protect against this ever-growing attack traffic. A great number of IDS have been developed with some sort of weaknesses and strengths. Most of the development and research of IDS is purely based on simulated and non-updated datasets due to the unavailability of real datasets, for instance, KDD '99, and CIC-IDS-18 which are widely used datasets by researchers are not sufficient to represent real-traffic scenarios. Moreover, these one-time generated static datasets cannot survive the rapid changes in network patterns. To overcome these problems, we have proposed a framework to generate a full feature, unbiased, real-traffic-based, updated custom dataset to deal with the limitations of existing datasets. In this paper, the complete methodology of network testbed, data acquisition and attack scenarios are discussed. The generated dataset contains more than 70 features and covers different types of attacks, namely DoS, DDoS, Portscan, Brute-Force and Web attacks. Later, the custom-generated dataset is compared to various available datasets based on seven different factors, such as updates, practical-to-generate, realness, attack diversity, flexibility, availability, and interoperability. Additionally, we have trained different ML-based classifiers on our custom-generated dataset and then tested/analyzed it based on performance metrics. The generated dataset is publicly available and accessible by all users.  Moreover, the following research is anticipated to allow researchers to develop effective IDSs and real traffic-based updated datasets

Analyzing ML-Based IDS over Real-Traffic

The rapid growth of computer networks has caused a significant increase in malicious traffic, promoting the use of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) to protect against this ever-growing attack traffic. A great number of IDS have been developed with some sort of weaknesses and strengths. Most of the development and research of IDS is purely based on simulated and non-updated datasets due to the unavailability of real datasets, for instance, KDD '99, and CIC-IDS-18 which are widely used datasets by researchers are not sufficient to represent real-traffic scenarios. Moreover, these one-time generated static datasets cannot survive the rapid changes in network patterns. To overcome these problems, we have proposed a framework to generate a full feature, unbiased, real-traffic-based, updated custom dataset to deal with the limitations of existing datasets. In this paper, the complete methodology of network testbed, data acquisition and attack scenarios are discussed. The generated dataset contains more than 70 features and covers different types of attacks, namely DoS, DDoS, Portscan, Brute-Force and Web attacks. Later, the custom-generated dataset is compared to various available datasets based on seven different factors, such as updates, practical-to-generate, realness, attack diversity, flexibility, availability, and interoperability. Additionally, we have trained different ML-based classifiers on our custom-generated dataset and then tested/analyzed it based on performance metrics. The generated dataset is publicly available and accessible by all users.  Moreover, the following research is anticipated to allow researchers to develop effective IDSs and real traffic-based updated datasets

Adverse events following immunization with typhoid conjugate vaccine in an outbreak setting in Hyderabad, Pakistan

Pakistan is facing the world\u27s largest outbreak of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Typhoid. Vaccination campaign for children aged 6 months to 10 years old with Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (Typbar-TCV®) was conducted in high-risk areas of Hyderabad during 2018. About 207,000 children were vaccinated. Here we report the adverse events following immunization (AEFI) during the campaign. The campaign was carried out using outreach and fixed centre strategy. Community mobilizers visited each household to perform line listing and mobilize parents with age-eligible children. Children were observed for 30 min post-vaccination. Two-pronged strategy was used for ascertainment of AEFI. A 24/7 hotline number was provided to all parents/caretakers (n = 199,861) to report AEFI during 14 days following immunization. An age-stratified (n = 7139 children) were actively followed at days 7 and 14 for the ascertainment of AEFI. All AEFI were examined by three trained medical officers. A structured questionnaire using Brighton collaboration criteria with level 3 diagnostic certainty was used for the recording of AEFI. Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel Office 365. Overall, 499 AEFI (433 in the subset actively followed and 66 self-reported through hotline) were observed. The rate of AEFI was significantly higher among very young children (age group 6 to 12 months) as compared to 2 to 3 years old children (0.54% vs. 0.33% respectively; p-value \u3c 0.001). Fever was the most common AEFI self-reported through the hotline (38/199,861 = 0.02%) and among the subset followed actively for 14 days (206/7139 = 2.89%). Fever was followed by local reactogenicity 10/199,861(0.01%), and 134/7139 (1.88%) through self-reported hotline and active follow-up, respectively. No serious AEFI was observed. Administration of a single dose of Typbar-TCV among children aged 6 months to 10 years old during an outbreak setting of Hyderabad Pakistan was safe

Physical activity, smoking, and genetic predisposition to obesity in people from Pakistan: the PROMIS study

Background: Multiple genetic variants have been reliably associated with obesity-related traits in Europeans, but little is known about their associations and interactions with lifestyle factors in South Asians. Methods: In 16,157 Pakistani adults (8232 controls; 7925 diagnosed with myocardial infarction [MI]) enrolled in the PROMIS Study, we tested whether: a) BMI-associated loci, individually or in aggregate (as a genetic risk score - GRS), are associated with BMI; b) physical activity and smoking modify the association of these loci with BMI. Analyses were adjusted for age, age2, sex, MI (yes/no), and population substructure. Results: Of 95 SNPs studied here, 73 showed directionally consistent effects on BMI as reported in Europeans. Each additional BMI-raising allele of the GRS was associated with 0.04 (SE = 0.01) kg/m2 higher BMI (P = 4.5 × 10−14). We observed nominal evidence of interactions of CLIP1 rs11583200 (Pinteraction = 0.014), CADM2 rs13078960 (Pinteraction = 0.037) and GALNT10 rs7715256 (Pinteraction = 0.048) with physical activity, and PTBP2 rs11165643 (Pinteraction = 0.045), HIP1 rs1167827 (Pinteraction = 0.015), C6orf106 rs205262 (Pinteraction = 0.032) and GRID1 rs7899106 (Pinteraction = 0.043) with smoking on BMI. Conclusions: Most BMI-associated loci have directionally consistent effects on BMI in Pakistanis and Europeans. There were suggestive interactions of established BMI-related SNPs with smoking or physical activity. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12881-015-0259-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

A novel interaction between the FLJ33534 locus and smoking in obesity: a genome-wide study of 14 131 Pakistani adults.

BackgroundObesity is a complex disease caused by the interplay of genetic and lifestyle factors, but identification of gene-lifestyle interactions in obesity has remained challenging. Few large-scale studies have reported use of genome-wide approaches to investigate gene-lifestyle interactions in obesity.MethodsIn the PROMIS study, a cross-sectional study based in Pakistan, we calculated BMI variance estimates (square of the residual of inverse-normal transformed BMI z-score) in 14 131 participants and conducted genome-wide heterogeneity of variance analyses (GWHVA) for this outcome. All analyses were adjusted for age, age(2), sex and genetic ancestry.ResultsThe GWHVA analyses yielded a genome-wide significance (P-value=3.1 × 10(-8)) association of the rs140133294 variant at FLJ33534 with BMI variance. In explicit tests of gene × lifestyle interaction, smoking was found to significantly modify the effect of rs140133294 on BMI (Pinteraction=0.0005), whereby the minor allele (T) was associated with lower BMI in current smokers, while positively associated with BMI in never-smokers. No interactions with physical activity were observed. Analyses of ENCODE data at the FLJ33534 locus revealed features indicative of open chromatin and high confidence DNA-binding motifs for several transcription factors, providing suggestive biological support for a mechanism of interaction.ConclusionIn summary, we have identified a novel interaction between smoking and variation at the FLJ33534 locus in relation to BMI in people from Pakistan.International Journal of Obesity accepted article preview online, 17 August 2015. doi:10.1038/ijo.2015.152

Il futuro del personalismo fra etica e politica

Il personalismo rappresenta nella storia del pensiero politico una posizione che intende superare sia l'individualismo sia il collettivismo. Caratteristica fondamentale delle diverse concezioni del personalismo è la sua disposizione a difendere la sfera dell'uomo dalle invadenze di poteri assoluti e dispotici, che nel mondo contemporaneo assumono il volto del totalitarismo .Con la fine delle ideologie e la caduta delle utopie, il personalismo ha anche la funzione di criticare la tendenza delle società liberaldemocratiche e consumiste verso nuove forme di anomie e di controllo sociale della persona con la potenza dei nuovi media.Personality represents in the history of political thought a position that goes beyond both individualism and collectivism. The fundamental feature of the different conceptions of personalism is its disposition to defend the sphere of man from the invasions of absolute and despotic powers that in the contemporary world assume the face of totalitarianism. With the end of ideologies and the fall of utopias, personalism has It is also the function of criticizing the tendency of liberaldemocratic and consumer societies towards new forms of anomie and social control of the person with the power of the new media