Neonatal Seizure: Etiology and Type

ObjectiveNeonates, for many reasons, are at particular risk for the development of seizures, which are a strong predictor of later morbidity and mortality in infants.We undertook this study to determine the incidence, etiologic distribution and neonatal seizure type in neonates with hospital admission over a period of 4 years.Materials and MethodsThis, a retrospective study of newborns admitted in hospital with a diagnosis of neonatal seizures, was conducted over a 4 year period between March 2001 and March 2005.Data were obtained from hospital records was analyzed using the Chi-square test.ResultsOf 4541 newborns, admitted to hospital, during the study period, seizures occurred in 110 neonates. The incidence of neonatal seizures was 2.4%; the causes of neonatal seizure were Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) - 36.4%, infections -19.1%, metabolic abnormalities - 7.3%, Intra Cranial Hemorrhage (ICH) - 2.7%, structural disorders - 1.8% and in 32.7% of cases, the cause was unknown.Subtle seizures (39.1%) were the most common type of seizures; and the other types were myoclonic (17.3%), clonic (10.0%), Tonic (7.3%), Generalized Tonic Clonic Seizures (GTCS) (12.7%) and in 13.6% of cases the type of seizure was not mentioned. Mortality rate was 13.6%.ConclusionHealth care workers and parents need to be made aware of subtle seizures and the importance of timely and appropriate treatment to decrease any further complications

Exact solutions of Dirac equation on (1+1)-dimensional spacetime coupled to a static scalar field

We use a generalized scheme of supersymmetric quantum mechanics to obtain the energy spectrum and wave function for Dirac equation in (1+1)-dimensional spacetime coupled to a static scalar field.Comment: 7 pages, Late

Exact solutions of Dirac equation on a 2D gravitational background

We obtain classes of two dimensional static Lorentzian manifolds, which through the supersymmetric formalism of quantum mechanics admit the exact solvability of Dirac equation on these curved backgrounds. Specially in the case of a modified supersymmetric harmonic oscillator the wave function and energy spectrum of Dirac equation is given explicitly.Comment: 10 pages, title changed, content reduced, some references removed, To be published in PL

Families of exact solutions of a 2D gravity model minimally coupled to electrodynamics

Three families of exact solutions for 2-dimensional gravity minimally coupled to electrodynamics are obtained in the context of ${\cal R}=T$ theory. It is shown, by supersymmetric formalism of quantum mechanics, that the quantum dynamics of a neutral bosonic particle on static backgrounds with both varying curvature and electric field is exactly solvable.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, to be published in JM

Analytical Calculation of Stored Electrostatic Energy per Unit Length for an Infinite Charged Line and an Infinitely Long Cylinder in the Framework of Born-Infeld Electrostatics

More than 80 years ago, Born-Infeld electrodynamics was proposed in order to remove the point charge singularity in Maxwell electrodynamics. In this work, after a brief introduction to Lagrangian formulation of Abelian Born-Infeld model in the presence of an external source, we obtain the explicit forms of Gauss’s law and the energy density of an electrostatic field for Born-Infeld electrostatics. The electric field and the stored electrostatic energy per unit length for an infinite charged line and an infinitely long cylinder in Born-Infeld electrostatics are calculated. Numerical estimations in this paper show that the nonlinear corrections to Maxwell electrodynamics are considerable only for strong electric fields. We present an action functional for Abelian Born-Infeld model with an auxiliary scalar field in the presence of an external source. This action functional is a generalization of the action functional which was presented by Tseytlin in his studies on low energy dynamics of D-branes (Nucl. Phys. B469, 51 (1996); Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 19, 3427 (2004)). Finally, we derive the symmetric energy-momentum tensor for Abelian Born-Infeld model with an auxiliary scalar field

Somatosensory innervation of the oral mucosa of adult and aging mice

Oral mechanoreception is implicated in fundamental functions including speech, food intake and swallowing; yet, the neuroanatomical substrates that encode mechanical stimuli are not well understood. Tactile perception is initiated by intricate mechanosensitive machinery involving dedicated cells and neurons. This signal transduction setup is coupled with the topology and mechanical properties of surrounding epithelium, thereby providing a sensitive and accurate system to detect stress fluctuations from the external environment. We mapped the distribution of anatomically distinct neuronal endings in mouse oral cavity using transgenic reporters, molecular markers and quantitative histomorphometry. We found that the tongue is equipped with an array of putative mechanoreceptors that express the principal mechanosensory channel Piezo2, including end bulbs of Krause innervating individual filiform papillae and a novel class of neuronal fibers innervating the epithelium surrounding taste buds. The hard palate and gums are densely populated with three classes of sensory afferents organized in discrete patterns including Merkel cell-neurite complexes, Meissner’s corpuscles and glomerular corpuscles. In aged mice, we find that palatal Merkel cells reduce in number at key time-points that correlate with impaired oral abilities, such as swallowing and mastication. Collectively, this work identifies the mechanosensory architecture of oral tissues involved in feeding

Preparation of immunotoxin herceptin-botulinum and killing effects on two breast cancer cell lines

Background: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women and a leading cause of cancer deaths. The age of onset in Iran has become reduced by a decade for unknown reasons. Herceptin, a humanized monoclonal antibody, is a target therapy for breast cancer cells with over expression of HER2-neu receptors, but it is an expensive drug with only 20 beneficial rate of survival. This study introduces a novel approach to enhance the efficacy of this drug through immunoconjugation of the antibody to botulinum toxin. Decreasing the cost and adverse effects of the antibody were secondary goals of this study. Materials and Methods: Botulinum toxin was conjugated with Herceptin using heterobifunctional cross linkers, succinimidyl acetylthiopropionate (SATP) and sulfo-succinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl) cyclohexane-1-carboxylate (SMCC) according to the supplier's guidelines and tested on two breast cancer cell lines: SK-BR-3 and BT-474. Toxin and Herceptin were also used separately as controls. The cytotoxicity assay was also performed using the new bioconjugate on cultured cells with Alamar blue and a fluorescence plate reader. Results: Herceptin-Toxin bioconjugation significantly improved Herceptin efficacy on both breast cancer cell lines when compared to the control group. Conclusions: Toxin-Herceptin bioconjugation can be a potential candidate with increased efficiency for treating breast cancer patients with over expression of the HER2 receptor

Quantum Gravitational Corrections to the Real Klein-Gordon Field in the Presence of a Minimal Length

The (D+1)-dimensional $(\beta,\beta')$-two-parameter Lorentz-covariant deformed algebra introduced by Quesne and Tkachuk [C. Quesne and V. M. Tkachuk, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. \textbf {39}, 10909 (2006).], leads to a nonzero minimal uncertainty in position (minimal length). The Klein-Gordon equation in a (3+1)-dimensional space-time described by Quesne-Tkachuk Lorentz-covariant deformed algebra is studied in the case where $\beta'=2\beta$ up to first order over deformation parameter $\beta$. It is shown that the modified Klein-Gordon equation which contains fourth-order derivative of the wave function describes two massive particles with different masses. We have shown that physically acceptable mass states can only exist for $\beta<\frac{1}{8m^{2}c^{2}}$ which leads to an isotropic minimal length in the interval $10^{-17}m<(\bigtriangleup X^{i})_{0}<10^{-15}m$. Finally, we have shown that the above estimation of minimal length is in good agreement with the results obtained in previous investigations.Comment: 10 pages, no figur