Efalizumab-induced severe thrombocytopenia can be resolved

Efalizumab is a monoclonal a humanized recombinant IgG1 monoclonal antibody which targets the CD11a, the alpha-subunit of LFA-1 (lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1). It acts by blocking the T-lymphocyte pathogenetic mechanisms of psoriasis. Thrombocytopenia is an adverse event that occurs during therapy. Thrombocytopenia can be mild and can occur quite early during treatment, together with leukocytosis. Both adverse events tend to normalize with ongoing therapy, or, in cases worsening, with therapy suspension. There have been multiple reports of thrombocytopenia associated with efalizumab therapy for the treatment of psoriasis. The general recommendation is to check platelet counts monthly for the first 3 months of efalizumab therapy, then every 3 months for the duration of therapy. According to our experience on a wide range of patients, it is useful to check platelets every month for the first 6 months of therapy. We report a case of efalizumab-associated thrombocytopenia that occurred after 16 weeks of therapy together with clinical worsening of skin lesions. The peculiarity of our case is the absence of signs and symptoms linked to thrombocytopenia and the quick return to normal platelet count without corticosteroid therapy

Effect of Upper Eyelid Surgery on Headaches (.pdf)

This study was undertaken to prospectively evaluate changes in headache related quality of life in patients with chronic headache and droopy eyelids, prior to and following blepharoplasty, ptosis repair, or brow ptosis repair

AUTOMATIC ROAD GAP DETECTION USING FUZZY INFERENCE SYSTEM

Automatic feature extraction from aerial and satellite images is a high-level data processing which is still one of the most important research topics of the field. In this area, most of the researches are focused on the early step of road detection, where road tracking methods, morphological analysis, dynamic programming and snakes, multi-scale and multi-resolution methods, stereoscopic and multi-temporal analysis, hyper spectral experiments, are some of the mature methods in this field. Although most researches are focused on detection algorithms, none of them can extract road network perfectly. On the other hand, post processing algorithms accentuated on the refining of road detection results, are not developed as well. In this article, the main is to design an intelligent method to detect and compensate road gaps remained on the early result of road detection algorithms. The proposed algorithm consists of five main steps as follow: 1) Short gap coverage: In this step, a multi-scale morphological is designed that covers short gaps in a hierarchical scheme. 2) Long gap detection: In this step, the long gaps, could not be covered in the previous stage, are detected using a fuzzy inference system. for this reason, a knowledge base consisting of some expert rules are designed which are fired on some gap candidates of the road detection results. 3) Long gap coverage: In this stage, detected long gaps are compensated by two strategies of linear and polynomials for this reason, shorter gaps are filled by line fitting while longer ones are compensated by polynomials.4) Accuracy assessment: In order to evaluate the obtained results, some accuracy assessment criteria are proposed. These criteria are obtained by comparing the obtained results with truly compensated ones produced by a human expert. The complete evaluation of the obtained results whit their technical discussions are the materials of the full paper

Breaking of seed dormancy in Iris suaveolens Boiss. et Reuter under in vitro conditions

Iris species have great economic importance for their use in ornamental and pharmaceutical industry. Flora of Turkey reports about 43 local taxons of which 16 are endemic. Iris suaveolens Boiss. et Reuter is an endemic species with high seed dormancy and has high tolerance to cold and drought. This study focused on seed dormancy break of I. suaveolens under in vitro conditions. In the first experiment, the seeds were given stratification treatment on MS medium containing different concentrations of BAP with or without NAA. The 2nd experiment reports effects of alternative combinations of cold (at 4°C, 24 h dark) – warm (16 h light photoperiod) conditions on medium containing different concentrations of plant growth regulators on agar solidified MS medium. Both experiments showed about 8.33% seed germination against 64.5% seed viability as confirmed by tetrazolium test. All germinating seeds were abnormal and very weak. In the third experiment, 10 minutes acid scarified seeds cultured at 24°C in 16 h light photo period on MS medium achieved 60.0% germination. Similar treatment under cold + dark condition was inhibitory and failed to show identical results. This underlines the importance of acid scarification, photoperiod and warm treatments of I. suaveolens seeds to break seed dormancy. All germinated seeds showed normal growth and development under field conditions

UNCERTAIN TRAINING DATA EDITION FOR AUTOMATIC OBJECT-BASED CHANGE MAP EXTRACTION

Due to the rapid transformation of the societies, and the consequent growth of the cities, it is necessary to study these changes in order to achieve better control and management of urban areas and assist the decision-makers. Change detection involves the ability to quantify temporal effects using multi-temporal data sets. The available maps of the under study area is one of the most important sources for this reason. Although old data bases and maps are a great resource, it is more than likely that the training data extracted from them might contain errors, which affects the procedure of the classification; and as a result the process of the training sample editing is an essential matter. Due to the urban nature of the area studied and the problems caused in the pixel base methods, object-based classification is applied. To reach this, the image is segmented into 4 scale levels using a multi-resolution segmentation procedure. After obtaining the segments in required levels, training samples are extracted automatically using the existing old map. Due to the old nature of the map, these samples are uncertain containing wrong data. To handle this issue, an editing process is proposed according to K-nearest neighbour and k-means algorithms. Next, the image is classified in a multi-resolution object-based manner and the effects of training sample refinement are evaluated. As a final step this classified image is compared with the existing map and the changed areas are detected

Erotic asphyxiation: May have you seeing double

Purpose: If not recognized and treated promptly, nontraumatic orbital subperiosteal hemorrhage (NTSOH) can have serious sequelae including compressive optic neuropathy and permanent vision loss. The following case establishes erotic asphyxiation as a cause of NTSOH. Observations: A 29 year-old patient presented with diplopia and periorbital edema and ecchymosis. Complete ophthalmologic exam showed no optic neuropathy. Computed tomography of the orbits revealed a subperiosteal fluid collection in the right orbit. The patient had no risk factors for NTSOH, but after detailed questioning she admitted to participating in erotic asphyxiation prior to the onset of her symptoms. She was observed and subsequently lost to follow up. Conclusions and Importance: To the authors' knowledge, erotic asphyxiation as a cause of orbital subperiosteal hematoma has not been previously reported. Lack of knowledge about erotic asphyxiation amongst healthcare providers may contribute to hesitance to directly question patients about the practice. Clinicians should be aware of erotic asphyxiation as a potential cause of orbital subperiosteal hemorrhage. Keywords: Erotic asphyxiation, Nontraumatic orbital subperiosteal hemorrhage, Orbital hematom

Bicyclic peptides: types, synthesis and applications

Bicyclic peptides form one of the most promising platforms for drug development owing to their biocompatibility, similarity and chemical diversity to proteins, and they are considered as a possible practical tool in various therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Bicyclic peptides are known to have the capability of being employed as an effective alternative to complex molecules, such as antibodies, or small molecules. This review provides a summary of the recent progress on the types, synthesis and applications of bicyclic peptides. More specifically, natural and synthetic bicyclic peptides are introduced with their different production methods and relevant applications, including drug targeting, imaging and diagnosis. Their uses as antimicrobial agents, as well as the therapeutic functions of different bicyclic peptides, are also discussed. © 2019 Elsevier Lt

Breaking of seed dormancy in iris suaveolens boiss. Et reuter under in vitro conditions

Iris species have great economic importance for their use in ornamental and pharmaceutical industry. Flora of Turkey reports about 43 local taxons of which 16 are endemic. Iris suaveolens Boiss. et Reuter is an endemic species with high seed dormancy and has high tolerance to cold and drought. This study focused on seed dormancy break of I. suaveolens under in vitro conditions. In the first experiment, the seeds were given stratification treatment on MS medium containing different concentrations of BAP with or without NAA. The 2nd experiment reports effects of alternative combinations of cold (at 4°C, 24 h dark) – warm (16 h light photoperiod) conditions on medium containing different concentrations of plant growth regulators on agar solidified MS medium. Both experiments showed about 8.33% seed germination against 64.5% seed viability as confirmed by tetrazolium test. All germinating seeds were abnormal and very weak. In the third experiment, 10 minutes acid scarified seeds cultured at 24°C in 16 h light photo period on MS medium achieved 60.0% germination. Similar treatment under cold + dark condition was inhibitory and failed to show identical results. This underlines the importance of acid scarification, photoperiod and warm treatments of I. suaveolens seeds to break seed dormancy. All germinated seeds showed normal growth and development under field conditions. © Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczego w Lublinie.The research was funded by the and Usak University