Repeatability of innervation zone identification in the external anal sphincter muscle

Knowledge of the distribution of the innervation zones (IZs) of the external anal sphincter (EAS) may be useful for preventing anal sphincter incompetence during vaginal delivery. A method proposed for the automatic estimation of the distribution of IZs of EAS from high-density surface electromyography (EMG) was evaluated for repeatability in continent volunteers. Methods: In 13 healthy female subjects (age: 35 11 years) surface EMG signals were acquired using an anal probe with three circumferential electrode arrays (of 16 contacts each) at different depths within the anal canal (15mm distance between the centers of adjacent arrays), during four independent experimental sessions. Three maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of 10 sec were performed for each session for a total of 12 contractions per subject. Repeatability of the estimation of the distribution of IZ was tested by evaluating the coefficient of multiple correlations (CMC) between the IZ distributions estimated from the signals recorded from each subject. Results: A high repeatability (CMC > 0.8) was found comparing IZ distributions estimated from signals recorded by each array within the same session. A slightly lower value was obtained considering signals recorded during different sessions (CMC > 0.7), but a higher value (CMC > 0.8) was obtained after aligning the estimated IZ distributions. The realignment compensates for the operator's error in repositioning the probe in the same position during different sessions. Conclusion: This result justifies clinical studies using high-density surface EMG in routine examinations, providing information about IZs of EAS and assessing the possibilities of preventing neuronal trauma during vaginal delivery

Effective action of a 2+1 dimensional system of nonrelativistic fermions in the presence of a uniform magnetic field: dissipation effects

The effective action of nonrelativistic fermions in 2+1 dimensions is analyzed at finite temperature and chemical potential in the presence of a uniform magnetic field perpendicular to the plane. The method used is a generalization of the derivative expansion technique. The induced Chern-Simons term is computed and shown to exhibit the Hall quantization. Effects of dissipation due to collisions are also analyzed.Comment: 12 page

Proteomics as a quality control tool of pharmaceutical probiotic bacterial lysate products

Probiotic bacteria have a wide range of applications in veterinary and human therapeutics. Inactivated probiotics are complex samples and quality control (QC) should measure as many molecular features as possible. Capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE/MS) has been used as a multidimensional and high throughput method for the identification and validation of biomarkers of disease in complex biological samples such as biofluids. In this study we evaluate the suitability of CE/MS to measure the consistency of different lots of the probiotic formulation Pro-Symbioflor which is a bacterial lysate of heat-inactivated Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis. Over 5000 peptides were detected by CE/MS in 5 different lots of the bacterial lysate and in a sample of culture medium. 71 to 75% of the total peptide content was identical in all lots. This percentage increased to 87–89% when allowing the absence of a peptide in one of the 5 samples. These results, based on over 2000 peptides, suggest high similarity of the 5 different lots. Sequence analysis identified peptides of both E. coli and E. faecalis and peptides originating from the culture medium, thus confirming the presence of the strains in the formulation. Ontology analysis suggested that the majority of the peptides identified for E. coli originated from the cell membrane or the fimbrium, while peptides identified for E. faecalis were enriched for peptides originating from the cytoplasm. The bacterial lysate peptides as a whole are recognised as highly conserved molecular patterns by the innate immune system as microbe associated molecular pattern (MAMP). Sequence analysis also identified the presence of soybean, yeast and casein protein fragments that are part of the formulation of the culture medium. In conclusion CE/MS seems an appropriate QC tool to analyze complex biological products such as inactivated probiotic formulations and allows determining the similarity between lots

Using malware for software-defined networking–based smart home security management through a taint checking approach

Numerous security concerns exist in smart home systems in which Internet of Things devices are connected through a home network to enable control using a centralised gateway with a handset device from the Internet. Safeguarding personal information privacy is an increasing concern in smart living services. To guarantee the mobile security of smart living services, security managers use taint checking approaches with dynamic taint propagation analysis operations to examine how a software-defined networking app uses sensitive information and investigate suspicious security vulnerabilities of devices and the effects of the spread of taint propagation over the Internet by identifying taint paths. For solving the dynamic taint propagation analysis problem, most approaches focus on cloud computing applications (apps) with malware threat analysis that involves program vulnerability analyses, rather than on the risk posed by suspicious apps connected to the cloud computing server. Accordingly, this article proposes a taint propagation analysis model incorporating a weighted spanning tree analysis scheme for tracking data with taint marking using several taint checking tools with an open software-defined networking architecture for solving the dynamic taint propagation analysis problem. In the proposed model, Android programs perform dynamic taint propagation to analyse the spread of risks posed by suspicious apps connected to the centralised gateway in a smart home system. In probabilistic risk analysis, risk and defence capability are used for each taint path to assist a defender in recognising the attack results against network threats caused by malware infection and to estimate the losses of associated taint sources. A case of threat analysis of a typical cyber security attack is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach. A new approach was used for verifying the details of an attack sequence for malware infection by incorporating a finite state machine to appropriately represent the real dynamic taint propagation analysis situations at various configuration settings and safeguard deployment. The experimental results proved that the threat analysis model enables a defender to convert the spread of taint propagation to loss and estimate the risk of a specific threat using behavioural analysis associated with 60 families of real malware. Consequently, our scheme was significantly effective in predicting the risk and loss of tainted data propagation for security concerns in smart home systems when the number of taint paths associated with the propagation rules discovered through taint analysis was increased

Probiotic treatment of irritable bowel syndrome in children

Treatment of functional bowel disorders of irritable bowel-type (IBS) in children remains a difficult task because of a lack of drugs with low adverse event profile. We here report the results of a treatment study in 203 children (66 boys and 137 girls) age 4 to 18 years (mean: 10.5±4.5 years) with typical IBS symptoms with abdominal pain and either predominant diarrhea (n=50), constipation (n=56), alternating stool frequency (n=28) or unspecific pain (n=69). The average duration of symptoms prior to therapy was 175 days. Most (95%) patients up to age 11 were treated with a daily dose of 10 drops of Symbioflor 2 (SF2) (SymbioPharm, Herborn) (cells and autolysate of 1.5–4.5x107 CFU of bacteria of Escherichia coli type), in the elder children 77% received this dosage, while the remaining received a higher dose up to 30 drops/day. Treatment lasted 43 days on average. Results: All patients tolerated the treatment well and without adverse events. The key IBS symptoms (abdominal pain, stool frequency) as well as the other symptoms (bloating, mucous and blood in stool, need for straining at stools, urge to defecate) improved significantly during treatment. Global assessment of therapy by parents and doctors was altogether positive. In summary these data confirm efficacy and tolerability of this probiotic compound in children and adolescents and supplement published data of probiotic IBS therapy in adults

The placebo effect and its determinants in fibromyalgia: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

The aims of this study were to determine whether placebo treatment in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is effective for fibromyalgia and to identify possible determinants of the magnitude of any such placebo effect. A systematic literature search was undertaken for RCTs in people with fibromyalgia that included a placebo and/or a no-treatment (observation only or waiting list) control group. Placebo effect size (ES) for pain and other outcomes was measured as the improvement of each outcome from baseline divided by the standard deviation of the change from baseline. This effect was compared with changes in the no-treatment control groups. Meta-analysis was undertaken to combine data from different studies. Subgroup analysis was conducted to identify possible determinants of the placebo ES. A total of 3912 studies were identified from the literature search. After scrutiny, 229 trials met the inclusion criteria. Participants who received placebo in the RCTs experienced significantly better improvements in pain, fatigue, sleep quality, physical function, and other main outcomes than those receiving no treatment. The ES of placebo for pain relief was clinically moderate (0.53, 95%CI 0.48 to 0.57). The ES increased with increasing strength of the active treatment, increasing participant age and higher baseline pain severity, but decreased in RCTS with more women and with longer duration of fibromyalgia. In addition, placebo treatment in RCTs is effective in fibromyalgia. A number of factors (expected strength of treatment, age, gender, disease duration) appear to influence the magnitude of the placebo effect in this condition

Repeatability of innervation zone identification in the external anal sphincter muscle

Knowledge of the distribution of the innervation zones (IZs) of the external anal sphincter (EAS) may be useful for preventing anal sphincter incompetence during vaginal delivery. A method proposed for the automatic estimation of the distribution of IZs of EAS from high-density surface electromyography (EMG) was evaluated for repeatability in continent volunteers. Methods: In 13 healthy female subjects (age: 35 11 years) surface EMG signals were acquired using an anal probe with three circumferential electrode arrays (of 16 contacts each) at different depths within the anal canal (15mm distance between the centers of adjacent arrays), during four independent experimental sessions. Three maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of 10 sec were performed for each session for a total of 12 contractions per subject. Repeatability of the estimation of the distribution of IZ was tested by evaluating the coefficient of multiple correlations (CMC) between the IZ distributions estimated from the signals recorded from each subject. Results: A high repeatability (CMC > 0.8) was found comparing IZ distributions estimated from signals recorded by each array within the same session. A slightly lower value was obtained considering signals recorded during different sessions (CMC > 0.7), but a higher value (CMC > 0.8) was obtained after aligning the estimated IZ distributions. The realignment compensates for the operator’s error in repositioning the probe in the same position during different sessions. Conclusion: This result justifies clinical studies using high-density surface EMG in routine examinations, providing information about IZs of EAS and assessing the possibilities of preventing neuronal trauma during vaginal delivery