Intermittent alien hand syndrome and callosal apraxia in multiple sclerosis: implications for interhemispheric communication

We report a case of a 47-year-old woman with 35-year history of multiple sclerosis, who showed alien hand signs, a rare behavioural disorder that involves unilateral goal-directed movements that are contrary to the individual\u2019s intention. Alien hand syndrome has been described in multiple sclerosis (MS) only occasionally and is generally suggestive of callosal disconnection. The patient presented also with bilateral limb apraxia and left hand agraphia, raising the possibility of cortical dysfunction or disconnection, in addition to corpus callosum and white matter involvement. Her specific pattern of symptoms supports the role of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric communication for complex as well as fine motor activities and may indicate that it can serve as both an inhibitory and excitatory function depending on task demands

Simple solid-phase spectrophotometric method for free iron(III) determination

A simple and rapid solid-phase spectrophotometric procedure to determine free Fe(III) in environmental and biological samples is proposed. In particular, a deferoxamine (DFO) self assembled monolayer on mesoporous silica (DFO SAMMS) is developed and here applied as a sensor for iron(III). The solid product became brownish when put in contact with iron(III) solutions; so an immediate application as colorimetric sensor is considered. In order to optimize the DFO SAMMS synthesis and to obtain the best product for iron(III) sensing, a factorial experimental design is performed selecting the maximum absorption at 425 nm as response. The robustness of the spectrophotometric method is also proved

Global Ultrasound Elastography Using Convolutional Neural Network

Displacement estimation is very important in ultrasound elastography and failing to estimate displacement correctly results in failure in generating strain images. As conventional ultrasound elastography techniques suffer from decorrelation noise, they are prone to fail in estimating displacement between echo signals obtained during tissue distortions. This study proposes a novel elastography technique which addresses the decorrelation in estimating displacement field. We call our method GLUENet (GLobal Ultrasound Elastography Network) which uses deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to get a coarse time-delay estimation between two ultrasound images. This displacement is later used for formulating a nonlinear cost function which incorporates similarity of RF data intensity and prior information of estimated displacement. By optimizing this cost function, we calculate the finer displacement by exploiting all the information of all the samples of RF data simultaneously. The Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of the strain images from our technique is very much close to that of strain images from GLUE. While most elastography algorithms are sensitive to parameter tuning, our robust algorithm is substantially less sensitive to parameter tuning.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; added acknowledgment section, submission type late

Bifurcations in the wake of a thick circular disk

Using DNS, we investigate the dynamics in the wake of a circular disk of aspect ratio χ = d/w = 3(where d is the diameter and w the thickness) embedded in a uniform flow of magnitude U0 perpendicular to its symmetry axis. As the Reynolds number Re = U0d/ν is increased, the flow is shown to experience an original series of bifurcations leading to chaos. The range Re ∈ [150, 218] is analysed in detail. In this range, five different non-axisymmetric regimes are successively encountered, including states similar to those previously identified in the flow past a sphere or an infinitely thin disk, as well as a new regime characterised by the presence of two distinct frequencies. A theoretical model based on the theory of mode interaction with symmetries, previously introduced to explain the bifurcations in the flow past a sphere or an infinitely thin disk (Fabre et al. in Phys Fluids 20:051702, 2008), is shown to explain correctly all these results. Higher values of the Reynolds number, up to 270, are also considered. Results indicate that the flow encounters at least four additional bifurcations before reaching a chaotic state

Novel Optical Chemical Sensor Based on Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Inside a Trench Micro-machined in Double Plastic Optical Fiber☆

Abstract For the detection of chemical agents in different environments, the combination of plastic optical fibers (POFs) and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) layers has been tested as a way to obtain a low cost, highly selective and sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) chemical sensor. A novel type of optical chemical sensor based on POF-MIP has been designed and fabricated, and in this work it has been applied for the selective detection of dibenzyl disulfide (DBDS) in transformer oil. This analyte is important in the control of transformer oil, since it is responsible for the corrosive properties of the oil. The new optical sensor platform is based on two plastic optical fibers coupled through a polymer molecularly imprinted for DBDS. The new sensor has been found to be useful for the determination of DBDS in transformer oil

Primary hepatitis A vaccination failure is a rare although possible event: results of a retrospective study

A case of Hepatitis A occurred in a traveller in spite of a complete course of immunization with a combined HAV and HBV vaccine [Taliani G, Sbaragli S, Bartoloni A, Santini MG, Tozzi A, Paradisi F Hepatitis A vaccine failure: how to treat the threat. Vaccine 2003;21(31):4505-6]. A retrospective study was per-formed to evaluate whether the failure was primary or could be attributed to a specific lot of vaccine or to its inadequate handling and/or storage. Two distinct populations of vaccinees were selected in a 1:2 proportion. The case group (N=31) included subjects who were vaccinated in the same period and with the same lot and batch of vaccine as the case. The control group (N=62) included subjects who received different lot and batch of the same vaccine as the case group. A persisting antibody response to HAV vaccine was found among all subjects (anti-HAV > 20 mIU/ml). The overall anti-HBs seropositivity rate (anti-HBs > 10 mIU/ml) was 74%, without significant difference between the case (77%) and the control group (73%; P > 0.05). The reported Hepatitis A case can be attributed to a rare primary vaccine failure rather than to inefficacy of a specific lot of vaccine or to inappropriate vaccine handling or storage. Our study supports the indications for use of combined Hepatitis A+B immunization in travellers at risk for both infections, but stresses the need for information on correct hygienic behaviours while abroad. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Role of Amygdala in Self-Conscious Emotions in a Patient With Acquired Bilateral Damage

Shame plays a fundamental role in the regulation of our social behavior. One intriguing question is whether amygdala might play a role in processing this emotion. In the present single-case study, we tested a patient with acquired damage of bilateral amygdalae and surrounding areas as well as healthy controls on shame processing and other social cognitive tasks. Results revealed that the patient\u2019s subjective experience of shame, but not of guilt, was more reduced than in controls, only when social standards were violated, while it was not different than controls in case of moral violations. The impairment in discriminating between normal social situations and violations also emerged. Taken together, these findings suggest that the role of the amygdala in processing shame might reflect its relevance in resolving ambiguity and uncertainty, in order to correctly detect social violations and to generate shame feelings