Regional gray matter volumetric changes in autism associated with social and repetitive behavior symptoms.

BackgroundAlthough differences in brain anatomy in autism have been difficult to replicate using manual tracing methods, automated whole brain analyses have begun to find consistent differences in regions of the brain associated with the social cognitive processes that are often impaired in autism. We attempted to replicate these whole brain studies and to correlate regional volume changes with several autism symptom measures.MethodsWe performed MRI scans on 24 individuals diagnosed with DSM-IV autistic disorder and compared those to scans from 23 healthy comparison subjects matched on age. All participants were male. Whole brain, voxel-wise analyses of regional gray matter volume were conducted using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).ResultsControlling for age and total gray matter volume, the volumes of the medial frontal gyri, left pre-central gyrus, right post-central gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, caudate nuclei and the left hippocampus were larger in the autism group relative to controls. Regions exhibiting smaller volumes in the autism group were observed exclusively in the cerebellum. Significant partial correlations were found between the volumes of the caudate nuclei, multiple frontal and temporal regions, the cerebellum and a measure of repetitive behaviors, controlling for total gray matter volume. Social and communication deficits in autism were also associated with caudate, cerebellar, and precuneus volumes, as well as with frontal and temporal lobe regional volumes.ConclusionGray matter enlargement was observed in areas that have been functionally identified as important in social-cognitive processes, such as the medial frontal gyri, sensorimotor cortex and middle temporal gyrus. Additionally, we have shown that VBM is sensitive to associations between social and repetitive behaviors and regional brain volumes in autism

Effects of Non-uniform Blockage Ratio and Obstacle Spacing on Flame Propagration in Premixed H2/O2 mixtures

PresentationMost of the current research in flame propagation and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT), including large and small-scale experiments, have analyzed the influence of obstacles uniformly distributed on the explosion severity. These uniform conditions are characterized by constant obstacle spacing, shape and blockage ratio (BR), and may not represent very well the layout of actual industrial facilities. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of varied BR in the peak overpressure and flame acceleration. A systematic analysis was conducted by varying layout parameters on a regular basis to examine what conditions favor the highest overpressure and minimal run-up distance when DDT is observed. Experiments were performed in a closed pipe with 38 mm internal diameter and an overall length to diameter ratio (L/D) equal to 73. The arrangement between two obstacles in the test vessel was varied in terms of blockage ratio (increasing, decreasing and equal) and obstacle distance (1D, 2D, and 3D). From the conditions tested, the increasing blockage ratio has a more significant impact on the overall maximum pressure and the DDT run-up distance

IgG4-Related Disease Manifesting as Hypocomplementemic Tubulointerstitial Nephritis: A Rare Case Report and Literature Review

Immunoglobulin G4–related disease (IgG4-RD) is a chronic fibrosing inflammatory systemic disorder that has been recognized relatively recently in the medical literature. Little is known about the exact disease pathogenesis and epidemiology. IgG4-RD may be asymptomatic or may have minimal symptoms or involve multiple organs with overt symptoms. The different phenotypes of IgG4-RD can lead to delayed or incorrect diagnosis. We report the case of a 66-year-old male with coal worker’s pneumoconiosis who presented with progressive kidney disease and was diagnosed with tubulointerstitial nephritis due to IgG4-RD. The patient was noted to have progressive kidney disease, skin involvement, worsening interstitial lung disease, complete vision loss in the left eye, and retroperitoneal fibrosis. Serologic workup revealed elevated inflammatory markers, IgG4 and IgG1 levels, and hypocomplementemia. A tissue biopsy helped us establish a definitive diagnosis of IgG4-RD and initiate treatment with glucocorticoids to prevent further progression of kidney disease and other end-organ damage

Mitigation of the energy-water collision through integrated rooftop solar and water harvesting and use for cooling

Conservation policy is usually developed for regions that encompass only one environmental realm because of logistical, institutional and political constraints. This is inadequate because these realms often interact through processes that form, utilize and maintain interfaces or connections, which are essential for the persistence of some species and ecosystem functions. I present a conceptual framework for sustainable development that explicitly accounts for energy and water demand of the built environment offset by rooftop harvest opportunities. I wish to challenge you to think of PV solar and rainwater that can be captured on a roof and used in evaporative coolers and water-cooled vapour-compression air-conditioning as a substitute for water and electricity that would otherwise be drawn from networks. Rainwater cisterns are often overflowing without the recognition that they are full of refrigerant R718, containing 2.37 kW-hours of "coolth" per US Gallon which can be applied to improve the energy-efficiency of air-conditioning systems, and to mitigate urban heat islands by supporting vegetation and water-features. To this end I have developed a rainwater harvesting wizard http://gettanked.org/ coupled to estimate demand for irrigation, swimming pools and evaporative coolers. I am contemplating adding a complementary rooftop solar PV system sizing tool for climates where monsoonal conditions require vapour compression dehumidification. In the process I have been assisting in the informing Australian and New Zealand households of the relative efficiency of heat and cooling appliances that have emerged on the market. So I have prepared design data for 69 Australian and 18 New Zealand locations in collaboration with New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in updates of the climate data files used in Australian and New Zealand house energy rating schemes (HERS). Design data are normally distilled from meteorological records to represent design conditions that are exceeded only rarely, but can also be derived from representative meteorological year (TMY) files provided at the EnergyPlus website. ASHRAE’s (2013) analysis of World Meteorological Office database also informs the limits of evaporative cooling effectiveness, but the TMY files are essential to obtain bins of coincident parameters that measure the frosting of heat pumps. The design data are temperature, humidity and solar radiation coincident with extreme events. Design data are required for calculation of peak thermal demand of the built environment. These data are essential to the design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and will be posted at http://suntank.org/ as they are developed

Network Security Using Self Organized Multi-Agent Swarms

Computer network cyber-security is a very serious concern in many commercial, industrial, and military environments. This paper proposes a new computer network security approach defined by self organized agent swarms (SOMAS) which provides a novel computer network security management framework based upon desired overall system behaviors. The SOMAS structure evolves based upon the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) formal model and the more complex interactive-POMDP and decentralized-POMDP models. Example swarm specific and network based behaviors are formalized and simulated. This paper illustrates through various statistical testing techniques, the significance of this proposed SOMAS architecture

Relationship of national institutes of health stroke scale to 30-day mortality in medicare beneficiaries with acute ischemic stroke.

BackgroundThe National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), a well-validated tool for assessing initial stroke severity, has previously been shown to be associated with mortality in acute ischemic stroke. However, the relationship, optimal categorization, and risk discrimination with the NIHSS for predicting 30-day mortality among Medicare beneficiaries with acute ischemic stroke has not been well studied.Methods and resultsWe analyzed data from 33102 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries treated at 404 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke hospitals between April 2003 and December 2006 with NIHSS documented. The 30-day mortality rate by NIHSS as a continuous variable and by risk-tree determined or prespecified categories were analyzed, with discrimination of risk quantified by the c-statistic. In this cohort, mean age was 79.0 years and 58% were female. The median NIHSS score was 5 (25th to 75th percentile 2 to 12). There were 4496 deaths in the first 30 days (13.6%). There was a strong graded relation between increasing NIHSS score and higher 30-day mortality. The 30-day mortality rates for acute ischemic stroke by NIHSS categories were as follows: 0 to 7, 4.2%; 8 to 13, 13.9%; 14 to 21, 31.6%; 22 to 42, 53.5%. A model with NIHSS alone provided excellent discrimination whether included as a continuous variable (c-statistic 0.82 [0.81 to 0.83]), 4 categories (c-statistic 0.80 [0.79 to 0.80]), or 3 categories (c-statistic 0.79 [0.78 to 0.79]).ConclusionsThe NIHSS provides substantial prognostic information regarding 30-day mortality risk in Medicare beneficiaries with acute ischemic stroke. This index of stroke severity is a very strong discriminator of mortality risk, even in the absence of other clinical information, whether used as a continuous or categorical risk determinant. (J Am Heart Assoc. 2012;1:42-50.)