Regional White Matter Atrophy Correlates with Spike Activity in Encephalopathy Related to Status Epilepticus During Slow Sleep (ESES) After Early Thalamic Lesions

Encephalopathy related to Status Epilepticus during slow Sleep (ESES) is an age-related, epileptic syndrome, which associates cognitive/behavioral disturbances with a peculiar pattern of spike activity. One promising line of research is the study of ESES in cases of early thalamic lesions. We studied 7 ESES patients with unilateral thalamic lesions using magnetic resonance imaging to assess regional white matter (WM) and thalamic nuclei volume differences, and long-term electroencephalogram recordings to localize the epileptogenic cortex. N170 event-related potentials were used to demonstrate the dysfunctional character of the WM abnormalities. Diffusion-weighted images in a subset of 4 patients were used to parcellate the thalamus and evaluate volume asymmetries, based on cortical connectivity. Large WM regional atrophy in the hemisphere with the thalamic lesion was associated with both cortical dysfunction and epileptic activity. A correlation was demonstrated between lesions in the pulvinar and the mediodorsal thalamic nuclei and WM atrophy of the corresponding cortical projection areas. We propose that these abnormalities are due to the widespread structural disconnection produced by the thalamic lesions associated to a yet unknown age-dependent factor. Further exploration of WM regional atrophy association with the spike activity in other etiologies could lend support to the cortical disconnection role in ESES genesis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Critical Look at Innovation Profile and Its Relationship with Pharmaceutical Industry

Background: The pharmaceutical sector undertakes extensive research and development (R&D). Pharmaceutical industries have continued to launch an appreciable number of new medicines, different pharmaceutical formulations, new indications and other innovations that contribute to the growth of this sector. New novel medicines are increasingly essential for continued success given the number of standard medicines now available as low cost generics or biosimilars. Consequently, innovation is a fundamental element in pharmaceutical company competition. Not all innovations though are the same size, type or category with differentiation of innovation essential for commercial success. However, given the wide range of definitions used in the literature, the framing may diffuse. Currently, there are several types and categories of innovation are deficiently harmonized and poorly stratified resulting in analysis trends and provide major obstacles to innovation’s differentiation and in assessing the company's innovative dominant characteristic in the sector. The objective of this study is to stratify and organize, didactically, the field of definitions and concepts of innovation and provide a structural and operational delineation, from a critical point of view, for the classifications of innovation applied to the pharmaceutical industr

d=3 Bosonic Vector Models Coupled to Chern-Simons Gauge Theories

We study three dimensional O(N)_k and U(N)_k Chern-Simons theories coupled to a scalar field in the fundamental representation, in the large N limit. For infinite k this is just the singlet sector of the O(N) (U(N)) vector model, which is conjectured to be dual to Vasiliev's higher spin gravity theory on AdS_4. For large k and N we obtain a parity-breaking deformation of this theory, controlled by the 't Hooft coupling lambda = 4 \pi N / k. For infinite N we argue (and show explicitly at two-loop order) that the theories with finite lambda are conformally invariant, and also have an exactly marginal (\phi^2)^3 deformation. For large but finite N and small 't Hooft coupling lambda, we show that there is still a line of fixed points parameterized by the 't Hooft coupling lambda. We show that, at infinite N, the interacting non-parity-invariant theory with finite lambda has the same spectrum of primary operators as the free theory, consisting of an infinite tower of conserved higher-spin currents and a scalar operator with scaling dimension \Delta=1; however, the correlation functions of these operators do depend on lambda. Our results suggest that there should exist a family of higher spin gravity theories, parameterized by lambda, and continuously connected to Vasiliev's theory. For finite N the higher spin currents are not conserved.Comment: 34 pages, 29 figures. v2: added reference

Addressing robustness in time-critical, distributed, task allocation algorithms.

The aim of this work is to produce and test a robustness module (ROB-M) that can be generally applied to distributed, multi-agent task allocation algorithms, as robust versions of these are scarce and not well-documented in the literature. ROB-M is developed using the Performance Impact (PI) algorithm, as this has previously shown good results in deterministic trials. Different candidate versions of the module are thus bolted on to the PI algorithm and tested using two different task allocation problems under simulated uncertain conditions, and results are compared with baseline PI. It is shown that the baseline does not handle uncertainty well; the task-allocation success rate tends to decrease linearly as degree of uncertainty increases. However, when PI is run with one of the candidate robustness modules, the failure rate becomes very low for both problems, even under high simulated uncertainty, and so its architecture is adopted for ROB-M and also applied to MIT’s baseline Consensus Based Bundle Algorithm (CBBA) to demonstrate its flexibility. Strong evidence is provided to show that ROB-M can work effectively with CBBA to improve performance under simulated uncertain conditions, as long as the deterministic versions of the problems can be solved with baseline CBBA. Furthermore, the use of ROB-M does not appear to increase mean task completion time in either algorithm, and only 100 Monte Carlo samples are required compared to 10,000 in MIT’s robust version of the CBBA algorithm. PI with ROB-M is also tested directly against MIT’s robust algorithm and demonstrates clear superiority in terms of mean numbers of solved tasks.N/

Ulceration of the oral mucosa induced by antidepressant medication: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Ulcers are frequent lesions of the oral mucosa. Generally, they are circumscribed round or elliptical lesions surrounded by an erythematous halo and covered with an inflammatory exudate in their central portion, and are accompanied by painful symptoms. Oral ulcers affect 20% of the population, especially adolescents and young adults. The etiopathogenesis includes immunological alterations, infections, nutritional deficiency, trauma, food and contact allergies, autoimmune diseases, neoplasms, and psychosomatic, genetic and environmental factors.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 78-year-old Caucasian woman was referred by her dentist to our outpatient clinic with a 4-week history of an oral ulceration after using an antidepressant (sertraline hydrochloride). On the basis of the clinical findings and anamnesis, the occurrence of the lesion was attributed to the use of the drug. Exfoliative cytology was performed, to reassure the patient that it was not oral cancer, which revealed the presence of a nonspecific inflammatory reaction. The drug was replaced and resolution of symptoms was observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Exfoliative cytology should be the complementary examination of choice in cases of oral ulcers with a suspicion of drug interaction. Although this is a rare event in dental practice, dentists should be aware of the diagnostic possibility of drug-induced ulcers and should cooperate with the clinician to adjust the prescribed medication to resolve the symptoms.</p

The Microbiome of Brazilian Mangrove Sediments as Revealed by Metagenomics

Here we embark in a deep metagenomic survey that revealed the taxonomic and potential metabolic pathways aspects of mangrove sediment microbiology. The extraction of DNA from sediment samples and the direct application of pyrosequencing resulted in approximately 215 Mb of data from four distinct mangrove areas (BrMgv01 to 04) in Brazil. The taxonomic approaches applied revealed the dominance of Deltaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria in the samples. Paired statistical analysis showed higher proportions of specific taxonomic groups in each dataset. The metabolic reconstruction indicated the possible occurrence of processes modulated by the prevailing conditions found in mangrove sediments. In terms of carbon cycling, the sequences indicated the prevalence of genes involved in the metabolism of methane, formaldehyde, and carbon dioxide. With respect to the nitrogen cycle, evidence for sequences associated with dissimilatory reduction of nitrate, nitrogen immobilization, and denitrification was detected. Sequences related to the production of adenylsulfate, sulfite, and H2S were relevant to the sulphur cycle. These data indicate that the microbial core involved in methane, nitrogen, and sulphur metabolism consists mainly of Burkholderiaceae, Planctomycetaceae, Rhodobacteraceae, and Desulfobacteraceae. Comparison of our data to datasets from soil and sea samples resulted in the allotment of the mangrove sediments between those samples. The results of this study add valuable data about the composition of microbial communities in mangroves and also shed light on possible transformations promoted by microbial organisms in mangrove sediments