Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with childhood febrile seizure.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the demographic and clinical manifestations of patients with mesial temporal sclerosis and temporal lobe epilepsy (MTS-TLE) with childhood febrile seizure (FS) and establishing the potential differences as compared to those without FS. We also investigated the surgery outcome in these two groups of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study, all patients with a clinical diagnosis of drug-resistant TLE due to mesial temporal sclerosis, who underwent epilepsy surgery at Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, were recruited. Patients were prospectively registered in a database from 1986 through 2014. Postsurgical outcome was classified into two groups; seizure-free or relapsed. Clinical manifestations and outcome were compared between patients with MTS-TLE with FS and those without FS. RESULTS: Two hundred and sixty-two patients were eligible for this study. One hundred and seventy patients (64.9%) did not have FS in their childhood, while 92 patients (35.1%) reported experiencing FS in their childhood. Demographic and clinical characteristics of these two groups of patients were not different. Postoperative seizure outcome was not statistically different between these two groups of patients (P = 0.19). CONCLUSIONS: When MTS is the pathological substrate of TLE, clinical manifestations and response to surgical treatment of patients are very similar in patients with history of febrile seizure in their childhood compared to those without such an experience. In other words, when the subgroup of patients with MTS-TLE and drug-resistant seizures is examined history of childhood febrile seizure loses its value as a distinguishing factor in characteristics or predictive factor for surgery outcome

Genetic variability of Taenia saginata inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences

Taenia saginata is an important tapeworm, infecting humans in many parts of the world. The present study was undertaken to identify inter- and intraspecific variation of T. saginata isolated from cattle in different parts of Iran using two mitochondrial CO1 and 12S rRNA genes. Up to 105 bovine specimens of T. saginata were collected from 20 slaughterhouses in three provinces of Iran. DNA were extracted from the metacestode Cysticercus bovis. After PCR amplification, sequencing of CO1 and 12S rRNA genes were carried out and two phylogenetic analyses of the sequence data were generated by Bayesian inference on CO1 and 12S rRNA sequences. Sequence analyses of CO1 and 12S rRNA genes showed 11 and 29 representative profiles respectively. The level of pairwise nucleotide variation between individual haplotypes of CO1 gene was 0.3–2.4 % while the overall nucleotide variation among all 11 haplotypes was 4.6 %. For 12S rRNA sequence data, level of pairwise nucleotide variation was 0.2–2.5 % and the overall nucleotide variation was determined as 5.8 % among 29 haplotypes of 12S rRNA gene. Considerable genetic diversity was found in both mitochondrial genes particularly in 12S rRNA gene. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

BTXs removal with transition metals coated beds, considering the plausible reaction mechanisms

In this study, a natural zeolite (i.e., Clinoptilolite) was used as bed of a lab scale packed tower. The bed was coated with two transition metals nano-scale particles (i.e., Fe0 and Cu2O). Each coated metal to bed ratio was 4.6 wt. and the experiments were conducted in air flow of 1 L minG1 and temperature of 200°C. The results showed up to 83.83 of BTX (benzene, toluene and xylene) removal for Fe0 and respectively 32.0 and 56.98 for Cu2O and combined Fe0-Cu2O coated beds. However, the pollutants mineralization/elimination ratio on the combined metals coated bed, with up to 0.83, was greater than the remains which were 0.58 and 0.37 in order for Fe0 and Cu2O coated beds. © 2015 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Some hematological and biochemical changes in blood serum of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella ) vaccinated with Aeromonas hydrophila following exposure to sublethal concentration of diazinon

Diazinon is commonly used for pest control in the agricultural fields in north of Iran. This study was conducted to determine the chronic toxicity of organophosphorous pesticide (Diazinon) in vaccinated fish and its effects on some hematological parameters and biochemical blood plasma profiles of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). This experiment was carried out in three groups. The first group was vaccinated and exposed to diazinon (group A) while the second group was vaccinated and bathed with PBS bath (group B). The remaining fish were used as unvaccinated fish and were kept in clean water separately (group C). Diazinon was applied at concentrations of 2 mg/L for 12 hours since the experiments were initiated. The experimental groups (A and B) showed significantly lower values (p < 0.05) of erythrocyte count, haemoglobin content, haematocrit, leucocytes, Lymphocyte, myelocyte and monocyte, as well as in alkaline phosphatases, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and, lactate dehydrogenase compared to the control group (C). Values of MCV, MCH and MCHC of experimental species (A and B) were compared to the control group (C). The results of examinations of the biochemical blood plasma profile indicate a marked neurotoxic effect of diazinon in fishes. Changes in values of both erythrocyte and leukocyte profile after exposure to diazinon-based preparation may be referred to disruption of haematopoiesis as well as to a decrease on non-specific immunity of the fish

The Effect of Preparation Design on the Fracture Resistance of Zirconia Crown Copings (Computer Associated Design/Computer Associated Machine, CAD/CAM System)

Objective: One of the major problems of all ceramic restorations is their probable fracture against the occlusal force. The aim of the present in-vitro study is was to compare the effect of two marginal designs (chamfer & shoulder) on the fracture resistance of zirconia copings, CERCON (CAD/CAM).MATERIALS AND METHODS: This in vitro study was done with single blind experimental technique. One stainless steel dye with 50’ chamfer finish line design (0.8 mm depth) was prepared using milling machine. Ten epoxy resin dyes were made, The same dye was retrieved and 50' chamfer was converted into shoulder (1 mm).again ten epoxy resin dyes were made from shoulder dyes. Zirconia cores with 0.4 mm thickness and 35 µm cement Space fabricated on the20 epoxy resin dyes (10 samples chamfer and 10 samples shoulder) in a dental laboratory. Then the zirconia cores were cemented on the epoxy resin dyes and underwent a fracture test with a universal testing machine (GOTECH AI-700LAC, Arson, USA) and samples were investigated from the point of view of the origin of the failure.RESULT: The mean value of fracture resistance for shoulder margins were 788.90±99.56 N and for the chamfer margins were 991.75±112.00 N. The student’s T-test revealed a statistically significant difference between groups (P=0.001).CONCLUSION: The result of this study indicates that marginal design of the zirconia cores effects on their fracture resistance. A chamfer margin could improve the biomechanical performance of posterior single zirconia crown restorations. This may be because of strong unity and round internal angle in chamfer margin

Federated Learning Using Variance Reduced Stochastic Gradient for Probabilistically Activated Agents

This paper proposes an algorithm for Federated Learning (FL) with a two-layer structure that achieves both variance reduction and a faster convergence rate to an optimal solution in the setting where each agent has an arbitrary probability of selection in each iteration. In distributed machine learning, when privacy matters, FL is a functional tool. Placing FL in an environment where it has some irregular connections of agents (devices), reaching a trained model in both an economical and quick way can be a demanding job. The first layer of our algorithm corresponds to the model parameter propagation across agents done by the server. In the second layer, each agent does its local update with a stochastic and variance-reduced technique called Stochastic Variance Reduced Gradient (SVRG). We leverage the concept of variance reduction from stochastic optimization when the agents want to do their local update step to reduce the variance caused by stochastic gradient descent (SGD). We provide a convergence bound for our algorithm which improves the rate from $O(\frac{1}{\sqrt{K}})$ to $O(\frac{1}{K})$ by using a constant step-size. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm using numerical examples

Molecular and morphological characterization of the tapeworm Taenia hydatigena (Pallas, 1766) in sheep from Iran

Although Taenia hydatigena is one of the most prevalent taeniid species of livestock, very little molecular genetic information exists for this parasite. Up to 100 sheep isolates of T. hydatigena were collected from 19 abattoirs located in the provinces of Tehran, Alborz and Kerman. A calibrated microscope was used to measure the larval rostellar hook lengths. Following DNA extraction, fragments of cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1) and 12S rRNA genes were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction method and the amplicons were subjected to sequencing. The mean total length of large and small hooks was 203.4 μm and 135.9 μm, respectively. Forty CO1 and 39 12S rRNA sequence haplotypes were obtained in the study. The levels of pairwise nucleotide variation between individual haplotypes of CO1 and 12S rRNA genes were determined to be between 0.3-3.4% and 0.2-2.1%, respectively. The overall nucleotide variation among all the CO1 haplotypes was 9.7%, and for all the 12S rRNA haplotypes it was 10.1%. A significant difference was observed between rostellar hook morphometry and both CO1 and 12S rRNA sequence variability. A significantly high level of genetic variation was observed in the present study. The results showed that the 12S rRNA gene is more variable than CO1. © 2013 Cambridge University Press

Some hematological and biochemical changes in blood serum of Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) vaccinated with Aeromonas hydrophila following exposure to sublethal concentration of diazinon

.Diazinon is commonly used for pest control in the agricultural fields in north of Iran. This study was conducted to determine the chronic toxicity of organophosphorous pesticide (Diazinon) in vaccinated fish and its effects on some hematological parameters and biochemical blood plasma profiles of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella).This experiment was carried out in three groups. The first group was vaccinated and exposed to diazinon (group A) while the second group was vaccinated and bathed with PBS bath (group B). The remaining fish were used as unvaccinated fish and were kept in clean water separately (group C). Diazinon was applied at concentrations of 2 mg/L for 12 hours since the experiments were initiated. The experimental groups(A and B) showed significantly lower values (p < 0.05) of erythrocyte count, haemoglobin content, haematocrit, leucocytes, Lymphocyte, myelocyte and monocyte, as well as in alkaline phosphatases, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and, lactate dehydrogenase compared to the control group(C). Values of MCV, MCH and MCHC of experimental species (A and B) were compared to the control group(C). The results of examinations of the biochemical blood plasma profile indicate a marked neurotoxic effect of diazinon in fishes. Changes in values of both erythrocyte and leukocyte profile after exposure to diazinon-based preparation may be referred to disruption of haematopoiesis as well as to a decrease on non-specific immunity of the fis

Annual cycle of ovarian development and sex hormones of grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) in captivity

The grey mullet fingerling were imported to Iran in 1997 from Hong Kong and in coastal fish pond of north part of Iran were successfully cultured in order to obtain broodstocks and induce artificial reproduction. Seasonal changes in serum concentrations of Testosterone, 17-β Estradiole (E2), 17-α Hydroxy Progesterone and also the level of calcium, Triglyceride and cholesterol in females grey mullet in captivity were measured by Radioimmunoassay or colorimetry, respectively. Investigating of sex steroids in different sexual maturity indicated that increasing of oocyte diameter and sexual maturity development serum testosterone was increased significantly (P0.05). These results suggest that the seasonal changes in serum lipids and gonadal steroids were associated with reproductive development. The data also support the hypothesis that the shortening photoperiod is a major factor in stimulating reproductive activity in striped mullet