Efficacy and Safety of Lamotrigine in Lennox - Gastaut Syndrome

ObjectiveThe Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), one of the most difficult epilepsy syndromes to treat, is characterized by a triad of intractable seizures of various types, a slow (< 2.5-hertz) spike-wave pattern in EEG and mental retardation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children with LGS.Materials & MethodsIn a quasi- experimental study, 40 children with LGS referred to the pediatric neurology clinic of Shaheed Sadoughi Hospital in Yazd, between August 2007 and to November 2008, were evaluated.ResultsTwenty-two boys and 18 girls with a mean age of 4.12 ±1.8 years were evaluated. At the end of three months of treatment with lamotrigine, 12 % were seizure free, 52% had> 50% reduction in seizure frequency and 12% had increase in seizures. Means of seizure frequency/per week, before and after treatment were 70 (range 1-180) and 18.6 (range 0-60) respectively, indicating effectiveness of the drug in seizure reduction (P value = 0.003). The drug was effective in 72 % of mixed type seizures, 40 % of generalized tonic-clonic and 33% of drop attack and tonic seizures. Transient side effects were seen in 12.5 % (drowsiness in 3 and ataxia in 2 children). No serious side effects were seen.ConclusionLamotrigine should be considered as an add-on therapy in management of intractable epilepsy in LGS

A three-phase bidirectional variable speed drive: an experimental validation for a three-phase induction motor

This paper presents the implementation and subsequent experimental verification of an electronic variable speed drive (VSD) for driving an induction motor, which is composed by a three-phase ac-dc converter on the grid-side and by a three-phase dc-ac converter on the motor-side. With the proposed solution, besides driving the motor, it is possible to mitigate power quality problems on the grid-side (e.g., current harmonics and power factor) associated with the use of diode-bridge ac-dc converters in the conventional VSDs. Besides, with the proposed solution, a bidirectional operation is possible, allowing to deliver to the power grid the energy generated in motor braking processes. As demonstrated along the paper, with the proposed VSD, it is possible to control the motor speed (including the rotation direction), and the operation with sinusoidal currents and unitary power factor on the grid-side. A laboratory prototype was developed, permitting to perform an experimental validation and prove the main functionalities of the VSD.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019. This work has been supported by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017, and by the FCT Project QUALITY4POWER PTDC/EEI-EEE/28813/2017

Validity and reliability of a new food frequency questionnaire compared to 24h recalls and biochemical measurements: Pilot phase of Golestan cohort study of esophageal cancer

Background: A pilot study was carried out to evaluate validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), which was designed to be used in a prospective cohort study in a population at high risk for esophageal cancer in northern Iran. Methods: The FFQ was administered four times to 131 subjects, aged 35-65 years, of both sexes. Twelve 24-h dietary recalls for two consecutive days were administered monthly during 1 year and used as a reference method. The excretion of nitrogen was measured on four 24-h urine samples, and plasma levels of β-carotene, retinol, vitamin C and α-tocopherol was measured from two time points. Relative validity of FFQ and 24-h diet recall was assessed by comparing nutrient intake derived from both methods with the urinary nitrogen and plasma levels of β-carotene, retinol, vitamin C and α-tocopherol. Results: Correlation coefficients comparing energy and nutrients intake based on the mean of the four FFQ and the mean of twelve 24-h diet recalls were 0.75 for total energy, 0.75 for carbohydrates, 0.76 for proteins and 0.65 for fat. Correlation coefficients between the FFQ-based intake and serum levels of β-carotene, retinol, vitamin C and vitamin E/α-tocopherol were 0.37, 0.32, 0.35 and 0.06, respectively. Correlation coefficients between urinary nitrogen and FFQ-based protein intake ranged from 0.23 to 0.35. Intraclass correlation coefficients used to measure reproducibility of FFQ ranged from 0.66 to 0.89. Conclusion: We found that the FFQ provides valid and reliable measurements of habitual intake for energy and most of the nutrients studied. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved

The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in plant invasion trajectory

Background: Invasive plant species pose a global threat because they alter ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. The majority of plants form mutualistic mycorrhizal associations with mycorrhizal fungi, which contribute to the nutrient and water supply as well as diversity, competitive ability, and ecosystem productivity. In addition, the role of mycorrhizal interactions in plant invasiveness and the susceptibility or resistance of a habitat to invasion is increasingly recognized. However, the mechanisms by which mycorrhizae contribute to invasion remain unresolved. Scope Here, we provide an overview of the empirical evidence and discuss the prospects for mycorrhizaemediated plant invasion. Overall, mycorrhizal fungi appear to have impacts on plant invasion that depend on the similarities between the mycorrhizal associations of the alien and native plants. We introduce plant mycorrhizal niche space (PMNS) as a plant’s ability to exploit and shape the mycorrhizal fungi pool of a habitat based on its dependency on mycorrhizal fungi, traits and priority effects. Conclusions Collectively, the available evidence supports the idea that PMNS is independent of place of origin (invasive status). Understanding the drivers of the PMNS of both native and alien plant species may help to predict the potential invasiveness of plants and the invasibility of a habitat, to elucidate the role of the mycorrhizal fungal community in plant invasion and the impact of plant invasion on the structure of the mycorrhizal fungal community in new habitats (i.e., neighbour effect) and to improve restoration planning. In this regard, we highlight a number of knowledge gaps and discuss future research directions

Intelligent mining of large-scale bio-data: bioinformatics applications

Today, there is a collection of a tremendous amount of bio-data because of the computerized applications worldwide. Therefore, scholars have been encouraged to develop effective methods to extract the hidden knowledge in these data. Consequently, a challenging and valuable area for research in artificial intelligence has been created. Bioinformatics creates heuristic approaches and complex algorithms using artificial intelligence and information technology in order to solve biological problems. Intelligent implication of the data can accelerate biological knowledge discovery. Data mining, as biology intelligence, attempts to find reliable, new, useful and meaningful patterns in huge amounts of data. Hence, there is a high potential to raise the interaction between artificial intelligence and bio-data mining. The present paper argues how artificial intelligence can assist bio-data analysis and gives an up-to-date review of different applications of bio-data mining. It also highlights some future perspectives of data mining in bioinformatics that can inspire further developments of data mining instruments. Important and new techniques are critically discussed for intelligent knowledge discovery of different types of row datasets with applicable examples in human, plant and animal sciences. Finally, a broad perception of this hot topic in data science is given