International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force Consensus Proposal: Diagnostic approach to epilepsy in dogs

This article outlines the consensus proposal on diagnosis of epilepsy in dogs by the International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force. The aim of this consensus proposal is to improve consistency in the diagnosis of epilepsy in the clinical and research settings. The diagnostic approach to the patient presenting with a history of suspected epileptic seizures incorporates two fundamental steps: to establish if the events the animal is demonstrating truly represent epileptic seizures and if so, to identify their underlying cause. Differentiation of epileptic seizures from other non-epileptic episodic paroxysmal events can be challenging. Criteria that can be used to make this differentiation are presented in detail and discussed. Criteria for the diagnosis of idiopathic epilepsy (IE) are described in a three-tier system. Tier I confidence level for the diagnosis of IE is based on a history of two or more unprovoked epileptic seizures occurring at least 24 h apart, age at epileptic seizure onset of between six months and six years, unremarkable inter-ictal physical and neurological examination, and no significant abnormalities on minimum data base blood tests and urinalysis. Tier II confidence level for the diagnosis of IE is based on the factors listed in tier I and unremarkable fasting and post-prandial bile acids, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain (based on an epilepsy-specific brain MRI protocol) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis. Tier III confidence level for the diagnosis of IE is based on the factors listed in tier I and II and identification of electroencephalographic abnormalities characteristic for seizure disorders. The authors recommend performing MRI of the brain and routine CSF analysis, after exclusion of reactive seizures, in dogs with age at epileptic seizure onset 6 years, inter-ictal neurological abnormalities consistent with intracranial neurolocalisation, status epilepticus or cluster seizure at epileptic seizure onset, or a previous presumptive diagnosis of IE and drug-resistance with a single antiepileptic drug titrated to the highest tolerable dose

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Probing Parity Violation in the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with Astrometry

Astrometry holds the potential for testing fundamental physics through the effects of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) in the $\sim 1-100$ nHz frequency band on precision measurements of stellar positions. Such measurements are complementary to tests made possible by the detection of the SGWB using Pulsar Timing Arrays. Here, the feasibility of using astrometry for the identification of parity-violating signals within the SGWB is investigated. This is achieved by defining and quantifying a non-vanishing $EB$ correlation function within astrometric correlation functions, and investigating how one might estimate the detectability of such signals.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Effects of Vacuum Annealing on the Conduction Characteristics of ZnO Nanosheets

This paper is open acess and available in full at http://www.nanoscalereslett.com/content/10/1/368 .ZnO nanosheets are a relatively new form of nanostructure and have demonstrated potential as gas-sensing devices and dye sensitised solar cells. For integration into other devices, and when used as gas sensors, the nanosheets are often heated. Here we study the effect of vacuum annealing on the electrical transport properties of ZnO nanosheets in order to understand the role of heating in device fabrication. A low cost, mass production method has been used for synthesis and characterisation is achieved using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence (PL), auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and nanoscale two-point probe. Before annealing, the measured nanosheet resistance displayed a non-linear increase with probe separation, attributed to surface contamination. Annealing to 300 °C removed this contamination giving a resistance drop, linear probe spacing dependence, increased grain size and a reduction in the number of n-type defects. Further annealing to 500 °C caused the n-type defect concentration to reduce further with a corresponding increase in nanosheet resistance not compensated by any further sintering. At 700 °C, the nanosheets partially disintegrated and the resistance increased and became less linear with probe separation. These effects need to be taken into account when using ZnO nanosheets in devices that require an annealing stage during fabrication or heating during use

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Complementary Vanishing Graphs

Given a graph $G$ with vertices $\{v_1,\ldots,v_n\}$, we define $\mathcal{S}(G)$ to be the set of symmetric matrices $A=[a_{i,j}]$ such that for $i\ne j$ we have $a_{i,j}\ne 0$ if and only if $v_iv_j\in E(G)$. Motivated by the Graph Complement Conjecture, we say that a graph $G$ is complementary vanishing if there exist matrices $A \in \mathcal{S}(G)$ and $B \in \mathcal{S}(\overline{G})$ such that $AB=O$. We provide combinatorial conditions for when a graph is or is not complementary vanishing, and we characterize which graphs are complementary vanishing in terms of certain minimal complementary vanishing graphs. In addition to this, we determine which graphs on at most $8$ vertices are complementary vanishing