Trigeminal neuralgia

AbstractTwo different clinical entities, essential or secondary neuralgia, are associated with different pathologies. The pathways of CN V comprise the cervical spine, the brainstem, the root of the nerve and the three peripheral branches: V1, V2 and V3. The lesions responsible for neuralgia are neoplastic, vascular, inflammatory, malformative or post-traumatic. The examination protocol should explore the set of CN V pathways. Neurovascular compression is the main cause of essential neuralgia. It is investigated by T2-weighted inframillimetric volume. Two conditions are necessary to diagnose a neurovascular compression: localised on the root entry zone [(REZ), 2–6mm from the emergence of the pons] and perpendicularly. In the absence of neurovascular compression, thin slices and a gadolinium injection are necessary

Drag force as a function of cross section and angle of attack. A hydraulic laboratory dataset for numerical validation

This data relates to a set of hydraulic laboratory experiments in which the flow around four cross-sections was investigated. Each cross section was examined at four angles of attack (0, 5, 10, 90°), seven velocities (0–0.7 m/s in 0.1 m/s steps) and two flow directions. The data is primarily from an array of load cell which monitored the loading on the cross-sections during testing in six degrees of freedom during testing. Video and photographs are also included

Dynamical Masses of Young Stars in Multiple Systems

We present recent measurements of the orbital motion in the young binaries DF Tau and ZZ Tau, and the hierarchical triple Elias 12, that were obtained with the Fine Guidance Sensors on the HST and at the Keck Observatory using adaptive optics. Combining these observations with previous measurements from the literature, we compute preliminary orbital parameters for DF Tau and ZZ Tau. We find that the orbital elements cannot yet be determined precisely because the orbital coverage spans only about 90 degr in position angle. Nonetheless, the range of possible values for the period and semi-major axis already defines a useful estimate for the total mass in DF Tau and ZZ Tau, with values of 0.90{+0.85}{-0.35} M_sun and 0.81{+0.44}{-0.25} M_sun, respectively, at a fiducial distance of 140 pc.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A

Imaging reconstruction for infrared interferometry: first images of YSOs environment

The study of protoplanetary disks, where the planets are believed to form, will certainly allow the formation of our Solar System to be understood. To conduct observations of these objects at the milli-arcsecond scale, infrared interferometry provides the right performances for T Tauri, FU Ori or Herbig Ae/Be stars. However, the only information obtained so far are scarce visibility measurements which are directly tested with models. With the outcome of recent interferometers, one can foresee obtaining images reconstructed independently of the models. In fact, several interferometers including IOTA and AMBER on the VLTI already provide the possibility to recombine three telescopes at once and thus to obtain the data necessary to reconstruct images. In this paper, we describe the use of MIRA, an image reconstruction algorithm developed for optical inter- ferometry data (squared visibilities and closure phases) by E. Thiebaut. We foresee also to use the spectral information given by AMBER data to constrain even better the reconstructed images. We describe the use of MIRA to reconstruct images of young stellar objects out of actual data, in particular the multiple system GW Orionis (IOTA, 2004), and discuss the encountered difficulties.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proc. SPIE conference 7013 "Optical and Infrared Interferometry" (Marseille 2008

High dynamic range imaging by pupil single-mode filtering and remapping

Because of atmospheric turbulence, obtaining high angular resolution images with a high dynamic range is difficult even in the near infrared domain of wavelengths. We propose a novel technique to overcome this issue. The fundamental idea is to apply techniques developed for long baseline interferometry to the case of a single-aperture telescope. The pupil of the telescope is broken down into coherent sub-apertures each feeding a single-mode fiber. A remapping of the exit pupil allows interfering all sub-apertures non-redundantly. A diffraction-limited image with very high dynamic range is reconstructed from the fringe pattern analysis with aperture synthesis techniques, free of speckle noise. The performances of the technique are demonstrated with simulations in the visible range with an 8 meter telescope. Raw dynamic ranges of 1:$10^6$ can be obtained in only a few tens of seconds of integration time for bright objects.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. accepted for publication in MNRA

Coating ZnO:Zn Nanoparticles with Alumina for Polymer Protection

Using a modified preparation large nanoparticles of ZnO and ZnO:Zn were coated (without destroying the luminescent properties of the latter), but the coating is a layer of AZO not Al2O3. Large nanoparticles of ZnO:Zn were coated with a layer of ZnO by using only (NH4)HCO3 in the absence of Al2SO4

Australian adults use complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of chronic illness: a national study

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of the use of vitamin/mineral supplements or natural/herbal remedies, concurrent use of pharmaceutical medication, and to profile those most likely to use these complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in the treatment of five chronic conditions identified as national health priorities (asthma, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, heart or circulatory condition) within the Australian adult population. Methods: Analysis of the Australian National Health Survey database, 2004–05. Results: Approximately 24% (1.3 million) of Australian adults with a chronic condition regularly applied CAM to treatment. CAM was most often used exclusively or in combination with pharmaceutical medicine in the treatment of arthritis and osteoporosis. Fewer than 10% of adults with asthma, diabetes or a heart or circulatory condition used CAM, most preferring pharmaceutical medicine. Regular CAM users were more likely to be aged ≥60, female, have a secondary school education and live in households with lower incomes than non-users. Non-users were more likely to be 30–59 years old and tertiary educated. Conclusion and implications: Arthritis, osteoporosis and, to a lesser extent, heart or circulatory conditions are illnesses for which doctors should advise, and patients need to be most aware about the full effects of CAM and possible interactive effects with prescribed medicine. They are also conditions for which research into the interactive effects of CAM and pharmaceutical medication would seem of most immediate benefit

PLoS One

MOTIVATION: The recent revolution in new sequencing technologies, as a part of the continuous process of adopting new innovative protocols has strongly impacted the interpretation of relations between phenotype and genotype. Thus, understanding the resulting gene sets has become a bottleneck that needs to be addressed. Automatic methods have been proposed to facilitate the interpretation of gene sets. While statistical functional enrichment analyses are currently well known, they tend to focus on well-known genes and to ignore new information from less-studied genes. To address such issues, applying semantic similarity measures is logical if the knowledge source used to annotate the gene sets is hierarchically structured. In this work, we propose a new method for analyzing the impact of different semantic similarity measures on gene set annotations. RESULTS: We evaluated the impact of each measure by taking into consideration the two following features that correspond to relevant criteria for a "good" synthetic gene set annotation: (i) the number of annotation terms has to be drastically reduced and the representative terms must be retained while annotating the gene set, and (ii) the number of genes described by the selected terms should be as large as possible. Thus, we analyzed nine semantic similarity measures to identify the best possible compromise between both features while maintaining a sufficient level of details. Using Gene Ontology to annotate the gene sets, we obtained better results with node-based measures that use the terms' characteristics than with measures based on edges that link the terms. The annotation of the gene sets achieved with the node-based measures did not exhibit major differences regardless of the characteristics of terms used

Imaging the spotty surface of Betelgeuse in the H band

This paper reports on H-band interferometric observations of Betelgeuse made at the three-telescope interferometer IOTA. We image Betelgeuse and its asymmetries to understand the spatial variation of the photosphere, including its diameter, limb darkening, effective temperature, surrounding brightness, and bright (or dark) star spots. We used different theoretical simulations of the photosphere and dusty environment to model the visibility data. We made images with parametric modeling and two image reconstruction algorithms: MIRA and WISARD. We measure an average limb-darkened diameter of 44.28 +/- 0.15 mas with linear and quadratic models and a Rosseland diameter of 45.03 +/- 0.12 mas with a MARCS model. These measurements lead us to derive an updated effective temperature of 3600 +/- 66 K. We detect a fully-resolved environment to which the silicate dust shell is likely to contribute. By using two imaging reconstruction algorithms, we unveiled two bright spots on the surface of Betelgeuse. One spot has a diameter of about 11 mas and accounts for about 8.5% of the total flux. The second one is unresolved (diameter < 9 mas) with 4.5% of the total flux. Resolved images of Betelgeuse in the H band are asymmetric at the level of a few percent. The MOLsphere is not detected in this wavelength range. The amount of measured limb-darkening is in good agreement with model predictions. The two spots imaged at the surface of the star are potential signatures of convective cells.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, references adde

The subcortical and neurochemical organization of the Ventral and Dorsal Attention Networks

Attention is a core cognitive function that filters and selects behaviourally relevant information in the environment. The cortical mapping of attentional systems identified two segregated networks that mediate stimulus-driven and goal-driven processes, the Ventral and the Dorsal Attention Networks (VAN, DAN). Deep brain electrophysiological recordings, behavioral data from phylogenetic distant species, and observations from human brain pathologies challenge purely corticocentric models. Here, we used advanced methods of functional alignment applied to resting-state functional connectivity analyses to map the subcortical architecture of the Ventral and Dorsal Attention Networks. Our investigations revealed the involvement of the pulvinar, the superior colliculi, the head of caudate nuclei, and a cluster of brainstem nuclei relevant to both networks. These nuclei are densely connected structural network hubs, as revealed by diffusion-weighted imaging tractography. Their projections establish interrelations with the acetylcholine nicotinic receptor as well as dopamine and serotonin transporters, as demonstrated in a spatial correlation analysis with a normative atlas of neurotransmitter systems. This convergence of functional, structural, and neurochemical evidence provides a comprehensive framework to understand the neural basis of attention across different species and brain diseases