Modulation of social behavior by the agouti pigmentation gene

Agouti is a secreted neuropeptide that acts as an endogenous antagonist of melanocortin receptors. Mice and rats lacking agouti (called non-agouti) have dark fur due to a disinhibition of melanocortin signaling and pigment deposition in the hair follicle. Non-agouti animals have also been reported to exhibit altered behavior, despite no evidence for the expression of agouti outside the skin. Here we confirm that non-agouti mice show altered social behavior and uncover expression of agouti in the preputial gland, a sebaceous organ in the urinary tract that secretes molecules involved in social behavior. Non-agouti mice had enlarged preputial glands and altered levels of putative preputial pheromones and surgical removal of the gland reversed the behavioral phenotype. These findings demonstrate the existence of an autologous, out-of-skin pathway for the modulation of social behavio

Which prosthetic foot to prescribe?

Introduction: Clinicians typically use findings from cohort studies to objectively inform judgements regarding the potential (dis)advantages of prescribing a new prosthetic device. However, before finalising prescription a clinician will typically ask a patient to 'try out' a change of prosthetic device while the patient is at the clinic. Observed differences in gait when using the new device should be the result of the device’s mechanical function, but could also conceivably be due to patient related factors which can change from day-to-day and can thus make device comparisons unreliable. To determine whether a device’s mechanical function consistently has a more meaningful impact on gait than patient-related factors, the present study undertook quantitative gait analyses of a trans-tibial amputee walking using two different foot-ankle devices on two occasions over a year apart. If the observed differences present between devices, established using quantitative gait analysis, were in the same direction and of similar magnitude on each of the two occasions, this would indicate that device-related factors were more important than patient-related factors. Methods: One adult male with a unilateral trans-tibial amputation completed repeated walking trials using two different prosthetic foot devices on two separate occasions, 14 months apart. Walking speed and sagittal plane joint kinematics and kinetics for both limbs were assessed on each occasion. Clinically meaningful differences in these biomechanical outcome variables were defined as those with an effect size difference (d) between prosthetic conditions of at least 0.4 (i.e. 'medium' effect size). Results: Eight variables namely, walking speed, prosthetic 'ankle' peak plantar- and dorsi-flexion and peak positive power, and residual knee loading response flexion, peak stance-phase extension and flexion moments and peak negative power, displayed clinically meaningful differences (d > 0.4) between foot devices during the first session. All eight of these showed similar effect size differences during the second session despite the participant being heavier and older. Conclusions: Findings suggest that a prosthetic device's mechanical function consistently has a more meaningful impact on gait than patient-related factors. These findings support the current clinical practice of making decisions regarding prosthetic prescription for an individual, based on a single session evaluation of their gait using two different devices. However, to confirm this conclusion, a case series using the same approach as the present study could be undertaken

Multiclass Fuzzy Time-Delay Common Spatio-Spectral Patterns with Fuzzy Information Theoretic Optimization for EEG-Based Regression Problems in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

© 2019 IEEE. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are one of the most widely used noninvasive signals in brain-computer interfaces. Large dimensional EEG recordings suffer from poor signal-to-noise ratio. These signals are very much prone to artifacts and noise, so sufficient preprocessing is done on raw EEG signals before using them for classification or regression. Properly selected spatial filters enhance the signal quality and subsequently improve the rate and accuracy of classifiers, but their applicability to solve regression problems is quite an unexplored objective. This paper extends common spatial patterns (CSP) to EEG state space using fuzzy time delay and thereby proposes a novel approach for spatial filtering. The approach also employs a novel fuzzy information theoretic framework for filter selection. Experimental performance on EEG-based reaction time (RT) prediction from a lane-keeping task data from 12 subjects demonstrated that the proposed spatial filters can significantly increase the EEG signal quality. A comparison based on root-mean-squared error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and correlation to true responses is made for all the subjects. In comparison to the baseline fuzzy CSP regression one versus rest, the proposed Fuzzy Time-delay Common Spatio-Spectral filters reduced the RMSE on an average by 9.94%, increased the correlation to true RT on an average by 7.38%, and reduced the MAPE by 7.09%

Progression of myopathology in Kearns-Sayre syndrome

We report on the progression of myopathology by comparing two biopsies from a patient with a Kearns-Sayre-Syndrome. The first biopsy was taken in 1979 and showed 10% ragged-red fibers. Myopathic changes were slight including internal nuclei and fiber splitting in 10% of the fibers. Electron microscopy revealed typical mitochondrial abnormalities with regard to number and shape. In 1989 a second biopsy was performed for an extended analysis of mitochondrial DNA. This time less than 5% of all fibers were ragged-red. Severe myopathic changes could be detected which so far has rarely been reported in mitochondrial cytopathy

Time evolution of entanglement entropy from a pulse

We calculate the time evolution of the entanglement entropy in a 1+1 CFT with a holographic dual when there is a localized left-moving packet of energy density. We find the gravity result agrees with a field theory result derived from the transformation properties of R\'enyi entropy. We are able to reproduce behavior which qualitatively agrees with CFT results of entanglement entropy of a system subjected to a local quench. In doing so we construct a finite diffeomorphism which tales three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space in the Poincar\'e patch to a general solution, generalizing the diffeomorphism that takes the Poincar\'e patch a BTZ black hole. We briefly discuss the calculation of correlation functions in these backgrounds and give results at large operator dimension.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Augmenting Bragg Reflection with Polymer-sustained Conical Helix

There has been a recent surge of interest in smart materials and devices with stimuli-responsive properties for optical modulations. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are a unique class of light-manipulating materials, and strongly interact with light and other electromagnetic (EM) waves. Because of their intricate helical structure, new properties of CLC have emerged revealing unique optical behavior that has resulted in rewriting Braggs’ law for how light interacts with soft materials. The aim of this work is to push the limits of spectral tuning with a new method of augmenting light-cholesteric interactions using a polymer-sustained conical helix (PSCH) structure. We experimentally explore the reversibility of reflective wavelength modulation and validate the mechanism enhanced by a polymer-sustained helicoidal structure via theoretical analyses. The conical helix structure of a CLC, formed by low-field-induced oblique orientation of cholesteric helices, is comprised of a chiral dopant, a conventional nematic, and bimesogenic and trimesogenic nematics. Polymerizing a small amount of a reactive mesogen in the CLC with an applied electric field produces a templated helical polymer network that enables three switched optical states, including light-scattering and transparent states as well as color reflection in response to an applied increasing or decreasing electric field. An electro-activated PSCH optical film covers a wide color space, which is appropriate for tunable color device applications. We envisage that this PSCH material will lead to new avenues for controlling EM waves in imaging and thermal control, smart windows and electronic papers

Presentation of retinoblastoma at a paediatric eye clinic in Ghana

Background: Retinobalstoma, the commonest childhood malignant intraocular tumour, is usually diagnosed early with over 90% survival rate indeveloped countries. In developing countries, the diagnosis is late resulting in less than 50% survival.Objective: To determine retinoblastoma stages at presentation and patients¡¦ outcomes.Design: Retrospective case series.Methods: The clinical and histopathological records of children with retinoblastoma seen from May 2004 to December 2005 were studied. Data was analysed for mode of presentation, laterality, clinical staging usingReese-Ellsworth (R-E) classification, histopathological high risk features (HHRF) for metastasis, and patient outcome.Setting: Ophthalmology Unit, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana.Results: Twenty-three patients presented with retinoblastoma over the period. Males were 12(52.2%). The age range from 1 to 84 months, mean 36.3(„b22.15) and median (36 months). Nineteen (82.6%) hadunilateral and 4(17.4%) bilateral disease. The common clinical presentations were leukocoria in 20(87.0%), proptosis 8(34.8%), strabismus 5(21.7%) and red eye 5(21.7%). The clinical features were commensurate with R-E stage V in 20(87.0%) patients, 2(8.7%) withorbital recurrence and 1(4.3%) with post-enucleation anophthalmos. HHRFs were present in 9(75%) enucleated eyes with invasion of optic nerve as thecommonest site (7/9). The patients were followed up for 1 day to 19 months. Eight abandoned treatment, 2 were discharged for palliative treatment, 2 out of 5 with metastasis died and 6 had no metastases at their last visit. Common sites for metastasis were the bonemarrow, brain and orbit.Conclusion: Majority of the patients presented with advanced disease manifesting as leukocoria, proptosis, RE stages V disease and poor outcome

Exploring the Impact of Evolutionary Computing based Feature Selection in Suicidal Ideation Detection

© 2019 IEEE. The ubiquitous availability of smartphones and the increasing popularity of social media provide a platform for users to express their feelings, including suicidal ideation. Suicide prevention by suicidal ideation detection on social media lights the path to controlling the rapidly increasing suicide rates amongst youth. This paper proposes a diverse set of features and investigates into feature selection using the Firefly algorithm to build an efficient and robust supervised approach to classifying tweets with suicidal ideation. The development of a suicidal language to create three diverse, manually annotated datasets leads to the validation of the proposed model. An in-depth result and error analysis lead to an accurate system for monitoring suicidal ideation on social media along with the discovery of optimal feature subsets and selection methods using a penalty based Firefly algorithm

In Vitro Anticholinergic and Antihistaminic Activities of Acorus Calamus Linn. Leaves Extracts

The present investigation was aimed at determining the effects of hexane, acetone, methanol and aqueous extracts of Acorus calamus leaves (ACHE, ACAE, ACME and ACAQE) on cholinergic and histaminic system using isolated frog rectus abdominis muscle and guinea pig ileum. A dose dependent potentiation of Ach response (anticholinesterase like effect) was found with ACAE and ACME at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 mg/ml, but at higher dose of ACAE, ACME, ACAQE and ACHE (5, 20 mg/ml) inhibit the Ach response (antinicotinic effect). These results revealed biphasic effect of Acorus calamus leaves extracts on acetylcholine induced contractile response in isolated frog rectus abdominis muscle preparation (i.e. potentiation effect at lower dose and inhibitory effect at higher dose). Studies on isolated guinea pig ileum demonstrated antihistaminic effect in a dose dependent manner (100-1000 μg/ml) with ACAE, ACME and ACAQE. In addition, the dose dependent inhibition of Ach response (antimuscarinic effect) was observed with ACAE and ACME. In conclusion, Acorus calamus leaves extracts exerts antinicotinic, anticholinesterase like activities in isolated frog rectus abdominis muscle and antihistaminic, antimuscarinic effect in guinea pig ileum. It has been suggested that these observed activities can be further studied for therapeutic potential of Acorus calamus leaves in the treatment of cognitive disorders and asthma