Precision of Age Estimates Obtained from Five Calcified Structure for Wels Catfish, Silurus glanis

In this study, vertebrae, otoliths (asteriscus and lapillus), sectioned lapillus and pectoral fin rays were evaluated for age determination of Silurus glanis L., 1758 inhabiting Siddikli Dam Lake. All calcified structures showed the variable annual ring formation. Ages obtained from calcified structures were compared using the percentage of agreement (PA), average percentage of error (APE), and coefficient of variation (CV). Sectioned lapillus showed the clearest annulus formation and highest PA (76.4%) between readings, followed by asteriscus (43.9%), whole lapillus (40.5%), vertebrae (36.0%) and pectoral fin ray (33.3%). When sectioned lapillus compared to other structures, there were high ages obtained from this structure. Especially, the ages from the whole lapillus were lower than sectioned lapillus. Also, ages obtained from pectoral fin ray were the closer to sectioned lapillus ages than the other calcified structures. Owing to the highest PA, lowest APE and CV, sectioned lapillus was recommended as the most reliable calcified structure for age determination of S. glanis. Our findings can be used for effective fisheries management and determination of the biological characteristics of wels catfish

A high-performance 8 nV/root Hz 8-channel wearable and wireless system for real-time monitoring of bioelectrical signals

Background: It is widely accepted by the scientific community that bioelectrical signals, which can be used for the identification of neurophysiological biomarkers indicative of a diseased or pathological state, could direct patient treatment towards more effective therapeutic strategies. However, the design and realisation of an instrument that can precisely record weak bioelectrical signals in the presence of strong interference stemming from a noisy clinical environment is one of the most difficult challenges associated with the strategy of monitoring bioelectrical signals for diagnostic purposes. Moreover, since patients often have to cope with the problem of limited mobility being connected to bulky and mains-powered instruments, there is a growing demand for small-sized, high-performance and ambulatory biopotential acquisition systems in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in High-dependency wards. Finally, to the best of our knowledge, there are no commercial, small, battery-powered, wearable and wireless recording-only instruments that claim the capability of recording electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals. Methods: To address this problem, we designed and developed a low-noise (8 nV/√Hz), eight-channel, battery-powered, wearable and wireless instrument (55 × 80 mm2). The performance of the realised instrument was assessed by conducting both ex vivo and in vivo experiments. Results: To provide ex vivo proof-of-function, a wide variety of high-quality bioelectrical signal recordings are reported, including electroencephalographic (EEG), electromyographic (EMG), electrocardiographic (ECG), acceleration signals, and muscle fasciculations. Low-noise in vivo recordings of weak local field potentials (LFPs), which were wirelessly acquired in real time using segmented deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes implanted in the thalamus of a non-human primate, are also presented. Conclusions: The combination of desirable features and capabilities of this instrument, namely its small size (~one business card), its enhanced recording capabilities, its increased processing capabilities, its manufacturability (since it was designed using discrete off-the-shelf components), the wide bandwidth it offers (0.5 – 500 Hz) and the plurality of bioelectrical signals it can precisely record, render it a versatile and reliable tool to be utilized in a wide range of applications and environments

MODELING HALF-CIRCULAR COMPLIANT LEG BY USING SIMMECHANICS

Despite the well-understood effects and benefits, half-circular compliant legs are difficult in terms of modeling and analyzing. In many studies, simplified models have been used, which have a number of assumptions and whose validity need to be verified either against the actual physical system or against a more accurate simulation model. Leaving the experimental validation issues to the future works, the aim of this study is to come up with a more accurate simulation model of the half-circular compliant leg with the minimum number of assumptions, approximations and simplifications. For this purpose, Simulink/SimMechanics modeling and simulation environment is considered. We believe that our simulation model to be a better approximation of the system behavior because, it allows for a more general leg shape during locomotion. Also, slippage conditions can be carried out. The simulation is more general overall, allowing a distributed leg mass, non-planar leg behavior as well as allowing wider contact area with the surface

Treatment of resistant idiopathic hiccups with pulse radio frequency on phrenic nerve and gabapentin: A case report

Hiccups affect life quality, career and family life when they become persistent. We present here a 54-year-old man who worked as a mason and a blacksmith with hiccups complaint for nearly one and a half years. In this period, he was admitted to emergency service ten times with fainting or almost fainting, cold sweating and hand stretching complaints. The patient expressed that he frequently threw up when he had hiccups and his social life was negatively affected. He reported that he was treated with baclofen, esomeprazole and hyoscine-n-butyl bromur without relief. He used escitalopram and chlorpromazine for a short time and quit because they negatively affected his sleeping. As he did not have any relief from medications, he refused any oral medical therapy including gabapentin and started to seek remedy from paramedical treatments resulted with no benefit. The patient was referred to algology department and an intervention on phrenic nerve with pulse radio frequency (8 minutes, 45 Volts, 20 milliseconds wavelength) was performed. Symptoms stopped immediately after the procedure but one week later, although the patient reported a significant decline in symptoms he still had hiccups. The patient was offered oral medical therapy again. With considerable relief from symptoms, the patient accepted oral therapy this time. Gabapentin 300 mg bid was prescribed. The symptoms were completely recovered and the patient reported no hiccups after 30 days of Gabapentin administration. Our case suggests that administration of gabapentin after pulsed radiofrequency might be effective for the treatment of persistent hiccups.Keywords: Hiccups, persistent, pulse radio frequenc