POSTER: Impact of Educational Modules on Knowledge among Neuroscience Nurses Working in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU)

Background: Little data exists about nursing care and knowledge on an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU). This study evaluated the impact of an educational series (three modules) on nursing knowledge and confidence in providing care, using a pre-test/post-test design. Objectives: There were three objectives for this study. The first objective was to improve nursing knowledge and competence in educating patients and families. The second, to increase nursing confidence in providing care and decision-making for the specialized patient population on the EMU. The third, to evaluate the effectiveness of educational modules. Subjects: Thirty-eight nurses working in the neuroscience unit participated in the study. Results: Nurses assessments were scored before and after each educational module. The post-test scores demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the scores with the mean scores. Conclusions: The pre-test and post-test provided the investigator a quantitative measure of assessment of knowledge before and after the educational modules. The data collected indicated the educational modules significantly improved post-test scores

REPORT:Impact of Educational Modules on Knowledge among Neuroscience Nurses Working in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU)

Background: Little data exists about nursing care and knowledge on an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU). This study evaluated the impact of an educational series (three modules) on nursing knowledge and confidence in providing care, using a pre-test/post-test design. Objectives: There were three objectives for this study. The first objective was to improve nursing knowledge and competence in educating patients and families. The second, to increase nursing confidence in providing care and decision-making for the specialized patient population on the EMU. The third, to evaluate the effectiveness of educational modules. Subjects: Thirty-eight nurses working in the neuroscience unit participated in the study. Results: Nurses assessments were scored before and after each educational module. The post-test scores demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the scores with the mean scores. Conclusions: The pre-test and post-test provided the investigator a quantitative measure of assessment of knowledge before and after the educational modules. The data collected indicated the educational modules significantly improved post-test scores

The Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytology: a prospective study in a tertiary care institute along with review of literature

Background: The Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytology (TSBRTC) was devised by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to obtain uniformity, reproducibility and a defined management protocol while dealing with thyroid lesions. This study was undertaken with the aim to see the benefits of adopting TBSRTC in the diagnosis of thyroid FNAC, and identify the malignancy risk of each category.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh from June 2016 to July 2017 on 181 thyroid FNACs which were reported according to the Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology (TBSRTC) under six categories: (I) non-diagnostic/unsatisfactory (II) benign (III) atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (IV) follicular neoplasm/suspicious for follicular neoplasm (specify if Hurthle cell (oncocytic) type (V) suspicious for malignancy (VI) malignant. Histopathological diagnosis was available for 65 cases where thyroidectomy was performed. Malignancy risk was calculated for each category. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for TBSRCT were also calculated. All the data was analyzed in SPSS software version 22.0 (IBM, USA).Results: Benign lesions constituted the major bulk. After the use of TBSRTC, there was increased ability to look for follicular neoplasms, improvement in making definitive diagnosis of the cases, an improvement in diagnostic accuracy, and we were in line with the implied risk outlined by TBSRTC in most of the cases.Conclusions: Application of TBSRTC results in uniformity in reporting among pathologists and better interdisciplinary communication and patient management

Nanostructural and Transcriptomic Analyses of Human Saliva Derived Exosomes

Exosomes, derived from endocytic membrane vesicles are thought to participate in cell-cell communication and protein and RNA delivery. They are ubiquitous in most body fluids (breast milk, saliva, blood, urine, malignant ascites, amniotic, bronchoalveolar lavage, and synovial fluids). In particular, exosomes secreted in human saliva contain proteins and nucleic acids that could be exploited for diagnostic purposes. To investigate this potential use, we isolated exosomes from human saliva and characterized their structural and transcriptome contents.Exosomes were purified by differential ultracentrifugation and identified by immunoelectron microscopy (EM), flow cytometry, and Western blot with CD63 and Alix antibodies. We then described the morphology, shape, size distribution, and density using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Microarray analysis revealed that 509 mRNA core transcripts are relatively stable and present in the exosomes. Exosomal mRNA stability was determined by detergent lysis with RNase A treatment. In vitro, fluorescently labeled saliva exosomes could communicate with human keratinocytes, transferring their genetic information to human oral keratinocytes to alter gene expression at a new location.Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that exosomes shuttle RNA between cells and that the RNAs present in the exosomes may be a possible resource for disease diagnostics

Highlights From the Annual Meeting of the American Epilepsy Society 2022

With more than 6000 attendees between in-person and virtual offerings, the American Epilepsy Society Meeting 2022 in Nashville, felt as busy as in prepandemic times. An ever-growing number of physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals gathered to learn a variety of topics about epilepsy. The program was carefully tailored to meet the needs of professionals with different interests and career stages. This article summarizes the different symposia presented at the meeting. Basic science lectures addressed the primary elements of seizure generation and pathophysiology of epilepsy in different disease states. Scientists congregated to learn about anti-seizure medications, mechanisms of action, and new tools to treat epilepsy including surgery and neurostimulation. Some symposia were also dedicated to discuss epilepsy comorbidities and practical issues regarding epilepsy care. An increasing number of patient advocates discussing their stories were intertwined within scientific activities. Many smaller group sessions targeted more specific topics to encourage member participation, including Special Interest Groups, Investigator, and Skills Workshops. Special lectures included the renown Hoyer and Lombroso, an ILAE/IBE joint session, a spotlight on the impact of Dobbs v. Jackson on reproductive health in epilepsy, and a joint session with the NAEC on coding and reimbursement policies. The hot topics symposium was focused on traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic epilepsy. A balanced collaboration with the industry allowed presentations of the latest pharmaceutical and engineering advances in satellite symposia

Biochemical characterization of Alanine racemase- a spore protein produced by Bacillus anthracis

Alanine racemase catalyzes the interconversion of L-alanine and D-alanine and plays a crucial role in spore germination and cell wall biosynthesis. In this study, alanine racemase produced by Bacillus anthracis was expressed and purified as a monomer in Escherichia coli and the importance of lysine 41 in the cofactor binding octapeptide and tyrosine 270 in catalysis was evaluated. The native enzyme exhibited an apparent Km of 3 mM for L-alanine, and a Vmax of 295 μmoles/min/mg, with the optimum activity occurring at 37°C and a pH of 8-9. The activity observed in the absence of exogenous pyridoxal 5 -phosphate suggested that the cofactor is bound to the enzyme. Additionally, the UV-visible absorption spectra indicated that the activity was pH independece, of VV-visible absorption spectra suggests that the bound PLP exists as a protonated Schiff’s base. Furthermore, the loss of activity observed in the apoenzyme suggested that bound PLP is required for catalysis. Finally, the enzyme followed non-competitive and mixed inhibition kinetics for hydroxylamine and propionate with a Ki of 160 μM and 30 mM, respectively

Optimization of Intrusion Detection Systems Determined by Ameliorated HNADAM-SGD Algorithm

Information security is of pivotal concern for consistently streaming information over the widespread internetwork. The bottleneck flow of incoming and outgoing data traffic introduces the issues of malicious activities taken place by intruders, hackers and attackers in the form of authenticity obstruction, gridlocking data traffic, vandalizing data and crashing the established network. The issue of emerging suspicious activities is managed by the domain of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). The IDS consistently monitors the network for the identification of suspicious activities, and generates alarm and indication in the presence of malicious threats and worms. The performance of IDS is improved by using different machine learning algorithms. In this paper, the Nesterov-Accelerated Adaptive Moment Estimation–Stochastic Gradient Descent (HNADAM-SDG) algorithm is proposed to determine the performance of Intrusion Detection Systems IDS. The algorithm is used to optimize IDS systems by hybridization and tuning of hyperparameters. The performance of algorithm is compared with other classification algorithms such as logistic regression, ridge classifier and ensemble algorithms where the experimental analysis and computations show the improved accuracy with 99.8%, sensitivity with 99.7%, and specificity with 99.5%

Extensive disseminated cysticercosis with involvement of all possible rare sites in a single patient – MRI and USG diagnosis

Cysticercosis due to its extensive study is known to be one of the common tropical diseases. The spectrum of the disease extension and involvement has been updated continuously and every time case reports have come with new conclusions as the disease is seen worldwide. Disseminated cysticercosis by itself is a rare complication of cysticercosis with involvement of skeletal, ocular and tongue muscles. Pulmonary and cardiac involvements are rare and there are hardly few cases worldwide. Surprisingly we could identify such tiny cysticerci in the lung parenchyma, cardia and thyroid apart from other known dissemination sites .Isolated pulmonary cysticercosis have been reported but simultaneous involvement of other unusual sites is a rarity. Most of diagnosis in our case is by MRI and some by USG.Hence we report MR and USG imaging of such a case of disseminated cysticercosis involving all the possible rare sites in a single young Indian male patient who presented with history of seizures. This documentation and reporting will add up to the few cases reported previously, some of which are in isolation