Association of Family History of Epilepsy with Earlier Age Onset of Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy

How to Cite This Article: Najafi MR, Najafi MA, Safaei A. Association of Family History of Epilepsy with Earlier Age Onset of Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. Iran J Child Neurol. Spring 2016; 10(2):10-15.AbstractObjectiveJuvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is supposedly the most frequent subtype of idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGE). The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of JME and comparison of patients’ demographics as well as timeline of the disease between positive family history epileptic patients (PFHE) and negative family history epileptic patients (NFHE) among sample of Iranian epileptic patients.Materials & MethodsFrom Feb. 2006 to Oct. 2009, 1915 definite epileptic patients (873 females) referred to epilepsy clinics in Isfahan, central Iran, were surveyed and among them, 194 JME patients were diagnosed. JME was diagnosed by its specific clinical and EEG criteria. Patients were divided into two groups as PFHE and NFHE and data were compared between them.ResultsJME was responsible for 10% (194 patients) of all types of epilepsies. Of JME patients, 53% were female. In terms of family history of epilepsy, 40% were positive. No significant differences was found between PFHE and NFHE groups as for gender (P>0.05). Age of epilepsy onset was significantly earlier in PFHE patients (15 vs. 22 yr, P<0.001). Occurrence of JME before 18 yr old among PFHE patients was significantly higher (OR=2.356, P=0.007).ConclusionA family history of epilepsy might be associated with an earlier age of onset in patients with JME. References1. Banerjee PN, Filippi D, Allen Hauser W. The descriptive epidemiology of epilepsy—a review. Epilepsy Res 2009;85(1):31-45.2. Khedr EM, Shawky OA, Ahmed MA, Elfetoh NA, Al Attar G, Ali AM, et al. A community based epidemiological study of epilepsy in Assiut Governorate/Egypt. Epilepsy Res 2013;103(2):294-302.3. 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Philadelphia: Saunders; 2004 p. 1993–2005.16. Sinha S, Pramod M, Dilipkumar S, Satishchandra P. Idiopathic generalized epilepsy: Phenotypic and electroencephalographic observations in a large cohort from South India. Ann Indian Academy Neurol 2013;16(2):163.17. Jallon P, Loiseau P, Loiseau J. Newly diagnosed unprovoked epileptic seizures: presentation at diagnosis in CAROLE study. Epilepsia 2001;42(4):464-75.18. Oka E, Ishida S, Ohtsuka Y, Ohtahara S. Neuroepidemiological study of childhood epilepsy by application of international classification of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes (ILAE, 1989). Epilepsia 1995;36(7):658-61.19. Murthy J, Yangala R, Srinivas M. The Syndromic Classification of the International League Against Epilepsy: A Hospital-Based Study from South India. Epilepsia 1998;39(1):48-54.20. Fittipaldi F, Curra A, Fusco L, Ruggieri S, Manfredi M. EEG discharges on awakening: a marker of idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Neurol 2001;56(1):123-6.21. Jallon P, Latour P. 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Clinical indicators of genetic susceptibility to epilepsy. Epilepsia 1996;37(4):353-61.35. Bianchi A, Viaggi S, Chiossi E. Family study of epilepsy in first degree relatives: data from the Italian Episcreen Study. Seizure 2003;12(4):203-10.36. Manganotti P, Bongiovanni LG, Fuggetta G, Zanette G, Fiaschi A. Effects of sleep deprivation on cortical excitability in patients affected by juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: a combined transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatr 2006;77(1):56-60. Epub 2005/12/20.37. Roebling R, Scheerer N, Uttner I, Gruber O, Kraft E, Lerche H. Evaluation of cognition, structural, and functional MRI in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. Epilepsia 2009;50(11):2456-65. Epub 2009/06/06.38. Edwards T, Scott AG, Munyoki G, Odera VMa, Chengo E, Bauni E, et al. Active convulsive epilepsy in a rural district of Kenya: a study of prevalence and possible risk factors. The Lancet Neurol 2008;7(1):50-6.

Multiple soliton solutions of second-order Benjamin-Ono equation

We employ the idea of Hirota’s bilinear method, to obtain some new exact soliton solutions for high nonlinear form of Multiple soliton solutions of secondorder Benjamin-Ono equation. Multiple singular soliton solutions were obtained by this method. Moreover, multiple singular soliton solutions were also derived.Publisher's Versio

Diagnosis and Management of Multiple Sclerosis in Children

How to Cite This Article: Najafi MR, Najafi MA, Nasr Z. Diagnosis and Management of Multiple Sclerosis in Children. Iran J Child Neurol. Summer 2016; 10(3): 13-23.AbstractGrowing evidence indicates the safety and well toleration of treatment by Disease-modifying in children suffering multiple sclerosis (MS). The treatment is not straight forward in a great number of patients, thus patients with pediatric MS must be managed by experienced specialized centers. Common treatments of multiple sclerosis for adults are first-line therapies. These therapies (firstline) are safe for children. Failure in treatment that leads to therapy alteration is almost prevalent in pediatric MS. Toleration against current second-line therapies has been shown in multiple sclerosis children. Oral agents have not been assessed in children MS patients. Although clinical trials in children are insufficient, immunomodulating managed children, experience a side effect similar to the adult MS patients. 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Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis: 2005 revisions to the “McDonald Criteria”. Ann Neurol 2005;58(6):840-6.Krupp LB, Tardieu M, Amato MP, Banwell B, Chitnis T, Dale RC, et al. International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group criteria for pediatric multiple sclerosis and immune-mediated central nervous system demyelinating disorders: revisions to the 2007 definitions. Mult Scler2013 Sep;19(10):1261-7. doi: 10.1177/1352458513484547.Krupp LB, Banwell B, Tenembaum S. Consensus definitions proposed for pediatric multiple sclerosis and related disorders. Neurology 2007;68(16 suppl 2):S7-S12.Amato M, Goretti B, Ghezzi A, Lori S, Zipoli V, Portaccio E, et al. Cognitive and psychosocial features of childhood and juvenile MS. Neurology 2008;70(20):1891-7.Ghezzi A, Amato M, Capobianco M, Gallo P, Marrosu G, Martinelli V, et al. Disease-modifying drugs in childhood-juvenile multiple sclerosis: results of an Italian co-operative study. 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Interferon beta-1a treatment in childhood and juvenile-onset multiple sclerosis. Neurology 2006;67(3):511-3.Pohl D, Waubant E, Banwell B, Chabas D, Chitnis T, Weinstock-Guttman B, et al. Treatment of pediatric multiple sclerosis and variants. Neurology 2007;68(16 suppl 2):S54-S65.Kornek B, Bernert G, Balassy C, Geldner J, Prayer D, Feucht M. Glatiramer acetate treatment in patients with childhood and juvenile onset multiple sclerosis. Neuropediatrics 2003;34(03):120-6.Ghezzi A. Immunomodulatory treatment of early onset multiple sclerosis: results of an Italian Co-operative Study. Neurol Sci 2005;26(4):s183-s6.Tenembaum SN, Banwell B, Pohl D, Krupp LB, Boyko A, Meinel M, et al. Subcutaneous Interferon Beta-1a in Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis A Retrospective Study.J Child Neurol 2013:0883073813488828.Sloka JS, Stefanelli M. The mechanism of action of methylprednisolone in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England) 2005;11(4):425-32. 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Utility of Spatial Filtering Techniques in the Remote Sensing of Soil Erosion in the Sefid-Rud Reservoir Catchment in Iran

The objective of this study is to investigate the applicability of Landsat Thematic Mapper digital images assisted by computer analysis to the study of soil erosion. The study aims to identify the sources of sediment and areas of dissected land in the catchment basin of the Sefid Rud reservoir in northern Iran. First, histogram equalization is deliberately applied to the original band 3 to reduce the noise and unv/anted edges and lines in the dark tail of the histogram, mainly vegetation, and the light tail, the non-eroded areas, and also to improve the visual appearance of edges and lines on the processed image. The next step is high pass filtering, unlike the conventional edge detection technique in which the first step is low pass filtering. In this instance, the result of low pass filtering was that faint edges, evidence of the gullies, were removed and highly eroded areas appeared as non eroded areas. Therefore low pass filtering was replaced with high pass filtering, which highlighted faint edges and lines. The next step is detecting the edges and lines. When using the edge and line detecting technique for detecting dissected lands one needs to take into account that a gully might appear as two or three edges if its width is more than one pixel or as one line if it is just one pixel or less than one pixel in width on the Thematic Mapper image. Therefore an algorithm should be chosen which has the ability to detect both edges and lines. The existina edge and line detecting filters such as the Sobel , the Robert, compass, the Laplacian convolution masks and the directional line detecting technique were evaluated. The Sobel and the Robert operators were found to be powerful edge detecting techniques, but the Laplacian convolution mask was found to be the best for detecting the badland and gullied areas because it has the ability to detect faint edges as well as coarse edges. Not only does it detect both edges and lines, but it also gives stronger weight to the lines than the edges. Only edges and lines in gullied areas were of interest for detecting the dissected lands, but all other artificial and natural lines and edges were also detected. The result of applying the Laplacian function appears on the screen as black, white and gray pixels. The black pixels are non-eroded land, white pixels are eroded and gray pixels are transitional between eroded and non eroded. To change the transitional pixels to either eroded or non eroded and also for printing the image as hardcopy the thresholding function of IAX was applied to the edge detected image. In order to mask out the noise within the vegetated areas caused by edges of plots of different crops the vegetation index (VI) was added to the detected image. In the derived image black pixels are evidence of gullies and white pixels are non dissected lands. In this image it is possible to find out the relative proportion of dissected and non dissected land globally and / or within the regions of interest. Although it is possible to measure the proportions of dissected and non dissected land and they are also visually distinguishable, they have not been categorised so far. To provide a map with categories of dissection, the first step is to smooth the image. To obtain the smooth image a low pass filter was used. Two ways were tested for producing the map of dissected lands from the smoothed image. In the first method one of the strongest edge detecting techniques, the Sobel operator was used on the smoothed image of dissected lands. In the result boundaries were detected and eroded and non eroded areas outlined. In the second method for categorising the smoothed image, the density slicing function of IAX was used to split the dissected land into different levels of severity. We concluded that the second method gives a better result. It was found in previous work that among erosion features gullies are recognizable on Thematic Mapper data. Detection of gullies and gullied areas by means of classification, whether supervised or unsupervised, was not successful in this study area. We came to the conclusion that the application of a Laplacian mask on the enhanced band 3 image could detect dissected lands. When aerial photographs and Thematic Mapper data are compared, the advantage of aerial photographs was that gullies actively cutting headwards were detectable, but on the Thematic Mapper data distiguishing between active and non active gullies was impossible. Aerial photographs are a very good tool to detect all kinds of erosion features (sheet, rill, and gully), but in my study area applying this new method (DLDT) on Thematic Mapper data can provide as much detail of soil erosion as is included in previous soil erosion maps made from aerial photographs. The Sobel and the Robert operators were found to be very strong edge detectors, but the ability of the Laplacian convolution mask for detecting gullies was greater. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Sample and Filter: Nonparametric Scene Parsing via Efficient Filtering

Scene parsing has attracted a lot of attention in computer vision. While parametric models have proven effective for this task, they cannot easily incorporate new training data. By contrast, nonparametric approaches, which bypass any learning phase and directly transfer the labels from the training data to the query images, can readily exploit new labeled samples as they become available. Unfortunately, because of the computational cost of their label transfer procedures, state-of-the-art nonparametric methods typically filter out most training images to only keep a few relevant ones to label the query. As such, these methods throw away many images that still contain valuable information and generally obtain an unbalanced set of labeled samples. In this paper, we introduce a nonparametric approach to scene parsing that follows a sample-and-filter strategy. More specifically, we propose to sample labeled superpixels according to an image similarity score, which allows us to obtain a balanced set of samples. We then formulate label transfer as an efficient filtering procedure, which lets us exploit more labeled samples than existing techniques. Our experiments evidence the benefits of our approach over state-of-the-art nonparametric methods on two benchmark datasets.Comment: Please refer to the CVPR-2016 version of this manuscrip