Topiramate in the treatment of severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy

AbstractThe aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of topiramate (TPM) as an add-on regimen in reducing seizure rate in a population sample of patients diagnosed with severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy (SME). Eighteen patients were evaluated. The mean observation time was 10.5 months (range, 6–18 months). Seizure frequency and type were recorded. Topiramate was administered as an add-on regimen at a starting dose of 1 mg kg−1and titrated to a maximum of 6–8 mg per kg per day. Different escalation rates were used, mainly weekly or fortnightly increments of dose. Three patients (16.6%) became seizure free, and 10 (55.6%) had a >50% reduction in seizure frequency: six of them (22.2%) achieved a reduction greater than 75%. Side-effects were observed in nine patients , eight with a weekly titration schedule and one with a fortnightly schedule. TPM is effective as adjunctive therapy for SME. Side-effects were mild and transient, generally related to rapid dosage titration

Glauconite and phosphate peloids in Mesozoic carbonate sediments (eastern Subbetic Zone, Betic Cordilleras, SE Spain)

13 páginas, 4 figuras, 3 tablas.Glauconite and Ca phosphate peloids occur in Jurassic and Cretaceous bioclastic carbonate rocks from pelagic swell sequences of the Algayat-Crevillente Unit (Subbetic Zone). The size and morphology of the peloids are controlled by the bioclasts. The glauconite in both stratigraphic positions is K rich (>0.69 atoms p.f.u.) and shows well-defined 10 Aa lattice fringes. Poorly crystalline areas with a composition of Fe-smectite are found within the peloids, indicating the nature of the glauconitic precursor. This precursor would be formed in the shielded microenvironments of the bioclast and later transformed to glauconite by equilibration of peloids with sea water that culminated with the crystallization of a phosphatic phase. The greater presence of smectite areas in the Jurassic peloids and the lower K contents (0.69-0.81) of these glauconites, compared with the Cretaceous glauconites (0.81-0.89) can be explained by the calcitic early diagenetic cementation which stopped the process of glauconitization.Financial support was provided by the Research Groups 4065 and 4135 of the Junta de Andalucía and the Projects PB92-0961 and PB93-1150-CO2 of DGICYT.Peer reviewe

Hamiltonian Noether theorem for gauge systems and two time physics

The Noether theorem for Hamiltonian constrained systems is revisited. In particular, our review presents a novel method to show that the gauge transformations are generated by the conserved quantities associated with the first class constraints. We apply our results to the relativistic point particle, to the Friedberg et al. model and, with special emphasis, to two time physics.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, references added, the "massless" sense of (87) is clarifie

Learning FCMs with multi-local and balanced memetic algorithms for forecasting industrial drying processes

In this paper, we propose a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) learning approach with a multi-local search in balanced memetic algorithms for forecasting industrial drying processes. The first contribution of this paper is to propose a FCM model by an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA), but the resulted FCM model is improved by a multi-local and balanced local search algorithm. Memetic algorithms can be tuned with different local search strategies (CMA-ES, SW, SSW and Simplex) and the balance of the effort between global and local search. To do this, we applied the proposed approach to the forecasting of moisture loss in industrial drying process. The thermal drying process is a relevant one used in many industrial processes such as food industry, biofuels production, detergents and dyes in powder production, pharmaceutical industry, reprography applications, textile industries, and others. This research also shows that exploration of the search space is more relevant than finding local optima in the FCM models tested

Exploiting graphic processing units parallelism to improve intelligent data acquisition system performance in JET's correlation reflectometer

The performance of intelligent data acquisition systems relies heavily on their processing capabilities and local bus bandwidth, especially in applications with high sample rates or high number of channels. This is the case of the self adaptive sampling rate data acquisition system installed as a pilot experiment in KG8B correlation reflectometer at JET. The system, which is based on the ITMS platform, continuously adapts the sample rate during the acquisition depending on the signal bandwidth. In order to do so it must transfer acquired data to a memory buffer in the host processor and run heavy computational algorithms for each data block. The processing capabilities of the host CPU and the bandwidth of the PXI bus limit the maximum sample rate that can be achieved, therefore limiting the maximum bandwidth of the phenomena that can be studied. Graphic processing units (GPU) are becoming an alternative for speeding up compute intensive kernels of scientific, imaging and simulation applications. However, integrating this technology into data acquisition systems is not a straight forward step, not to mention exploiting their parallelism efficiently. This paper discusses the use of GPUs with new high speed data bus interfaces to improve the performance of the self adaptive sampling rate data acquisition system installed on JET. Integration issues are discussed and performance evaluations are presente

Tracking magmatism and oceanic change through the early Aptian Anoxic Event (OAE 1a) to the late Aptian: Insights from osmium isotopes from the westernmost Tethys (SE Spain) Cau Core

Some of the major Carbon cycle perturbations of the Phanerozoic occurred during the Aptian, in relation to magmatism. The highest temperatures reconstructed for the Cretaceous Period correspond to the Oceanic Anoxic Event of the early Aptian (OAE 1a), an episode of accelerated global change. Here we present a chemostratigraphic study based on osmium isotopes integrated with high-resolution Carbon-Oxygen stable isotope data from the Cau Core (Western Tethys, SE Spain), including a 6.4 Ma record from the early to the late Aptian. This high-resolution study of the continuous and expanded Cau section permits a thorough understanding of the duration of the Aptian events, as well as an evaluation of the mechanisms triggering the abrupt changes of the global carbon and osmium cycles and their interdependence. Here we show that the Large Igneous Province (LIP) Aptian magmatism initiated 550–750 kyr prior to the OAE 1a, and persisted for 1.4 Myr after the event, influencing the composition of seawater for 2.8 Myr. We show a continuous Os isotope record encompassing the OAE 1a and the late Aptian for the first time, and demonstrate that the recovery from the exceptionally unradiogenic composition of seawater Os produced by the dominance of the Ontong Java Plateau volcanism, was slow. Our results demonstrate the different time duration of some events, and the asynchronous relationship between the carbon and osmium cycles

Construction of a plasmid vector based on the pMV158 replicon for cloning and inducible gene expression in Streptococcus pneumoniae

18 p.-4 fig.We report the construction of a plasmid vector designed for regulated gene expression in Streptococcus pneumoniae. The new vector, pLS1ROM, is based on the replicon of the streptococcal promiscuous rolling circle replication (RCR) plasmid pMV158. We inserted the controllable promoter PM of the S. pneumoniaemalMP operon, followed by a multi-cloning site sequence aimed to facilitate the insertion of target genes. The expression from PM is negatively regulated by the transcriptional repressor MalR, which is released from the DNA operator sequence by growing the cells in maltose-containing media. To get a highly regulated expression of the target gene, MalR was provided in cis by inserting the malR gene under control of the constitutive Ptet promoter, which in pMV158 directs expression of the tetL gene. To test the functionality of the system, we cloned the reporter gene gfp from Aequorea victoria, encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Pneumococcal cells harboring the recombinant plasmid rendered GFP fluorescence in a maltose-dependent mode with undetectable background levels in the absence of the inducer. The new vector, pLS1ROM, exhibits full structural and segregational stability and constitutes a valuable tool for genetic manipulation and regulated gene expression in S. pneumoniaeThis study was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Grants CSD2008-00013, INTERMODS to ME; BFU2007-63575 and BFU2010-19597, PNEUMOTALK to GdS) and the European Union (Grant EU-CP223111, CAREPNEUMO to ME)Peer reviewe

The role of impulsivity in dropout from treatment for cigarette smoking

AbstractImpulsivity is a variable that has been associated with drug use. This study analyzes impulsivity from two different paradigms, one considering it as a trait and the other based on its behavioral correlates, such as disinhibition and impulsive decision-making in the treatment prognosis (maintain abstinence, relapse and dropout) of smokers after outpatient treatment. The participants in the study were 113 smokers who requested treatment for nicotine addiction. They were assigned to three groups according to whether or not they remained abstinent one month after beginning treatment; thus, group 1 was abstinent, group 2 had relapsed, and group 3 had dropped out of treatment. The participants filled out the Semi-structured Interview for Smokers, the Fargerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) and the Delay Discounting Task (DDT). The Delay Discounting variable presents lower scores in the dropout group than in the relapse and abstinent groups, with the highest scores in the relapse group. Differences were also found on the Harm Avoidance (HA) variable, with lower scores in the dropout group compared to the relapse group. The importance of these results lies in the consideration of the smoker’s personality profile in order to prevent both dropout and relapse