Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in white matter disease of brain

Demyelinating and dysmyelinating white matter diseases are important components of neurological problems. Recently, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has played a key role in diagnoses of white matter diseases. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to evaluate the usefulness of MRI in determining the type and frequency of white matter disease. We studied 35 patients who visited the Radiology Department of the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) for MRI with suspected demyelinating/dysmyelinating disorder from January 2003 to December 2005. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (17; 48%) and leukodystrophies (10; 29%) were the most common diseases. The MRI helped identify the sites and types of the lesion precisely and thereby helped made clearer. distinction between various types of white matter diseases. The current study demonstrated the effective use of the imaging and clinical presentation for arriving at the correct diagnosis

Application of Gene Expression Programming (GEP) for the prediction of compressive strength of geopolymer concrete

For the production of geopolymer concrete (GPC), fly-ash (FA) like waste material has been effectively utilized by various researchers. In this paper, the soft computing techniques known as gene expression programming (GEP) are executed to deliver an empirical equation to estimate the compressive strength of GPC made by employing FA. To build a model, a consistent, extensive and reliable data base is compiled through a detailed review of the published research. The compiled data set is comprised of 298 experimental results. The utmost dominant parameters are counted as explanatory variables, in other words, the extra water added as percent FA (), the percentage of plasticizer (), the initial curing temperature (), the age of the specimen (), the curing duration (), the fine aggregate to total aggregate ratio (), the percentage of total aggregate by volume (), the percent SiO2 solids to water ratio () in sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) solution, the NaOH solution molarity (), the activator or alkali to FA ratio (), the sodium oxide (Na2O) to water ratio () for preparing Na2SiO3 solution, and the Na2SiO3 to NaOH ratio (). A GEP empirical equation is proposed to estimate the of GPC made with FA. The accuracy, generalization, and prediction capability of the proposed model was evaluated by performing parametric analysis, applying statistical checks, and then compared with non-linear and linear regression equations

Safety of untreated autologous cranioplasty after extracorporeal storage at -26 degrees celsius

Background: Given the improved survival of patients requiring decompressive craniectomies, the frequency of subsequent cranioplasties are on the rise. The most feared complication of autologous cranioplasty is infection and one method for reducing the rate of infection, is to store the bone flaps at subnormal temperatures. However, to date there is no defined temperature for flap storage and temperature ranges from - 18 to - 83°C have been described in literature. Considering our limited resources it has been the practice at our center to store bone flaps at - 26°C. In this study, we have retrospectively reviewed our practice and have audited this choice of temperature with respect to the frequency of infections.Methods: A retrospective review was conducted for all cranioplasties performed at our center between January 2001 to March 2011, using autologous bone which was cryopreserved according to institutional protocol. During this period the operative and cryopreservation protocol remained the same. All patient records including charts, notes and laboratory findings were reviewed with a specific focus to identify infections.Results: Of the 88 patients included in the study, only 3 (3.40%) patients were found to show signs of infection. Of these, two patients had superficial surgical site infections which resolved with oral antibiotics (Co-Amoxiclav 1 gm BD for 7 days). However the third patient developed deep surgical site infection requiring re-exploration and washout. All three patients had complete resolution of infection with preservation of autologous bone.Conclusion: Despite our method of keeping the bone flap in freezer at - 26°C we have reported an acceptable rate of infection and raised the notion whether there is a justification for sophisticated and costly equipment for bone flap preservation, especially in resource depleted setups

Deep Neural Networks based Meta-Learning for Network Intrusion Detection

The digitization of different components of industry and inter-connectivity among indigenous networks have increased the risk of network attacks. Designing an intrusion detection system to ensure security of the industrial ecosystem is difficult as network traffic encompasses various attack types, including new and evolving ones with minor changes. The data used to construct a predictive model for computer networks has a skewed class distribution and limited representation of attack types, which differ from real network traffic. These limitations result in dataset shift, negatively impacting the machine learning models' predictive abilities and reducing the detection rate against novel attacks. To address the challenges, we propose a novel deep neural network based Meta-Learning framework; INformation FUsion and Stacking Ensemble (INFUSE) for network intrusion detection. First, a hybrid feature space is created by integrating decision and feature spaces. Five different classifiers are utilized to generate a pool of decision spaces. The feature space is then enriched through a deep sparse autoencoder that learns the semantic relationships between attacks. Finally, the deep Meta-Learner acts as an ensemble combiner to analyze the hybrid feature space and make a final decision. Our evaluation on stringent benchmark datasets and comparison to existing techniques showed the effectiveness of INFUSE with an F-Score of 0.91, Accuracy of 91.6%, and Recall of 0.94 on the Test+ dataset, and an F-Score of 0.91, Accuracy of 85.6%, and Recall of 0.87 on the stringent Test-21 dataset. These promising results indicate the strong generalization capability and the potential to detect network attacks.Comment: Pages: 15, Figures: 10 and Tables:

Enhancing the Expression and Purification of IL-29: A study of autoinduction and one-step Purification Methods

Background: Cytokines have long been viewed as a sign of hope due to their immunomodulatory and therapeutic characteristics. Developing simple, economical and readily scaled technologies to simplify their manufacturing is a critical challenge.Method: In this study we have used a customized medium to automatically induce the expression of the IL-29 in E. coli expression system from the T7 promoter, allowing for higher yields as compared to the traditional technique of IPTG induction. Similarly, one-step purification method is employed to make the fermentation process cost-effective, along with enhancing its efficiency.Results: From 1 L batches of IPTG-induced and autoinduced media, the harvested biomass was 11.8 g and 13.4 g, respectively and their corresponding IBs were 3.8 g and 4.8 g. Total protein purified from 1 L batch was 132  mg, at a concentration of 13 mg/mL, with an indicated high purity of 97%. IL-29 significantly decrease the metabolic activity of HepG2 cells. Specifically, 50% of the cells died at a concentration of 0.156 μg/mL, while 80% of the cells died at a concentration of 5 μg/mL.Conclusion: This study presents an economical solution for producing and purifying IL-29 in E. coli, resulting in higher yields of biomass and IBs than expensive traditional method. The purified protein was highly pure and had immunomodulatory effects on HepG2 cells. These findings have important implications for developing simplified and scalable technologies for cytokine production with therapeutic potential.Keywords: Escherichia coli; Cytokines; Interleukins; Interferons; Protein purification    

E2-MACH: Energy Efficient Multi-Attribute Based Clustering Scheme for Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Internet of things have emerged enough due to its applications in a wide range of fields such as governance, industry, healthcare, and smart environments (home, smart, cities, and so on). Internet of things–based networks connect smart devices ubiquitously. In such scenario, the role of wireless sensor networks becomes vital in order to enhance the ubiquity of the Internet of things devices with lower cost and easy deployment. The sensor nodes are limited in terms of energy storage, processing, and data storage capabilities, while their radio frequencies are very sensitive to noise and interference. These factors consequently threaten the energy consumption, lifetime, and throughput of network. One way to cope with energy consumption issue is energy harvesting techniques used in wireless sensor network–based Internet of things. However, some recent studies addressed the problems of clustering and routing in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks which either concentrate on energy efficiency or quality of service. There is a need of an adequate approach that can perform efficiently in terms of energy utilization as well as to ensure the quality of service. In this article, a novel protocol named energy-efficient multi-attribute-based clustering scheme (E2-MACH) is proposed which addresses the energy efficiency and communication reliability. It uses selection criteria of reliable cluster head based on a weighted function defined by multiple attributes such as link statistics, neighborhood density, current residual energy, and the rate of energy harvesting of nodes. The consideration of such parameters in cluster head selection helps to preserve the node’s energy and reduce its consumption by sending data over links possessing better signal-to-noise ratio and hence ensure minimum packet loss. The minimized packet loss ratio contributes toward enhanced network throughput, energy consumption, and lifetime with better service availability for Internet of things applications. A set of experiments using network simulator 2 revealed that our proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy and other recent protocols in terms of first-node death, overall energy consumption, and network throughput

Effects of a high-dose 24-h infusion of tranexamic acid on death and thromboembolic events in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (HALT-IT): an international randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. Methods: We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Findings: Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). Interpretation: We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial

Triggering of β-glucosidase Production in Trichoderma viride with Nutritional and Environmental Control

Abstract: Nutritional and environmental factors have a stimulatory effect on various hydrolytic enzymes production. The present study deals with the control of these factors for the culture of Trichoderma viride UVNG-4 (mutant strain), in order to trigger the bio-synthesis of β-glucosidase in shake flasks. The cultural conditions, which were optimized, include; mineral salt combinations, carbon sources, nitrogen sources, pH, incubation time and inoculum size. Mandel and Reese mineral salts combination was better than Eggins and Pugh with 1.0% wheat bran as a carbon source. Different types of organic and inorganic nitrogen sources were used but soybean meal was found to be the optimum for the β-glucosidase production. The optimum temperature, pH and incubation time were 30°C, 5.5 and 72 h, respectively. The inoculum containing 5.52×10 7 conidia/ml enhanced the β-glucosidase production. After the optimization of these cultural conditions, Trichoderma viride UVNG-4 gave 19.92 U/ml/min of β-glucosidase activity