Paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia in a patient with a mutation and centrotemporal spike discharges on electroencephalogram: case report of a 10-year-old girl

Coexistence of paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) with benign infantile convulsion (BIC) and centrotemporal spikes (CTS) is very rare. A 10-year-old girl presented with a 3-year history of frequent attacks of staggering while laughing and of suddenly collapsing while walking. Interictal electroencephalogram (EEG) revealed bilateral CTS, but no changes in EEG were observed during movement. The patient's medical history showed afebrile seizures 6 months after birth, while the family history showed that the patient's mother and relatives on the mother's side had similar dyskinesia. Genetic testing demonstrated that the patient had a heterozygous mutation, c.649_650insC, in the PRRT2 gene. To our knowledge, this constitutes only the second report of a patient with PKD, BIC, CTS, and a PRRT2 mutation

Current status of newborn hearing screening in low-income families in the southeastern region of Korea

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to analyze the current status and problems of hearing screening tests for newborns in low-income families in the southeastern Korea. METHODS This study analyzed data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s project on the early detection of hearing loss in newborns in low-income families in the southeastern Korea (2011-2015). RESULTS The referral rate was 1.33, 1.69, and 1.27% in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Ulsan, respectively. The confirmatory test rate was 36.09, 23.38, and 52.94% in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Ulsan, respectively. The incidence of hearing loss (adjusted) was 0.41, 0.62, and 0.41% in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Ulsan, respectively. After confirming hearing loss, newborns with hearing handicaps were mostly lost to follow-up, and rehabilitation methods, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, were not used. The screening tests were performed within 1 month of birth, and the confirmatory tests were generally performed within 3 months of birth. However, more than 3 months passed before the confirmatory tests were performed in infants with risk factors for hearing loss in Gyeongbuk and Ulsan. CONCLUSIONS Hearing screening tests were conducted in newborns from low-income families in southeastern Korea who received a coupon for free testing, but the newborns that were referred after the screening tests were not promptly linked to the hospitals where confirmatory tests were performed. Furthermore, hearing rehabilitation was not consistently performed after hearing loss was confirmed. To successful early hearing loss detection and intervention, a systematic tracking system of hearing loss children is needed

A series of nano/micro-sized metal-organic frameworks with tunable photoluminescence properties

Present studies on metal-organic frameworks (MOF) mainly focus on macro-scaled single crystals. However, the realization of MOF nanocrystals via a bottom-up one-step method still remains a significant challenge. Here, hierarchically assembled nanostructures of lanthanide-based MOFs with 1D and 3D morphologies have been successfully fabricated via a simple and rapid solution phase method at room temperature. Upon UV excitation, these nanomaterials exhibit highly efficient tunable luminescence properties, which come from the Eu3+ or Tb3+ ions. Moreover, white-light emission can be achieved by co-activating the organic ligand, Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions in the nano-MOFs. This journal i

Endoscopic cardiac retractors with folding components configured for insertion using minimally invasive access ports and related methods

PDF Is patent applicationCardiac retractors include a rod and a foldable blade that can be introduced using minimally invasive access ports such that provided by an intra-thoracic cavity cannula. The rod can be integral to the blade or may be releasably attached in situ. The devices may be sized and configured to reside in situ proximate the mitral valve site at a left atria to splint open (lift a roof of) the mitral valve in response to robotic controlled direction of a surgeon for a mitral valve repair during a closed chest minimally invasive cardiac surgery

Endoscopic forceps with prongs and related methods

Methods and surgical devices are described that can endoscopially manipulate a length of a suture. A forceps instrument is endoscopically introduced into the body. The forceps instrument includes opposing grasping members having respective pairs of spaced-apart prongs that extend away from the respective grasping members. Each pair of prongs defines an opening therebetween. A length of suture is grasped using the forceps instrument such that the suture is captured by the pairs of prongs and a portion of the suture extends across the openings defined by the pairs of prongs. The portion of the suture that extends across the openings is grasped with another surgical instrument

Nonparametric estimation of fixed effects panel data varying coefficient models.

In this paper, we consider the nonparametric estimation of a varying coefficient fixed effect panel data model. The estimator is based in a within (un-smoothed) transformation of the regression model and then a local linear regression is applied to estimate the unknown varying coefficient functions. It turns out that the standard use of this technique produces a non-negligible asymptotic bias. In order to avoid it, a high dimensional kernel weight is introduced in the estimation procedure. As a consequence, the asymptotic bias is removed but the variance is enlarged, and therefore the estimator shows a very slow rate of convergence. In order to achieve the optimal rate, we propose a one-step backfitting algorithm. The resulting two-step estimator is shown to be asymptotically normal and its rate of convergence is optimal within its class of smoothness functions. It is also oracle efficient. Further, this estimator is compared both theoretically and by Monte-Carlo simulation against other estimators that are based in a within (smoothed) transformation of the regression model. More precisely the profile least-squares estimator proposed in this context in Sun et al. (2009). It turns out that the smoothness in the transformation enlarges the bias and it makes the estimator more difficult to analyze from the statistical point of view. However, the first step estimator, as expected, shows a bad performance when compared against both the two step backfitting algorithm and the profile least-squares estimator.The authors acknowledge fi nancial support from the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Cien ica y Técnica de Excelencia/ Spanish Ministery of Economy and Competitiveness. Ref. ECO2013-48326-C2-2-P

A Simple Sink Mobility Support Algorithm for Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract. In order to support the sink mobility of conventional routing protocols, we propose a simple route maintaining algorithm which does not use the flooding method. In the proposed method, when the sink loses the connection with the source, it does not rebuild an entire route but simply repairs the existing route based on local information. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm drastically improves the conventional routing protocols in terms of both energy and delay in case of mobile sink

Nonparametric and semi-parametric panel data models: recent developments

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we provide an intensive review of the recent developments for semiparametric and fully nonparametric panel data models that are linearly separable in the innovation and the individual-specific term. We analyze these developments under two alternative model specifications: fixed and random effects panel data models. More precisely, in the random effects setting, we focus our attention in the analysis of some efficiency issues that have to do with the so-called working independence condition. This assumption is introduced when estimating the asymptotic variance-covariance matrix of nonparametric estimators. In the fixed effects setting, to cope with the so-called incidental parameters problem, we consider two different estimation approaches: profiling techniques and differencing methods. Furthermore, we are also interested in the endogeneity problem and how instrumental variables are used in this context. In Addition, for practitioners, we also show different ways of avoiding the so-called curse of dimensionality problem in pure nonparametric models. In this way, semiparametric and additive models appear as a solution when the number of explanatory variables is large

Mirror glasses for minimally invasive surgery

金沢大学大学院医学系研究科Introduction: The operator performing minimally invasive surgery is prevented from seeing the whole field with both eyes by the restricted small thoracotomy incision. To overcome this problem, we developed mirror glasses. Methods: Use of these glasses was evaluated in terms of the time required for threading of sutures with endoscopic forceps. Three surgeon ligated thread a suture five times with and without use of the glasses in the box, and the mean time was calculated for each surgeon. Results: The time required for ligation (mean ± SD) was 24.2 ± 2.9 s with mirror glasses and 27.0 ± 2.5 s without the glasses (p = 0.01). Conclusion: The mirror glasses may be found useful for fine manipulation for minimally invasive surgery. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LL