Cloxacillin‐induced seizure in a hemodialysis patient

We are reporting a cloxacillin‐induced seizure in a patient with stage 5 chronic kidney disease requiring hemodialysis. To our knowledge, there are no published case reports of seizures induced by parenteral cloxacillin in hemodialysis patients. A young hemodialysis female was admitted to the hospital with decreased level of consciousness. Blood cultures revealed methicillin‐sensitive Staphylococcus aureus where cloxacillin 2 g intravenously every 4 hours was initiated. Head computed tomography (CT) was not significant. After 14 hours of cloxacillin therapy (4 doses), the patient demonstrated tonic/clonic seizure activity, where phenytoin and lorazepam were initiated. The anti‐seizure medications partially reduced seizure activity. Once the cloxacillin was discontinued, the seizures stopped. Two weeks later, all anti‐seizure medications were stopped with no further seizure activity. Cloxacillin elimination in hemodialysis patients is similar to patients with normal kidney function. Although cloxacillin does not significantly cross the blood–brain barrier, the correlation between the start of seizures and cloxacillin initiation was confirmed by the negative CT and blood chemistry laboratory results. Moreover, seizure activity was terminated upon discontinuation of cloxacillin. Although further investigation for the cause of such seizures is warranted, clinicians should use caution when giving high doses of cloxacillin in hemodialysis patients.     

Cooperation patterns in science within Europe: the standpoint of small countries

This article is concerned with the cooperation patterns of science among European countries from the viewpoint of small countries. This is an issue, which empirical literature so far has overlooked, but which is still relevant for understanding the implications of integration processes in EU. We have replicated and expanded in sample, indicator and time dimensions the empirical analysis suggested by Frenken (Economic Systems Research 14(4):345–361, 2002) for assessing the homogeneity of cooperation patterns among European countries. We find that small states are less homogenously collaborating with all countries in the European research system and their intra-national research cooperation is also more fragmented. Our analysis reveals the outcomes of cooperation processes, and also highlights the factors such as research funding and research specialisation that can impact the results of the connectivity measurement. We also show that the results are sensitive to the size and measurement of the science system.     

The Steklov‐Poincaré technique for data completion: Preconditioning and filtering

This paper presents a study of primal and dual Steklov‐Poincaré approaches for the identification of unknown boundary conditions of elliptic problems. After giving elementary properties of the discretized operators, we investigate the numerical solution with Krylov solvers. Different preconditioning and acceleration strategies are evaluated. We show that costless filtering of the solution is possible by postprocessing Ritz elements. Assessments are provided on a 3D mechanical problem.     

Tropical algebra based adaptive filter for noise removal in digital image

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The concept of the tropical algebra was first introduced to solve problems in mathematical economy such as optimization and approximation problems. In this...     

Channel Estimation by Using Short Training Sequences in CDMA Systems

Multiuser detection techniques are known to be effective to counter the presence of multiuser interference in code division multiple access channels. Multiuser detectors can provide excellent performance only when the channel impulse responses of all the users are precisely known. Hence, channel estimation becomes a challenging issue in mobile communication systems. In this paper, we address the problem of efficient maximum likelihood mobile radio channel estimation at high channel efficiency that requires a short training sequence along with the known spreading sequence. The proposed system can be employed in both the uplink and downlink of a heavily loaded multiuser CDMA system. The extension of the approach with unknown users' delays are also proposed. We present results that show the success of this method in recovering the transmitted bits with a relatively small number of preamble bits. Ahmet Rizaner was born in Larnaca, Cyprus, on January 31, 1974. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, North Cyprus, in 1996 and 1998, respectively. He completed his PhD. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in Eastern Mediterranean University and joined Eastern Mediterranean University as a lecturer in 2004. He is lecturing in the School of Computing and Technology. His main research interests include CDMA communications, adaptive channel estimation, and multiuser detection techniques. Hasan Amca was born in 1961 in Nicosia-Cyprus. He graduated from the Higher Technological Institute in Magosa-Cyprus (which is renamed later as Eastern Mediterranean University). He joined EMU in 1985 after receiving a M.Sc. (Digital Signal Processing) degree from the University of Essex in England (1985). He took his Ph.D. (Mobile Communications) from the University of Bradford where he was on a Commonwealth scholarship. He has been teaching in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of Eastern Mediterranean University since 1993 where he also served as the vice chairman from Spring 1998 to Spring 2000. He has been appointed as the Director of the School of Computing and Technology of the EMU since Spring 2000. His research interests include Multi User Detection of CDMA signals, Adaptive Equalisation, Multi Carrier Systems, Mobile Radio Systems and Networks, Internet and Information Technology Applications in Education. Kadri Hacıoğlu was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. He received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1980, 1984, and 1990, respectively. After his two-year military service, in 1992, he joined the faculty of Eastern Mediterranean University, Magosa, North Cyprus, as an Assistant Professor, and became an Associate Professor in 1997. While there, he taught several classes on electronics, digital communications, speech processing and neural networks. During this time, he conducted research on applying fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms to signal processing and communications problems. From 1998 to 2000, he was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder. Here, he taught classes on neural networks and continued his research. Since 2000, he has been a Research Associate at the Center for Spoken Language Research, University of Colorado. He has authored or coauthored numerous papers and supervised a dozen M.Sc./Ph.D. theses. His current research interests are concept-based language modeling, speech understanding, natural language generation, and search methods in speech recognition/understanding. He also does research on multiuser detection and equalization in CDMA systems. Ali Hakan Ulusoy was born in Eskişehir, Turkey, on June 3, 1974. He graduated from the double major program of the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and department of Physics in Eastern Mediterranean University as the first rank student of Faculty of Engineering in 1996. He received his M.S. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in Eastern Mediterranean University in 1998. He completed his PhD. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in Eastern Mediterranean University and joined Eastern Mediterranean University as a lecturer in 2004. He is lecturing in the School of Computing and Technology. His current research interests include receiver design, multi-user detection techniques, blind and trained channel estimation in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).     

Optimisation of a class of continuous nonlinear control systems

The truncated functional expansion of a nonlinear system is representative of the system response when the rate of convergence is fast. This fact has been exploited to find an optimisation approach, subject to accuracy constraint, when the input is a step with probabilistic amplitude.     

Nutritional constituents,phytochemical profiles, <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> antioxidant and antimicrobial properties,and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of various solvent extracts from grape seeds (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Vitis vinifera</Emphasis> L.)

The present study revealed that the nutritive value of grape seeds (Vitis vinifera L.) was 383.55±0.13 Kcal/100 g, with magnesium as the most abundant mineral element (70.44±0.88 mg/L). The maximum phenolic (392.58±1.70mg of GAE/g), flavonoid (256.16±1.60 mg of QE/g), and tannin (30.95±0.17mg of CE/g) contents were also found in the ethanol, dichloromethane, and hexane extracts, respectively. The major phytochemical compounds in the ethyl acetate extract were identified via gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. The ethanol extract has the highest antioxidant activity (IC₅₀=140±1.20 μg/mL for DPPH, 145.28±0.45mg α-tocopherol/g for total antioxidant capacity, and EC₅₀=80±1.41 μg/mL for ferric-reducing power assays). For β-carotene test, the highest antioxidant activity was obtained in the hexane extract. A satisfactory antimicrobial activity was found against a panel of microorganisms with the ethyl acetate extract as the best antimicrobial agent. Additionally, it was found that the bactericidal concentration required for the grape seed extract to kill Listeria monocytogenes should be less than 12.50 mg/mL (minimum inhibitory concentration=4).     

Incorporation of the Goudsmit–Saunderson electron transport theory in the Geant4 Monte Carlo code

The present work describes the implementation of the multiple scattering formalism for charged particle transport based on the Goudsmit–Saunderson angular distribution and satisfying the Lewis spatial displacement theories. Furthermore, the most realistic total cross sections and transport cross sections for single elastic scattering of electrons and positrons by neutral atoms were carried out using the ELSEPA code. The extended model has been incorporated in the Geant4 Monte Carlo code system (currently used in many fields of application for transport of particles and covering a large range of energies from 0.1 keV to 100 TeV). Additionally, techniques are developed that allow the distributions to be scaled to account for energy loss. This new representation allows on-the-fly sampling of Goudsmit–Saunderson angular distributions in a screened Rutherford approximation suitable for Class II condensed history Monte Carlo codes. The reliability of the model is demonstrated through a comparison of simulation results with experimental data. Good agreement is found for electrons with kinetic energies down to a few keV.     

Energy management of fuel cell/battery/ultracapacitor in electrical hybrid vehicle

This paper describes an energy management algorithm for an electrical hybrid vehicle. The proposed hybrid vehicle presents a fuel cell as the main energy source and the storage system, composed of a battery and a supercapacitor as the secondary energy source. The main source must produce the necessary energy to the electrical vehicle. The secondary energy source produces the lacking power in acceleration and absorbs excess power in braking operation. The addition of a supercapacitor and battery in fuel cell-based vehicles has a great potential because it allows a significant reduction of the hydrogen consumption and an improvement of the vehicle efficiency. Other the energy sources, the electrical vehicle composed of a traction motor drive, Inverter and power conditioning. The last is composed of three DC/DC converters: the first converter interfaces the fuel cell and the DC link. For the second and the third converter, two buck boost are used in order to interface respectively the ultracapacitor and the battery with the DC link. The energy management algorithm determines the currents of the converters in order to regulate accurately the power provided from the three electrical sources. This algorithm is simulated with MATLAB_Simulink and implemented experimentally with a real-time system controller based on dSPACE. In this paper, the proposed algorithm is evaluated for the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). The experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed energy management algorithm.