Cerebral microbleeds and cognitive decline in a hemodialysis patient: Case report and review of literature

Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are small hemosiderin deposits indicative of prior cerebral microscopic hemorrhage and previously thought to be clinically silent. Recent population‐based cross‐sectional studies and prospective longitudinal cohort studies have revealed association between CMB and cognitive dysfunction. In the general population, CMBs are associated with age, hypertension, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. In the chronic kidney disease (CKD) population, diminished estimated glomerular filtration rate has been found to be an independent risk factor for CMB, raising the possibility that a uremic milieu may predispose to microbleeds. In the end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) population on hemodialysis, the incidence of microbleeds is significantly higher compared with a control group without history of CKD or stroke. We present an ESRD patient on chronic hemodialysis with a history of gradual cognitive decline and progressive CMBs. Through this case and literature review, we illustrate the need to develop detection and prediction models to treat this frequent development in ESRD patients.     

Application of boundary element method to 3-D problems of coupled thermoelasticity

This paper deals with a new boundary element method for analysis of the quasistatic problems in coupled thermoelasticity. Through some mathematical manipulation of the Navier equation in elasticity, the heat conduction equation is transformed into a simpler form, similar to the uncoupled-type equation with the modified thermal conductivity which shows the coupling effects. This procedure enables us to treat the coupled thermoelastic problems as an uncoupled one, A few examples are computed by the proposed BEM, and the results obtained are compared with the analytical ones available in the literature, whereby the accuracy and versatility of the proposed method are demonstrated.     

Direct adaptive fuzzy control with membership function tuning

In this paper, a direct self‐structured adaptive fuzzy control is introduced for the class of nonlinear systems with unknown dynamic models. Control is accomplished by an adaptive fuzzy system with a fixed number of rules and adaptive membership functions. The reference signal and state errors are used to tune the membership functions and update them instantaneously. The Lyapunov synthesis method is also used to guarantee the stability of the closed loop system. The proposed control scheme is applied to an inverted pendulum and a magnetic levitation system, and its effectiveness is shown via simulation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Roles of Sexual Objectification Experiences and Internalization of Standards of Beauty in Eating Disorder Symptomatology: A Test and Extension of Objectification Theory.

This study extends the literature on eating disorder symptomatology by testing, based on extant literature on objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. Roberts, 1997) and the role of sociocultural standards of beauty (e.g., L. J. Heinberg, J. K. Thompson, & S. Stormer, 1995), a model that examines (a) links of reported sexual objectification experiences to eating disorder-related variables and (b) the mediating roles of body surveillance, body shame, and internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty. Consistent with hypotheses, with a sample of 221 young women, support was found for a model in which (a) internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty mediated the links of sexual objectification experiences to body surveillance, body shame, and eating disorder symptoms, (b) body surveillance was an additional mediator of the link of reported sexual objectification experiences to body shame, and (c) body shame mediated the links of internalization and body surveillance to disordered eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory-efficient real-time map building using octree of planes and points

This paper presents an octree-based map building algorithm for mobile home-service robots. The robot is equipped with a time-of-flight camera, which produces point clouds of the environment surfaces. Given the successive input of point clouds, a 3D map is incrementally computed in real time. The map is accurate and memory-efficient because the octree nodes containing points on a plane are merged and represented simply by an index to the plane. The real-time performance is achieved largely due to the parallel processing capability of the many-core Graphics Processing Unit used for plane extraction.     

Chemical composition,antioxidative capacity and interactive antimicrobial potency of Satureja khuzestanica Jamzad essential oil and antimicrobial agents against selected food‐related microorganisms

This study aimed to determine the chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidative activity of Satureja khuzestanica Jamzad essential oil. The oil was analysed by GC and GC/MS. Twenty‐eight constituents were identified. The oxygenated monoterpenes (78.22%) were the principal compound group. Among them, carvacrol (53.86%) and thymol (19.84%) were the most abundant constituents. The oil exhibited an acceptable antimicrobial activity against most of the tested microorganisms. The checkerboard method was applied to determine fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs) to interpret the synergetic, additive, indifference or antagonistic interactions between essential oil and each of antimicrobials (lysozyme, ciprofloxacin, fluconazole and amphotericin B) against food‐related microorganisms. The synergetic phenomenon (FICI ≤ 0.5) was observed in majority of combinations with the exception of the essential oil and lysozyme. The oil exhibited good 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀ = 28.71 μg mL^?1). Also, the oil had strong antioxidative activity in β‐carotene‐linoleic acid assay relative antioxidant activity (RAA% = 95.45). This study demonstrated that the essential oil has beneficial biological properties and its simultaneous application with standard antimicrobials against food‐related microorganisms result in reduction in inhibitory doses of the antimicrobials in vitro.     

Analytical solution of the parabolic and hyperbolic heat transfer equations with constant and transient heat flux conditions on skin tissue

In this article, the parabolic (Pennes bioheat equation) and hyperbolic (thermal wave) bioheat transfer models for constant, periodic and pulse train heat flux boundary conditions are solved analytically by applying the Laplace transform method for skin as a semi-infinite and finite domain. The bioheat transfer analysis with transient heat flux on skin tissue has only been studied by Pennes equation for a semi-infinite domain. For modeling heat transfer in short duration of an initial transient, or when the propagation speed of the thermal wave is finite, there are major differences between the results of parabolic and hyperbolic heat transfer equations. The non-Fourier bioheat transfer equation describes the thermal behavior in the biological tissues better than Fourier equation. The outcome of transient heat flux condition shows that by penetrating into the depths beneath the skin subjected to heat, the amplitude of temperature response decreases significantly. The blood perfusion rate can be predicted using the phase shift between the surface temperature and transient surface heat flux. The thermal damage of the skin is studied by applying both the parabolic and hyperbolic bioheat transfer equations.