Chronic herpes simplex encephalitis initially presenting with persistent myoclonus

A 59-year-old female patient with atypical chronic herpes simplex encephalitis was reported. Initial symptom was persistent myoclonus involving the trunk and limb muscles, and later lateral gaze palsy to the left side, cerebellar ataxia, consciousness disturbance and other brainstem symptoms including absence of corneal and gag reflex and vocal cord palsy developed. The patient was successfully treated with high dose of acyclovir. Electroencephalogram was normal in the initial stage but later showed diffuse slow waves. Although CT scan and MRI showed no abnormal finding in the cerebral cortex, brainstem lesion was observed on PD weighted image of MRI. Lumbar puncture yielded a clear cerebrospinal fluid, with slightly elevated protein, increased lymphocytes, and elevated titer of herpes simplex virus type I. The serological data, albumin ratio (10.3), antibody index (12.3) and antibody ratio (7.1) were consistent with herpes simplex encephalitis. Ten days' administration of acyclovir, 1,200 mg a day and repeated three times, was prominently effective for the myoclonus and consciousness disturbance. A diagnosis of chronic herpes simplex encephalitis initially presenting with brainstem encephalitis was made. Judging from the clinical and EEG findings, the brainstem lesion was initially thought to be a cause of myoclonus in this case. However, somatosensory evoked potential (SPE) of both upper and lower extremities revealed enlarged amplitude (giant SEP), and long loop reflex was enhanced (C-reflex) on the left. Giant SEP and C-reflex imply cerebral cortex as the origin of the myoclonus. Brainstem inflammatory lesion might have involved the ascending inhibitory system, thus disinhibiting the cortical sensorimotor area and causing cortical myoclonus.     

Kinetic analysis for effect of initial substrate concentration on growth and secondary metabolite production in cultures of Nicotiana tabacum

Suspension cultures of tobacco cells were studied using airlift and rotary-drum bioreactors. The effect of initial concentrations of a major substrate, sucrose, on the growth and production of a secondary metabolite, phenolic compounds, was investigated. The dry weights and total concentrations of the phenolic compounds increased with the initial sucrose concentration in both bioreactors. Both bioreactors were found to have the same tendency for the effect of initial sucrose concentration. The structured model, presented previously was modified by considering that sucrose was hydrolyzed to glucose and fructose by an enzymatic reaction. The previous and the new models were applied to the above two sets of experimental data obtained with two bioreactors, independently. The hydrolysis of sucrose was elucidated to contribute slightly to the overall kinetics of growth and secondary metabolite production in these cultures. Furthermore, the levels of shear damage in each bioreactor were quantitatively compared based on the death rate constant, k_i, which is one of the model constants.     

Automatic detection of the topographical distribution of EEG rhythms based on an iterative adjustment of the averaged reference potential

Electroencephalogram (EEG) interpretation is important for the investigation of brain diseases. In this study, an automatic technique was developed to detect the topographical distribution of EEG rhythms. In order to obtain the topographical distribution, the amplitude of the EEG rhythm was analyzed based on the referential derivation where the reference potential was adjusted iteratively. The result of the automatic detection of the topographical distribution was helpful in highlighting the EEG rhythms of interest for automatic EEG interpretation. The technique developed has application significance for real clinics.     

Sensor Fusion System Using Recurrent Fuzzy Inference

In robotic and manufacturing systems, it is difficult to measure the state of systems accurately because of many uncertain factors and noise, and it is very important to estimate the state of systems. We must measure the phenomena of systems by multiple sensors and estimate the state of systems by acquiring information of sensors. However, we can not acquire all of sensor information synchronically, because each sensor has particular sensor information and measuring time. For estimating the state of systems by multiple sensors, a multi-sensor fusion system fusing various sensory information is needed. In this paper, we propose a Recurrent Fuzzy Inference (RFI) with recurrent inputs and apply it to a multi-sensor fusion system for estimating the state of systems. The membership functions of RFI are expressed by Radial Basis Function (RBF) with insensitive ranges. The shape of the membership functions can be adjusted by a learning algorithm. The learning algorithm is based on the steepest descent method and incremental learning which can add new fuzzy rules. The effectiveness of the multi-sensor fusion system using RFI will be shown through a numerical experiment of moving robot and estimation of surface roughness in grinding process.     

A short‐cut DNA extraction from cod caviar

Caviars represent the most consumed form of fish roe products. Due to high demand, ingredient roes of fish are often susceptible to illegal substitution with those of related fish. This study developed a simple and inexpensive protocol enabling the rapid extraction of DNA of acceptable quality and amount to PCR amplification from both cod caviars and their ingredient pollack roes. The protocol was based on extracting total genomic DNA from eggs using urea and a Chelex 100 chelating resin, and could be completed in less than 15 min. Approximately 8 µg of DNA were reproducibly obtained from single eggs of cod caviars and pollack roes in eight individual experiments, and the quality and amount of DNA were sufficient to serve as template for hundreds of PCR reactions of polymorphic DNA markers for phylogenetic analysis. Being applicable to various caviars, this protocol can be useful to detect illegal substitution among ingredient roes of related fishes in PCR‐based food inspection. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Neutron energy dependence of delayed neutron yields and its assessments

Incident neutron energy dependence of delayed neutron yields of uranium and plutonium isotopes is investigated. A summation calculation of decay and fission yield data is employed, and the energy dependence of the latter part is considered in a phenomenological way. Our calculation systematically reproduces the energy dependence of delayed neutron yields by introducing an energy dependence of the most probable charge and the odd–even e?ect. The calculated fission yields are assessed by comparison with JENDL/FPY-2011, delayed neutron activities, and decay heats. Although the fission yields in this work are optimized to delayed neutron yields, the calculated decay heats are in good agreement with the experimental data. Comparison of the fission yields calculated in this work and JENDL/FPY-2011 gave an important insight for the evaluation of the next Japanese evaluated nuclear data library (JENDL) .     

Bacteriophages isolated from activated sludge processes and their polyvalency

In this study, bacteriophages were isolated from activated sludge and their host range was studied. Bacterial isolates were obtained from an activated sludge process treating urban sewage, and bacteriophages were obtained by plaque assay using the bacterial isolates obtained in this study as the host. Out of 15 bacteria isolated, 9 supported plaque formation. The host range test was conducted with a combination of 8 bacteriophage isolates and 9 bacterial isolates. All of the 8 bacteriophages tested were found to form plaques on more than 1 host, and 4 of them formed plaques on both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial isolates. Three of the 8 bacteriophages failed to form plaques on their original bacterial host. The experimental result indicates that bacteriophages are an active part of the activated sludge microbial ecosystem, having a very close ecological relationship with their host bacteria.     

Attention modulates both primary and second somatosensory cortical activities in humans: a magnetoencephalographic study

To clarify the role of primary and second somatosensory cortex (SI and SII) in somatosensory discrimination, we recorded somatosensory evoked magnetic fields during a stimulus strength discrimination task. The temporal pattern of cortical activation was analyzed by dipole source model coregistered with magnetic resonance image. Stimulus intensity was represented in SI as early as 20 ms after the stimulus presentation. The later components of SI response (latency 37.7 and 67.9 ms) were enhanced by rarely presented stimuli (stimulus deviancy) during passive and active attention. This supports an early haptic memory mechanism in human primary sensory cortex. Contra- and ipsilateral SII responses followed the SI responses (latency 124.6 and 138.3 ms, respectively) and were enhanced by attention more prominently than the SI responses. Active attention increased SII but not SI activity. These results are consistent with the concept of ventral somatosensory pathway that SI and SII are hierarchically organized for passive and active detection of discrete stimuli.     

Frontopolar ictal epileptiform discharges on scalp electroencephalogram in temporal lobe epilepsy

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of the smoking habit among Mexican physicians as well as some of their attitudes and information on specific issues concerning smoking. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 1993, a survey was carried out among 3,568 physicians of the three major official health care institutions in Mexico City. A questionnaire designed for The Mexican National Survey of Addictions (ENA 1993) was used. Prevalence of cigarette smoking, age of onset, number of cigarettes per day; also information and attitudes concerning smoking were assessed. RESULTS: The mean age was 37, 66% were males. Of the 3,488 (98%) surveyed, 26.9% were smokers (62% daily), 20.6% were ex-smokers and 52.5% non-smokers. There were differences related to age and sex (p < 0.05). Of daily smokers, 36% smoked between 1 and 5 cigarettes. There was a significant trend among ex-smokers that linked the time they had ceased smoking with the fear to start smoking again. Physicians were well informed of the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Over 80% considered tobacco an addictive drug but only 65% were in favor of banning smoking from their workplaces and over 10% were not aware that it is forbidden to smoke inside health care facilities. CONCLUSIONS: These results differ from other studies that find the prevalence of smoking among physicians lower than in the general population. Our study revealed a greater prevalence of the smoking habit among female physicians and the number of cigarettes smoked per day was greater than in the general population regardless of sex.