Up to 38% of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) patients change electrophysiological classification after serial recordings. Aim of this study is to compare at the first electrodiagnostic test the ...predictivity of final diagnosis of three diagnostic criteria sets versus a regularized form of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model. In 98 GBS patients with serial conduction studies in three motor and sensory nerves 24 electrophysiological variables were analyzed. Final diagnosis, established by serial studies and result of anti-ganglioside antibodies testing, revealed 54 demyelinating and 44 axonal GBS. We applied a sparse LDA method which is a technique for partitioning a vector of parameters (predictors) into one of the two classes (demyelinating or axonal) based on a linear projection learned from the 98 labeled patients. The evaluation of the discriminant power of sparse LDA is based on the leave one out cross validation procedure. We also employed the electrodiagnostic criteria sets developed by Hadden et al. (1998), by Rajabally et al. (2015) and by us. The overall misclassification error rate of sparse LDA at first test is 14% with a sensitivity for demyelinating GBS of 87% and a specificity of 84%. Distal motor latency, duration of distal motor potentials, proximal/distal motor amplitude ratio and sensory nerve action potential amplitude play a prominent role for the appropriate classification of patients. The overall misclassification error rates with the electrodiagnostic criteria are: 45% for Hadden’s, 43% for Rajabally’s and 26% for ours. Conclusions: (1) the model based on sparse LDA performs much better than the “a priori” established criteria sets; (2) the criteria set we developed, including the analysis of duration of distal motor potentials and of sensory nerve action potential amplitude, performs better than the other two; (3) only serial studies were able to demonstrate reversible conduction failure in motor and sensory fibers.
The classical perception of members of the gram-positive Desulfotomaculum cluster I as sulfate-reducing bacteria was recently challenged by the isolation of new representatives lacking the ability ...for anaerobic sulfate respiration. For example, the two described syntrophic propionate-oxidizing species of the genus Pelotomaculum form the novel Desulfotomaculum subcluster Ih. In the present study, we applied a polyphasic approach by using cultivation-independent and culturing techniques in order to further characterize the occurrence, abundance, and physiological properties of subcluster Ih bacteria in low-sulfate, methanogenic environments. 16S rRNA (gene)-based cloning, quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization, and real-time PCR analyses showed that the subcluster Ih population composed a considerable part of the Desulfotomaculum cluster I community in almost all samples examined. Additionally, five propionate-degrading syntrophic enrichments of subcluster Ih bacteria were successfully established, from one of which the new strain MGP was isolated in coculture with a hydrogenotrophic methanogen. None of the cultures analyzed, including previously described Pelotomaculum species and strain MGP, consumed sulfite, sulfate, or organosulfonates. In accordance with these phenotypic observations, a PCR-based screening for dsrAB (key genes of the sulfate respiration pathway encoding the alpha and beta subunits of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase) of all enrichments/(co)cultures was negative with one exception. Surprisingly, strain MGP contained dsrAB, which were transcribed in the presence and absence of sulfate. Based on these and previous findings, we hypothesize that members of Desulfotomaculum subcluster Ih have recently adopted a syntrophic lifestyle to thrive in low-sulfate, methanogenic environments and thus have lost their ancestral ability for dissimilatory sulfate/sulfite reduction.
Fiber reinforced plastics (FRPs) are in high demand as a means to reduce the weight of vehicle structures. When utilizing FRPs with other materials, the joining technology between them is a key ...technical issue because the joining methods are related to the safety of the vehicle and also restrict the vehicle design.
Polypropylene (PP) is a widely utilized thermoplastic material in the automotive industry because of its reasonable price and high resistance to water absorption. Therefore, PP has a potential to be applied to a matrix resin for FRPs. When PP is utilized as a matrix resin for FRPs, welding is a joining method that has a low cost and high productivity between fiber reinforced polypropylene (FRPP) and metals. However, the welding strength between a FRPP and a metal does not have sufficient strength to be used in the structures. Therefore, in this paper, a chemical etching treatment and sandblasting treatment were applied to the surfaces of metal adherends that were used to increase the welding strength to verify the effect of mechanical interlocking, and the critical energy release rates of the welded joints were measured on welded double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens.
The experimental results indicate that the chemical etching treatment is a very effective surface treatment method, with the resulting metal surface exhibiting a drastic increase of welding strength because the treatment made the surface morphology complex enough to enhance the effect of mechanical interlocking and obtain a higher bonding strength compared to the morphology produced via sandblasting. In addition, the employed chemical etching methods increase the bonding strength between GFRPP and metal to a level that exceeds the interlaminar strength of GFRPP. Therefore, the chemical etching depth did not affect the welding strength, and the maximum bonding strength only depends on the interlaminar strength of the GFRPP.
We describe the details of a silicon–tungsten prototype electromagnetic calorimeter module and associated readout electronics. Detector performance for this prototype has been measured in test beam ...experiments at the CERN PS and SPS accelerator facilities in 2015/16. The results are compared to those in Monte Carlo Geant4 simulations. This is the first real-world demonstration of the performance of a custom ASIC designed for fast, lower-power, high-granularity applications.
1 Institute for Biological Resources and Functions, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan
2 Subground Animalcule Retrieval (SUGAR) ...Program, Extremobiosphere Research Center, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka, Kanagawa 237-0061, Japan
3 Department of Social and Environmental Systems Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan
4 Department of Civil Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
5 Research Institute of Genome-Based Biofactory, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Hokkaido 062-8517, Japan
Correspondence Yuji Sekiguchi y.sekiguchi{at}aist.go.jp
Four obligately anaerobic, thermophilic, sulfate-reducing bacterial strains, designated TGE-P1 T , TDV T , TGL-LS1 and TSL-P1, were isolated from thermophilic (operated at 55 °C) methanogenic sludges from waste and wastewater treatment. The optimum temperature for growth of all the strains was in the range 55–60 °C. The four strains grew by reduction of sulfate with a limited range of electron donors, such as hydrogen, formate, pyruvate and lactate. In co-culture with the hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus H T , strains TGE-P1 T , TGL-LS1 and TSL-P1 were able to utilize lactate syntrophically for growth. The DNA G+C contents of all the strains were in the range 34–35 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of the strains were iso-C 17 : 0 , iso-C 16 : 0 , C 16 : 0 and anteiso-C 15 : 0 . Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the strains belong to the Thermodesulfovibrio clade of the phylum Nitrospirae . On the basis of their physiological, chemotaxonomic and genetic properties, strains TGL-LS1 (=JCM 13214) and TSL-P1 (=JCM 13215) were classified as strains of Thermodesulfovibrio islandicus . Two novel species of the genus Thermodesulfovibrio are proposed to accommodate the other two isolates: Thermodesulfovibrio aggregans sp. nov. (type strain TGE-P1 T =JCM 13213 T =DSM 17283 T ) and Thermodesulfovibrio thiophilus sp. nov. (type strain TDV T =JCM 13216 T =DSM 17215 T ). To examine the ecological aspects of Thermodesulfovibrio -type cells in the sludge from which the strains were originally isolated, an oligonucleotide probe targeting 16S rRNA of all Thermodesulfovibrio species was designed and applied to thin sections of thermophilic sludge granules. Fluorescence in situ hybridization using the probe revealed rod- or vibrio-shaped cells as a significant population within the sludge, indicating their important role in the original ecosystem.
Abbreviations: CLSM, confocal laser scanning microscope; FISH, fluorescence in situ hybridization; NTA, nitrilotriacetate; UASB, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket
The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains TGE-P1 T , TDV T , TGL-LS1 and TSL-P1 and Thermodesulfovibrio yellowstonii DSM 11347 T are AB021302 , AB231857 , AB021303 , AB021304 and AB231858 , respectively.
Photomicrographs of the strains isolated in this study, graphs showing lactate degradation by strain TGE-P1 T in the presence and absence of Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus , in situ hybridization of sections from thermophilic granules viewed by CLSM and probe/target sequences of TDV1015 are available as supplementary material with the online version of this paper.
Geckos and some insects can easily adhere to and detach from surfaces with micro/nanoscale hair structures on their foot, called setae and spatulas. Here, a model is developed to describe the ...detachment of the seta. In this model, the seta is assumed to be a beam whose tip adheres to a surface. When normal and tangential forces are applied to the root of the beam, a moment is generated at the contact tip and detachment occurs. The detachment conditions depend heavily on flexibility of the hair. The effects of Young's modulus and aspect ratio of length versus thickness of the beam on the detachment condition are theoretically investigated. The Poisson effect on the detachment conditions was also examined with the experimental results using fabricated silicone rubber beam arrays.
We investigate the black hole-neutron star binary merger in the contest of the r-process nucleosynthesis. Employing a hydrodynamical model simulated in the framework of full general relativity, we ...perform nuclear reaction network calculations. The extremely neutron-rich matter with the total mass 0.01 M is ejected, in which a strong r-process with fission cycling proceeds due to the high neutron number density. We discuss relevant astrophysical issues such as the origin of r-process elements as well as the r-process powered electromagnetic transients.
In Pr3Pd20Ge6, the Pr ions are located at two different crystallographic sites, 4a and 8c site. Antiferro-quadrupole ordering (AFQ) of the 8c site occurs at 250 mK. Ac susceptibility measurement ...indicated that antiferromagnetic ordering (AFM) of the 4a site and Hyperfine-enhanced Pr nuclear magnetic ordering of the 8c site occur at 77 and 9 mK, respectively. To clarify the magnetic and quadrupole properties of Pr3Pd20Ge6, thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements on single crystal sample were carried out along the 001 direction up to 8 T down to 500 μK using a capacitive dilatometer. In zero field, relative length change ΔL/L in 001 direction had a dip at AFQ and abrupt decrease at AFM ordering. From thermal expansion and isothermal magnetostriction measurements, magnetic phase diagram of Pr3Pd20Ge6 along 001 direction was obtained.
PDF
