Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often associated with social communication impairments and specific sound processing deficits, for example, problems in following speech in noisy environments. To ...investigate underlying neuronal processing defects located in the auditory cortex (AC), we performed two-photon Ca
imaging in
(
) knock-out (KO) mice, a model for fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common cause of hereditary ASD in humans. For primary AC (A1) and the anterior auditory field (AAF), topographic frequency representation was less ordered compared with control animals. We additionally analyzed ensemble AC activity in response to various sounds and found subfield-specific differences. In A1, ensemble correlations were lower in general, while in secondary AC (A2), correlations were higher in response to complex sounds, but not to pure tones. Furthermore, sound specificity of ensemble activity was decreased in AAF. Repeating these experiments 1 week later revealed no major differences regarding representational drift. Nevertheless, we found subfield- and genotype-specific changes in ensemble correlation values between the two times points, hinting at alterations in network stability in
KO mice. These detailed insights into AC network activity and topography in
KO mice add to the understanding of auditory processing defects in FXS.
Purpose: To assess the evidence demonstrating efficacy, tolerability, and safety of seven new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) gabapentin (GBP), lamotrigine (LTG), topiramate (TPM), tiagabine (TGB), ...oxcarbazepine (OXC), levetiracetam (LEV), and zonisamide (ZNS) in the treatment of children and adults with refractory partial and generalized epilepsies.
Methods: A 23‐member committee, including general neurologists, pediatric neurologists, epileptologists, and doctors in pharmacy, evaluated the available evidence based on a structured literature review including MEDLINE, Current Contents, and Cochrane Library for relevant articles from 1987 to March 2003.
Results: All of the new AEDs were found to be appropriate for adjunctive treatment of refractory partial seizures in adults. GBP can be effective for the treatment of mixed seizure disorders, and GBP, LTG, OXC, and TPM for the treatment of refractory partial seizures in children. Limited evidence suggests that LTG and TPM also are effective for adjunctive treatment of idiopathic generalized epilepsy in adults and children, as well as treatment of the Lennox–Gastaut syndrome.
Conclusions: The choice of AED depends on seizure and/or syndrome type, patient age, concomitant medications, and AED tolerability, safety, and efficacy. The results of this evidence‐based assessment provide guidelines for the prescription of AEDs for patients with refractory epilepsy and identify those seizure types and syndromes for which more evidence is necessary.
.
The production of strange particles (kaons, hyperons) and hypernuclei in light charged-particle-induced reactions in the energy range of a few GeV (2-15 GeV) has become a topic of active research ...in several facilities (
e.g.
, HypHI and PANDA at GSI and/or FAIR (Germany), JLab (USA), and JPARC (Japan)). This energy range represents the low-energy limit of the string models (degree of freedom: quark and gluon) or the high-energy limit of the so-called spallation models (degree of freedom: hadrons). A well-known spallation model is INCL, the Liège intranuclear cascade model (combined with a de-excitation model to complete the reaction). INCL, known to give good results up to 2-3GeV, was recently upgraded by the implementation of multiple pion emission to extend the energy range of applicability up to roughly 15GeV. The next step, to account also for strange particle production, both for refining the high-energy domain and making it usable when strangeness appears, requires the following main ingredients: i) the relevant elementary cross sections (production, scattering, and absorption) and ii) the characteristics of the associated final states. Some of those ingredients are already known and, sometimes, already used in models of the same type (
e.g.
, Bertini, GiBUU), but this paper aims at reviewing the situation by compiling, updating, and comparing the necessary elementary information which are independent of the model used.
Complementary analytical approaches were employed to probe the effect of grain size on thermally induced oxidation of zirconium carbide (ZrC) utilizing thermogravimetric analysis, differential ...scanning calorimetry, and Raman spectroscopy, as well as synchrotron-based and laboratory-based X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments. The oxidation mechanism and phase behavior of nanocrystalline ZrC (grain size ~ 20 nm) were compared with that of the more documented microcrystalline ZrC (grain size ~ 1 µm). Synchrotron XRD at the Advanced Photon Source with a hydrothermal diamond anvil cell (HDAC) used as a sample chamber revealed that the onset of oxidation is at ~ 380 °C for microcrystalline ZrC which is in agreement with previous work. In contrast, the critical oxidation temperature was ~ 330 °C for nanocrystalline ZrC. Additional high-temperature synchrotron XRD experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source II using a lamp furnace in combination with Raman analysis showed that tetragonal ZrO2 forms as an initial oxidation product and transforms at higher temperatures to the monoclinic phase. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) coupled with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) confirmed the X-ray results of a lower critical oxidation temperature for the nanocrystalline sample. Furthermore, the phase transformations in the oxide phase with associated critical temperatures were also evident in the thermodynamic data as exothermic heat events.
Purpose: To assess the evidence demonstrating efficacy, tolerability, and safety of seven new antiepileptic drugs AEDs; gabapentin (GBP), lamotrigine (LTG), topiramate (TPM), tiagabine (TGB), ...oxcarbazepine (OXC), levetiracetam (LEV), and zonisamide (ZNS), reviewed in the order in which these agents received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the treatment of children and adults with newly diagnosed partial and generalized epilepsies.
Methods: A 23‐member committee, including general neurologists, pediatric neurologists, epileptologists, and doctors in pharmacy, evaluated the available evidence based on a structured literature review including MEDLINE, Current Contents, and Cochrane Library for relevant articles from 1987 until September 2002, with selected manual searches up to 2003.
Results: Evidence exists, either from comparative or dose‐controlled trials, that GBP, LTG, TPM, and OXC have efficacy as monotherapy in newly diagnosed adolescents and adults with either partial or mixed seizure disorders. Evidence also shows that LTG is effective for newly diagnosed absence seizures in children. Evidence for effectiveness of the new AEDs in newly diagnosed patients with other generalized epilepsy syndromes is lacking.
Conclusions: The results of this evidence‐based assessment provide guidelines for the prescription of AEDs for patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy and identify those seizure types and syndromes for which more evidence is necessary.
INCL (Liège IntraNuclear Cascade model) combined with a deexcitation code has been used a lot for numerous simulations of spallation reactions during the last two decades. We go back over some of ...those simulations to address the capabilities of such codes and to show some improvements. The four examples of simultation are: the EURISOL project, the MEGAPIE target, the ESS facility, and the cosmogenic nuclide production. The goal is to discuss respectively designing and optimisation, predictive power and reliability, feasibility and uncertainty estimate, and the use of modeling to mitigate lack of experimental data.
Innovative experiments using the inverse kinematics technique to accelerate light, medium-mass, and heavy nuclei at relativistic energies have become excellent tools to produce and study hypernuclei. ...We investigate hypernuclei created in spallation reactions, where multifragmentation, particle evaporation, and fission processes play an important role in the formation of final hypernuclei residues. For the description of spallation reactions, we couple the Liège intranuclear cascade model, extended recently to the strange sector, to a new version of the ablation (ABLA) model that accounts for the evaporation of Λ particles from hot hyperremnants produced during the intranuclear cascade stage. These state of the art models are then used to study the production of hypernuclei close to drip lines through spallation-evaporation and fission reactions.
Stereo vision is a key technology for 3D scene reconstruction from image pairs. Most approaches process perspective images from commodity cameras. These images, however, have a very limited field of ...view and only picture a small portion of the scene. In contrast, omnidirectional images, also known as fisheye images, exhibit a much larger field of view and allow a full 3D scene reconstruction with a small amount of cameras if placed carefully. However, omnidirectional images are strongly distorted which make the 3D reconstruction much more sophisticated. Nowadays, a lot of research is conducted on CNNs for omnidirectional stereo vision. Nevertheless, a significant gap between estimation accuracy and throughput can be observed in the literature. This work aims to bridge this gap by introducing a novel set of transformations, namely
OmniGlasses
. These are incorporated into the architecture of a fast network, i.e.,
AnyNet
, originally designed for scene reconstruction on perspective images. Our network,
Omni-AnyNet
, produces accurate omnidirectional distance maps with a mean absolute error of around 13 cm at 48.4 fps and is therefore real-time capable.
Abstract Objective We evaluated the incidence of seizures and epilepsy in the first decade of life among children born extremely premature (less than 28 weeks' gestation). Method In a prospective, ...multicenter, observational study, 889 of 966 eligible children born in 2002 to 2004 were evaluated at two and ten years for neurological morbidity. Complementing questionnaire data to determine a history of seizures, all caregivers were interviewed retrospectively for postneonatal seizures using a validated seizure screen followed by a structured clinical interview by a pediatric epileptologist. A second pediatric epileptologist established an independent diagnosis based on recorded responses of the interview. A third epileptologist determined the final diagnosis when evaluators disagreed (3%). Life table survival methods were used to estimate seizure incidence through ten years. Results By age ten years, 12.2% (95% confidence interval: 9.8, 14.5) of children had experienced one or more seizures, 7.6% (95% confidence interval: 5.7, 9.5) had epilepsy, 3.2% had seizure with fever, and 1.3% had a single, unprovoked seizure. The seizure incidence increased with decreasing gestational age. In more than 75% of children with seizures, onset was after one year of age. Seizure incidence was comparable in both sexes. Two-thirds of those with epilepsy had other neurological disorders. One third of children with epilepsy were not recorded on the medical history questionnaire. Significance The incidence of epilepsy through age ten years among children born extremely premature is approximately 7- to 14-fold higher than the 0.5% to 1% lifetime incidence reported in the general pediatric population. Seizures in this population are under-recognized, and possibly underdiagnosed, by parents and providers.
To determine the current best practice for treatment of infantile spasms in children.
Database searches of MEDLINE from 1966 and EMBASE from 1980 and searches of reference lists of retrieved articles ...were performed. Inclusion criteria were the documented presence of infantile spasms and hypsarrhythmia. Outcome measures included complete cessation of spasms, resolution of hypsarrhythmia, relapse rate, developmental outcome, and presence or absence of epilepsy or an epileptiform EEG. One hundred fifty-nine articles were selected for detailed review. Recommendations were based on a four-tiered classification scheme.
Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) is probably effective for the short-term treatment of infantile spasms, but there is insufficient evidence to recommend the optimum dosage and duration of treatment. There is insufficient evidence to determine whether oral corticosteroids are effective. Vigabatrin is possibly effective for the short-term treatment of infantile spasm and is possibly also effective for children with tuberous sclerosis. Concerns about retinal toxicity suggest that serial ophthalmologic screening is required in patients on vigabatrin; however, the data are insufficient to make recommendations regarding the frequency or type of screening. There is insufficient evidence to recommend any other treatment of infantile spasms. There is insufficient evidence to conclude that successful treatment of infantile spasms improves the long-term prognosis.
ACTH is probably an effective agent in the short-term treatment of infantile spasms. Vigabatrin is possibly effective.
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