Search

Objective Silent sinus syndrome (SSS) is a clinical syndrome that occurs as a result of chronic maxillary sinus atelectasis (CMA) and is seen with progressive enophthalmos and hypoglobus. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between radiological findings and clinical findings in patients with radiologically asymmetrical reduced maxillary sinus volume. Material and method A comparison was made of patients with CMA through evaluation of paranasal sinus computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging examination of maxillary sinus volume of the CMA side and the contralateral side, thickness of the retroantral fat tissue, infraorbital bone curve, uncinate process lateralisation measurement, middle concha diameter, and calculation of the change in location of the inferior rectus muscle. Results The study included 16 patients. Although a statistically significant difference was determined between the healthy and the pathological sides in respect to maxillary sinus volume, thickness of the retroantral fat tissue, infraorbital bone curve, uncinate process lateralisation measurement, and middle concha diameter (p = 0.00, p = 0.002, p = 0.020, p = 0.020, p = 0.007), no significant difference was determined in respect to the change in location of the inferior rectus muscle (p = 0.154). A positive correlation was determined between the increase in sulcus depth and maxillary sinus volume and inferior orbital bone curve (p Conclusion In CMA patients suspected of having SSS, radiological maxillary sinus volume analysis, determination of retroantral fat thickness, measurement of the infraorbital bone curve, and measurement of the uncinate process lateralisation can be used as objective tests. However, it should be kept in mind that radiological findings may not always be compatible with the ophthalmological examination findings.

PurposeJuvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is commonly associated with photoparoxysmal response (PPR) with a reported prevalence of 25–42%. In this study, we aim to explore the relationship between the PPR and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) parameters in order to determine whether optic nerve fiber layer or other structural differences have a pathophysiological role of photosensitivity in patients with JME.MethodsWe studied 53 consecutive patients with Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) at our outpatient department. The interictal electroencephalogram (EEG) findings for each patient were analyzed for the presence of photoparoxysmal features. The peripapillary Retina Nerve Fiber Layer (RNFL) thickness, ganglion cell thickness, macular thickness and choroid thickness levels were analyzed using OCT.ResultsWe classified the patients into two groups as those with PPR (Group 1) and those without PPR (Group 2). There were statistically significant differences in the average RNFL thickness values of the left eye between the two groups (p

…

Conformational multiplicity of proteins under different environmental conditions is satisfactorily described herein by simple analytical methods. To efficiently monitor the equilibrium landscape and to orchestrate the population shifts, we derived the following set of equations originating from continuum mechanical considerations: i) the equilibrium equation of each repeating unit, ii) the constitutive relation for each (non)bonded short and/or long-range contact, and iii) the compatibility equation between the fluctuation of an element and fluctuations of its neighboring bonds. Together with the updated incremental Lagrange formalism, we put forward an effective single-molecule manipulation methodology. After each incremental move due to the perturbation induced by a ligand, the response kernel is updated and the new position on the free-energy surface is calculated.In this study, we additionally demonstrate that cooperatively inserted intra-residue fluctuations, resembling different ligand insertions into the protein, moderate the positional motion of residues that are responsible for desired activities of the protein. We identify a feedback mechanism between sensory regions and adaptively distributed actuating parts. We construct a template that is a subset of the native structure containing the controller and we show that the template is conserved within the families of evolved sequences. These templates are shown to be the key elements for protein-protein interactions.We study the relationships between the statistical and spectral properties of networks derived from the protein conformations located at the different minima of the landscape. We determine how the shortest path betweenness distribution of the edges is altered from one minimum (apo form) to another one (holo form). Furthermore, the results indicate that the changes in the redundancy index, which is the ratio of the number of alternative two-step paths a given residue i generates to its non-bonded contacts and its overall reachability, is significant.

Monte Carlo simulations combined with anisotropic network model (ANM-MC) were used to investigate transition pathways between two different crystal structures such as open and closed states of proteins. The transition pathway is identified by an iterative process that involves selecting the collective ANM mode that overlaps best with the target direction and minimizing the conformational energy of the selected ANM mode via Monte Carlo simulations. In the current study, the conformational transition pathways and pathway intermediates involving shear and hinge type of motions were analyzed via the ANM-MC algorithm. The results show that the collective modes contribute significantly to the conformational transitions in both types of motions. In hinge-bending proteins, generally a single low-indexed mode predominantly drives the conformational transition, whereas a collection of slow modes is necessary to describe a shear-type transition. Targeted ANM-MC approach was found to provide and efficient method to explore sequences of events in transition pathways in both types of motions. Applications of the algorithm to large, multi-chain proteins will also be presented. A computer server based on the ANM-MC algorithm will be made available to the scientific community.