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Study Objective Anti-N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) encephalitis is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome associated with ovarian teratomas that carries significant morbidity and mortality. Treatment is via a multidisciplinary approach that must include ovarian cyst excision. Design Case series. Setting Hospital. Patients or Participants 1: A nulliparous 22-year-old woman, who was undergoing treatment for NMDA encephalitis, was referred to the gynaecology department with new diagnosis of right 7 cm ovarian dermoid cyst discovered with ultrasound screening. She had a BMI of 77 and type II respiratory failure with normal tumor markers. She underwent laparoscopic right oophorectomy and currently has ongoing surveillance of her left ovary. She remains independent in the community. 2: A 25-year-old nulliparous woman was admitted for anti-NMDA-R encephalitis. A CT abdo-pelvis demonstrated bilateral bulky ovaries and a 5 cm right ovarian dermoid cyst. A laparoscopic right salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Intra-operatively, the left ovary was bulky but nil overt macroscopic lesions identified. Unfortunately, her neurological condition worsened. A pelvic MRI demonstrated normal left ovarian tissue, and a PET scan and tumour markers were unremarkable. Due to concerns of a microscopic ovarian teratoma contributing to her neurological deterioration, a laparoscopic left salpingo-oophorectomy was performed 14 months later. She gradually improved thereafter but requires ongoing care for neuropsychiatric deficits. Interventions Surgery. Measurements and Main Results Anti-NMDAR encephalitis syndrome develops when teratoma neural tissue stimulates the production of anti-NMDA-R antibodies [1]. These antibodies cause limbic neurone dysfunction and loss by altering cell-surface NMDA receptors, resulting in neuropsychiatric and autonomic symptoms [1]. Early immunotherapy and tumour resection improve the prognosis [1]. When deciding between cystectomy and oophorectomy, the gynaecologist must consider the ipsilateral recurrence rate after ovarian cystectomy (approximately 3-4 percent), the risk of incomplete removal of neural tissue, and intra-operative spillage [2]. Conclusion Ovarian teratoma associated with Anti-NMDA-R encephalitis requires urgent surgical intervention leading to favourable outcomes in this otherwise potentially devastating condition.

A project to construct a compact pre-bunched Free Electron Laser by using a normal conducting photocathode electron gun has been undertaken at Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi, India. In this facility, the short laser pulses from a high power laser system will be split into many pulses (2–16) commonly known as ‘Comb beam’ and will strike the photocathode material (metal and semiconductor) to produce electron beam bunches. The electrons will be accelerated up to an energy of ∼8 MeV by a copper cavity operated at a frequency of 2860 MHz and the beam will be injected into a compact, planar permanent undulator magnet to produce THz radiation. The radiation frequency designed to be tuned in the range of 0.15–3 THz by varying the magnetic field of the undulator and/or changing the energy of the electron. The separation of the laser micro-pulses will be varied by adjusting the path length difference to alter the separation of the electron micro-bunches and to maximise the radiation intensity.

A Reduced Form Model (RFM) is a mathematical relationship between the inputs and outputs of an air quality model, permitting estimation of additional modeling without costly new regional-scale simulations. A 21-year Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) simulation for the continental United States provided the basis for the RFM developed in this study. Predictors included the principal component scores (PCS) of emissions and meteorological variables, while the predictand was the monthly mean of daily maximum 8-hour CMAQ ozone for the ozone season at each model grid. The PCS form an orthogonal basis for RFM inputs. A few PCS incorporate most of the variability of emissions and meteorology, thereby reducing the dimensionality of the source-receptor problem. Stochastic kriging was used to estimate the model. The RFM was used to separate the effects of emissions and meteorology on ozone concentrations. by running the RFM with emissions constant (ozone dependent on meteorology), or constant meteorology (ozone dependent on emissions). Years with ozone-conducive meteorology were identified, and meteorological variables best explaining meteorology-dependent ozone were identified. Meteorology accounted for 19% to 55% of ozone variability in the eastern US, and 39% to 92% in the western US. Temporal trends estimated for original CMAQ ozone data and emission-dependent ozone were mostly negative, but the confidence intervals for emission-dependent ozone are much narrower. Emission-driven changes in monthly mean ozone levels for the period 2000-2010 ranged from 6.4 to 10.9 ppb for the eastern US and from 1.4 to 2.5 ppb for the western US.

Study Objective To determine whether a negative ovarian “sliding sign” (i.e. fixed ovary) during pre-operative transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) is useful in predicting the need for ipsilateral ureterolysis, for women with suspected endometriosis undergoing laparoscopic surgery. Design Retrospective observational study. Setting Hospital based. Patients or Participants 66. Interventions All women undergoing laparoscopic surgery for suspected endometriosis were assessed for ovarian mobility at TVU using the ovarian “sliding sign” technique. Data was analysed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of a negative ovarian “sliding sign” for the prediction of ipsilateral ureterolysis. Measurements and Main Results Complete TVU and surgical data was available for 66 women. The age range was from 18-52 years (Mean =31.5 years). Incidence of right left and any fixed ovary at TVU was 22/66 (33%), 24/66 (36%) and 27/66 (41%) respectively. Incidence of ureterolysis (partial or complete) at surgery for right, left and either pelvic sidewall was 10/66, (15%), 18/66 (27%) and 22/66 (33%) respectively. The sensitivity/specificity/positive predictive value /negative predictive value for the ovarian “sliding sign” at TVU for the prediction of ipsilateral ureterolysis was:Right ovary 80%/75%/36%/95% and left ovary 44%/66%/33%/76%. The crosstab for relationship between a negative ovarian “sliding sign” of the left ovary and left ureterolysis was not significant (p =0.437) but was significant for the right ovary and right ureterolysis (p =0.002). Conclusion A negative right ovarian “sliding sign” (i.e. fixed right ovary) at pre-operative TVU was significantly associated with the need for right ureterolysis. In addition, a positive ovarian “sliding sign” (i.e. mobile ovaries) at TVU demonstrated a high NPV for the need for laparoscopic ureterolysis. The TVU ovarian “sliding sign” may therefore be a useful ultrasound soft marker for predicting which women are at increased risk of requiring ureterolysis at surgery, and thus, aid in the pre-operative planning and counselling for these women.

The complexity of air quality modeling systems, air quality monitoring data make ad-hoc systems for model evaluation important aids to the modeling community. Among those are the ENSEMBLE system developed by the EC-Joint Research Center, and the AMET software developed by the US-EPA. These independent systems provide two examples of state of the art tools to support model evaluation. The two systems are described here mostly from the point of view of the support to air quality model users or developers rather than the technological point of view. While ENSEMBLE is a web based platform for model evaluation that allows the collection, share and treatment of model results as well as monitoring data, AMET is a standalone tool that works directly on single model data. The complementarity of the two approaches makes the two systems optimal for operational, diagnostic and probabilistic evaluations. ENSEMBLE and AMET have been extended in occasion of the AQMEII two-continent exercise and the new developments are described in this paper, together with those foreseen for the future.

The CMAQ modeling system has been used to simulate the air quality for North America and Europe for the entire year of 2006 as part of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII). The operational model performance of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ), fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and total particulate matter (PM 10 ) for the two continents has been assessed. The model underestimates daytime (8am–8pm LST) O 3 mixing ratios by 13% in the winter for North America, primarily due to an underestimation of daytime O 3 mixing ratios in the middle and lower troposphere from the lateral boundary conditions. The model overestimates winter daytime O 3 mixing ratios in Europe by an average of 8.4%. The model underestimates daytime O 3 by 4–5% in the spring for both continents, while in the summer daytime O 3 is overestimated by 9.8% for North America and slightly underestimated by 1.6% for Europe. The model overestimates daytime O 3 in the fall for both continents, grossly overestimating daytime O 3 by over 30% for Europe. The performance for PM 2.5 varies both seasonally and geographically for the two continents. For North American, PM 2.5 is overestimated in the winter and fall, with an average Normalized Mean Bias (NMB) greater than −30%, while performance in the summer is relatively good, with an average NMB of −4.6%. For Europe, PM 2.5 is underestimated throughout the entire year, with the NMB ranging from −24% in the fall to −55% in the winter. PM 10 is underestimated throughout the year for both North America and Europe, with remarkably similar performance for both continents. The domain average NMB for PM 10 ranges between −45% and −65% for the two continents, with the largest underestimation occurring in the summer for North American and the winter for Europe.

Although definite evidences are available to state that, neuronal activity is a prime determinant of animal behavior, the specific relationship between local field potentials of the motor cortex after intervention with CSF from human patients and animal behavior have remained opaque. The present study has investigated whether cerebrospinal fluid from sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sALS) patients could disrupt neuronal activity of the motor cortex, which could be associated with disturbances in the motor performance of adult rats. CSF from ALS patients (ALS-CSF) was infused into the lateral ventricle of Wistar rats. After 24 h, the impact of ALS-CSF on the local field potentials (LFPs) of the motor cortex and on the motor behavior of animals were examined. The results indicate that ALS-CSF produced a bivariate distribution on the relative power values of the LFPs of the motor cortex 24 h following infusion. However, the behavioral results did not show bimodality, instead showed consistent decrease in motor performance: on rotarod and grip strength meter. The neuronal activity of the motor cortex negatively correlated with the duration of ALS symptoms at the time of lumbar puncture. Although the effect of ALS-CSF was more pronounced at 24 h following infusion, the changes observed in LFPs and motor performance appeared to revert to baseline values at later time points of testing. In the current study, we have shown that, ALS-CSF has the potential to perturb neuronal activity of the rat motor cortex which was associated with poor performance on motor function tests.

Regional-scale air quality models are used to estimate the response of air pollutants to potential emission control strategies as part of the decision-making process. Traditionally, the model-predicted pollutant concentrations are evaluated for the “base case” to assess a model's ability to reproduce past observations. Dynamic evaluation approaches, which evaluate a model's ability to accurately simulate air quality changes from given changes in emissions, are critically important to regulatory applications. Here, we investigate approaches to evaluate the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model's predicted ozone (O3) response to large NOx emission reductions associated with the NOx State Implementation Plan (SIP) Call and on-road mobile emissions. This case has the advantages that emission changes associated with the NOx SIP Call can be well characterized and substantial changes are observed in O3 levels. To consider the modeled response to emission changes in light of the strong meteorological influences on O3, two time periods after the NOx SIP Call are included with very different meteorological conditions. The sensitivity to chemical mechanisms is also considered by including simulations with the CB4, SAPRC, and CB05 chemical mechanisms. The evaluation results suggest that the air quality model predictions underestimate the O3 reductions observed after the NOx SIP Call was implemented. While the emission estimate uncertainties may also be a factor, the results suggest that the contribution of long-range transport of O3 and precursors is underpredicted, especially when using the CB4 chemical mechanism. Further investigation of the chemical mechanisms’ ability to characterize tropospheric chemistry aloft is recommended. Results based on the most recent CMAQ version 4.6 with CB05 and updated emission inventories show incremental improvements to the modeled O3 response to NOx emission reductions.

This study investigates the effects of reductions in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from major point sources on daily maximum 8-h ozone concentrations in the eastern United States. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was utilized in photochemical simulations on a matrix of modeling scenarios permitting an examination of the separate effects of emission changes and meteorological influences on maximum ozone levels over a 3-month period during the summers of 2002 and 2004. Two modeling scenarios involved base case 2002 emissions and post-control emissions, reflecting the point source NOx emission reductions implemented before the ozone season of 2004, using summer 2002 meteorological conditions. Results revealed that point source NOx emission reductions caused decreases in daily maximum 8-h ozone concentrations over the eastern United States. At the 50th and 95th percentiles of the cumulative frequency distribution, daily maximum 8-h ozone values in the emission reduction scenario were lower than corresponding base case values over 70% and 90% of the modeling domain, respectively. During southwesterly wind flows across the Ohio River Valley, morning ozone concentrations aloft were lower over northeastern states downwind of the emissions-rich region in the NOx reduction scenario results. Another notable feature of the NOx emission reduction scenario results is that greater decreases in daily maximum 8-h ozone occurred at higher concentrations. Results from other modeling scenarios revealed strong differences in meteorological conditions between these two summer periods greatly impacted the daily 8-h maximum ozone concentrations with the meteorological effects on ozone being greater than those from emission changes over the northern part of the modeling domain. Using backtrajectory analysis, greater percentage decreases in daily maximum 8-h ozone occurred at monitoring sites when they were downwind of the Ohio River Valley, which is a notable emission source region, as compared to cases when the sites were not downwind of it.

Over the next several years, grid-based photochemical models such as the community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model, the regional modeling system for aerosols and deposition (REMSAD), the comprehensive air quality model with extensions (CAMx), and other regional models will be used by regulatory agencies in the United States for designing emission control strategies to meet and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for O3, PM2.5, and regional haze. In this study, temporal scale analysis is applied as a technique to evaluate an annual simulation of meteorology, O3, and PM2.5 and its chemical components over the continental US utilizing two modeling systems. The spectral decomposition of total PM2.5 mass from hourly observations and CMAQ and REMSAD model predictions revealed that days of high PM2.5 concentrations are generally characterized by positive forcing from fluctuations having periods equal to or greater than a day (i.e., the diurnal, synoptic, and longer-term components) while the magnitude of intra-day fluctuations showed only small differences between average and episodic conditions. Both modeling systems did not capture most of the variability of the high-frequency, intra-day component for all variables for which hourly measurements were available. Furthermore, it is illustrated that correlations were insignificant on the intra-day time scale for all variables, suggesting that these models in the setup used for this study were not skillful in simulating the higher-frequency variations in meteorological variables and the levels of all pollutants. The models exhibited greatest skills at capturing longer-term (seasonal) fluctuations for temperature, wind speed, O3, sulfate and nitrate. Correlations for total PM2.5, ammonium, elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC) and crustal PM2.5 correlations were highest for the synoptic time scale implying problems with factors other than meteorology, such as emissions or lateral chemical boundary conditions, in capturing the baseline fluctuations.

Meteorological models in conjunction with air quality models are being used to simulate the transport and fate of pollutants in the atmosphere. Hence, there is a need for an extensive evaluation of the entire modeling system. In this study, several new techniques to assess the performance of mesoscale meteorological models are introduced with an emphasis on evaluating the variables and processes that have the potential to influence the air quality predictions, since errors in the meteorological fields are passed on to the air quality model. Model performance was diagnosed by examining the inter-correlation of observable variables in the atmosphere on distinct time scales: intraday, diurnal, and synoptic. It was found that the Mesoscale Model version 5 (MM5) model did replicate the observed relationship between intraday wind speed and temperature, intraday surface pressure and temperature, diurnal surface pressure and temperature as well as most of the correlations between variables on the synoptic timescale. However, a negative correlation between temperature and precipitation was evident in the observations on the intraday scale, but such relationship was not evident in the model output. Furthermore, the diurnal response of increasing wind speed with temperature was strong in the observed time series, but it was much weaker in the model. The correlation between diurnal changes in temperature and cloud fraction was consistently negative in the model whereas it was slightly positive in the observations. Wind profilers were used to examine the simulated boundary layer wind structure. Of the twelve sites examined, the average distance error between the 24-h observed and modeled trajectory was approximately 150 km at height of 100 m above the surface. Errors in transport of this magnitude (100–200 km) can produce errors in air quality predictions. It is not the intent of this study to establish quantitative links between the performance of the specific meteorological simulation analyzed here and subsequent air quality simulations. Rather, the results presented here draw attention to errors and inconsistencies in the meteorology that are passed on to the air quality model which, in turn, have the potential to cause errors in air quality model predictions.

A soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer scheme based on a one-dimensional boundary layer model has been developed to study the sensitivity of boundary layer growth on the surface temperature fields and land-use types. Full interaction between the surface and atmosphere is achieved by representing the surface and turbulent mixing processes by using a Land Air Parameterization Scheme (LAPS) and the Blackadar's local closure PBL scheme. Sensitivity tests are performed by simulating planetary boundary layer structures over different underlying surfaces, soil textures and soil moisture contents using the meteorological data for July 17, 1999 in Philadelphia, PA. Also, a simpler surface parameterization used in the MM5 model results in a significantly higher surface temperature as well as the PBL depth over the urban area than those obtained by the LAPS parameterization in which a new method, including a combination of aggregated fluxes and parameters in calculating the surface temperature, is applied.

Mice are favourite subjects in molecular and genetic memory research and frequently studied with classical fear conditioning paradigms that use an auditory cue (conditioned stimulus, CS(+)) to predict an aversive, unconditioned stimulus (US). Yet the conditions that control fear memory specificity and generalisation and their behavioural expression in such conditioned mice have not been analysed systematically. In the current study we addressed these issues in the most widely used mouse strain of behavioural genetics, C57Bl/6. In keeping with findings in other species we demonstrate the dependence of fear memory generalisation on training intensity (i.e. both US intensity and the number of CS(+) and US applied) after both excitatory (explicitly paired presentation of CS(+) and US) and inhibitory training (explicitly unpaired presentation of CS(+) and US). Furthermore, inhibitory overtraining was associated with changes of uncued anxiety-like behaviour in a light/dark exploration test, indicative of an emotional sensitisation reaction as consequence of a lack of US predictability. Together our results describe the qualitatively and quantitatively different increases of defensive behaviour in response to conditioned stimuli of different salience and identify training conditions that lead to fear memory generalisation and emotional sensitisation in C57Bl/6 inbred mice.

In this paper, we discuss the complexities associated with the analysis and interpretation of trends in time series of ozonesonde data, focussing on approaches to deal with the special constraints imposed by the irregular nature of the ozonesonde data set. To improve upon earlier studies which have used monthly mean values and parametric techniques on ozonesonde data, a non-parametric statistical method is introduced to enable us to work with data from individual flights rather than with monthly mean values. To this end, ozone time series data are separated into their long-term, seasonal and short-term components to properly characterize the various scales of motion (climatic, annual and synoptic scale) embedded in the data set. We show that the statistical method used here meets the requirements for a reliable analysis of ozonesonde data. It is shown further that this approach enables us to estimate trends in the ozonesonde data with a very high degree of confidence. We then introduce a non-parametric technique for discerning sudden changes in time series data and discuss its usefulness in detecting potential biases in ozonesonde time series data, introduced by changes in instrumentation, flight time, preflight preparation and data reduction procedures. The results show that the method is able to detect discontinuities in the ozonesonde data which are supported by station histories. It is shown that the long-term trend estimates can be significantly affected by the presence of biases in the data. Although further research is necessary to adequately account for artificial breaks in the data at all heights and stations, there is an indication that the estimated upward trend in the raw tropospheric ozone data at Payerne, Hohenpeissenberg and Edmonton might be attributable, in part, to the presence of biases in the data.

[5.3.1] Propellanes e.g., the tricyclo[5.3.1.0 1,7 ]undeca-2,4-dien-10-one 8 and the corresponding methylidene compound 10 were prepared from methyl cinnamate 2 in several steps involving rhodium(II) acetate mediated cyclization of 4 to 6 as a key step. The selective central cyclopropyl bond cleavage in 8 and 10 by lead tetraacetate provides the basis of a new approach to the construction of carbocyclic frame of A,B ring of Taxol.

The reaction of either endo or exo tetracyclo[10.2.n.0 2,11 .0 4,9 ]penta deca-4,5,7,13-tetraene-3,10-diones with Sml 2 led to efficient formation of oxidized title quinones.

A variety of adjacent cyclobutyl ketones have been subjected to a new photoelectron transfer (PET) conditions, i.e., photolysis in a protic and polar solvent EtOH with triethyl amine. The cleavage of cyclobutane ketyl radical is highly substrate specific. An interesting wavelength dependence (irradiation at 254nm vs 300nm) phenomenon has been uncovered. The nature of chemical transformation has been shown to be a function of mode of generation of ketyl radicals. In continuation, the cleavage of even adjacent cyclopentane ring is postulated to account for our recently discovered novel isomerization of Diels-Alder endo-isomers to exo-adducts under PET conditions, which is quite unprecedented.

Background: Between June 2005 and January 2010, 47 patients underwent ileocolonic pullup for corrosive esophageal injury with one death. Of these 46 patients surviving 9 (19.5%) had anastomotic leak and 22 (47.8%) developed anastomotic stricture. The cause of these strictures and leak was attributed to ischaemia . Hence we hypothesized that ligation of ileocolic artery (ICA) improves collateral blood supply to the future ileocolonic conduit and in turn decreases the anastomotic leak and stricture rate. Methods: A prospective comparative study was conducted between January 2010 to June 2012. All patients with acute corrosive injuries (grade II and III) who were potential candidates for esophageal replacement surgery and willing to undergo ICA ligation at the time of FJ were included in Group A. During the above period, patients who did not undergo ICA ligation and underwent ileocolonic interposition were taken as control group (Group B). All patients in group A, multislice CECT angiogram was done before ICA ligation, 7 days following ICA ligation and before ileocolonic interposition to document objective improvement in collateral circulation. All patients underwent ileocolonic pull up via retrosternal route after a minimum period of six months following corrosive ingestion. Oral contrast study was done on postoperative day 10 and oral feed was started if there was no leak. All were followed up every 3 weeks for 3 months and every month for another 3 months. Barium swallow was done at 3 weeks to document status of anastomosis. Symptomatic patients with documented anastomotic stricture were subjected for endoscopic dilation. Results: Out of twenty three patients with ileocolonic pull up during the study period, 5 were excluded from the analysis (2 died and 3 did not complete 6 months follow up). Out of the remaining 18 patients considered for evaluation, 6 were in group A and 12 were in group B. Demographic data and level of stricture was not statistically significant in both the groups. Four patients in group B required tracheostomy, none of the patients in group A required tracheostomy. CECT angiogram showed improvement in collateral circulation in all Group A patients. No patient in group A had anastomotic leak and anastamotic stricture, where as in Group B, 3/12 (25%) had anastomotic leak and 4/12 (33.3%) had anastamotic stricture requiring dilatation. Conclusion: Ligation of ileocolic artery improves the vascularity of future ileocolonic conduit and in turn decreases anastomotic leak and stricture rate.

Magnetization measurements on PbTl and niobium samples with the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ between 0.71 and 1 demonstrate the behavior to be expected of a sample in the intermediate-mixed state of Type II superconductors. In particular, the magnetization curve is intrinsically irreversible.