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Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) are used to assess the functional status of somatosensory pathways during surgical procedures and can help protect patients' neurological integrity intraoperatively. This is a position statement on intraoperative SEP monitoring from the American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring (ASNM) and updates prior ASNM position statements on SEPs from the years 2005 and 2010. This position statement is endorsed by ASNM and serves as an educational service to the neurophysiological community on the recommended use of SEPs as a neurophysiological monitoring tool. It presents the rationale for SEP utilization and its clinical applications. It also covers the relevant anatomy, technical methodology for setup and signal acquisition, signal interpretation, anesthesia and physiological considerations, and documentation and credentialing requirements to optimize SEP monitoring to aid in protecting the nervous system during surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene and tannic acid were modified by magnetic agitation and ultrasonic dispersion. Modified graphene compounding with ammonium polyphosphate (APP) is prepared an expanded flame retardant system (AGT), which AGT was selected as the main flame retardant and sepiolite (SEP) as co-flame retardant in this work. Five modifiers including tannic acid (TA), oleic acid (YS), oleic acid amide (YSXA), thaumatin (TW) and oleyl amine (YA) were introduced to make modified SEP (SEP@M and M represents respectively TA, YS,YSXA,TW and YA). FTIR spectroscopy was performed on SEP modified by different modifiers at 1: 8, 1: 10, and 1: 15 ratios. The effect of modifier on the dispersion of SEP in Ethylene propylene diene (EPDM) adhesive and the optimum ratio of SEP modification were studied. Finally, the effect of the combination system on the flame retardant performance of EPDM/AGT/SEP@M composites was analyzed, and the smoke retardant mechanism of SEP coflame retardant and expansion flame retardant system in matrix materials was investigated. Experimental results showed that EPDM/AGT/SEP8@YS1 achieved a V-0 grade with an oxygen index of 44.92% compared to the blank control group. The thermal release rate of EPDM/AGT/SEP8@YS1 decreased by 49.8% and the smoke release rate and total smoke release rate decreased by 75.3% and 41.9%, respectively, compared to pure EPDM. In addition, the tensile and tear strength of EPDM/AGT/SEP8@YS1 was increased by 26.14% and 9.91%, respectively, compared to EPDM/AGT/SEP in mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sequential Extraction Procedure (SEP) is a method widely used to extract metals and metalloids from Particulate Matter (PM) based on their solubility in different reaction media. This extraction procedure is used to determine the actual mobility of metals present in the environment. A detailed discussion on the significance of sequential extraction analysis is also being given in this scientific document. This review includes different aspects related to the fractions obtained (exchangeable: F1, reducible: F2, oxidizable: F3, bound to organic matter: F4, and residual fraction: F5) during the SEP. The use of each reagent involved in the fractionation process of PM is also discussed briefly. Finally, the present up-to-date information given by different researchers in various fields of atmospheric chemistry along with the possible future developments is also part of this scientific review. The current review also focuses on the relation between SEP and mathematical expressions (bioavailability, source apportionment, and health risk assessment by the USEPA method). It is revealed from the previous studies that Cd and Zn are highly enriched, mobile as well as highly bioavailable in the environment and poses more risk to the human being. The Cr and As showed carcinogenic nature and hence pose carcinogenic diseases in humans. Whereas, Mn and As are non-carcinogenic in nature for children and adults and thereby both pose a non-carcinogenic disease threat to the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intense solar energetic particle (SEP) events can be observed by neutron monitors (NMs) as so-called ground-level enhancements (GLEs). High-altitude polar NMs have high sensitivity for SEP due to the reduced atmospheric energy cutoff and very low geomagnetic rigidity cutoff compared to other NMs. There is a special class of sub-GLE events, viz. events that are weaker than standard GLEs and can only be observed by high-altitude polar NMs. So far, only one sub-GLE and three candidates are known, all in the period 2012 – 2015. In this work, we inspected the period from March 1964 to December 1969 in the data of the South Pole and Vostok high-altitude polar NMs on the Antarctic Plateau in search of possible sub-GLEs. We found two previously unknown events from 09 June 1968 and 27 February 1969 that formally match the definition of sub-GLE. They were associated with significant enhancements in the integral SEP intensity J (> 60 MeV) measured by space-borne particle detectors, as well as with strong X-class solar flares from the western part of the solar disk. The identified sub-GLEs were analyzed and the corresponding SEP characteristics were estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart farming is becoming the need of the hour nowadays in an effort to boost productivity and protect the crops. This can be done using sensors and internet enabled devices in the farm. The underlying wireless sensor network can sense various environmental parameters and can pass data to the internet enabled devices to support smart farming. The sensor nodes are, however, powered by smaller batteries and have limited lifetime. Therefore, this paper presents a clustering protocol which aims at increasing the lifetime of the sensor nodes. These sensors are considered to be pressure sensors which are deployed in the network and whenever any animal encroaches the farm, a signal can be passed to the internet enabled alarm system which can help the farmer to fend off the animals and protect his crops. The sensor network is considered to have three level of energy heterogeneity among the nodes and the cluster head is selected in such a way that the cluster formed by the head consists of more number of high energy nodes. The proposed protocol has been simulated in MATLAB environment and compared with Stable Election Protocol (SEP), Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering (DEEC) and Improved Stable Election Protocol (ISEP) based on network lifetime and throughput. The network lifetime for proposed protocol was 6567 rounds which was higher than others with network going dead at 5472 for ISEP, at 2495 for DEEC and at 2316 for SEP. The protocol has shown better performance against these existing protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Head positioning in carotid surgery represents an often overlooked but sensitive period in the surgical plan. A 53-year-old male presented a significant decrement in median nerve somatosensory evoked potential (mSEP) following head and neck positioning for carotid pseudoaneurysm repair before skin incision. Neurophysiological monitoring was performed with mSEP and electroencephalography early during the patient's preparation and surgery. Within five minutes after rotation and extension of the head to properly expose the surgical field, the contralateral m-SEP significantly decreased in both cortical (N20/P25) and subcortical (P14/N18) components. Partial neck correction led to m-SEP improvement, allowing to proceed with the carotid repair. We discuss possible underlying pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for these changes and highlight the relevance of an early start on monitoring to avoid neurological deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless Sensor networks contain sensor nodes with specialized infrastructure for the purpose of inspection of certain physical conditions at very divergent environments. Usually, physical characteristics of the environment including temperature, humidity, pressure etc. are examined by the sensor nodes. These nodes are generally small sized and light weight. Because of their small size, power supply is very much limited. Careful usage of the limited power supply is a very important factor to be considered during communication of data in the network. With the aim of achieving effective energy usage, several techniques have been applied for the routing of information packets. One such technique is clustering of sensor nodes within the network. It implicates that the nodes organize themselves into groups to form several clusters where each group has a leader of the cluster group called the cluster head. The routing using this clustering technique does not always involve direct transmission. Rather, multi-hop transmission happens usually, with the data firstly being transferred from sensor nodes to their corresponding cluster heads and then later from cluster heads to the sink (Base Station). The cluster head is designated arbitrary or by taking into account various factors which differ according to the different routing protocols. In this paper, a new routing algorithm QBCR (Quadrangle based Clustering Routing Protocol) has been proposed which entails clustering process for routing the data to the base station. This protocol exhibits improvement over conventional routing protocols like LEACH, SEP and DEEC. In this clustering algorithm, division of the zones (clusters) based on the energy levels of the nodes has been carried out in form of quadrangle shaped clusters. The proposed protocol exhibits significant enhancement in the lifetime of the network, stability interval, rate of packet transfer (throughput), and the average energy of the network. The proposed protocol shows an improvement of atleast 50% in all parameters (lifetime of the network, stability interval, rate of packet transfer (throughput) and the average energy of the network) in comparison to the conventional protocols. This proposed protocol is a clear choice over the standard routing protocols wherever it is possible to deploy nodes uniformly in different zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plasmacytomas are tumors involving plasma cells that can be either osseous or extraosseous. Solitary extraosseous plasmacytomas are rarely found in the head and neck region. Various pathological, immuno-histochemistry, and radiological investigations must be done to distinguish it from multiple myeloma. Case: A 41-year-old female presented with a progressively increasing mass in right submandibular region for 1 year. She also had complaints of dysphagia and dyspnea for 3 months. Histopathological examinations showed lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate and possibility of plasma cell neoplasm was suspected. On further investigations like immunohistochemistry, bone marrow biopsy, quantitative immunoglobulin, immunoelectrophoresis, and urine analysis, diagnosis of extraosseous plasmacytoma was made. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scan did not show any distant foci of the disease. The patient received definitive radiotherapy to the primary region and tolerated well. The patient is asymptomatic after 1 month of radiotherapy and is on regular follow-up. Conclusions: Extraosseous plasmacytoma of the submandibular region is very rare but radiosensitive tumor. Multiple myeloma must be ruled out prior to start of any treatment. Long term follow ups are required to comment on disease progression, dissemination, or recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, scholars have been exploring persistent inequalities in health by studying the roles of origin and destination socioeconomic positions (SEP), and the importance of social mobility trajectories from childhood to adult life in individuals' wellbeing. However, this literature does not produce consistent and systematic findings on the relative importance of origin and destination SEP and independent social mobility effects. One of the main reasons for this is a set of methodological choices and decisions which researchers make. Arguably, one of the most critical aspects of research design is the operationalisation of SEP and the selection of health outcomes, usually without accounting for initial values of the health indicators employed. Using a nationally representative longitudinal dataset (Add Health) for the United States and diagonal reference models, in the present study, we examine how the choice of SEP in terms of educational, occupational, and income attainment, and the choice of health measures in terms of obesity, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health, influence findings on the origin and destination effects, as well as the health implications of social mobility. We also address the health selection problem by explicitly accounting for adolescents' health in terms of each health outcome considered. Our results indicate that both choosing SEP and health measures, and accounting for social mobility and adolescent health have a noticeable impact on the relative importance of social origin and destination positions for health outcomes. We do not find evidence that social mobility has an independent effect on health, or that individuals' previous health status moderates this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The are substantial studies on distinguishabilities, especially local distinguishability, of quantum states. It is shown that a necessary condition of a local distinguishable state set is the total Schmidt rank not larger than the system dimension. However, if we view states in a larger system, the restriction will be invalid. Hence, a nature problem is that can indistinguishable states become distinguishable by viewing them in a larger system without employing extra resources. In this paper, we consider this problem for (perfect or unambiguous) LOCC1, PPT and SEP distinguishabilities. We demonstrate that if a set of states is indistinguishable in ⊗ k = 1 K C d k , then it is indistinguishable even being viewed in ⊗ k = 1 K C d k + h k , where K , d k ⩾ 2 , h k ⩾ 0 are integers. This shows that such distinguishabilities are properties of states themselves and independent of the dimension of quantum system. Our result gives the maximal numbers of LOCC1 distinguishable states and can be employed to construct a LOCC indistinguishable product basis in general systems. Our result is suitable for general states in general systems. For further discussions, we define the local-global indistinguishable property and present a conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gene prediction is a laborious and time-consuming task. The advancement of sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools, coupled with accelerated rate of ribosome profiling and mass spectrometry development, have made identification of small open reading frames (sORFs) (< 100 codons) in various plant genomes possible. The past 50 years have seen sORFs being isolated from many organisms. However, to date, a comprehensive sORF annotation pipeline is as yet unavailable, hence, addressed in our review. Here, we also provide current information on classification and functions of plant sORFs and their potential applications in crop improvement programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A network of wireless sensor (WSNs) is formed by connecting thousands of miniature nodes. They are capable of sensing, communicating wirelessly and computing parameters. The life of a wireless sensor node depends upon its energy. Thus a main technical challenge in WSN is energy saving in the network. The principal needs of any wireless sensors network is its energy efficiency and security which could be influenced by presence of various malicious nodes. The major limiting constraint for sensor nodes is its limited energy required to transmit every data packet. LEACH PEGASIS, DEC and SEP are the several WSN probabilistic routing protocols to save energy throughout data transmission. The prime goals of the protocol implementation are the energy saving and heterogeneity maintenance. The contribution of paper is to describe the fundamentals of all mentioned protocols and basic structure of WSN and a homogeneous efficient DEC based novel election probability based multitier random probability protocol or agricultural wireless sensors network is proposed. It is found that modifications are capable of selecting the cluster heads homogeneously. Due to its better distribution capacity the protocol is energy efficient. The comparative analysis of performance matrices of above protocol is accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain serves to protect against bodily threat, and therefore initiates protective responses such as attending toward threat-relevant information. Since pain is often exacerbated by executing movements, these motor actions may serve as cues for pain. Up to date, however, pain-related attention during movement remains largely unexplored. While it has been shown that the preparation of a pain-related movement leads to enhanced processing of somatosensory information, it is unclear how the actual execution of a movement interacts with somatosensory attention. In the current study, we examined whether somatosensory processing is enhanced at a moving body part when the movement is expected to be associated with pain. Participants were asked to execute hand movements which were occasionally followed by a pain stimulus. To measure somatosensory attention, a task-irrelevant, innocuous tactile probe was presented on either hand to evoke a somatosensory evoked potential (SEP). The results showed an elevation of the N120 SEP at the hand performing a potentially painful movement, indicating heightened attention toward tactile information at the threatened moving hand compared to the non-threatened hand. Additionally, the P200 SEP also showed enlarged responses when performing a pain-related movement compared to a no-pain-related movement. These results show that not only the anticipation, but also the execution of pain-related movements, may modulate the processing of somatosensory input, driven by attentional processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To test the performance of the Chinese whole-surface electromagnetic prospecting (SEP) system, system integrations, instrument performances, and large-scale production viabilities in Liaoning province and Inner Mongolia were measured via extensive field tests. Resultant electric fields, magnetic fields, apparent resistivities, impedance phases, and inversion profiles compared favorably with results of commercial equipment from other countries. The inversion results agreed well with the geologic information from boreholes. Field tests showed that the SEP system is stable, reliable, lightweight, and easy to operate, making it suitable and ready for real-field exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6), an autosomal dominant triplet repeat disease, predominantly affects the cerebellum with a late onset and generally good prognosis. Dysphagia is commonly associated with the outcomes of neurodegenerative diseases such as SCA6. Although the characteristics of dysphagia have been rarely reported in SCA6, our previous study indicated that dysphagia is generally milder in SCA6 than in SCA3, another inherited ataxia with multisystem involvement. However, abnormalities in the pharyngeal phase in SCA6 were indistinguishable from those in SCA3, with no explainable reason. To determine the reason, we repeatedly performed videofluoroscopic examinations (VF) in 14 patients with SCA6. The results showed that the gross progression of dysphagia was apparently slow, but four patients had progressive dysphagia at an early disease stage; dysphagia began within 10 years from the onset of ataxia and rapidly progressed. A common clinical feature of the four patients was a significantly older age at the onset of ataxia (74.0 vs. 60.3 years), associated with significantly shorter triplet repeats. This finding surprisingly indicated that patients who had shorter repeats and thereby later onset and potentially better prognoses were at risk for dysphagia-associated problems. Ischemic changes, homozygous mutation, and diabetes mellitus as well as aging might have contributed to the observed progressive dysphagia. We found that conventionally monitored somatosensory evoked potentials at least partly reflected progressive dysphagia. Despite the small study group, our findings suggest that clinicians should carefully monitor dysphagia in patients with SCA6 who are older at disease onset (>60 years). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main conclusion : Five SEP -like genes were cloned and identified from Platanus acerifolia through the analysis of expression profiles, protein-protein interaction patterns, and transgenic phenotypes, which suggested that they play conservative and diverse functions in floral initiation and development, fruit development, bud growth, and dormancy. SEPALLATA ( SEP) genes have been well characterized in core eudicots and some monocots, and they play important and diverse roles in plant development, including flower meristem initiation, floral organ identity, and fruit development and ripening. However, the knowledge on the function and evolution of SEP-like genes in basal eudicot species is very limited. Here, we cloned and identified five SEP-like genes from London plane ( Platanus acerifolia), a basal eudicot tree that is widely used for landscaping in cities. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that three genes ( PlacSEP1.1, PlacSEP1.2, and PlacSEP1.3) belong to the SEP1/2/4 clade, while the other two genes ( PlacSEP3.1 and PlacSEP3.2) are grouped into the SEP3 clade. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that all PlacSEPs, except PlacSEP1.1 and PlacSEP1.2, were expressed during the male and female inflorescence initiation, and throughout the flower and fruit development process. PlacSEP1.2 gene expression was only detected clearly in female inflorescence at April. PlacSEP1.3 and PlacSEP3.1 were also expressed, although relatively weak, in vegetative buds of adult trees. No evident PlacSEPs transcripts were detected in various organs of juvenile trees. Overexpression of PlacSEPs in Arabidopsis and tobacco plants resulted in different phenotypic alterations. 35S:PlacSEP1.1, 35S:PlacSEP1.3, and 35S:PlacSEP3.2 transgenic Arabidopsis plants showed evident early flowering, with less rosette leaves but more cauline leaves, while 35S:PlacSEP1.2 and PlacSEP3.1 transgenic plants showed no visible phenotypic changes. 35S:PlacSEP1.1 and 35S:PlacSEP3.2 transgenic Arabidopsis plants also produced smaller and curled leaves. Overexpression of PlacSEP1.1 and PlacSEP3.1 in tobacco resulted in the early flowering and producing more lateral branches. Yeast two-hybrid analysis indicated that PlacSEPs proteins can form homo- or hetero-dimers with the Platanus APETALA1 (AP1)/FRUITFULL (FUL), B-, C-, and D-class MADS-box proteins in different interacting patterns and intensities. Our results suggest that the five PlacSEP genes may play important and divergent roles during floral initiation and development, as well as fruit development, by collaborating with FUL, B-, C-, and D-class MADS-box genes in London plane; PlacSEP1.3 and PlacSEP3.1 genes might also involve in vegetative bud growth and dormancy. The results provide valuable data for us to understand the functional evolution of SEP-like genes in basal eudicot species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we report the identification and synthesis of the sex pheromone of female Margarodes prieskaensis (Jakubski), and the attractiveness of the synthetic pheromone to males in field trapping tests. Volatile organic compounds were collected from virgin females using a sample enrichment probe (SEP). Analyses by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry revealed the presence of only two constituents. By scaling up the SEP, sufficient of the major constituent was collected for H and C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses and ancillary NMR techniques. The sex attractant was identified as (2 R,4 R,6 R,8 R)-2,4,6,8-tetramethylundecan-1-ol. The enantiomerically pure compound was synthesized from octadecyl (2 R,4 R,6 R,8 R)-2,4,6,8-tetramethylundecanoate, a minor component of the uropygial (preen) gland secretion of the domestic goose, Anser domesticus. Field trapping experiments, carried out in vineyards in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, showed that the synthetic compound was as attractive to winged males of M. prieskaensis as virgin females. The second compound detected was identified as the corresponding acetate, but addition of this did not affect the attractiveness of the major component. We believe this to be the first identification of a sex attractant of the Margarodidae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) comprise nodes with restricted battery power that are deployed to observe some physical event within the sensor field. Information gathering is typical, but an important operation in several applications of WSNs. It is important to control the sensor network for longer period of time in an energy-efficient manner for gathering information. Hence, it is perpetually fascinating to design protocols that are energy efficient, have prolonged lifetime and can support event-driven applications. This paper proposes a protocol referred to as distance-based residual energy-efficient stable election protocol (DRESEP) that is nearly optimal for event-driven information gathering applications in sensor networks. The key idea of DRESEP is moving gathered information from sensor nodes to cluster head (CH) depending upon perceived changes. Dual-hop communication between CHs and base station is introduced to achieve energy minimization. Further, the results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms existing algorithms in terms of energy optimization and system lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cryoprotective effects of trehalose ( w = 0-10%) on washed chicken meat (WCM) were investigated. WCM was produced from broiler, frozen and stored for 360 days on −30 °C. Myofibrillar protein functional stability was monitored by salt extractable protein (SEP) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Salt extractable protein (SEP) showed that the addition of trehalose caused smaller decrease in protein solubility during frozen storage. Peak thermal transition ( T) and denaturation enthalpy (Δ H) of myofibrillar proteins were evaluated. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed a shift in peak thermal transition temperature ( T) of myosin and actin to higher temperature as the mass fraction of trehalose increases. The transitions enthalpies of myosin and actin of WCM samples showed higher increase with the increase of mass fraction of trehalose. Since the value of denaturation enthalpy is directly related to amount of native proteins, higher values of Δ H indicates to the higher cryoprotective effects of trehalose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. For semisimple, commutative Banach algebras A and B, some Banach algebra properties of the Cartesin product A × B are characterized in terms of A and B. A couple of results are also proved for non-commutative Banach algebras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar cycle 23 witnessed the most complete set of observations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with the Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) events. We present an overview of the observed properties of the GLEs and those of the two associated phenomena, viz., flares and CMEs, both being potential sources of particle acceleration. Although we do not find a striking correlation between the GLE intensity and the parameters of flares and CMEs, the solar eruptions are very intense involving X-class flares and extreme CME speeds (average ∼2000 km/s). An M7.1 flare and a 1200 km/s CME are the weakest events in the list of 16 GLE events. Most (80 %) of the CMEs are full halos with the three non-halos having widths in the range 167 to 212 degrees. The active regions in which the GLE events originate are generally large: 1290 msh (median 1010 msh) compared to 934 msh (median: 790 msh) for SEP-producing active regions. For accurate estimation of the CME height at the time of metric type II onset and GLE particle release, we estimated the initial acceleration of the CMEs using flare and CME observations. The initial acceleration of GLE-associated CMEs is much larger (by a factor of 2) than that of ordinary CMEs (2.3 km/s vs. 1 km/s). We confirmed the initial acceleration for two events for which CME measurements are available in the inner corona. The GLE particle release is delayed with respect to the onset of all electromagnetic signatures of the eruptions: type II bursts, low frequency type III bursts, soft X-ray flares and CMEs. The presence of metric type II radio bursts some 17 min (median: 16 min; range: 3 to 48 min) before the GLE onset indicates shock formation well before the particle release. The release of GLE particles occurs when the CMEs reach an average height of ∼3.09 R (median: 3.18 R; range: 1.71 to 4.01 R) for well-connected events (source longitude in the range W20-W90). For poorly connected events, the average CME height at GLE particle release is ∼66 % larger (mean: 5.18 R; median: 4.61 R; range: 2.75-8.49 R). The longitudinal dependence is consistent with shock accelerations because the shocks from poorly connected events need to expand more to cross the field lines connecting to an Earth observer. On the other hand, the CME height at metric type II burst onset has no longitudinal dependence because electromagnetic signals do not require magnetic connectivity to the observer. For several events, the GLE particle release is very close to the time of first appearance of the CME in the coronagraphic field of view, so we independently confirmed the CME height at particle release. The CME height at metric type II burst onset is in the narrow range 1.29 to 1.8 R, with mean and median values of 1.53 and 1.47 R. The CME heights at metric type II burst onset and GLE particle release correspond to the minimum and maximum in the Alfvén speed profile. The increase in CME speed between these two heights suggests an increase in Alfvénic Mach number from 2 to 3. The CME heights at GLE particle release are in good agreement with those obtained from the velocity dispersion analysis (Reames in Astrophys. J. 693:812, ; Astrophys. J. 706:844, ) including the source longitude dependence. We also discuss the implications of the delay of GLE particle release with respect to complex type III bursts by ∼18 min (median: 16 in; range: 2 to 44 min) for the flare acceleration mechanism. A similar analysis is also performed on the delay of particle release relative to the hard X-ray emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dawn's ion propulsion system (IPS) is the most advanced propulsion system ever built for a deep-space mission. Aside from the Mars gravity assist it provides all of the post-launch Δ V required for the mission including the heliocentric transfer to Vesta, orbit capture at Vesta, transfer to various Vesta science orbits, escape from Vesta, the heliocentric transfer to Ceres, orbit capture at Ceres, and transfer to the different Ceres science orbits. The ion propulsion system provides a total Δ V of nearly 11 km/s, comparable to the ΔV provided by the 3-stage launch vehicle, and a total impulse of 1.2×10 N s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

vailability of fingertip touch onto a stable surface reduces body sway for subjects standing with eyes closed. This is largely associated with sensory feedback from the fingertip when mechanical load is limited. Here, it is possible that the central nervous system facilitates cortical sensory processing to augment feedback to control upright stance. To test this, we compared cortical sensory excitability between tasks with and without light finger touch while standing. Subjects stood in tandem on a force plate with eyes closed while lightly touching a stable surface with the index finger. This was, in two different studies, compared to: (1) no haptic contact or (2) light touch on an object not referenced to balance. Throughout testing, the median nerve was stimulated and electroencephalography was used to measure somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). As expected, availability of stable light touch reduced medial-lateral COP sway. Peak amplitudes for SEP components revealed reduced P100 (48%), but increased P50 (31%), N140 (80%), and P200 (20%) during stable touch versus no touch. The modulation of P50 and N140 was no longer present when comparing stable to control (touch), which suggested that attending to touch on either surface, regardless of stability reference, accounted for these changes. Conversely, P200 was increased (19%) when touching the stable surface. Our data show SEP modulation during a standing balance task related to hand contact. Facilitation of P200 in particular may indicate task-specific regulation of the cortical representation of fingertip afferent input when it is relevant to providing stable cues for static balance control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to assess the feasibility of identifying the primary hand sensory area and central sulcus in pediatric patients using the cortical potential imaging (CPI) method from the scalp recorded somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). The CPI method was used to reconstruct the cortical potential distribution from the scalp potentials with the boundary element (3-layer: scalp, skull and brain) head model based on MR images of individual subjects. The cortical potentials estimated from the pre-operative scalp SEPs of four pediatric patients, were compared with the post-op subdural SEP recordings made in the same subjects. Estimated and directly recorded cortical SEP maps showed comparable spatial patterns on the cortical surface in four patients (spatial correlation coefficient >0.7 in the SEP spikes). For two of four patients, the estimated waveforms correlated significantly to the waveforms obtained by direct cortical recordings. The present results demonstrated the feasibility of the cortical potential imaging approach in noninvasive imaging spatial distribution and temporal waveforms of cortical potentials for pediatric patients. These also suggest that the CPI method may provide a promising means of estimating the cortical potential and noninvasive localizing the central sulcus to aid surgical planning for pediatric patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background/Objectives:Socioeconomic disparities in diet are well documented, but the relative importance of different indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP) is not well known. The aim of this study was to explore relationships between food patterns, SEP (occupation, education and income) and degree of work control.Subjects/Methods:A cross-sectional population-based study 2000-2001, using three self-administered questionnaires including food frequency questions (FFQs). Factor analysis was used to explore food patterns. Participants include 9762 working Oslo citizens, 30-60 years of age, having answered the questionnaires with <20% of the FFQ missing.Results:Four food patterns were found: Western, prudent, traditional and sweet. In multivariate analyses, the likelihood of having a high intake of the Western pattern was lowest in the two highest educational groups (women: odds ratio (OR)=0.54/OR=0.75; men: OR=0.51/OR=0.76), and in the two highest occupational groups for men (OR=0.73/OR=0.78). The odds of having a high intake of the prudent pattern was highest in the two highest educational groups (women: OR=2.50/OR=1.84; men: OR=2.23/OR=1.37), and among the self-employed (women OR=1.61, men OR=1.68), as well as in the highest occupational group for men (OR=1.33). Women always having work control were least likely to have high intake of the Western pattern (OR=0.78) and most likely to have high intake of the prudent pattern (OR=1.39).Conclusions:The SEP indicators were in different ways related to the food patterns, but the effect of occupation and income was partly explained by education, especially among women. Women's work control and men's occupation were important for their eating habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate relationships between hemodynamic responses and neural activities in the somatosensory cortices, hemodynamic responses by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded simultaneously while subjects received electrical stimulation in the right median nerve. The statistical significance of the hemodynamic responses was evaluated by a general linear model (GLM) with the boxcar design matrix convoluted with Gaussian function. The resulting NIRS and EEGs data were stereotaxically superimposed on the reconstructed brain of each subject. The NIRS data indicated that changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration increased at the contralateral primary somatosensory (SI) area; responses then spread to the more posterior and ipsilateral somatosensory areas. The EEG data indicated that positive somatosensory evoked potentials peaking at 22 ms latency (P22) were recorded from the contralateral SI area. Comparison of these two sets of data indicated that the distance between the dipoles of P22 and NIRS channels with maximum hemodynamic responses was less than 10 mm, and that the two topographical maps of hemodynamic responses and current source density of P22 were significantly correlated. Furthermore, when onset of the boxcar function was delayed 5–15 s (onset delay), hemodynamic responses in the bilateral parietal association cortices posterior to the SI were more strongly correlated to electrical stimulation. This suggests that GLM analysis with onset delay could reveal the temporal ordering of neural activation in the hierarchical somatosensory pathway, consistent with the neurophysiological data. The present results suggest that simultaneous NIRS and EEG recording is useful for correlating hemodynamic responses to neural activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present paper was to study the relationship between different indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP) and various health domains in young adolescents’ lives. Data stem from two studies carried out in Norway in 2004; a sample of 1,153 5th–7th graders (study 1) and a sample of 654 6th graders (study 2). Indicators of SEP were family affluence, books in home and perceived wealth. Measures of health were health complaints, overall health, and life satisfaction (study 1), measures of psychosocial resources were social competence and self-esteem (study 1), and measures of health behaviours were consumption of fruits and vegetables and physical activity (study 2). Results from study 1 showed that all three SEP-indicators were significantly associated with overall health, life- satisfaction and social competence, with perceived wealth showing the strongest relationship. Health complaints and self-esteem were only associated with perceived wealth. Results from study 2 showed that only books in home was significantly associated with all three health behaviours, while the two other indicators were not. Adolescents with higher SEP report better health, more psychosocial resources and higher level of health behaviour than adolescents with lower SEP. The results indicate that the SEP indicators differ regarding their relevance to the various outcomes. Several aspects of SEP should be included in future research and indicators suitable for adolescents needs to be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric activity in the brain which is time-locked to a given stimulation of the somatosensory system can be recorded as a somatosensory evoked potential (SEP). We investigated whether a galvanic stimulation of the tail base in Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar) would elicit a SEP in the telencephalon. The telencephalon is central in learning and memory, and activity here may be a prerequisite for processing of external stimuli on a cognitive or emotional level. Anaesthetized salmon ( n = 11) were subjected to craniotomy and a recording electrode was inserted into the telencephalon. The fish were given stimulations of four intensities, i.e., 2, 5, 10 and 20 mA. A SEP was elicited in the contralateral dorsal telencephalon for all intensities. This result agrees with findings in other fish species. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the maximum peak amplitude and mean amplitude of the SEP elicited by putative non-noxious (2 mA) and putative noxious (20 mA) stimulation intensities ( P < 0.01). The stronger stimulation intensities also tend to introduce longer-latencies components in the SEP. The results added to the body of literature indicates that the exteroceptive senses are represented by processing within the telencephalon of the fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The authors report two cases of delayed post-operative anterior spinal artery syndrome (ASAS) following posterior correction with Cotrel Dubousset (CD) instrumentation for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Sensory pathways were continuously monitored from skin incision to awakening. In both cases intraoperative SEPs were normal and the wake-up test revealed no neurological deficit. Both patients were presented with incomplete paraplegia (no sensory impairment) three and ten hours after surgery. Without delay, both patients underwent revision surgery, and the CD instrumentation was removed. Immediately after surgery, both patients‘ motor power in their lower extremities improved rapidly. In cases with delayed ASAS after posterior scoliosis correction, the removal of the instrumentation system was shown to be sufficient to regain full motor recovery caudal to the level of impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Blood oxygenation dependent contrast (BOLD) fMRI is used increasingly to probe “connectivity” based on temporal correlations between signals from different brain regions. This approach assumes that there is constant local coupling of neuronal activity to the associated BOLD response. Here we test the alternative hypothesis that there is not a fixed relationship between these by determining whether attention modulates apparent neurovascular coupling. Electrical stimulation of the median nerve was applied with and without a concurrent distractor task (serial subtraction). Increasing stimulation intensity increased discomfort ratings (p<0.001) and was associated with a significant increase in both somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) N20-P25 amplitude and BOLD fMRI response in the contralateral primary (SI) and bilaterally in the secondary somatosensory cortices. Attention to stimulation was reduced during distractor task performance and resulted in an overall trend for reduction in discomfort (p=0.056), which was significant at the highest stimulation level (p<0.05). A volume of interest analysis confined to SI confirmed a reduction in BOLD response with distraction (p<0.001). However, distraction did not measurably affect SEP magnitude. The quantitative relationship between the BOLD fMRI response and the local field potential measured by the early SEP response therefore varies with attentional context. This may be a consequence of differences in either local spatial or temporal signal summation for the two methods. Either interpretation suggests caution in assuming a simple, fixed relationship between local BOLD changes and related electrophysiological activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We previously described the isolation of mutants defective in cell separation and the identification of 16 sep genes with complex functions. Here we report on the cloning and analysis of sep15+. The deduced amino acid sequence of the Sep15 protein shows significant homology to Med8, a component of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae transcription mediator complex. The mutation sep15-598 confers hyphal morphology and causes temperature-sensitive lethality. Disruption of sep15+ is lethal, indicating that Sep15 exerts an essential function and its role in cell separation is indirect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Italian Journal of Neurological Sciences is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Whilst 22 male Wistar rats were fed on a pyridoxine-deficient diet for 26 weeks, 22 controls received a normal diet. The vitamin B6 deficient animals lost no weight but they developed symptoms of rat pellagra. The sensory nerve conduction velocity, the compound radicular, spinal and brain stem responses and the SEP were derived following tail and hind paw stimulation. The examination was repeated at 6 week intervals. A disturbed central stimulus conduction was indicated by the delayed SEP and intracerebral conduction times. An impairment of neurotransmitter metabolism may be of importance in this case. Considering related data the results implicate the importance of vitamin B substitution in the case of CNS disturbances due to malnutrition, e.g., chronic alcoholism. The nerve conduction velocity decreases subsequently. A disturbance of myelin function is indicated in adult rats under conditions of pyridoxine deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case attempts to explicit the importance of clinical examination in the differential diagnosis of two similar clinical entities namely astereognosia and stereoanesthesia. The patient presented below involves a multiple sclerosis patient whose symptoms were considered at first to be a case of astereognosia since she mainly complained of an inability to recognize and name the form and nature of objects by touch. However, a thorough clinical examination and the results of neurophysiological and neuroimaging testing demonstrated that it involved a case of stereoanesthesia due to a demyelinating lesion at the cervical region of the spinal cord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]