Intrinsic Brain Activity in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy With and Without Depression: Insights From EEG Microstates

Background: Depression is the most common psychiatric comorbidity of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). In the recent years, studies have focused on the common pathogenesis of TLE and depression. However, few of the studies focused on the dynamic characteristics of TLE with depression. We tested the hypotheses that there exist abnormalities in microstates in patients with TLE with depression.Methods: Participants were classified into patients with TLE with depression (PDS) (n = 19) and patients with TLE without depression (nPDS) (n = 19) based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V). Microstate analysis was applied based on 256-channel electroencephalography (EEG) to detect the dynamic changes in whole brain. The coverage (proportion of time spent in each state), frequency of occurrence, and duration (average time of each state) were calculated.Results: Patients with PDS showed a shorter mean microstate duration with higher mean occurrence per second compared to patients with nPDS. There was no difference between the two groups in the coverage of microstate A–D.Conclusion: This is the first study to present the temporal fluctuations of EEG topography in comorbid depression in TLE using EEG microstate analysis. The temporal characteristics of the four canonical EEG microstates were significantly altered in patients with TLE suffer from comorbid depression.

Dynamic Analysis of a Slant-Cracked Functionally Graded Rotor-Bearing System

The dynamic response of a power law based functionally graded (FG) rotor-bearing system with a slant crack has been analysed in the present work. The vibration response of an FG rotor-bearing system with a slant crack has been simulated using the Houbolt time marching scheme for different crack depths. The time-domain vibration responses are converted into the frequency domain using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to identify the crack features in order to detect and monitor the cracks. The sub-harmonic frequency components of the steady-state frequency spectrum were centred on the FG rotor’s operating speed, separated by the interval frequency corresponding to the torsional frequency. The sub-harmonic frequency components of the transient state frequency domain were found to be centred on the critical speed of the FG rotor system. The subharmonic frequency components of the dynamic response confirm the existence of a crack in the FG rotor system, which could be used to detect the crack in an FG rotor system.

A Topological Approach to Shrinking Higher Dimensions of Space to Observable Space-Time: Can the Dimensional Anisotropy of Space Satisfy Mach’s Principle?

We create a model universe by equipping a topological surface (system) with compact dimensions insulated by an information blocking horizon. The insulated compact WF can produce entanglement independent of distance. Interaction between the system and the WF changes the curvature of the first and the quantum state (frequency) of the second in an interconnected relationship. Thus, the field curvature measures the evolution of the particle WF as time. Positive field curvature creates pressure, whereas negative field curvature generates a vacuum, satisfying the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem and the Page and Wootters mechanism of static time. The accumulation of pressure or vacuum generates poles with contrasting dimensionalities, two-dimensional black hole horizons (time infinite), and four-dimensional cosmic voids (time zero). The orthogonality of the field and the compact WF give rise to global self-regulation that fine-tunes the cosmic parameters and can promote fractal topology. The four-dimensional vacuum in cosmic voids can produce an accelerating expansion without dark energy. When gravity effects are eliminated, we find a new, so far unexplored, order-increasing side of entropy. The verifiable and elegant hypothesis satisfies Mach's principle.

Even allocation of benefits stabilizes microbial community engaged in metabolic division of labor

Metabolic division of labor (MDOL) is commonly observed in microbial communities, where a metabolic pathway is sequentially implemented by several members similar to an assembly line. Uncovering the assembly rules of the community engaged in MDOL is crucial for understanding its ecological contribution, as well as for engineering high-performance microbial communities. To investigate the assembly of the community engaged in MDOL, we combined mathematical modelling with experimentations using synthetic microbial consortia. We built a theoretical framework predict the assembly of MDOL system, and derived a simple rule: to maintain co-existence of the MDOL members, the populations responsible for former steps should hold a growth advantage (m) over the "private benefit" (n) of the population responsible for last step, and the steady-state frequency of the last population is determined by the quotient of n and m. Our experiments further indicated that our theoretical framework accurately predicted the stability and assembly of our engineered synthetic consortia that degrade naphthalene through two-step or multi-step MDOL. Our results demonstrate that the assembly of microbial community engaged in MDOL is determined by a limited number of parameters. This quantitative understanding provides novel insights on designing and managing stable microbial systems to address grand challenges facing human society in agriculture, degradation of the environment, and human health.

Prevalence and Antibiogram of Healthcare-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA) in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) remains a major cause of both community and healthcare-associated infections. This study was designed to determine the prevalence and antibiogram of healthcare-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. A total of 315 clinical samples were obtained from government-owned and private-owned healthcare facilities (HCFs) in Ebonyi State. S. aureus were characterized and identified based on standard microbiological procedures. MRSA isolates were detected using Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique with oxacillin (1µg) and cefoxitin (30µg) antibiotic discs. HA-MRSA prevalence frequency of 41.5% was recorded in the HCFs in Ebonyi State. Frequency of HA-MRSA isolation was highest in urine samples (51.1 %). Furthermore, a higher HA-MRSA isolation rate (63.6%) was observed in clinical samples from private HCFs than the government HCFs (28.4%). HA-MRSA were highly resistant to penicillin (99.4 %), ceftazidime (96.4 %), and erythromycin (90.6%), but highly susceptible to ciprofloxacin and gentamycin. A mean MARI index of 0.71 was observed in this study with 96.5 % > 0.2. In conclusion, prevalence of HA-MRSA was quite alarming in our study area. Therefore, more proactive measures must be taken to curb this public health menace before it escalates beyond control. The use of therapeutics such as ciprofloxacin and gentamycin is strongly recommended for the treatment of MRSA infections in our study area.

Frequency Encoded All Optical Tri-state Logic Gates NOT and NAND Using Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Based Interferometric Switches

All optical tri-state frequency encoded logic gates NOT and NAND are proposed and numerically investigated using TOAD based interferometric switch for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The optical power spectrum, extinction ratio, contrast ration, and amplified spontaneous noise are calculated to analyze and confirm practical feasibility of the gates. The proposed device works for low switching energy and has high contrast and extinction ratio as indicated in this work.