Syrinx regression after correction of iatrogenic kyphotic deformity: illustrative case

BACKGROUND Syringomyelia has a long-established association with pediatric scoliosis, but few data exist on the relationship of syringomyelia to pediatric kyphotic deformities. OBSERVATIONS This report reviewed a unique case of rapid and sustained regression of syringomyelia in a 13-year-old girl after surgical correction of iatrogenic kyphotic deformity. LESSONS In cases of syringomyelia associated with acquired spinal deformity, treatment of deformity to resolve an associated subarachnoid block should be considered because it may obviate the need for direct treatment of syrinx.

Transfer of anti-alcoholic effect of Nux Vomica 200 cH through water from one group of toads to another under alcohol anesthesia

Background: A common practice is to give homeopathic medication to nursing mothers to treat their children, assuming that the drug will be conveyed by the milk. In the case of conventional treatment, the drug molecules are indeed passed on from the mother to her breastfed infant. However, high dilutions (HD) above 12 cH, i.e., over Avogadro’s number, are traditionally held to lack any molecule from the starting material. If that is the case, then, does medication taken by the mother actually reach the child? To answer to that question, we developed plant models and demonstrated the transfer of HD effects between 2 groups of plants. Aims: To demonstrate the transfer of HD effects in an animal model in a much shorter time. Methods: Two batches of toads were respectively placed in two beakers, one containing Nux vomica 200 cH diluted with water 1:500 (direct treatment), and the other the same amount of distilled water were connected by cotton thread soaked in water and encased in a polyethylene tube (connected group); a third batch of toads (control) were placed in a beaker with 90% ethanol diluted with distilled water 1:500; all the animals were left 30 minutes, and then transferred to 3 independent beakers containing 209 mM ethanol. Every 10 minutes, the motionless toads were removed from the beakers, and placed on supine position, failure to recover the upright position after 60 sec was considered as loss of the righting reflex (RR). The experiment was replicated using large adult toads. Results: The percentage of toads losing the RR increased with the time of exposure to 209 mM ethanol in the 3 groups of toads. Significant difference in the percentage distribution was found between the control and the direct treatment and connected groups on χ2 test (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively), whereby the latter required much longer time to lose the RR, and did not differed between them. In the experiment with large adult toads, the control group lost RR in 78 min, whereas the 2 treated groups did not lose RR even after 240 min. Conclusion: Nux-v 200 cH countered the hypnotic effect of alcohol in young toads, and this effect was transferred through capillary water in the cotton thread, supporting the transfer of the effect of homeopathic medication from mother to child.

Coffee Berry Borer, Hypothenemus Hampei Ferr.: Cultural Control and In Vitro Effects of Kernel Extracts of Azadirachta indica A. Juss. and Thevetia peruviana (Pers.) Schum

The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei, is one of the most important coffee berry borer pests in the world, reaching attack rates of 10-100% in Cameroon. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of crop control and the effects of aqueous extracts of Thevetia peruviana kernel powder and aqueous extracts, and oil of Azadirachta indica kernel powder against this insect. Crop control was firstly achieved by sanitary harvesting of bark beetle-infested berries and, secondly, by the installation of a network of home-made pheromone traps. The bark beetles were breeding in the laboratory and tests were also carried out on substitute foodstuffs such as maize and groundnuts. The efficacy of pesticidal plant extracts at four concentrations each was evaluated by direct applications of these on bark beetles and berries. The results showed that the reproduction rate of the borer was 11 times higher with coffee berries than with maize and groundnuts. After the direct treatment of the bark beetles, the aqueous extracts of T. peruviana showed a significantly average efficiency on the mortality of the bark beetles ranging from 0% to 94.9% of bark beetles killed. Oil extracts of A. indica and chlorpyrifos-ethyl (Pyriforce) were more effective against bark beetles with average mortality rates ranging from 78.7 to 100%. After direct treatment of the berries, oil and aqueous extracts of A. indica and chlorpyrifos-ethyl were the most effective treatments causing more than 50% mortality of the bark beetles. Oil of A. indica and aqueous extracts of T. peruviana can therefore be used in the same way as pyriforce in the protection of coffee plants against H. hampei.

Zadie Smith’s Partnerships

Taking up questions of reading and the agency of the critic, the second chapter offers the most direct treatment of post-critical discourse. In it, I argue that Zadie Smith’s claim that all critics are artists, contrary to expectations, recommends a disposition of critical modesty. Though Smith works to reimagine criticism as a “difficult partnership” between writer and critic, what makes it difficult, according to Smith, is the need for the critic to subordinate their view of the world to the one on offer in the work of literature. Reading Smith as a reader and critic, especially her work on E. M. Forster, I find that the comparison of the work of the artist to that of the critic is less an aggrandizement of the importance of writing (in terms of style) for the critic than an effort to recognize that novels and works of criticism are engaged in the same kind of activity: making a certain experience of the world sufficiently shared to create common ground for further conversation. The chapter ends with a reading of Smith’s novel On Beauty that models the kind of difficult partnership that Smith cultivates in her essays.

Natural Deduction Bottom Up

The paper introduces a new type of rules into Natural Deduction, elimination rules by composition. Elimination rules by composition replace usual elimination rules in the style of disjunction elimination and give a more direct treatment of additive disjunction, multiplicative conjunction, existence quantifier and possibility modality. Elimination rules by composition have an enormous impact on proof-structures of deductions: they do not produce segments, deduction trees remain binary branching, there is no vacuous discharge, there is only few need of permutations. This new type of rules fits especially to substructural issues, so it is shown for Lambek Calculus, i.e. intuitionistic non-commutative linear logic and to its extensions by structural rules like permutation, weakening and contraction. Natural deduction formulated with elimination rules by composition from a complexity perspective is superior to other calculi.

Breach of the agreement to arbitrate due to third party conduct

It is widely accepted, especially in common law jurisdictions, that foreign proceedings may give rise to a breach of the agreement to arbitrate, entitling the aggrieved party to damages and specific performance. In the vast majority of cases, foreign proceedings amounting to a breach of the agreement to arbitrate are initiated by a party bound by that agreement. This article explores whether foreign proceedings are in breach of the agreement to arbitrate even when these are commenced by a person not party to that agreement (a ‘third party’), a question that has received little to no direct treatment to date. The article proposes that the conduct of a third party can, and in certain circumstances should, be treated as giving rise to a breach of the agreement, entitling the aggrieved party to remedies. The article then explores what these circumstances are, and considers what legal bases the aggrieved party may be able to rely on as routes to a remedy.

Inertial Focusing of Circulating Tumor Cells in Whole Blood at High Flow Rates using the Microfluidic CTCKey™ Device for CTC Enrichment

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are extremely rare cells shed from tumors into the blood stream. These cells can provide valuable information about their tumor of origin and direct treatment decisions...