Extracellular single unit activity in the intralaminar thalamic nuclei (ncl. centralis lateralis, CL, n = 77 and ncl. parafascicularis, Pf, n = 163) and in the pretectal area (Pt, n = 75) was examined following chronic electrolytic lesions of the nucleus reticularis thalami (nRT) in ketamine-anaesthetized rats after single electrical stimuli to the ventrobasal complex (VB). Extensive alterations of either the ongoing ("spontaneous") activity or the pattern of VB evoked responses were observed. Four major changes were observed in the activity of these intralaminar or pretectal neurones: 1) many neurones were silent, two times more frequently than in a parallel study with control intact rats; 2) the firing pattern of all the other neurones was in the form of tonic (stationary-like) discharge, without burst discharges as previously described in intact animals. They were ranked into classes according to their spontaneous discharge: class I, silent (no resting discharge) 12 %, class II (1-15 Hz), 54 % and class III (> 16 Hz), 34 %. Class III neurones were never found in intact rats; 3) electrical stimulation of the VB evoked a short latency orthodromic excitatory response in these neurones but this response was not followed by any slowing or depression of the spontaneous activity in more than 40 % of recorded cells. When it occurred, this pause was shorter than that always observed in intact rats by more than 35 % and longer in 7 % of the responsive cells. All these changes were correlated with the extent of damage to the ipsilateral nRT; 4) VB stimulation evoked prolonged excitatory responses lasting more than 150 ms in 13 % of the responsive cells, and nRT stimulation led to a short latency response followed by a pause of activity. These findings suggest that the nRT is involved in sensory integration and modulation.
Cíl: Publikace případu falešně zvýšené koncentrace bilirubinu u pacientky s mnohočetným myelomem. Metoda: U pacientky s diagostikovaným a léčeným mnohočetným myelomem byla stanovena atypicky vysoká hodnota sérového bilirubinu diagnostickým kitem Roche na přístroji Modular a normální, o dva řády nižší hodnota téhož analytu diagnostickým kitem Olympus na přístroji Olympus 400. Výsledky: Pacientka měla v krvi koncentraci paraproteinu IgG kappa 61,6 g/l. Sérový bilirubin, stanovený na přístroji Modular měl hodnotu 546 μmol/l, zatímco při opakovaném měření na přístroji Olympus 400 byla hodnota u stejné pacientky 6 μmol/l. Nižší hodnota korespondovala s klinickým stavem pacientky. Diskuse a závěr: Oba výrobci upozorňují ve svých pracovních návodech na potenciální možnost pozitivních interferencí v přítomnosti IgM lambda. Zjistili jsme extrémní pozitivní chybu o velikosti dvou řádů v přítomnosti paraproteinu IgG kappa u jednoho z nich (Roche). Chyba je snadno detekovatelná inspekcí záznamu kinetiky reakčního průběhu a neměla by ujít pozornosti při vydávání výsledků., Objective: Falsely elevated serum bilirubin in patient with multiple myeloma. Method: We determined serum bilirubin in a patient with multiple myeloma by using Modular and we repeated analysis by using Olympus 400. Results: Concentration of IgG kappa was 61.6 g/l. Serum bilirubin value measured on the Modular Roche has been 546μmol/l, while repeated measurement on Olympus 400 provided value only 6 μmol/l. Lower Olympus value corresponded to clinical status of the patient. Discussion and conclusion: Both producers introduce in their working manual the possibility of IgM lambda interference for bilirubin measurement. We found extremely high systematic error in presence IgG kappa only in Modular Roche, not in Olympus 400. Analyzer Modular Roche gives the possibility of an easy error determination by using inspection of kinetic of reaction run., Šolcová L., Friedecký Bedřich, Radocha J., Tichý M., Maisnar V., Holečková M., Vávrová J., and Lit.: 3
We propose results about sign-constancy of Green's functions to impulsive nonlocal boundary value problems in a form of theorems about differential inequalities. One of the ideas of our approach is to construct Green's functions of boundary value problems for simple auxiliary differential equations with impulses. Careful analysis of these Green's functions allows us to get conclusions about the sign-constancy of Green's functions to given functional differential boundary value problems, using the technique of theorems about differential and integral inequalities and estimates of spectral radii of the corresponding compact operators in the space of essential bounded functions.
In this essay the author reflects on the subject of state-building, its interpretation and impact on the society. The government usually understands state-building differently than the opposition. The question is raised whether the development does not lead from state-building to “herd-building”, when smaller and larger groups behave like an easy-to-manipulate herd. But how can we revert this process?
We offer the quantitative estimation of stability of risk-sensitive cost optimization in the problem of optimal stopping of Markov chain on a Borel space X. It is supposed that the transition probability p(⋅|x), x∈X is approximated by the transition probability p˜(⋅|x), x∈X, and that the stopping rule f˜∗ , which is optimal for the process with the transition probability p˜ is applied to the process with the transition probability p. We give an upper bound (expressed in term of the total variation distance: supx∈X∥p(⋅|x)−p˜(⋅|x)∥) for an additional cost paid for using the rule f˜∗ instead of the (unknown) stopping rule f∗ optimal for p.