Underestimated olfactory domains in Huntington's disease: odour discrimination and threshold.

BACKGROUND: Olfaction has recently found clinical value in prediction, discrimination and prognosis of some neurodegenerative disorders. However, data originating from standard tests on olfactory dysfunction in Huntington's disease are limited to odour identification, which is only one domain of olfactory perceptual space. METHOD: Twenty-five patients and 25 age- and gender-matched controls were evaluated by the Sniffin' Sticks test in three domains of odour threshold, odour discrimination, odour identification and the sum score of them. Patients' motor function was assessed based on the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale. RESULTS: Compared with controls, patients' scores of all olfactory domains and their sum were significantly lower. Besides, our patients' odour threshold and odour discrimination impairments were more frequently impaired than odour identification impairment (86 per cent and 81 per cent vs 34 per cent, respectively). CONCLUSION: Olfactory impairment is a common finding in patients with Huntington's disease; it is not limited to odour identification but is more pronounced in odour discrimination and odour threshold.

Child Proton Beam Therapy: A qualitative study of parental views on treatment and information sources.

INTRODUCTION: Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) is often described as an advanced mode of radiotherapy. Whilst PBT offers an equivalent chance of cure to conventional radiotherapy, it is said to offer a theoretical reduction in long term side effects. NHS patients have had access to PBT since 2008 and approximately 65% of the 1144 approved referrals have been for paediatric cases. Yet, there is little research on how parents in these paediatric cases perceive their child's PBT and the information sources they encounter. METHODS: This is a qualitative inquiry informed by in-depth interviews carried out with 27 parents of children treated with PBT. RESULTS: Parents primarily frame PBT as a form of radiation but one which is better than alternatives. Whilst medical professionals do play a role, wider sources of information - such as other families and the internet - are important to both initial decision-making and treatment/recovery experiences. CONCLUSION: Parents are faced with the challenge of a 'fragmented expertise' which comes with the 'novelty' of the radiation therapy, the 'rare' nature of the tumours and the remote location of clinical specialists. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This article will prove useful for practitioners dealing with parents and care givers of children undergoing proton therapy, and is especially valuable and timely for practitioners based in the newly installed proton centres in the UK. Two high energy proton centres are expected to become fully operational in the UK by the end of 2020. Understanding parents' experiences and perspectives can help avoid undue anxiety and lead to service improvements and overall satisfaction.

COVID-19 pandemic and biological therapy in rheumatologic disorders: how to deal with?

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has involved more than 159 countries and more than 5 million people worldwide. A 40-year-old man with a history of rheumatoid arthritis treated with prednisolone, Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs), and biologic agents was admitted with chief complaints of fever, chills, malaise, myalgia, and dyspnea. Chest computed tomography showed bilateral subsegmental atelectasis and diffuse ground-glass opacities in both lungs inducing the suspicion of COVID-19 infection. The oro-nasopharynx swab sample for COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction was positive. In addition to supportive care, lopinavir/ritonavir 400/100 mg twice daily and oseltamivir (75 mg) twice daily were started in combination with a starting dose of hydroxychloroquine (400 mg). The methotrexate dose was decreased, and the dose of prednisolone was increased to 30 mg for 10 days. Azathioprine and adalimumab were continued at previous doses. The use of biologic agents and DMARDs in rheumatic patients is a serious challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, during the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the key roles of cytokines in the promotion of the disease, the rheumatic patients may benefit from continuing their previous treatment, which may have protective effects.

An improved agar medium for growth of Geobacillus thermoglucosidarius strains.

Geobacillus species have potential applications in many biotechnological processes. They are fastidious in their vitamin and amino acid requirements. A new semi-defined agar medium (SDM) was developed which gave consistently high viable cell counts of various G. thermoglucosidasius strains (5×108-6×108cfu/ml) under aerobic conditions at 70°C.

An all-silicon single-wafer micro-g accelerometer with a combined surface and bulk micromachining process.

This paper reports an all-silicon fully symmetrical z-axis micro-g accelerometer that is fabricated on a single-silicon wafer using a combined surface and bulk fabrication process. The microaccelerometer has high device sensitivity, low noise, and low/controllable damping that are the key factors for attaining micro g and sub-micro g resolution in capacitive accelerometers. The microfabrication process produces a large proof mass by using the whole wafer thickness and a large sense capacitance by utilizing a thin sacrificial layer. The sense/feedback electrodes are formed by a deposited 2-3 microns polysilicon film with embedded 25-35 microns-thick vertical stiffeners. These electrodes, while thin, are made very stiff by the thick embedded stiffeners so that force rebalancing of the proof mass becomes possible. The polysilicon electrodes are patterned to create damping holes. The microaccelerometers are batch-fabricated, packaged, and tested successfully. A device with a 2-mm x 1-mm proof mass and a full bridge support has a measured sensitivity of 2 pF/g. The measured sensitivity of a 4-mm x 1-mm accelerometer with a cantilever support is 19.4 pF/g. The calculated noise floor of these devices at atmosphere are 0.23 micro g/sqrt(Hz) and 0.16 micro g/sqrt(Hz), respectively.