Multisensor Capacitance Probes for Simultaneously Monitoring Rice Field Soil-Water- Crop-Ambient Conditions.

Multisensor capacitance probes (MCPs) have traditionally been used for soil moisture monitoring and irrigation scheduling. This paper presents a new application of these probes, namely the simultaneous monitoring of ponded water level, soil moisture, and temperature profile, conditions which are particularly important for rice crops in temperate growing regions and for rice grown with prolonged periods of drying. WiFi-based loggers are used to concurrently collect the data from the MCPs and ultrasonic distance sensors (giving an independent reading of water depth).

MR neurography of sciatic nerve injection injury.

We report on magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) as a supplementary diagnostic tool in sciatic nerve injection injury. The object of the study was to test if T2-weighted (w) contrast within the sciatic nerve serves as an objective criterion for sciatic injection injury. Three patients presented with acute sensory and/or motor complaints in the distribution of the sciatic nerve after dorsogluteal injection and underwent MRN covering gluteal, thigh and knee levels.

Weight reducing and metabolic effects of topiramate in patients with migraine--an observational study.

Topiramate is an anticonvulsant agent effective in the prophylaxis of migraine, which also induces weight reduction by an unknown mechanism. We investigated the effect of topiramate on metabolic and endocrine parameters in patients with migraine independently of any intention to lose body weight. Six patients (26-61 years old, body mass indices [BMI] 20.

Contralateral cytokine gene induction after peripheral nerve lesions: dependence on the mode of injury and NMDA receptor signaling.

There is increasing evidence that unilateral nerve injury evokes contralateral responses, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. In the present investigation, we analyzed cytokine and chemokine gene induction in contralateral, non-lesioned nerves after sciatic nerve crush and chronic constriction injury (CCI) by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in mice. After sciatic nerve crush, contralateral changes in cytokine gene expression were restricted to interleukin (IL)-1beta, which showed a monophasic peak at the first postoperative day.

Paraneoplastic stiff-person syndrome: passive transfer to rats by means of IgG antibodies to amphiphysin.

Background: Stiff-person syndrome (SPS) with antibodies to amphiphysin is a paraneoplastic disorder of the central nervous system with a putative autoimmune pathogenesis. Proof of a causal role of the antibodies is still lacking for this and all other antibody-associated paraneoplastic syndromes of the central nervous system.

Methods: We obtained the plasma filtrate of a patient with breast cancer and SPS that responded to therapeutic plasmapheresis.