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Notes: Summary The Arnold-Chiari malformation is described in 10 calves. Eight of them had internal hydrocephalus and/or spina bifida and two occurred as a single isolated defect without associated anomaly. Malformation of the base of the skull and large foramen magnum appeared to indicate that the abnormal embryonic development of the neural tissue and basal bone may contribute to the development of the Arnold-Chiari malformation in cattle.

Notes: Summary Neuronal ceroidosis was observed in an 18-month-old male Blue Heeler dog which was euthanized after showing a progressive gait and behavior abnormality, depression, paresthesia, and vision deterioration. The brain was slightly atrophic. Histopathology revealed autofluorescent, periodic acid-Schiff, luxol fast blue, and oil red O-positive intracytoplasmic granules in the neurons of the brain and spinal cord. There was a moderate diffuse reduction in the number of cerebellar and cerebrocortical neurons. Ultrastructurally, these neuronal cytosomes were diverse with preponderance of membranous profiles and granular matrix.

Notes: Summary Experimental reproduction and ultrastructural findings of spongy degeneration of the central nervous system of hyperammonemic calves are described. Hyperammonemia was produced by intravenous infusion of ammonium acetate. Histologic findings were stereotyped in all calves and characterized by widespread vacuolation of white and grey matter of the brain and spinal cord. Electron microscopy revealed widespread intramyelinic vacuoles, some expansion of extracellular spaces and swollen mitochondria. There were minimal changes in neurons, axons and glia, and little evidence of myelin breakdown. Hyperammonemia may be one of the pathogeneses involved in the CNS spongy degeneration in man and domestic animals affected with hepatocerebral diseases and some hereditary disorders.

Notes: Summary Holoprosencephaly, a rare brain malformation previously unreported in the bovine species, was observed in a female Hereford calf. The malformation was characterized by lack of the longitudinal cerebral fissure and the falx cerebri with fusion of the cerebral hemispheres and a single hydrocephalically dilated lateral ventricle, absence of olfactory bulbs and nerves, corpus callosum and septum pellucidum, and heterotopia. The face was flat. There were mild ocular hypotelorism and severe microphthalmia. The morphological features of this bovine case were compared to those of human infants, and various possible etiologic factors and pathogenesis were discussed.

Notes: Abstract Objectives: This study examines the efficacy of the predicting power for hospital mortality and functional outcome of three different scoring systems for head injury in a neurosurgical intensive care unit (NICU). Design: On the day of admission, data were collected from each patient to compute the Acute Physiology, Age, and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II and III, and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores. Hospital mortality was defined as the deaths of patients before discharge from hospital. Early mortality was defined as death before the 14th day after admission. Late mortality was defined as death after the 15th day from admission. Functional outcome was evaluated by Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (Index of ADL). Setting: An 8-bed NICU in a 1270-bed medical center in Taichung Veterans General Hospital. Patients and participants: Two hundred non-selected patients with acute head injury were included in our study in a consecutive period of 2 years. Patients less than 14 years old were not included. Interventions: None. Measurements and results: Sensitivity, specificity and correct prediction outcome were measured by the chi-square method in three scoring systems. The Youden index was also obtained. The best cut-off point in each scoring system was determined by the Youden index. The difference in Youden index was calculated by Z score. A difference was also considered if the probability value was less than 0.05. The area under Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was computed. Then the area under ROC of each scoring system was compared by Z score. There was statistical significance if p was less than 0.05. For prediction of hospital mortality, the best cut-off points are 55 for APACHE III, 17 for APACHE II and 5 for GCS. The correct prediction outcome is 82.4% in APACHE III, 78.4% in APACHE II and 81.9% in the GCS. The Youden index has best cut-off points at 0.68 for APACHE III, 0.59 for APACHE II, and 0.56 for GCS. The area under Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve is 0.90 in the APACHE III, 0.84 in the APACHE II and 0.86 in the GCS. There are no statistical differences among APACHE III and II, and GCS in terms of correct prediction outcome, Youden Index and the area under the ROC curve. Other physiological variables excluding GCS in APACHE III and II (AP III-GCS, AP II-GCS) have less statistical value in the determination of mortality for acute head injury. For the prediction of late mortality, APACHE III and II yield significantly better results in the area under the ROC curve, correct prediction and Youden index than those of GCS. Other physiological variables (AP III-GCS and AP II-GCS) play an important role in the prediction of late mortality in APACHE scores. For prediction of the functional outcome of surviving patients with acute head injury, the APACHE III yields the best results of correct prediction outcome, Youden index and the area under the ROC curve. Conclusion: The APACHE III and II may not replace the role of GCS in cases of acute head injury for hospital or early mortality assessment. But for prediction of the late mortality, the APACHE III and II have better accuracy than GCS. Other physiological variables excluding GCS in the APACHE system play a crucial contribution for late mortality. GCS is simple, less time-consuming and economical for patients with acute head injury for the prediction of hospital and early mortality. The APACHE III provides better prediction for severe morbidity than GCS and APACHE II. Therefore, the APACHE III provides a good assessment not only for hospital and late mortality, but also for functional outcome.

Notes: Abstract We report an 8-year-old boy with a primary intrasellar mixed germ-cell tumor who underwent the trans-sphenoidal approach for tumor removal. Initially he suffered from diabetes insipidus. Precocious puberty and left abducens nerve palsy were also observed. Elevation of serum testosterone, β-human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), and α-fetoprotein (AFP) were found on admission. The histological study revealed mixed cellular types of tumor including germinoma, choriocarcinoma, embryonic cell carcinoma, and teratoma. Postoperative radiation to a total of 5000 cGy was performed. Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered before and after radiation. The boy was disease-free during a 6-month follow-up period. Follow-up magnetic resonance imaging showed no presence of tumor. The signs of precocious puberty disappeared, and the diabetes insipidus was easily controlled. The abducens nerve regained normal function. Serum HCG, AFP, and testosterone levels all returned to normal. Serum anti-diuretic hormone increased to reach the lower limit of the normal range.

Notes: Abstract Performance of the process reducing the slab width in hot plate mill called edging is critical to produce rolled products with a desired dimension, which otherwise increase the yield loss caused by trimming. This process, therefore, requires a stringent width control performance. In this paper, an edger set-up model generating the desired slab width required for the control is proposed based upon the neural network approach. This neural network model accounts for variation of the dimension of incoming slabs to predict the preset value of the width as accurately as possible. A series of simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of the neural network estimator for a variety of operating conditions needed for producing rolled products of various dimensions. The results show that the proposed model can estimate the preset value of the slab width with good accuracy, thereby enhancing the dimensional accuracy of rolled products. The estimation performance is discussed in detail for various process operation conditions.