Identification of Optimal and Most Significant Event Related Brain Functional Network.

Advancements in network science have facilitated the study of brain communication networks. Existing techniques for identifying event-related brain functional networks (BFNs) often result in fully connected networks. However, determining the optimal and most significant network representation for event-related BFNs is crucial for understanding complex brain networks. The presence of both false and genuine connections in the fully connected network requires network thresholding to eliminate false connections. However, a generalized framework for thresholding in network neuroscience is currently lacking. To address this, we propose four novel methods that leverage network properties, energy, and efficiency to select a generalized threshold level. This threshold serves as the basis for identifying the optimal and most significant event-related BFN. We validate our methods on an openly available emotion dataset and demonstrate their effectiveness in identifying multiple events. Our proposed approach can serve as a versatile thresholding technique to represent the fully connected network as an event-related BFN.

Management of open tibia fracture--Anderson and Hutchins technique re-visited.

Prior to September 1995, most open tibia fractures seen at the University College Hospital, Ibadan had hitherto been managed by the application of plaster-of-Paris after limited wound debridement. The outcome of this form of treatment was found, from the outpatient clinic follow-up records, to be associated with a high rate of complications including chronic osteomyelitis and joint stiffness. In most hospitals in the developed and developing countries, majority of these injuries are best managed by the use of various types of external fixators. However, these external fixator devices are by no means cheap and often times most patients in our environment are unable to afford them since the country operates a health care system where the patients are solely responsible for their health care needs. In this study, the Anderson and Hutchins technique (Steinmann's pins threaded through bone and incorporated in plaster-of-Paris) was used in the management of thirty-four open tibia fractures between September 1995 and August 1999. Seventy-nine percent of these were severe or Type III open fractures. The time to radiological union was 21 weeks and pin tract infection occurred in 15 percent of the patients, mainly in the proximal (tibia) pins. The use of a single stout proximal (tibia) transfixing Steinmann's pin was found to offer a stable fixation.

The choice of antibiotic in open fractures in a teaching hospital in a developing country.

Open fracture wounds may be contaminated, and the use of an appropriate antibiotic in the early stages of management reduces the risk of osteomyelitis developing. Environmental factors influence both the type of micro-organisms that are isolated from these wounds and the antibiotics that are chosen to manage the wounds. Before this study, the choice of antibiotic in the management of open fractures in our hospital was based on tradition and 'best guess' antibiotics. In a prospective study of 52 open fractures seen in the accident and emergency unit of University College Hospital, Ibadan, between January and June 2000, the positive bacterial culture yield was more than 70%. Staphylococcus aureus was the commonest microbial isolate, accounting for 37.5% of total isolates. The antibiotic sensitivity pattern revealed high efficacies for pefloxacin, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone against the isolated micro-organisms. In comparative costs, these antibiotics are cheaper than the combination of the 'best guess' antibiotics that were used previously. On the strength of this finding, we have suggested a change in the antibiotic policy of the hospital with regard to the antibiotic regimen to be used to complement the surgical management of open fractures.