Midazolam is a benzodiazepine with hypnotic action widely used as pre-anesthetic medication in pe... more Midazolam is a benzodiazepine with hypnotic action widely used as pre-anesthetic medication in pediatric anesthesia. Children with cerebral palsy (CP) also benefit from the use of midazolam, but its effects on this group of patients, who present several particularities, including changes at the site of action of midazolam, are still unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of midazolam, when used as pre-anesthetic medication, on the bispectral index (EEG-BIS) of patients with cerebral palsy. Two groups of patients were evaluated: one group with the diagnosis of CP and the other without central and peripheral nervous system disorders. The EEG-BIS was recorded in the room, the day before the surgery and at the day of the surgery, 40 minutes after the administration of 0.6 mg.kg(-1) of oral midazolam. Patients with a history of paradoxal reaction to midazolam as well as patients in the control group who were using other medications were excluded. Seventy-seven patients of both genders, 4 to 18 years old, participated in this study. Differences in EEG-BIS between both groups were not detected. After the use of midazolam EEG-BIS decreased in both groups with a statistically significant difference in each group. Statistically significant intergroup differences were not observed. Midazolam, used as pre-anesthetic medication, at a dose of 0.6 mg.kg(-1), reduced basal EEG-BIS without characterizing hypnosis and without statistically significant differences between the study groups.
This aim of this clinical trial was to study the effects of divalproex sodium (DVPX) in reducing ... more This aim of this clinical trial was to study the effects of divalproex sodium (DVPX) in reducing Reactive/Affective/ Defensive/ Impulsive Aggression (RADI) in youth with Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD) in an outpatient clinic over a period of 3 months. We recruited forty participants with Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder. Twenty participants received 12 weeks of openly titrated DVPX, whereas twenty participants served as a comparison control group. Primary efficacy measures were the Clinical Global Improvement-Severity (CGI-S) and CGI-C (Change) scales; secondary efficacy measures included standardized measures of aggression. Based on the CGI-S and CGI-C ratings, the DVPX group showed significant improvement by the last observation. Attrition rates were notably high, which is not surprising given the clinical population studied. This study provides further support for the efficacy of DVPX in decreasing RADI aggression in the context of DBD. These results are particularly noteworthy because the sociotherapeutic structures supporting patients in previous trials were not present.
In this paper we show two modifications of the gpICA (geometric post non-linear independent compo... more In this paper we show two modifications of the gpICA (geometric post non-linear independent component analysis) algorithm. gpICA algorithm is a novel method to solve the PNL (post non-linear) scheme. We propose these modifications to improve the mean squared error, the correlation of the recovered signals and algorithm reliability. The first improvement, called compensation, takes advantage from the implicit information given by the point to be linearized. On the other hand, while the original gpICA algorithm uses two sets of two points to make an update, our second modification uses two sets of four points. We present experimental results which validates the effectiveness of each modification.
Midazolam is a benzodiazepine with hypnotic action widely used as pre-anesthetic medication in pe... more Midazolam is a benzodiazepine with hypnotic action widely used as pre-anesthetic medication in pediatric anesthesia. Children with cerebral palsy (CP) also benefit from the use of midazolam, but its effects on this group of patients, who present several particularities, including changes at the site of action of midazolam, are still unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of midazolam, when used as pre-anesthetic medication, on the bispectral index (EEG-BIS) of patients with cerebral palsy. Two groups of patients were evaluated: one group with the diagnosis of CP and the other without central and peripheral nervous system disorders. The EEG-BIS was recorded in the room, the day before the surgery and at the day of the surgery, 40 minutes after the administration of 0.6 mg.kg(-1) of oral midazolam. Patients with a history of paradoxal reaction to midazolam as well as patients in the control group who were using other medications were excluded. Seventy-seven patients of both genders, 4 to 18 years old, participated in this study. Differences in EEG-BIS between both groups were not detected. After the use of midazolam EEG-BIS decreased in both groups with a statistically significant difference in each group. Statistically significant intergroup differences were not observed. Midazolam, used as pre-anesthetic medication, at a dose of 0.6 mg.kg(-1), reduced basal EEG-BIS without characterizing hypnosis and without statistically significant differences between the study groups.
This aim of this clinical trial was to study the effects of divalproex sodium (DVPX) in reducing ... more This aim of this clinical trial was to study the effects of divalproex sodium (DVPX) in reducing Reactive/Affective/ Defensive/ Impulsive Aggression (RADI) in youth with Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD) in an outpatient clinic over a period of 3 months. We recruited forty participants with Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder. Twenty participants received 12 weeks of openly titrated DVPX, whereas twenty participants served as a comparison control group. Primary efficacy measures were the Clinical Global Improvement-Severity (CGI-S) and CGI-C (Change) scales; secondary efficacy measures included standardized measures of aggression. Based on the CGI-S and CGI-C ratings, the DVPX group showed significant improvement by the last observation. Attrition rates were notably high, which is not surprising given the clinical population studied. This study provides further support for the efficacy of DVPX in decreasing RADI aggression in the context of DBD. These results are particularly noteworthy because the sociotherapeutic structures supporting patients in previous trials were not present.
In this paper we show two modifications of the gpICA (geometric post non-linear independent compo... more In this paper we show two modifications of the gpICA (geometric post non-linear independent component analysis) algorithm. gpICA algorithm is a novel method to solve the PNL (post non-linear) scheme. We propose these modifications to improve the mean squared error, the correlation of the recovered signals and algorithm reliability. The first improvement, called compensation, takes advantage from the implicit information given by the point to be linearized. On the other hand, while the original gpICA algorithm uses two sets of two points to make an update, our second modification uses two sets of four points. We present experimental results which validates the effectiveness of each modification.
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