Characteristics considered to be typical of IA (focal, left temporal seizures appearing on grounds of a long-lasting, intractable epilepsy) seem only partially legitimate. We suggest that in new-onset IA, female gender and a preexisting heart condition could serve as predispositions in an otherwise benign epilepsy. We speculate that in late-onset IA, male-predominant changes in neuronal networks in chronic, intractable epilepsy and an accompanying autonomic dysregulation serve as facilitating factors.

The surface tension of all aqueous alkali halide solutions is higher than that of pure water. According to the Gibbs adsorption equation, this indicates a net depletion of these ions in the interfacial region. However, simulations and experiments show that large, soft ions, such as I − , can accumulate at the liquid/ vapor interface. The presence of a loose hydration shell is usually considered to be the reason for this behavior. In this work, we perform computer simulations to characterize the liquid−vapor interface of aqueous alkali chloride and sodium halide solutions systematically, considering all ions from Li + to Cs + and from F − to I − . Using computational methods for the removal of surface fluctuations, we analyze the structure of the interface at a dramatically enhanced resolution, showing that the positive excess originates in the very first molecular layer and that the next 3−4 layers account for the net negative excess. With the help of a fictitious system with charge-inverted ion pairs, we also show that it is not possible to rationalize the surface affinity of ions in solutions in terms of the properties of anions and cations separately. Moreover, the surface excess is generally dominated by the smaller of the two ions.

Although several methods have been developed to automatically delineate subcortical gray matter structures from MR images, the accuracy of these algorithms has not been comprehensively examined. Most of earlier studies focused primarily on the hippocampus. Here, we assessed the accuracy of two widely used non-commercial programs (FSL-FIRST and Freesurfer) for segmenting the caudate and putamen. T1-weighted 1 mm3 isotropic resolution MR images were acquired for thirty healthy subjects (15 females). Caudate nucleus and putamen were segmented manually by two independent observers and automatically by FIRST and Freesurfer (v4.5 and v5.3). Utilizing manual labels as reference standard the following measures were studied: Dice coefficient (D), percentage volume difference (PVD), absolute volume difference as well as intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for consistency and absolute agreement. For putamen segmentation, FIRST achieved higher D, lower PVD and higher ICC for absolute agreement with manual tracing than either version of Freesurfer. Freesurfer overestimated the putamen, while FIRST was not statistically different from manual tracing. The ICC for consistency with manual tracing was similar between the two methods. For caudate segmentation, FIRST and Freesurfer performed more similarly. In conclusion, Freesurfer and FIRST are not equivalent when comparing to manual tracing. FIRST was superior for putaminal segmentation.

A new approach is proposed to reduce the basis set incompleteness error of the triple excitation correction in explicitly correlated coupled-cluster singles and doubles with perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] calculations. Our method is similar to the intuitive triples correction approach of Knizia and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys. 130, 054104 (2009)], but in contrast to the latter, is size-consistent. The new approximation is easy to implement, and its overhead is negligible with respect to the conventional (T) correction. The performance of the approach is assessed for atomization, reaction, and interaction energies as well as for bond lengths and harmonic vibrational frequencies. The advantages of its size-consistency are also demonstrated.

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