Objective: Deep brain stimulation targeted to the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus is effective for motor symptoms in essential tremor, but there is limited data on cognitive outcomes. We examined cognitive outcomes in a large cohort of ET DBS patients.Methods: In a retrospective analysis, we used repeated-measures ANOVA testing to examine whether the age of tremor onset, age at DBS surgery, hemisphere side implanted with lead, unilateral vs. bilateral implantations, and presence of surgical complications influenced the cognitive outcomes. Neuropsychological (...) outcomes of interest were verbal memory, executive functioning, working memory, language functioning, visuospatial functioning, and general cognitive function.Results: We identified 50 ET DBS patients; 29 males; the mean age of tremor onset was 35.84 years with a median age of 38 years. The mean age at DBS was 68.18 years. There were 37 unilateral 30 left, seven right, and 13 bilateral brain implantations. In the subgroup analysis, there was a significant interaction between assessment and age of tremor onset ; F = 4.47; p = 0.043 for working memory. The post hoc testing found improvements for younger onset ET. Similarly, there was a significant interaction between assessment and complications vs. no complications subgroups; F = 4.34; p = 0.043 for verbal memory with worsening scores seen for ET patients with complications. The remaining tests were not significant.Conclusion: In this large cohort of ET patients with, DBS was not accompanied by a significant decline in many cognitive domains. These outcomes were possibly related to the selection of patients with normal cognitive functioning before surgery, unilateral DBS implantations for the majority, and selection of patients with optimal response to DBS. (shrink)

Arabic philosophy; Sufism; Morocco; criticism.

In computational mathematics, it is a matter of deep concern to recognize which of the given iteration schemes converges quickly with lesser error to the desired solution. Fixed point iterative schemes are constructed to be used for solving equations emerging in many fields of science and engineering. These schemes reformulate a nonlinear equation f s = 0 into a fixed point equation of the form s = g s ; such application determines the solution of the original equation via the (...) support of fixed point iterative method and is subject to existence and uniqueness. In this manuscript, we introduce a new modified family of fixed point iterative schemes for solving nonlinear equations which generalize further recursive methods as particular cases. We also prove the convergence of our suggested schemes. We also consider some of the mathematical models which are categorically nonlinear in essence to authenticate the performance and effectiveness of these schemes which can be seen as an expansion and rationalization of some existing techniques. (shrink)

During the 1980s, Morocco became a platform for discussion of democratization projects in North Africa and the Middle East. This served as fertile ground for feminist reverberations attempting to reform the mudawanna, or shari’a based family-law in Morocco, and consequential resistance to reform by women within the political Islam or “Islamist” movement. Feminist scholarship in Morocco, as is the case with other parts of the Middle East, is inevitably political. Zakia Salime’s book Between feminism and Islam: Human Rights and (...) Sharia Law in Morocco problematizes the resulting conceptual boundaries of feminist and Islamist politics in Morocco. She became interested in the issue with her involvement with the feminist movement during the 1990s. Unlike other authors that discuss feminism in the Middle East, Salime is not interested in assuming any generalizations in discussion of marginalization of women versus political Islam. Rather, she aims to analyze in detail the dynamic relationship of feminist and Islamist movements. (shrink)