No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

While Charles Darwin proposed one of the first systematic arguments evidencing evolution, alternatives with a strong empirical grounding exist. These alternatives deserve our attention, if only because some of them claim to correct the oversights in Darwin's theory. Charles Sanders Peirce put forth one such theory. This article devises a novel Peircean Evolutionary Algorithm for finding the solution to a class of optimization problems in the domain of Evolutionary Computation (EC). The results are computed against a benchmark highdimensional set of mathematical functions and compared with standard Darwinian Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) and their advanced variants. Although there is further work to be done, this research meets four different but interrelated objectives: 1) To highlight the difference between Darwinian and Peircean understandings of natural evolution, 2) To show how cutting-edge work in molecular biology, symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and systems biology are moving in the direction of Peirce's ideas, 3) To propose a Peircean evolutionary framework that can act as a theoretical foundation for EC, and 4) To meet at least one major challenge facing the Evolutionary Computation community: convergence to local minima due to stagnation.

ABSTRACT… Objectives: To determine the frequency of different clinical features of myasthenia gravis in patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital, Karachi. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Neurology ward, JPMC, Karachi. Period: 23 rd January 2013 to 22 nd July 2013. Patients and Methods: A total of 71 diagnosed patients of Myasthenia Gravis (MG) between the age 15 and 70 years were recruited. Structured questionnaire was used to collect the data regarding most common clinical manifestations of MG. Data were entered and analyzed in SPSS version 17. Chi-Square test was used as test of significance. Results: Mean age + S.D of patients was 34.11 ± 10.42 years. The mean ± SD of duration of symptoms among these patients was 5.23 ± 3.52 months. Most of the patients (21%) belong to age between 21 to 30 years. Regarding clinical features in these patients of myasthenia gravis it was noted that ptosis and diplopia were most common symptoms, 62% and 54.9%, respectively. Conclusion: Myasthenia gravis, a chronic neuromuscular disorder leads to various degrees of neurologic dysfunction which manifest as different clinical features. The current study found that ocular symptoms are commonest presenting features. Key words:Myasthenia gravis, ocular symptoms, ptosis, generalized weakness, dysphagia.