In this study, the groups did not differ significantly

in terms of gender or access to PEG or riluzole treatment. Patient numbers were low, however, resulting in a lack of power to detect significant differences between groups. It was therefore not possible to evaluate the possible effect of these factors on survival. Further studies in larger patient populations are needed to determine which factors affect clinical outcomes in ALS. Conclusion The results of this retrospective cohort study suggest that the effect of NIV on survival in ALS patients is age-dependent. Use of NIV was associated with improved survival outcomes in ALS patients older than 65 years. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical However, further studies using a prospective design are needed to confirm the present Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical results. Abbreviations ALS: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; NIV: Non-invasive ventilation; FVC: Forced vital capacity; PCF: Peak cough flow; MIP: Maximum inspiratory mouth pressure; MEP: Maximum expiratory mouth pressure; SNP: Sniff nasal pressure; PEG: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions WS, TS, AV, KO and RA designed the study. WS, TS and AV collected the data. WS, AV and TS were responsible for the interpretation of the data. WS, AV and TS prepared the manuscript. All authors participated in critical revision of the content of the article, and approved the final version. Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-684X/12/23/prepub

Acknowledgements We wish to thank Teija Stormi and Tommi Kauko for their invaluable help in the data analysis. We also wish to thank the head nurse of the Ventilatory Support Unit, Kristiina Ylitalo-Liukkonen, and all of the personnel at the Department of Pulmonary Diseases at Turku University Hospital, for the devoted care they provide to our patients.
The study reported here builds on seminal research undertaken by members of our group on the importance of high quality and age-appropriate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical children’s health information to support child-centred decision-making and choice in children’s healthcare [1-6]. Our previous research has reviewed current practice and provided evidence to inform future development of children’s health information in the add to your list National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, with relevance Dacomitinib to global contexts [3-5]. Findings from these major studies [4,5] make a significant and new contribution to understanding the types and formats of health information likely to inspire children and young people to make decisions and exercise choice. Virtually no age-appropriate and child-centred information explaining different types of service options and Bioactive compound pathways to accessing services (for example hospital versus home care), or explaining different treatment or care options was identified.

The necessity of a paradigm shift in social and affective neuroscience including the first-person perspective has been advocated.22,25-29 Clinical vignettes A few vignettes of common complaints presenting in clinical psychiatry practice illustrate the importance of having an integrated model of social especially cognition that captures concepts related to the self. A college graduate unmarried mature woman had been treated for three cosyndromal DSM-TV Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 30 axis I disorders (depression, anorexia nervosa, and alcoholism) since

her mid-20s with antidepressants and psychotherapy, without much result. Patterns of boredom, inconsistency with relationships, and reckless behavior and mistrust strongly suggested personality disorder traits. Social perceptual difficulties were expected based on

the literature but it was unclear whether they were to be attributed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to depression,31 eating,32 or personality disorder.33 Symptom and social cognition (ie, mentalizing or the ability to read other people’s intentions and mental states) improvement began when issues related to perceived or real sexual abuse from the father during her childhood and the consequences these events had on the http://www.selleckchem.com/products/MG132.html perception Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of her self were addressed. A pre-eminent middle-aged man was treated with medication and psychotherapy for symptoms consistent with depression. He appeared to have no other comorbid personality traits or psychiatric disorders. Social cognitive problems were evident, and from time to time gave way to full paranoid symptoms. During psychotherapy, shame for being an older gay man without a Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical partner and envy of heterosexual persons with a family became the focus of therapy, and led to appreciation of

the possible role of hitherto-uncovered childhood neglect, yielding some relief before the patient moved to a larger city. An accomplished young woman came to consultation complaining of worsening dysphoria and anxiety that began after she rushed into a marriage with an old high-school Brefeldin_A boyfriend, after Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical abruptly leaving the man she had lived with happily for many years and whom she had loved all along and continued to love. With psychotherapy the patient realized that her decision was based on prepotent expectations (from the self) to get married and have a family before her mid-30s, something she perceived the man she loved was not ready to take on. After a few months of marriage, she divorced and went back to the relationship with the former man. These examples show that mechanisms of social perception and self-awareness tend to be entangled in psychiatric disorders, and are major psychopathological and treatment factors. Personality disorders are extremely common (up to 50%) in psychiatric practice34 and clearly affect treatment outcome of axis I disorders.

During the weekend, these persons go to sleep even later and do not catch up their sleep debt completely. These persons might have biological clocks that are constantly misaligned in relation to astronomical time (the name “social jet lag” was proposed, despite the fact that there is no jet travel involved).

The severity of the social jet lag can Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical be measured by the difference between the sleep schedule during the week and during the weekend. This is done by comparing when the midtime of sleep occurs (ie, the time when the person has slept half of the total of hours of his or her night) during weekdays versus during weekends. Persons with more social jet lag are more often Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical smokers,

consume more caffeinated soft drinks, drink more alcohol, and are more depressed. All these correlations are significant. For example, in a group of 501 persons, those with the lowest social jet lag were smokers in 10% of cases, while the proportion was as high as 65% in persons with higher social jet lag.96 Thus the concept of social jet lag, or misalignment of biological and social time, has obvious clinical consequences. Shiftwork Irregular hours of work, with hours of waking and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical sleep at odds with the circadian clock, have detrimental effects on health and can lead to psychological and cardiovascular problems, but the exact size of these Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical effects needs to be further evaluated. Many persons do not resynchronize their rhythm to their work schedule, particularly because they are exposed to daylight after a night of work. Overall, persons who have irregular hours of work seem to get a smaller number of hours of sleep during the week. They can develop difficulty falling asleep, poor sleep, fatigue, psychiatric

symptoms, and gastrointestinal complaints97 Interindividual variability in sleepiness secondary to shift work is found even in highly trained jet pilots.98 Among the many factors that determine the tolerance to shiftwork, persons of the morning chronotype and those Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical over 45 years do not adjust easily to shift work,99 while persons with selleck chemicals llc temperature rhythms of high amplitude seem to adjust more easily.8 Shiftwork can alter some endogenous rhythms, but the internal relationship between rhythms Entinostat might be maintained. For example, Cortisol secretion partially adapts to shiftwork, and the onset of melatonin secretion remains entrained, with a time-lag of 1 hour and a half, to the period when no Cortisol is secreted (the quiescent phase), as it is entrained in subjects who work regular hours.100 Approaches to minimize the deleterious consequences of nighttime work are many. Shift work should ideally be organized in such a manner that the biological clock can resynchronize each day to the work schedule.

41%) (2). The disease is rare before age 45 but incidence rises rapidly after that and peaks in the

seventh decade of life. The major risk factors include smoking (3), hereditary predisposition to PaCa itself or to multiple cancers (4) and to a lesser degree, chronic pancreatitis (5). PaCa does not exhibit early symptoms and initial symptoms are often nonspecific. Classical presentation of PaCa (painless jaundice) is present in only 13-18% of the patients and is often accompanied by pruritus, acholic stools dark urine, and weight loss (6). Abdominal pain is present in 80-85% of patients with locally advanced or advanced disease. Acute pancreatitis and new onset diabetes mellitus Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical can often be the initial presentations of PaCa (7),(8). In up to 75% of the cases, the tumor is located within pancreatic head mostly sparing the uncinate process.

Tumors in the pancreatic head often present early with biliary obstruction. However, tumors in the body and tail can nearly remain asymptomatic till late in disease stage. Surgical resection is the standard of care for treatment Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical but only but <10% of patients with pancreatic tumors have resectable tumors at the time of presentation. The criteria for unresectability include Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical infiltration of superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and/or celiac artery or the presence of distant metastasis including metastatic celiac or mediastinal lymph nodes. The size of pancreatic tumor is a major determinant of resectability

and up to 83% of tumors ≤ 20 mm are resectable compared to only 7% of tumors > 30 mm in size (9). The 5 year survival rate in patients with resectable tumors can be as high as 20-25% and compares favorably with patients with unresectable tumor, very few of whom survive 5 years after diagnosis. Imaging Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical techniques Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical currently used for diagnosis and preoperative staging of pancreatic cancer include abdominal Vismodegib solubility ultrasound (US), contrast-enhanced computed tomography(CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), MR cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) and invasive imaging modalities like endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). Imaging Modalities Abdominal Ultrasound (US) Abdominal ultrasound (US) is widely available, non-invasive, relatively inexpensive imaging modality without contrast associated adverse effects. It is usually performed to rule out choledocholithiasis and look for biliary dilation in patients Cilengitide who present with jaundice and abdominal pain. The real world accuracy of conventional US for diagnosing pancreatic tumors is 50 to 70% (10). The results of US are highly operator dependant. In addition, body habitus (adipose tissue), overlying bowel gas and patient discomfort can limit the use of US in evaluating the pancreas. If an initial US excludes choledocholithiasis in a patient with signs and symptoms to suggest a pancreatic etiology, CT or MRI is commonly used for further evaluation.

Thus the extremely high levels of hGAA expression afforded by use of an Ad mediated gene therapy approach overcame many of the issues noted with ERT approaches when tested in similar, animal models. High dose intravenous injection of Ad vectors is not without untoward side effects. For example, at extremely high doses, Ad injection ultimately results in generation of high-titer, neutralizing anti-Ad capsid antibodies, that prohibit re-infection of many tissues with same serotype Ad vectors (28, 29). Furthermore, after high dose injection, the Ad capsid proteins themselves appear to more information immediately elicit “innate” immune responses, such as increased plasma cytokine and

chemokine levels and activation of the complement Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical system (30–32). Many

of these same responses Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical have been noted after [E1-]Ad injections into non-human primates, and humans (33). Initial studies of AAV vectors demonstrated that the efficacy of AAV-hGAA vectors was hampered by choice of AAV serotype and promoter used, low-level hGAA expression, and production issues that still limit large-scale AAV production (34–36). Furthermore, it was noted that upon intramuscular injection of certain AAV serotypes, the virus could be found in uninjected sites, suggesting that the virus could cross normal tissue barriers (18, 37, 38). Recently, intravenous administration of newer serotypes of AAV, such as AAV serotype 8 expressing hGAA from a Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical liver-specific promoter, resulted in high level GAA enzyme production, glycogen reduction in some muscle groups, and minimization of the anti-hGAA humoral immune responses normally noted in GAA-knockout (KO) mice treated with vectors expressing hGAA from non-viral promoter elements (39). Also AAV-9 has shown an improved ability Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to Tubacin IC50 infect and allow for expression of hGAA genes from cardiac tissues in vivo (40). Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical AAV vectors can feasibly be used for GSD-II treatment, but these vectors face similar issues as those noted with Ad based vectors,

issues that have become more detectable as the titer (and thus therapeutic potential) GSK-3 of AAV preparations have increased. These include cytokine responses, and elicitation of anti-AAV specific antibody responses (41). Some further considerations include the oncogenic potential (due to integration) and possible germline transmission of AAV vectors, and a limited genetic carrying capacity (< 5 kb) (42–46). Finally, high dose intravenous administration of alternative serotype AAV based vectors allows for dissemination of the vector beyond endothelial barriers into not only muscle tissues, but also gonadal sites (43), (47). Whether this property is a benefit or limitation (i.e. what is the mechanism for this capability?) awaits further research. In conclusion, gene therapy strategies for GSD-II have demonstrated a number of potential benefits when tested in several animals models of GSD-II.

It does, however, make it difficult to compare the results directly to prior studies with either clinical

patients or typical lab-based control populations, but does represent an important characterization of the symptoms in the community-at-large that can begin to establish Web-normative scores. Our finding of symptom scores across a large range, in children and adolescents without a self-reported diagnosis of ADHD is important and novel for a Web-based community. Recent epidemiological reports from the Centers for Disease Control selleck bio suggest the community Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical prevalence of a diagnosis of ADHD is over 8% (http://www.cdc.gov). Few studies, however, have looked broadly at symptoms that exist in the community. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Our attention symptom finding supports reports that ADHD-related symptoms are dimensional (Lubke et al. 2009), and should be treated as quantitatively distributed traits in the population. Yet, similar to Lubke et al. (2009), we do find that cognitive test performance changes as function of symptom level, which may suggest different latent classes. These data may improve the ability to track the underlying genetic contribution Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of these symptoms. Our findings of high correlations

between parent and offspring scores on our cognitive control measures suggest high heritability of

these constructs, an important step in investigating genetic associations. Typically, www.selleckchem.com/products/Erlotinib-Hydrochloride.html examining heritability is difficult for new computerized measures, as recruiting and testing families in a large enough sample to measure heritability Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is not feasible. Further, with iterative development of new measures, it becomes more challenging for phenotypes to be adequately validated with respect to genetic studies. Studying a single parent and offspring allows us to compute narrow-sense heritability or what some have called Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical biometric heritability (Lynch and Walsh 1998). These numbers provide a ceiling for additive genetic influences without taking into account shared environment or pure environment factors or epistasis. Drug_discovery Our calculations of narrow-sense heritability suggest high heritability but also unsurprisingly that these unmeasured sources of variance do play a role in working memory and response inhibition. They also suggest that some phenotypic indicators may not be useful in genetic association experiments going forward, as they display very low narrow-sense heritability (e.g., Working Memory load accuracy at low loads). These findings suggest our approach is feasible and extremely efficient for examining these questions, but larger pedigree-type data would be ideal for answering these questions.

Three consecutive cardiac cycles at the end of expiration were selleckchem acquired. The echocardiographic equipment used was the VIVID 7 and S6 (GE Vingmed Ultrasound AS, Horten, Norway). Off-line analysis The off-line reconstructions of the TDI velocity curves using the recorded raw data was performed with commercially available software (EchoPac, version 110.0.2, GE Vingmed Ultrasound AS, Horten, Norway). The standardized measurements were performed at the following levels: the anterior certainly aortic annulus (AA), the posterior aortic wall (AW) below Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the sino-tubular junction, the mid anteroseptal wall (MAS) and the posterior mitral annulus (MA) (Fig. 2). Temporal averaging (curve smoothing) of the measurement

results was not applied. The time delay of the PSN onset (Fig. 3) was assessed between the AA and the AW, the AA and the MAS, the AA and the MA. In addition,

the following values were determined at Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical each measurement level: the velocity at the onset of the PSN, the velocity at the peak of the PSN and the duration of the PSN (onset to peak). The amplitude of the PSN was calculated (peak velocity minus onset velocity). Fig. 2 The measurement Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical levels. yellow: anterior aortic annulus, orange: posterior aortic wall, red: mid anteroseptal wall, green: posterior mitral annulus. Fig. 3 The time delay of the post-systolic velocity notch (PSN) onset between the anterior aortic annulus (AA) and the posterior mitral annulus (MA). Vertical yellow dotted line represents the PSN onset at the AA, vertical blue dotted line represents the PSN … Statistics Timing, velocity and duration data are presented as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mean ± standard deviation. The one-sample t-test was used to test the hypothesis of the later onset of the

PSN at the AW, the MAS, and the MA relatively to the AA. The onset timing, the velocity and the duration were compared using the paired t-test. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Thirty two persons Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical were included in the study. The mean age was 35 ± 10 years and 16 were male. The basic demographic and echocardiographic parameters are shown in Table 1. The mean frame rate of the color TDI acquisition was 170 ± 6 frames per second. Table 1 Demographic and echocardiographic characteristics Anacetrapib of the studied population The PSN was present at the AA, the AW, the MAS, and the MA of all studied subjects (Fig. 4). Fig. 4 The post-systolic velocity notch at the level of the anterior aortic annulus. Timing of the onset Compared to the AA, the time delays of the PSN onset at the AW, the MAS, and the MA were found to be significantly longer than zero (5.1 ± 2.2 ms, 6.0 ± 2.3 ms, 6.8 ± 2.8 ms; p < 0.001). This implies that the PSN onset occurs at the level of the AA before the PSN onset at any other measurement level. The onset of the PSN at the level of the MA occurred significantly later than at the level of the AW (p < 0.005).

However, OAG is a fairly unspecific activator of TRPC channels, so effects cannot be attributed Vismodegib structure with confidence to TRPC3. 60 The vanilloid TRP channel 2 (TRPV2 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/51393))

has been reported to be mechanosensitive (studied using cell-volume changes and patch pipette suction 61 ) and is expressed in the mouse heart. 44,62 Using the TRPV2 agonist probenicid in wild-type and TRPV2− / −  constitutive knockout mice, it was shown that this channel appears to contribute to baseline cardiac function, participating in the calcium-handling machinery of heart cells. 62 TRPV4 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/59341) mRNA is weakly expressed in cardiac muscle, 63 and TRPV4 protein was located in cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes only in the nucleus. 64 However, caution is warranted here, regarding mRNA or protein expression in tissue. Firstly, mRNA and protein expression levels do not necessarily correlate 65 and secondly, while high expression levels are confirmatory of a significant presence

and indicative of functional relevance, low expression in whole tissue homogenates should be interpreted with care. If a protein is present in minority cell populations of the heart (such as Purkinje fibres), it could be of immense functional relevance, even if it was only detected at trace levels. In addition, some SAC, such as TREK, may be expressed at the membrane, but can be strongly inhibited in resting conditions,

66 making the assessment of availability of functional channels even more difficult. Finally, the melastatin TRP channel 4 (TRPM4) is expressed in cardiomyocytes, 45 and has been implicated in stretch-activated responses of vasculature smooth muscle cells. 67 Overexpression of TRPM4 may be involved in an inheritable form of progressive familial heart block type I, 68 and the identification of a possible stretch-activated component of this disease – mediated by TRPM4 – would be of pronounced clinical relevance. Thus, in addition to TRPC1 and TRPC6, the ion channels TRPC3, TRPV2, TRPV4 and TRPM4 form translationally-relevant targets for further basic and applied research. Piezo1 The discovery of Piezo1 and Piezo2 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/63895) by Patapoutian’s GSK-3 group in 2010 46 represents one of the most important breakthroughs in the field of mechanotransduction in recent years. Piezo1 was initially identified in the neuro-2a neuronal cell line by siRNA knockdown of the expression of membrane proteins with unknown function. Knockdown of the FAM38A (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/415849) gene inhibited ISAC,NS and the gene product was named Piezo1. Mechanosensitivity was confirmed by heterologous expression of Piezo1 in HEK cells, which induced a robust ISAC,NS.

However,

the direct conjugation of antibodies to NO-ELIPs results in greater than 90% loss of antibody immunoreactivity, mainly due to the denaturation induced by the gas pressurization and freeze-thawing procedures. To avoid this drawback, NO-ELIPs and antibodies have been linked by biotin/avidin-mediated coupling, providing a novel conjugation method allowing site-specific NO delivery [86]. Another class of liposomes that can be successfully used as nanocarriers is the thermosensitive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical liposomes, which may be employed in the storage, delivery, and active release of NO in a heat-mediated manner [87, 88]. Tai et al. [89] encapsulated spermine NONOate (SPER/N2O2), a zwitterionic diazeniumdiolate employed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as an NO precursor, in liposomes composed of phospholipids of different temperature sensitivities (Figure 4). Upon heating, an influx of extraliposomal protons decreased the normally intraliposomal pH, diminishing the pH gradient across the membrane and

subsequently inducing rapid NO release. The collapse of the pH gradient suggests that heat induced an increase in the lipids bilayer’s permeability, allowing proton influx. SPER/N2O2 is known to spontaneously dissociate into two molecules at a much faster rate at physiological pH than at the basic pH, demonstrated by slower NO release from basic intra-liposomal solution than from physiological intra-liposomal solution. The degree of the slowed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical NO release was also dependent on the specific phospholipid composition of the liposomes. Moreover, the presence of a stronger

pH gradient when the liposomes were applied to a more acidic environment increased proton influx and thus NO release. Because heat is generated in some pathological conditions, such as in tumor tissue, selleckchem Vorinostat thermo-sensitive liposomes containing NO may have Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical applications in anticancer therapeutics [8]. Figure 4 Schematic representation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the stabilization of zwitterionic diazeniumdiolate by loading liposomes. Reprinted from Tai et al. [89], with the permission of Elsevier. Dinh et al. [90] investigated the effect of the hydrophobic structure of liposomes’ phospholipids Brefeldin_A and surfactant micelles on NO formation from zwitterionic diazeniumdiolates. The acid-catalyzed dissociation of NO has been examined in phosphate-buffered solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-[phospho-(1-glycerol)] sodium salt (DDPG) phospholipid liposomes. Both phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol liposomes catalyze NO dissociation from diazeniumdiolate substrates. The larger catalytic factors observed for DPPG liposomes than for DPPC liposomes and SDS micelles arise from the ability of the anionic liposome to concentrate the reactants at the liposome surface. This is accomplished through coulombic attraction of aqueous hydrogen ions and positive nitrogen centers in the diazeniumdiolate zwitterions.

Pixel size for the imagery was 0.6m. The imagery was orthorectified using a bilinear interpolation resampling method, and meets the National Mapping Accuracy Standards for scale mapping of 1:3,000 (3-meter accuracy with 90% confidence). LIDAR data used in this study were acquired in March 2002. Both the first and last vertical returns were recorded for each laser pulse, with an average point spacing of approximately 1.3m. A surface cover height model with 1-m spatial resolution was derived from the LIDAR data, which was used to aid in land cover classification.Property parcel boundaries and building footprints datasets were obtained in digital format from Baltimore City and Baltimore County municipal governments, and were used to both facilitate object segmentation and obtain greater classification accuracy. The parcel boundaries had a high degree of spatial accuracy when compared with 1:3,000 scale 0.5m aerial imagery. A limited assessment was conducted to compare the building footprints to the Emerge image data. The comparison indicates that the building footprints agree spatially with the Emerge imagery, but a small proportion of building footprints have not yet been digitized by municipal data providers in the study area.3.2. Object-based classificationAn object-based approach was used to conduct the classification separately on the data collected for the two years. Five land cover classes were used: 1) buildings, 2) pavement, 3) coarse selleck 17-AAG textured vegetation (trees and shrubs), 4) fine textured vegetation (herbaceous vegetation and grasses), and 5) bare soil [26]. Here, we briefly describe the classification processes. A more detailed account is given in Zhou and Troy [19].We first segmented the image
Evanescent field absorption (EFA) has been widely employed by some researchers for sensing of chemical and biological parameters over the past two decades [1, 2]. Typical applications include sensing of chemical species such that pH [3,4], concentration [5], humidity [6], gas [7], combustible liquids [8] and as biosensors [9].EFA sensing mechanism utilized by fiber optic sensors is based on the absorption of the light carried by the evanescent field that coexists in the fiber cladding. In EFA fiber sensors the core is surrounded by an absorptive cladding that consists of a liquid [10, 11] or a sol-gel material [3, 12] that include an absorbing dye, since most chemical materials are not able to absorb the optical power directly. The effect to be sensed can be related to the power change because absorbing dye causes attenuation in the optical power.In the last decade, ANNs became popular because they have ability to learn, fast real-time operation and ease of implementation features [13-15].