Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combined Glaucoma and Cataract: An Overview

Glaucoma and cataract frequently coexist in our elderly population regardless of geo- graphical location or ethnicity. Cataract extraction alone has demonstrated to reduce intraocular pressure in eyes either with or without glaucoma. However, this chapter focuses on how cataract surgery might be combined with different glaucoma surgical procedures, such as trabeculectomy, non-penetrating procedures and minimally invasive procedures (MIGS), as well as implantation of drainage devices like the Trabectome ® and the iStent ® , both used for trabecular flow increase; the CyPass ® implant, which acts by increasing the uveoscleral flow; the XEN ® implant that facilitates the drainage of the aqueous humor from the anterior chamber to the subconjunctival space and finally the endocyclophotocoagulation that decreases the aqueous humor production. Current surgical options will be discussed, focusing on recently reported studies, analyzing the clini- cal aspects that influence the choice for each surgical treatment.
Efficacy of 577-nm retinal pigment epithelium laser photocoagulation in age-related maculopathy patients with various extents of morphological and functional loss

E-mail: laserfilatova@gmail.com Background: There is no unanimously adopted approach to titrating laser settings in subthreshold retinal laser photocoagulation (LPC) without ophthalmoscopically visible fundus changes. The efficacy of this approach to treatment of retinal diseases is still to be investigated. Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of 577-nm RPE LPC in the treatment of agerelated maculopathy (ARM) with various extents of morphological and functional loss. Materials and Methods: The study involved 57 patients (57 eyes) diagnosed with ARM. 577-nm micropulse laser photocoagulation was applied to the RPE at the macula. Patients were followed-up for 12 months. Results: Three groups of ARM eyes with a similar extent of morphological and functional loss at baseline were created using Ward’s clustering method. Changes in visual acuity, retinal foveal thickness diameter and height of macular drusen, as well as incidences of subretinal neovascularization (SNV) and geographic atrophy over the follow-up for the groups were investigated. We observed no cases of SNV or geographic atrophy during the follow-up. Conclusions: 577-nm micropulse RPE laser photocoagulation with power titrated in micropulse mode was found to be efficacious and safe treatment for ARM patients with a wide variation in the extent of morphological and functional loss, including patients with drusenoid pigment epithelium detachment. Key-words:
Information-Based Mobile Sensor Network Localization and Tracking of an Uncooperative Target*

This paper focuses on the localization and tracking of a radio frequency (RF) emitter with unknown waveform (uncooperative target) using an information-based centralized network of mobile, collaborative sensors (agents). Each agent utilizes the measured waveform parameters such as time difference of arrival (TDOA), frequency difference of arrival (FDOA), or differential received signal strength (DRSS). The proposed algorithm leverages Bayesian estimation to handle non-Gaussian measurements and it employs information-theoretic motion planning to move sensors to areas of high information-gain to minimize measurement uncertainty. Mutual information is computed for pairs of sensor through a four-permutation with replacement process. The generated mutual information surfaces are combined and then used to plan the motion of each sensor in the network. Simulation results involving TDOA measurements are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm, where it is shown that three agents are able to accurately track a target that moves at the same speed as the agents.
Nutritional and lifestyle habits of European pharmacy undergraduate students

Aim: Balanced nutrition and healthy lifestyle habits are very important, especially in young population. By this way it is possible to prevent many non-communicable diseases. As a health care professionals, pharmacists have very important role in this mission. The aim of this study was to evaluate basic nutritional knowledge and lifestyle habits of pharmacy undergraduate students in the context of their future health profession. Methods: The study group consisted of 591 European undergraduate pharmacy students. The data related to anthropometry, eating and lifestyle habits were obtained based on self-administered cross-sectional survey. Analysis of gender differences was performed using the chi-square test. Statistically significance was set at p value < 0.05. Results: Anthropometric characteristics of students showed that 10.5 % female students were underweight, while 62.6% of the males were overweight and 0.7% were obese. Regular breakfast had 80.9% of the students. Breakfast skipping was statistically higher in male participants (p<0.05). Only 35% of students reported daily intake of vegetables. Also, low fruit consumption was observed in all students with statistically lower fruit intake in males (p<0.05). Consumption of alcohol, fried food and tobacco was not common among students. Basic principle of balanced nutrition was recognized by 58.4% of study population. Conclusion: Results of our study indicate that European pharmacy students have some unsatisfactory eating habits and nutritional knowledge which is already related to their inadequate nutritional status. Our finding suggests that increased level of nutritional education should be incorporated into European pharmacy curriculum.
SINR of Machine-Type Communication in HetNets: Interference Avoidance and CoMP Schemes

This paper proposes a novel coordinated multi-point (CoMP) communication scheme with interference avoidance (IA) for machine-type communication (MTC) in heterogeneous networks (HetNets). In the proposed scheme, macro base stations (MBSs) first find outdoor MTC devices (MTCDs) that have signal to interference plus noise ratios (SINRs) lower than a given target threshold. Then, MBSs ask small-cell access points (SAPs) that give strong interference to operate either the IA or cooperative transmission for the outdoor MTCDs. The IA and cooperative transmission mean that SAPs transmit nothing to reduce interference and cooperative data signals to increase the received signal strength, respectively. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms other schemes in terms of the SINR and fifth percentile of SINRs for both outdoor and indoor MTCDs.
Blockade of Brain Angiotensin II AT1 Receptors Reduces Brain Damage from Ischemic Stroke in Mice

Recent clinical and basic studies indicated that systemic blockade of angiotensin AT1 receptors reduces brain lesion in ischemic stroke. In this study we further determined whether the brain angiotensin AT1 receptors play a critical role in ischemic stroke. Adult male C57BL/6 mice were divided into two groups for intracerebroventricular infusion of the selective AT1 receptor antagonist, losartan (Los, n=6, 2 ug/hr) or saline (Con, n=6) via mouse brain infusion kit 3 (Alzet). After 10 days of infusion, focal cerebral ischemia was induced by occlusion of left middle cerebral artery (MCAO). The success of MCAO was verified by measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the territory of the MCA using laser‐Doppler flowmetry (Perimed). Neurological deficit was evaluated after 24 hrs. Brains were removed after 48 hrs, frozen and 1 mm coronal sections were stained with 2% triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) to determine the percentage of damaged area, using NIH software (image J). Results showed:
Identification of the Vibrio vulnificus fexA gene and evaluation of its influence on virulence

Vibrio vulnificus is the causative agent of foodbome diseases such as gastroenteritis and life-threatening septicemia. Microbial pathogenicity is a complex phenomenon in which expression of numerous virulence factors is frequently controlled by a common regulatory system. In the present study, a mutant exhibiting decreased cytotoxic activity toward intestinal epithelial cells was screened from a library of V. vulnificus mutants constructed by a random transposon mutagenesis. By a transposon-tagging method, an open reading frame, fexA, a homologue of Escherichia coli arcA, was identified and cloned. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the fexA were analyzed, and the amino acid sequence of FexA from V. vulnificus was 84% to 97% similar to those of ArcA, an aerobic respiration control global regulator, from other Enterobacteriaceae. Functions of the FexA were assessed by the construction of an isogenic mutant, whose fexA gene was inactivated by allelic exchanges, and by evaluating its phenotype changes in vitro and in mice. The disruption of fexA resulted in a significant alteration in growth rate under aerobic as well as anaerobic conditions. When compared to the wild-type, the fexA mutant exhibited a substantial decrease in motility and cytotoxicity toward intestinal epithelial cell lines in vitro. Furthermore, the intraperitoneal LD 50 of the fexA mutant was approximately 10 1 -10 2 times higher than that of parental wild-type. Therefore, it appears that FexA is a novel global regulator controlling numerous genes and contributing to the pathogenesis as well as growth of V. vulnificus.
Policy-Based Access Control System for Delta Lake

Delta lake is a new generation of data storage solutions. It stores both transaction log and data files in one directory, and provides ACID transactions, scalable metadata handling, and unifies streaming and batch data processing on top of existing data lakes, such as S3, ADLS, GCS, and HDFS. Different from data warehouses, delta lakes allow data to be stored in the original format, retain complete data information, and provide efficient and low-cost storage solutions for data computing and analysis businesses. However, Since Delta Lake metadata is scattered in different resource files, the lack of a unified metadata view increases the difficulty of data governance. Also, Delta Lake adopts an open source storage system as the underlying storage, and its basic access control does not isolate different users, which may lead the risk of data leakage. At present, most common storage systems use data tables’ row and column fields for access control, while delta lake treats the file group as an object. In this paper, aiming at the difficulty of data governance, we design a data lake metadata management method to achieve unified and efficient management of metadata information in heterogeneous data. Then, we design a policy-based data lake access control mechanism, combined with the open source permission framework, and complete the access request for different users and roles in Delta Lake.
Describing suspected non ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome using troponin at a regional, public South African emergency centre with the Roche cardiac reader

Background: There are few data available regarding acute coronary syndrome presenting to emergency centres in sub-Saharan Africa compared to the rest of the world. The aim of this study was to describe the acute coronary syndrome diagnosis and its outcome in an undifferentiated chest pain population when using a troponin assay that predates current reference standards at a public, Cape Town emergency centre. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional design was used. Comparisons were made between the diagnosis, outcome and troponin result (using the Roche cardiac reader). Findings were descriptively presented. Troponin results were qualitatively described in relation to a non ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome diagnosis. Associations were tested using the Chi2-test. Results: Nine hundred and sixty-nine patients were included in the study, of which 40 patients (4%) were excluded due to poor clinical record keeping. Acute coronary syndrome was diagnosed in 256 patients (28%), from which 54 (21%) were troponin positive which differed to troponin negative acute coronary syndrome (p <0.001). Unstable angina was diagnosed in 197 (77%) of acute coronary syndrome patients. Conclusions: Unsurprisingly, a high proportion of chest pain patients did not have acute coronary syndrome. Unstable angina numbers were much higher than described elsewhere. Although it is not possible to relate this finding to the assay’s lower accuracy using only a descriptive design, a higher sensitivity assay would likely benefit the diagnostic process as it does elsewhere. Further research is required to explore safe, local diagnostic strategies that can strike a balance between patient safety and cost effectiveness.
A clinical evaluation of Algivon® Plus manuka honey dressings for chronic wounds.

Chronic wounds can have a significant impact on a patient’s quality of life (Cutting, 2010). A recent and comprehensive health economic evaluation estimated that wounds cost the NHS £5.3 billion annually (Guest et al, 2015). Management of these complex wounds therefore requires a pragmatic approach to ensure the most suitable resources for the clinical circumstances are used to ensure good patient outcomes.
Can we put event nominals to rest? (Syntax)

It has been argued for English (e.g., Grimshaw (1990)) that nouns fall into at three different categories: complex event nominals, result nominals, and concrete nouns. In this paper I will present a construction centered on what appear to be event-denoting nouns. A syntactic and semantic analysis of this construction will call into question the strict categorization given above, and additionally pose questions for the richness of lexical semantic representation and restrictions on the mapping from semantic structure to syntactic structure. The verb put has a use in English that looks remarkably like a (causative) light verb. The basic syntactic frame in which it appears is demonstrated in (1).
Stellungnahme zu ketogenen und kohlenhydratarmen Diäten bei Menschen mit Krebs

Ketogene oder kohlenhydratarme Diäten existieren mittlerweile in mehreren Varianten und unter verschiedenen Bezeichnungen. Ihre Gemeinsamkeiten sind, dass sie sich im Vergleich zu den nationalen Empfehlungen für die Nährstoffzufuhr der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE) durch einen hohen Fettanteil bei gleichzeitig geringem Kohlenhydratanteil von meistens unter 70 g täglich auszeichnen [1– 5]. Durchgeführt unter enger Begleitung eines gut geschulten interdisziplinären Teams ist die ketogene Diät eine wirksame nicht-pharmakologische Therapieoption für Patienten mit GLUT1-Defekt, Pyruvat-Dehydrogenase-Mangel und bei Kindern mit therapierefraktärer Epilepsie, bei denen bereits mindestens zwei klinische Versuche mit antiepileptischen DOI: 10.4455/eu.2017. 036
Mesenteric Vein Thrombosis Following Platelet Transfusion in a Patient with Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome: A Case Report

Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are typically characterized by life-threatening thrombocytopenia and tendency to bleed. Still, there are gaps of knowledge regarding risks and benefits of platelet transfusion for patients with severe thrombocytopenia during VHF and other infectious diseases. 1 2 3 4 Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a mild rodent-borne VHF, caused by Puumala virus, endemic in central and northern Europe. The infection is characterized by fever, nausea, back- and headache, thrombocytopenia, and transient renal impairment. We have shown that HFRS is a risk factor for both arterial and venous thrombosis. 5 6 We here report a case of a patient with HFRS with prolonged thrombocytopenia who developed thrombosis shortly after receiving platelet transfusion.
Interpretation of Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Mucosal Biopsies – A Tertiary Care Centre Experience

Background: Endoscopy is one of the initial diagnostic tests performed for the evaluation of upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in clinical practice. Accurate interpretation and confirmation can be achieved by histopathological study of endoscopic biopsies and is one of the bases for planning proper treatment. Methods: Total 200 endoscopic biopsies, 50 from oesophagus, 50 from stomach and 100 from duodenum received in the department of pathology of a tertiary care medical college and hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, over a period of two years from patients of all ages and sex with upper GI symptoms were included. Specimens were processed according to standard protocol and then reported by pathologist. The spectrum of histopathological lesions, whether inflammatory, non – neoplastic or neoplastic was evaluated along with the overall frequency, age and sex distribution of various upper gastrointestinal lesions. Result: Out of 200 cases of endoscopic biopsies received, 114 were males and 86 were females (M:F1.3:1). Majority were non-neoplastic lesions comprising of 153 (76.5%) cases. Out of 38(19%) malignant cases, oesophagus was the most common site comprising 78.9% and duodenum was the least common site comprising 10.5% of total malignancy. In duodenum 25% cases of celiac disease were also identified. Conclusion: In this prospective study, the commonest site for upper GI endoscopic biopsy was from the duodenum (50%). Overall Inflammatory lesions were more common (76.5%), the predominant sites being stomach (88%) and duodenum (68%). Most common site for malignancy was oesophagus, histological type was Squamous Cell Carcinoma predominantly. Endoscopic biopsy serves as an effective tool for the diagnosis and management of upper gastrointestinal lesions.
Therapeutic Effect of Thymoquinone Against Methotrexate- Induced Damage on Sperm Parameters in Mice

Background: Methotrexate drug is commonly used to treat cancer and caused reproductive damage. Thymoquinone, as a natural component of herbs has many health benefits shown in researches. The present study amid to investigate probable therapeutic effect of Thymoquinone against Methotrexateinduced damage on sperm parameters in mice. Material and methods: In this experimental study, 30 male mice (25-30 g) were divided into five groups of six in each. The mice were received normal saline (control group), Methotrexate (20 mg/kg), Methotrexate (20 mg/kg) + Thymoquinone (2, 10 and 20 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection. On the day after the last injection, the sperm parameters including motility, viability and count of sperms were assessed. Data analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA followed by Turkey test. Results: Methotrexate alone leaded to a significant reduction in sperm parameters compared to the control group (P=0.00). In groups treated with Methotrexate and Thymoquinone, sperm parameters (motility, viability, count sperm) did not showed any significant differences with control group (P=0.00). Conclusion: Thymoquinone, as a potent antioxidant, could compensate for the toxicity induced by Methotrexate. These medical trend may be useful for diminish the side effects of Methotrexate on male reproductive system. Keyword: Thymoquinone, Methotrexate, Sperm, Mice
Chemical reaction-driven tip-streaming phenomena in a pendant drop

We describe a chemical oscillatory phenomenon which occurs as follows: a pendant drop of water is immersed in a viscous oil, both phases containing reagents which react to produce a surfactant at the interface. As the drop falls away from the tip of a small needle, the remaining interface spontaneously elongates into a sharp cone and ejects small droplets from the pointed tip. The tip then either contracts and re-elongates periodically, or remains steadily elongated. Small droplets continue to be ejected in either case, and the phenomenon persists over a period of tens of minutes. Quantitative measurements connect these chemically driven phenomena with studies in four-roll mills. A mechanism is proposed by which these phenomena are sustained by Marangoni stresses.
Diabetes

Hyperglycemia, caused by impaired insulin sensitivity or secretion, is the hallmark of diabetes. In epidemiologic studies, diabetes has been related to cognitive impairment and both vascular and neurodegenerative forms of dementia.1 As diabetes and dementia are more common at older ages, it is possible that their association is attributable to common causes. It is also possible that type 2 diabetes affects cognitive function only at older ages when the brain undergoes neurodegenerative changes associated with ageing.2 In this issue of Neurology®, data from the Framingham Heart Study show diabetes to be associated with subtle brain injury and poor performance on tests of memory, visual perception, and attention.3 Although fasting glucose was not associated with performance on cognitive tests, it was associated with gray matter atrophy and reduced white matter integrity. These results are striking because the mean age of participants was 40 years at the glycemic assessment and 47 years at cognitive assessment and brain imaging. Recent studies have also reported accelerated cognitive decline in middle-aged adults with longer exposure to type 2 diabetes.4,5 These results, considered together, suggest that the diabetes-cognition association is not confined to old age.
Association of serum lipid levels with diabetic retinopathy in a tertiary care centre in Tamilnadu

AIM OF THE STUDY: Primary Aim: To study association between serum lipid levels & severity of Diabetic retinopathy Secondary Aim: To assess the proportion of patients with dyslipidemia among patients with diabetic retinopathy To assess association between various types of lipoproteins with diabetic retinopathy MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective observational study conducted among patients attending Ophthalmology OPD in a tertiary care hospital.It is a cross-sectional,hospital based study spanning over a period of 18 months from June 2011 to November 2012.100 type 2 diabetic patients attending Ophthalmology OPD were examined by ophthalmoscopy and fundus fluorescein angiography.Their diabetic retinopathy status was graded according to ETDRS classification.Their serum lipid levels were assessed.Association between serum lipid levels and retinopathy severity were assessed using SPSS software. RESULTS: In our study the incidence of diabetic retinopathy was 55% and 45% had no features of diabetic retinopathy. In our study, 45% had no signs of diabetic retinopathy, 46% had non-proliferative retinopathy and 9% had proliferative retinopathy. Mean age in the no diabetic retinopathy group was 54.02,in NPDR group it was 57.56 and in the PDR group it was 55.55. According to our study,the mean total cholesterol levels are 177.22 in diabetics without retinopathy, 186.86 in NPDR and 159.33 in PDR. 20 of the 55 patients (36.3%) with retinopathy had elevated serum total cholesterol levels.63. 6% of retinopathy patients had desirable cholesterol levels.The mean triglyceride levels were calculated as 141.97 in diabetics without diabetic retinopathy, 163.13 in NPDR and 195.00 in PDR patients. The mean HDL values were 39.73 in diabetics without diabetic retinopathy, 36.80 in NPDR and 31.66 in PDR. Mean LDL levels in diabetics without diabetic retinopathy was 113.13, 116.04 in NPDR and 99.33 in PDR. 22 of 55 retinopathy cases (40%) had optimal levels of LDL.Mean glycosylated haemoglobin level was 8.12 in diabetics without retinopathy, 8.74 in NPDR AND 10.00 in PDR . Mean Fasting blood glucose level was 154.22 in diabetics without retinopathy, 169.63 in NPDR and 191.11 in PDR. Mean creatinine level was 0.75 in diabetics without retinopathy, 0.80 in NPDR and 0.86 in PDR. Mean serum haemoglobin is 13.33 in diabetics without retinopathy, 13.17 in NPDR and 11.87 in PDR. CONCLUSION: No significance was found with severity of diabetic retinopathy and total serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride,HDL and LDL levels.Of the retinopathy patients, 36.3% had elevated serum total cholesterol levels, 70.9% had low HDL and 60% elevated LDL levels.No significant association was found between severity of diabetic retinopathy and fasting blood glucose levels and also serum creatinine levels.There was significant association between glycosylated hemoglobin and diabetic retinopathy severity.And also significant negative association with haemoglobin levels and severity of diabetic retinopathy.