Class A drug abuse: an ophthalmologist's problem?

[First Paragraph] The 2002/3 British Crime Survey reported that 3% of all 16 to 59 year olds (equating to around one million people) had used a class A drug in the last year. Use of a class A drug in the 16-24 year old age group (8%) has remained similar since 1996. Use of cocaine and crack cocaine are on the increase. For the first time since 1996 the use of ecstasy has decreased. Poly drug use is not uncommon. During the year 2000/1, 118,500 patients were in treatment with drug misuse agencies and general practitioners. Ocular sequelae from illicit drug use are varied, affecting visual acuity, visual perception, ocular posture or motility, the globe itself or its adnexa. Large studies are not available to allow us to quantify the problem, and many of the reports are of single cases or small case series. However, an awareness of possible problems which may arise from the use of class A drugs may alert the clinician to this as the aetiology of a condition presenting to them

Digital Image Access & Retrieval

The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio

Para além da superfície visual: os anúncios publicitários vistos à luz da semiótica social. Representações e discursos da heterossexualidade e de género

Na sequência de investigações anteriores, centradas em imagens publicitárias de revistas femininas, pretendemos neste trabalho apresentar a grelha de análise visual que construímos a partir da gramática visual de Kress e van Leeuwen (1996) e mostrar que a descrição detalhada e sistemática dos recursos visuais que ela possibilita é relevante para reconstruirmos os conhecimento ou discursos subjacentes às imagens. Destacamos em particular o caso dos discursos da heterossexualidade usados neste tipo de imagens que permite revelar e expor as contradições da ideologia sexista, e os seus modos de actuação “cada vez mais subtis” (Lazar, 2005: 1)

Ages and Metallicities of Young Globular Clusters in the Merger Remnant NGC 7252

UV-to-visual spectra of eight young star clusters in the merger remnant and protoelliptical galaxy NGC 7252, obtained with the Blanco 4-m telescope on Cerro Tololo, are presented. These clusters lie at projected distances of 3-15 kpc from the center and move with a velocity dispersion of 140+/-35 km/s in the line of sight. Seven of the clusters show strong Balmer absorption lines in their spectra [EW(H-beta)= 6-13 Angstrom], while the eighth lies in a giant HII region and shows no detectable absorption features. Based on comparisons with model-cluster spectra by Bruzual & Charlot (1996) and Bressan, Chiosi, & Tantalo (1996), six of the absorption-line clusters have ages in the range of 400-600 Myr, indicating that they formed early on during the recent merger. These clusters are globular clusters as judged by their small effective radii and ages corresponding to ~100 core crossing times. The one emission-line object is <10 Myr old and may be a nascent globular cluster or an OB association. The mean metallicities measured for three clusters are solar to within +/-0.15 dex, suggesting that the merger of two likely Sc galaxies in NGC 7252 formed a globular-cluster system with a bimodal metallicity distribution. Since NGC 7252 itself shows the characteristics of a 0.5-1 Gyr old protoelliptical, its second-generation solar-metallicity globulars provide direct evidence that giant ellipticals with bimodal globular-cluster systems can form through major mergers of gas-rich disk galaxies.Comment: 34 pages, incl. 6 figures in EPS format, AAS LaTeX, to be published in AJ, Vol. 116, Nov. 199

A visual survey of the inshore fish communities of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

An in situ visual survey technique (5 minutes and 100 m2 area) was used to assess the inshore fishes off Gran Canaria. In 1996, 211 visual surveys were conducted at 7 localities. Locations differed significantly among each other with regards to the number of species per survey (ANOVA: p < 0.01). The five most abundant species were Chromis limbatus, Boops boops, Pomadasys incisus, Abudefduf luridus, and Thalassoma pavo with respective mean abundances of 65.6, 37.4, 16.7, 8.7, and 4.5 per 100 m2. Detrended Correspondence Analysis, a multivariate ordination technique showed that the major determinant of community structure is substrate type. The majority of the surveyed species had low axis 1 ordination scores indicating a strong association with a hard substrate. The step-wise linear regression models explained 45.3 % and 1 1.4% of the variation in the first and second axis survey ordination scores, respectively

A visual survey of the inshore fish communities of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

An in situ visual survey technique (5 minutes and 100 m2 area) was used to assess the inshore fishes off Gran Canaria. In 1996, 211 visual surveys were conducted at 7 localities. Locations differed significantly among each other with regards to the number of species per survey (ANOVA: p < 0.01). The five most abundant species were Chromis limbatus, Boops boops, Pomadasys incisus, Abudefduf luridus, and Thalassoma pavo with respective mean abundances of 65.6, 37.4, 16.7, 8.7, and 4.5 per 100 m2. Detrended Correspondence Analysis, a multivariate ordination technique showed that the major determinant of community structure is substrate type. The majority of the surveyed species had low axis 1 ordination scores indicating a strong association with a hard substrate. The step-wise linear regression models explained 45.3 % and 1 1.4% of the variation in the first and second axis survey ordination scores, respectively

Primary congenital glaucoma surgery: outcomes and visual function

Purpose: To assess the long-term visual outcomes of children with PCG, irrespective of the type of surgical procedure, and to create visual acuity curves to help in predicting the development of visual function in these patients. The secondary aim is to identify associated factors for visual decline or loss, highlighting differences between neonatal and infantile subgroups. Methods: The medical records of pediatric glaucoma patients from 1996 to 2017 at the University Hospital of Verona (Verona, Italy) were retrospectively reviewed. Visual acuities, surgeries, PCG subtype and etiology of vision impairment were recorded. Statistical analyses were performed to detect factors associated with vision decline. Results: Sixty-seven eyes (40 patients) were included in the study. Developmental predictive curves of visual acuity showed that children with infantile PCG had a better visual outcome than children with neonatal PCG at each step of follow-up. A good-to-moderate VA (&lt; 1 LogMAR) was achieved in 56 eyes (83.6%), while 11 eyes (16.4%) had poor VA ( 65 1 LogMAR). The age at onset, sex, number of surgeries, intraocular pressure (IOP) control (with or without antiglaucoma drugs), axial length (AL) and corneal opacities were statistically associated with vision impairment (p &lt; 0.01). The main cause of visual impairment was amblyopia. Conclusions: Visual outcomes of PCG significantly correlate with the age at diagnosis. Although a good long-term IOP control can often be achieved in PCG, often the visual acuity remains below the lower limits of the normal range. Poor vision in childhood is related to global developmental problems, and referral to third-level services should not be delayed to prevent vision impairment. In this regard, visual acuity curves can be a useful tool for the consultant ophthalmologist to define the visual development of children affected by PCG

Treating reading difficulties with colour [Editorial]

yesAround 3-6% of children in the United Kingdom have substantial difficulties learning to read, a condition often referred to as dyslexia. They are at high risk of educational underachievement. In a 1996 editorial in The BMJ, Margaret Snowling argued that dyslexia is a verbal (not a visual) disorder.1 An accumulation of evidence supports this position and shows that reading difficulties are best dealt with by interventions that target underlying weaknesses in phonological language skills and letter knowledge.2 The 2009 Rose report, which provides guidance for professionals in schools on identifying and teaching young people with dyslexia and reading difficulties, stresses the importance of early, phonological interventions.3 Despite this evidence, dyslexia is often associated with subjective experiences of visual distortions that lead to discomfort during reading (sometimes termed visual stress). It has been argued that these symptoms can be alleviated by using coloured overlays and lenses.4 Symptoms of visual stress are not unique to dyslexia, and proponents do not claim that the use of colour directly addresses the underlying cause of the reading difficulty. However, they argue that the reduction in visual distortion brought about by a change in colour can improve reading accuracy and fluency.