Predictors of Visual Acuity Outcomes after Anti–Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Treatment for Macular Edema Secondary to Central Retinal Vein Occlusion

Purpose: To evaluate whether baseline demographic, clinical, and OCT characteristics predict visual acuity (VA) outcomes in patients receiving anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for macular edema (ME) due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Design: Post hoc analysis of the randomized noninferiority trial (Lucentis, Eylea, Avastin in CRVO) LEAVO Study from December 12, 2014, to December 16, 2016, carried out across 44 UK National Health Service ophthalmology departments. Participants: Data on 267 participants with a baseline best-corrected mean visual acuity (BCVA) range of 19 to 78 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study letter score (approximate Snellen equivalent, 20/32 to 20/320) who had central subfield thickness (CST) ≥ 320 μm on Spectralis OCT (Heidelberg Engineering) were analyzed. Methods: Study participants were randomized to receive repeated intravitreal injections of ranibizumab (0.5 mg/50 μl), aflibercept (2.0 mg/50 μl), or bevacizumab (1.25 mg/50 μl), and a protocol-driven pro re nata re-treatment regimen at 4 to 8 weekly visits was followed up to week 100 after 4 mandated 4-weekly loading injections. Main Outcome Measures: Change in BCVA and percentage of patients gaining ≥ 10 letters and achieving BCVA letter score > 70 letters at 52 and 100 weeks. Results: The analysis was adjusted for treatment effects and confirmed by sensitivity analysis. Age ≥ 75 years is a poor predictor for all 3 visual outcomes. Lower baseline BCVA predicted 10-letter gainers and higher gains in BCVA, although it is a poor predictor of achieving > 70 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study letters. None of the baseline OCT morphologic characteristics except ellipsoid zone (EZ) integrity influenced any visual outcomes. Both baseline CST and total macular volume showed a nonlinear relation to 10-letter gainers, with CST > 900 μm being a poor prognostic indicator. Baseline CST and macular volume did not predict mean change in BCVA or BCVA > 70 letters at 52 and 100 weeks. The sensitivity analysis conclusions after removing iCRVO were similar. Conclusions: At presentation, younger age, higher baseline BCVA, and a definitely intact subfoveal EZ are predictors of BCVA score > 70 letters at 100 weeks

Hybrid TiO2 Solar Cells Produced from Aerosolized Nanoparticles of Water-Soluble Polythiophene Electron Donor Layer

Hybrid solar cells (HSCs) with water soluble polythiophene sodium poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethyloxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTEBS) thin films produced using electrospray deposition (ESD) were fabricated, tested, and modeled and compared to devices produced using conventional spin coating. A single device structure of FTO/TiO2/PTEBS/Au was used to study the effects of ESD of the PTEBS layer on device performance. ESD was found to increase the short circuit current density (Jsc) by a factor of 2 while decreasing the open circuit voltage (Voc) by half compared to spin coated PTEBS films. Comparable efficiencies of 0.009% were achieved from both device construction types. Current-voltage curves were modeled using the characteristic solar cell equation and showed a similar increase in generated photocurrent with an increase by two orders of magnitude in the saturation current in devices from ESD films. Increases in Jsc are attributed to an increase in the interfacial contact area between the TiO2 and PTEBS layers, while decreases in Voc are attributed to incomplete film formation from ESD

Variance-constrained multiobjective control and filtering for nonlinear stochastic systems: A survey

The multiobjective control and filtering problems for nonlinear stochastic systems with variance constraints are surveyed. First, the concepts of nonlinear stochastic systems are recalled along with the introduction of some recent advances. Then, the covariance control theory, which serves as a practical method for multi-objective control design as well as a foundation for linear system theory, is reviewed comprehensively. The multiple design requirements frequently applied in engineering practice for the use of evaluating system performances are introduced, including robustness, reliability, and dissipativity. Several design techniques suitable for the multi-objective variance-constrained control and filtering problems for nonlinear stochastic systems are discussed. In particular, as a special case for the multi-objective design problems, the mixed H 2 / H ∞ control and filtering problems are reviewed in great detail. Subsequently, some latest results on the variance-constrained multi-objective control and filtering problems for the nonlinear stochastic systems are summarized. Finally, conclusions are drawn, and several possible future research directions are pointed out

Recent advances on recursive filtering and sliding mode design for networked nonlinear stochastic systems: A survey

Copyright © 2013 Jun Hu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Some recent advances on the recursive filtering and sliding mode design problems for nonlinear stochastic systems with network-induced phenomena are surveyed. The network-induced phenomena under consideration mainly include missing measurements, fading measurements, signal quantization, probabilistic sensor delays, sensor saturations, randomly occurring nonlinearities, and randomly occurring uncertainties. With respect to these network-induced phenomena, the developments on filtering and sliding mode design problems are systematically reviewed. In particular, concerning the network-induced phenomena, some recent results on the recursive filtering for time-varying nonlinear stochastic systems and sliding mode design for time-invariant nonlinear stochastic systems are given, respectively. Finally, conclusions are proposed and some potential future research works are pointed out.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant nos. 61134009, 61329301, 61333012, 61374127 and 11301118, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK under Grant no. GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

Concentrated Ground Plane Booster Antenna Technology for Multiband Operation in Handset Devices

The current demand in the handset antenna field requires multiband antennas due to the existence of multiple communication standards and the emergence of new ones. At the same time, antennas with reduced dimensions are strongly required in order to be easily integrated. In this sense, the paper proposes a compact radiating system that uses two non-resonant elements to properly excite the ground plane to solve the abovementioned shortcomings by minimizing the required Printed Circuit Board (PCB) area while ensuring a multiband performance. These non-resonant elements are called here ground plane boosters since they excite an efficient mode of the ground plane. The proposed radiating system comprises two ground plane boosters of small dimensions of 5 mm x 5 mm x 5 mm. One is in charge of the low frequency region (0.824-0.960 GHz) and the other is in charge of the high frequency region (1.710-2.170 GHz). With the aim of achieving a compact configuration, the two boosters are placed close to each other in a corner of the ground plane of a handset device (concentrated architecture). Several experiments related to the coupling between boosters have been carried out in two different platforms (barphone and smartphone), and the best position and the required matching network are presented. The novel proposal achieves multiband performance at GSM850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS