The interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences

__Abstract__ This working paper precedes our full article entitled “The evolution of Wright’s (1932) adaptive field to contemporary interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences” as published in the journal Biology & Philosophy (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10539-014-9450-2). The working paper features an extended literature overview of the ways in which fitness landscapes have been interpreted and used in the social sciences, for which there was not enough space in the full article. The article features an in-depth philosophical discussion about the added value of the various ways in which fitness landscapes are used in the social sciences. This discussion is absent in the current working paper. Th

Corneal clarity measurements in patients with keratoconus undergoing either penetrating or deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty

Khaled Alzahrani,1,2 Syarifah-Faiza Dardin,1 Fiona Carley,2 Arun Brahma,2 Debbie Morley,2 M Chantal Hillarby1 1Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 2Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK Purpose: To compare the corneal clarity measurement between penetrating keratoplasty (PK) and deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) in patients with keratoconus, using densitometry software for the Oculus Pentacam.Methods: A retrospective comparative study was carried out at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. Data were collected 12–18 months after corneal transplantation for keratoconus, including postoperative corneal densitometry, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central corneal thickness (CCT), and other relevant clinical details.Results: Analysis of 37 keratoconus eyes from 36 patients found there was a significantly higher corneal densitometry measurement after DALK than PK. This was predominantly in the posterior layer of the concentric zone 0–2 mm of the cornea (P=0.0004). A significant correlation was found between postoperative BCVA and corneal densitometry in DALK groups at full thickness (P=0.03). This correlation was seen in the central 0–2 mm (P=0.03) and posterior 0–2 mm (P=0.04) zones. In addition, within the DALK group, a correlation was found between central corneal thickness and densitometry at full thickness 2–6 mm (P=0.007), central 0–2 (P=0.04), central 2–6 mm (P=0.01), and at posterior 2–6 mm (P=0.01) zones.Conclusion: This study showed that corneal densitometry measurement differs depending on the type of corneal transplantation used to treat keratoconus patients. Densitometry may have an important role to play in the final BCVA achieved by patients undergoing corneal transplantation for keratoconus. Analysis of Oculus Pentacam images provides an objective evaluation to monitor the cornea status after the surgery. Keywords: keratocytes, corneal transplantation, corneal wound healing, keratoconus, transparenc

Corneal imaging and densitometry measurements in keratoconus patients to monitor disease progression and treatment outcomes after contact lens or Intacs treatment

Khaled Alzahrani,1,2 Cristina Cristian,3 Sophie Harper,3 Fiona Carley,3 Arun Brahma,3 Debbie Morley,3 M Chantal Hillarby1 1Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 2Ophthalmology Department, King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 3Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester, UK Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the pre- and posttreatment corneal densitometry and corneal thickness value of keratoconus (KCN) patients managed via contact lenses (CLs) or by both intrastromal corneal rings and contact lenses.Patients and methods: This prospective study was performed at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, UK. Patients were recruited before treatment and followed up for 12 months. Data of corneal densitometry and corneal thickness were collected using the Oculus Pentacam at the pretreatment visit and posttreatment visit at 12 months.Results: Corneal clarity significantly differs between both groups at pre treatment at zone 0–2 mm for the anterior layer (P=0.002). The same diversity is present at zone 2–6 mm for the anterior layer (P=0.003) and posterior layer (P=0.008). The corneal clarity diversity found was not statistically significant at 12 months post treatment (P>0.05). Corneal thickness was found to be statistically significantly different between pre treatment and post treatment for the CL group for central corneal thickness (CCT) and thinnest area (P=0.01 and P=0.02), respectively.Discussion: This study shows that KCN management with Intacs was found to be effective in maintaining corneal clarity for a longer time than that with CL alone. On the other hand, corneal clarity reduces with disease progression in cases managed with CLs only. Analysis of Oculus Pentacam images provides an objective evaluation to monitor the corneal status after these different pathways of management. Keywords: keratoconus, contact lenses, densitometry, Intacs, keratocyte, haz

Evaluation of corneal symmetry after UV corneal crosslinking for keratoconus

Hanan Mofty,1,2 Khaled Alzahrani,2 Fiona Carley,3 Sophie Harper,3 Arun Brahma,3 Leon Au,3 Debbie Morley,3 M Chantal Hillarby2 1Optometry Department, College of Applied Medical Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 2Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, 3Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester, UK Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess UV corneal crosslinking (CXL) treatment outcomes for keratoconus by evaluating the corneal regularity in patients through follow-up using the Oculus Pentacam.Patients and methods: A total of 18 eyes from CXL patients with keratoconus were studied before and after CXL treatment, and six eyes from six patients who were not treated with CXL served as controls. Treated patients had Pentacam images taken before CXL treatment and regularly 3 months post treatment up to the 12th month. Controls were imaged during their first appointment and after 12 months. Symmetry and asphericity were evaluated and correlated with both best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and maximum K-readings.Results: In the CXL-treated group, there was a significant improvement in the index of symmetrical variation (ISV) and keratoconus index (KI) at 3 months and in the index of height asymmetry (IHA) and minimum radius of curvature (Rmin) at 9 months post treatment. On the contrary, the untreated group’s indices showed some significant worsening in ISV, KI, central keratoconus index (CKI), and Rmin. A novel finding in our study was a slight positive shift of anterior asphericity in the 6 mm, 7 mm, and 8 mm 3 months after treatment, which had a correlation with BCVA (R2=0.390, p=0.053) and a strong correlation with maximum K-reading (R2=0.690, p=0.005). However, the untreated group had no significant changes after 1 year.Conclusion: The corneal asymmetrical shape is associated with the spherical aberration alteration influenced by temporal evolution of surface ablation and increased corneal haze. However, insignificant changes in symmetry attest the stabilization effect on cornea postoperatively as compared with controls. Keywords: keratoconus, crosslinking, topography, corneal haze, asphericit

Understanding social relationship evolution by using real-world sensing data

Mobile and pervasive computing technologies enable us to obtain real-world sensing data for sociological studies, such as exploring human behaviors and relationships. In this paper, we present a study of understanding social relationship evolution by using real-life anonymized mobile phone data. First, we define a friendship as a directed relation, i.e., person A regards another person B as his or her friend but not necessarily vice versa. Second, we recognize human friendship from a supervised learning perspective. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) approach is adopted as the inference model to predict friendship based on a variety of features extracted from the mobile phone data, including proximity, outgoing calls, outgoing text messages, incoming calls, and incoming text messages. Third, we demonstrate the social relation evolution process by using the social balance theory. For the friendship prediction, we achieved an overall recognition rate of 97.0 % by number and a class average accuracy of 89.8 %. This shows that social relationships (not only reciprocal friends and non-friends, but non-reciprocal friends) can be likely predicted by using real-world sensing data. With respect to the friendship evolution, we verified that the principles of reciprocality and transitivity play an important role in social relation evolution