Bilateral macular hole formation secondary to sclopetaria caused by shockwaves transmitted by a posterior vector: case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sclopetaria is a rare ophthalmic finding in trauma</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>This is a report of a patient who developed macular holes from sclopetaria induced by indirect trauma. A 22-year-old male, suffered a gunshot wound that passed behind his eyes, resulting in bilateral macular hole formation</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To our knowledge, this is the first reported case in which trauma posterior to the globes caused bilateral macular hole formation</p

Detection of recurrent cytogenetic aberrations in multiple myeloma: A comparison between MLPA and iFISH

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a genetically heterogeneous disease with diverse clinical characteristics and outcomes. Recently, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) has emerged as an effective and robust method for the detection of cytogenetic aberrations in MM patients. In the present study, MLPA analysis was applied to analyze cytogenetics of CD138 tumor cells of 59 MM samples, and its result was compared, retrospectively, with the interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (iFISH) data. We firstly established the normal range of each of the 42 diagnostic probes using healthy donor samples. A total of 151 aberrations were detected in 59 patient samples, and 49/59 cases (83.1%) harbored at least one copy number variation. Overall, 0–7 aberrations were detected per case using MLPA, indicating the heterogeneity and complexity of MM cytogenetics. We showed the high efficiency of MLPA and the high congruency of the two methods to assess cytogenetic aberrations. Considering that MLPA analysis is not reliable when the aberration only exits in a small population of tumor cells, it is essential to use both MLPA and iFISH as complementary techniques for the diagnosis of MM

Partial albinism in black ibis Pseudibis papillosa

Volume: 107Start Page: 58End Page: 5

Mysterious Characters Recorded in Black headed Ibis Threskiornis Melanocephalus During Breeding Season

Volume: 106Start Page: 206End Page: 20

First record: selection of an electrical pole as a roosting site by black ibis in North Gujarat region

Volume: 107Start Page: 59End Page: 5

Investigation of sediment erosion phenomenon for different blade angle distribution in Francis runner

Wear and tear of hydraulic turbine due to sediment erosion is one of the major problems in hydropower plants located in the Himalayan and Andes regions. High sediment concentration in water of such areas wears down the mechanical components rapidly which causes significant operational challenges. In the present work, a prototype high head Francis runner with speed number 0.32 has been considered as reference case and other designs have been obtained modifying the blade angle distribution with same hydraulic parameters. Full turbine steady state numerical calculations were carried out at the best efficiency point and corresponding performance and erosion pattern are observed. Hydraulic efficiency and sediment erosion rate density are compared for the different cases taken into consideration. Sediment erosion analysis gives an indication of relative erosion intensity and critical zones of erosion damage in runner. Erosion was observed at the inlet near hub and shroud region and was mostly concentrated at the outlet of runner blades for all cases, where relative velocity is higher. Numerical results from CFD are also compared with the actual eroded turbine from the powerplant

Detection of Malpractice in E-exams by Head Pose and Gaze Estimation

Examination malpractice is a deliberate wrong doing contrary to official examina-tion rules designed to place a candidate at unfair advantage or disadvantage. The proposed system depicts a new use of technology to identify malpractice in E-Exams which is essential due to growth of online education. The current solu-tions for such a problem either require complete manual labor or have various vulnerabilities that can be exploited by an examinee. The proposed application en-compasses an end-to-end system that assists an examiner/evaluator in deciding whether a student passes an online exam without any probable attempts of mal-practice or cheating in e-exams with the help of visual aids. The system works by categorizing the student’s VFOA (visual focus of attention) data by capturing the head pose estimates and eye gaze estimates using state-of-the-art machine learn-ing techniques. The system only requires the student (test-taker) to have a func-tioning internet connection along with a webcam to transmit the feed. The exam-iner is alerted when the student wavers in his VFOA, from the screen greater than X, a predefined threshold of times. If this threshold X is crossed, the appli-cation will save the data of the person when his VFOA is off the screen and send it to the examiner to be manually checked and marked whether the action per-formed by the student was an attempt at malpractice or just momentary lapse in concentration. The system use a hybrid classifier approach where two different classifiers are used, one when gaze values are being read successfully (which may fail due to various reasons like transmission quality or glare from his specta-cles), the model falls back to the default classifier which only reads the head pose values to classify the attention metric, which is used to map the student’s VFOA to check the likelihood of malpractice. The model has achieved an accuracy of 96.04 percent in classifying the attention metric

Leakage Vortex Progression through a Guide Vane’s Clearance Gap and the Resulting Pressure Fluctuation in a Francis Turbine

A clearance gap (CG) between guide vanes (GVs) and facing plates exists at both ends of a Francis turbine and allows the opening angle to be adjusted for varying operating conditions. Leakage flow is induced through this gap due to the pressure difference between the two sides of the guide vanes. While some research works have used qualitative approaches to visualize and predict the strength of a leakage vortex (LV), this paper presents a method for quantifying vortices along a trajectory. In this paper, a prototype high-head Francis runner with specific speed of 85.4 is considered as a reference case. A systematic investigation across both space and time is carried out, i.e., analysis of the spatial temporal progression of LV for three operating conditions. While travelling from the CG to runner leading edge, LV evolution and trajectory data are observed and the values of vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy are calculated for the LV trajectory. Frequency spectrum analyses of pressure oscillations in the vaneless space, runner blade, and draft tube are also performed to observe the peak pressure pulsation and its harmonics. Unsteady fluctuations of the runner output torque are finally studied to identify the patterns and magnitudes of torque oscillations

Effect of Shorea robusta resin extract in 3-nitropropionic acid-induced Huntington's disease symptoms in Sprague-Dawley rats

Background and purpose: Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by neuronal death in the striatum. Asiatic acid is an active component of Shorea robusta (Dipterocarpaceae) plants with neuroprotective activity and is considered an acceptable therapeutic candidate for different neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, the beneficial pharmacological action of Shorea robusta resin extract (SRRE) was assessed in 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP)-induced HD in rats. Experimental approach: The neuroprotective effect of SRRE (285.7 and 666.7 mg/kg, p.o., 14 days) was studied in 3-NP (10 mg/kg)-induced rats by measuring body weight, behavioral parameters including neurological scoring, motor coordination, spatial memory, and depression-like behavior, neuro-biochemical parameters (gamma-aminobutyric acid and acetylcholinesterase), and oxidative stress parameter in the brain. Histopathology of the rat’s brain was also studied. Findings/Results: SRRE treatment (285.7 mg/kg and 666.7 mg/kg) substantially restored body weight, motor coordination, and mitochondrial enzyme complex I function and improved memory impairment as compared to 3-NP-treated rats. Furthermore, SRRE treatment significantly restored the antioxidant enzyme activity in brain tissue and ameliorated the histopathological changes induced by 3-NP. Conclusion and implications: The neuroprotective effect of SRRE on 3-NP-induced HD in rats was mediated by a reduction in oxidative stress which may favor the usefulness of Shorea robusta in HD