Patient education in glaucoma: what do patients know about glaucoma?

PURPOSE: To evaluate the knowledge glaucoma patients have about their disease and its treatment. METHODS: One hundred and eighty-three patients were interviewed at the Glaucoma Service of Wills Eye Hospital (Philadelphia, USA, Group 1) and 100 at the Glaucoma Service of University of Campinas (Campinas, Brazil, Group 2). An informal, relaxed atmosphere was created by the interviewer before asking a list of 18 open-ended questions. RESULTS: In Group 1, 44% of the 183 patients did not have an acceptable idea about what glaucoma is, 30% did not know the purpose of the medications they were taking, 47% were not aware of what was an average intraocular pressure, and 45% did not understand why visual fields were examined. In Group 2, 54% gave unsatisfactory answers to the question What is glaucoma? , 54% did not know the purpose of the medications they were taking, 80% were not aware of what was an average intraocular pressure, and 94% did not understand why visual fields were examined (p\u3c0.001). Linear regression analysis demonstrated that level of education was positively correlated to knowledge about glaucoma in both groups (r=0.65, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed that patients\u27 knowledge about glaucoma varies greatly, and that in an urban, American setting, around one third of the patients have minimal understanding, whereas in an urban setting in Brazil around two thirds of patients were lacking basic information about glaucoma. Innovative and effective methods are needed to correct this situation

Patient Education In Glaucoma: What Do Patients Know About Glaucoma?

To evaluate the knowledge glaucoma patients have about their disease and its treatment. One hundred and eighty-three patients were interviewed at the Glaucoma Service of Wills Eye Hospital (Philadelphia, USA, Group 1) and 100 at the Glaucoma Service of University of Campinas (Campinas, Brazil, Group 2). An informal, relaxed atmosphere was created by the interviewer before asking a list of 18 open-ended questions. In Group 1, 44% of the 183 patients did not have an acceptable idea about what glaucoma is, 30% did not know the purpose of the medications they were taking, 47% were not aware of what was an average intraocular pressure, and 45% did not understand why visual fields were examined. In Group 2, 54% gave unsatisfactory answers to the question What is glaucoma?, 54% did not know the purpose of the medications they were taking, 80% were not aware of what was an average intraocular pressure, and 94% did not understand why visual fields were examined (p<0.001). Linear regression analysis demonstrated that level of education was positively correlated to knowledge about glaucoma in both groups (r=0.65, p=0.001). This study showed that patients' knowledge about glaucoma varies greatly, and that in an urban, American setting, around one third of the patients have minimal understanding, whereas in an urban setting in Brazil around two thirds of patients were lacking basic information about glaucoma. Innovative and effective methods are needed to correct this situation.69923-

Relighting Photographs of Tree Canopies

International audienceWe present an image-based approach to relighting photographs of tree canopies. Our goal is to minimize capture overhead; thus the only input required is a set of photographs of the tree taken at a single time of day, while allowing relighting at any other time. We first analyze lighting in a tree canopy both theoretically and using simulations. From this analysis, we observe that tree canopy lighting is similar to volumetric illumination. We assume a single-scattering volumetric lighting model for tree canopies, and diffuse leaf reflectance; we validate our assumptions with synthetic renderings. We create a volumetric representation of the tree from 10-12 images taken at a single time of day and and use a single-scattering participating media lighting model. An analytical sun and sky illumination model provides consistent representation of lighting for the captured input and unknown target times. We relight the input image by applying a ratio of the target and input time lighting representations. We compute this representation efficiently by simultaneously coding transmittance from the sky and to the eye in spherical harmonics. We validate our method by relighting images of synthetic trees and comparing to path-traced solutions. We also present results for photographs where sparse, validating with time-lapse ground truth sequences

Uma introdução ao estudo dos poliedros com o uso do computador

Apresenta uma proposta didática alternativa de introdução à geometria espacial, principalmente aos poliedros, através do uso do computador. O software utilizado foi Poly. Este programa permite o reconhecimento e análise dos diferentes poliedros, através da manipulação das figuras em suas variadas representações: as imagens tridimensionais, as planificações e as incrustações topológicas no plano. Um objetivo importante é o de mostrar ao aluno uma gama de figuras poliédricas, facilitando, por consequência, o processo de visualização. As atividades de ensino elaboradas foram aplicadas em turmas concluintes do ensino médio de uma escola técnica pública situada na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. A partir da experiência realizada, são discutidos alguns fatores educacionais e tecnológicos que impulsionaram a facilidade da compreensão de conceitos de poliedros, faces, arestas e vértices. As atividades elaboradas também mostram os aspectos fundamentais dos processos de generalização e construção de relações matemáticas, tal como a relação de Euler (V + F = A + 2). O uso do computador, com ferramenta de ensino, apresentou vantagens em relação à metodologia tradicional, tal com a simplificação de observação de figuras de difícil construção pelo professor. Isto resultou numa melhoria para a compreensão dos conceitos abordados e representação mental das figuras poliédricas

Utilização de poliedros: um estudo de caso

Apresenta uma proposta didática alternativa de introdução à geometria espacial, principalmente aos poliedros, através do uso do computador. O software utilizado foi Poly. Este programa permite o reconhecimento e análise dos diferentes poliedros, através da manipulação das figuras em suas variadas representações: as imagens tridimensionais, as planificações e as incrustações topológicas no plano. Um objetivo importante é o de mostrar ao aluno uma gama de figuras poliédricas, facilitando, por consequência, o processo de visualização. As atividades de ensino elaboradas foram aplicadas em turmas concluintes do ensino médio de uma escola técnica pública situada na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. A partir da experiência realizada, são discutidos os alguns fatores educacionais e tecnológicos que impulsionaram a facilidade da compreensão de conceitos de poliedros, faces, arestas e vértices. As atividades elaboradas também mostram os aspectos fundamentais dos processos de generalização e construção de relações matemáticas, tal como a relação de Euler (V + F = A + 2). O uso do computador, com ferramenta de ensino, apresentou vantagens em relação à metodologia tradicional, tal com a simplificação de observação de figuras de difícil construção pelo professor. Isto resultou numa melhoria para a compreensão dos conceitos abordados e representação mental das figuras poliédricas

Clean-Room lithographical processes for the fabrication of Graphene biosensors

This work is on developing clean-room processes for the fabrication of electrolyte-gate graphene field-effect transistors at the wafer scale for biosensing applications. Our fabrication process overcomes two main issues: removing surface residues after graphene patterning and the dielectric passivation of metallic contacts. A graphene residue-free transfer process is achieved by using a pre-transfer, sacrificial metallic mask that protects the entire wafer except the areas around the channel, source, and drain, onto which the graphene film is transferred and later patterned. After the dissolution of the mask, clean gate electrodes are obtained. The multilayer SiO2/SiNx dielectric passivation takes advantage of the excellent adhesion of SiO2 to graphene and the substrate materials and the superior impermeability of SiNx. It hinders native nucleation centers and breaks the propagation of defects through the layers, protecting from prolonged exposition to all common solvents found in biochemistry work, contrary to commonly used polymeric passivation. Since wet etch does not allow the required level of control over the lithographic process, a reactive ion etching process using a sacrificial metallic stopping layer is developed and used for patterning the passivation layer. The process achieves devices with high reproducibility at the wafer scale.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2020, UIDP/00013/2020, and Operational Program Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) under project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031069 (PORTGRAPHE). This work was partially supported by E.U. Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under project MULTIMAL (grant #777222). P.D. Cabral acknowledges the Ph.D. grant (SFRH/BD/128579/2017) from the FC

Rate dependencies and energy absorption characteristics of nanoreinforced, biofiber, and microcellular polymer composites

The effects of loading rate on bio‐, nano‐, and microcellular composite systems have been studied. Fiber–resin systems have been manufactured and dynamically tested at various speeds to assess their strain‐rate dependencies (rate hardening) and energy‐dissipation characteristics compared to conventional materials. The following composite systems have been fabricated and studied: polypropylene/sisal fiber biocomposite, hemp/vinyl ester biocomposite, thermoplastic olefin/nanoclay composite, microcellular polypropylene/sisal fiber biocomposite, and microcellular thermoplastic olefin/nanoclay composite. It has been determined that the biocomposite systems studied possess unique energy dissipation characteristics and muted rate dependence, while the nanocomposite system did not. In addition, microcellular foaming of these materials further enhanced the effects. Though the exact mechanisms at play are not fully understood at this point, it has been found that in addition to the microcellular voids, the anatomical vasculature of the natural fibers may play a role in energy dissipation processes in these hybrid materials. POLYM. COMPOS., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics EngineersPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87107/1/21169_ftp.pd

Alkaloid isomerization induced by spray drying of Uncaria tomentosa bark extracts

Cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa (Willd) DC) is an alkaloid rich-liana from the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Regarding several oxindole alkaloids from cat's claw bark, the isomerization induced by pH, temperature and solvent polarity is reported in the literature. Some industrial drying processes, such as spray drying, can provide therefore favorable conditions of heating and moisture for isomerization, and it is expected to have effects on the alkaloid composition during technological processing. In this work we focused on the effect of spray drying on the isomerization of alkaloids of dried extracts obtained from Uncaria tomentosa bark. High isomerization levels were observed in all dried extracts. A loss in mitraphylline (15%) and pteropodine (12%) content is related to an equivalent content increase of isomitraphylline and isopteropodine, respectively. Since different biological and pharmacological activities had been ascribed to these alkaloids, the influence of the thermal effect inherent to the spray drying technique and excipient type should be worth of special attention.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

SPATIO-TEMPORAL PATTERN AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH TUBERCULOSIS MORTALITY IN A NORTHEASTERN STATE - BRAZIL

Objective: to identify the spatio-temporal pattern of tuberculosis mortality and its related factors.Method: ecological study, using as unit of analysis the municipalities of the state of Ceará, Brazil, during the period from 2001 to 2017. Tuberculosis mortality was analyzed by temporal and spatial analysis techniques.Results: in the period, 1,513 deaths from tuberculosis were reported. An average annual increase of 15% in mortality was detected (95% Confidence Interval: 6.2 - 24.6). The indicators that most influenced mortality were life expectancy at birth (β=3.38), households with inadequate water supply and sanitation (β=-0.01) and probability of survival to 60 years (β=-2.26).Conclusion: this study evidenced the increase in the temporal pattern of tuberculosis mortality over the years. Care strategies aimed at treatment adherence and public health strategies aimed at improving the environment of the population should therefore be emphasized