Comparison of Standard and Total Keratometry Astigmatism Measured with three Different Technologies

Purpose: To compare the keratometric and total corneal astigmatism measures provided by three different technologies as well as to assess the level of interchangeability among them. Methods: A Prospective, comparative study enrolling 94 eyes from 53 patients (age, 29-77 years) was carried out. All participants were patients with the diagnosis of cataract or patients with a transparent crystalline lens but seeking surgical presbyopia correction. A complete eye examination was performed in all eyes, including corneal analysis with three different devices: IOL-Master 700 (Carl Zeiss Meditec), Cassini (i-Optics), and Pentacam (Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH). Interchangeability of standard and total keratometric readings (equivalent keratometric readings for Pentacam) and astigmatism measures with these three systems were evaluated with the Bland-Altman analysis. Results: Significantly higher standard and total keratometric readings were obtained with the IOL-Master compared to the other two systems (p<0.001). Likewise, a significantly higher magnitude of standard and total keratometric astigmatism was obtained with the Cassini system (p<0.001). Ranges of the agreement for corneal power measurements between devices varied from 0.58 D to 1.53 D, whereas they ranged from 0.46 D to 1.37 D for standard and total astigmatism measurements. Conclusion: Corneal power and astigmatism measures obtained with IOL-Master 700, Cassini, and Pentacam systems cannot be used interchangeably. The impact of these differences on the refractive predictability achieved with different types of intraocular lenses (IOL) should be evaluated in the future in order to define which is the best corneal evaluation approach for optimizing the IOL power calculations.The author, David P Piñero, has been supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness of Spain within the program Ramón y Cajal, RYC-2016-20471

Structure of the Ru, Ag and Te L X-ray emission spectra

Versión aceptada del artículo; finalmente publicada en: Rodriguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela; Sepulveda Peñaloza, Andres Humberto; Carreras, Alejo Cristian; Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio; Trincavelli, Jorge Carlos; Structure of the Ru, Ag and Te L X-ray emission spectra; Royal Society of Chemistry; Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry; 31; 3; 2016; 780-789Fil: Rodríguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Sepúlveda Peñaloza, Andrés Humberto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Sepúlveda Peñaloza, Andrés Humberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Sepúlveda Peñaloza, Andrés Humberto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Carreras, Alejo Cristian. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Carreras, Alejo Cristian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Carreras, Alejo Cristian. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Trincavelli, Jorge Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Trincavelli, Jorge Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.The emission of X-rays in atomic transitions from L-shell vacancy states of Ru, Ag and Te induced by electron incidence was studied. To this end, L X-ray spectra were measured with a wavelength dispersive spectrometer, and processed by a parameter optimization method previously developed. A large set of atomic parameters corresponding to diagram transitions, such as relative transition probabilities, characteristic energies and natural linewidths of the three elements, were determined. The results obtained are compared to the data found in the literature, when available. In general terms a good agreement was observed, supporting recent calculations based on the framework of the relativistic many-body problem in atoms. Spectral structures related to satellite and radiative Auger emissions were also analyzed, and energy shifts and relative intensities were determined. Many of these parameters were determined for the first time, which was possible due to the robustness of the spectral processing method used, even in the cases of peak overlapping and weak transitions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersionFil: Rodríguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez Cabello, Tabatha Pamela. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Sepúlveda Peñaloza, Andrés Humberto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Sepúlveda Peñaloza, Andrés Humberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Sepúlveda Peñaloza, Andrés Humberto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Carreras, Alejo Cristian. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Carreras, Alejo Cristian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Carreras, Alejo Cristian. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Castellano, Gustavo Eugenio. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Trincavelli, Jorge Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Trincavelli, Jorge Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Física Atómica, Molecular y Química (física de átomos y moléculas incluyendo colisión, interacción con radiación, resonancia magnética, Moessbauer Efecto.

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Baxandall: The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany

From autonomous vehicles to robotics and machinery, organizations are developing autonomous transportation systems in various domains. Strategic incentives point towards a fourth industrial revolution of cyber–physical systems with higher levels of automation and connectivity throughout the Internet of Things (IoT) that interact with the physical world. In the construction and mining sectors, these developments are still at their infancy, and practitioners are interested in autonomous solutions to enhance efficiency and reliability. This paper illustrates the enhanced design of a driverless bulldozer prototype using IoT-based solutions for the remote control and navigation tracking of the mobile machinery. We illustrate the integration of a cloud application, communication protocols and a wireless communication network to control a small-scale bulldozer from a remote workstation. Furthermore, we explain a new tracking functionality of work completion using maps and georeferenced indicators available via a user interface. Finally, we provide a preliminary safety and security risk assessment of the system prototype and propose guidance for application in real-scale machinery

Long-term Analysis of Epi-ON Corneal Collagen Cross-linking Outcomes in Corneal Ectasia

Purpose: To evaluate the 3-year follow-up clinical outcomes obtained in corneal ectasia using Epi-ON corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL). Methods: This study is a retrospective study enrolling 46 eyes from 32 patients with progressive corneal ectasia and treated with Epi-ON CXL in the period from September 2012 to April 2016. Two groups were differentiated according to the type of corneal ectasia: ectasia post-LASIK group (EPL, 12 eyes) and primary ectasia group (34 eyes). Two different platforms were used for the surgical protocol: VEGA CBM X LINKER platform (CSO, Firenze, Italy) and KXL (Avedro, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA). Visual, refractive, and corneal tomographic outcomes were evaluated during a 3-year follow-up. Results: A statistically significant improvement in the logMAR corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) was observed in the whole sample (p <0.001) during the follow-up, with half of the sample improving one or more lines of CDVA. Likewise, only significant changes were detected in steepest keratometry (p <0.001), corneal astigmatism (p = 0.012), and index of height asymmetry (p = 0.021), with a trend to increase. Regarding the comparison between groups, more significant improvement in CDVA was found in the EPL group compared to the primary ectasia group (−0.07 ± 0.09 vs −0.15 ± 0.14, p = 0.028). Likewise, a significant trend to more corneal thinning was observed in primary ectasia group (p = 0.034). Conclusion: Epi-ON CXL is efficacious for stabilizing the progression of primary and iatrogenic ectasias for most cases, with significant improvement of visual acuity associated.The author David P Piñero has been supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain within the program Ramón y Cajal, RYC-2016-20471

Information visualisation for risk identification in cyber-physical systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are defined as combining of computational and physical systems (Lee, 2006). Examples may include production systems and also critical infrastructure systems, such as power and water supply, elecommunication networks, transportation, government and emergency services (Ouyang, 2014). Typically, CPSs are highly complex socio-technical structures on several levels of hierarchy, with various interactions between many actors, objects and processes. As such, modelling has been a common approach to abstraction and understanding of such complex CPSs (Ouyang, 2014). By modelling system entities and their interconnections, hierarchically decomposing them into subsystems, one can analyse the behaviour of CPSs as a whole, track their vulnerabilities and prescribe improvements to mitigate potential risks. While in practice traditionally, text, tables and diagrams are used as visual representations for system modeling, when the systems become too complex, these representations introduce information overload for the users. Though Unified Modelling Language (UML) (Fowler & Scott, 2004) and SysML (Friedenthal et al., 2014) diagrams are based on standardised and clearly defined logical conventions (Patou et al., 2018), the visual techniques used are often subpar and do not allow achieving efficient visual communication of underlying information to its users (Sindiy et al., 2013). Information Visualisation is a branch of Human-Computer Interaction that studies “computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of data to amplify cognition” (Card et al., 1999). By encoding information into a changeable medium, it is said that information visualisations improve the cognitive processing power of users, allow fast information search, and assist recognition of patterns (Card et al., 1999). Using the concept of Uncontrolled Flows of Information and Energy (UFoI-E) (Guzman & Kozin, 2018), it is possible to build interactive diagrams to depict threats and hazards, corresponding detection, prevention and containment measures with respect to cyber-, physical and cyber physical layer states of CPSs. In the present study, we discuss the application of Information Visualisation techniques to design a model representation for UFoI-E-related risk identification in CPSs. Through designing an interactive visualisation that displays CPSs and their behaviour under various attack scenarios, our aim is to improve users’ ability to systemise and make sense of potential hazards, their sources and appropriate defense strategies