Comparison of astigmatism correction and visual outcomes in mix-and-match implantations of trifocal intraocular lenses with femtosecond laser-assisted arcuate keratotomy and contralateral bifocal Toric intraocular lenses

IntroductionAstigmatism reduces the postoperative visual performance after non-toric intraocular lenses (IOLs) implantation, and limits the use of refractive IOLs in cataract surgery. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy in astigmatism correction and the postoperative visual outcomes between the implantation of a trifocal IOL with femtosecond laser-assisted arcuate keratotomy (FSAK) in one eye and a bifocal toric IOL (TIOL) in the other, in patients with cataract and moderate astigmatism.MethodsThis prospective observational paired-eye study enrolled patients with cataract and corneal astigmatism (CA) between 0.75 and 2.25 D in both eyes. The patients underwent a mix-and-match treatment comprising trifocal IOL implantation with FSAK and bifocal TIOL implantation. We compared the visual acuity (VA) at all distances, defocus curve, postoperative refractive astigmatism (RfA), CA, high-order aberrations, modulation transfer function (MTF) curve, and Strehl ratio between the two eye groups.ResultsIn total, 41 patients (82 eyes) were enrolled and completed a 6-month follow-up. The 1- and 3-month uncorrected distance VA and 3-month uncorrected near VA were greater in eyes with bifocal TIOLs than with trifocal IOLs and FSAK (p = 0.036, 0.010, and 0.030, respectively), whereas the latter had greater uncorrected intermediate VA at every visit and greater VA in the intermediate range of defocus curve (at −1.50 and − 2.00 D) than the eyes with bifocal TIOLs. The postoperative RA of the eyes with trifocal IOL and FSAK was significantly higher than that of the bifocal TIOL-implanted eyes at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups.DiscussionBoth FSAK and TIOL implantation effectively reduce pre-existing moderate astigmatism in patients with cataract. The eyes with bifocal TIOLs had more stable long-term astigmatism correction, whereas those with trifocal IOLs and FSAK had better intermediate VA. Therefore, a mix-and-match implantation of trifocal IOL with FSAK and contralateral bifocal TIOL could achieve effective astigmatism correction and provide an overall optimal VA

Unraveling plant adaptation to nitrogen limitation from enzyme stoichiometry aspect in Karst soils: a case study of Rhododendron Pudingense

Enzyme stoichiometry can reflect the resource limitation of soil microbial metabolism, and research on the relationships between plants and resource limitation in Karst Microhabitats is scarcely investigated. To clarify the extracellular enzyme stoichiometry characteristics in soil across different karst microhabitats and how the Rhododendron pudingense adapts to nutrient restrictions, plot investigation experiments were set up in Zhenning County, Qinglong County, and Wangmo County of Guizhou Province which included total three karst microhabitats, i.e., soil surface (SS), rock gully (RG), and rock surface (RS), by analyzing he rhizosphere soil nutrient, extracellular enzyme activity, and nutrient content of R. pudingense. The findings indicated that all karst microenvironments experienced varying levels of nitrogen (N) limitation, with the order of N limitation being as follows: SS > RG > RS. Notably, there were significant discrepancies in N content among different plant organs (p< 0.05), with the sequence of N content as follows: leaf > stem > root. However, no significant differences were observed in nutrient content within the same organ across different microenvironments (p > 0.05). A noteworthy discovery was the significant allometric growth relationship between C-P in various organs (p< 0.05), while roots and stems exhibited a significant allometric growth relationship between N-P (p< 0.05). The study highlighted the substantial impact of Total Nitrogen (TN) and N-acquiring enzymes (NAE) on nutrient allocation within the components of R. pudingense. Overall, the research demonstrated that N was the primary limiting factor in the study area’s soil, and R. pudingense’s nutrient allocation strategy was closely associated with N limitations in the karst microenvironment. Specifically, the plant prioritized allocating its limited N resources to its leaves, ensuring its survival. This investigation provided valuable insights into how plants adapt to nutrient restrictions and offered a deeper understanding of soil-plant interactions in karst ecosystems

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Compressed Sensing Based Joint Rate Allocation and Routing Design in Wireless Sensor Networks

Compressed sensing for wireless sensor networks has attracted a lot of research attention in the last decade for its advantages in energy saving, robustness, and so on. Nevertheless, existing solutions mostly focus on the data compression performance while neglecting the energy efficiency. In this paper, we first present the joint resource allocation problem formulation based on compressed sensing. Then a distributed algorithm to compute the sampling rate and routes utilizing local network status is proposed. We conduct extensive experiments based on meteorological wireless sensor networks to verify the merit of our mechanism; it is shown that the proposed mechanism is able to achieve very high efficiency in terms of network lifetime and sensing quality compared with existing approaches

Effects of Water Regimes on Methane Emissions in Peatland and Gley Marsh

The increasing frequency of extreme drought and intense precipitation events with global warming may affect CH emissions from different types of wetlands by regulating drying–wetting cycles. To determine the effects of different water regimes on CH emissions, a mesocosm experiment was conducted. Soil cores sampled from peatland and gley marsh were subjected to two drying–wetting cycles (i.e., fluctuating between −10 and 10 cm for 7 and 15 d, respectively) and three steady water table treatments (10, 0, and −10 cm). Alternation between drying and wetting stimulated CH emissions ( = 16.03 for 7 d and = 31.85 for 15 d, < 0.01). The highest emission pulses were observed between 4 and 9 d after the water table increased according to the models. Peak pulse emissions significantly increased by 41% in peatland and 109% in gley marsh after rewetting compared with that in the steady 0-cm water table treatment. Peatland soils had higher CH emissions than gley marsh soils under steady water table treatments ( < 0.01). This study shows that large pulses of CH can be emitted during short-duration drying–wetting episodes. If these pulses are not accounted for in budgets, CH emissions may be incorrectly assessed when comparing with field measurements during regularly spaced sampling intervals over only a few days or weeks by the static opaque chamber technique. Accurate estimates of CH budgets not only depend on increased measurement frequency but by necessity should incorporate weather events that cause rapid changes in the soil moisture regime

A Robust Transmission Scheduling Approach for Internet of Things Sensing Service with Energy Harvesting

Maximizing the utility under energy constraint is critical in an Internet of Things (IoT) sensing service, in which each sensor harvests energy from the ambient environment and uses it for sensing and transmitting the measurements to an application server. Such a sensor is required to maximize its utility under the harvested energy constraint, i.e., perform sensing and transmission at the highest rate allowed by the harvested energy constraint. Most existing works assumed a sophisticated model for harvested energy, but neglected the fact that the harvested energy is random in reality. Considering the randomness of the harvested energy, we focus on the transmission scheduling issue and present a robust transmission scheduling optimization approach that is able to provide robustness against randomness. We firstly formulate the transmission scheduling optimization problem subject to energy constraints with random harvested energy. We then introduce a flexible model to profile the harvested energy so that the constraints with random harvested energy are transformed into linear constraints. Finally, the transmission scheduling optimization problem can be solved traditionally. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of providing a good trade-off between service flexibility and robustness

Increased Cathepsin D Correlates with Clinical Parameters in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes

Background. Cathepsin D has been recently implicated in insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between cathepsin D and newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Methods. Circulating cathepsin D levels and metabolic variables were measured in 98 cases and 98 controls. Myocardial performance index “Tei index” that reflects both left ventricular systolic and diastolic function was measured with Doppler echocardiography in cases. Results. Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes demonstrated significantly higher circulating cathepsin D concentrations than controls (median level: 227 ng/ml versus 174 ng/ml, P0.05). Interestingly, correlation analysis revealed a positive association between cathepsin D levels and Tei index in type 2 diabetes (r=0.22, P=0.03). Conclusions. Increased levels of circulating cathepsin D are closely linked with the presence of type 2 diabetes, and cathepsin D might serve as a novel biomarker for cardiac dysfunction in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes