Investigating possible retinal biomarkers of head trauma in Olympic boxers using optical coherence tomography (OCT)

Purpose: Changes to retina have been reported after a number of neurodegenerative conditions. The purpose of this study was to investigate retinal structures in Olympic boxers exposed to frequent head blows. Methods:Retinal imaging offers potential as a non-invasive biomarkers of neuropathology. Macula and retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness was measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in UK Olympic boxers attending two mandatory eye screening programs, 18 months apart. Data from the two eye-screenings provide longitudinal data of retinal change over time. Sedentary healthy subjects (controls) without past or present history of concussion were also screened at the time of the second boxer screening to provide comparison cross-sectional data. Results: Sixteen Olympic boxers aged 20-33 years and 20 sedentary healthy controls, aged 24-45 years were recruited. Significant macula thickening was observed over time (18 months) in 75% of right and 50% of left eye sectors. For RNFL, left eye quadrants thickened. For right eye RNFL quadrants, thickening and thinning of this layer was observed. Cross-sectional results showed thinner macula sectors and RNFL quadrants in Olympic boxers compared to controls. Conclusion: Significant change to macula and RNFL densities, occurring over an 18 month interval is an unexpected finding in otherwise heathy elite sportsmen. In addition, macula and RNFL were thinner than healthy sedentary controls. OCT may prove clinically useful as a candidate retinal biomarker of neuropathological change after mild traumatic brain injury and/or repeat head blows

Defining young people's mental health self-care: a systematic review and co-development approach

Self-care is among the emerging types of mental health support which operate outside traditional services, although the meaning and practice of self-care for young people with mental health difficulties are currently unclear. This systematic review was pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021282510) and investigated conceptualizations of self-care in academic publications which investigated or discussed self-care for young people's mental health or wellbeing. A Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) workshop facilitated young people with experience of mental health difficulties to respond to the identified concepts and co-develop a definition of self-care. Searches in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Plus, Scopus, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews, and gray literature sources resulted in 90 included publications. Content analysis indicated little conceptual consistency, with health and wellness promotion most commonly used to define self-care. The PPI workshop co-developed a definition of mental health self-care, which attendees felt should emphasize an individual process of self-awareness, self-compassion, and specific strategies to work toward emotional balance. This study highlights the gap between current academic understandings of young people's mental health self-care and young people's experience. The presented definition will enable future research to begin from an understanding of self-care which is relevant to young people with experience of mental health difficulties

Coherently coupled photonic-crystal surface-emitting laser array

The realization of a 1 × 2 coherently coupled photonic crystal surface emitting laser array is reported. New routes to power scaling are discussed and the electronic control of coherence is demonstrated

Segmentation agreement and AI-based feature extraction of cutaneous infrared images of obese abdomen after caesarean section: results from a single training session.

Background: Infrared thermography in women undergoing caesarean section has promise to identify a surgical site infection prodrome characterised by changes in cutaneous perfusion with concomitant influences on temperature distribution across the abdomen. This study was designed to compare abdominal and wound regions of interest (ROI) and feature extraction agreement between two independent users after a single training session. Methods: Image analysis performed manually in MATLAB; each rater ‘blind’ to results of the other. Image ROIs were annotated via pixel-level segmentation creating pixel masks at 4 time-points during the first 30 days after surgery. Results: 366 matched image pairs (732 wound and abdomen labels in total) were obtained. Distribution of mask agreement using Jaccard similarity co-efficient ranged from 0.35 to 1. Good segmentation agreement (coefficient ≥ 0.7) (for mask size and shape) was observed for abdomen, but poor for wound (coefficient <0.7). From feature extraction, wound cold spots were observed most in those who later developed wound infections. Conclusions: Rater performance, with respect to the input (image) data in the first stage of algorithm development, reveals a lack of correspondence (agreement) of the ROI indicating the need for further work to refine the characteristics of output labels (masks) before an unsupervised algorithm will work effectively to learn patterns and features of the wound

MEASURED LEAKAGE AND ROTORDYNAMIC-COEFFICIENTS FOR THE FOLLOWING LIQUID ANNULAR SEALS: (A) SMOOTH-ROTOR/GROOVED-STATOR, AND (B) GROOVED-ROTOR/SMOOTH-STATOR

LectureTest results are presented and compared for the following annular pump seal geometries: (a) a smooth-rotor/circumferentially-grooved stator (SR/GS) and (b) a smooth-stator/circumferentially-grooved rotor (GR/SS). The GR/SS seal’s geometry and operating conditions are representative of electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) as used for oil recovery. The SR/GS seals’ nominal dimensions are identical with the GR/SS seal except for the reversed groove locations. Test results include static and rotordynamic data at speeds ω of 2, 4, 6 krpm for the SR/GS and 2, 4, 6, 8 krpm for the GR/SS seal. Both seals have axial pressure drops Δ of 2.1, 4.1, 6.2, 8.3 bars, a length-to-diameter ratio / of 0.5, and a minimum radial clearance of 203 μm. They employ 15 circumferential grooves with a length , and depth of 1.52 mm, which are equally spaced with a land length of 1.52 mm. Results are presented for centered conditions. Three different inlet-fluid pre-rotation inserts are used upstream of the test seals to create a range of inlet preswirl ratios. A Pitot tube is used to measure the circumferential velocity at one location immediately upstream of the test seals. The test fluid is ISOVG2 oil @ 46 °C.The GR/SS seal leaks about 10% more than the SR/GS seal. Generally, direct stiffness (Kxx, Kyy) values for both designs have low magnitudes that drop with increasing ω. The GR/SS seals’ Kxx, Kyy values dropped more rapidly and were negative at 6 krpm. For the SR/GS seals, Kyy was negative at 6 krpm, but Kxx was still positive. With either design, instability issues are as likely to arise because of negative direct stiffness that pulls down a pump’s critical speed versus directly destabilizing Kxy, Kyx coefficients. In the same operating conditions, the Kxy, Kyx coefficients’ magnitudes are ~2.5 times larger for GR/SS seals than for SR/GS seals --- significantly more destabilizing. Under the same conditions, the SR/GS seal has slightly more direct damping than the GR/SS seal. Direct virtual mass coefficients are about 20% larger for the SR/GS seals, inducing a lower critical speed.Whirl frequency ratio (WFR) combines the effects of the cross-coupled stiffness, direct damping, and cross-coupled mass terms and provides the best measure for comparing the two seal designs’ stability characteristics. Overall, the GR/SS seal WFR values are about three times higher than the comparable values for SR/GS seals --- much less stable. Effective swirl brakes that could sharply drop the seals’ inlet preswirl would be helpful for the GR/SS seal out to 4 krpm and helpful for the SR/GS seal out to 6 krpm

Do individual differences in face recognition ability moderate the other ethnicity effect?

Individuals are better at recognizing faces from their own ethnic group compared with other ethnicity faces—the other-ethnicity effect (OEE). This finding is said to reflect differences in experience and familiarity to faces from other ethnicities relative to faces corresponding with the viewers' ethnicity. However, own-ethnicity face recognition performance ranges considerably within a population, from very poor to extremely good. In addition, within-population recognition performance on other-ethnicity faces can also vary considerably with some individuals being classed as “other ethnicity face blind” (Wan et al., 2017). Despite evidence for considerable variation in performance within population for faces of both types, it is currently unclear whether the magnitude of the OEE changes as a function of this variability. By recruiting large-scale multinational samples, we investigated the size of the OEE across the full range of own and other ethnicity face performance while considering measures of social contact. We find that the magnitude of the OEE is remarkably consistent across all levels of within-population own- and other-ethnicity face recognition ability, and this pattern was unaffected by social contact measures. These findings suggest that the OEE is a persistent feature of face recognition performance, with consequences for models built around very poor, and very good face recognizers

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, Central Plateau, Southeastern, and Southern Brazil

This syndrome is an increasing health problem because of human encroachment into habitats of rodent reservoirs

Anticipatory anti-colonial writing in R.K. Narayan's Swami and Friends and Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable

This article uses the term “anticipatory anti-colonial writing” to discuss the workings of time in R.K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends and Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. Both these first novels were published in 1935 with the support of British literary personalities (Graham Greene and E.M. Forster respectively) and both feature young protagonists who, in contrasting ways, are engaged in Indian resistance to colonial rule. This study examines the difference between Narayan’s local, though ironical, resistance to the homogenizing temporal demands of empire and Anand’s awkwardly modernist, socially committed vision. I argue that a form of anticipation that explicitly looks forward to decolonization via new and transnational literary forms is a crucial feature of Untouchable that is not found in Swami and Friends, despite the latter’s anti-colonial elements. Untouchable was intended to be a “bridge between the Ganges and the Thames” and anticipates postcolonial negotiations of time that critique global inequalities and rely upon the multidirectional global connections forged by modernism