Influence of chronic ocular hypertension on emmetropia: Refractive, structural and functional study in two rat models

Chronic ocular hypertension (OHT) influences on refraction in youth and causes glaucoma in adulthood. However, the origin of the responsible mechanism is unclear. This study analyzes the effect of mild-moderate chronic OHT on refraction and neuroretina (structure and function) in young-adult Long-Evans rats using optical coherence tomography and electroretinography over 24 weeks. Data from 260 eyes were retrospectively analyzed in two cohorts: an ocular normotension (ONT) cohort (20 mmHg), in which OHT was induced either by sclerosing the episcleral veins (ES group) or by injecting microspheres into the anterior chamber. A trend toward emmetropia was found in both cohorts over time, though it was more pronounced in the OHT cohort (p < 0.001), especially in the ES group (p = 0.001) and males. IOP and refraction were negatively correlated at week 24 (p = 0.010). The OHT cohort showed early thickening in outer retinal sectors (p < 0.050) and the retinal nerve fiber layer, which later thinned. Electroretinography demonstrated early supranormal amplitudes and faster latencies that later declined. Chronic OHT accelerates emmetropia in Long–Evans rat eyes towards slowly progressive myopia, with an initial increase in structure and function that reversed over time. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Single-crystal vs polycrystalline boron-doped diamond anodes: Comparing degradation efficiencies of carbamazepine in electrochemical water treatment

The ongoing challenge of water pollution by contaminants of emerging concern calls for more effective wastewater treatment to prevent harmful side effects to the environment and human health. To this end, this study explored for the first time the implementation of single-crystal boron-doped diamond (BDD) anodes in electrochemical wastewater treatment, which stand out from the conventional polycrystalline BDD morphologies widely reported in the literature. The single-crystal BDD presented a pure diamond (sp3) content, whereas the three other investigated polycrystalline BDD electrodes displayed various properties in terms of boron doping, sp3/sp2 content, microstructure, and roughness. The effects of other process conditions, such as applied current density and anolyte concentration, were simultaneously investigated using carbamazepine (CBZ) as a representative target pollutant. The Taguchi method was applied to elucidate the optimal operating conditions that maximised either (i) the CBZ degradation rate constant (enhanced through hydroxyl radicals (•OH)) or (ii) the proportion of sulfate radicals (SO4•−) with respect to •OH. The results showed that the single-crystal BDD significantly promoted •OH formation but also that the interactions between boron doping, current density and anolyte concentration determined the underlying degradation mechanisms. Therefore, this study demonstrated that characterising the BDD material and understanding its interactions with other process operating conditions prior to degradation experiments is a crucial step to attain the optimisation of any wastewater treatment application.Micro and Nano Engineerin

Tl concentration and its variation in a CsI(Tl) crystal for the CALIFA detector

One of the factors that can contribute to the resolution of long, doped inorganic scintillators used for nuclear spectroscopy is the variation of the dopant concentration over the length the detector crystal. In this work an investigation of such potential variations in one of the CsI(Tl) scintillators used in the calorimeter, CALIFA, of the R3B experiment at FAIR, has been performed using particle induced X-ray emission. No statistically significant gradient in doping level was found along the long axis of the investigated sample crystal and the mean value of the Tl concentration was measured to be 0.0839(38)% by weight. This corresponds to a light output of 97.3−1.7 +1.3% relative to the maximum attainable light output according to previously published work. By taking the ±1σ bounds, the 3% statistical spread in the relative light output provides a good reference value of the minimum light-output non-uniformity observed for the CALIFA crystals. If the relative light output is estimated pointwise from a set of Tl concentration measurements a light-output non-uniformity of 4.6(2.4)% results. For a γ-ray energy of 662 keV the deduced variation in Tl concentration contributes with 0.48(6)% to the typical resolution of 7.74(6)% measured with a collimated source along the crystal main axis. The result is of interest for the characterization of the detector system performance and for realistic simulations of the light collection process in detector systems that are used for nuclear spectroscopy and calorimetry

A 1-year study to compare the efficacy and safety of once-daily travoprost 0.004%/timolol 0.5% to once-daily latanoprost 0.005%/timolol 0.5% in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension

European Journal of Ophthalmology172183-190EJOO

Epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection and sepsis in critically ill patients: “AbSeS”, a multinational observational cohort study and ESICM Trials Group Project

Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection in an international cohort of ICU patients according to a new system that classifies cases according to setting of infection acquisition (community-acquired, early onset hospital-acquired, and late-onset hospital-acquired), anatomical disruption (absent or present with localized or diffuse peritonitis), and severity of disease expression (infection, sepsis, and septic shock). Methods: We performed a multicenter (n = 309), observational, epidemiological study including adult ICU patients diagnosed with intra-abdominal infection. Risk factors for mortality were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Results: The cohort included 2621 patients. Setting of infection acquisition was community-acquired in 31.6%, early onset hospital-acquired in 25%, and late-onset hospital-acquired in 43.4% of patients. Overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was 26.3% and difficult-to-treat resistant Gram-negative bacteria 4.3%, with great variation according to geographic region. No difference in prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was observed according to setting of infection acquisition. Overall mortality was 29.1%. Independent risk factors for mortality included late-onset hospital-acquired infection, diffuse peritonitis, sepsis, septic shock, older age, malnutrition, liver failure, congestive heart failure, antimicrobial resistance (either methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria, or carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria) and source control failure evidenced by either the need for surgical revision or persistent inflammation. Conclusion: This multinational, heterogeneous cohort of ICU patients with intra-abdominal infection revealed that setting of infection acquisition, anatomical disruption, and severity of disease expression are disease-specific phenotypic characteristics associated with outcome, irrespective of the type of infection. Antimicrobial resistance is equally common in community-acquired as in hospital-acquired infection. © 2019, The Author(s)