My Old Kentucky Home / words by Stephen C. Foster

Cover: drawing of a cottage and a blooming garden; Publisher: DeLuxe Music Co. (New York)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_b/1062/thumbnail.jp

Association of Disease Location and Treatment With Survival in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma of the Eye and Ocular Adnexal Region.

Importance: Primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the ocular region is rare, and the utility of surgery and radiation therapy remains unresolved. Objective: To explore the clinical characteristics and determine factors associated with overall survival in primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) and ocular adnexal (OA)-uveal DLBCL. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective analysis included 396 patients with ophthalmic DLBCL from January 1, 1973, through December 31, 2014, using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. The median follow-up was 39.0 months (interquartile range, 5.1-72.9 months). All patients diagnosed with primary DLBCL of the eye or retina (PVRL) or the eyelid, conjunctiva, choroid, ciliary body, lacrimal gland, or orbit (OA-uveal lymphoma) were included. Patients diagnosed at autopsy or with additional neoplastic disease were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures: Patient demographic characteristics, disease location, treatment modalities, and overall survival. Results: Forty-seven patients with PVRL (24 women [51.1%] and 23 men [48.9%]) and 349 with OA-uveal DLBCL (192 women [55.0%] and 157 men [45.0%]) had a similar mean (SD) age at diagnosis (69.6 [12.3] vs 66.1 [17.7] years). No difference in the use of surgery or radiation therapy by location was found. For all PVRL and OA-uveal DLBCL, a Cox proportional hazards regression model affirmed that age older than 60 years was associated with increased risk for death (hazard ratio [HR], 2.7; 95% CI, 1.9-4.0; P \u3c .001). Gross total resection was associated with a decreased risk for death (HR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.9; P = .04), whereas radiation therapy was not. The 5-year overall survival among patients with PVRL was 41.4% (SE, 8.6%); among those with OA-uveal DLBCL, 59.1% (SE, 2.8%; Mantel-Cox test, P = .007). Median overall survival was lower in PVRL (38.0 months; 95% CI, 14.2-61.8 months) than in OA-uveal DLBCL (96.0 months; 95% CI, 67.3-124.7 months; Mantel-Cox test, P = .007). In addition, median overall survival in ophthalmic-only disease was higher (84.0 months; 95% CI, 63.2-104.8 months) than that in primary DLBCL that occurred outside the central nervous system and ophthalmic regions (46.0 months; 95% CI, 44.4-47.6 months; Mantel-Cox test, P \u3c .001). Conclusions and Relevance: The 5-year survival in PVRL vs OA-uveal DLBCL differed by 17.7%, and overall survival was greater in ophthalmic DLBCL than in DLBCL located outside the central nervous system and ophthalmic regions. Younger age (≤60 years) and gross total resection were associated with increased survival

Review of Systemic Immunosuppression for Autoimmune Uveitis

The purpose of this review is to comprehensively examine the various therapeutic agents available to treat autoimmune eye disease, their indications, clinical safety and recent developments. The stepladder approach is reviewed, including corticosteroid administration of various forms, classic immunomodulators, and newer biologic response modifiers. The authors present that corticosteroid monotherapy is almost never curative and carries significant side effects, while immunomodulatory therapy, when used appropriately as way to induce steroid-free remission, carries far less risk of causing long-term complications and provides greater potential of altering the immune system to induce a durable remission. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40123-014-0023-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Evaluating Model Testing and Model Checking for Finding Requirements Violations in Simulink Models

Matlab/Simulink is a development and simulation language that is widely used by the Cyber-Physical System (CPS) industry to model dynamical systems. There are two mainstream approaches to verify CPS Simulink models: model testing that attempts to identify failures in models by executing them for a number of sampled test inputs, and model checking that attempts to exhaustively check the correctness of models against some given formal properties. In this paper, we present an industrial Simulink model benchmark, provide a categorization of different model types in the benchmark, describe the recurring logical patterns in the model requirements, and discuss the results of applying model checking and model testing approaches to identify requirements violations in the benchmarked models. Based on the results, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of model testing and model checking. Our results further suggest that model checking and model testing are complementary and by combining them, we can significantly enhance the capabilities of each of these approaches individually. We conclude by providing guidelines as to how the two approaches can be best applied together.Comment: 10 pages + 2 page reference

Cataract Surgery in Patients with Uveitis: Preoperative and Surgical Considerations

Cataract is one of the most frequent visual impairment complications of uveitis, accounting for up to 40% of the visual loss seen in these patients. In general, uveitis patients differ from the general cataract population in that they are younger and have a higher rate of comorbidities, however the rates of inflammatory sequelae vary markedly among uveitic entities. Cataract development may be influenced by the cause and duration of uveitis, the degree of inflammation control, and the use of corticosteroid therapy. Cataract surgery in patients with uveitis represents a serious challenge due to pre-existing ocular comorbidities that may limit the visual outcome and difficult the surgical procedure; the need for preoperative control of inflammation; and the efficacy of postoperative management to avoid immediate and late ocular complications. A detailed ophthalmologic exam prior to surgery is essential to know the status of pre-existing pathologic changes, adjust the medical therapy to achieve absolute control of inflammation, establish a surgical plan, and deliver an objective visual prognosis to the patient or the relatives. The key point to surgical success is the absolute control of inflammation, meaning no cells in the anterior chamber for at least 3 months prior to surgery. Today, minimally invasive phacoemulsification with acrylic foldable intraocular lens implantation is the standard of care for most patients with uveitis. It must be taken into consideration that higher rates of intraoperative and postoperative complications may occur. Vision-limiting pathology related to pre-existing uveitis complications are the major contributing factors for limited postoperative visual outcome

Old Folks at Home / words by Stephen C. Foster

Cover: text at top reads Way down upon de Swanee Riber; Publisher: National Music Co. (Chicago)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_f/1007/thumbnail.jp

Old Back Joe / words by Stephen C. Foster

Cover: drawing of an elderly African American male; photo of the Dinning Sisters, Caucasian, female vocal trio; Publisher: Calumet Music Co. (Chicago)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_e/1058/thumbnail.jp

Thermoregulation of Male Elaphe Spiloides in an Agriculturally-Fragmented Forest in Illinois

Anthropogenic forest fragmentation increases the amount of edge habitat. Although edges are harsh environments for many native species, ratsnakes often prefer this habitat. We examined thermoregulatory effectiveness of Central Ratsnakes (Elaphe spiloides) using forest edges preferentially to determine if edge preference is driven by increased thermoregulatory efficiencies. Six male subjects were located every 1-2 days using radio-telemetry and temperature sensitive transmitters. Subjects did not thermoregulate more efficiently in edges than in forest. Snakes were thermoconformers in both habitat types suggesting edge preference might be driven by other factors