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

Different papillomaviruses have different repertoires of transcription factor binding sites: convergence and divergence in the upstream regulatory region

BACKGROUND: Papillomaviruses (PVs) infect stratified squamous epithelia in warm-blooded vertebrates and have undergone a complex evolutionary process. The control of the expression of the early ORFs in PVs depends on the binding of cellular and viral transcription factors to the upstream regulatory region (URR) of the virus. It is believed that there is a core of transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) common to all PVs, with additional individual differences, although most of the available information focuses only on a handful of viruses. RESULTS: We have studied the URR of sixty-one PVs, covering twenty different hosts. We have predicted the TFBS present in the URR and analysed these results by principal component analysis and genetic algorithms. The number and nature of TFBS in the URR might be much broader than thus far described, and different PVs have different repertoires of TFBS. CONCLUSION: There are common fingerprints in the URR in PVs that infect primates, although the ancestors of these viruses diverged a long time ago. Additionally, there are obvious differences between the URR of alpha and beta PVs, despite these PVs infect similar histological cell types in the same host, i.e. human. A thorough analysis of the TFBS in the URR might provide crucial information about the differential biology of cancer-associated PVs

Topological massive Dirac edge modes and long-range superconducting Hamiltonians

We discover novel topological effects in the one-dimensional Kitaev chain modified by long-range Hamiltonian deformations in the hopping and pairing terms. This class of models display symmetry-protected topological order measured by the Berry/Zak phase of the lower-band eigenvector and the winding number of the Hamiltonians. For exponentially decaying hopping amplitudes, the topological sector can be significantly augmented as the penetration length increases, something experimentally achievable. For power-law decaying superconducting pairings, the massless Majorana modes at the edges get paired together into a massive nonlocal Dirac fermion localized at both edges of the chain: a new topological quasiparticle that we call topological massive Dirac fermion. This topological phase has fractional topological numbers as a consequence of the long-range couplings. Possible applications to current experimental setups and topological quantum computation are also discussed

Use and Impact of Social Networks on Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Scientific Journals

Q4Objectives: Our research seeks to examine the correlation between the presence of physical medicine and rehabilitation journals in social networks and the SJR impact factor. Methods: We carried out a correlation study. For the research, we took into account all physical medicine and rehabilitation journals included in the SCImago Journal Rank. The number of followers on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the number of tweets were extracted from verified accounts. Journal differences according to the presence in social networks were evaluated using non-parametric tests, and the Spearman correlation coefficient was calculated between the metrics of dissemination in social networks and the SCImago Journal Rank. Results: Out of 122 physical medicine and rehabilitation journals, 25.4% had the presence in one social network. The H Index medians (32 vs 17, P=0.014) and of the SJR (0.67 vs 0.32, P= 0.001) were better in journals with the presence in social networks. A moderate correlation was found between the SJR and the number of followers on Twitter (r=0.5, P=0.066). The global correlation between the SJR and followers on Facebook was acceptable (r=0.4, P=0.1205). Discussion: Our data show that scientific journals of physical medicine and rehabilitation with presence in social networks have superior quality metrics. Additionally, SJR and the indicators of dissemination in social networks are moderately correlated. Both metrics offer complementary information. Presence in social networks could improve the visibility of journals and their interaction with readers.Revista Internacional - Indexad

Contrastación de hipótesis en diseños multivariados split-plot con matrices de dispersión arbitrarias

El presente trabajo examina diversos procedimientos para contrastar hipótesis nulas globales, correspondientes a datos obtenidos mediante diseños multivariados split-plot cuando se incumple el supuesto de homogeneidad de las matrices de dispersión. Un examen de estos procedimientos para un amplio número de variables confirma, por un lado, la robustez del procedimiento multivariado de Welch-James dado por Johansen (1980) para probar el efecto principal de los ensayos y, por otro, la robustez de la generalización multivariada del procedimiento de Brown-Forsythe (1974) para probar la interacción de los grupos x los ensayos. Nuestros resultados también ponen de relieve que las diferencias de potencia eran pequeñas en aquellas condiciones en que tanto el procedimiento de Welch-James como de Brown-Forsythe controlaban las tasas de error de Tipo I

Tissue remodelling and increased DNA damage in patients with incompetent valves in chronic venous insufficiency

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), in which blood return to the heart is impaired, is a prevalent condition worldwide. Valve incompetence is a complication of CVI that results in blood reflux, thereby aggravating venous hypertension. While CVI has a complex course and is known to produce alterations in the vein wall, the underlying pathological mechanisms remain unclear. This study examined the presence of DNA damage, pro-inflammatory cytokines and extracellular matrix remodelling in CVI-related valve incompetence. One hundred and ten patients with CVI were reviewed and divided into four groups according to age (<50 and ≥50 years) and a clinical diagnosis of venous reflux indicating venous system valve incompetence (R) (n = 81) or no reflux (NR) (n = 29). In vein specimens (greater saphenous vein) from each group, PARP, IL-17, COL-I, COL-III, MMP-2 and TIMP-2 expression levels were determined by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry. The younger patients with valve incompetence showed significantly higher PARP, IL-17, COL-I, COL-III, MMP-2 and reduced TIMP-2 expression levels and a higher COL-I/III ratio. Young CVI patients with venous reflux suffer chronic DNA damage, with consequences at both the local tissue and systemic levels, possibly associated with ageing.This study (FIS-PI18/00912) was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Plan Estatal de I + D+i 2013-2016) and co-financed by the European Development Regional Fund “A way to achieve Europe” (ERDF) and B2017/BMD-3804 MITIC-CM