Diffractive Corneal Inlays: A New Concept for Correction of Presbyopia

A new class of corneal inlays for treatment of presbyopia is described, which uses diffraction as the working principle. The inlay consists of an opaque disk with a small central aperture surrounded by an array of micro-holes that are distributed following the order of a given Fresnel zone plate having N zones. In this way, the central hole of the disk produces an extension of the depth of focus of the eye for distance vision and contributes to the zero order of diffraction, and the light diffracted by the micro-holes in the periphery produces a real focus for near vision. In our general design, the number of zones and the diameter of the central hole are free parameters that can be used to design customized devices with different addition power and near-focus intensity. Two different designs are analyzed to show this property. In the analysis, we employed a ray tracing software to study the performance of the new inlays in the two different model eyes. The results are compared with those obtained with a model of the small-aperture inlay that is currently in the market. The different merit functions used in the comparison and the image simulations performed with the inlays in the model eyes show the excellent performance of our proposal

Transcriptome analysis of the venom gland of the Mexican scorpion Hadrurus gertschi (Arachnida: Scorpiones)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Scorpions like other venomous animals posses a highly specialized organ that produces, secretes and disposes the venom components. In these animals, the last postabdominal segment, named telson, contains a pair of venomous glands connected to the stinger. The isolation of numerous scorpion toxins, along with cDNA-based gene cloning and, more recently, proteomic analyses have provided us with a large collection of venom components sequences. However, all of them are secreted, or at least are predicted to be secretable gene products. Therefore very little is known about the cellular processes that normally take place inside the glands for production of the venom mixture. To gain insights into the scorpion venom gland biology, we have decided to perform a transcriptomic analysis by constructing a cDNA library and conducting a random sequencing screening of the transcripts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From the cDNA library prepared from a single venom gland of the scorpion <it>Hadrurus gertschi</it>, 160 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were analyzed. These transcripts were further clustered into 68 unique sequences (20 contigs and 48 singlets), with an average length of 919 bp. Half of the ESTs can be confidentially assigned as homologues of annotated gene products. Annotation of these ESTs, with the aid of Gene Ontology terms and homology to eukaryotic orthologous groups, reveals some cellular processes important for venom gland function; including high protein synthesis, tuned posttranslational processing and trafficking. Nonetheless, the main group of the identified gene products includes ESTs similar to known scorpion toxins or other previously characterized scorpion venom components, which account for nearly 60% of the identified proteins.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To the best of our knowledge this report contains the first transcriptome analysis of genes transcribed by the venomous gland of a scorpion. The data were obtained for the species <it>Hadrurus gertschi</it>, belonging to the family Caraboctonidae. One hundred and sixty ESTs were analyzed, showing enrichment in genes that encode for products similar to known venom components, but also provides the first sketch of cellular components, molecular functions, biological processes and some unique sequences of the scorpion venom gland.</p

A new trifocal corneal inlay for presbyopia

[EN] Corneal inlays (CIs) are the most recent surgical procedure for the treatment of presbyopia in patients who want complete independence from the use of glasses or contact lenses. Although refractive surgery in presbyopic patients is mostly performed in combination with cataract surgery, when the implantation of an intraocular lens is not necessary, the option of CIs has the advantage of being minimally invasive. Current designs of CIs are, either: small aperture devices, or refractive devices, however, both methods do not have good performance simultaneously at intermediate and near distances in eyes that are unable to accommodate. In the present study, we propose the first design of a trifocal CI, allowing good vision, at the same time, at far, intermediate and near vision in presbyopic eyes. We first demonstrate the good performance of the new inlay in comparison with a commercially available CI by using optical design software. We next confirm experimentally the image forming capabilities of our proposal employing an adaptive optics based optical simulator. This new design also has a number of parameters that can be varied to make personalized trifocal CI, opening up a new avenue for the treatment of presbyopia.This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain (Grant PID2019-107391RB-I00) and by Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, (Grant PROMETEO/2019/048). D. Montagud-Martinez and V. Ferrando acknowledge the financial support from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain (fellowships FPI-2016 and PAID-10-18, respectively)Furlan, WD.; Montagud-Martínez, D.; Ferrando, V.; Garcia-Delpech, S.; Monsoriu Serra, JA. (2021). A new trifocal corneal inlay for presbyopia. Scientific Reports. 11(1):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86005-8S1811

Deep learning enhanced principal component analysis for structural health monitoring

This paper proposes a Deep Learning Enhanced Principal Component Analysis (PCA) approach for outlier detection to assess the structural condition of bridges. We employ partially explainable autoencoder architecture to replicate and enhance the data compression and reconstruction ability of PCA. The particularity of the method lies in the addition of residual connections to account for nonlinearities. We apply the proposed method to monitoring data obtained from two bridges under real operation conditions and compare the results before and after adding the residual connections. Results show that the addition of residual connections enhances the outlier detection ability of the network, allowing to detect lighter damages

21-cm synthesis observations of VIRGOHI 21 - a possible dark galaxy in the Virgo Cluster

Many observations indicate that dark matter dominates the extra-galactic Universe, yet no totally dark structure of galactic proportions has ever been convincingly identified. Previously we have suggested that VIRGOHI 21, a 21-cm source we found in the Virgo Cluster using Jodrell Bank, was a possible dark galaxy because of its broad line-width (~200 km/s) unaccompanied by any visible gravitational source to account for it. We have now imaged VIRGOHI 21 in the neutral-hydrogen line and find what could be a dark, edge-on, spinning disk with the mass and diameter of a typical spiral galaxy. Moreover, VIRGOHI 21 has unquestionably been involved in an interaction with NGC 4254, a luminous spiral with an odd one-armed morphology, but lacking the massive interactor normally linked with such a feature. Numerical models of NGC 4254 call for a close interaction ~10^8 years ago with a perturber of ~10^11 solar masses. This we take as additional evidence for the massive nature of VIRGOHI 21 as there does not appear to be any other viable candidate. We have also used the Hubble Space Telescope to search for stars associated with the HI and find none down to an I band surface brightness limit of 31.1 +/- 0.2 mag/sq. arcsec.Comment: 8 pages, accepted to ApJ, uses emulateapj.cls. Mpeg animation (Fig. 2) available at ftp://ftp.naic.edu/pub/publications/minchin/video2.mp

Glucocerebrosidase expression patterns in the non-human primate brain

Glucocerebrosidase (GCase) is a lysosomal enzyme encoded by the GBA1 gene. Mutations in GBA1 gene lead to Gaucher’s disease, the most prevalent lysosomal storage disorder. GBA1 mutations reduce GCase activity, therefore promoting the aggregation of alphasynuclein, a common neuropathological finding underlying Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies. However, it is also worth noting that a direct link between GBA1 mutations and alpha-synuclein aggregation indicating cause and effect is still lacking, with limited experimental evidence to date. Bearing in mind that a number of strategies increasing GCase expression for the treatment of PD are currently under development, here we sought to analyze the baseline expression of GCase in the brain of Macaca fascicularis, which has often been considered as the gold-standard animal model of PD. Although as with other lysosomal enzymes, GCase is expected to be ubiquitously expressed, here a number of regional variations have been consistently found, together with several specific neurochemical phenotypes expressing very high levels of GCase. In this regard, the most enriched expression of GCase was constantly found in cholinergic neurons from the nucleus basalis of Meynert, dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta, serotoninergic neurons from the raphe nuclei, as well as in noradrenergic neurons located in the locus ceruleus. Moreover, it is also worth noting that moderate levels of expression were also found in a number of areas within the paleocortex and archicortex, such as the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampal formation, respectively

Comparisons between Cambrian Lagerstätten assemblages using multivariate, parsimony and Bayesian methods

© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (Dec 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyExceptional fossil deposits exhibiting soft-part preservation, or Konservat-Lagerstätten, are prevalent in Cambrian rocks and provide detailed information on fossil assemblages not available from conventional deposits. It has long been recognised that many of these assemblages exhibit certain taxonomic similarities, with many elements seemingly having cosmopolitan distributions. These types of assemblages, particularly those of Cambrian age, have become known as Burgess Shale-type (BST) biotas, named for the famous deposit in the Canadian Rocky Mountains where fossils preserved in this way were first discovered. This study provides the first broad-scale analysis of the assemblage relationships between all major BST biotas. We compiled a database of the presences and absences of over 600 genera within 12 Lagerstätten from Laurentia, Siberia, South China and East Gondwana, ranging in age from Cambrian Series 2 through Series 3 (late-early to middle Cambrian; c. 518–502 Ma), and analysed this using a variety of quantitative methods in order to investigate the relationships between these sites. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination, cluster analysis and Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) were used to group localities and examine relationships. We also used Bayesian inference and illustrate the benefits of this approach to biogeographic studies. Results suggest that both space and time have important effects on the taxonomic constitution of BST biotas, and that the similarity of these assemblages appears to increase from Series 2 through Series 3, largely driven by increases in cosmopolitanism of biomineralised taxa such as trilobites and brachiopods. There is also evidence of higher-level taxonomic turnover across this period. Endemic taxa help amplify these patterns, despite their frequent exclusion from biogeographic analyses

ANÁLISE PRELIMINAR DOS EQUIPAMENTOS DE ESPORTE E LAZER DA ORLA DE ATALAIA EM ARACAJU/SE: CONTRIBUIÇÕES PARA AS POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS

Texto decorrente de pesquisa da Rede CEDESA nova Orla da Praia de Atalaia em Aracaju/SE se constitui em um cartão postal da cidade. Reformulada com diversos equipamentos para as práticas esportivas e de lazer, configura-se como um local “ideal” no tocante as opções de lazer para os aracajuanos e turistas que visitam a cidade.Rede Cedes/Ministério do Esport

Primeiro registro de um raro peixe parasita Pseudostegophilus paulensis no rio Paranapanema e sua distribuição atual no Brasil

Pseudostegophilus paulensis Miranda Ribeiro 1918 is an endemic parasitic species from the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil, with few registered occurrences in databases (15 records). Here, we present the first record of P. paulensis in the middle portion of the Anhumas River, a tributary of the Paranapanema River right bank. Specimens were collected in two environments with different ecological characteristics (lotic water running over gravel sediment and semi-lotic water with silty sediment on the bottom). We also present an updated occurrence map of the species in Brazil. This new record of P. paulensis in the upper Paraná River basin extends the geographic distribution of the species to the South of the state of São Paulo.&nbsp; Furthermore, important ecological information remains unknown due to the lack of data about this group, such as habitat niches, vertical migration, growth patterns, reproduction, and feeding behavior.Pseudostegophilus paulensis Miranda Ribeiro 1918 é uma espécie de peixe parasita endêmica do estado de São Paulo, sudeste do Brasil, com poucas ocorrências registradas em bancos de dados (15 registros). Aqui, apresentamos o primeiro registro de P. paulensis na porção média do rio Anhumas, afluente da margem direita do rio Paranapanema. Os espécimes foram coletados em dois ambientes com características ecológicas distintas (água lótica correndo sobre sedimento pedregulho e água semilótica com sedimento arenoso no fundo). Apresentamos também um mapa de ocorrência atualizado da espécie no Brasil. Este novo registro de P. paulensis na bacia do alto rio Paraná estende a distribuição geográfica da espécie para o sul do estado de São Paulo. Além disso, informações ecológicas importantes permanecem desconhecidas devido à falta de dados sobre esse grupo, como nichos de habitat, migração vertical, padrões de crescimento, reprodução e comportamento alimentar