The Relationship Between Macular Pigment and Visual Performance

This study was designed to assess whether macular pigment optical density (MPOD) is associated with visual performance. One hundred and forty-two young healthy subjects were recruited. Macular pigment optical density and visual performance were assessed by psychophysical tests including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), mesopic and photopic contrast sensitivity, glare sensitivity, photostress recovery time (PRT). Measures of central visual function, including BCVA and contrast sensitivity, were positively associated with MPOD (p \u3c 0.05, for all). Photostress recovery and glare sensitivity were unrelated to MPOD (p \u3e 0.05). A longitudinal, placebo-controlled and randomized supplementation trial will be required to ascertain whether augmentation of MPOD can influence visual performance

The Relationship Between Macular Pigment and Visual Performance

This study was designed to assess whether macular pigment optical density (MPOD) is associated with visual performance. One hundred and forty-two young healthy subjects were recruited. Macular pigment optical density and visual performance were assessed by psychophysical tests including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), mesopic and photopic contrast sensitivity, glare sensitivity, photostress recovery time (PRT). Measures of central visual function, including BCVA and contrast sensitivity, were positively associated with MPOD (p \u3c 0.05, for all). Photostress recovery and glare sensitivity were unrelated to MPOD (p \u3e 0.05). A longitudinal, placebo-controlled and randomized supplementation trial will be required to ascertain whether augmentation of MPOD can influence visual performance

Macular pigment and percentage of body fat

PURPOSE. To investigate the relationship between percentage of body fat and macular pigment (MP) optical density. METHODS. One hundred healthy subjects of ages between 22 and 60 years volunteered to participate in this study. MP optical density was measured psychophysically, serum lutein and zeaxanthin were quantified by HPLC, and dietary intake of lutein and zeaxanthin was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Body fat was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA); body mass index (BMI) was also calculated for each subject. Clinical and personal details were recorded, with particular attention directed toward putative risk factors for AMD. RESULTS. There was a significant inverse relationship between the percentage of body fat and MP optical density in males (r ϭ Ϫ0.392, P Ͻ 0.01), and after correcting for age and dietary lutein and zeaxanthin, this inverse relationship remained significant (r ϭ Ϫ0.290, P Ͻ 0.05). The relationship between MP optical density and percentage of body fat in females was inverse, but not significant (r ϭ Ϫ0.197, P ϭ 0.149). A significant and inverse relationship between serum zeaxanthin and percentage of body fat was observed for females only (r ϭ Ϫ0.354, P Ͻ 0.01). Dietary intake of fat was inversely related to serum lutein and zeaxanthin, and significantly so for lutein (r ϭ Ϫ0.256, P Ͻ 0.05). However, dietary fat was unrelated to MP optical density (r ϭ 0.041, P ϭ 0.688). CONCLUSIONS. A relative lack of MP is associated with adiposity in men, and may underlie the association between body fat and risk for AMD progression in males. Further, the processes governing accumulation and/or stabilization of lutein and zeaxanthin in fat tissue appear to differ for males and females. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2004;45:3940 -3950) DOI: 10.1167/iovs.04-0273 A ge-related macular degeneration (AMD), which damages central vision, is the late stage of age-related maculopathy (ARM), and is the leading cause of blindness in elderly people in the Western World. 1 Under physiological conditions, lutein and zeaxanthin accumulate at the macula to the exclusion of all other carotenoids, and are collectively known as macular pigment (MP). The function of MP remains uncertain, but it is believed to reduce chromatic aberration as a result of its absorption spectrum which peaks at 460 nm (blue light). 2 These absorptive characteristics, alone or in combination with the capacity of the retinal carotenoids to quench reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs), allow the MP to protect the retina from oxidative damage. Although the pathogenesis of AMD remains unclear, there is a growing body of evidence implicating oxidative stress, which refers to tissue damage arising from interaction between the constituent molecules of a tissue and ROIs. The retina is an ideal site for the generation of ROIs because of its high oxygen consumption, its wealth of chromophores, and its exposure to short wavelength visible light. Body fat is of particular interest, because adipose tissue is a major storage organ for carotenoids. 8 Of note, several large population-based studies have found an association between incidence and/or prevalence of AMD and BMI. 9 -13 BMI lends itself as a measure of obesity in epidemiologic studies, largely because it is quick and easy to record. However, the accuracy of BMI (a simple weight to height ratio) as a measure of fat mass, and consequently as a tool for investigating its relationship with carotenoid levels in the blood and retina, remains controversial. -17 The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between MP optical density and percentage of body fat as measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), which is the most available direct assessment of fat mass. The relationship between adiposity and serum concentrations of lutein and zeaxanthin was also evaluated. METHODS Subjects One hundred healthy subjects volunteered to participate in this study, which was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Waterford Regional Hospital and the Ethics Committee of the Waterford Institute of Technology. Informed consent was obtained from each volunteer, and the experimental procedures adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Subjects were recruited to this single-visit study at the Waterford Institute of Technology by a self-selected sample population who volunteered as a result of posters, newsletters, and word of mouth in the local community. Subjects had to be white between the ages of 20 and 60 years. Volunteers with ocular pathology were excluded. The following details were recorded for each volunteer: demographic data; general health status, with particular attention directed From th

Macular pigment and ocular biometry

This study is designed to investigate the relationship between macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and ocular biometric parameters. The following details were recorded for 180 healthy subjects: demographic profile; best-corrected visual acuity; refractive status; ocular biometric parameters [axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT) and vitreous chamber depth (VCD)]; ocular dominance; MPOD; serum lutein (L) and zeaxanthin (Z). The mean MPOD (+/- SD) was 0.307 (0.155) and 0.305 (0.149) in the right and left eyes, respectively. No demonstrable relationship was observed between MPOD and AL, ACD or VCD [AL: r = 0.091, p = 0.225; ACD: r = 0.091, p = 0.227; VCD: r = 0.146, p = 0.051]. There was a significant and inverse relationship between LT and MPOD (r = -0.204; p = 0.008), which was attenuated to non-significance after correction for age and height (r = -0.058; p = 0.466). This study fails to identify an association between MPOD and ocular biometric parameters. This is an important negative finding, which allows investigators to study MP, and its relationship with potentially important variables, without the need to correct for ocular biontetric parameters. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Evaluating the Implementation of a Twitter-Based Foodborne Illness Reporting Tool in the City of St. Louis Department of Health

Foodborne illness is a serious and preventable public health problem affecting 1 in 6 Americans with cost estimates over $50 billion annually. Local health departments license and inspect restaurants to ensure food safety and respond to reports of suspected foodborne illness. The City of St. Louis Department of Health adopted the HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard (Dashboard), a tool that monitors Twitter for tweets about food poisoning in a geographic area and allows the health department to respond. We evaluated the implementation by interviewing employees of the City of St. Louis Department of Health involved in food safety. We interviewed epidemiologists, environmental health specialists, health services specialists, food inspectors, and public information officers. Participants viewed engaging innovation participants and executing the innovation as challenges while they felt the Dashboard had relative advantage over existing reporting methods and was not complex once in place. This study is the first to examine practitioner perceptions of the implementation of a new technology in a local health department. Similar implementation projects should focus more on process by developing clear and comprehensive plans to educate and involve stakeholders prior to implementation

First radial velocity results from the MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA)

The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a dedicated observatory of four 0.7m robotic telescopes fiber-fed to a KiwiSpec spectrograph. The MINERVA mission is to discover super-Earths in the habitable zones of nearby stars. This can be accomplished with MINERVA's unique combination of high precision and high cadence over long time periods. In this work, we detail changes to the MINERVA facility that have occurred since our previous paper. We then describe MINERVA's robotic control software, the process by which we perform 1D spectral extraction, and our forward modeling Doppler pipeline. In the process of improving our forward modeling procedure, we found that our spectrograph's intrinsic instrumental profile is stable for at least nine months. Because of that, we characterized our instrumental profile with a time-independent, cubic spline function based on the profile in the cross dispersion direction, with which we achieved a radial velocity precision similar to using a conventional "sum-of-Gaussians" instrumental profile: 1.8 m s$^{-1}$ over 1.5 months on the RV standard star HD 122064. Therefore, we conclude that the instrumental profile need not be perfectly accurate as long as it is stable. In addition, we observed 51 Peg and our results are consistent with the literature, confirming our spectrograph and Doppler pipeline are producing accurate and precise radial velocities.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PASP, Peer-Reviewed and Accepte

Dengue Vaccines Regulatory Pathways: A Report on Two Meetings with Regulators of Developing Countries

Richard Mahoney and colleagues summarize two recent meetings convened by the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative and the Developing Countries' Vaccine Regulators Network on regulatory issues that need to be addressed before licensing dengue vaccines

The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852

We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in 2015 October, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1%-2.5% dips, named Elsie, Celeste, Skara Brae, and Angkor, which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are as follows: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum or polarization during the dips and (ii) the multiband photometry of the dips shows differential reddening favoring non-gray extinction. Therefore, our data are inconsistent with dip models that invoke optically thick material, but rather they are in-line with predictions for an occulter consisting primarily of ordinary dust, where much of the material must be optically thin with a size scale ≪1 μm, and may also be consistent with models invoking variations intrinsic to the stellar photosphere. Notably, our data do not place constraints on the color of the longer-term secular dimming, which may be caused by independent processes, or probe different regimes of a single process