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Example of monitoring measurements in a virtual eye clinic using 'big data'
Aim: To assess the equivalence of measurement outcomes between patients attending a standard glaucoma care service, where patients see an ophthalmologist in a face-to-face setting, and a glaucoma monitoring service (GMS).
Methods: The average mean deviation (MD) measurement on the visual field (VF) test for 250 patients attending a GMS were compared with a ‘big data’ repository of patients attending a standard glaucoma care service (reference database). In addition, the speed of VF progression between GMS patients and reference database patients was compared. Reference database patients were used to create expected outcomes that GMS patients could be compared with. For GMS patients falling outside of the expected limits, further analysis was carried out on the clinical management decisions for these patients.
Results: The average MD of patients in the GMS ranged from +1.6dB to −18.9dB between two consecutive appointments at the clinic. In the first analysis, 12 (4.8%; 95% CI 2.5% to 8.2%) GMS patients scored outside the 90% expected values based on the reference database. In the second analysis, 1.9% (95% CI 0.4% to 5.4%) GMS patients had VF changes outside of the expected 90% limits.
Conclusions: Using ‘big data’ collected in the standard glaucoma care service, we found that patients attending a GMS have equivalent outcomes on the VF test. Our findings provide support for the implementation of virtual healthcare delivery in the hospital eye service
'Bunchy top symptom' of papaya in Cuba: new insights
Papaya is an important export crop in Cuba. A disease named Bunchy top symptom (BTS) was first observed in 2003 from Villa Clara province, but is now widespread throughout the country. A nested PCR assay with 16S rDNA phytoplasma primers P1/P7 and R16F2n/R2 was used to index more than 2200 papaya plants, weeds and insect samples collected between November 2005 and June 2006. RFLP patterns for all amplicons were identical with HaeIII, RsaI and AluI enzymes. No rickettsia-like bacteria were found in any of the samples. Phytoplasma rDNA was amplified from 1449 (89.7%) papaya plants with BTS symptoms. Phytoplasma rDNA was also detected in 331 apparently healthy papayas, and other plant species: Anoda acerifolia (57), Euphorbia heterophylla (73), Malvastrum coromandelianum (41) and Rynchosia minima (37) and 60/75 batches of Empoasca papayae. Sequences
from the phytoplasma in papaya (DQ868531), A. acerifolia (DQ286950); E. heterophylla (DQ286951); M. coromandelianum (DQ286952); R. minima (DQ868533) and the leafhopper E. papayae (DQ868532) all showed 99% similarity to the phytoplasma associated with polygala phyllody, PPhy, (AY787140) belonging to the 16SrII group, ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’. The discovery of the BTS phytoplasma in weed species and a putative vector Empoasca papayae suggests, that these plants and the leafhopper may have role in the spread of this disease
Evidence for a common physical description of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in f-electron systems
The non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior observed in the low temperature specific
heat and magnetic susceptibility of f-electron systems is
analyzed within the context of a recently developed theory based on Griffiths
singularities. Measurements of and in the systems
, , and (M = Pd,
Pt) are found to be consistent with predicted by this model with in the NFL regime.
These results suggest that the NFL properties observed in a wide variety of
f-electron systems can be described within the context of a common physical
picture.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Temperature effects on dislocation core energies in silicon and germanium
Temperature effects on the energetics of the 90-degree partial dislocation in
silicon and germanium are investigated, using non-equilibrium methods to
estimate free energies, coupled with Monte Carlo simulations. Atomic
interactions are described by Tersoff and EDIP interatomic potentials. Our
results indicate that the vibrational entropy has the effect of increasing the
difference in free energy between the two possible reconstructions of the
90-degree partial, namely, the single-period and the double-period geometries.
This effect further increases the energetic stability of the double-period
reconstruction at high temperatures. The results also indicate that anharmonic
effects may play an important role in determining the structural properties of
these defects in the high-temperature regime.Comment: 8 pages in two-column physical-review format with six figure
Arsenic Exposure and Hypertension: A Systematic Review
Background: Environmental exposure to arsenic has been linked to hypertension in persons living in arsenic-endemic areas
An instability criterion for nonlinear standing waves on nonzero backgrounds
A nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with repulsive (defocusing) nonlinearity
is considered. As an example, a system with a spatially varying coefficient of
the nonlinear term is studied. The nonlinearity is chosen to be repelling
except on a finite interval. Localized standing wave solutions on a non-zero
background, e.g., dark solitons trapped by the inhomogeneity, are identified
and studied. A novel instability criterion for such states is established
through a topological argument. This allows instability to be determined
quickly in many cases by considering simple geometric properties of the
standing waves as viewed in the composite phase plane. Numerical calculations
accompany the analytical results.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure
Aerostructural Optimization of Nonplanar Lifting Surfaces
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83557/1/AIAA-44727-830.pd
Association between meniscal tears and the peak external knee adduction moment and foot rotation during level walking in postmenopausal women without knee osteoarthritis: a cross-sectional study
Introduction Meniscal injury is a risk factor for the development
and progression of knee osteoarthritis, yet little is known about
risk factors for meniscal pathology. Joint loading mediated via
gait parameters may be associated with meniscal tears, and
determining whether such an association exists was the aim of
this study.
Methods Three-dimensional Vicon gait analyses were
performed on the dominant knee of 20 non-osteoarthritic
women, and the peak external knee adduction moment during
early and late stance was determined. The degree of foot
rotation was also examined when the knee adductor moment
peaked during early and late stance. Magnetic resonance
imaging was used to determine the presence and severity of
meniscal lesions in the dominant knee.
Results The presence (P = 0.04) and severity (P = 0.01) of
medial meniscal tears were positively associated with the peak
external knee adduction moment during early stance while a trend for late stance was observed (P = 0.07). They were also
associated with increasing degrees of internal foot rotation
during late stance, independent of the magnitude of the peak
external knee adduction moment occurring at that time (P =
0.03). During level walking among healthy women, the presence
and severity of medial meniscal tears were positively associated
with the peak external knee adduction moment. Moreover, the
magnitude of internal foot rotation was associated with the
presence and severity of medial meniscal lesions, independent
of the peak knee adductor moment during late stance.
Conclusion These data may suggest that gait parameters may
be associated with meniscal damage, although longitudinal
studies will be required to clarify whether gait abnormalities
predate meniscal lesions, or vice versa, and therefore whether
modification of gait patterns may be helpful
Building confidence in projections of the responses of living marine resources to climate change
The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights that climate change and ocean acidification are challenging the sustainable management of living marine resources (LMRs). Formal and systematic treatment of uncertainty in existing LMR projections, however, is lacking. We synthesize knowledge of how to address different sources of uncertainty by drawing from climate model intercomparison efforts. We suggest an ensemble of available models and projections, informed by observations, as a starting point to quantify uncertainties. Such an ensemble must be paired with analysis of the dominant uncertainties over different spatial scales, time horizons, and metrics. We use two examples: (i) global and regional projections of Sea Surface Temperature and (ii) projection of changes in potential catch of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) in the 21st century, to illustrate this ensemble model approach to explore different types of uncertainties. Further effort should prioritize understanding dominant, undersampled dimensions of uncertainty, as well as the strategic collection of observations to quantify, and ultimately reduce, uncertainties. Our proposed framework will improve our understanding of future changes in LMR and the resulting risk of impacts to ecosystems and the societies under changing ocean conditions
Non-Fermi liquid behavior and Griffiths phase in {\it f}-electron compounds
We study the interplay among disorder, RKKY and Kondo interactions in {\it
f}-electron alloys. We argue that the non-Fermi liquid behavior observed in
these systems is due to the existence of a Griffiths phase close to a quantum
critical point. The existence of this phase provides a unified picture of a
large class of materials. We also propose new experiments that can test these
ideas.Comment: 4 pages, 1 Figure. NEW version of the original manuscript. A single
framework for NFL behavior in different kinds of alloys is presented. Final
version finally allowed to appear on the glorious Physical Review Letter
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