Contact lens fitting in keratoconus – a prospective study on visual and functional outcomes

Background: Contact lenses continue to play an important role in the effective management of keratoconus. To report visual and functional outcomes of various types of contact lenses in keratoconus patients at a tertiary referral centre.Methods: Study design: Prospective Cohort Study. 100 eyes of 51 patients with keratoconus were fitted with contact lenses with follow up at one and six months and evaluated. Statistical analysis: Paired t test, Chi Square test.Results: Best contact lens corrected visual acuity was better than best spectacle corrected visual acuity (p= 0.000).78 % patients were fitted with RGP, 12% with Rose K, 6 % Soft, 2% Piggy Back and 2% with Kerasoft IC lenses. Soft lens were preferred in mild keratoconus, RGP for moderate and Rose K, Piggy Back and Kerasoft IC lenses for severe keratoconus. The mean daily wear among the lenses was 7.59 hours per day with Rose K lenses having maximum wearing time of 8.33 hours. Comfort and tolerance level was maximum in Rose K, Piggy Back, Kerasoft IC and RGP lens users whereas it was less in the soft lens group. No significant complications were noted with contact lens use.Conclusion: Contact lenses continue to play an important role in the effective management of keratoconus. With the advent of newer designs of contact lenses for keratoconus it is possible to customize the lenses to optimize patient’s requirement visually and functionally.

Detection of marine aerosols with IRS P4-ocean colour monitor

The atmospheric correction bands 7 and 8 (765nm and 865nm respectively) of the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS P4-0CM (Ocean Colour Monitor) can be used for deriving aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the oceans. A retrieval algorithm has been developed which computes the AOD using band 7 data by treating the ocean surface as a dark background after removing the Rayleigh path radiance in the sensor-detected radiances. This algorithm has been used to detect marine aerosol distributions at different coastal and offshore locations around India. A comparison between OCM derived AOD and the NOAA operational AOD shows a correlation ~0.92 while that between OCM derived AOD and the ground-based sun photometer measurements near the coast of Trivandrum shows a correlation of ~0.90

Metal Complexes of Phosphinic Acids: Part XIII*-Dithiophosphinic Acid Complexes of UO2(VI) & In(III)

29-3

Stronger EPR-steering criterion based on inferred Schrodinger-Robertson uncertainty relation

Steering is one of the three in-equivalent forms of nonlocal correlations intermediate between Bell nonlocality and entanglement. Schrodinger-Robertson uncertainty relation (SRUR), has been widely used to detect entanglement and steering. However, the steering criterion in earlier works, based on SRUR, did not involve complete inferred-variance uncertainty relation. In this paper, by considering the local hidden state model and Reid formalism, we derive a complete inferred-variance EPR-steering criterion based on SRUR in the bipartite scenario. Furthermore, we check the effectiveness of our steering criterion with discrete variable bipartite two-qubit and two-qutrit isotropic states.Comment: 9 page

Stepwise Formation Constants of the Chelates of Substituted Azobenzenes with Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Zn(II) & Cd(II)

154-15

Nd(III), Pr(III), Ce(III) & La(III) Complexes with 3-Formyl-4-hydroxy- & 3-Oximinomethyl-4'- nitroazobenzenes

81

Performance optimization problem in speculative prefetching

Speculative prefetching has been proposed to improve the response time of network access. Previous studies in speculative prefetching focus on building and evaluating access models for the purpose of access prediction. This paper investigates a complementary area which has been largely ignored, that of performance modeling. We analyze the performance of a prefetcher that has uncertain knowledge about future accesses. Our performance metric is the improvement in access time, for which we derive a formula in terms of resource parameters (time available and time required for prefetehing) and speculative parameters (probabilities for next access). We develop a prefetch algorithm to maximize the improvement in access time. The algorithm is based on finding the best solution to a stretch knapsack problem, using theoretically proven apparatus to reduce the search space. An integration between speculative prefetching and caching is also investigated

In silico identification, characterization and expression analysis of miRNAs in Cannabis sativa L.

AbstractCannabis sativa L. is an annual herb and economically important as a source of fiber, oil, food and for its medicinal and intoxicating properties. MicroRNAs are a class of short (~21nt), non-coding regulatory RNAs that play a major role in post-transcriptional gene silencing. By in silico analysis of the publically available Transcript Sequence Assemblies (TSA) and Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) of C. sativa, a total of 18 conserved miRNAs belonging to 9 independent families were identified. To validate the predicted miRNAs, SYBR green based assay of qPCR was applied to detect the tissue-specific (young and mature leaf) expression of 6 putative miRNAs (csa-miR156, csa-miR159a, csa-miR171b, csa-miR172a, csa-miR5021a, csa-miR6034) in C. sativa. A total of 80 target genes were also recognized for the newly identified miRNAs, and subsequently assigned to three broad functional categories: biological processes, cellular components and molecular functions as defined for the Arabidopsis proteome. The potential target genes consist of transcription factors (33.75%), transporters (5%), kinase and other enzymes (20%) as well as signaling and other functional proteins (32.50%). The findings in this study on C. sativa miRNA precursors, mature miRNAs, and miRNA targets will be helpful for future research on miRNA-mediated gene regulation in this important plant species

Microwave Acid Leaching of Beneficiated Ilmenite for the Production of Synthetic Rutile

Beneficiated ilmenite is an intermediate product formed by the aqueous rusting of metallised ilmenite and separation of iron oxide. This product enriched with TiO2 by the removal of metallic iron can further be upgraded by subs-equent removal of residual iron by acid leaching for the production of synthetic rutile which is a preferred tita-nium feedstock for the preparation of TiO2 pigment

Fluorescence studies on the interaction of some ligands with carcinoscorpin, the sialic acid specific lectin, from the horseshoe crab, Carcinoscorpius rotundacauda

The binding affinities of some ligands towards the sialic acid-specific lectin carcinoscorpin, from hemolymph of the horseshoe crab Carcinoscorpius rotundacauda have been determined by protein fluorescence quenching in presence of ligands. Among the ligands studied, the disaccharide O-(N-acetylneuraminyl)-(2→6)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactitol has the highest Ka (l.15 × 106 M−1) for carcinoscorpin. Studies on the effect of pH on Ka values of disaccharide suggests the possible involvement of amino acid residues having pKa values around 6.0 and 9.0 in the binding activity of carcinoscorpin. There were distinct changes in the accessibility of the fluorescent tryptophan residues of carcinoscorpin by ligand-binding as checked through potassium iodide quenching