Comparison of Circumferential and Traditional Trabeculotomy in Pediatric Glaucoma

Purpose To compare intraocular pressure (IOP) control of pediatric glaucoma patients undergoing traditional trabeculotomy (<360 degrees or partial) with those receiving 360-degree circumferential trabeculotomy. Methods The medical records of pediatric glaucoma patients receiving trabeculotomy at a single institution from 2000 to 2012were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into two groups: a traditional trabeculotomy group and 360-degree trabeculotomy group. IOP at baseline and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months’ follow-up were compared within and each groups. Results A total of 77 eyes of 56 patients (age at surgery, 1.52 ± 2.68 years) in the traditional group and 14 eyes of 10 patients in the 360-degree group (age at surgery, 0.61 ± 0.42 years) were included. Mean baseline IOP was similar in both groups (traditional, 28.75 ± 8.80 mm Hg; 360-degree, 30.35 ± 6.04 mm Hg; t test; P = 0.43). Mean 1-year IOP was 17.05 ± 5.92 mm Hg in the traditional group and 11.0 ± 2.31 mm Hg in the 360-degree group. At 1-year, the surgical success rate was 58.44% in the traditional group and 85.71% in the 360-degree group; 32 eyes in the former and 2 eyes in the latter required another glaucoma procedure within 1 year for IOP control. For both groups, compared to baseline values, IOP decreased significantly with all postoperative measurements (paired t test, all P < 0.01). The 360-degree group had significantly lower IOP compared to the traditional group at 1-year (t test, P < 0.01). Conclusions Both 360-degree and traditional trabeculotomy significantly reduced IOP in children through 1 year’s follow-up, although the former procedure shows better 1-year postoperative IOP control, with higher rate of surgical success

Low energy effects of neutrino masses

While all models of Majorana neutrino masses lead to the same dimension five effective operator, which does not conserve lepton number, the dimension six operators induced at low energies conserve lepton number and differ depending on the high energy model of new physics. We derive the low-energy dimension six operators which are characteristic of generic Seesaw models, in which neutrino masses result from the exchange of heavy fields which may be either fermionic singlets, fermionic triplets or scalar triplets. The resulting operators may lead to effects observable in the near future, if the coefficients of the dimension five and six operators are decoupled along a certain pattern, which turns out to be common to all models. The phenomenological consequences are explored as well, including their contributions to $\mu \to e \gamma$ and new bounds on the Yukawa couplings for each model.Comment: modifications: couplings in appendix B, formulas (121)-(122) on rare leptons decays (to match with published version) and consequently bounds in table

Aspects Contributing to the Underemployment of the Top 3 Fields of Engineering in Las Piñas City, and Muntinlupa City

Up to this day, underemployment continuously becomes a significant contributor to poverty, and it happen to any other industry, including the engineering industry. As an attempt to contribute to the body of knowledge regarding underemployment, this study investigated the leading causes of underemployment in engineers at Las Piñas City and Muntinlupa City. The study used an online survey questionnaire with non-probability sampling to collect the necessary data from various licensed engineers. Descriptive statistics was the data analysis method of the study. The results indicate that the leading causes of underemployment in different engineering fields are lack of experience, limited job opportunities, many competitions, and the substandard education system. Mechanical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, and Electrical Engineering are the top three engineering fields that often experience underemployment. The study concluded that experience is highly needed to attain employment in the engineering industry

Biophysical and Socioeconomic Factors Associated with Forest Transitions at Multiple Spatial and Temporal Scales

Forest transitions (FT) occur when socioeconomic development leads to a shift from net deforestation to reforestation; these dynamics have been observed in multiple countries across the globe, including the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Starting in the 1950s, Puerto Rico transitioned from an agrarian to a manufacturing and service economy reliant on food imports, leading to extensive reforestation. In recent years, however, net reforestation has leveled off. Here we examine the drivers of forest transition in Puerto Rico from 1977 to 2000 at two subnational, nested spatial scales (municipality and barrio) and over two time periods (1977-1991 and 1991-2000). This study builds on previous work by considering the social and biophysical factors that influence both reforestation and deforestation at multiple spatial and temporal scales. By doing so within one analysis, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the relative importance of various social and biophysical factors for forest transitions and the scales at which they are manifest. Biophysical factors considered in these analyses included slope, soil quality, and land-cover in the surrounding landscape. We also considered per capita income, population density, and the extent of protected areas as potential factors associated with forest change. Our results show that, in the 1977-1991 period, biophysical factors that exhibit variation at municipality scales (~100 km²) were more important predictors of forest change than socioeconomic factors. In this period, forest dynamics were driven primarily by abandonment of less productive, steep agricultural land in the western, central part of the island. These factors had less predictive power at the smaller barrio scale (~10 km²) relative to the larger municipality scale during this time period. The relative importance of socioeconomic variables for deforestation, however, increased over time as development pressures on available land increased. From 1991-2000, changes in forest cover reflected influences from multiple factors, including increasing population densities, land development pressure from suburbanization, and the presence of protected areas. In contrast to the 1977-1991 period, drivers of deforestation and reforestation over this second interval were similar for the two spatial scales of analyses. Generally, our results suggest that although broader socioeconomic changes in a given region may drive the demand for land, biophysical factors ultimately mediate where development occurs. Although economic development may initially result in reforestation due to rural to urban migration and the abandonment of agricultural lands, increased economic development may lead to deforestation through increased suburbanization pressures

High-yield oil palm expansion spares land at the expense of forests in the Peruvian Amazon

High-yield agriculture potentially reduces pressure on forests by requiring less land to increase production. Using satellite and field data, we assessed the area deforested by industrial-scale high-yield oil palm expansion in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010, finding that 72% of new plantations expanded into forested areas. In a focus area in the Ucayali region, we assessed deforestation for high- and smallholder low-yield oil palm plantations. Low-yield plantations accounted for most expansion overall (80%), but only 30% of their expansion involved forest conversion, contrasting with 75% for high-yield expansion. High-yield expansion minimized the total area required to achieve production but counter-intuitively at higher expense to forests than low-yield plantations. The results show that high-yield agriculture is an important but insufficient strategy to reduce pressure on forests. We suggest that high-yield agriculture can be effective in sparing forests only if coupled with incentives for agricultural expansion into already cleared lands

The SXS Collaboration catalog of binary black hole simulations

Accurate models of gravitational waves from merging black holes are necessary for detectors to observe as many events as possible while extracting the maximum science. Near the time of merger, the gravitational waves from merging black holes can be computed only using numerical relativity. In this paper, we present a major update of the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration catalog of numerical simulations for merging black holes. The catalog contains 2018 distinct configurations (a factor of 11 increase compared to the 2013 SXS catalog), including 1426 spin-precessing configurations, with mass ratios between 1 and 10, and spin magnitudes up to 0.998. The median length of a waveform in the catalog is 39 cycles of the dominant $\ell=m=2$ gravitational-wave mode, with the shortest waveform containing 7.0 cycles and the longest 351.3 cycles. We discuss improvements such as correcting for moving centers of mass and extended coverage of the parameter space. We also present a thorough analysis of numerical errors, finding typical truncation errors corresponding to a waveform mismatch of $\sim 10^{-4}$. The simulations provide remnant masses and spins with uncertainties of 0.03% and 0.1% ($90^{\text{th}}$ percentile), about an order of magnitude better than analytical models for remnant properties. The full catalog is publicly available at https://www.black-holes.org/waveforms .Comment: 33+18 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, 2,018 binaries. Catalog metadata in ancillary JSON file. v2: Matches version accepted by CQG. Catalog available at https://www.black-holes.org/waveform

Truncation of the Deubiquitinating Domain of CYLD in Myelomonocytic Cells Attenuates Inflammatory Responses

The cylindromatosis tumor suppressor (CYLD) is a deubiquitinating enzyme that has been implicated in various aspects of adaptive and innate immune responses. Nevertheless, the role of CYLD in the function of specific types of immune cells remains elusive. In this report we have used conditional gene targeting in mice to address the role of the deubiquitinating activity of CYLD in the myelomonocytic lineage. Truncation of the deubiquitinating domain of CYLD specifically in myelomonocytic cells impaired the development of lethal LPS-induced endotoxic shock and the accumulation of thioglycollate-elicited peritoneal macrophages. Our data establish CYLD as a regulator of monocyte-macrophage activation in response to inflammatory stimuli and identify it as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in relevant inflammatory disorders in humans

STUDY ON NUTRITIONAL AND ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF THE SEAWEEDS OF NORTHERN SAMAR, PHILIPINES

The purpose of the study: In this work, the nutritional and elemental analysis of seaweeds in Northern Samar is analyzed. Methodology: The seaweeds of Northern Samar are collected from the intertidal zone, and it was brought back to the College of Science for taxonomic identity.&nbsp;&nbsp; The nutritional and elemental content of the seaweeds were determined. Main findings: Based on the results obtained a total of 39 species belonging to eighteen (18) families of seaweeds were recorded from different coastal towns in Northern Samar, Philippines.&nbsp; The results revealed that for seaweeds with the economic value the nutritional and elemental content is comparable to the unknown seaweeds with no economic value.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Implications: The results of the bioavailability of nutrients of this study might be the basis that unknown seaweeds with no economic value can be used directly in the diet and promote health advantage. Originality/Novelty of study: The seaweeds of Northern Samar are not properly documented in comparison with other marine flora.&nbsp; The results demonstrated that some species of seaweeds collected in Northern Samar with no economic value could also accumulate non-essential elements.&nbsp; Further studies would surely be a great contribution to our local food and pharmaceutical industries.&nbsp

Immunomodulation resulting of helminth infection could be an opportunity for immunization against tuberculosis and mucosal pathogens

Approximately, 10 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases were reported in 2020, of which 12% were among children (1). It is estimated that one-quarter of the world population (around 2 billion) is latently infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and 5-10% of these individuals will develop active TB (ATB) (1). Infections caused by soil-transmitted helminths (STH) and schistosomes affect about 1.5 billion and 250 million people, respectively, worldwide (2). Children and pregnant women are the population groups with the highest risk of infection by those parasites (3)