Cataract in professionals exposed to solar radiation: a cross sectional study

Purpose: To find out frequency of cataract in seaside workers and possible factors associated to its development. Study Design: Cross sectional observational. Place and Duration of Study: Tyrrhenian coast of Tuscany (Italy), between Rosignano Marittimo and Cecina municipalities in July 2021. Methods: Ninety-eight seaside workers were selected through convenience sampling technique. All the working subjects selected for this study had a bilateral natural vision equal to or greater than 6/10 in the anamnestic data collection, declared they had not eye diseases in the past and rarely used protective glasses during their work. Results: The mean age of 98 outdoor workers is 40. Patients with the cataract are older than people without cataract (median 41 vs 38) (p < 0.001) and have a lower visual acuity (0.6 vs 0.7) (p < 0.001); stratifying by job, refraction state and Intra Ocular Pressure (IOP), there aren’t significant association with cataract. The multivariate analysis confirms that age and visual acuity are associated with the development of the cataract (OR 1.99 and 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: Although senile cataract is an age related disease but Visually significant cataract is seen in persons working outdoors for longer hours

Nitrogen Source Differently Regulates Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Response to NaCl Stress At Seed Germination and Early Seedling Development Stages

Nitrogen (N) acts as nutrient and signaling molecule in plants all over their development stages. The involvement of various N forms in the regulation of seed germination response to salt stress was assessed in the present work. Nitrogen sources (NO, NO2−, NO3−, NH4+, glutamine and glutamate) were added at 1mMto the germination medium of barley (Hordeum vulgare, cv Ardhaoui) in combination or not with NaCl stress (14 g.L−1). The application of nitrogen monoxide (NO) alleviated by about 20% the NaCl-induced germination capacity decrease. However, the addition of ammonium ions (NH4+) and glutamic acid (Glu) accentuated the inhibitory effects of NaCl, decreasing germination capacity by about 50% compared to the control. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), which is an indicator of membrane lipid peroxidation by stresses, were increased by salinity in seeds treated with nitrite (NO2−), NO3−, Glu and Gln. In N-free medium, NaCl stress induced a severe nitrate reductase activity (NR, EC 1.6.1.6) inhibition. Such an effect was alleviated by the application of N treatments. Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH, EC 1.4.1.2) aminating activity (NADH-GDH) of seedlings was inhibited by NaCl stress in the presence of NO, Glu and Gln. Conversely, there was stimulation by salt stress of NADH-GDH activity in seedlings treated with NaCl and NH4+. Deaminating GDH activity (NAD-GDH) was found to be enhanced by salt stress in NO2− and NO3− treatments. The differential effects of applied N forms on germination and early seedling development processes in this grass probably underlines different regulatory actions within N mobilization and assimilation

Can verbal suggestions strengthen the effects of a relaxation intervention?

Short stress management interventions such as relaxation therapy have demonstrated preliminary effectiveness in reducing stress-related problems. A promising tool to strengthen the effectiveness of relaxation-based interventions is the use of verbal suggestions, as previous research provided evidence that verbal suggestions can induce positive outcome expectancies, facilitate adaptive responses to stress and improve health outcomes. The present experimental proof-of-concept study aimed to investigate the effects of a brief relaxation intervention and specifically the role of verbal suggestions on stress-related outcomes assessed by self-report questionnaires and psychophysiological data. 120 participants (mean age = 22.1 years) were randomized to one of four intervention conditions: a brief relaxation intervention plus verbal suggestions condition, a brief relaxation intervention only condition, a verbal suggestions only condition, and a control condition. Afterwards, participants were subjected to a psychosocial stress challenge to assess reactivity to a stressful event. Immediately after both relaxation interventions (with and without verbal suggestions), lower self-reported state anxiety was found compared to the control condition, but no differences were observed in response to the stressor. The verbal suggestions only condition did not impact state anxiety. No significant effects were found for verbal suggestion interventions on cortisol, alpha amylase, heart rate and skin conductance. This is the first study investigating the role of verbal suggestions in the effectiveness of a brief relaxation intervention. Although this experimental proof-of-concept study provides support for the effectiveness of a brief relaxation intervention in lowering state anxiety directly after the intervention, the effects did not impact the response to a subsequent stressor and we did not observe any evidence for the add-on effectiveness of verbal suggestions. The effectiveness of brief relaxation interventions on stress responses should be investigated further in future research by incorporating interventions that are tailored to the specific stress challenge and various types of verbal suggestions

Spectral Decomposition with Continuous Wavelet Transform for Hydrocarbon Zone Detection of North Bali Waters

The East Java Basin is developed from an oceanic basin in front of Late Cretaceous Java Trench subduction zone to presently back-arc basin behind the Java-Lombok volcanic arc to the south. Many studies conclude hydrocarbon discovery in deep carbonate Ngimbang Formation. However, as a result of the active tectonic history of the region, there are fractures from Ngimbang Formation upward to the Oligo-Miocene Kujung Formation. It developes enhanced permeability medium for a good hydrocarbon migration. This paper presents shallow gas detection zone in the Mundu Formation by applying the spectral decomposition method with continous wavelet transform. Spectral decomposition can be effectively used to identify hydrocarbon reservoirs by analyzing seismic data in the frequency domain. Spectral decomposition with frequency 20 Hz shows the potential zone at time 779 - 832 ms which is suitable with depth 2237.5 - 2355.6 feet in well TRG-1. This method is supported with quantitative calculation of petrophysical analysis that determines 5 pay flag zones range from 2208.5 feet until 2347.5 feet.Keywords : East Java Basin, spectral decomposition, continuous wavelet transform, petrophysical analysisCekungan Jawa Timur terbentuk dari cekungan samudera di tepi zona subduksi pulau Jawa pada masa Cretaseous/Kapur Akhir hingga cekungan busur belakang sistem vulkanik Jawa-Lombok di selatan. Banyak penelitian menyimpulkan penemuan hidrokarbon pada lapisan karbonat Formasi Ngimbang yang dalam. Namun, sebagai akibat dari sejarah tektonik aktif dari wilayah tersebut, terdapat rekahan dari Formasi Ngimbang sampai ke atas hingga Formasi Kujung pada masa Oligo-Miosen. Kejadian tersebut menyebabkan timbulnya peningkatan permeabilitas medium yang baik untuk migrasi hidrokarbon. Makalah ini menyajikan deteksi zona gas dangkal pada Formasi Mundu dengan menerapkan metode dekomposisi spektral dengan transformasi wavelet kontinyu. Dekomposisi spektral dapat secara efektif digunakan untuk mengidentifikasi reservoir hidrokarbon dengan menganalisa data seismik dalam domain frekuensi. Dekomposisi spektral dengan frekuensi 20 Hz menunjukkan zona potensial pada kedalaman domain waktu 779 - 832 ms yang sesuai dengan 2237.5 - 2355.6 kaki pada sumur TRG-1. Metode ini didukung dengan perhitungan kuantitatif analisa petrofisika yang menentukan 5 zona gas mulai dari 2208.5 kaki hingga 2

Onset of chaotic dynamics in a ball mill: attractors merging and crisis induced intermittency

In mechanical treatment carried out by ball milling, powder particles are subjected to repeated high-energy mechanical loads which induce heavy plastic deformations together with fracturing and cold-welding events. Owing to the continuous defect accumulation and interface renewal, both structural and chemical transformations occur. The nature and the rate of such transformations have been shown to depend on variables, such as impact velocity and collision frequency that depend, in turn, on the whole dynamics of the system. The characterization of the ball dynamics under different impact conditions is then to be considered a necessary step in order to gain a satisfactory control of the experimental set up. In this paper we investigate the motion of a ball in a milling device. Since the ball motion is governed by impulsive forces acting during each collision, no analytical expression for the complete ball trajectory can be obtained. In addition, mechanical systems exhibiting impacts are strongly nonlinear due to sudden changes of velocities at the instant of impact. Many different types of periodic and chaotic impact motions exist indeed even for simple systems with external periodic excitation forces. We present results of the analysis on the ball trajectory, obtained from a suitable numerical model, under growing degree of impact elasticity. A route to high dimensional chaos is obtained. Crisis and attractors merging are also found

Performance of Glass Resistive Plate Chambers for a high granularity semi-digital calorimeter

A new design of highly granular hadronic calorimeter using Glass Resistive Plate Chambers (GRPCs) with embedded electronics has been proposed for the future International Linear Collider (ILC) experiments. It features a 2-bit threshold semi-digital read-out. Several GRPC prototypes with their electronics have been successfully built and tested in pion beams. The design of these detectors is presented along with the test results on efficiency, pad multiplicity, stability and reproducibility.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in Sardinia

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Equivalence between free quantum particles and those in harmonic potentials and its application to instantaneous changes

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedIn quantum physics the free particle and the harmonically trapped particle are arguably the most important systems a physicist needs to know about. It is little known that, mathematically, they are one and the same. This knowledge helps us to understand either from the viewpoint of the other. Here we show that all general time-dependent solutions of the free-particle Schrodinger equation can be mapped to solutions of the Schrodinger equation for harmonic potentials, both the trapping oscillator and the inverted `oscillator'. This map is fully invertible and therefore induces an isomorphism between both types of system, they are equivalent. A composition of the map and its inverse allows us to map from one harmonic oscillator to another with a different spring constant and different center position. The map is independent of the state of the system, consisting only of a coordinate transformation and multiplication by a form factor, and can be chosen such that the state is identical in both systems at one point in time. This transition point in time can be chosen freely, the wave function of the particle evolving in time in one system before the transition point can therefore be linked up smoothly with the wave function for the other system and its future evolution after the transition point. Such a cut-and-paste procedure allows us to describe the instantaneous changes of the environment a particle finds itself in. Transitions from free to trapped systems, between harmonic traps of different spring constants or center positions, or, from harmonic binding to repulsive harmonic potentials are straightforwardly modelled. This includes some time dependent harmonic potentials. The mappings introduced here are computationally more efficient than either state-projection or harmonic oscillator propagator techniques conventionally employed when describing instantaneous (non-adiabatic) changes of a quantum particle's environmentPeer reviewe

Construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a high-granularity semi-digital hadronic calorimeter

A large prototype of 1.3m3 was designed and built as a demonstrator of the semi-digital hadronic calorimeter (SDHCAL) concept proposed for the future ILC experiments. The prototype is a sampling hadronic calorimeter of 48 units. Each unit is built of an active layer made of 1m2 Glass Resistive Plate Chamber(GRPC) detector placed inside a cassette whose walls are made of stainless steel. The cassette contains also the electronics used to read out the GRPC detector. The lateral granularity of the active layer is provided by the electronics pick-up pads of 1cm2 each. The cassettes are inserted into a self-supporting mechanical structure built also of stainless steel plates which, with the cassettes walls, play the role of the absorber. The prototype was designed to be very compact and important efforts were made to minimize the number of services cables to optimize the efficiency of the Particle Flow Algorithm techniques to be used in the future ILC experiments. The different components of the SDHCAL prototype were studied individually and strict criteria were applied for the final selection of these components. Basic calibration procedures were performed after the prototype assembling. The prototype is the first of a series of new-generation detectors equipped with a power-pulsing mode intended to reduce the power consumption of this highly granular detector. A dedicated acquisition system was developed to deal with the output of more than 440000 electronics channels in both trigger and triggerless modes. After its completion in 2011, the prototype was commissioned using cosmic rays and particles beams at CERN.Comment: 49 pages, 41 figure

Key inflammatory markers in bronchoalveolar lavage predict bronchiectasis progression in young children with CF

Introduction:Inflammation appears early in cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogenesis, with specific elevated inflammatory markers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) correlating with structural lung disease. Our aim was to identify markers of airway inflammation able to predict bronchiectasis progression over two years with high sensitivity and specificity. Methods: Children with CF with two chest computed tomography (CT) scans and bronchoscopies at a two-year interval were included (n= 10 at 1 and 3 years and n= 27 at 3 and 5 years). Chest CTs were scored for increase in bronchiectasis (Δ%Bx), using the PRAGMA-CF score. BALF collected with the first CT scan were analyzed for neutrophil% (n= 36), myeloperoxidase (MPO) (n= 25), neutrophil elastase (NE) (n= 26), and with a protein array for inflammatory and fibrotic markers (n= 26). Results: MPO, neutrophil%, and inducible T-cell costimulator ligand (ICOSLG), but not clinical characteristics, correlated significantly with Δ%Bx. Evaluation of neutrophil%, NE, MPO, interleukin-8 (IL-8), ICOSLG, and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), for predicting an increase of &gt; 0.5% of Δ%Bx in two years, showed that IL-8 had the best sensitivity (82%) and specificity (73%). Neutrophil%, ICOSLG and HGF had sensitivities of 85, 82, and 82% and specificities of 59, 67 and 60%, respectively. The odds ratio for risk of &gt;0.5% Δ%Bx was higher for IL-8 (12.4) than for neutrophil%, ICOSLG, and HGF (5.9, 5.3, and 6.7, respectively). Sensitivity and specificity were lower for NE and MPO). Conclusions: High levels of IL-8, neutrophil%, ICOSGL and HGF in BALF may be good predictors for progression of bronchiectasis in young children with CF.</p