Long term visual outcomes in laser treated threshold retinopathy of prematurity in Central Saudi Arabia

AbstractPurposeTo assess the long term visual outcomes and refractive status of patients who underwent diode laser for threshold retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and to investigate the risk factors leading to poor visual outcomes.MethodsFifty-seven patients (114 eyes) with threshold ROP who underwent laser therapy were contacted for reassessment. A chart review was performed for all patients to collect data on visual acuity, retinal status and strabismus. A favorable visual outcome was defined as ⩾20/160 (Snellen acuity) for young adults (cooperative patients), and ⩾CSM for children (uncooperative patients) while unfavorable visual outcome was defined as <20/160 or <CSM. Vision in uncooperative children was graded as central, steady, maintain. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Chi2 and odds ratios were calculated whenever appropriate. A P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.ResultsThe mean age at reassessment was 5.2±2.5years (range, 1–10years) where 36 (63.2%) patients were males and 21 (36.8%) were females. Out Of the 114 laser treated eyes, 73 (64%) were myopic, with mean spherical equivalent (SE) of −6.69 (5.9), range (−0.25 to −21) diaopters, 8 (7%) were emmetrope, while other 33 (29%) were hyperopic with mean SE of +2.43 (3.04), range (+0.25 to +17) diaopters. Strabismus was present in 31 patients (54.4%) of whom 81% (25/31) were esotropic. Retina was found to be normal in 77.1% of the examined eyes, while the remaining eyes had either macular dragging or retinal detachment. Almost 70% of the eyes with a normal retinal examination had favorable visual outcome. Thirteen (11.4%) eyes had zone 1 retinopathy, 83 (72.8%) eyes had zone 2 retinopathy and 2 (1.8%) eyes had zone 3 retinopathy. Vitreous hemorrhage was present in 7 (6.1%) eyes prior to laser treatment. The relationship between final retinal status and visual outcome was statistically significant (P<0.0001). There was no statistically significant correlation between visual outcome and the zone of the retinopathy (P=0.448).ConclusionThe majority of patients who underwent diode laser therapy for threshold ROP had favorable anatomical and visual outcomes. However, high refractive error and strabismus may be clinically the pertinent causes of visual impairment

Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to Identify Hydrocarbon Seepage in Kifl Oil Field and Adjacent Areas South of Iraq

The study area lies south of Iraq, it covers 4009 km². The data is used in this research comprise Landsat 8 (OLI) data, and Ancillary data such as geological and topographic maps. The study area include the Kifl Oil Field whereas comprise number of important formations for oil production. There are four oil wells drilled in the Kifl Oil Field. Some of them producer of hydrocarbon and others wells have hydrocarbon evidences.The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is used to identify prospective hydrocarbon seepage areas within the vegetation cover, the magnitude of green vegetation was quantified to levels and separated from other classes. The classification system for the vegetation in the study area is based on four categories: High vegetation density, Moderate vegetation density, Low vegetation density, and no vegetation. The result of classification reveals that low vegetation density areas, and no vegetation areas could be prospective hydrocarbon seepage areas. Supervised classification apply on the gray scale image of NDVI by chosen training areas of dark tones pixels that have values of absorption  close to values of water absorption which are illustrated prospective hydrocarbon seepage areas. Three classes in the study area included hydrocarbon seepage class compared with other three classes collected from another near area, this comparison has been proved that there is identical behave of the spectral signatures for all three classes. According to the conclusions, the NDVI is effective to identify hydrocarbon seepage in the study area particularly in the regions characterized by vegetation cover. Keywords: Landsat 8 (OLI), Hydrocarbon Seepage, NDVI, Threshold, Anaerobic

Compliance to patching in the treatment of amblyopia

AbstractPurposeTo evaluate compliance of amblyopic patients to patching, and to identify reasons of poor compliance and suggest methods to overcome the problem.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional, retrospective study that included 37 families with a child diagnosed with unilateral amblyopia (age range 3–16years) and attending the Pediatrics Ophthalmology clinic at the King Abdulaziz University Hospital (a tertiary eye hospital). Data were collected through interviews and from hospital charts. In the interviews we asked questions that sought information with regard to four aspects (domains); knowledge, attitude, insight and community’s effect. A score representing each domain was given to every family then we correlated these scores with family’s compliance percentage.ResultsWhen correlated with compliance, the insight and attitude domains showed a statistically significant correlation; p-value 0.002 and 0.004, respectively. However, the knowledge and community’s effect domains were not; p-value 0.084 and 0.114, respectively. Other qualitative factors affecting compliance were identified with open questions. Quotes from families of what they think can improve compliance are shown.ConclusionTo improve compliance, merely educating patients is not sufficient and more efforts should be undertaken toward ensuring true sense of the problem and its impact. Factors affecting compliance due to the physical properties in the patch itself should be addressed too (heat, irritation, poor adhesive material and design)

Effect of Differential Code Biases on the GPS CORS Network: A Case Study of Egyptian Permanent GPS Network (EPGN)

The Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS) Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) are popular and have become increasingly dense throughout the world. One of the important factors affecting the GPS accuracy is the ionosphere Total Electron Content (TEC). The hardware Differential Code Biases (DCB), inherited in both Global Positioning System satellites and receivers, influence the total electron content estimation accuracy. DCB can be estimated using GPS data themselves or during the GPS data processing. The effect of DCB on CORS results are studied here using nine CORS stations from the Egyptian Permanent GPS Net (EPGN). Bernese software version 5.0 is used for data analysis. Three strategies are applied to the data. The first strategy is using a special MATLAB code to estimate DCB which in turn is introduced as known input in Bernese. Using Bernese itself to estimate the DCB along with the ionosphere is the second method. The third way is to totally ignore the DCB.  The three solutions are compared based on ratio of ambiguity resolutions, standard deviations, error ellipse, and closure errors. The results indicate that the worst solution is obtained when ignoring the DCB. Both Bernese estimation and known DCB solutions are similar and gives good results. For example, the ratio of un-resolved ambiguity for baseline between Marsa-Alam and Arish is about 0.3096 for Bernese estimated DCB while it is about 0.5643 when ignoring DCB. Hence it is recommended to consider the DCB when processing GPS data for precise applications

Future regenerative medicine developments and their therapeutic applications

: Although the currently available pharmacological assays can cure most pathological disorders, they have limited therapeutic value in relieving certain disorders like myocardial infarct, peripheral vascular disease, amputated limbs, or organ failure (e.g. renal failure). Pilot studies to overcome such problems using regenerative medicine (RM) delivered promising data. Comprehensive investigations of RM in zebrafish or reptilians are necessary for better understanding. However, the precise mechanisms remain poorly understood despite the tremendous amount of data obtained using the zebrafish model investigating the exact mechanisms behind their regenerative capability. Indeed, understanding such mechanisms and their application to humans can save millions of lives from dying due to potentially life-threatening events. Recent studies have launched a revolution in replacing damaged human organs via different approaches in the last few decades. The newly established branch of medicine (known as Regenerative Medicine aims to enhance natural repair mechanisms. This can be done through the application of several advanced broad-spectrum technologies such as organ transplantation, tissue engineering, and application of Scaffolds technology (support vascularization using an extracellular matrix), stem cell therapy, miRNA treatment, development of 3D mini-organs (organoids), and the construction of artificial tissues using nanomedicine and 3D bio-printers. Moreover, in the next few decades, revolutionary approaches in regenerative medicine will be applied based on artificial intelligence and wireless data exchange, soft intelligence biomaterials, nanorobotics, and even living robotics capable of self-repair. The present work presents a comprehensive overview that summarizes the new and future advances in the field of RM

Design a new proposed route optimization scheme based NEMO-Centric MANEMO (NCM)

Route Optimization (RO) refers to any approach that optimizes the transmission of packets between a Mobile Network Node/Mobile Router and a Corresponding Node/Home Agent. RO would mean that a binding between the address of an MNN/MR and the location of the mobile network is registered at the CE/HA. Technically, route optimization mechanism comes up with a complementing solution for the pinball problem by avoiding the MRHA Bidirectional Tunnel(BT) that is to be used. This paper discusses the RO issues for NEMO and more specifically issues of Nested NEMO such astunneling redundant, HA dependency, processing delay, bottleneck, traffic congestion, ER selection, and scalability in the design consideration. In order to address NEMO ROsuboptimal, this work utilizes the NCM protocol plus to PHA. The proposed MANEMO RO scheme is a layer three solution to support RO for mobile networks. Additionally, the paper proposes the design to address Nested NEMO issues in a post disaster scenario by using Proxy Home Agent (PHA) in the infrastructure with using Neighbor Discovery protocol(TDP/NINA) for localizing communications. Thus, thesignaling message flow and the algorithm are written to give proposed scheme more flexibilit

Study the Influence of Captopril on Bone Metabolism in Elderly Hypertensive Women

Widespread use of antihypertensive agents in clinical practice necessitates the knowledge of their pleiotropic effects. At the present time there are no sufficient evidences of positive effect of these medications on bone coming from randomized controlled trials; knowledge of additional effects of those drugs on the bone metabolism will allow doctors to choose optimal treatment of hypertension, taking into account the state of bone tissue. At the same time it will also allow to prevent osteoporosis in patients having osteoporosis risk factors or initial signs of bone loss. Ten elderly hypertensive women age > 60 years old (64.23.6) treated with captopril for a 5-6 years ago while they attending Al Yarmouk Teaching Hospital in Baghdad; in addition, newly-diagnosed hypertensives, and normotensive of the aged-matched women were participated in this study that were conducted during the period (January- May 2014). Measurement of serum calcium, magnesium, inorganic phosphorus, total alkaline phosphatase activity, and parathyroid hormone were done, in addition to spine mineral density and t-score of such bone density by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. The results of this study showed that there were no significant differences in the serum levels of calcium, magnesium, inorganic phosphorus, total alkaline phosphatase activity, and parathyroid hormone in postmenopausal hypertensive women treated for 5-6 years with captopril compared to newly-diagnosed and to aged-matched normotensive women. In addition, non-significant differences were observed in the level of bone mineral density and t score of bone mineral density in all groups of the study. In conclusion, the present study provides additional knowledge concerning the influence of captopril treatment on some selected parameters of bone metabolism in elderly hypertensive women. Keywords: Captopril, Bone metabolism, Elderly women, Hypertension, Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry

IONS CONCENTRATION AND THEIR RATIO IN ROOTS AND SHOOTS OF TOMATO GENOTYPES ASSOCIATED WITH SALINITY TOLERANCE AT EARLY GROWTH STAGE

ABSTRACT: In order to identify the significance of Na + , Ca + , K + and Mg + concentration and ratios in plant shoots and roots as indicators for salinity tolerance, growth and biomass of seven wild, cultivated and inbred lines tomato genotypes were evaluated under stresses of saline water. The NaCl 2 was used to prepare four treatments of irrigation water salinity,2000ppm (3.12 dsm -1 ), 4000ppm (6.25 dsm -1 ), 6000ppm (9.37 dsm -1 ) and 8000ppm (12.5 dsm -1 ), while the control treatment was irrigated with tap water. The experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized design (CR) using three replications. The results indicated significant differences between tomato genotypes, irrigation water salinity levels and their interaction at all assessed growth parameters and ions concentration and their ratios in plant shoots and roots. With increasing the salinity levels, a significant reduction was observed in number of leaves/plant and plant fresh and dry weight (g) of all tested tomato genotypes