Relationship between visual field loss and contrast threshold elevation in glaucoma

BACKGROUND: There is a considerable body of literature which indicates that contrast thresholds for the detection of sinusoidal grating patterns are abnormally high in glaucoma, though just how these elevations are related to the location of visual field loss remains unknown. Our aim, therefore, has been to determine the relationship between contrast threshold elevation and visual field loss in corresponding regions of the peripheral visual field in glaucoma patients. METHODS: Contrast thresholds were measured in arcuate regions of the superior, inferior, nasal and temporal visual field in response to laser interference fringes presented in the Maxwellian view. The display consisted of vertical green stationary laser interference fringes of spatial frequency 1.0 c deg(-1 )which appeared in a rotatable viewing area in the form of a truncated quadrant extending from 10 to 20° from fixation which was marked with a central fixation light. Results were obtained from 36 normal control subjects in order to provide a normal reference for 21 glaucoma patients and 5 OHT (ocular hypertensive) patients for whom full clinical data, including Friedmann visual fields, had been obtained. RESULTS: Abnormally high contrast thresholds were identified in 20 out of 21 glaucoma patients and in 2 out of 5 OHT patients when compared with the 95% upper prediction limit for normal values from one eye of the 36 normal age-matched control subjects. Additionally, inter-ocular differences in contrast threshold were also abnormally high in 18 out of 20 glaucoma patients who had vision in both eyes compared with the 95% upper prediction limit. Correspondence between abnormally high contrast thresholds and visual field loss in the truncated quadrants was significant in 5 patients, borderline in 4 patients and absent in 9 patients. CONCLUSION: While the glaucoma patients tested in our study invariably had abnormally high contrast thresholds in one or more of the truncated quadrants in at least one eye, reasonable correspondence with the location of the visual field loss only occurred in half the patients studied. Hence, while contrast threshold elevations are indicative of glaucomatous damage to vision, they are providing a different assessment of visual function from conventional visual field tests

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Growth and production of nasturtium flowers in three hydroponic solutions Crescimento e produção de flores de nastúrcio cultivado em hidroponia com três soluções nutritivas

This experiment was carried out during April to August 2003 in a greenhouse at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. The growth and production of nasturtium flowers (Tropaeolum majus) in hydroponics NFT system was typified. Treatments were displayed in a 3x11 factorial, with six replications, in entirely randomized experimental design, and were composed of three nutrition solutions and 11 assessment dates. Each plant was separated between aerial part and root for the evaluation of dry mass. The blossoming started 49 days after the transplant (DAT). The plants presented good development in hydroponics, as well as growing dry mass, stature, leaf area and IAF, during the cycle. The culture's growth rate presented larger accumulation of leaf mass from 49 DAT on, in linear relation. Biological productivity was adjusted to a 2nd degree equation. Nutrition solutions did not show statistical differences, however, Furlani (1997) solution was the most reasonably priced.<br>Com o objetivo de caracterizar o crescimento e produção de flores de nastúrcio (Tropaeolum majus) em hidroponia, no sistema NFT, conduziu-se um experimento em casa de vegetação da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, de abril a agosto de 2003. O experimento foi um fatorial 3x11 com seis repetições, em delineamento experimental inteiramente casualizado, sendo os tratamentos constituídos de três soluções nutritivas e 11 datas de avaliação. Dividiu-se cada planta em parte aérea e raiz para avaliação da fitomassa seca. A floração iniciou aos 49 dias após o transplante (DAT). A planta apresentou bom desenvolvimento em hidroponia sendo a produção de fitomassa seca crescente durante o ciclo, bem como a estatura, a área foliar e o IAF. A taxa de crescimento da cultura apresentou maior acúmulo de fitomassa a partir dos 49 DAT com relação linear. A produtividade biológica ajustou-se a uma equação do 2º grau. As soluções nutritivas não apresentaram diferença estatística entre si, porém na análise de custo a solução Furlani (1997) foi a mais econômica