Anatomical and visual outcomes of ranibizumab injections in retinal pigment epithelium tears

ABSTRACT Purpose: To report the anatomical and visual results in patients diagnosed as having retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) tears after receiving ranibizumab injections. Methods: Eyes diagnosed as having RPE tears with a minimum 6-month follow-up were retrospectively evaluated. Each eye was treated with at least three doses of ranibizumab at monthly intervals. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), anterior segment findings, intraocular pressure, and fundus examination results were evaluated during control visits. Color fundus photography, fundus fluorescein angiographies, fundus autofluorescence, and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images were obtained. The height of pigment epithelial detachment (PED) was measured by SD-OCT. Results: Twelve eyes with RPE tears were studied. Nine eyes (75%) developed RPE tears during ranibizumab injections for choroidal neovascularization (eight eyes with vascularized PED and one eye with choroidal osteoma), and tears occurred in three eyes before any injections. The median number of ranibizumab injections after diagnosis of RPE tears was 3 (min 2, max 5). In the most recent follow-up visit, there was no statistically significant correlation between the grade of RPE and logMAR of BCVA (p>0.05, r=0.112). Eight of twelve eyes had PED, and seven of these had irregular PED contours before injection therapy. The mean PED height was 447 ± 122 µm. Conclusions: In this series, RPE tears developed mostly after intravitreal anti-VEGF injections for vascularized PED. Increased vertical height and irregular contours of the PEDs can be risk factors for the formation of RPE tears. The continuation of anti-VEGF therapy after tear formation is beneficial for vision improvement in eyes with RPE tears

Macular Findings Obtained by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in Retinopathy of Prematurity

Purpose. To examine the macular findings obtained with spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD OCT) in infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Materials and Methods. The macular SD OCT images of 190 premature infants were analyzed. Data regarding central foveal thickness (CFT), cystoid macular edema (CME), and cyst grading were compared. The relationships of CFT with gestational age and birth weight were investigated. Results. The results were obtained from 358 eyes of 179 infants (81 females and 98 males) of a mean gestational age of 30.9±2.7 weeks and a mean birth weight of 1609±477 g. ROP was diagnosed in 126 eyes and CME in 139 eyes. A significantly greater percentage of eyes with ROP were found to have CME (54%) compared to eyes without ROP (31%; P=0.001). The incidence of CME was 46.3% for stage 1 ROP, 57.1% for stage 2, and 87.5% for stage 3. There was a weakly inverse correlation between CFT, gestational age, and birth weight (P=0.025, r=-0.227; P=0.002, r=-0.182, resp., Spearman correlation test). Conclusions. High-quality SD OCT images can be obtained from premature infants using the iVue system. Severity and frequency of CME in premature infants increase as stage of ROP increases

Energy-efficient RL-based aerial network deployment testbed for disaster areas

Rapid deployment of wireless devices with 5G and beyond enabled a connected world. However, an immediate demand increase right after a disaster paralyzes network infrastructure temporarily. The continuous flow of information is crucial during disaster times to coordinate rescue operations and identify the survivors. Communication infrastructures built for users of disaster areas should satisfy rapid deployment, increased coverage, and availability. Unmanned air vehicles (UAV) provide a potential solution for rapid deployment as they are not affected by traffic jams and physical road damage during a disaster. In addition, ad-hoc WiFi communication allows the generation of broadcast domains within a clear channel which eases one-to-many communications. Moreover, using reinforcement learning (RL) helps reduce the computational cost and increases the accuracy of the NP-hard problem of aerial network deployment. To this end, a novel flying WiFi ad-hoc network management model is proposed in this paper. The model utilizes deep-Q-learning to maintain quality-of-service (QoS), increase user equipment (UE) coverage, and optimize power efficiency. Furthermore, a testbed is deployed on Istanbul Technical University (ITU) campus to train the developed model. Training results of the model using testbed accumulates over 90% packet delivery ratio as QoS, over 97% coverage for the users in flow tables, and 0.28 KJ/Bit average power consumption

MARMARA DENİZİ DOĞUSUNDA KUZEY ANADOLU FAY HATTI ÜZERİNDE KAROT ÇALIŞMALARI: DENİZ SEVİYESİ DEĞİŞİMİ VE FAY ETKİNLİĞİ İLE İLGİLİ BULGULAR

Marmara Denizi doğusunda Kuzey Anadolu Fay zonu (KAFZ) üzerinde bulunan BUC-10A ve İZ-30 sediment karotları, sırasıyla Büyükçekmece'nin 12 km açığından ve Izmit Körfezi'nden alınmıştır. Bu karotların çökel istifi tektonik ve paleo-oşinografik süreçleri araştırmak amacıyla sedimentolojik ve jeokimyasal yöntemlerle incelenmiştir. BUC-10A sediment karotunda toplam inorganik karbonat (TIK, toplam kalsiyum karbonat olarak) miktarı ve toplam organik karbon (TOK) içeriği sırasıyla %12.1-34.3 ve %0.5-4.1 aralığında değişir. Söz konusu sediment karotun da 1.60-2.43 m arasında organik maddece zengin sapropel tabakası ayırt edilmiştir. Aynı karotun metal konsantrasyonlarının değişim aralıkları Cr: 55-96, Cu: 21-37, Ni: 63 39-74, Mn: 345-693, Pb: 19-34, Zn: 79-143 ppm, Fe: % 2.30-3.15'dir. IZ-30 karotunda TOK , TIK, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Mn, Pb ve Zn değerlerinin değişim aralıkları sırasıyla % 0.40-1.70, %0.25-31.1, 39-87 ppm, 13-32 ppm, % 2.10-4.80, 18-41 ppm, 315-528 ppm, 7-21 ppm ve 78-185 ppm'dir. Alınan karotlarda yapılan kalkofil metal (Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, ve Zn) analizleri hidrotermal etkinliğe bağlı herhangi bir zenginleşmeyi göstermemektedir. Sedimentolojik çalışmalarla IZ 30 karotunda günümüzden önce (GÖ) 3276±48 takvim yılı yaşında, muhtemelen tektonik aktivite ile tetiklenmiş bir kütle akması saptanmıştır. Bu karotun tabanına yakın bir bölümünde günümüz su seviyesine göre -49,5 m derinlikte GÖ 9364±64 yıl olarak yaşlandırılan eski bir kıyı çizgisi bulunmuştu

Distributions of heavy metals in the surface sediments of the Gulf of Saros, NE Aegean Sea

The Gulf of Saros in the northeastern Aegean Sea (Turkey) is a relatively unpolluted marine environment. There is almost no industry and only small settlements in the surrounding region. The main sources of fresh water and sediment to the Gulf are the Meric River in the northwest and the Kavak Creek in the east. It has an asymmetric bathymetry with a 10-km-wide shelf to the noah and up to 15-km-wide, 700-m-deep trough in the south. Water circulation in the Gulf is characterized by longshore currents and anticyclonic eddies. The Black Sea waters, leaving the Sea of Marmara through the Canakkale Strait, are known to enter the southern Gulf during the summer. The surface sediments on the northern shelf consist mainly of sand, whereas those on the slope and the deep trough are mainly silt and clay. The ranges of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, and Hg contents of the surface sediments from the Gulf of Saros are 0.25-4.60%, 114-1740 ppm, 6-44 ppm, 23-154 ppm, 2-80 ppm, 14-145 ppm, and 10-130 ppb, respectively. These Values are low compared to those from the other neighboring marine environments, indicating the pristine nature of the Gulf in terms of metal pollution. However, most metal and organic carbon (C-org) distributions in the Gulf sediments show the effect of anthropogenic and natural inputs to the northwestern and eastern shelf areas from the Meric River and the Kavak Creek and to the deep trough from the Black Sea waters. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Turbidites and their association with past earthquakes in the deep Cinarcik Basin of the Marmara Sea

Two gravity cores (CAG-3 and C-15) from the tectonically active, 1,276-m deep Cinarcik Basin of the Marmara Sea each include three sandy turbiditic mud units (1 mm-2 cm thick) with sharp basal contacts. The high benthic foraminifer content of these units suggests that the sediments were transported by turbidity currents from the upper slope region. These units represent the thin edges of turbidites thickening towards the subsiding north-eastern part of the basin, and contain quartz, detrital calcite, intact shells and shell fragments, smectite, pyrite framboids, muscovite, biotite, epidote and garnet. Their clay fractions are more enriched in smectite than those of adjacent layers. AMS 14C ages (957 +/- 43 (A.D.) and 578 +/- 31 (A.D.)) of two upper and middle turbiditic units in core C15 overlap with the historical Istanbul-Thrace (intensity=10) and Istanbul-Kocaeli (intensity=9) earthquakes of 26 October 986 and 15 August 553, respectively. This overlap, together with sedimentological characteristics, strongly suggests that the turbiditic units are related to the tectono-seismic activity of the North Anatolian Fault. The age of the lowest turbiditic unit in core C-3 was found to be 6,573 +/- 87 a (B.P.) (calendar) by AMS 14 C. In terms of chronostratigraphic relationships and lithological composition, the turbiditic units in core CAG-3 cannot be correlated with those in C15. This can be explained by gravity-controlled sedimentation causing wedging out of turbidites towards the edge of the basin