Topical prostaglandin analogues and conjunctival inflammation in uveitic glaucoma.

A pilot study to determine whether topical prostaglandin analogues alter the expression of conjunctival inflammatory markers in patients with uveitic glaucoma.Prospective, single-masked case series of 20 patients with uveitis and secondary raised intraocular pressure. Participants were divided into four groups of five patients dependent on their use of topical medication: (1) prostaglandin analogues only, (2) corticosteroids only, (3) both prostaglandin analogues and corticosteroids, (4) no topical medication. Conjunctival cells were harvested by impression cytology and were examined for inflammatory markers (CD3, CD54, HLA-DR, CCR4, CCR5) by flow cytometry. A tear fluid sample was also examined for inflammatory cytokines (IL-12p70, IL-2, IL-10, IL-8, IL-6, IL-4, IL-5, IFN-gamma, IL-1beta, IFN-alpha, IFN-beta) by multiplex bead arrays.All groups demonstrated increased markers of conjunctival inflammation. There was no significant difference in levels of any inflammatory markers between the four groups, suggesting that the use of topical prostaglandin analogues does not increase conjunctival levels of inflammation beyond those already seen in uveitis.The use of topical prostaglandins does not appear to induce conjunctival inflammation over that which is already present in patients with uveitic glaucoma. This supports the use of topical prostaglandin analogues in patients with uveitic glaucoma, indicating that their use is unlikely to adversely affect subsequent glaucoma filtration surgery through the induction of chronic conjunctival inflammation

Lacunary interpolation by quartic splines on uniform meshes

AbstractThe interpolation of a discrete set of data on the interval [0, 1], representing the first and the second derivatives (except at 0) of a smooth function f is investigated via quartic C2-splines. Error bounds in the uniform norm for ∥s(i) − f(i)∥, i=0(1)2, if f ∈ Cl[0, 1], l=3, 5 and (3) ∈ BV[0, 1], together with computational examples will also be presented

Long-term shoreline shifts on continental blocks during the Bajocian: an updated interpretation based on synthetic stratigraphical and palaeogeographical developments on regional scales

Available reconstructions of Jurassic global sea level changes differ and are in need of an update. New stratigraphical charts and palaeogeographical developments for a number of large continental blocks or their portions of these (e.g., Germany, India, northeast Africa, northwest Australia, the Russian Platform and western Siberia) reveal regional long- term shoreline shifts (i.e., transgressions and regressions) during the Bajocian Stage (168.3–170.3 Ma). A comparison of these allows to document only a single coherent feature, namely the earliest Bajocian transgression, in the majority of the continental blocks considered. Undoubtedly, this event was triggered by a eustatic rise. However, long-term shoreline shifts were either weak to absent or differed between the blocks during almost the entire Bajocian, thus pro- viding evidence of the apparent stability of global sea level and the importance of regional tectonic activity as a control mechanism on particular transgressions and regressions. Interestingly, it appears that the earliest Bajocian eustatic rise was a constituent of a long-term eustatic pattern; the nature of this event has yet to be fully understood. Generally, the findings presented here are in better agreement with Anthony Hallam’s view of Jurassic eustasy and question some other global sea level reconstructions

The Prokinetic Face of Ghrelin

This review evaluated published data regarding the effects of ghrelin on GI motility using the PubMed database for English articles from 1999 to September 2009. Our strategy was to combine all available information from previous literature, in order to provide a complete structured review on the prokinetic properties of exogenous ghrelin and its potential use for treatment of various GI dysmotility ailments. We classified the literature into two major groups, depending on whether studies were done in health or in disease. We sub-classified the studies into stomach, small intestinal and colon studies, and broke them down further into studies done in vitro, in vivo (animals) and in humans. Further more, the reviewed studies were presented in a chronological order to guide the readers across the scientific advances in the field. The review shows evidences that ghrelin and its (receptor) agonists possess a strong prokinetic potential to serve in the treatment of diabetic, neurogenic or idiopathic gastroparesis and possibly, chemotherapy-associated dyspepsia, postoperative, septic or post-burn ileus, opiate-induced bowel dysfunction and chronic idiopathic constipation. Further research is necessary to close the gap in knowledge about the effect of ghrelin on the human intestines in health and disease

Effect of different parameters controlling the flexural behavior of RC beams strengthened with NSM using nonlinear finite element analysis

Near surface mounted technique become the most attractive technique for strengthening RC structures. Several researches had been conducted to study experimentally the flexural behavior of RC members strengthened with NSM technique unlike the numerical researches. In this paper a numerical investigation utilizes the non-linear finite element (FE) modeling using ANSYS was performed. The developed FE model considers the behavior of the epoxy-concrete interface using a particular continuum damage approach, called cohesive zone model (CZM) which is capable of predicting the failure mode of the strengthened beams. The modified model study the effect of different parameters such as NSM bar number, NSM bar length, end inclination angle and end inclination leg length on the flexural behavior of strengthened beams. The results showed that, The developed FE model able to predict the expected modes of failure in NSM technique, the NSM bar length was effective till 0.5 of beam span, beams strengthened with end inclined angle 45º NSM bar gives the highest improvement in load carrying capacity, this improvement was very close in case of using end inclined angle of 60º and 90º

Modelling Multilayer Communication Channel in Terahertz Band for Medical Applications

In this work we present a multi-layer channel model for terahertz communication that incorporates both layers of human body tissues and textile layers. Many research works tackled communication channel modelling in human body alone while some other research focused on textile characterization/modelling alone. There is a real gap in connecting these different models. To investigate this, a multi-layer channel model for terahertz communication is developed, this model assumes external textile layer stacked over layers of human body tissues. The electromagnetic properties of the different layers are extracted from previous works that used time domain spectroscopy (TDS) in the terahertz band to characterize each of the considered layers. The model is implemented as a flexible MATLAB/Octave program that enables the simulation of layers with either fixed or random depths. This paper aims to pave the way to connecting patients’ in-body nano-nodes with off-body (on-cloth) nano-nodes by building such a combined channel model. This helps in many applications especially in the medical field. For example, having connected nano-nodes can help in diagnosing diseases, monitoring health by sending information to the external environment, treatment (e.g., increasing or decreasing a certain dose depending on the monitoring), etc. The obtained results show how the THz signal can be affected when it propagates through heterogeneous mediums (i.e., human body tissues and textile). Various types of path-loss has been calculated for this purpose and verified by comparison with results from previous research on separate models of human body and textile

Experimental assessment of different strengthening techniques for opening in reinforced concrete beams

The present experimental study includes testing thirteen reinforced concrete beams with openings at different locations to investigate the efficiency of strengthening such openings. Different strengthening techniques around the opening after and before casting include diagonal bars, upper and lower steel, and carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), were examined. All beams were made from 30 MPa compressive strength and tested under four-point loading.  The cross section of the beams is 400 mm depth x 160 mm width and beam length 2400 mm. The dimensions of the opening are 200 mm x 200 mm. The stiffness, deflection, failure load, and failure mode of the strengthened beams were discussed. Experimental results showed that the beams strengthened with upper and lower steel around opening at mid-span increase the load-carrying capacity by 16.59%. However, beams strengthened by CFRP sheets around the opening in the shear zone increase the load carrying capacity by 47.7% compared to opened beam