Epidemiology of Eales Disease in the Central Western India

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and propose a new staging system based on the clinicopathological correlation and formulate new guidelines for management of Eales’ disease in healthy young males. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Vitreo Retinal Department of a tertiary eye care center in Western Central India. Participants: Seventy-four eyes diagnosed with Eales’ disease. Materials and methods: From 2004 to 2010, patients clinically diagnosed with Eales’ disease were enrolled in this study using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. We examined the patients’ anterior and posterior segments thoroughly. We performed the necessary ocular and systemic investigations. We divided the investigations into three stages: inflammatory, ischemic and complications and the patients were treated accordingly. We treated the patients using medical management, photocoagulation or pars plana vitrectomy. The patients were monitored according to standard schedules and formats. All information was documented using a pre-tested online format and statistical analyses were performed using SPSS ver. 17. A p-value < 0.05 was considered to indicate significance. Outcome measures: Visual acuity. Results: The cohort comprised 74 cases with a mean age of 30 ± 8.73 years. The visual acuity of the presenting cohort was < 3/60 in 64.9% of eyes. The final visual outcome was > 6/12 in 40 eyes (54.1%), 6/60 to 6/18 in 14 eyes (18.9%) and < 1/60 in the remaining 9 eyes at a mean follow-up of 592 days. The visual parameters differed significantly pre-and post-treatment. We evaluated the visual outcome following surgical management. Conclusion: We studied epidemiological facts about anterior and posterior segment findings

Brain activation covaries with reported criminal behaviors when making risky choices: A fuzzy-trace theory approach

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Psychological Association via the DOI in this record.Criminal behavior has been associated with abnormal neural activity when people experience risks and rewards or exercise inhibition. However, neural substrates of mental representations that underlie criminal and noncriminal risk-taking in adulthood have received scant attention. We take a new approach, applying fuzzy-trace theory, to examine neural substrates of risk preferences and criminality. We extend ideas about gist (simple meaning) and verbatim (precise risk-reward tradeoffs) representations used to explain adolescent risk-taking to uncover neural correlates of developmentally inappropriate adult risk-taking. We tested predictions using a risky-choice framing task completed in the MRI scanner, and examined neural covariation with self-reported criminal and noncriminal risk-taking. As predicted, risk-taking was correlated with a behavioral pattern of risk preferences called “reverse framing” (preferring sure losses over a risky option and a risky option over sure gains, the opposite of typical framing biases) that has been linked to risky behavior in adolescents and is rarely observed in nondisordered adults. Experimental manipulations confirmed processing interpretations of typical framing (gist-based) and reverse-framing (verbatim-based) risk preferences. In the brain, covariation with criminal and noncriminal risk-taking was observed predominantly when subjects made reverse-framing choices. Noncriminal risk-taking behavior was associated with emotional reactivity (amygdala) and reward motivation (striatal) areas, whereas criminal behavior was associated with greater activation in temporal and parietal cortices, their junction, and insula. When subjects made more developmentally typical framing choices, reflecting non-preferred gist processing, activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex covaried with criminal risk-taking, which may reflect cognitive effort to process gist while inhibiting preferred verbatim processin

Point defect formation in M₂AlC (M = Zr,Cr) MAX phases and their tendency to disorder and amorphize

First principles calculations are performed on Zr₂AlC and Cr₂AlC MAX phases to compare their ability to accommodate point defects under irradiation. Interatomic bonding is stronger in Cr₂AlC than Zr₂AlC but contrary to expectation Zr₂AlC exhibits higher vacancy and antisite pair formation energies. However, interstitials and Frenkel defects are generally more difficult to form in Cr₂AlC. The results are attributed to the mixed covalent/ionic/metallic nature of the bonding. Detailed comparison of all the energies suggests that the preferred defects in Zr₂AlC and Cr₂AlC are the V_Al+Al_i Frenkel and Cr_Al+Al_Cr antisite respectively. Thus the potential response of the two phases to irradiation is different and taking account of other competing defects it is suggested that Zr₂AlC is less susceptible to amorphization.The calculations were performed at the Cambridge HPCS and the UK National Supercomputing Service, ARCHER. Access to the latter was obtained via the CaFFE consortium and funded by EPSRC under Grant No. EP/M018768/1

Contemporary hormone therapy with LHRH agonists for prostate cancer: avoiding osteoporosis and fracture.

© 2015 Polish Urological Association. All Rights Reserved.Introduction Prostate cancer is a large clinical burden across Europe. It is, in fact, the most common cancer in males, accounting for more than 92,300 deaths annually throughout the continent. Prostate cancer is androgen-sensitive; thus an androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is often used for treatment by reducing androgen to castrate levels. Several ADT agents have achieved benefits with effective palliation, but, unfortunately, severe adverse events are frequent. Contemporary ADT (Luteinising Hormone Releasing Hormone agonist - LHRHa injections) can result in side effects that include osteoporosis and fractures, compromising quality of life and survival.  Methods In this review we analysed the associated bone toxicity consequent upon contemporary ADT and based on the literature and our own experience we present future perspectives that seek to mitigate this associated toxicity both by development of novel therapies and by better identification and prediction of fracture risk. Results Preliminary results indicate that parenteral oestrogen can mitigate associated osteoporotic risk and that CT scans could provide a more accurate indicator of overall bone quality and hence fracture risk.  Conclusions As healthcare costs increase globally, cheap and effective alternatives that achieve ADT, but mitigate or avoid such bone toxicities, will be needed. More so, innovative techniques to improve both the measurement and the extent of this toxicity, by assessing bone health and prediction of fracture risk, are also required

Role of the local stress systems on microstructural inhomogeneity during semisolid injection

High pressure metal die casting is an extremely dynamic process with widely ranging cooling rates and intensifying pressures, resulting in a wide range of solid fractions and deformation rates simultaneously existing in the same casting. These process parameters and their complex interplay dictate the formation of microstructural solidification defects. In this study, fast synchrotron X-ray imaging experiments simulating high pressure die casting of aluminium alloys were conducted to investigate the effect of solid fraction, loading conditions and semisolid flow on local microstructural inhomogeneity. While most of the existing literature in this field reports speeds up to 10 µm/s for in situ deformation, the present work captures much faster filling and solidification, at speeds closer to 100 µm/s and at different solid fractions. Semisolid deformation of low solid fractions reveals two typical microstructural features: (i) coarser grains in the middle and finer ones near the walls, and (ii) remelting near the solid-liquid interface due to Cu enrichment in the liquid by the flow. Ex situ scans and digital image correlation analysis of the higher solid fraction samples reveal a porosity formation mechanism based on the local state of stresses, microstructure and feeding. Four different characteristics were identified: (i) plug flow, (ii) dead zone (densified mush), (iii) shear and (iv) bulk zones. These insights will be used to develop zone-specific strategies for the numerical modelling of defect formation during die casting

In situ characterisation of surface roughness and its amplification during multilayer single-track laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing

Surface roughness controls the mechanical performance and durability (e.g., wear and corrosion resistance) of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) components. The evolution mechanisms of surface roughness during LPBF are not well understood due to a lack of in situ characterisation methods. Here, we quantified key processes and defect dynamics using synchrotron X-ray imaging and ex situ optical imaging and explained the evolution mechanisms of side-skin and top-skin roughness during multi-layer LPBF of Ti-6Al-4V (where down-skin roughness was out of the project scope). We found that the average surface roughness alone is not an accurate representation of surface topology of an LPBF component and that the surface topology is multimodal (e.g., containing both roughness and waviness) and multiscale (e.g., from 25 µm sintered powder features to 250 µm molten pool wavelength). Both roughness and topology are significantly affected by the formation of pre-layer humping, spatter, and rippling defects. We developed a surface topology matrix that accurately describes surface features by combining 8 different metrics: average roughness, root mean square roughness, maximum profile peak height, maximum profile valley height, mean height, mean width, skewness, and melt pool size ratio. This matrix provides a guide to determine the appropriate linear energy density to achieve the optimum surface finish of Ti-6Al-4V thin-wall builds. This work lays a foundation for surface texture control which is critical for build design, metrology, and performance in LPBF

A Simple Technique to Remove an Incarcerated Ceramic Liner in Revision Hip Arthroplasty.

Extraction of a well-fixed ceramic liner during revision total hip arthroplasty can be technically challenging, particularly when acetabular fixation screws prevent en bloc removal of the shell and insert without causing collateral damage to the adjacent pelvic bone. It is also important to remove the ceramic liner intact, as ceramic debris left in the joint may cause third body wear with premature articular wear of the revised implants. We describe a novel technique to extract an incarcerated ceramic liner when previously described strategies prove ineffective. Knowledge of this technique will help surgeons avoid unnecessary damage to the acetabular bone and optimize prospects for stable implantation of revision components

Sinter formation during directed energy deposition of titanium alloy powders

During directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing, powder agglomeration and sintering can occur outside of the melt pool when using titanium alloy powders. Using in situ synchrotron radiography we investigate the mechanisms by which sintering of Ti6242 powder occurs around the pool, performing a parametric study to determine the influence of laser power and stage traverse speed on sinter build-up. The results reveal that detrimental sinter can be reduced using a high laser power or increased stage traverse speed, although the latter also reduces deposition layer thickness. The mechanism of sinter formation during DED was determined to be in-flight heating of the powder particles in the laser beam. Calculations of particle heating under the processing conditions explored in this study confirm that powder particles can reasonably exceed 700 °C, the threshold for Ti surface oxide dissolution, and thus the powder is prone to sintering if not incorporated into the melt pool. The build-up of sinter powder layer on deposit surfaces led to lack of fusion pores. To mitigate sinter formation and its detrimental effects on DED component quality, it is essential that the powder delivery spot area is smaller than the melt pool, ensuring most powder lands in the melt pool

MeCP2 mutations: progress towards understanding and treating Rett syndrome

Rett syndrome is a profound neurological disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene, but preclinical research has indicated that it is potentially treatable. Progress towards this goal depends on the development of increasingly relevant model systems and on our improving knowledge of MeCP2 function in the brain