The Predictive Relationship between Student Food-Insecurity and Basic Psychological Needs within College Students

In recent years, researchers have determined food insecurity affects a college student’s grade point average (GPA), mental health, campus status, and social life. While each of these findings is valuable for post-secondary faculty and their decision-making, none can determine whether a student’s basic psychological needs are affected by their food insecurity (FI), which is paramount in a student’s success inside and outside of the classroom. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a predictive relationship between the severity of a student’s food insecurity and their basic psychological needs satisfaction. To accomplish the study, one hundred and ninety-three students from one community college, one private university, and one public university in the State of Florida were surveyed. These students completed the Food Insecurity Experience Scale as well as the Basic Psychological Needs Frustration and Satisfaction Scale (BPNSFS) to determine each participant’s current satisfaction with Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs). By utilizing IBM’s SPSS software and performing three bivariate regression analyses, the predictive relationship between food insecurity and BPN satisfaction was determined to be insignificant (p \u3c 0.05). The results call for further quantitative research on this topic as BPNs frustration may be a confounding variable. Conversely, if BPNs frustration is not a confounding variable and confirms the study’s results, it would be prudent to explore additional areas where FI affects college students. Therefore, it would be shrewd for future researchers to conduct mixed methods studies that include interviews in congruence with surveys

Retinal Vessel Width Measurement at Branchings Using an Improved Electric Field Theory-Based Graph Approach

The retinal vessel width relationship at vessel branch points in fundus images is an important biomarker of retinal and systemic disease. We propose a fully automatic method to measure the vessel widths at branch points in fundus images. The method is a graph-based method, in which a graph construction method based on electric field theory is applied which specifically deals with complex branching patterns. The vessel centerline image is used as the initial segmentation of the graph. Branching points are detected on the vessel centerline image using a set of detection kernels. Crossing points are distinguished from branch points and excluded. The electric field based graph method is applied to construct the graph. This method is inspired by the non-intersecting force lines in an electric field. At last, the method is further improved to give a consistent vessel width measurement for the whole vessel tree. The algorithm was validated on 100 artery branchings and 100 vein branchings selected from 50 fundus images by comparing with vessel width measurements from two human experts

Secondary glaucoma in CAPN5-associated neovascular inflammatory vitreoretinopathy

Abdourahman Cham,1,2 Mayank Bansal,3 Himanshu K Banda,4 Young Kwon,1 Paul S Tlucek,1 Alexander G Bassuk,5 Stephen H Tsang,6,7 Warren M Sobol,8 James C Folk,1 Steven Yeh,4 Vinit B Mahajan1,2 1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, 2Omics Laboratory, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; 3Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; 4Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 5Department of Pediatrics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 6Barbara and Donald Jonas Laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine and Bernard and Shirlee Brown Glaucoma Laboratory, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Institute of Human Nutrition, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 7Edward S Harkness Eye Institute, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, 8Retina Physicians & Surgeons, Inc., Dayton, OH, USA Objective: The objective of this study was to review the treatment outcomes of patients with secondary glaucoma in cases of autosomal dominant neovascular inflammatory vitreoretinopathy (ADNIV), a hereditary autoimmune uveitis due to mutations in CAPN5. Patients and methods: A retrospective, observational case series was assembled from ADNIV patients with secondary glaucoma. The main outcome measures were intraocular pressure (IOP), visual acuity, use of antiglaucoma medications, ocular surgeries, and adverse outcomes. Perimetry and optic disk optical coherence tomography (OCT) were also analyzed. Results: Nine eyes of five ADNIV patients with secondary glaucoma were reviewed. Each received a fluocinolone acetonide (FA) implant for the management of posterior uveitis. Following implantation, no eyes developed neovascular glaucoma. Five eyes (in patients 1, 2, and 5) required Ahmed glaucoma valve surgery for the management of steroid-responsive glaucoma. Patient 2 also developed angle closure with iris bombe and underwent laser peripheral iridotomy. Patient 4 had both hypotony and elevated IOP that required periodic antiglaucoma medication in the FA-implanted eye. Patient 3 did not develop steroid-response glaucoma in either eye. Optic disk examinations were obscured by fibrosis and better assessed with OCT. Conclusion: ADNIV patients show combined mechanism secondary glaucoma best assessed by OCT of the optic disk. The FA implants have reduced uveitic and neovascular glaucoma. Nevertheless, IOP management remains complex due to steroid-response glaucoma, angle closure glaucoma, and hypotony. Keywords: ADNIV, CAPN5, calpain-5, fluocinolone acetonide, secondary glaucoma, uveiti

Examples of typical arterial branch point and venous branch point.

<p>Arteries usually have a lower contrast to the background comparing with veins. (a) A typical arterial branch point. (b) A typical venous branching.</p

Typical vessel width measurement images, with red lines denoting the vessel width measurement for branch points and black lines denoting the vessel width measurement for straight vessels.

<p>(a) shows the vessel width measurement of <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0049668#pone-0049668-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>.</p

Comparison of the performance between human experts and presented method (signed error and unsigned error in pixels).

<p> and denote the two human experts. denotes the presented method. denotes the average measurements of the two human experts. and are the mean and standard deviation of errors.</p