Evaluation of a New Method to Track Changes in Vision at Home for Children Undergoing Amblyopia Treatment.

PurposeA new amblyopia tracker app has been designed to provide parents with a method of monitoring a child's vision by presenting a single optotype size that the tester moves to identify the furthest distance the optotypes can be seen. The aim of this study is to evaluate this methodology in adults, comparing the findings to visual acuity (VA) measured with the iSight app and to determine the test retest variability.MethodsAdults, aged 18-39 years, with no known eye condition and VA ≤ 0.7 logMAR were recruited. Bangerter filters were used to simulate amblyopia, where VA was reduced below 0.0 with an interocular difference of at least 0.2 logMAR. Testing for both apps was performed monocularly, with the test order being randomised.ResultsData from 32 subjects were analysed. For the test retest variability analysis, paired t-tests showed no statistically significant difference between the tests for either eye, either app or the interocular acuity difference (p > 0.3 in all cases). Bland Altman plots showed similar limits of agreement between the two apps. When comparing measurements between the apps there was no statistically significant difference on the first or second test, either eye or the interocular acuity difference (p > 0.5 in all cases).ConclusionThe results support the theory that changing distance is a valid method of assessing VA as the measurements agree well with the standard approach of reducing optotype size. Test retest variability is similar between the two apps and there is good agreement between the measurements

Integrated Late Eocene-Oligocene Stratigraphy of the Alabama Coastal Plain: Correlation of Hiatuses and Stratal Surfaces to Glacioeustatic Lowerings

We integrated strontium and oxygen isotopic, biostratigraphic, and magnetostratigraphic studies of two upper Eocene-Oligocene boreholes drilled near Bay Minette and St. Stephens Quarry (SSQ), Alabama. Continuous coring provided fresh, unweathered material for magnetostratigraphic studies, minimizing problems reported from nearby outcrops. Difficulties with each technique were encountered because of diagenesis, absence of marker fossils, and the presence of unconformities; however, by integrating results from isotopic stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and magnetostratigraphy, we correlated these relatively shallow-water deposits to the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS). At the SSQ borehole, the upper Eocene to lower Oligocene section is apparently complete within our stratigraphic resolution (0.2-0.5 m.y.), allowing us to estimate the ages of several stratal surfaces. Late Eocene Sr isotope age estimates are as expected at the SSQ borehole, but Oligocene ages are ~1 m.y. older than expected due to diagenesis. At the Bay Minette borehole, a latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene and a late early Oligocene hiatus were detected. We correlate these two hiatuses and stratal surfaces at SSQ with global δ^18O increases inferred to represent glacioeustatic lowerings and with evidence for hiatuses on other continental margins: (1) a distinct disconformity at the base of the Chickasawhay Limestone at both boreholes and a hiatus at Bay Minette correlates with a global δ^18O increase; we revise the age of this surface (equivalent to the TB 1.1 sequence boundary) making it ~2 m.y. older than previously reported; and (2) a surface at the top of the Shubuta Member (lowermost Oligocene) has been interpreted both as a condensed section and a disconformity; this surface at SSQ and a hiatus at Bay Minette correlate with a sharp global δ^18O increase and with hiatuses on the New Jersey and Irish margins. The timing of the hiatuses and stratal surfaces correlates with the inflection of the δ^18O increases and not with the maximum values, supporting models that indicate that unconformities form during the maximum rates of sea level fall

Proteasome inhibition for treatment of leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness

Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness affect 20 million people worldwide and lead to more than 50,000 deaths annually. The diseases are caused by infection with the kinetoplastid parasites Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma brucei spp., respectively. These parasites have similar biology and genomic sequence, suggesting that all three diseases could be cured with drugs that modulate the activity of a conserved parasite target. However, no such molecular targets or broad spectrum drugs have been identified to date. Here we describe a selective inhibitor of the kinetoplastid proteasome (GNF6702) with unprecedented in vivo efficacy, which cleared parasites from mice in all three models of infection. GNF6702 inhibits the kinetoplastid proteasome through a non-competitive mechanism, does not inhibit the mammalian proteasome or growth of mammalian cells, and is well-tolerated in mice. Our data provide genetic and chemical validation of the parasite proteasome as a promising therapeutic target for treatment of kinetoplastid infections, and underscore the possibility of developing a single class of drugs for these neglected diseases

On the liquid lining in fluid-conveying curved tubes

We consider axially uniform, two-phase flow through a rigid curved tube in which a fluid (air) core is surrounded by a film of a second, immiscible fluid (water): a simplified model for flow in a conducting airway of the lung. Jensen (1997) showed that, in the absence of a core flow, surface tension drives the system towards a configuration in which the film thickness tends to zero on the inner wall of the bend. In the present work, we demonstrate that the presence of a core flow, driven by a steady axial pressure gradient, allows the existence of steady states in which the film thickness remains finite, a consequence of the fact that the tangential stresses at the interface, imposed by secondary flows in the core, can oppose the surface-tension-driven flow. For sufficiently strong surface tension, the steady configurations are symmetric about the plane containing the tube's centreline, but as the surface tension decreases the symmetry is lost through a pitchfork bifurcation, which is closely followed by a limit point on the symmetric solution branch. This solution structure is found both in simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations and a thin-film model appropriate for weakly curved tubes. Analysis of the thin-film model reveals that the bifurcation structure arises from a perturbation of the translational degeneracy of the interface location in a straight tube. © 2011 Cambridge University Press

Evaluation of the Amblyopia tracker app.

The Amblyopia tracker app has been developed to be a tool for parents to monitor changes in vision at home during amblyopia treatment. The aims of this study were to evaluate the feasibility and repeatability of parents testing their children at home and to compare home test results to an assessment in clinic by an orthoptist. Children (age  0.3 in all cases). Results show no statistically significant differences for the Amblyopia tracker app when used by parents at home on repeated testing, or between the home test by a parent and the test by a clinician. However, variability in the results does indicate that further improvements are required to ensure the results can be used as a reliable clinical tool