The spontaneous emergence of ordered phases in crumpled sheets

X-ray tomography is performed to acquire 3D images of crumpled aluminum foils. We develop an algorithm to trace out the labyrinthian paths in the three perpendicular cross sections of the data matrices. The tangent-tangent correlation function along each path is found to decay exponentially with an effective persistence length that shortens as the crumpled ball becomes more compact. In the mean time, we observed ordered domains near the crust, similar to the lamellae phase mixed by the amorphous portion in lyotropic liquid crystals. The size and density of these domains grow with further compaction, and their orientation favors either perpendicular or parallel to the radial direction. Ordering is also identified near the core with an arbitrary orientation, exemplary of the spontaneous symmetry breaking

Visual Outcomes After Cataract Surgery:Multifocal Versus Monofocal Intraocular Lenses

PURPOSE: To evaluate visual outcomes, spectacle independence, and quality of life among nonastigmatic and astigmatic patients who received AcrySof IQ ReSTOR toric or nontoric multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) (Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX) compared with those who received commercially available nontoric monofocal IOLs after bilateral cataract removal. METHODS: This randomized, patient- and observer-technician-masked study was conducted at 20 sites in Europe. Patients were randomized to receive monofocal (nontoric only) or multifocal (nontoric or toric, as needed) IOLs. Primary efficacy endpoints included percentage of patients achieving binocular uncorrected distance and near acuity of 0.1 logMAR or better (20/25 Snellen), spectacle independence, and scores on the National Eye Institute Refractive Error and Quality of Life questionnaire domains. Safety endpoints included adverse events and refractive error within 0.5 and 1.0 diopters. RESULTS: In the multifocal group (n = 108) versus the monofocal group (n = 100), significantly more patients achieved uncorrected distance and near acuity of 0.1 logMAR or better (45.7% vs 2.1%; P < .0001) and spectacle independence (73.3% vs 25.3%; P < .0001) at 6 months. The percentage of patients who achieved uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/40 or better at 6 months was 92% in the multifocal group and 97% in the monofocal group. National Eye Institute Refractive Error and Quality of Life scores were significantly better for dependence on correction in the multifocal group (P < .0001) and for glare in the monofocal group (P = .0157); other domain scores were similar between groups. No significant trends in study device-related adverse events were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Monofocal and multifocal IOLs provided good clinical outcomes. More patients receiving multifocal IOLs attained better uncorrected visual acuity at a range of distances and spectacle independence compared with patients who received monofocal IOLs. Monofocal IOLs were associated with better patient-reported scores for glare compared with multifocal IOLs; however, scores for patient satisfaction were significantly better in the multifocal group

Effects of High-Sucrose and High-Saturated Fat Diets on Learning Abilities in Old Sprague-Dawley Rats

With an increase in longevity, many studies have explored the influences of different lifestyle factors on successful aging. This study hypothesizes that older rats fed with a nutritionally balanced standard diet would perform better on learning tasks than rats fed with either a high-sucrose or a high-saturated fat. It also hypothesizes that older rats fed with a high-sucrose diet would perform better than those fed with a high-saturated fat. The learning abilities of the 15-month-old rats (N = 36) were assessed by conducting forward and reverse learning tasks using a T-maze apparatus. The results showed that rats on a nutritionally balanced diet performed significantly better on both learning tasks than those on either the high-sucrose or the high-saturated fat (p’s &lt; .05). This may be due to the fact that the high-sucrose and high-saturated fat diets exacerbated a cognitive decline in geriatric rats. There was no significant difference between the learning abilities of the rats on a high-sucrose or high-saturated fat diet (p’s &gt; .05). This finding suggests that, at an older age, both high-sucrose and high-saturated fat diets have a similarly detrimental influence on cognitive health

A Hybrid Recommender System for Patient-Doctor Matchmaking in Primary Care

We partner with a leading European healthcare provider and design a mechanism to match patients with family doctors in primary care. We define the matchmaking process for several distinct use cases given different levels of available information about patients. Then, we adopt a hybrid recommender system to present each patient a list of family doctor recommendations. In particular, we model patient trust of family doctors using a large-scale dataset of consultation histories, while accounting for the temporal dynamics of their relationships. Our proposed approach shows higher predictive accuracy than both a heuristic baseline and a collaborative filtering approach, and the proposed trust measure further improves model performance.Comment: This paper is accepted at DSAA 2018 as a full paper, Proc. of the 5th IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA), Turin, Ital

Estradiol regulates brown adipose tissue thermogenesis via hypothalamic AMPK

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD