Treatment of proliferative diabetic retinopathy by vitrectomy combined with retinal photocoagulation

AIM: To evaluate clinical effect of vitrectomy combined with retinal photocoagulation for proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR).<p>METHODS:A retrospective analysis 72 patients(104 eyes)with PDR who underwent vitrectomy, postoperative fundus fluorescein angiography and retinal photocoagulation within 4wk, from July 2009 to November 2012 in our hospital. All the patients were followed up for more than 12mo, analysising the clinical data of preoperative, postoperative, final corrected vision and the operation complications.<p>RESULTS:The increasing rate of visual acuity after retinal photocoagulation(the last retinal photocoagulation)within 1wk was 88.5%(92/104), 1mo was 92.3%(96/104), 3mo was 90.4%(94/104)and one eye had neovascular glaucoma, 6mo was 88.5%(92/104)and one eye had retinal detachment, 12mo was 80.8%(84/104)and 2 eyes with silicone oil emulsification. Along with the development of diabetic retinopathy, the increasing rate of visual acuity declined, complications of silicone oil eye operation increased, especially in eyes with proliferative diabetic retinopathy in phase five or six.<p>CONCLUSION:Vitrectomy combined with retinal photocoagulation in treatment of PDR is effective and safe. Postoperative fundus fluorescein angiography can have a definite object in view of retinal photocoagulation after vitrectomy, which can reduce excessive photocoagulation and prevent light coagulation deficiencies, while improve the visual acuity effectively and reduce the complications

Structure and mechanical properties of tungsten-containing hydrogenated diamond like carbon coatings for space applications

AbstractTungsten-containing diamond like carbon (W-C:H) coatings were prepared by unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBM) using tungsten carbide targets in Ar/C2H2 atmosphere. The structure and mechanical properties of these coatings with different C2H2 flow (from 40sccm to 140sccm) were studied. According to the analysis of Raman spectroscopy and the measurement of hardness and Young's modulus about the coatings, it was showed that sp3/sp2 ratio in the coatings changed and the hardness and Young's modulus decreased with increase of the C2H2 flow. Besides, the adhension and friction wear properties of the coatings were evaluated using the scratch test and dry sliding tests respectively. It was found that the coatings exhibited very good adhension and the C2H2 flow (actually the hydrogen) played a very important role in the tribological behavior of the W-C:H coatings in vacuum

INFORMATION PRIVACY CONCERNS AMONG NOVICE AND EXPERT USERS OF SOLOMO

SoLoMo (Social-Local-Mobile) services are becoming dominant to the huge population of semiliterate users living in emerging economies due to low costs and ubiquity. However, usage of SoLoMo services is still susceptible by information privacy concerns. Studies typically addressed the ways to mitigate information privacy concerns for the literate users and not the semi-literate users. To fill the gap of semi-literate users and have a better understanding of the information privacy concerns among different communities, this study draws upon theories of privacy calculus, familiarity, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and protection motivation to identify the precursors of information privacy concerns related to SoLoMo services and users’ expertise. The proposed research model is empirically tested in a laboratory experiment. The findings show that the two channels (covert and overt) of delivering SoLoMo services affect the degree of information privacy concerns between the literate and semi-literate users. Implications for improving usage intentions and mitigating information privacy concerns for SoLoMo services for different types of mobile applications are discussed

Population Stereotyped Icons: A Study of Agrarian Communities in India

Knowledge transfer is a key factor for increasing agriculture yield especially in developing countries like India. Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is the best platform for knowledge transfer. However, the expertise level of novice users living in India has compromised usage of ICT services. To fill the gap, we suggest for icons to be developed using population stereotype production method. In this study, we first generated population stereotype representations for sixteen different function labels. We then compared the performance and representativeness of these populationstereotyped icons with other ideas. Two separate experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, ninety-two participants from the farming communities were asked to draw images to represent sixteen function labels. In the second experiment, eighty-eight participants were equally distributed into four groups to evaluate the performance and representativeness of all the population-stereotyped representations. This study answered one of the most significant questions regarding the utility of using population-stereotyped ideas for the development of icons in the context of agrarian societies of rural India. The study also offered important practical implications for designing representative icons by using representations developed by different participants during population stereotype production

Icon Types, Classical and Expressive Aesthetics, Pleasurable Interaction and Satisfaction with the Process of Semi-literate Users

The hedonic role of icons has been undermined in contemporary human computer interaction research, though users have specifically mentioned the importance of icons while performing aesthetic evaluation of user interfaces. Previous research has also neglected factors like aesthetics and pleasurable interaction while comparing efficiency of same interface elements. In this regard, current study investigates how different types of icons in mobile applications affect the aesthetics and pleasurable interactions of semi-literate users. This study also investigates the extent to which aesthetics and pleasurable interactions affect satisfaction with the process. The study addresses these issues from the theoretical perspectives of metaphor and aesthetics. Significant differences were observed for aesthetics and pleasurable interactions between two different types of icon sets, namely metaphoric and idiomatic. This study suggests that for higher evaluation of aesthetics and pleasurable interaction for semi-literate users, specific icon types are preferred

Liver Transplantation in an Adult with Citrullinaemia Type 2

Citrullinaemia is a urea cycle defect that results from a deficiency of the enzyme arginosuccinate synthetase. Type 1 disease is diagnosed in childhood, whereas Type 2 disease is adult onset. We report the outcome of a patient with citrullinemia Type 2 who received a liver transplant at our center and the implications of this diagnosis in liver transplantation

User-Accustomed Interaction: An Usability Approach for Designing Mobile Application for Novice and Expert Users

The development of smartphone applications is prevailing globally, including the underserved communities consisting of a huge group of novice users. In spite of the growing number of novice users, we hardly consider usability for users with varying expertise level when we evaluate performance and satisfaction with usage of mobile applications. In this study, we argue that it is not suitable to design one interface for all users of progressively varying communities. Based on theories in design science research, we propose a user-accustomed approach to adapt mobile applications that integrate three types of interaction elements, namely localization, structural navigation and illustration. In an investigation of the proposed approach on mobile application, we empirically proved the effects of user-accustomed interaction techniques on performance and satisfaction between novice and expert users. The findings provide significant theoretical and practical implications for design and implementation of user interfaces on mobile application