The effect of aberrations on objectively assessed image quality and depth of focus.

The effects of aberrations on image quality and the objectively assessed depth of focus (DoF) were studied. Aberrometry data from 80 young subjects with a range of refractive errors was used for computing the visual Strehl ratio based on the optical transfer function (VSOTF), and then, through-focus simulations were performed in order to calculate the objective DoF (using two different relative thresholds of 50% and 80%; and two different pupil diameters) and the image quality (the peak VSOTF). Both lower order astigmatism and higher order aberration (HOA) terms up to the fifth radial order were considered. The results revealed that, of the HOAs, the comatic terms (third and fifth order) explained most of the variations of the DoF and the image quality in this population of subjects. Furthermore, computer simulations demonstrated that the removal of these terms also had a significant impact on both DoF and the peak VSOTF. Knowledge about the relationship between aberrations, DoF, image quality, and their interactions is essential in optical designs aiming to produce large values of DoF while maintaining an acceptable level of image quality. Comatic aberration terms appear to contribute strongly towards the configuration of both of these visually important parameters

Relación médico-paciente con Enfermedad Inflamatoria Intestinal en España

RESUMENIntroducción: Los pacientes con Enfermedad Inflamatoria Intestinal (EII) al llevar tratamiento crónico precisan seguimiento de su médico especialista de por vida.La relación médico-paciente es esencial para que los resultados de los tratamientos sean adecuados y que exista buena adherencia a los mismos. Objetivos: 1) Evaluar el grado de empatía de los médicos especialistas percibida por los pacientes con EII. 2) Evaluar si la percepción de dicha empatía se ve modificada en función del sexo y la edad del médico y del paciente. Métodos: Se trata de un estudio observacional transversal basado en encuestas anónimas realizadas a pacientes con EII del Hospital Clínico durante febrero del 2020. La encuesta constaba de la escala CARE (Consultation and Relational Empathy) que evalúa la empatía en la relación médico-paciente y 5 preguntas adicionales. Resultados: Se incluyeron 145 pacientes, 56,6% eran hombres y 43,4% mujeres, con una edad media de 44,65 años y 43,89 años respectivamente. El 60,7% de los pacientes fue atendido por un médico mujer. Al 56,6% de los pacientes le atendió un médico de 40 a 59 años, al 35,2% uno ≥ 60 años y al 8,3% uno 40 años atendidos por médicos >40 años daban puntuaciones significativamente más altas que el resto (47 puntos vs. 38, 39 y 45 con las otras combinaciones, p=0,032). Al 99,3% (144/145) de los pacientes les pareció importante lo valorado por la escala CARE. Conclusiones: La relación entre médico-paciente con EII en el Hospital Clínico es muy buena, correlacionándose con la empatía que el paciente percibe. Al estudiarla en función del sexo y edad del paciente y del médico no se encuentran diferencias estadísticamente significativas, salvo en la combinación edad médico/paciente. <br /

A novel PKC activating molecule promotes neuroblast differentiation and delivery of newborn neurons in brain injuries

Neural stem cells are activated within neurogenic niches in response to brain injuries. This results in the production of neuroblasts, which unsuccessfully attempt to migrate toward the damaged tissue. Injuries constitute a gliogenic/non-neurogenic niche generated by the presence of anti-neurogenic signals, which impair neuronal differentiation and migration. Kinases of the protein kinase C (PKC) family mediate the release of growth factors that participate in different steps of the neurogenic process, particularly, novel PKC isozymes facilitate the release of the neurogenic growth factor neuregulin. We have demonstrated herein that a plant derived diterpene, (EOF2; CAS number 2230806-06-9), with the capacity to activate PKC facilitates the release of neuregulin 1, and promotes neuroblasts differentiation and survival in cultures of subventricular zone (SVZ) isolated cells in a novel PKC dependent manner. Local infusion of this compound in mechanical cortical injuries induces neuroblast enrichment within the perilesional area, and noninvasive intranasal administration of EOF2 promotes migration of neuroblasts from the SVZ towards the injury, allowing their survival and differentiation into mature neurons, being some of them cholinergic and GABAergic. Our results elucidate the mechanism of EOF2 promoting neurogenesis in injuries and highlight the role of novel PKC isozymes as targets in brain injury regeneration

Germline polymorphisms as modulators of cancer phenotypes

Identifying the complete repertoire of genes and genetic variants that regulate the pathogenesis and progression of human disease is a central goal of post-genomic biomedical research. In cancer, recent studies have shown that genome-wide association studies can be successfully used to identify germline polymorphisms associated with an individual's susceptibility to malignancy. In parallel to these reports, substantial work has also shown that patterns of somatic alterations in human tumors can be successfully employed to predict disease prognosis and treatment response. A paper by Van Ness et al. published this month in BMC Medicine reports the initial results of a multi-institutional consortium for multiple myeloma designed to evaluate the role of germline polymorphisms in influencing multiple myeloma clinical outcome. Applying a custom-designed single nucleotide polymorphism microarray to two separate patient cohorts, the investigators successfully identified specific combinations of germline polymorphisms significantly associated with early clinical relapse. These results raise the exciting possibility that besides somatically acquired alterations, germline genetic background may also exert an important influence on cancer patient prognosis and outcome. Future 'personalized medicine' strategies for cancer may thus require incorporating genomic information from both tumor cells and the non-malignant patient genome

Development of a Halotolerant Community in the St. Lucia Estuary (South Africa) during a Hypersaline Phase

Background: The St. Lucia Estuary, Africa’s largest estuarine lake, is currently experiencing unprecedented freshwater deprivation which has resulted in a northward gradient of drought effects, with hypersaline conditions in its northern lakes. Methodology/Principal Findings: This study documents the changes that occurred in the biotic communities at False Bay from May 2010 to June 2011, in order to better understand ecosystem functioning in hypersaline habitats. Few zooplankton taxa were able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions during 2010. These were the flatworm Macrostomum sp., the harpacticoid copepod Cletocamptus confluens, the cyclopoid copepod Apocyclops cf. dengizicus and the ciliate Fabrea cf. salina. In addition to their exceptional salinity tolerance, they were involved in a remarkably simple food web. In June 2009, a bloom of an orange-pigmented cyanobacterium (Cyanothece sp.) was recorded in False Bay and persisted uninterruptedly for 18 months. Stable isotope analysis suggests that this cyanobacterium was the main prey item of F. cf. salina. This ciliate was then consumed by A. cf. dengizicus, which in turn was presumably consumed by flamingos as they flocked in the area when the copepods attained swarming densities. On the shore, cyanobacteria mats contributed to a population explosion of the staphylinid beetle Bledius pilicollis. Although zooplankton disappeared once salinities exceeded 130, many taxa are capable of producing spores or resting cysts to bridge harsh periods. The hypersaline community was disrupted by heavy summer rains in 2011, which alleviated drought conditions and resulted in a sharp increase in zooplankton stock an

Appointing Women to Boards: Is There a Cultural Bias?

Companies that are serious about corporate governance and business ethics are turning their attention to gender diversity at the most senior levels of business (Institute of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Briefing 21:1, 2011). Board gender diversity has been the subject of several studies carried out by international organizations such as Catalyst (Increasing gender diversity on boards: Current index of formal approaches, 2012), the World Economic Forum (Hausmann et al., The global gender gap report, 2010), and the European Board Diversity Analysis (Is it getting easier to find women on European boards? 2010). They all lead to reports confirming the overall relatively low proportion of women on boards and the slow pace at which more women are being appointed. Furthermore, the proportion of women on corporate boards varies much across countries. Based on institutional theory, this study hypothesizes and tests whether this variation can be attributed to differences in cultural settings across countries. Our analysis of the representation of women on boards for 32 countries during 2010 reveals that two cultural characteristics are indeed associated with the observed differences. We use the cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede (Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values, 1980) to measure this construct. Results show that countries which have the greatest tolerance for inequalities in the distribution of power and those that tend to value the role of men generally exhibit lower representations of women on boards

Learning deterministic probabilistic automata from a model checking perspective

Probabilistic automata models play an important role in the formal design and analysis of hard- and software systems. In this area of applications, one is often interested in formal model-checking procedures for verifying critical system properties. Since adequate system models are often difficult to design manually, we are interested in learning models from observed system behaviors. To this end we adopt techniques for learning finite probabilistic automata, notably the Alergia algorithm. In this paper we show how to extend the basic algorithm to also learn automata models for both reactive and timed systems. A key question of our investigation is to what extent one can expect a learned model to be a good approximation for the kind of probabilistic properties one wants to verify by model checking. We establish theoretical convergence properties for the learning algorithm as well as for probability estimates of system properties expressed in linear time temporal logic and linear continuous stochastic logic. We empirically compare the learning algorithm with statistical model checking and demonstrate the feasibility of the approach for practical system verification

VALIDACIÓN DE LAS ECUACIONES EMPÍRICAS DE TRANSPORTE DE SEDIMENTOS POR ARRASTRE Y SUSPENSIÓN EMPLEANDO MEDICIONES EN CAMPO

El presente artículo de investigación da a conocer la validación de las ecuaciones empíricas de transporte de sedimentos por arrastre y suspensión empleando para ello mediciones de campo en el rìo Chancay – Lambayeque entre los puentes Pucalá y Monsefú – Éten. La problemática analizada de este trabajo es que al haber un aumento progresivo de los sedimentos en los ríos con material de fondo fino, estos tienden a reducir la capacidad hidráulica de la sección transversal provocando fallas en las riberas del mismo. Respecto a los trabajos de campo se realizaron mediciones de sedimentos con muestreadores manuales tipo Helley Smith y luego se llevaron a laboratorio para estudiar la granulometría, peso específico, velocidad de caída de partícula y concentración de sedimentos. La selección de los métodos se basó en la metodología de mejor ajuste destacando en los resultados con muy buena correlación las ecuaciones de Meyer – Peter y Müller, Schocklistch, Levi y Yalin para el transporte por arrastre y las ecuaciones de Chang, Simons &amp; Richardson, Bagnold y Brooks para el transporte en suspensión que pueden ser aplicables para los ríos del norte del Perú

Anti-apoptotic function of Xbp1 as an IL-3 signaling molecule in hematopoietic cells

Cytokine signaling is critical for proliferation, survival and differentiation of hematopoietic cell, and interleukin-3 (IL-3) is required for maintenance of many hematopoietic cell lines, such as BaF3. We have isolated apoptosis-resistant clones of BaF3 using retroviral insertional mutagenesis and the Xbp1 locus was identified as a retroviral integration site. Expression and splicing of the Xbp1 transcript was conserved in the resistant clone but was promptly disappeared on IL-3 withdrawal in parental BaF3. IL-3 stimulation of BaF3 cells enhanced Xbp1 promoter activity and induced phosphorylation of the endoplasmic reticulum stress sensor protein IRE1, resulting in the increase in Xbp1S that activates unfolded protein response. When downstream signaling from IL-3 was blocked by LY294002 and/or dn-Stat5, Xbp1 expression was downregulated and IRE1 phosphorylation was suppressed. Inhibition of IL-3 signaling as well as knockdown of Xbp1-induced apoptosis in BaF3 cells. In contrast, constitutive expression of Xbp1S protected BaF3 from apoptosis during IL-3 depletion. However, cell cycle arrest at the G1 stage was observed in BaF3 and myeloid differentiation was induced in IL-3-dependent 32Dcl3 cells. Expression of apoptosis-, cell cycle- and differentiation-related genes was modulated by Xbp1S expression. These results indicate that the proper transcriptional and splicing regulation of Xbp1 by IL-3 signaling is important in homeostasis of hematopoietic cells