A rare cause of blepharoconjunctivitis: Phthiriasis palpebrarum

Letter to Edito

Design and implementation of a cost-aware and smart oyster mushroom cultivation system

Mushrooms are a nutritious food source, which can play a crucial role in providing affordable sources of proteins, vitamins and minerals for people worldwide, but their cultivation requires extensive training and considerable relevant expertise in order to fine-tune multiple environmental parameters. Internally displaced people in the Northern regions of Syria rely on very small-scale traditional oyster mushroom production, which cannot meet their local demand. Many international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working for Syrian refugees, work on mushroom cultivation projects. They have reported significant difficulties and challenges in mushroom cultivation amongst the targeted beneficiaries. Therefore, the two main questions driving this research are: (1) How can organic mushroom cultivation be promoted using a robust and affordable intelligent mushroom farming system? (2) How can organic mushroom farming practices be simplified to support internally displaced and refugee Syrians? This research evaluates the process of automating mushroom cultivation by designing and implementing a smart oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) mushroom farming system to remotely monitor and manage environmental parameters, such as temperature, humidity, air quality and illumination, inside the farm. Furthermore, ready and dedicated user-friendly web interfaces were also implemented to enable farmers to remotely monitor and manage their farms through the Internet. As a result, a dependable and cost-effective intelligent oyster mushroom cultivation system was designed and implemented in this work. The system includes remote monitoring and management via user-friendly interfaces. This simplifies mushroom cultivation for not only refugees and displaced communities, but also for mushroom farmers in low-income countries. This work can contribute to the eradication of poverty and hunger, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals one and two

Adaptive OFDM Modulation for Underwater Acoustic Communications: Design Considerations and Experimental Results

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In this paper, we explore design aspects of adaptive modulation based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) for underwater acoustic (UWA) communications, and study its performance using real-time at-sea experiments. Our design criterion is to maximize the system throughput under a target average bit error rate (BER). We consider two different schemes based on the level of adaptivity: in the first scheme, only the modulation levels are adjusted while the power is allocated uniformly across the subcarriers, whereas in the second scheme, both the modulation levels and the power are adjusted adaptively. For both schemes we linearly predict the channel one travel time ahead so as to improve the performance in the presence of a long propagation delay. The system design assumes a feedback link from the receiver that is exploited in two forms: one that conveys the modulation alphabet and quantized power levels to be used for each subcarrier, and the other that conveys a quantized estimate of the sparse channel impulse response. The second approach is shown to be advantageous, as it requires significantly fewer feedback bits for the same system throughput. The effectiveness of the proposed adaptive schemes is demonstrated using computer simulations, real channel measurements recorded in shallow water off the western coast of Kauai, HI, USA, in June 2008, and real-time at-sea experiments conducted at the same location in July 2011. We note that this is the first paper that presents adaptive modulation results for UWA links with real-time at-sea experiments. © 2013 IEEE

Investigating the feasibility of MRI auto-segmentation for Image Guided Brachytherapy

A feasibility study has been performed to investigate the viability of applying auto-segmentation methods to the delineation of regions of interest (ROIs) in the treatment of cervical cancer using Image Guided Brachytherapy (IGBT). The introduction of auto-segmentation in IGBT aims to improve outlining consistency while improving patient experience by reducing the time taken to plan treatments. An anonymised database of MRI images and corresponding clinical ROI outlines was curated, categorised by brachytherapy treatment applicator type. This database was then used to train and test an autosegmentation model to contour the Bladder using three established algorithms, U-Net, SegNet and PSPNet. Quantitatively the U-Net model was found to produce contours geometrically closest to the original manual contours with a mean Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 0.942 compared to 0.919 and 0.879 for SegNet and PSPNet respectively and a mean Mean Distance to Agreement (mDTA) value of 0.46mm compared to 0.66mm and 0.89mm for SegNet and PSPNet. Visual assessment of the resulting contours demonstrated good agreement for the U-Net and SegNet produced outlines, particularly in the region of clinical significance, with greater variations seen at the extremities of the contour. In conclusion this feasibility study has shown that auto-segmentation methods can be applied to MRI IGBT contour delineation with a method established to facilitate further investigations in the application to all clinical ROIs and brachytherapy applicator types

Scaling and Formulary cross sections for ion-atom impact ionization

The values of ion-atom ionization cross sections are frequently needed for many applications that utilize the propagation of fast ions through matter. When experimental data and theoretical calculations are not available, approximate formulas are frequently used. This paper briefly summarizes the most important theoretical results and approaches to cross section calculations in order to place the discussion in historical perspective and offer a concise introduction to the topic. Based on experimental data and theoretical predictions, a new fit for ionization cross sections is proposed. The range of validity and accuracy of several frequently used approximations (classical trajectory, the Born approximation, and so forth) are discussed using, as examples, the ionization cross sections of hydrogen and helium atoms by various fully stripped ions.Comment: 46 pages, 8 figure

Biallelic KITLG variants lead to a distinct spectrum of hypomelanosis and sensorineural hearing loss

BACKGROUND: Pathogenic variants in KITLG, a crucial protein involved in pigmentation and neural crest cell migration, cause non-syndromic hearing loss, Waardenburg syndrome type 2, familial progressive hyperpigmentation and familial progressive hyper- and hypopigmentation, all of which are inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. OBJECTIVES: To describe the genotypic and clinical spectrum of biallelic KITLG-variants. METHODS: We used a genotype-first approach through the GeneMatcher data sharing platform to collect individuals with biallelic KITLG variants and reviewed the literature for overlapping reports. RESULTS: We describe the first case series with biallelic KITLG variants; we expand the known hypomelanosis spectrum to include a 'sock-and-glove-like', symmetric distribution, progressive repigmentation and generalized hypomelanosis. We speculate that KITLG biallelic loss-of-function variants cause generalized hypomelanosis, whilst variants with residual function lead to a variable auditory-pigmentary disorder mostly reminiscent of Waardenburg syndrome type 2 or piebaldism. CONCLUSIONS: We provide consolidating evidence that biallelic KITLG variants cause a distinct auditory-pigmentary disorder. We evidence a significant clinical variability, similar to the one previously observed in KIT-related piebaldism

Collisional and thermal ionization of sodium Rydberg atoms I. Experiment for nS and nD atoms with n=8-20

Collisional and thermal ionization of sodium nS and nD Rydberg atoms with n=8-20 has been studied. The experiments were performed using a two-step pulsed laser excitation in an effusive atomic beam at atom density of about 2 10^{10} cm^{-3}. Molecular and atomic ions from associative, Penning, and thermal ionization processes were detected. It has been found that the atomic ions were created mainly due to photoionization of Rydberg atoms by photons of blackbody radiation at the ambient temperature of 300K. Blackbody ionization rates and effective lifetimes of Rydberg states of interest were determined. The molecular ions were found to be from associative ionization in Na(nL)+Na(3S) collisions. Rate constants of associative ionization have been measured using an original method based on relative measurements of Na_{2}^{+} and Na^{+} ion signals.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire on Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

OBJECTIVES: Inadequate adaptation to long-term treatment of chronic illnesses is the most common reason for the inability to obtain the benefits medications can provide. Treatment compliance is influenced by several factors. Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) developed by Horne et al. in 1999 to evaluate the cognitive representation of medicines have many validation studies, which resulted in good psychometric properties. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the BMQ Turkish translation in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty asthma and 50 COPD patients participated in this methodological study. The scale was adapted to Turkish through translation, comparison with other language versions, back translation, and a pre-test. The structural validity was assessed using factor analysis. RESULTS: Similar to the original scale, factor analysis confirmed that BMQ had a four-factor structure that accounts for 58.23% of the total variance. The BMQ showed an acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: specific-necessity, 0.832: specific-concerns, 0.722; general-harm, 0.792; and general-overuse, 0.682). The factor analysis revealed the same patterns for all questions between the Turkish and original scales. CONCLUSION: The psychometric properties of the BMQ were consistent with those reported in the original study. We found that the Turkish translation of BMQ is a valid and reliable tool for assessing medicine-related beliefs in patients with asthma and COPD