The Effect of Bariatric Surgery on Diabetic Retinopathy: Good, Bad, or Both?

Bariatric surgery, initially intended as a weight-loss procedure, is superior to standard lifestyle intervention and pharmacological therapy for type 2 diabetes in obese individuals. Intensive medical management of hyperglycemia is associated with improved microvascular outcomes. Whether or not the reduction in hyperglycemia observed after bariatric surgery translates to improved microvascular outcomes is yet to be determined. There is substantial heterogeneity in the data relating to the impact of bariatric surgery on diabetic retinopathy (DR), the most common microvascular complication of diabetes. This review aims to collate the recent data on retinal outcomes after bariatric surgery. This comprehensive evaluation revealed that the majority of DR cases remain stable after surgery. However, risk of progression of pre-existing DR and the development of new DR is not eliminated by surgery. Instances of regression of DR are also noted. Potential risk factors for deterioration include severity of DR at the time of surgery and the magnitude of glycated hemoglobin reduction. Concerns also exist over the detrimental effects of postprandial hypoglycemia after surgery. In vivo studies evaluating the chronology of DR development and the impact of bariatric surgery could provide clarity on the situation. For now, however, the effect of bariatric surgery on DR remains inconclusive

A unified architecture of MD5 and RIPEMD-160 hash algorithms

Hash algorithms are important components in many cryptographic applications and security protocol suites. In this paper, a unified architecture for MD5 and RIPEMD-160 hash algorithms is developed. These two algorithms are different in speed and security level. Therefore, a unified hardware design allows applications to switch from one algorithm to another based on different requirements. The architecture has been implemented using Altera's EPF10K50SBC356-1, providing a throughput over 200Mbits/s for MD5 and 80Mbits/s for RIPEMD-160 when operated at 26.66MHz with a resource utilization of 1964LC.published_or_final_versio

Tri-Level Bit-Stream Signal Processing Circuits and Applications

We present signal processing building blocks for trilevel bit-stream signal processing (BSSP). These architectures are the 2-bit extensions from the existing 1-bit BSSP circuit modules. It is shown that the 2-bit designs offer better performance than their 1-bit counterparts. FPGA implementation results of both 1-bit and 2-bit designs are compared in terms of their hardware complexity. Finally, a digital phase locked loop (DPLL) and a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) demodulator are presented as application examples of the proposed circuits.published_or_final_versio

Bit-stream adders and multipliers for tri-level sigma-delta modulators

We propose both adder and multiplier circuits for bit-stream signal processing customized for tri-level sigma-delta modulated signals. These architectures are the 2-bit extensions from the existing 1-bit bit-stream adders and multipliers, and are shown to offer better signal-to-noise performance. Field-programmable gate array implementations then confirm their efficacy. © 2007 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Quad-level bit-stream signal processing on FPGAs

Quad-level bit-stream signal processing (BSSP) circuits are implemented and their performances are compared with previously published tri-level and bi-level BSSP implementations on FPGAs. BSSP refers to the process of performing computation directly on over-sampled delta-sigma modulated signals to eliminate the need of resource consuming decimators and interpolators. Quad-level BSSP offers better performance than their bi-and tri-level counterparts at the expense of higher resource utilization. Using a digital phase locked loop (DPLL) and a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) demodulator as application examples, the effectiveness of quad-level BSSP on FPGAs is studied. The BSSP approach will be contrasted with conventional multi-bit implementations using built-in digital signal processing blocks in modern FPGAs. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe IEEE International Conference on ICECE Technology (FPT 2008), Taipei, Taiwan, 8-10 December 2008. In Proceedings of ICFPT, 2008, p. 309-31

Quad-level bit-stream signal processing on FPGAs

Quad-level bit-stream signal processing (BSSP) circuits are implemented and their performances are compared with previously published tri-level and bi-level BSSP implementations on FPGAs. BSSP refers to the process of performing computation directly on over-sampled delta-sigma modulated signals to eliminate the need of resource consuming decimators and interpolators. Quad-level BSSP offers better performance than their bi-and tri-level counterparts at the expense of higher resource utilization. Using a digital phase locked loop (DPLL) and a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) demodulator as application examples, the effectiveness of quad-level BSSP on FPGAs is studied. The BSSP approach will be contrasted with conventional multi-bit implementations using built-in digital signal processing blocks in modern FPGAs. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe IEEE International Conference on ICECE Technology (FPT 2008), Taipei, Taiwan, 8-10 December 2008. In Proceedings of ICFPT, 2008, p. 309-31

Measuring Drug Abuse: The Development of the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale in Hong Kong

The development of the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale for use in Chinese communities.Method: A battery of scales, including the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale and threemental health measures, were administered to 152 students of 13 to 18 years of age. Reliabilityand validity analyses were performed. The refined version was then cross-validated on a groupof identified drug abusers (N = 77). Results: The final version of the Chinese Drug InvolvementScale is a 22-item scale. Validation results demonstrate that the Chinese Drug Involvement Scalehas high reliability and a satisfactory level of validity. Conclusion: The Chinese Drug InvolvementScale is a global assessment of an individual's beliefs and values relating to drug use, apartfrom actual drug abuse behavior. The scale will be particularly useful for periodic assessmentsor outcome evaluation in treatment programs.postprin

Probing gamma-ray emissions of Fermi-LAT pulsars with a non-stationary outer gap model

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RADIO-LOUD AND RADIO-QUIET γ-RAY PULSARS AS REVEALED BY <i>FERMI</i>

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Emission mechanism of GeV-quiet soft gamma-ray pulsars: a case for peculiar geometry?

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