We have developed GAMS, a system for the inference of cis-regulatory modules that uses a genetic algorithms approach to discover putatively conserved modules in large noncoding DNA sequences from ...divergent species. This paper describes the approach and presents preliminary results.
Cataract after glaucoma filtration surgery Hylton, Camille; Congdon, Nathan; Friedman, David ...
American journal of ophthalmology,
02/2003, Letnik:
135, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We reviewed the evidence regarding cataract incidence and progression after glaucoma surgery.
Evidence-based review of available literature.
We performed a systematic review of relevant studies ...published in English.
Reports of visually significant cataract after glaucoma surgery are supported by data from randomized clinical trials and large case series.
Patients undergoing glaucoma surgery are at increased risk for the development and progression of cataract.
Upon stimulation, dendritic cells (DCs) mature and migrate to draining lymph nodes to induce immune responses
1
. As such, autologous DCs generated
ex vivo
have been pulsed with tumor antigens and ...injected back into patients as immunotherapy. While DC vaccines have shown limited promise in the treatment of patients with advanced cancers
2
–
4
including glioblastoma (GBM),
5
–
7
the factors dictating DC vaccine efficacy remain poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that pre-conditioning the vaccine site with a potent recall antigen such as tetanus/diphtheria (Td) toxoid can significantly improve the lymph node homing and efficacy of tumor antigen-specific DCs. To assess the impact of vaccine site pre-conditioning in humans, we randomized patients with GBM to pre-conditioning with mature DCs
8
or Td unilaterally before bilateral vaccination with
Cytomegalovirus
pp65 RNA-pulsed DCs. We and other laboratories have shown that pp65 is expressed in > 90% of GBM specimens but not surrounding normal brain
9
–
12
, providing an unparalleled opportunity to subvert this viral protein as a tumor-specific target. Patients given Td had enhanced DC migration bilaterally and significantly improved survival. In mice, Td pre-conditioning also enhanced bilateral DC migration and suppressed tumor growth in a manner dependent on the chemokine CCL3. Our clinical studies and corroborating investigations in mice suggest that pre-conditioning with a potent recall antigen may represent a viable strategy to improve antitumor immunotherapy.
To determine the prevalence of cataract and pseudophakia/aphakia in the United States and to project the expected change in these prevalence figures by 2020.
Summary prevalence estimates of cataract ...and of pseudophakia/aphakia were prepared separately for black, white, and Hispanic persons (for whom only cataract surgery data were available) in 5-year age intervals starting at 40 years for women and men. The estimates were based on a standardized definition of various types of cataract: cortical, greater than 25% of the lens involved; posterior subcapsular, present according to the grading system used in each study; and nuclear, greater than or equal to the penultimate grade in the system used. Data were collected from major population-based studies in the United States, and, where appropriate, Australia, Barbados, and Western Europe. The age-, gender-, and race/ethnicity-specific rates were applied to 2000 US Census data, and projected population figures for 2020, to obtain overall estimates.
An estimated 20.5 million (17.2%) Americans older than 40 years have cataract in either eye, and 6.1 million (5.1%) have pseudophakia/aphakia. Women have a significantly (odds ratio = 1.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.26-1.50) higher age-adjusted prevalence of cataract than men in the United States. The total number of persons who have cataract is estimated to rise to 30.1 million by 2020; and for those who are expected to have pseudophakia/aphakia, to 9.5 million.
The number of Americans affected by cataract and undergoing cataract surgery will dramatically increase over the next 20 years as the US population ages.
While they have long been a subject of academic study, social virtual reality (SVR) systems are now attracting increasingly large audiences on current consumer virtual reality systems. The design ...space of SVR systems is very large, and relatively little is known about how these systems should be constructed in order to be usable and efficient. In this paper we present Ubiq, a toolkit that focuses on facilitating the construction of SVR systems. We argue for the design strategy of Ubiq and its scope. Ubiq is built on the Unity platform. It provides core functionality of many SVR systems such as connection management, voice, avatars, etc. However, its design remains easy to extend. We demonstrate examples built on Ubiq and how it has been successfully used in classroom teaching. Ubiq is open source (Apache License) and thus enables several use cases that commercial systems cannot.
To estimate the potential public health impact of the findings of the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) on reducing the number of persons developing advanced age-related macular degeneration ...(AMD) during the next 5 years in the United States.
The AREDS clinical trial provides estimates of AMD progression rates and of reduction in risk of developing advanced AMD when a high-dose nutritional supplement of antioxidants and zinc is used. These results are applied to estimates of the US population at risk, to estimate the number of people who would potentially avoid advanced AMD during 5 years if those at risk were to take a supplement such as that used in AREDS.
An estimated 8 million persons at least 55 years old in the United States have monocular or binocular intermediate AMD or monocular advanced AMD. They are considered to be at high risk for advanced AMD and are those for whom the AREDS formulation should be considered. Of these people, 1.3 million would develop advanced AMD if no treatment were given to reduce their risk. If all of these people at risk received supplements such as those used in AREDS, more than 300,000 (95% confidence interval, 158,000-487,000) of them would avoid advanced AMD and any associated vision loss during the next 5 years.
If people at high risk for advanced AMD received supplements such as those suggested by AREDS results, the potential impact on public health in the United States would be considerable during the next 5 years.
To determine whether optical aberrations caused by cataract can be detected and quantified objectively using a newly described focus detection system (FDS).
The Wilmer Opthalmological Institute, The ...Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
The FDS uses a bull's eye photodetector to measure the double-pass blur produced from a point source of light. To determine the range and level of focus, signals are measured with a series of trial lenses in the light path selected to span the point of best focus to generate focus curves. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), refractive error, lens photograph grades, and FDS signals were obtained in 18 patients scheduled to have cataract surgery. The tests were repeated 6 weeks after surgery.
The mean FDS outcome measures improved after cataract surgery, with increased peak height (P=.001) and decreased peak width (P=.001). Improvement in signal strength (integral of signal within +/-1.5 diopters of the point of best focus) strongly correlated with improvement in peak height (R(2)=.88, P<.0001) and photographic cataract grade (R(2)=.72, P<.0001). The mean BCVA improved from 20/50 to 20/26 (P<.0001). The improvement in BCVA correlated more closely with FDS signal strength (R(2)=.44, P=.001) than with cataract grade (R(2)=.25, P=.06).
Improvement in FDS outcome measures correlated with cataract severity and improvement in visual acuity. This objective approach may be useful in long-term studies of cataract progression.
Social VR (SVR) systems are VR systems with a common subset of features facilitating unstructured social interaction. In the real world, social situations have many purposes, each with a different ...set of requirements, and roles its participants take - creator, moderator, performer, visitor, etc. Yet, common SVR systems typically offer only a single client to users. Even if there are versions for different platforms, there is a one-size-fits-all approach to the user experience. Consequently users need to employ workarounds or build their own functionality to support specific roles, where this is possible at all. We argue that platforms need to develop more open frameworks that support different processes and user interactions. One way to do this is through using appropriate web standards and an open messaging system in order to allow distributed clients that can leverage the strongest features of heterogeneous computing platforms. Supporting asymmetrical capabilities greatly increases the scope of supported virtual social interactions and potential use cases of SVR. We take a qualitative experimental approach to exploring cross platform support in this way, from a designers perspective. We use the open-source SDK Ubiq, and create a library that allows building Ubiq Peers using web standards and thus clients that can operate solely in a web browser or certain Javascript environments. We validate our approach by demonstrating six proof of concept demonstrators that would be difficult or impossible to achieve in most other SVR systems, and report on what we encountered for the benefit of other SVR designers.
Impaired dark adaptation occurs commonly in vitamin A deficiency.
We sought to examine the responsiveness of dark-adaptation threshold to vitamin A and beta-carotene supplementation in Nepali women.
...The dark-adapted pupillary response was tested in 298 pregnant women aged 15-45 y in a placebo-controlled trial of vitamin A and beta-carotene; 131 of these women were also tested at 3 mo postpartum. Results were compared with those for 100 nonpregnant US women of similar age. The amount of light required for pupillary constriction was recorded after bleaching and dark adaptation.
Pregnant women receiving vitamin A had better dark-adaptation thresholds (-1.24 log cd/m(2)) than did those receiving placebo (-1.11 log cd/m(2); P: = 0. 03) or beta-carotene (-1.13 log cd/m(2); P: = 0.05) (t tests with Bonferroni correction). Dark-adaptation threshold was associated with serum retinol concentration in pregnant women receiving placebo (P: = 0.001) and in those receiving beta-carotene (P: = 0.003) but not in those receiving vitamin A. Among women receiving placebo, mean dark-adaptation thresholds were better during the first trimester (-1.23 log cd/m(2)) than during the second and third trimesters (-1.03 log cd/m(2); P: = 0.02, t test). The mean threshold of nonpregnant US women (-1.35 log cd/m(2)) was better than that of all 3 Nepali groups (P: < 0.001, t test, for all 3 groups).
During pregnancy, pupillary dark adaptation was strongly associated with serum retinol concentration and improved significantly in response to vitamin A supplementation. This noninvasive testing technique is a valid indicator of population vitamin A status in women of reproductive age.
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