Our purpose was to evaluate the efficacy of lateral canthotomy, sub-tenon anesthesia injection, and the use of modified speculum for gaining adequate surgical exposure during surgery for retinopathy ...of prematurity (ROP). Fourteen eyes of 10 consecutive patients undergoing microincisional vitrectomy surgery (MIVS) for stage 4 and stage 5 ROP were included. There was a significant widening of the palpebral fissure height and length using this technique. No patient developed a lens injury during the surgery. All the canthotomy incisions completely healed at a four-week follow-up visit. This is a safe and effective technique for increasing surgical exposure in cases of ROP requiring vitrectomy.
Krill’s Disease: A Newer Management Option P Lambat, Sarang; B Nangia, Vinay; V Nangia, Prabhat ...
Journal of ophthalmic & vision research,
07/2023, Letnik:
18, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Purpose: To report a case of a young female who presented with scotoma in the right eye for few days.
Case Report: Krill’s disease or acute retinal pigment epithelitis (ARPE) is a self-limiting ...retinal disease with no specific treatment. Typical clinical and imaging features helped us to diagnose her with ARPE. Intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP), which gives a rapid anti-inflammatory response, was advised. An SD-OCT scan post-injection showed a reduction in hyperreflectivity and height of lesion at day 3 and near total resolution by day 5.
Conclusion: This case suggests rapid resolution of ARPE with the use of IVMP
•Intellectual motivation influences the outcomes of academia–industry collaboration.•Collaborative experience of the academic influences the outcomes of collaboration.•Collaboration outcomes ...significantly improve research and teaching of the academic.•Improvement in research outweighs the improvement in teaching.•Collaboration outcomes lead to new networks of knowledge creation and utilization.
The microbial priming effect—the decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) induced by plant inputs—has long been considered an important driver of SOC dynamics, yet we have limited understanding ...about the direction, intensity, and drivers of priming across ecosystem types and biomes. This gap hinders our ability to predict how shifts in litter inputs under global change can affect climate feedbacks. Here, we synthesized 18,919 observations of CO2 effluxes in 802 soils across the globe to test the relative effects (i.e., log response ratio RR) of litter additions on native SOC decomposition and identified the dominant environmental drivers in natural ecosystems and agricultural lands. Globally, litter additions enhanced native SOC decomposition (RR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.32–0.38), with greater priming effects occurring with decreasing latitude and more in agricultural soils (RR = 0.43) than in uncultivated soils (RR = 0.28). In natural ecosystems, soil pH and microbial community composition (e.g., bacteria: fungi ratio) were the best predictors of priming, with greater effects occurring in acidic, bacteria‐dominated sandy soils. In contrast, the substrate properties of plant litter and soils were the most important drivers of priming in agricultural systems since soils with high C:N ratios and those receiving large inputs of low‐quality litter had the highest priming effects. Collectively, our results suggest that, though different factors may control priming effects, the ubiquitous nature of priming means that alterations of litter quality and quantity owing to global changes will likely have consequences for global C cycling and climate forcing.
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is widely promoted as an approach for reorienting agricultural development under the realities of climate change. Prioritising research-for-development activities is ...crucial, given the need to utilise scarce resources as effectively as possible. However, no framework exists for assessing and comparing different CSA research investments. Several aspects make it challenging to prioritise CSA research, including its multi-dimensional nature (productivity, adaptation and mitigation), the uncertainty surrounding many climate impacts, and the scale and temporal dependencies that may affect the benefits and costs of CSA adoption. Here we propose a framework for prioritising agricultural research investments across scales and review different approaches to setting priorities among agricultural research projects. Many priority-setting case studies address the short- to medium-term and at relatively local scales. We suggest that a mix of actions that span spatial and temporal time scales is needed to be adaptive to a changing climate, address immediate problems and create enabling conditions for enduring change.
•Prioritising CSA research activities is challenging, primarily because it is multi-dimensional.•We propose and illustrate a simple six-element framework as a “map” to guide prioritisation.•Most priority setting activities need a mix of different quantitative and qualitative methods.•This mix needs to address actions that span spatial and temporal time scales to ensure CSA research effectiveness.
To assess associations of the trans-lamina cribrosa pressure difference (TLCPD) with glaucomatous optic neuropathy.
The population-based Central India Eye and Medical Study included 4711 subjects. ...Based on a previous study with lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSFP) measurements, CSFP was calculated as CSFPmmHg = 0.44 Body Mass Indexkg/m2+0.16 Diastolic Blood PressuremmHg-0.18×AgeYears -1.91. TLCPD was IOP-CSFP.
Mean TLCPD was 3.64±4.25 mm Hg in the non-glaucomatous population and 9.65±8.17 mmHg in the glaucomatous group. In multivariate analysis, TLCPD was associated with older age (P<0.001; standardized coefficient beta:0.53; regression coefficient B:0.18; 95% confidence interval (CI):0.17, 0.18), lower body mass index (P<0.001; beta: -0.28; B: -0.36; 95%CI: -0.38, -0.31), lower diastolic blood pressure (P<0.001; beta: -0.31; B: -0.12; 95%CI: -0.13, -0.11), higher pulse (P<0.001; beta:0.05; B:0.02; 95%CI:0.01,0.2), lower body height (P = 0.02; beta: -0.02; B: -0.01; 95%CI: -0.02,0.00), higher educational level (P<0.001; beta:0.04; B:0.15; 95%CI:0.09,0.22), higher cholesterol blood concentrations (P<0.001; beta:0.04; B:0.01; 95%CI:0.01,0.01), longer axial length (P = 0.006; beta:0.03; B:0.14; 95%CI:0.04,0.24), thicker central cornea (P<0.001; beta:0.15; B:0.02; 95%CI:0.02,0.02), higher corneal refractive power (P<0.001; beta:0.07; B:0.18; 95%CI:0.13,0.23) and presence of glaucomatous optic neuropathy (P<0.001; beta:0.11; B:3.43; 95%CI:2.96,3.99). Differences between glaucomatous subjects and non-glaucomatous subjects in CSFP were more pronounced for open-angle glaucoma (OAG) than for angle-closure glaucoma (ACG) (3.0 mmHg versus 1.8 mmHg), while differences between glaucomatous subjects and non-glaucomatous subjects in IOP were higher for ACG than for OAG (8.5 mmHg versus 3.0 mmHg). Presence of OAG was significantly associated with TLCPD (P<0.001; OR:1.24; 95%CI:1.19,1.29) but not with IOP (P = 0.08; OR:0.96; 95%CI:0.91,1.00). Prevalence of ACG was significantly associated with IOP (P = 0.04; OR:1.19; 95%CI:1.01,1.40) but not with TLCPD (P = 0.92).
In OAG, but not in ACG, calculated TLCPD versus IOP showed a better association with glaucoma presence and amount of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. It supports the notion of a potential role of low CSFP in the pathogenesis of open-angle glaucoma.
Background
As climate change events become more frequent, drought is an increasing threat to agricultural production and food security. Crop rhizosphere microbiome and root exudates are critical ...regulators for drought adaptation, yet our understanding on the rhizosphere bacterial communities and root exudate composition as affected by drought stress is far from complete. In this study, we performed 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and widely targeted metabolomic analysis of rhizosphere soil and root exudates from two contrasting rice genotypes (Nipponbare and Luodao 998) exposed to drought stress.
Results
A reduction in plant phenotypes was observed under drought, and the inhibition was greater for roots than for shoots. Additionally, drought exerted a negligible effect on the alpha diversity of rhizosphere bacterial communities, but obviously altered their composition. In particular, drought led to a significant enrichment of Actinobacteria but a decrease in Firmicutes. We also found that abscisic acid in root exudates was clearly higher under drought, whereas lower jasmonic acid and
L
-cystine concentrations. As for plant genotypes, variations in plant traits of the drought-tolerant genotype Luodao 998 after drought were smaller than those of Nipponbare. Interestingly, drought triggered an increase in
Bacillus
, as well as an upregulation of most organic acids and a downregulation of all amino acids in Luodao 998. Notably, both Procrustes analysis and Mantel test demonstrated that rhizosphere microbiome and root exudate metabolomic profiles were highly correlated. A number of differentially abundant genera responded to drought and genotype, including
Streptomyces
,
Bacillus
and some members of Actinobacteria, were significantly associated with organic acid and amino acid contents in root exudates. Further soil incubation experiments showed that
Streptomyces
was regulated by abscisic acid and jasmonic acid under drought.
Conclusions
Our results reveal that both drought and genotype drive changes in the compositions of rice rhizosphere bacterial communities and root exudates under the greenhouse condition, and that organic acid exudation and suppression of amino acid exudation to select specific rhizosphere bacterial communities may be an important strategy for rice to cope with drought. These findings have important implications for improving the adaptability of rice to drought from the perspective of plant–microbe interactions.
•A developed on-farm WEFE nexus index for farm performance diagnosis combining water, energy, food, and carbon-footprint.•The index ranked 2,042 wheat farms in Egypt of diverse inputs, agronomic ...practices, soils, and agroecological conditions.•The highest-ranking fields had relatively large areas with integrated resources management.•The low index values in fields with flood irrigation were attributed to high water losses causing high water consumption, energy consumption, and CO2 emission.•The index varied inversely with water and energy consumption and CO2 emission and proportionally with yield.
To improve the farming efficiency, Egypt has been struggling to narrow the water, energy, and yield gaps owing to exacerbated water shortage. For quantitative diagnosis of farming performance, the paper presented an on-farm water, energy, food, and carbon-footprint (WEFC) nexus index made up of four equally pillars. The arithmetic average preserved the multi-centric approach and equal importance of the four pillars. The index was applied to test and rank 2,042 wheat-based farmer fields in Egypt representing diverse inputs, agronomic and irrigation practices, soil types, and agroecological conditions. The water metric was the ratio of saved water, difference between maximum water consumption recorded in the country and actual water consumption, to the maximum water consumption. Likewise, the energy metric was obtained. The food metric was the ratio of actual yield to maximum yield in the country. The carbon-footprint metric was the ratio of difference between maximum CO2 emission in the country and actual emission to the maximum emission. The index values showed a wide range from 18.69% to 87.33% with a high standard deviation emphasizing the diversity of farming practices, soil types, and agroecological conditions. The highest ten values were recorded in fields with sandy soils, relatively large area, drip irrigation, recommended seeding and fertilization rates, well drainage, weeds removal, and tillage. The drip irrigation system in 51 out of 52 fields had above average value. The lowest ten values were in fields with clay soils and flood irrigation, where 18.7% of 1,780 fields exceeded the above average value. Raised beds with furrow irrigation in 83.15% of 184 fields exceeded the above average value. Fertilization rates of nitrogen and phosphorus in 61% and 53% of fields respectively exceeded the recommended rates with no significant reflection on the food metric. The low index values in fields with flood irrigation were attributed to high water losses causing high water consumption, energy consumption, and CO2 emission. The index was a good indicative of input resources consumption and output production as it varied inversely with water and energy consumption and CO2 emission and proportionally with yield. Since the high-water consumption was the main entry point for low index values in fields with flood irrigation, changing the irrigation to drip system or revisiting the irrigation scheduling and the estimated applied irrigation water amount were recommended. The index can be utilized to quantify the effectiveness of both recommendations and further new site-specific interventions and to assess their impact at scale. The index also recommended land use consolidation where farmers retain ownership of their lands but with cooperative farming.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of myopic retinopathy (MR) in rural Central India.
Methods
The population‐based Central India Eye and Medical Study included 4711 ...subjects (aged 30+ years). The participants underwent a detailed eye examination, including fundus photography. Myopic retinopathy was defined according to the Pathologic Myopia Study Group.
Results
Readable fundus photographs were available on 4561 (96.8%) subjects (8846 eyes). Myopic retinopathy was present in 15 (0.17 ± 0.04%; 95% confidence interval (CI):0.08%, 0.26%) eyes of 11 (0.24 ± 0.07%; 95%CI: 0.01, 0.04) individuals. Myopic retinopathy occurred only in eyes with an axial length of >26 mm. Eyes with MR had significantly larger optic discs than eyes without MR (3.69 ± 1.22 mm2 versus 2.52 ± 0.77 mm2; p < 0.001). In binary regression analysis, higher prevalence of MR was associated with longer axial length (p < 0.001; odds ratio (OR): 19.6; 95%CI: 4.6, 82.9), higher prevalence of open‐angle glaucoma (p = 0.02; OR: 16.1; 95%CI: 1.51, 170), lower best‐corrected visual acuity (expressed in logMAR) (=0.03; OR: 0.06; 95%CI: 0.004, 0.75) and female gender (p = 0.002). If level of education was added to the model, educational level was not significantly associated with MR (p = 0.17; OR: 0.53; 95%CI: 0.22, 1.31). If gender was dropped from the model, higher prevalence of MR was associated with lower educational level (p = 0.04; OR: 0.44; 95%CI: 0.20, 0.97).
Conclusions
Prevalence of MR in rural Central India was low (11/4561 or 0.2%), and correlated with a 16 times higher risk of open‐angle glaucoma, after adjusting for axial length and gender. If gender was excluded from the analysis, higher prevalence of MR was associated with lower educational level. This latter finding distinguishes adult MR from today′s school children myopia which is strongly associated with higher educational level.
In the arid regions of the world, maintaining economic and efficient crop production has been among the most critical challenges. In this context, International Center for Agricultural Research in ...the Dry Area (ICARDA) has been leading in research-for-development for improved management of scarce water and land resources in the arid regions. In the new framework of the One CGIAR, the role of ICARDA will be more indispensable as climate change will make considerable negative impact on water resource availability and land sustainability in the dry areas. This review covers selected research works pursued in irrigated, rainfed and agro-pastoral systems in cooperation with Tottori and other Japanese Universities which represent longest history of cooperation between ICARDA and Japan. The review is structured into sub-sections summarizing joint research on supplemental irrigation (SI) for wheat cultivation to optimize water productivity in semi-arid region of West Asia and North Africa (WANA), and rehabilitation of Jordan’s degraded agro-pastural lands with micro water harvesting technology. Joint ICARDA and Japanese Universities’ research enhanced knowledge on the various adaptation technologies’ effects on the soil-water-plant relationships, which supported the development of tailored solutions and scaling strategies. The results are internationally recognized as contributions to coping with scarce water resources and combating land degradation in arid and semi-arid environments.
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