Dropless Cataract Surgery: An Overview Lindstrom, Richard L; Galloway, M Stewart; Grzybowski, Andrzej ...
Current pharmaceutical design,
01/2017, Volume:
23, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Risk reduction and the attainment of good outcomes in contemporary cataract surgery depend in part on patient compliance with a postoperative regimen of topical eye drops. Topical drops are expensive ...and challenging to instill properly for patients. The consequences of noncompliance or poor compliance can be significant for the patient (in the case of a complication) and for society (in the case of development of antibiotic resistance). For all of these reasons, new approaches that reduce the need for topical therapy are beginning to emerge, including intracameral injection, sustained or slow-release drug delivery mechanisms, and the recently introduced "Dropless cataract surgery," which involves intravitreal injection of single-use, compounded combination of antibiotics and corticosteroids. This paper is a review of the rationale for reducing topical therapy in cataract surgery prophylaxis, and what is known to date about the efficacy and safety of the dropless approach.
Belclare and Cambridge are prolific sheep breeds, the origins of which involved selecting ewes with exceptionally high litter
size records from commercial flocks. The variation in ovulation rate in ...both breeds is consistent with segregation of a gene
(or genes) with a large effect on this trait. Sterile ewes, due to a failure of normal ovarian follicle development, occur
in both breeds. New naturally occurring mutations in genes for the oocyte-derived growth factors growth differentiation factor
9 (GDF9) and bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) are described. These mutations are associated with increased ovulation
rate in heterozygous carriers and sterility in homozygous carriers in both breeds. This is the first time that a mutation
in the gene for GDF9 has been found that causes increased ovulation rate and infertility in a manner similar to inactivating
mutations in BMP15, and shows that GDF9 is essential for normal folliculogenesis in sheep. Furthermore, it is shown, for the
first time in any species, that individuals with mutations in both GDF9 and BMP15 have a greater ovulation rate than sheep with either of the mutations separately.
This study is an investigation of the effect of impingement angle on slurry erosion-corrosion of Stellite 6 manufactured by sand casting, lost wax casting and SS316. The tests were performed using an ...impingement rig in which a slurry with 3.5% NaCl and 1.177g/l suspended angular sand particles at 19m/s were recirculated for 1 h. The results were obtained for angles of 20°, 45°, 60° and 90° to the exposed surface. Post-experimental analysis using light microscopy, surface profiling and SEM assisted with clarification of the wear mechanisms and assessment of the severity of surface damage. Stellite 6 consistently exhibited superior wear resistance compared with SS316. The most severe regime for SS316 was experienced at low angle of impingement, 45°, due to its ductility. Alternatively, the brittle network of chromium carbides showed significant impact on the behavior of cast Stellite 6 under solid-liquid impingement with the most critical erosion-corrosion damage occurring at 60°.
•Effect of impact angle on Stellite 6 and SS316 investigated at 20, 45, 60 and 90°.•Lost Wax and Sand Cast Stellite 6 presented similar erosion-corrosion resistance.•Stellite 6 had greater erosion-corrosion resistance over SS316.•SS316 had a more ductile response to angle of impact compared with Stellite 6.•Maximum mass loss SS316: 45°; Maximum mass loss both Stellite 6 casts: 60°.
An optimal HIV vaccine should induce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that neutralize diverse viral strains and subtypes. However, potent bnAbs develop in only a small fraction of HIV-infected ...individuals, all contain rare features such as extensive mutation, insertions, deletions, and/or long complementarity-determining regions, and some are polyreactive, casting doubt on whether bnAbs to HIV can be reliably induced by vaccination. We engineered two potent VRC01-class bnAbs that minimized rare features. According to a quantitative features frequency analysis, the set of features for one of these minimally mutated bnAbs compared favorably with all 68 HIV bnAbs analyzed and was similar to antibodies elicited by common vaccines. This same minimally mutated bnAb lacked polyreactivity in four different assays. We then divided the minimal mutations into spatial clusters and dissected the epitope components interacting with those clusters, by mutational and crystallographic analyses coupled with neutralization assays. Finally, by synthesizing available data, we developed a working-concept boosting strategy to select the mutation clusters in a logical order following a germline-targeting prime. We have thus developed potent HIV bnAbs that may be more tractable vaccine goals compared to existing bnAbs, and we have proposed a strategy to elicit them. This reductionist approach to vaccine design, guided by antibody and antigen structure, could be applied to design candidate vaccines for other HIV bnAbs or protective Abs against other pathogens.
Reactions and interactions between glyoxal and salts in aqueous solution were studied. Glyoxal was found to react with ammonium to form imidazole, imidazole-2-carboxaldehyde, formic acid, N-glyoxal ...substituted imidazole, and minor products at very low concentrations. Overall reaction orders and rates for each major product were measured. Sulfate ions have a strong and specific interaction with glyoxal in aqueous solution, which shifts the hydration equilibria of glyoxal from the unhydrated carbonyl form to the hydrated form. This ion-specific effect contributes to the observed enhancement of the effective Henry’s law coefficient for glyoxal in sulfate-containing solutions. The results of UV–vis absorption and NMR spectroscopy studies of solutions of glyoxal with ammonium, methylamine, and dimethylamine salts reveal that light absorbing compounds require the formation of nitrogen containing molecules. These findings have implications on the role of glyoxal in the atmosphere, both in models of the contribution of glyoxal to form secondary organic aerosol (SOA), the role of nitrogen containing species for aerosol optical properties and in predictions of the behavior of other carbonyls or dicarbonyls in the atmosphere.
Rodenticides are a key component of rodent management strategies, but birds of prey are susceptible to non-target exposure. New rules on sale and use of rodenticide products were introduced across ...the UK in 2016 in an industry-led stewardship scheme, with the aim of reducing this risk. To determine if this intervention has achieved its aim, exposure to second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) was measured in buzzards. Liver samples from 790 buzzards collected between 2005 and 2022 (excluding 2016 and 2017 samples) were analyzed and the percentage presence and concentrations of SGARs from pre-stewardship and post-stewardship samples were compared.
There was no statistically significant decrease in the percentage of buzzards exposed to bromadiolone, difenacoum or combined SGAR residues after the introduction of stewardship. The percentage of buzzards exposed to brodifacoum increased significantly post-stewardship, from 8 % to 27 %. There were no significant decreases in the concentrations of individual SGARs post-stewardship but concentration of combined SGARs increased significantly post-stewardship. Individual buzzards were significantly more likely to be exposed to multiple SGARs post-stewardship.
Rodenticide poisoning was recorded as the cause of death for 5 % of pre- and post-stewardship buzzards with detectable levels of SGARs, and 90 % of these had combined SGAR residues >0.1 mg/kg.
These findings suggest that the industry-led stewardship scheme has not yet had the intended impact of reducing SGAR exposure in non-target wildlife. The study highlights a substantial increase in exposure of buzzards to brodifacoum and to multiple SGARs post-stewardship, indicating that further changes to the stewardship scheme may be necessary.
Display omitted
•Exposure of buzzards to anticoagulant rodenticides was investigated.•There was no decrease in rate of exposure or concentrations of SGARs in buzzards.•More buzzards were exposed to brodifacoum post-stewardship.•Higher concentrations of combined SGARs were detected post-stewardship.•The stewardship scheme has not yet reduced wildlife exposure to rodenticides.
We present a single case of a 47 year old male with a relapsing progressive neurological disease characterised by an infiltrative inflammation of the brain and leptomeninges. Investigations revealed ...the presence of systemic sarcoidosis which was confirmed histologically following a mediastinal lymph node biopsy. The imaging appearances of the brain and spinal canal lesions were compatible with neurological involvement by the same disease. Despite treatment, the patient deteriorated and died. We present the neuropathological findings, correlate these with the imaging features, and find that neuropathological evidence for disease was in this case strikingly more widespread than predicted by imaging ante-mortem.
Multiple ovulations are uncommon in humans, cattle and many breeds of sheep. Pituitary gonadotrophins and as yet unidentified ovarian factors precisely regulate follicular development so that, ...normally, only one follicle is selected to ovulate. The Inverdale (FecXI) sheep, however, carries a naturally occurring X-linked mutation that causes increased ovulation rate and twin and triplet births in heterozygotes (FecXI/FecX+; ref. 1), but primary ovarian failure in homozygotes (FecXI/FecXI; ref. 2). Germ-cell development, formation of the follicle and the earliest stages of follicular growth are normal in FecXI/FecXI sheep, but follicular development beyond the primary stage is impaired. A second family unrelated to the Inverdale sheep also has the same X-linked phenotype (Hanna, FecXH). Crossing FecXI with FecXH animals produces FecXI/FecXH infertile females phenotypically indistinguishable from FecXI/FecXI females. We report here that the FecXI locus maps to an orthologous chromosomal region syntenic to human Xp11.2-11.4, which contains BMP15, encoding bone morphogenetic protein 15 (also known as growth differentiation factor 9B (GDF9B)). Whereas BMP15 is a member of the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) superfamily and is specifically expressed in oocytes, its function is unknown. We show that independent germline point mutations exist in FecXI and FecXH carriers. These findings establish that BMP15 is essential for female fertility and that natural mutations in an ovary-derived factor can cause both increased ovulation rate and infertility phenotypes in a dosage-sensitive manner.
Although researchers have investigated the impact of social isolation on well-being, the recent quarantines due to COVID-19 resulted in a social isolation environment that was unique to any examined ...in the past. Because sleep is one of the endogenous drives that impacts short and long-term health and well-being, it is important to consider how social isolation during the COVID-19 government-mandated quarantines affected sleep and sleep habits. A number of researchers have addressed this question during the last 2 years by examining several concepts related to possible changes in sleep during the quarantines. To best understand these recent results, the current mini review provides a background on the pre-pandemic literature on the effects of social isolation and loneliness with a focus on sleep and then summarizes the recent literature on sleep and sleep habits. In general, sleep was negatively impacted for many people during the pandemics but not all. One group that seemed to benefit from the pandemic in terms of sleep patterns, were younger people who could more easily adapt their sleep times to match their internal chronobiology. Given the potential broad impact of sleep on health and well-being, better understanding how social isolation impacts sleep is an important consideration for individuals, work organizations, and governments.
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