Diplostomum is a taxonomically problematic genus of trematodes, with many members harmful at the metacercarial stage to fish in aquaculture. We found metacercariae in the eye vitreous humor of the ...rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus; the bleak, Alburnus alburnus; and the roach, Rutilus rutilus, in Karelia (Russia) and identified them as Diplostomum numericum based on a combination of morphological and ecological data. Previously, D. numericum was thought to be conspecific with Diplostomum gavium. However, our phylogenetic analysis based on the sequences of the cox1 mitochondrial DNA gene did not support this hypothesis. We demonstrated the conspecificity of D. numericum with the larval trematode Diplostomum sp. Lineage 3 of Blasco-Costa et al. (2014) from the eye vitreous humor of European salmonid and cyprinid fishes. Therefore, we resurrected the species D. numericum and identified Diplostomum sp. Lineage 3 of Blasco-Costa et al. (2014) as D. numericum. Finally, we hypothesized that D. numericum was, in fact, conspecific with Diplostomum colymbi and that the latter was distinct from D. gavium sensu stricto.
We evaluated the pharmacokinetics of intravitreally injected ranibizumab and aflibercept, and their effects on VEGF in the aqueous humor of vitrectomized and nonvitrectomized macaque eyes.
...Intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR; 0.5 mg/50 μL) or intravitreal aflibercept (IVA; 2 mg/50 μL) was injected into the previously vitrectomized right eyes of three macaques and nonvitrectomized right eyes of three macaques. The left eyes served as controls (nonvitrectomized, noninjected). Aqueous humor was obtained from both eyes just before injection and on days 1 and 3, and weeks 1 to 8 after IVR and IVA. The ranibizumab, aflibercept, and VEGF concentrations were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
The half-lives in aqueous humor of nonvitrectomized and vitrectomized eyes were, respectively, 2.3 and 1.4 days for ranibizumab, and 2.2 and 1.5 days for aflibercept. Concentration of VEGF was decreased below the limit of detection (LOD) by IVR for 3 weeks in nonvitrectomized eyes and 1 week in vitrectomized eyes, respectively, and by IVA for 6 weeks in nonvitrectomized eyes and 4 weeks in vitrectomized eyes, respectively. In the untreated control eyes, the ranibizumab and aflibercept concentrations were below the LOD, and the VEGF aqueous concentrations remained unchanged after IVR and decreased for 3 days after IVA.
Intravitreally injected ranibizumab and aflibercept have similar half-lives in aqueous humor and shorter half-lives in vitrectomized eyes. Compared to IVR, IVA suppresses VEGF level for a longer time period.
In contrast to neovascular AMD (nAMD), no treatment option exists for dry AMD. Hence, the identification of specific biomarkers is required to facilitate diagnosis and therapy of dry AMD.
The ...proteome of 34 vitreous humor samples (dry AMD: n = 6; nAMD: n = 10; proliferative diabetic retinopathy PDR: n = 9; epiretinal membrane ERM: n = 9) was analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled mass spectrometry. Then, label-free relative quantification of dry AMD, nAMD, and PDR relative to ERM, which was defined as the reference group, was performed. Application of a bioinformatics pipeline further analyzed the vitreous proteome by cluster and gene set enrichment analysis. A selection of differentially regulated proteins was validated by ELISA.
A total of 677 proteins were identified in the vitreous of the four patient groups and quantified relatively to ERM. Different clusters of regulated proteins for each patient group were identified and showed characteristic enrichment of specific pathways including "oxidative stress" for dry AMD, "focal adhesion" for nAMD, and "complement and coagulation cascade" for PDR patients. We identified cholinesterase (CHLE) to be specifically upregulated in dry AMD and ribonuclease (pancreatic; RNAS1) together with serine carboxypeptidase (probable; CPVL) to be upregulated in both forms of AMD.
The described pathways specific for the different patient groups and the identification of characteristic differentially regulated proteins provide a first step toward the definition of biomarkers for dry AMD. The presented data will facilitate the investigation of mechanistic connections of proteins to the respective disease.
Utterances containing verbal irony display prosodic particularities that distinguish them from non-ironic speech. While some prosodic features of irony have been identified in Spanish, previous ...studies have not accounted for different subtypes, nor have they examined this phenomenon in Chilean Spanish despite the unique intonation patterns in this dialect. This study examined the acoustic and prosodic correlates of five subtypes of irony (jocularity, rhetorical questions, understatements, hyperbole, and sarcasm) spontaneously occurring in the casual speech of sociolinguistic interviews with fifteen Chilean women. We segmented 3907 syllable nuclei from 197 spontaneously occurring instances of irony and compared the syllables within the ironic utterances to those in the pre-ironic utterances, along seven acoustic and prosodic variables: pitch range, duration, F0, F1, F2, H1*–H2*, and HNR. The results showed that the speakers favored jocularity and did not produce sarcasm or understatements, and that jocularity, hyperbole, and rhetorical questions significantly differed from the baseline utterances along a variety of acoustic and prosodic measures. We argue that these cues contributed to marking the ironic utterances as salient, allowing these women to talk about difficult real-life events with a touch of humor. Our study provides additional evidence for the connection between prosody and pragmatics in Chilean Spanish and lays the groundwork for further examination of irony and prosody in this and other Spanish dialects.
To investigate differences in outflow facility between angiographically determined high- and low-flow segments of the conventional outflow pathway in porcine eyes.
Porcine anterior segments (n = 14) ...were mounted in a perfusion chamber and perfused using Dulbecco's phosphate buffered solution with glucose. Fluorescein angiography was performed to determine high- and low-flow regions of the conventional outflow pathways. The trabecular meshwork (TM) was occluded using cyanoacrylate glue, except for residual 5-mm TM areas that were either high or low flow at baseline, designating these eyes as "residual high-flow" or "residual low-flow" eyes. Subsequently, outflow was quantitatively reassessed and compared between residual high-flow and residual low-flow eyes followed by indocyanine green angiography.
Fluorescein aqueous angiography demonstrated high-flow and low-flow regions. Baseline outflow facilities were 0.320 ± 0.08 and 0.328 ± 0.10 µL/min/mmHg (P = 0.676) in residual high-flow and residual low-flow eyes before TM occlusion, respectively. After partial trabecular meshwork occlusion, outflow facility decreased to 0.209 ± 0.07 µL/min/mmHg (-32.66% ± 19.53%) and 0.114 ± 0.08 µL/min/mmHg (-66.57% ± 23.08%) in residual high- and low-flow eyes (P = 0.035), respectively. There was a significant difference in the resulting IOP increase (P = 0.034).
Angiographically determined high- and low-flow regions in the conventional outflow pathways differ in their segmental outflow facility; thus, there is an uneven distribution of local outflow facility across different parts of the TM.
To evaluate the association between iris damage and cytokine levels in the aqueous humor (AqH).
A total of 201 AqH samples from 201 consecutive patients (mean age 73.7 ± 10.6) were collected at the ...beginning of corneal transplantation or cataract surgery. Iris damage of each case was assessed from preoperative slit-lamp findings based on its severity. The subjects were classified into three groups: eyes without iris damage (126 eyes), eyes with mild iris damage (51 eyes), and eyes with severe iris damage (24 eyes). The levels of cytokines (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-17a, interferon gamma-induced protein IP-10, monocyte chemotactic protein MCP-1, IFN-α, IFN-γ, macrophage inflammatory protein MIP-1α, MIP-1β, P-selectin, E-selectin, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule sICAM-1, TNF-α, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor GM-CSF) in AqH were measured by multiplex beads immunoassay.
The levels of aqueous protein, IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17A, MCP-1, TNF-α, E-selectin, P-selectin, and sICAM-1 in eyes with mild and severe iris damage were higher than in those without iris damage (P < 0.033). Multivariate analyses of clinical factors revealed that iris damage was associated with the history of complicated glaucoma, and the number of previous intraocular surgeries. The levels of AqH IL-6, IL-8, IL-13, MIP-1α, TNF-α, and sICAM-1 were significantly elevated in eyes with mild and severe iris damage in phakic eyes, and the levels of AqH IL-8 and sICAM-1 were significantly elevated in eyes with severe iris damage in pseudophakic eyes, compared with the eyes without iris damage (P < 0.045).
Iris damage was associated with the elevation in the levels of aqueous protein and cytokines.
Resumen El objetivo de este artículo es presentar una serie de ejercicios para enseñar morfología en el aula de secundaria de un modo diferente. Todos ellos se apoyan en juegos de palabras, chistes ...lingüísticos o ejemplos reales para que sean los estudiantes los que extraigan, a partir de ahí, el comportamiento morfológico de su lengua. El punto de partida es que los procesos morfológicos están presentes en la vida cotidiana de los estudiantes. Son procesos que usamos para crear nuevas palabras, para entender los neologismos, para expresar emociones o para condensar significados a través de la gramática. Con estos ejercicios, se trata de transmitir a los estudiantes que el conocimiento de la lengua radica en su propia reflexión metalingüística y es un conocimiento significativo. Se fomentan competencias básicas como la observación de la realidad, la reflexión y el espíritu crítico. Además, al introducir el humor en el aula, tratamos de crear un clima adecuado para la formación, al mismo tiempo que se fomenta la desautomatización de los procesos lingüísticos. Abstract The objective of this article is to present a series of exercises to teach morphology in a different way in high school. All of them rely on word games, linguistic jokes or real examples so that the students are the ones who deduce the morphological behavior of their language. The starting point is that morphological processes are present in the students' daily lives. We use morphology to create new words, to understand neologisms, to express emotions or to condense meanings through grammar. With these exercises, the aim is to convey to students that knowledge of the language lies in their own metalinguistic reflection. Basic competences such as observation of reality, reflection and a critical spirit are promoted. In addition, by introducing humor in the classroom, we try to create a suitable climate for training and promote the de-automation of linguistic processes.
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