The Latest Evidence with Regards to Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery and Its Use Post 2020.

Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) was introduced with the hope of making cataract surgery safer and making the refractive result more predictable. It is only in the last four years that level 1 prospective randomised controlled trials (RCT) using current technology have been published. These, along with a meta-analysis of recent studies have shown that there seems to be little long-term visual benefit when using FLACS with monofocal lenses. The promised decrease in ultrasound energy required to remove a cataract has not been consistently demonstrated. There is level one evidence that the rate of posterior capsular rupture is less with FLACS using modern software. The round capsulotomy may be of increasing importance with the uptake of toric, multifocal and extended depth of focus lenses where a predictable capsulotomy size and precise placement of the lens becomes more important

Properties of Graphene: A Theoretical Perspective

In this review, we provide an in-depth description of the physics of monolayer and bilayer graphene from a theorist's perspective. We discuss the physical properties of graphene in an external magnetic field, reflecting the chiral nature of the quasiparticles near the Dirac point with a Landau level at zero energy. We address the unique integer quantum Hall effects, the role of electron correlations, and the recent observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in the monolayer graphene. The quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene is fundamentally different from that of a monolayer, reflecting the unique band structure of this system. The theory of transport in the absence of an external magnetic field is discussed in detail, along with the role of disorder studied in various theoretical models. We highlight the differences and similarities between monolayer and bilayer graphene, and focus on thermodynamic properties such as the compressibility, the plasmon spectra, the weak localization correction, quantum Hall effect, and optical properties. Confinement of electrons in graphene is nontrivial due to Klein tunneling. We review various theoretical and experimental studies of quantum confined structures made from graphene. The band structure of graphene nanoribbons and the role of the sublattice symmetry, edge geometry and the size of the nanoribbon on the electronic and magnetic properties are very active areas of research, and a detailed review of these topics is presented. Also, the effects of substrate interactions, adsorbed atoms, lattice defects and doping on the band structure of finite-sized graphene systems are discussed. We also include a brief description of graphane -- gapped material obtained from graphene by attaching hydrogen atoms to each carbon atom in the lattice.Comment: 189 pages. submitted in Advances in Physic

Estimating Dengue Transmission Intensity from Sero-Prevalence Surveys in Multiple Countries

BACKGROUND:Estimates of dengue transmission intensity remain ambiguous. Since the majority of infections are asymptomatic, surveillance systems substantially underestimate true rates of infection. With advances in the development of novel control measures, obtaining robust estimates of average dengue transmission intensity is key for assessing both the burden of disease from dengue and the likely impact of interventions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The force of infection (λ) and corresponding basic reproduction numbers (R0) for dengue were estimated from non-serotype (IgG) and serotype-specific (PRNT) age-stratified seroprevalence surveys identified from the literature. The majority of R0 estimates ranged from 1-4. Assuming that two heterologous infections result in complete immunity produced up to two-fold higher estimates of R0 than when tertiary and quaternary infections were included. λ estimated from IgG data were comparable to the sum of serotype-specific forces of infection derived from PRNT data, particularly when inter-serotype interactions were allowed for. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Our analysis highlights the highly heterogeneous nature of dengue transmission. How underlying assumptions about serotype interactions and immunity affect the relationship between the force of infection and R0 will have implications for control planning. While PRNT data provides the maximum information, our study shows that even the much cheaper ELISA-based assays would provide comparable baseline estimates of overall transmission intensity which will be an important consideration in resource-constrained settings

Natural selection on cork oak: allele frequency reveals divergent selection in cork oak populations along a temperature cline

A recent study of population divergence at neutral markers and adaptive traits in cork oak has observed an association between genetic distances at locus QpZAG46 and genetic distances for leaf size and growth. In that study it was proposed that certain loci could be linked to genes encoding for adaptive traits in cork oak and, thus, could be used in adaptation studies. In order to investigate this hypothesis, here we (1) looked for associations between molecular markers and a set of adaptive traits in cork oak, and (2) explored the effects of the climate on among-population patterns in adaptive traits and molecular markers. For this purpose, we chose 9-year-old plants originating from thirteen populations spanning a broad range of climatic conditions. Plants established in a common garden site were genotyped at six nuclear microsatellites and phenotypically characterized for six functional traits potentially related to plant performance. Our results supported the proposed linkage between locus QpZAG46 and genes encoding for leaf size and growth. Temperature caused adaptive population divergence in leaf size and growth, which was expressed as differences in the frequencies of the alleles at locus QpZAG46

Kualitas Hidup Pasien Diabetes Melitus Tipe 2 di Puskesmas Se Kota Kupang

Diabetes Mellitus is well known as a chronic disease which can lead to a decrease in quality of life in all domains. The study aims to explore the diabetic type 2 patient\u27s quality of life and find out the factors affecting in type 2 diabetic mellitus patients. The cross-sectional study design is used that included 65 patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus, in 11 public health centers of Kupang City. Data were collected by using Short Form Survey (SF-36) that assessed 8-scale health profile. Independent sample t-test is used to analyze the correlation between the factors affecting and the quality of life. the study showed that the QoL of DM patients decreased in all 8- health profile including physical functioning, social functioning, mental health, general health, pain, change in the role due to physical problems and emotional problems. The Study also showed there was a relationship between gender, duration of suffering from Diabetes mellitus, and complications to the quality of life. Male perceived a better quality of life than female

Computational solutions for omics data

High-throughput experimental technologies are generating increasingly massive and complex genomic data sets. The sheer enormity and heterogeneity of these data threaten to make the arising problems computationally infeasible. Fortunately, powerful algorithmic techniques lead to software that can answer important biomedical questions in practice. In this Review, we sample the algorithmic landscape, focusing on state-of-the-art techniques, the understanding of which will aid the bench biologist in analysing omics data. We spotlight specific examples that have facilitated and enriched analyses of sequence, transcriptomic and network data sets.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM081871

Analysis of Chimpanzee History Based on Genome Sequence Alignments

Population geneticists often study small numbers of carefully chosen loci, but it has become possible to obtain orders of magnitude for more data from overlaps of genome sequences. Here, we generate tens of millions of base pairs of multiple sequence alignments from combinations of three western chimpanzees, three central chimpanzees, an eastern chimpanzee, a bonobo, a human, an orangutan, and a macaque. Analysis provides a more precise understanding of demographic history than was previously available. We show that bonobos and common chimpanzees were separated ∼1,290,000 years ago, western and other common chimpanzees ∼510,000 years ago, and eastern and central chimpanzees at least 50,000 years ago. We infer that the central chimpanzee population size increased by at least a factor of 4 since its separation from western chimpanzees, while the western chimpanzee effective population size decreased. Surprisingly, in about one percent of the genome, the genetic relationships between humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos appear to be different from the species relationships. We used PCR-based resequencing to confirm 11 regions where chimpanzees and bonobos are not most closely related. Study of such loci should provide information about the period of time 5–7 million years ago when the ancestors of humans separated from those of the chimpanzees