Reproducibility and clinical relevance of the ocular response analyzer in nonoperated eyes: corneal biomechanical and tonometric implications

To assess the reproducibility of the ocular response analyzer (ORA) in nonoperated eyes and the impact of corneal biomechanical properties on intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements in normal and glaucomatous eyes. METHODS: In the reliability study, two independent examiners obtained repeated ORA measurements in 30 eyes. In the clinical study, the examiners analyzed ORA and IOP-Goldmann values from 220 normal and 42 glaucomatous eyes. In both studies, Goldmann-correlated IOP measurement (IOP-ORAg), corneal-compensated IOP (IOP-ORAc), corneal hysteresis (CH), and corneal resistance factor (CRF) were evaluated. IOP differences of 3 mm Hg or greater between the IOP-ORAc and IOP-ORAg were considered outcome significant. RESULTS: Intraexaminer intraclass correlation coefficients and interexaminer concordance correlation coefficients ranged from 0.78 to 0.93 and from 0.81 to 0.93, respectively, for all parameters. CH reproducibility was highest, and the IOP-ORAg readings were lowest. The median IOP was 16 mm Hg with the Goldmann tonometer, 14.5 mm Hg with IOP-ORAg (P < 0.001), and 15.7 mm Hg with IOP-ORAc (P < 0.001). Outcome-significant results were found in 77 eyes (29.38%). The IOP-ORAc, CH, and CRF were correlated with age (r = 0.22, P = 0.001; r = -0.23, P = 0.001; r = -0.14, P = 0.02, respectively), but not the IOP-ORAg or IOP-Goldmann. CONCLUSIONS: The ORA provides reproducible corneal biomechanical and IOP measurements in nonoperated eyes. Considering the effect of ORA, corneal biomechanical metrics produces an outcome-significant IOP adjustment in at least one quarter of glaucomatous and normal eyes undergoing noncontact tonometry. Corneal viscoelasticity (CH) and resistance (CRF) appear to decrease minimally with increasing age in healthy adults

Cost-effectiveness of hip protectors in frail institutionalized elderly

A randomized controlled trial was performed to examine the cost-effectiveness of external hip protectors in the prevention of hip fractures. Since the hip protectors were not effective in preventing hip fractures in our study, the main objective became to examine whether the use of hip protectors results in lower average costs per participant in the hip protector group as compared with the control group. In addition, the average costs of a hip fracture and subsequent rehabilitation in frail, institutionalized elderly were calculated. Residents from apartment houses for the elderly, homes for the elderly and nursing homes with a high risk for hip fractures were randomized to the hip protector group (n = 276) or control group (n = 285). Costs were calculated for the hip fracture and subsequent rehabilitation until 1 year after the fracture. Six months after each hip fracture, a nurse was interviewed and after 12 months, a questionnaire was sent to the general practitioner or nursing home physician to determine the utilization of health care resources. Differences in costs between the groups were analyzed using non-parametric bootstrapping. Eighteen hip fractures occurred in the intervention group and 20 hip fractures (in 19 persons) in the control group (log rank P-value = 0.86). The average costs per participant, including the costs of the intervention, were €913 in the intervention group and 502 in the control group (cost difference of €-411; 95% confidence interval: -723; 57). The average costs of a hip fracture and subsequent rehabilitation were €8100 (95% CI: 6716-10,010). The use of hip protectors was not associated with lower costs. In addition, the average costs of a hip fracture and subsequent rehabilitation in the first year after the fracture were estimated at €8100 in institutionalized elderly. © International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation 2004

Radiopurity control in the NEXT-100 double beta decay experiment: procedures and initial measurements

We have investigated the possibility of calibrating the PMTs of scintillation detectors, using the primary scintillation produced by X-rays to induce single photoelectron response of the PMT. The high-energy tail of this response, can be approximated to an exponential function, under some conditions. In these cases, it is possible to determine the average gain for each PMT biasing voltage from the inverse of the exponent of the exponential fit to the tail, which can be done even if the background and/or noise cover-up most of the distribution. We have compared our results with those obtained by the commonly used single electron response (SER) method, which uses a LED to induce a single photoelectron response of the PMT and determines the peak position of such response, relative to the pedestal peak (the electronic noise peak, which corresponds to 0 photoelectrons). The results of the exponential fit method agree with those obtained by the SER method when the average number of photoelectrons reaching the first dynode per light/scintillation pulse is around 1.0. The SER method has higher precision, while the exponential fit method has the advantage of being useful in situations where the PMT is already in situ, being difficult or even impossible to apply the SER method, e.g. in sealed scintillator/PMT devices

Characterization of a medium size Xe/TMA TPC instrumented with microbulk Micromegas, using low-energy gamma-rays

NEXT-MM is a general-purpose high pressure (10 bar, ~ 25 l active volume) Xenon-based TPC, read out in charge mode with an 0.8 cm × 0.8 cm-segmented 700 cm2 plane (1152 ch) of the latest microbulk-Micromegas technology. It has been recently commissioned at University of Zaragoza as part of the R&D of the NEXT 0νββ experiment, although the experiment's first stage is currently being built based on a SiPM/PMT-readout concept relying on electroluminescence. Around 2 million events were collected during the last months, stemming from the low energy γ-rays emitted by a 241Am source when interacting with the Xenon gas (Eγ = 26, 30, 59.5 keV). The localized nature of such events around atmospheric pressure, the long drift times, as well as the possibility to determine their production time from the associated α particle in coincidence, allow the extraction of primordial properties of the TPC filling gas, namely the drift velocity, diffusion and attachment coefficients. In this work we focus on the little explored combination of Xe and trimethylamine (TMA) for which, in particular, such properties are largely unknown. This gas mixture offers potential advantages over pure Xenon when aimed at Rare Event Searches, mainly due to its Penning characteristics, wave-length shifting properties and reduced diffusion, and it is being actively investigated by our collaboration. The chamber is currently operated at 2.7 bar, as an intermediate step towards the envisaged 10 bar. We report here its performance as well as a first implementation of the calibration procedures that have allowed the extension of the previously reported energy resolution to the whole readout plane (10.6% FWHM@30 keV)

Self-reported drinking and driving amongst educated adults in Spain: The "Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra" (SUN) cohort findings

Background: The role of alcohol as a risk factor for motor vehicle crashes is long known. Yet, reports on the prevalence of drinking and driving suggest values between 20%–30% when the adult driving population is interviewed. We wondered whether these values hold true among European educated citizens and whether there are any significant differences in prevalence by age, gender, type of profession and other lifestyle indicators. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of baseline data from a cohort of university graduates in Spain (SUN study). Answered questionnaires contained items on current drinking and driving practices, together with data on socio-demographic characteristics and lifestyle habits. Chi square, Fisher test, and multivariate logistic regression were used to investigate the impact of several variables on drinking and driving practices. Analyses were stratified by gender. Results: Almost 30% of the participants reported "sometimes" drinking and driving. This percent increased to 47% when "almost never" was also included as a positive answer to the drinking and driving practice question. These percentages varied significantly by gender, with up to 64% of men reporting "sometimes" or "almost never" vs. 36% of women doing so. Drinking and driving practices also differed by overall alcohol consumption habits, smoking, use of safety belts, and notably, type of profession. Conclusion: Our findings are amongst the first on the high prevalence of drinking and driving among Spanish. Particularly worrisome is the fact that health professionals reported this habit even at higher rates. Multidisciplinary interventions (e.g., legal, educational, economic) are needed to reduce this serious health risk

Using Data-mining Techniques for the prediction of the severity of road crashes in Cartagena, Colombia

Objective: Analyze the road crashes in Cartagena (Colombia) and the factors associated with the collision and severity. The aim is to establish a set of rules for defining countermeasures to improve road safety. Methods: Data mining and machine learning techniques were used in 7894 traffic accidents from 2016 to 2017. The severity was determined between low (84%) and high (16%). Five classification algorithms to predict the accident severity were applied with WEKA Software (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis). Including Decision Tree (DT-J48), Rule Induction (PART), Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Naïve Bayes (NB), and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). The effectiveness of each algorithm was implemented using cross-validation with 10-fold. Decision rules were defined from the results of the different methods. Results: The methods applied are consistent and similar in the overall results of precision, accuracy, recall, and area under the ROC curve. Conclusions: 12 decision rules were defined based on the methods applied. The rules defined show motorcyclists, cyclists, including pedestrians, as the most vulnerable road users. Men and women motorcyclists between 20–39 years are prone in accidents with high severity. When a motorcycle or cyclist is not involved in the accident, the probable severity is low

Is there an orthographic boost for ambiguous words during their processing?

The present study explores the issue of why ambiguous words are recognized faster than unambiguous ones during word recognition. To this end we contrasted two different hypotheses: the semantic feedback hypothesis (Hino and Lupker in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 22:1331-1356, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.22.6.1331 ), and the hypothesis proposed by Borowsky and Masson (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cognit 22:63-85, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.22.1.63 ). Although both hypotheses agree that ambiguous words benefit during recognition in that they engage more semantic activation, they disagree as to whether or not this greater semantic activation feeds back to the orthographic level, hence speeding up the orthographic coding of ambiguous words. Participants were presented with ambiguous and unambiguous words in two tasks, a lexical decision task (LDT) and a two-alternative forced-choice task (2AFC). We found differences between ambiguous and unambiguous words in both the LDT and the 2AFC tasks. These results suggest that the orthographic coding of ambiguous words is boosted during word processing. This finding lends support to the semantic feedback hypothesis.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2015-63525-P) and by the Research Promotion Program of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2016PFR-URV-B2-37). This has also been partially supported by the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) through the state budget with Reference IF/00784/2013/CP1158/CT0013. The first author also holds a grant from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2015PMF-PIPF-16)

A systematic review of studies measuring health-related quality of life of general injury populations

Background. It is important to obtain greater insight into health-related quality of life (HRQL) of injury patients in order to document people's pathways to recovery and to quantify the impact of injury on population health over time. We performed a systematic review of studies measuring HRQL in general injury populations with a generic health state measure to summarize existing knowledge. Methods. Injury studies (1995-2009) were identified with main inclusion criteri