Automatic identification of ablation targets in persistent atrial fibrillation: Initial experience with a new mapping tool.

Introduction: Strategies beyond pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in persistent atrial fibrillation (persAF) are debated. A novel mapping tool provides algorithmic detection of ablation targets based on electrogram (EGM) properties specific to stable localized rotational activations.

Methods: The mapping tool was used on 31 patients (20 de novo).

Designing formative assessments to improve anatomy exam performance.

Formative assessments are primarily used as a tool to gauge learning throughout an anatomy course. They have also been demonstrated to improve student mastery and exam performance, although the precise nature of this relationship is poorly understood. In this study, it is hypothesized that formative assessment questions targeting higher cognitive levels, integrating topics from multiple lessons, and including visuospatial elements will increase student exam performance.

Longitudinal study of rat volar fat pad fixation and ethanol storage: implications for the use of fluid-preserved specimens in morphological studies.

Museum fluid collections preserve important biological specimens for study. Tissues are often fixed in 10% buffered formalin to halt metabolic activities and transferred to a solution of ethanol for long-term storage. This process, however, forces water from the tissues and has been shown to alter the morphology of preserved specimens in ways that may influence the biological interpretation of results.

Predicting through-focus visual acuity with the eye's natural aberrations.

Purpose: To develop a predictive optical modeling process that utilizes individual computer eye models along with a novel through-focus image quality metric.

Methods: Individual eye models were implemented in optical design software (Zemax, Bellevue, WA) based on evaluation of ocular aberrations, pupil diameter, visual acuity, and accommodative response of 90 subjects (180 eyes; 24-63 years of age). Monocular high-contrast minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) acuity was assessed at 6 m, 2 m, 1 m, 67 cm, 50 cm, 40 cm, 33 cm, 28 cm, and 25 cm.

Population spherical aberration: associations with ametropia, age, corneal curvature, and image quality.

Purpose: The aim of this analysis was to determine the total ocular wavefront aberration values of a large phakic population of physiologically normal, ametropic eyes, gathered under the same clinical protocol using the same diagnostic wavefront sensor.

Materials And Methods: Studies were conducted at multiple sites in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. A Bausch + Lomb Zywave II Wavefront Aberrometer (Rochester, NY, USA) was used to measure the lower and higher order aberrations of each eye.

Hallucal grasping in Nycticebus coucang: further implications for the functional significance of a large peroneal process.

Euprimate grasping feet are characterized by a suite of morphological traits, including an enlarged peroneal process on the base of the first metatarsal, which serves as the insertion site of the peroneus longus muscle. In prosimians, a large process has typically been associated with a powerful hallucal grasp via the contraction of the peroneus longus to adduct the hallux. Recent electromyography (EMG) studies have documented that peroneus longus does not contribute substantially to hallucal grasping in lemurids (Boyer et al.