Environmental roots of the late bronze age crisis.

The Late Bronze Age world of the Eastern Mediterranean, a rich linkage of Aegean, Egyptian, Syro-Palestinian, and Hittite civilizations, collapsed famously 3200 years ago and has remained one of the mysteries of the ancient world since the event's retrieval began in the late 19(th) century AD/CE. Iconic Egyptian bas-reliefs and graphic hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts portray the proximate cause of the collapse as the invasions of the "Peoples-of-the-Sea" at the Nile Delta, the Turkish coast, and down into the heartlands of Syria and Palestine where armies clashed, famine-ravaged cities abandoned, and countrysides depopulated. Here we report palaeoclimate data from Cyprus for the Late Bronze Age crisis, alongside a radiocarbon-based chronology integrating both archaeological and palaeoclimate proxies, which reveal the effects of abrupt climate change-driven famine and causal linkage with the Sea People invasions in Cyprus and Syria.

Repeated treatment for macular edema in vein occlusion by intravitreal implant of dexamethasone.

Background: Macular edema (ME) treatment has benefited from the recent intravitreal pharmacotherapy development of an intravitreal implant of dexamethasone (Ozurdex(®), Allergan, Irvine, Calif., USA). However, its efficiency has never been illustrated beyond 3 injections.

Femtosecond laser-assisted decagonal penetrating keratoplasty.

Purpose: To assess the use of a new polygonal trephination pattern for penetrating keratoplasty (PK) assisted by femtosecond laser.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized clinical study.

Methods: Sixteen eyes underwent decagonal PK.

[Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography in anterior segment imaging: the 3rd dimension].

Purpose: Anterior segment imaging using optical coherence tomography (OCT) time domain technology has been used for many years. When it appeared, it was a promising technique in the analysis of the anterior segment, making it possible to reach a definition of the ocular structures comparable with histology. Now with new-generation OCT, it is possible to perform high-definition and three-dimensional imaging.