Deranged Metabolic Profile and Identification of Biomarkers in the Vitreous Humour of Patients with Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy.

Background: Systemic biochemical disarray has been implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of diabetes and its complications. However, the modifications in the metabolic state of the retina and its microenvironment in response to the systemic metabolic malfunction has not been documented.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to document the various biomarkers that may be involved in the pathogenesis and progression of Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (PDR).

Evaluation of the effect of pan retinal photocoagulation on optic nerve head parameters using HRT3.

Purpose: To evaluate the optic disc topography after pan retinal photocoagulation (PRP) in diabetic retinopathy patients using confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (HRT3).

Methods: Thirty eyes of 30 diabetic patients (non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus) underwent PRP for proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Subjects with glaucoma or family history of glaucoma, any coexisting neuroophthalmic disease, uveitis, retinal artery or vein occlusion, corneal opacity or lasered previously were excluded from the study.

Nearest-neighbor nonparametric method for estimating the configurational entropy of complex molecules.

A method for estimating the configurational (i.e., non-kinetic) part of the entropy of internal motion in complex molecules is introduced that does not assume any particular parametric form for the underlying probability density function.

A quadricuspid aortic valve with atrial septal defect.

A quadricuspid aortic valve (QAV) is a rare congenital heart defect, previously described as an incidental finding at the time of surgery or postmortem, which is now being increasingly detected by 2D transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiogram. With advances in echocardiography, secondary cardiac anomalies are also being described in association with QAV. Herein we describe a patient with QAV with a secundum atrial septal defect.

Comparison of left atrial dimensions by transesophageal and transthoracic echocardiography.

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is an established cardiovascular diagnostic technique. Left atrial (LA) size, as measured by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), is associated with cardiovascular disease and is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation, stroke, death, and the success of cardioversion. Assessment of LA size has not been as well validated on TEE as on TTE.

Application of the random forest method in studies of local lymph node assay based skin sensitization data.

The random forest and classification tree modeling methods are used to build predictive models of the skin sensitization activity of a chemical. A new two-stage backward elimination algorithm for descriptor selection in the random forest method is introduced. The predictive performance of the random forest model was maximized by tuning voting thresholds to reflect the unbalanced size of classification groups in available data.

Structure-activity models for contact sensitization.

Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is a widespread cause of workers' disabilities. Although some substances found in the workplace are rigorously tested, the potential of the vast majority of chemicals to cause skin sensitization remains unknown. At the same time, exhaustive testing of all chemicals in workplaces is costly and raises ethical concerns.

Estimation of the absolute internal-rotation entropy of molecules with two torsional degrees of freedom from stochastic simulations.

A method of statistical estimation is applied to the problem of evaluating the absolute entropy of internal rotation in a molecule with two torsional degrees of freedom. The configurational part of the entropy is obtained as that of the joint probability density of an arbitrary form represented by a two-dimensional Fourier series, the coefficients of which are statistically estimated using a sample of the torsional angles of the molecule obtained by a stochastic simulation. The internal rotors in the molecule are assumed to be attached to a common frame, and their reduced moments of inertia are initially calculated as functions of the two torsional angles, but averaged over all the remaining internal degrees of freedom using the stochastic-simulation sample of the atomic configurations of the molecule.

Predicting Fault Prone Modules by the Dempster-Shafer Belief Networks.

This paper describes a novel methodology for predicting fault prone modules. The methodology is based on Dempster-Shafer (D-S) belief networks. Our approach consists of three steps: First, building the Dempster-Shafer network by the induction algorithm; Second, selecting the predictors (attributes) by the logistic procedure; Third, feeding the predictors describing the modules of the current project into the inducted Dempster-Shafer network and identifying fault prone modules.

Statistical thermodynamics of internal rotation in a hindering potential of mean force obtained from computer simulations.

A method of statistical estimation is applied to the problem of one-dimensional internal rotation in a hindering potential of mean force. The hindering potential, which may have a completely general shape, is expanded in a Fourier series, the coefficients of which are estimated by fitting an appropriate statistical-mechanical distribution to the random variable of internal rotation angle. The function of reduced moment of inertia of an internal rotation is averaged over the thermodynamic ensemble of atomic configurations of the molecule obtained in stochastic simulations.

Estimating distributions with increasing failure rate in an imperfect repair model.

A failed system is repaired minimally if after failure, it is restored to the working condition of an identical system of the same age. We extend the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of a system's lifetime distribution function to test units that are known to have an increasing failure rate. Such items comprise a significant portion of working components in industry.