The picosecond laser for nonmechanical laser in situ keratomileusis.

Purpose: To introduce the clinical use of the Nd:YLF picosecond laser as a nonmechanical microkeratome.

Methods: A commercially available Nd:YLF picosecond laser (25 microJ/pulse, 30 psec, 1053 nm) was used to deliver intrastromal pulses of focused high power laser light to generate a flap for laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and perform picosecond laser keratomileusis (PLK) in two partially sighted patients with high myopia.

Results: Case #1: A 6 mm, 150 microns flap for LASIK was successfully created and the underlying stroma treated with an excimer laser for a target correction of -15.

Steep central islands after myopic photorefractive keratectomy.

Purpose: To investigate the formation of steep central islands and their reduction under modified experimental conditions.

Setting: University Eye Hospital Münster and Schwind Co., Kleinostheim, Germany.

A member of a family of sulfate-activating enzymes causes murine brachymorphism.

Sulfation is critical to the function of a wide variety of biomolecules. This common modification requires the enzymatic synthesis of an activated sulfate donor, phosphoadenosine-phosphosulfate (PAPS). In higher organisms PAPS synthesis is catalyzed by a bifunctional sulfurylase kinase (SK) polypeptide having both ATP-sulfurylase and adenosine-phosphosulfate kinase activities.

Assortative mating for antisocial behavior: developmental and methodological implications.

Do people mate assortatively for antisocial behavior? If so, what are the implications for the development and persistence of antisocial behavior? We investigated assortative mating for antisocial behavior and its correlates in a sample of 360 couples from Dunedin, New Zealand. We found substantial assortative mating for self-reports of antisocial behavior per se and for self-reports of couple members' tendencies to associate with antisocial peers (0.54 on average).

Report from the Committee on Sex Offenders: the Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest--a brief description.

This article briefly reviews objective methods of assessing sexual interest and/or arousal and mentions some of the disadvantages of penile plethysmography. Literature that supports the use of viewing time as a measurement of sexual interest is reviewed. A detailed description of a new system of assessing sexual interest, called the Abel Assessment, which has both subjective and objective components, is presented.

The structure and stability of common mental disorders (DSM-III-R): a longitudinal-epidemiological study.

The latent structure and stability of 10 common mental disorders were examined in a birth cohort at ages 18 and 21. A 2-factor model, in which some disorders were presumed to reflect internalizing problems and others were presumed to reflect externalizing problems, provided a more optimal fit to the data than either a 1- or a 4-factor model. To a significant extent, persons in the sample retained their relative positions on the latent factors across the 3-year period from age 18 to age 21.

Immunoblot analyses of the elicited Sanguinaria canadensis enzyme, dihydrobenzophenanthridine oxidase: evidence for resolution from a polyphenol oxidase isozyme.

In our initial purification of dihydrobenzophenanthridine oxidase from Sanguinaria canadensis plant cell cultures, we reported that our most purified preparations contained a major band at 77 kDa and minor lower Mr bands. Here we present evidence on highly purified dihydrobenzophenanthridine oxidase from elicited S. canadensis cultures to indicate that this enzyme is the 77-kDa protein and that lower Mr bands include an isozyme(s) of the polyphenol oxidase family that copurifies with it.

Corneal iron line associated with steep central islands after photorefractive keratectomy.

Purpose: To report a new corneal iron deposit after excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy (PRK).

Methods: Two patients with symptomatic persistent steep central islands were noted to have a corneal iron ring at 6 months to 1 year after surgery. This is different from the central iron spot noted in most patients at 1 year.

Topical diclofenac sodium after excimer laser phototherapeutic keratectomy.

Background: Both the potential analgesic effects and side-effects of topical diclofenac sodium 0.1% are points of interest after excimer laser phototherapeutic keratectomy.

Methods: Excimer laser phototherapeutic keratectomy was performed in 134 eyes of 134 patients.

liguleless1 encodes a nuclear-localized protein required for induction of ligules and auricles during maize leaf organogenesis.

The maize ligule and auricle are structures on the maize leaf that develop at the boundary of the sheath and blade. In the absence of liguleless1 (Ig1) gene expression, ligule and auricle are not formed, and the blade-sheath boundary does not develop as an exact line between sheath and blade. By using the Activator (Ac) transposable element as a molecular tag, a novel Ig1 allele, Ig1-m1, was isolated and cloned.

Retrephination keratoplasty for high astigmatism after penetrating keratoplasty.

Purpose: We report preliminary results of a new procedure for correcting high astigmatism after penetrating keratoplasty.

Methods: The procedure entails full-thickness trephination along the original donor-recipient junction with careful suturing in a combined interrupted and running fashion. Four eyes of four patients with severe astigmatism and myopia after penetrating keratoplasty underwent the procedure.

Role of matrix metalloproteinases in failure to re-epithelialize after corneal injury.

Delayed re-epithelialization of the cornea after injury usually precedes stromal ulceration. Previous findings using a rat thermal injury model suggested that re-epithelialization is impeded by products of resident corneal cells, which destroy adhesive structures at the basement membrane zone. In this study, we provide additional evidence for this concept.

Picosecond laser in situ keratomileusis with a 1053-nm Nd:YLF laser.

Background: Excimer laser in situ keratomileusis requires a microkeratome to generate an anterior corneal flap, plus an excimer laser to ablate the underlying stromal tissue. In this paper we introduce the concepts of laser flap formation and in situ keratomileusis using a picosecond laser.

Methods: A neodymium-doped yttrium-lithium-fluoride (Nd:YLF) laser with a plano-plano quartz applanation lens was used to generate various patterns of intrastromal photodisruption in human donor eyes to fashion anterior corneal flaps and generate intrastromal lenticules.

Personality traits are differentially linked to mental disorders: a multitrait-multidiagnosis study of an adolescent birth cohort.

The authors assessed the relation between personality and mental disorder in a representative birth cohort of 897 men and women. Personality was assessed at age 18 with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1982), and 4 types of mental disorder (affective, anxiety, substance dependence, and conduct disorder) were assessed at ages 15, 18 and 21, using age-appropriate standardized diagnostic interviews.

Ultrastructure of picosecond laser intrastromal photodisruption.

Purpose: To investigate the ultrastructure of the corneal stroma after picosecond intrastromal photodisruption with a neodymium-doped yttrium-lithium-fluoride (Nd:YLF) laser.

Methods: We performed picosecond intrastromal photodisruption on six human eye-bank eyes using a lamellar technique. Thirty picosecond pulses at 1000 Hz and 20 to 25 mJ per pulse were placed in an expanding spiral pattern, the pulses separated by 15 microns.

Double-armed McCannell suture for repair of traumatic iridodialysis.

Purpose: To repair iridodialysis in a traumatized eye with minimal surgical manipulation.

Methods: We examined a patient with traumatic iridodialysis. The separated iris obstructed the visual axis and was cosmetically disfiguring.

The nanomelic mutation in the aggrecan gene is expressed in chick chondrocytes and neurons.

We have established the presence of at least two large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans in the developing chick brain, one that reacts exclusively with HNK-1, a carbohydrate epitope found on several neural specific molecules, and one that reacts with S103L, a defined peptide epitope in the CS-2 domain of the cartilage-specific chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (CSPG), aggrecan. In order to determine the relationships between the two distinct S103L-reactive CSPGs from cartilage (chondrocytes) and brain (neurons), as well as among the three large CSPGs expressed in brain, S103L, HNK-1 and versican, we studied the expression of these multiple proteoglycan species in the brain of nanomelic chicks. We have previously shown that homozygous embryos expressing the nanomelic phenotype exhibit a single point mutation in the aggrecan gene.

Clinical analysis of steep central islands after excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy.

Purpose: To examine topographic irregularities known as steep central islands that may occur after excimer laser refractive surgery and affect visual acuity.

Methods: We reviewed the computed corneal topographic maps of 35 eyes that had undergone excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy with an excimer laser for compound myopic astigmatism or anisometropic myopia. Steep central islands were defined as areas of steepening of at least 3 diopters and 1.

Delay of gratification, psychopathology, and personality: is low self-control specific to externalizing problems?

We assessed the delay of gratification behavior of 428 twelve- and thirteen-year-old boys, half of whom were known to manifest symptoms of behavioral disturbance. Consistent with the hypothesis that low self-control is a risk factor specific to externalizing (aggressive and delinquent) disorders, boys who showed signs of externalizing disorders tended to seek immediate gratification in a laboratory task more often than both nondisordered boys and boys who showed signs of internalizing (anxious and depressed) disorders. In addition, children who were able to delay immediate gratification were described by their mothers as ego controlled, ego resilient, conscientious, open to experience, and agreeable.

Brain aggrecan.

During development, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex dynamic structure whose components and organization help to establish the requisite position and state of differentiation. Until recently, the large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, aggrecan, has been localized predominantly to skeletal tissue and considered a hallmark of cartilage differentiation. We have identified the presence of aggrecan in two other highly differentiated systems, brain and notochord, with clearly distinct expression patterns.