Immediate Effects of Vergence Exercises Using Automatic Dual Rotational Risley Prisms on Accommodative Lag and Facility.

Introduction: This study evaluated novel automatic dual rotational Risley prisms (ADRRPs) as a vergence exercise tool for patients with myopia to improve accommodative lag and accommodative facility.

Methods: Participants with myopia aged 20-24 years were recruited. After vergence exercises with prisms (treatment group) or plano lenses (control group) using ADRRPs for 10 min, measurements were taken using an open-field autorefractor (Grand Seiko WAM-5500) at viewing distances of 0.

Infection with a Recently Discovered Gammaherpesvirus Variant in European Badgers, , is Associated with Higher Relative Viral Loads in Blood.

Herpesviruses are ubiquitous pathogens infecting most animals. Although host immunity continually coevolves to combat virulence, viral variants with enhanced transmissibility or virulence occasionally emerge, resulting in disease burdens in host populations. Mustelid gammaherpesvirus 1 (MusGHV-1) is the only herpesvirus species identified thus far in European badgers, Meles meles.

Adverse weather during development is linked to higher rates of later-life herpesvirus reactivation in adult European badgers, .

Maternal immune and/or metabolic conditions relating to stress or nutritional status can affect development among offspring with subsequent implications for later-life responses to infections. We used free-ranging European badgers as a host-pathogen model to investigate how prenatal weather conditions affect later-life herpesvirus genital tract reactivation. We applied a sliding window analysis of weather conditions to 164 samples collected in 2018 from 95 individuals born between 2005-2016.

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity.

The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities and the application of science is rarely quantified.

Patterns of Genital Tract (Musghv-1) Reactivation Are Linked to Stressors in European Badgers ().

Gammaherpesvirus reactivation can promote diseases or impair reproduction. Understanding reactivation patterns and associated risks of different stressors is therefore important. Nevertheless, outside the laboratory or captive environment, studies on the effects of stress on gammaherpesvirus reactivation in wild mammals are lacking.

Association between stress and bilateral symmetrical alopecia in free-ranging Formosan macaques in Mt. Longevity, Taiwan.

Since 2013, a high incidence of bilateral symmetrical alopecia has been observed in free-ranging Formosan macaques (Macaca cyclopis) in Mt. Longevity, Taiwan. We hypothesized that stress induces alopecia in this population.

Effects of (MusGHV-1) Reactivation in European Badger () Genital Tracts on Reproductive Fitness.

Reactivation of latent Gammaherpesvirus in the genital tract can lead to reproductive failure in domestic animals. Nevertheless, this pathophysiology has not received formal study in wild mammals. High prevalence of (MusGHV-1) DNA detected in the genital tracts of European badgers () implies that this common pathogen may be a sexual transmitted infection.

Adjusting diffraction spectrum of an echelon-like grating influenced by surface plasmon of nanomaterials.

This article aims to study the varying diffraction spectrum phenomenon influenced by surface plasmon of nanomaterials. Experiments used silver nanoparticles to build the echelon-like grating as test samples, where the grating spacing of line pattern is 10 μm and within the width of silver nanoparticles line is 5 μm alternately. In this work, the silver stripes with gradient thickness were first formed line pattern alternately with glancing angle deposition and photolithography, and then annealed at temperature of 250 °C for 3 mins to fabricate the silver nanoparticles as bowl-like forms.

Dynamics of single-layer polymer breath figures.

A single-layer of breath figure pattern was explored via the dynamical optical images and the temperature evolution. The pattern was prepared with the solution of carbon disulfide (CS(2)) dissolved 1% weight concentration of polystyrene. The evaporation of CS(2) was considered to be the most important role to the formation of the breath figure pattern.

Laser beam propagation in nematic liquid crystals at the temperature close to the nematicisotropic critical point.

This study investigates the optical nonlinearity of beam propagation in homogeneously aligned nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells at a temperature close to the nematic-isotropic temperature (TNI). The undulate propagation mode with convergent and divergent loops appearing alternately is reported and the thermally enhanced optical reorientation nonlinearity at the focus is described. The optically induced phase transition exists along the pump beam direction.

Simple parameter determination for twisted nematic liquid-crystal display.

A simple and accurate measurement method for determining the cell parameters of a twisted nematic liquid-crystal display (TN-LCD) is proposed. Based on the measurement of the maximum reflectance and the maximum transmittance of a TN-LCD by rotating the polarizer at a particular angle, between the front director of the liquid crystals and the transmission axis of the polarizer, the cell gap and the twist angle can be determined according to the Jones matrix theory, and the twist sense can also be determined easily by applying an external small voltage to slightly change the effective refractive index of the liquid crystal.

Reorientational optical nonlinearity of nematic liquid-crystal cells near the nematic-isotropic phase transition temperature.

We address the reorientational optical nonlinearity of homogeneously aligned neamtic liquid-crystal (NLC) cells. The propagation of light in NLC cells depend strongly on temperature. At a temperature approaching the clearing point, an undulating beam and multifocal points are observed in the NLC cell by use of a polarizing optical microscope.