We Need to Know: A Call for Interdisciplinary Education on COVID-19.

COVID-19 disrupted numerous disciplines which led to widespread misinformation on the virus. Thirteen students from across the USA designed a web-based conference, or "webinar," to minimize the misinformation among student populations. Professionals presented the current and possible future impacts of COVID-19 in their respective fields.

Laparoscopic-assisted ovariohysterectomy for the treatment of pyometra in a Bengal tiger .

A laparoscopic-assisted ovariohysterectomy was performed in a 19-year-old intact, female Bengal tiger presented for surgical treatment of pyometra. A multi-port technique was used with intra-corporeal sealing of the ovarian pedicles and extra-corporeal ligation of the uterine vessels and body. The tiger recovered from surgery and anesthesia without complication, was released into its enclosure the same day, and has remained clinically normal.

Reliability of cervical vertebral maturation staging.

Introduction: Growth and its prediction are important for the success of many orthodontic treatments. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of the cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) method for the assessment of mandibular growth.

Methods: A group of 20 orthodontic clinicians, inexperienced in CVM staging, was trained to use the improved version of the CVM method for the assessment of mandibular growth with a teaching program.

A semiflexible 64-channel receive-only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T.

Purpose: To design, construct, and validate a semiflexible 64-channel receive-only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T.

Methods: A 64-channel receive-only phased array was developed and constructed. The designed flexible coil can easily conform to different patient sizes with nonoverlapping coil elements in the transverse plane.

The effects of cattle sex on carcass characteristics and longissimus muscle palatability.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of sex on carcass traits and cooked beef steak palatability. In Exp. 1, steers (n = 99), heifers (n = 51), and intravaginally spayed heifers (n = 46) were fed a high-energy diet for 161 d.

Normative data for modified Thorington phorias and prism bar vergences from the Benton-IU study.

Background: The use of a phoropter for measuring phorias and vergences in children is common in the optometric profession. For young children, the use of the phoropter can be confusing, making it difficult to obtain accurate measurements. Free space testing allows for direct observation of the eyes in a natural environment and is easier for children to understand the directions.

Sensory, cognitive, and linguistic factors in the early academic performance of elementary school children: The Benton-IU project.

Standardized sensory, perceptual, linguistic, intellectual, and cognitive tests were administered to 470 children, approximately 96% of the students entering the first grade in the four elementary schools of Benton County, Indiana, over a 3-year period (1995--1997). The results of 36 tests and subtests administered to entering first graders were well described by a 4-factor solution. These factors and the tests that loaded most heavily on them were reading-related skills (phonological awareness, letter and word identification); visual cognition (visual perceptual abilities, spatial perception, visual memory); verbal cognition (language development, vocabulary, verbal concepts); and speech processing (the ability to understand speech under difficult listening conditions).

Reliability of the response AC/A ratio determined using nearpoint autorefraction and simultaneous heterophoria measurement.

BACKGROUND: Clinicians frequently assess the accommodative convergence to accommodation (AC/A) ratio using near phoria measurements and accommodative stimuli. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the repeatability of AC/A ratio measurements and to compare the response AC/A ratio to stimulus AC/A ratios determined two different ways. METHODS: Heterophorias and accommodative responses to different stimuli were measured simultaneously on eight subjects at two visits.

A cognitive approach to child abuse prevention.

This investigation tested the incremental utility of cognitive retraining as a component within a program designed to prevent child maltreatment. High-risk families (N = 96) were randomly assigned to a control condition, home visitation modeled after the Healthy Start program (unenhanced home visitation), or home visitation that included a cognitive component (enhanced home visitation). Mothers were identified late during pregnancy or soon after birth, and their participation continued for 1 year.

READIT: a novel technology used in the interrogation of nucleic acid sequences for single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

The ability to perform analyses for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has become routine in many molecular diagnostic laboratories. While various procedures and technologies are available to do so, we evaluated a novel technology for SNP analysis using the Factor V Leiden polymorphism as an example. The Factor V Leiden polymorphism G1691A is the most common genetic abnormality associated with hereditary thrombophilia.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene are common in US Caucasian and Hispanic American populations.

To investigate the prevalence of the C677T and A1298C single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene in Caucasian and Hispanic populations, EDTA-anticoagulated whole blood specimens were collected from a total of 100 random patients, 50 Caucasians and 50 Hispanics of Puerto Rican dissent. The prevalence of the two MTHFR SNPs was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mediated restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. In the Caucasian population, homozygosity for the MTHFR A1298C SNP was detected in 4% (2/50) of the individuals tested, while 42% (21/50) were heterozygous for this SNP.

The effect of prism adaptation on the response AC/A ratio.

Vergence adaptation, also known as prism adaptation, is a phenomenon in which a patient's heterophoria changes after prolonged viewing through prism. The effect of prism adaptation on the accommodation-convergence relationship, quantified by the AC/A ratio, is not known. Previous studies of AC/A ratio stability and alterability have used only stimulus AC/A ratio calculations, or have measured accommodative responses to only one or two stimuli.

Relationship of accommodative response and nearpoint phoria in a sample of myopic children.

Esophoria has been associated with onset and progression of myopia in children. The induction of myopia by optical defocus shown by animal models suggests that a high lag of accommodation during near work may contribute to myopia in children. This paper examines the relationship of nearpoint phoria and accommodative response in a sample of children with myopia.

Reliability of and comparisons among three variations of the alternating cover test.

One of the most commonly used methods for measuring heterophoria is the alternating cover test. Differences in specific procedures and observational criteria used by examiners may result in different measurements of heterophoria on the same patient. This study evaluated the inter-examiner reliability of three different cover test techniques: the estimated cover test, the prism neutralized objective cover test, and the prism neutralized subjective cover test.

Inter-examiner repeatability of heterophoria tests.

Relatively few studies have reported on the repeatability of heterophoria (phoria) measurement procedures. The purpose of this study was to assess the inter-examiner repeatability of seven clinical tests of phoria measurement, using correlational and mean difference analyses. Two experienced optometrists performed each of the 7 phoria tests on 72 healthy adult subjects.

Relation of childhood myopia progression rates to time of year.

Background: One potential method for assessment of the effect of near work on childhood myopia progression is to compare progression rates overtime spans that have differing near-point demands.

Methods: Myopia progression rates were calculated for a 6-month period during the school year (called school rate in this article) and for a 6-month period that included the 3 months of summer vacation (called summer rate). Data used for analysis were right eye spherical equivalents from manifest subjective refractions of 27 children in a longitudinal study at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, and 15 children in a longitudinal study at Indiana University.

Ocular components measured by keratometry, phakometry, and ultrasonography in emmetropic and myopic optometry students.

Ocular components were measured by keratometry, phakometry, and ultrasonography on 176 young adults. Refractive error was measured by retinoscopy. Mean vitreous depth was greater and the cornea was steeper in myopes than in emmetropes.

Reliability of and comparisons among methods of measuring dissociated phoria.

Many methods of heterophoria measurement are available clinically. This paper reviews several studies which have examined the reliability of phoria measurements, and have compared various tests of phoria measurement. Different methods of data analysis make comparison of studies difficult.