One-Year Efficacy and Safety of Combined Photorefractive Keratectomy and Accelerated Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking after Intacs SK Intracorneal Ring Segment Implantation in Moderate Keratoconus.

Purpose: To report one-year outcomes of a modified version of two-stage multimodal surgical protocol for moderate keratoconus which has been suggesting promising preliminary results.

Materials And Methods: 30 eyes of 25 patients with moderate keratoconus who exhibited visual complaints and/or disease progression were included for this retrospective case study. Approximately 3 months after implantation of intracorneal ring segment (Intacs SK™), a combination of corneal wavefront-guided transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy (CWG-transPRK, Schwind Amaris® 1050, and Schwind Sirius) and accelerated collagen cross-linking (accCXL, Avedro KXL™) was performed.

A Neural Machine Translation Model for Arabic Dialects That Utilises Multitask Learning (MTL).

In this research article, we study the problem of employing a neural machine translation model to translate Arabic dialects to modern standard Arabic. The proposed solution of the neural machine translation model is prompted by the recurrent neural network-based encoder-decoder neural machine translation model that has been proposed recently, which generalizes machine translation as sequence learning problems. We propose the development of a multiytask learning (MTL) model which shares one decoder among language pairs, and every source language has a separate encoder.

A Two-Step Neural Dialog State Tracker for Task-Oriented Dialog Processing.

Dialog state tracking in a spoken dialog system is the task that tracks the flow of a dialog and identifies accurately what a user wants from the utterance. Since the success of a dialog is influenced by the ability of the system to catch the requirements of the user, accurate state tracking is important for spoken dialog systems. This paper proposes a two-step neural dialog state tracker which is composed of an informativeness classifier and a neural tracker.

Enhancement of refractive outcomes of small-incision lenticule extraction via tear-film control.

Purpose: To suggest that tear film is a refractive outcome predictor in small-incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) for myopia and describe methods of controlling the tear film and its effects on refractive outcomes.

Methods: In this retrospective case-control study, the tear film was kept clear and appropriate in amount during tear-film-controlled SMILE (TFC-SMILE). In contrast, no special care to the tear film was given in direct-docking SMILE (DD-SMILE).

Automated extraction of Biomarker information from pathology reports.

Background: Pathology reports are written in free-text form, which precludes efficient data gathering. We aimed to overcome this limitation and design an automated system for extracting biomarker profiles from accumulated pathology reports.

Methods: We designed a new data model for representing biomarker knowledge.

A Natural Language Interface Concordant with a Knowledge Base.

The discordance between expressions interpretable by a natural language interface (NLI) system and those answerable by a knowledge base is a critical problem in the field of NLIs. In order to solve this discordance problem, this paper proposes a method to translate natural language questions into formal queries that can be generated from a graph-based knowledge base. The proposed method considers a subgraph of a knowledge base as a formal query.

Learning word sense disambiguation in biomedical text with difference between training and test distributions.

Word Sense Disambiguation methods based on machine learning techniques with lexical features suffer from the discordance between distributions of the training and test documents, due to the diversity of lexical space. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes Support Vector Machines with Example-wise Weights. In this method, the training distribution is matched with the test distribution by weighting training examples according to their similarity to all test data.

Hydrophilic acrylic intraocular lens optic opacification in a diabetic patient.

Purpose: To report clinicopathologic and ultrastructural feature of one opacified hydrophilic acrylic intraocular lens (IOL) explanted from a diabetic patient.

Methods: A 48-year-old man underwent trans pars plana vitrectomy and phacoemulsification with implantation of a hydrophilic acrylic lens OS in November 2008. The patient complained of a marked decrease in visual acuity in May 2009 as a result of a milky opalescence of the IOL.

Assessment of narrow angles by gonioscopy, Van Herick method and anterior segment optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: To evaluate anterior chamber (AC) angles using gonioscopy, Van Herick technique and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT).

Methods: One hundred forty-eight consecutive subjects were enrolled. The agreement between any two of three diagnostic methods, gonioscopy, AS-OCT and Van Herick, was calculated in narrow-angle patients.

Learning curve for a laparoscopic appendectomy by a surgical trainee.

Purpose: The laparoscopic appendectomy has been a basic part of the principal of a more complex laparoscopic technique for the surgical trainee. As the number of laparoscopic appendectomies performed by surgical trainees has increased, we are trying to check the stability of, which is controversial, and the learning curve associated with a laparoscopic appendectomy.

Methods: We studied the demographics, histologic diagnoses, operative time, the number of complicated cases, and hospital duration of one hundred and three patients who underwent an open appendectomy (group A, 53) or a laparoscopic appendectomy (group B, 50) retrospectively through a review of their medical records.

Comparison of retinal nerve fibre layer thickness measurements calculated by the optic nerve head map (NHM4) and RNFL3.45 modes of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (RTVue-100).

Aim: To evaluate and compare retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness measured by direct scanning (RNFL3.45 mode) and re-sampling from datasets (NHM4 mode) of RTVue-100 optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods: Thirty-six healthy subjects and 76 subjects with glaucoma were imaged with Stratus OCT (fast RNFL mode, RNFL3) and RTVue-100 OCT (NHM4 (RNFL1) and RNFL3.

Hit integration for identifying optimal spaced seeds.

Background: Introduction of spaced speeds opened a way of sensitivity improvement in homology search without loss of search speed. Since then, the efforts of finding optimal seed which maximizes the sensitivity have been continued today. The sensitivity of a seed is generally computed by its hit probability.

An empirical study of choosing efficient discriminative seeds for oligonucleotide design.

Background: Oligonucleotide design is known as a time-consuming work in bioinformatics. In order to accelerate and be efficient the oligonucleotide design process, one of widely used approach is the prescreening unreliable regions using a hashing (or seeding) algorithm. Since the seeding algorithm is originally proposed to increase sensitivity for local alignment, the specificity should be considered as well as the sensitivity for the oligonucleotide design problem.

Comparison of glaucoma diagnostic Capabilities of Cirrus HD and Stratus optical coherence tomography.

Objective: To compare the glaucoma diagnostic capabilities offered by Stratus and Cirrus spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods: One hundred subjects with glaucoma and 74 healthy subjects were tested by Stratus and Cirrus OCT. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of average, 4-quadrant, and 12-sector retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses and sensitivities at fixed specificities (80% and 90%) were compared when the 2 OCT modalities were used to evaluate patients with early or moderate to advanced glaucoma.

Glaucoma diagnostic performance of humphrey matrix and standard automated perimetry.

Purpose: To evaluate and compare the performance of Humphrey Matrix perimetry (Matrix) and standard automated perimetry (SAP) for glaucoma discrimination.

Methods: Forty-seven healthy and 68 glaucomatous subjects were included in this study. Glaucoma was defined as having a glaucomatous optic disc and a nerve fiber indicator (NFI) GDx VCC scanning laser polarimetry score of >40.

Macular and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer measurements by spectral domain optical coherence tomography in normal-tension glaucoma.

Purpose: To evaluate and compare the glaucoma discrimination ability of macular inner retinal layer (MIRL) thickness with that of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (RTVue-100; Optovue Inc, Fremont, CA) in patients with normal-tension glaucoma (NTG).

Methods: Sixty-five healthy subjects and 102 with NTG were enrolled. MIRL thickness provided by a ganglion cell complex (GCC) scan and two RNFL thicknesses measured by the NHM4 (RNFL1) and RNFL 3.

Structural and functional relationships in glaucoma using standard automated perimetry and the Humphrey Matrix.

Purpose: To evaluate and compare correlations between structural and functional loss in glaucoma as assessed by optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry (GDx VCC, as this was the model used in this study), standard automated perimetry (SAP), and the Humphrey Matrix (Matrix).

Methods: Ninety glaucomatous eyes identified with SAP and 112 eyes diagnosed using Matrix were independently classified into six subgroups, either S1/M1 (MD>-6dB), S2/M2 (-12 View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Twenty-four hour ocular perfusion pressure fluctuation and risk of normal-tension glaucoma progression.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between clinical factors including 24-hour mean ocular perfusion pressure (MOPP, (2/3) x mean arterial pressure [MAP] - intraocular pressure [IOP]) and visual field (VF) progression in eyes with medically treated normal-tension glaucoma (NTG).

Methods: One hundred one eyes of 101 NTG patients followed up for more than 4 years (mean follow-up, 6.2 years +/- 12.

Twenty-four hour blood pressure pattern in patients with normal tension glaucoma in the habitual position.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between blood pressure (BP) parameters in the habitual position and glaucomatous damage at initial presentation in patients with untreated normal tension glaucoma (NTG).

Methods: Fifty-four eyes from 54 subjects diagnosed with NTG were consecutively enrolled. BP was measured with an automated ambulatory monitoring device in the habitual position during 24-hour in-hospitalization.

Comparison between dynamic contour tonometry and Goldmann applanation tonometry.

Purpose: To compare the intraocular pressures (IOPs) measured by dynamic contour tonometry (DCT) and Goldmann applanation tonometry (GAT), and to investigate the association of IOPs on eyes of varying central corneal thickness (CCT).

Methods: In this prospective study, 451 eyes of 233 subjects were enrolled. IOPs were measured by GAT and DCT.

Magnetic poly epsilon-caprolactone nanoparticles containing Fe3O4 and gemcitabine enhance anti-tumor effect in pancreatic cancer xenograft mouse model.

We prepared magnetic (Fe(3)O(4)) poly epsilon-caprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles (mean diameter 164 +/- 3 nm) containing an anticancer drug (gemcitabine) using emulsion-diffusion method in order to develop more efficient drug delivery for cancer treatment. Nanoparticles were smooth, well individualized and homogeneous in size. The values of magnetizations for the magnetic PCL nanoparticles were observed around 10.

Kearns-Sayre syndrome -3 case reports and review of clinical feature.

Kearns-Sayre syndrome, first described by Kearns and Sayre in 1958, is a rare disorder consisting of ptosis, limited movement of both eyes and atypical retinal pigmentary change (salt-pepper like appearance). Most cases have shown an increase in the concentration of mitochondria and ragged-red fiber under Gomori-trichrome staining on muscle biopsy. Occasionally, it is combined with other neurologic and endocrinologic symptoms such as ataxia, dementia, diabetes, and hyperaldosteronism.