Causes of low vision and blindness in south western Saudi Arabia. A hospital-based study

The authors studied 1,681 consecutive patients who attended their ophthalmic outpatient clinics over a period of 12 months to determine the patients' visual acuity status and the causes of any visual loss. Using the World Health Organization criteria for definition of visual acuity status, 1004 (59.7%) patients had normal vision. Four hundred and thirty-one (25.6%) patients had low vision or visual impairment and 246 (14.6%) patients were blind. Twenty-eight (1.9%) patients had no light perception in both eyes. Cataract, both in isolation and co-existing with other ocular pathology, was the major cause of both low vision and blindness (58.5% and 81.7%, respectively). A concerted attack on cataract alone will markedly reduce blindness and low vision in this region.     

National surveillance of poultry diseases in Lebanon

From 1992 to mid-1996, a national survey of poultry diseases in Lebanon was conducted. This surveillance included meat breeder, layer breeder, commercial layer and chicken broiler flocks. The history, signs, lesions and laboratory tests of poultry were used in the diagnosis of prevalent poultry diseases. Culture techniques were used to screen for bacterial diseases; serological techniques and, to a lesser extent, culture techniques were used to diagnose viral diseases; and both serological and culture techniques were used to diagnose Mycoplasma infections. The outbreaks of diseases detected in broiler breeder flocks and the number of such flocks experiencing these diseases were as follows: femoral head necrosis (6), egg-drop syndrome (3), reovirus-associated malabsorption syndrome (3), synovitis (Mycoplasma synoviae infection) (7), swollen head syndrome (SHS) (3), tenosynovitis (viral arthritis) (1), lymphoid leukosis (3), avian encephalomyelitis (1), fowl pox (1) and aortic rupture (1). The disease outbreaks detected in layer breeders were as follows: SHS (2), bumble foot (2), egg-drop syndrome (3) and avian infectious bronchitis (IB) (1). The disease outbreaks detected in commercial layer flocks were as follows: egg-drop syndrome (5), avian infectious laryngotracheitis (2), avian IB (nephrogenic strain) (1), malabsorption (1), avian tuberculosis (Mycobacterium avium) (1), Marek's disease (1), fowl pox (1), Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica Enteritidis infection (1), salpingitis (1) and Heterakis gallinae infestation (1). The disease outbreaks detected in broiler flocks were as follows: colibacillosis (40), infectious bursal disease (Gumboro disease) (15), malabsorption syndrome (8), avian infectious laryngotracheitis (8), paratyphoids (salmonellosis) (7), femoral head necrosis (8), SHS (6), avian mycoplasmosis (Mycoplasma gallisepticum infection) (6), synovitis (7), avian IB (6), botulism (1), avian encephalomyelitis (1) and gangrenous dermatitis (1). Diseases which occurred and which were reported for the first time in Lebanon were as follows: bumble foot, femoral head necrosis, avian IB (nephrogenic strain), malabsorption syndrome and SHS. This surveillance helped to establish baseline data concerning the predominant poultry diseases in Lebanon. Such information is a prerequisite for future regional and international collaboration to identify the source of the aetiological agents and to control their spread to neighbouring countries.     

知识图谱的最新进展、关键技术和挑战

跨模态图像−文本检索是一项在给定一种模态（如文本）的查询条件下检索另一种模态（如图像）的任务. 该任务的关键问题在于如何准确地测量图文两种模态之间的相似性,在减少视觉和语言这两种异构模态之间的视觉语义差异中起着至关重要的作用. 传统的检索范式依靠深度学习提取图像和文本的特征表示,并将其映射到一个公共表示空间中进行匹配. 然而,这种方法更多地依赖数据表面的相关关系,无法挖掘数据背后真实的因果关系,在高层语义信息的表示和可解释性方面面临着挑战. 为此,在深度学习的基础上引入因果推断和嵌入共识知识,提出嵌入共识知识的因果图文检索方法. 具体而言,将因果干预引入视觉特征提取模块,通过因果关系替换相关关系学习常识因果视觉特征,并与原始视觉特征进行连接得到最终的视觉特征表示. 为解决本方法文本特征表示不足的问题,采用更强大的文本特征提取模型BERT（Bidirectional encoder representations from transformers,双向编码器表示）,并且嵌入两种模态数据之间共享的共识知识对图文特征进行共识级的表示学习. 在MS-COCO数据集以及MS-COCO 到Flickr30k上的跨数据集实验,证明了本文方法可以在双向图文检索任务上实现召回率和平均召回率的一致性改进.

     

Overview of technology for low vision

This article provides an overview of technology resources and services to assist persons with low vision in maintaining independent function in the home, community, and educational and vocational settings. Case studies are provided to demonstrate the integration of technology into the lives of persons with low vision.     

A multidiscipline approach in low vision rehabilitation

The first low vision clinic was instituted at the Industrial Home for the Blind in 1953 in response to a growing demand that more effective use be made of the residual vision in blind persons. The technology was there. Eye practitioners certainly knew enough about vision problems to offer many of these people an opportunity to enter a new life. The problem was: how to put that knowledge to work through a sound service delivery system. By its twentieth anniversary in 1973 the clinic had seen almost 5,000 patients for low vision evaluation and had built a service which consistently provided substantial and useful improvement in vision through the use of optical aids to a majority of its patients. The low vision optometric staff works as an integral part of a rehabilitation team. That team consists of a number of professionals, including ophthalmologists, social workers, teachers, and a variety of rehabilitation instructors. All members work simultaneously to create a total program of rehabilitation for thepartially sighted. We feel this teamwork approach is of basic importance to effective rehabilitation.     

Clinical low vision resource usage prediction

In an era of increased demands and constrained budgets, it is necessary to make the best use of all available resources. This is difficult when specialized vision care, such as low vision clinical assessment, is involved because of the heterogeneity of the patient populations seen by such clinics. PURPOSE. This research attempts to discover if these diverse patient populations can be identified and clustered into groups based upon similarity of clinical resources use. Specifically, the inquiry examines the potential for a low vision patient resource utilization classification scheme at the Low Vision Clinic (LVC) in the Centre for Sight Enhancement (CSE), University of Waterloo. METHODS. From a sample of 99 patients consulting the LVC in a 3-month period, retrospective data collection involved abstracting and coding medical records containing information detailing each patient's demographic, diagnostic, therapeutic, and resource utilization characteristics. Cluster analysis using Hartigan's block clustering algorithm was then applied to the data. A replication study was completed using a sample of 99 patients visiting the LVC 1 year later. RESULTS. Patients can be classified into five iso-resource groups, hereby termed low vision patient resource groups (LVPRGs). The clusters represent a resource consistent and clinically coherent scheme for classifying low vision patients based upon resource requirements. As a measure of repeatability, the groups reemerged in the replication study. CONCLUSIONS. If the groupings demonstrate robustness in a field test, clustering algorithms in general, and LVPRGs in specific, may offer useful tools to enhance resource utilization in the LVC setting.     

National hospital discharge survey

OBJECTIVES: This report presents national estimates of the use of non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States during 1995. Estimates are provided by demographic characteristics of patients discharged, geographic region of hospitals, conditions diagnosed, and surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed. Measurements of hospital use include number and rate of discharges and days of care, and the average length of stay. METHODS: The estimates are based on data collected through the National Hospital Discharge Survey for 1995. In 1995 data were collected for approximately 263,000 discharges. Of the 508 eligible non-Federal short-stay hospitals, 466 (92 percent) responded to the survey. Diagnoses and procedures are presented according to their code numbers listed in the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification, or ICD-9-CM. RESULTS: In 1995 there were an estimated 30.7 million discharges from non-Federal short-stay hospitals. These patients used a total of 164.6 million days of care and had an average length of stay of 5.4 days. Other data summarized in this report include estimates for diagnoses, procedures, expected source of payment, hospital deaths, and newborn infants.     

Color improves object recognition in normal and low vision.

Does color improve object recognition? If so, is the improvement greater for images with low spatial resolution in which there is less shape information? Do people with low visual acuity benefit more from color? Three experiments measured reaction time (RT) and accuracy for naming food objects displayed in 4 types of images: gray scale or color, and high or low spatial resolution (produced by blur). Normally sighted Ss had faster RTs with color, but the improvement was not significantly greater for images with low spatial resolution. Low vision Ss were also faster with color, but the difference did not depend significantly on acuity. In 2 additional experiments, it was found that the faster RTs for color stimuli were related to objects' prototypicality but not to their color diagnosticity. It was concluded that color does improve object recognition, and the mechanism is probably sensory rather than cognitive in origin. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A systems model for low vision rehabilitation. II. Measurement of vision disabilities

BACKGROUND: This study presents and tests a method of measuring vision disabilities. Based on the model presented in the first paper of this series, cognitive and motor activities ("tasks") are organized in a hierarchy that identifies the tasks' behavioral goals (purposes) and the social objectives the goals serve. Two latent variables important to the definition of vision disability are identified: "value of living independently" and "visual ability for independent living." The basic principles of the Rasch measurement model are reviewed, and Rasch models are used to measure the two variables that define vision disability. The need for rehabilitation to meet each goal is represented by "rehabilitative demand," a mathematical function of the measurements made of the value and difficulty of achieving each goal independently. METHODS: Over 400 patients with low vision rated both the importance and difficulty of independently achieving each of 24 goals. Rasch analysis was used to derive interval measures of the social value of each goal, the value that individual patients placed on each goal relative to the derived social definition of independence, the visual ability required to achieve each goal without help, and the visual ability of individual patients to live independently. A rehabilitative demand function was ascertained from the judgments of 17 AAO Diplomates in Low Vision through triadic comparisons and multidimensional scaling. RESULTS: Self-care had the greatest "social value" for independence; performing music had the least. Recreational reading required the greatest "visual ability" to accomplish independently; self-care required the least. Rehabilitative demand was linear with value and nonmonotonic with difficulty. CONCLUSIONS: Rehabilitative demand, an algorithm for defining vision disability, incorporates interval measures of visual ability and the value of independent living estimated from patient-based assessments, a social scale of the value of activities relative to independent living, and a consensus opinion of low vision experts on the prioritization of the need for rehabilitation.     

Psychophysics of reading--XVI. The visual span in normal and low vision

The visual span in reading is the number of characters that can be recognized at a glance. The shrinking visual span hypothesis attributes reading deficits in low vision, and slow reading in normal vision at low contrast, to a reduction in the visual span. This hypothesis predicts that reading time (msec/word) becomes increasingly dependent on word length as text contrast decreases. We tested and confirmed this prediction using the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) method. Estimates of the visual span ranged from about 10 characters for high-contrast text to less than two characters for low-contrast text. Eye-movement recordings showed that longer reading times at low contrast are partitioned about equally between prolonged fixation times and an increased number of saccades (presumably related to a reduced visual span). RSVP measurements for six out of seven low-vision subjects revealed a strong dependence of reading time on word length, as expected from reduced visual spans.     

National survey of stress ulcer prophylaxis

OBJECTIVE: Adenocarcinoma around the esophagogastric junction (EGJ) is increasing in incidence, and is frequently associated with areas of macroscopic or microscopic intestinal metaplasia (IM). The aim of this study was to define the incidence and type of metaplastic changes in the cardia and at the EGJ in symptomatic patients in whom there was no endoscopic columnar segment. METHODS: Patients attending for open-access gastroscopy had three sets of endoscopic biopsies taken at 3-cm intervals, from cardia, EGJ, and distal esophagus. Hematoxylin and eosin, Alcian blue/PAS (AB/PAS), and high-iron diamine/Alcian blue (AB/HID) were used to define and characterize IM. RESULTS: Of 225 patients, eight (4%) had carcinoma, eight (4%) had conventional long-segment Barrett's esophagus, 15 (7%) showed endoscopic short-segment Barrett's change, with no endoscopic Barrett's in 194 (86.2%). Of the latter, 34 (17.5%) had IM at the EGJ, and nine (4.6%) had IM at the cardia on hematoxylin and eosin. Acid mucin stains were positive at the EGJ in 135 (69.6%) and at the cardia in 75 (38.7%). Metaplasia at the EGJ was associated with sulphomucins (p < 0.0001) and involved the surface glandular epithelium (p < 0.0001) more frequently than the cardia. Metaplasia was not related to reflux symptoms, hiatus hernia, or endoscopic esophageal inflammation. Ninety percent of those with IM detectable by hematoxylin and eosin were taking acid suppression, compared with 72.8% overall. CONCLUSIONS: Intestinal metaplasia is very common at the esophagogastric junction and gastric cardia, with marked differences in incidence and characteristics of mucin staining between the two sites. The relationship of intestinal metaplasia to the development of carcinoma is yet to be determined.     

Medical-technical basis for creation of functional eye prosthesis - technical means for compensation of poor vision and blindness

Thirty-six hospitalized patients who were considered by emergency room physicians to have ingested medically serious tricyclic overdoses were studied. The purpose of the project was to determine if psychiatric diagnosis and associated psychiatric factors correlated with the severity of the overdose as defined by plasma drug levels. Medically serious overdoses were ingested by patients with alcoholism, primary affective disorder, undiagnosed psychiatric illness, and Briquet's syndrome. Prior psychiatric treatment, prior admissions, prior overdoses, or precipitating events did not correlate with the medical severity of the ingestion. Attempting to predict the individual medical severity of the overdose from psychiatric factors resulted in a dangerous underestimation of the risk of patients with Briquet's syndrome and an overprediction in the case of primary affective disorder.     

National survey of radionuclide gastric emptying studies

The optimal surgical approach for complex aortic coarctation or an interrupted aortic arch with associated intracardiac defects is not universally agreed upon. We reviewed our experience with 18 consecutive patients (10 with coarctation, 8 with interrupted aortic arch) undergoing a 1-stage repair through median sternotomy between September of 1995 and February of 1997. Age at operation ranged from 3 days to 3 months (mean 23 days) and weight ranged from 1,700 g to 5,100 g (mean 3,350 g). Under hypothermic circulatory arrest, the aortic arch was reconstructed using native tissue-tissue anastomoses, and coexisting intracardiac anomalies were repaired by standard techniques. All patients survived the procedure and were ultimately discharged from the hospital. There were 2 late deaths in the interrupted aortic arch group, 1 during reoperation for subaortic stenosis and the other from noncardiac causes 5 months after discharge. Another interrupted aortic arch patient required a Ross-Konno procedure 8 months later. There has been no recoarctation among the 16 survivors. Thus a 1-stage repair for complex aortic arch obstruction in neonates can be accomplished with low operative risk, although long-term outcome is strongly influenced by the presence of subaortic obstruction.     

National survey of the use of endomyocardial biopsy in Japan

A national survey of endomyocardial biopsy procedures was conducted in Japan. Questionnaires were mailed to 852 institutions and statistical analysis of the 213 completed questionnaires (25.0% of the total) was performed. Cardiac biopsies were being performed at 134 of these institutions (62.9%), representing a 5.5-fold increase over 1980. A total of 19,964 cardiac biopsies have been performed in Japan. Specimens were obtained from the right ventricle at 113 institutions, and from the left ventricle at 76 centers. The Konno-Sakakibara bioptome was used at 32 institutions, whereas the long sheath method was used at 98 institutions. Sixty of the institutions (44.8%) had encountered ventricular wall perforation. The perforation rate of the two ventricles combined was 0.7% (147 of 19,964 cases), with a mortality rate of 0.05% (10 of 19,964 cases). Endomyocardial biopsy has become widespread in Japan, and its safety was ascertained by this national survey.     

National survey of mammographic facilities in 1985, 1988, and 1992

PURPOSE: To determine trends in mammography in the United States. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of mammographic facilities was selected for each year of the Nationwide Evaluation of X-ray Trends. The same protocol was followed for the 1985, 1988, and 1992 surveys. Data were collected with use of the same imaging phantom for all three surveys and also with a different phantom in the 1988 and 1992 surveys. RESULTS: Of the 356 facilities surveyed in 1992, 59% claimed to be in compliance with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) mammography requirements, 42% were accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR), and 23% did not hold credentials from either the HCFA or the ACR. Since 1985, there has been a 34% improvement in acceptable phantom image quality score and a 20% decrease in the mean glandular dose. CONCLUSION: Mammography as practiced today is essentially a screen-film technique. Mammographic phantom image quality has improved considerably. The overall mean glandular dose has decreased primarily because of the elimination of xeroradiography.     

Borderline blindness, practical blindness and severe visual debility]

BACKGROUND: The endogenous endophthalmitis is a septic-metastatic late complication of a generalized bacterial or fungal infection or an asymptomatic fungaemia. Aspergillus organisms are a rare cause of endophthalmitis. Aspergillus ocular manifestations have been mostly reported in connection with immunosuppression, severe diseases or drug abuse. PATIENT AND METHODS: A 51-year-old man underwent a kidney transplantation, an immunosuppressive therapy, and, in addition, treatments for some other generalized diseases. Endogenous endophthalmitis was diagnosed in both eyes at an interval of about eight weeks. The treatment included pars-plana-vitrectomy on both eyes. RESULTS: At first, an endogenous endophthalmitis was found in the right eye which was assumed to be induced by bacteria. About eight weeks later, however, an endogenous endophthalmitis was diagnosed in the left eye, also, which was caused by Aspergillus. The patient received an intensive medical care including operative, antibacterial and antimycotic treatments. The bacterial endophthalmitis in the right eye was healed, and the state of the left eye was found to be post-operatively stabilized. Unfortunately, the patient died of a septic shock in systemic Aspergillus infection. CONCLUSION: Endogenous endophthalmitis has a very poor prognosis. To our knowledge, the described medical history seems to be the first reported case of an endophthalmitis on both sides, apparently caused by bacteria in one eye and by fungi in the other one.     

Visual correlates of mobility in real world settings in older adults with low vision

PURPOSE: To determine the effects of reducing light level from photopic to mesopic on performance of real world mobility tasks and how performance of these tasks relates to measures of visual sensory and perceptual function. METHODS: The visual functions, acuity, peak letter contrast sensitivity, visual field extent, glare disability, color confusion, motion sensitivity, spatio-temporal contrast sensitivity, scanning ability, and figure-ground discrimination were measured to determine their ability to predict mobility performance of visually impaired adults on indoor hallway and outdoor residential travel routes under photopic and mesopic lighting conditions. RESULTS: Time to complete routes and number of mobility incidents were significantly increased under mesopic conditions. Depending on the task, lighting conditions, and performance measure, predictive models consisting of 4 vision variables were able to account for 30 to 42% of the variance in overall performance. The two most important variables in these models were visual field extent and scanning ability, followed by color confusion, grating contrast sensitivity, or spatial resolution. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing illumination levels from photopic to mesopic has an adverse effect upon mobility in older visually impaired adults. The aspects of vision which best predict performance include measures of sensory and perceptual visual function. The results compare well with those obtained under controlled laboratory conditions.