Defining Dry Eye from a Clinical Perspective

Over the past decades, the number of patients with dry eye disease (DED) has increased dramatically. The incidence of DED is higher in Asia than in Europe and North America, suggesting the involvement of cultural or racial factors in DED etiology. Although many definitions of DED have been used, discrepancies exist between the various definitions of dry eye disease (DED) used across the globe. This article presents a clinical consensus on the definition of DED, as formulated in four meetings with global DED experts. The proposed new definition is as follows: “Dry eye is a multifactorial disease characterized by a persistently unstable and/or deficient tear film (TF) causing discomfort and/or visual impairment, accompanied by variable degrees of ocular surface epitheliopathy, inflammation and neurosensory abnormalities.” The key criteria for the diagnosis of DED are unstable TF, inflammation, ocular discomfort and visual impairment. This definition also recommends the assessment of ocular surface epitheliopathy and neurosensory abnormalities in each patient with suspected DED. It is easily applicable in clinical practice and should help practitioners diagnose DED consistently. This consensus definition of DED should also help to guide research and clinical trials that, to date, have been hampered by the lack of an established surrogate endpoint.     

Hot carrier magnetophonon spectroscopy of semiconductors in high magnetic fields up to 40 T

Hot carrier magnetophonon resonances of n-type Si, short channel InP and p-type InSb were investigated in pulsed high magnetic fields up to 40 T. Using a recently developed high resolution technique in pulsed high fields, many new features of the hot carrier-phonon interactions in high magnetic fields were found.     

Studies on chitin 3—effect of coagulants and annealing on the preparation and the properties of chitin membrane

Chitin membrane was prepared by casting a N,N-dimethyl acetamide, N-methyl 2-pyrrolidone and lithium chloride (DMA-NMP-LiCl)solution of chitin and coagulating with several media. The effect of the coagulants on membrane formation was studied. 2-Propanol was found to be more favourable than methanol, ethanol, acetone and mixtures of 2-propanol and water. The membrane obtained in 2-propanol was subjected to annealing. Annealing made the membrane dense and strong. The tensile strength of the membrane annealed at 145°C for 2hr was about twice that of an unannealed membrane. The solute permeability of the annealed membranes was lower than that of the original one. These phenomena could be clearly interpreted in terms of crystallinity.     

A procedure to analyze surface profiles of the protein molecules visualized by quick-freeze deep-etch replica electron microscopy

Quick-freeze deep-etch replica electron microscopy gives high contrast snapshots of individual protein molecules under physiological conditions in vitro or in situ. The images show delicate internal pattern, possibly reflecting the rotary-shadowed surface profile of the molecule. As a step to build the new system for the "Structural analysis of single molecules", we propose a procedure to quantitatively characterize the structural property of individual molecules; e.g. conformational type and precise view-angle of the molecules, if the crystallographic structure of the target molecule is available. This paper presents a framework to determine the observed face of the protein molecule by analyzing the surface profile of individual molecules visualized in freeze-replica specimens. A comprehensive set of rotary-shadowed views of the protein molecule was artificially generated from the available atomic coordinates using light-rendering software. Exploiting new mathematical morphology-based image filter, characteristic features were extracted from each image and stored as template. Similar features were extracted from the true replica image and the most likely projection angle and the conformation of the observed particle were determined by quantitative comparison with a set of archived images. The performance and the robustness of the procedure were examined with myosin head structure in defined configuration for actual application.     

Electromyography of Eating Apples: Influences of Cooking, Cutting, and Peeling

ABSTRACT: The mastication of 7 differently prepared apple samples (raw pieces peeled and unpeeled, sliced, grated, cooked pieces with and without peel, and half-cooked pieces, 10 g each) was evaluated using electromyography (EMG). Eleven subjects participated in the EMG recording of both sides of the masseter and temporal muscles while eating samples normally. Only the grated sample reduced the number of chewing strokes and muscle activity before swallowing. In contrast, the thin apple slices produced significantly shorter contraction duration and cycle time only during the 1st 5 chewing strokes. The EMG duration and cycle in subsequent chews, as well as the other parameters, did not significantly differ between slices and pieces. Cooked apples exhibited significantly lower EMG amplitude and muscle activity per chew than their raw counterparts; however, there was no evidence of reduced total muscle activity required for swallowing. Raw and cooked apples with peel yielded significantly greater EMG amplitude and longer duration than those without peel. These findings suggest that appropriate preparation is necessary for people with various mastication abilities: grated for very low ability, cooked for those with weak chewing force, and unpeeled for mastication training.     

Imaging of a single atomic column in silicon grain boundary

Atomic resolution high voltage electron microscopy was applied in investigations of the atomic structure of [112] sigma3 CSL grain boundary of silicon. Images of the grain boundary, viewed in the < 110 > direction, showed two types of dark spots. One type was rod shaped, which represented an atomic pair aligned in the < 111 > direction. The other was a small round spot, which represented a single atomic column in the grain boundary. The atomic structure of [112] sigma3 CSL grain boundary was directly shown from the atomic-structure image.