Sunlight exposure, antioxidants, and age-related macular degeneration

Objective: To examine the association of sunlight exposure and antioxidant level with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: Four thousand seven hundred fifty-three participants aged 65 years or older in the European Eye Study underwent fundus photography, were interviewed for adult lifetime sunlight exposure, and gave blood for antioxidant analysis. Blue light exposure was estimated by combining meteorologic and questionnaire data. Results: Data on sunlight exposure and antioxidants were available in 101 individuals with neovascular AMD, 2182 with early AMD, and 2117 controls. No association was found between blue light exposure and neovascular or early AMD. Significant associations were found between blue light exposure and neovascular AMD in individuals in the quartile of lowest antioxidant level - vitamin C, zeaxanthin, vitamin E, and dietary zinc - with an odds ratio of about 1.4 for 1 standard deviation unit increase in blue light exposure. Higher odds ratios for blue light were observed with combined low antioxidant levels, especially vitamin C, zeaxanthin, and vitamin E (odds ratio, 3.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-8.9), which were also associated with early stages of AMD. Conclusions: Although it is not possible to establish causality between sunlight exposure and neovascular AMD, our results suggest that people in the general population should use ocular protection and follow dietary recommendations for the key antioxidant nutrients. ©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.

Oily fish consumption, dietary docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid intakes, and associations with neovascular age-related macular degeneration

Background: Fish intake, the major source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), may reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Objective: We investigated the association of oily fish and dietary DHA and EPA with neovascular AMD (NV-AMD). Design: Participants aged =65 y in the cross-sectional population-based EUREYE study underwent fundus photography and were interviewed by using a food-frequency questionnaire. Fundus images were graded by the International Classification System for Age Related Maculopathy. Questionnaire data were converted to nutrient intakes with the use of food-composition tables. Survey logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs of energy-adjusted quartiles of EPA or DHA with NV-AMD, taking into account potential confounders. Results: Dietary intake data and fundus images were available for 105 cases with NV-AMD and for 2170 controls without any features of early or late AMD. Eating oily fish at least once per week compared with less than once per week was associated with a halving of the odds of NV-AMD (OR = 0.47; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.68; P = 0.002). Compared with the lowest quartile, there was a significant trend for decreased odds with increasing quartiles of either DHA or EPA. ORs in the highest quartiles were 0.32 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.87; P = 0.03) for DHA and 0.29 (95% CI: 0.11, 0.73; P = 0.02) for EPA. Conclusions: Eating oily fish at least once per week compared with less than once per week was associated with a halving of the OR for NV-AMD. © 2008 American Society for Nutrition.

Regarding the Real: Cinema, Documentary, and the Visual Arts

Regarding the Real: Cinema, Documentary, and the Visual Arts develops an interdisciplinary approach to documentary film, focusing on its cultural and formal relations to other visual arts, such as animation, assemblage, photography, painting, sculpture, and architecture. The book considers the work of figures whose preferred film language is associative and fragmentary, and for whom the documentary is an endlessly open form, an unstable expressive phenomenon that cannot but interrogate the validity of its own narratives and representational modes. Combining close analysis with cultural history, Regarding the Real calls for a re-assessment of the influence of the modern arts in subverting the structures of realism typically associated with documentary filmmaking.

Home curation versus teenage photography: Photo displays in the family home

In this paper we report an empirical study of the photographic portrayal of family members at home. Adopting a social psychological approach and focusing oil intergenerational power dynamics, our research explores the use of domestic photo displays in family representation. Parents and their teenagers from eight families in the south of England were interviewed at home about their interpretations of both stored and displayed photos within the home. Discussions centred on particular photographs found by the participants to portray self and family in different ways. The findings show that public displays of digital photos are still curated by mothers of the households, but with more difficulty and less control all with analogue photos. In addition, teenagers both contribute and comply with this curation within the home, whilst at the same time developing additional ways of presenting their families and themselves online that are 'unsupervised' by the curator. We highlight the conflict of interest that is at play within teen and parent practices and consider the challenges that this presents for supporting the representation of family through the design of photo display technology. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Carotenoids and co-antioxidants in age-related maculopathy:design and methods

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), is the leading cause of blind registration in the Western World among individuals 65 years or older. Early AMD, a clinical state without overt functional loss, is said to be present clinically when yellowish deposits known as drusen and/or alterations of fundus pigmentation are seen in the macular retina. Although the etiopathogenesis of AMD remains uncertain, there is a growing body of evidence in support of the view that cumulative oxidative damage plays a causal role. Appropriate dietary antioxidant supplementation is likely to be beneficial in maintaining visual function in patients with AMD, and preventing or delaying the progression of early AMD to late AMD. The Carotenoids in Age-Related Maculopathy (CARMA) Study is a randomized and double-masked clinical trial of antioxidant supplementation versus placebo in 433 participants with either early AMD features of sufficient severity in at least one eye or any level of AMD in one eye with late AMD (neovascular AMD or central geographic atrophy) in the fellow eye. The aim of the CARMA Study is to investigate whether lutein and zeaxanthin, in combination with co-antioxidants (vitamin C, E, and zinc), has a beneficial effect on visual function and/or prevention of progression from early to late stages of disease. The primary outcome is improved or preserved distance visual acuity at 12 months. Secondary outcomes include improved or preserved interferometric acuity, contrast sensitivity, shape discrimination ability, and change in AMD severity as monitored by fundus photography. This article outlines the CARMA Study design and methodology, including its rationale.

Heritability and Genome-Wide Association Study to Assess Genetic Differences between Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration Subtypes

PURPOSE: To investigate whether the 2 subtypes of advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD), choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and geographic atrophy (GA) segregate separately in families and to identify which genetic variants are associated with these 2 subtypes. DESIGN: Sibling correlation study and genome-wide association study (GWAS). PARTICIPANTS: For the sibling correlation study, 209 sibling pairs with advanced AMD were included. For the GWAS, 2594 participants with advanced AMD subtypes and 4134 controls were included. Replication cohorts included 5383 advanced AMD participants and 15 240 controls. METHODS: Participants had the AMD grade assigned based on fundus photography, examination, or both. To determine heritability of advanced AMD subtypes, a sibling correlation study was performed. For the GWAS, genome-wide genotyping was conducted and 6 036 699 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were imputed. Then, the SNPs were analyzed with a generalized linear model controlling for genotyping platform and genetic ancestry. The most significant associations were evaluated in independent cohorts. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Concordance of advanced AMD subtypes in sibling pairs and associations between SNPs with GA and CNV advanced AMD subtypes. RESULTS: The difference between the observed and expected proportion of siblings concordant for the same subtype of advanced AMD was different to a statistically significant degree (P = 4.2×10(-5)), meaning that in siblings of probands with CNV or GA, the same advanced subtype is more likely to develop. In the analysis comparing participants with CNV to those with GA, a statistically significant association was observed at the ARMS2/HTRA1 locus (rs10490924; odds ratio [OR], 1.47; P = 4.3×10(-9)), which was confirmed in the replication samples (OR, 1.38; P = 7.4×10(-14) for combined discovery and replication analysis). CONCLUSIONS: Whether CNV versus GA develops in a patient with AMD is determined in part by genetic variation. In this large GWAS meta-analysis and replication analysis, the ARMS2/HTRA1 locus confers increased risk for both advanced AMD subtypes, but imparts greater risk for CNV than for GA. This locus explains a small proportion of the excess sibling correlation for advanced AMD subtype. Other loci were detected with suggestive associations that differ for advanced AMD subtypes and deserve follow-up in additional studies. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE(S): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.

Design and Practice in Architectural Theory Education

Benefiting from design in theory learning is not common in architecture schools. The general practice is to design in studio and to theorise in lectures. In the undergraduate module History and Theory in Architecture II at Queen’s University Belfast, students attend interactive lectures, participate in reading group discussions, design TextObjects, and write essays. TextObjects contain textual, audio and/or graphic representations that highlight a single concept or a complex set of issues derived from readings. Students experiment with diverse media, such as filmmaking, photography, and graphic design, some of which they experience for the first time. Lectures and readings revolve around theories of architectural representation, media and communication, which are practiced through TextObjects. This is a new way to link theory and practice in architectural education. Through action research, this study analyses this innovative teaching method called TextObject, which brings design and practice into architectural theory education to stimulate students towards critical thinking. The pedagogical research of architectural theoretician Necdet Teymur (1992, 1996, 2002) underlies the study.

Cold, Hungry and Scared:Prison Films About the Troubles

The cinematic representations of the prison experience during the Northern Irish Troubles.

Screening tests for detecting open-angle glaucoma: systematic review and meta-analysis

PURPOSE: To assess the comparative accuracy of potential screening tests for open angle glaucoma (OAG).

METHODS: Medline, Embase, Biosis (to November 2005), Science Citation Index (to December 2005), and The Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2005) were searched. Studies assessing candidate screening tests for detecting OAG in persons older than 40 years that reported true and false positives and negatives were included. Meta-analysis was undertaken using the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic model.

RESULTS: Forty studies enrolling over 48,000 people reported nine tests. Most tests were reported by only a few studies. Frequency-doubling technology (FDT; C-20-1) was significantly more sensitive than ophthalmoscopy (30, 95% credible interval [CrI] 0-62) and Goldmann applanation tonometry (GAT; 45, 95% CrI 17-68), whereas threshold standard automated perimetry (SAP) and Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph (HRT II) were both more sensitive than GAT (41, 95% CrI 14-64 and 39, 95% CrI 3-64, respectively). GAT was more specific than both FDT C-20-5 (19, 95% CrI 0-53) and threshold SAP (14, 95% CrI 1-37). Judging performance by diagnostic odds ratio, FDT, oculokinetic perimetry, and HRT II are promising tests. Ophthalmoscopy, SAP, retinal photography, and GAT had relatively poor performance as single tests. These findings are based on heterogeneous data of limited quality and as such are associated with considerable uncertainty.

CONCLUSIONS: No test or group of tests was clearly superior for glaucoma screening. Further research is needed to evaluate the comparative accuracy of the most promising tests.

“La littérature est la seule patrie”: Nabile Farès and the Poetry of Postcolonial Displacment

Nabile Farès is a key author within postcolonial studies, due in particular to his uniquely expressive writing style. This article discusses writing style in his 1982 text, L’état perdu: précédé du discours pratique de l’immigré. Throughout the mainly French text, different alphabets are woven, alluding to the complexity of Algerian linguistic history and the importance of language in the construction and expression of identity. Meanwhile, the grammar and structure of the French language seems confused and at times illogical, raising further questions about use of a colonial language in a postcolonial context. Farès’s writing style is avant-garde in nature, and deliberate intertextuality with the Surrealists situates the text within an avant-garde tradition in the French language, developing new ideas surrounding the effect of this written genre in the aftermath of colonialism.

Photography

This chapter explains the relationship between photography, mobility and materiality

The establishment of a 3D breast photography service in medical illustration

This paper aims to describe the development of a 3D breast photography service managed by the Medical Illustration Department, in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland. Dedicated 3D breast photography equipment was installed in Medical Illustration for 18 months. Women were referred for a variety of indications including pre- and post-surgical assessment. A dedicated 3D breast photography protocol was developed locally and this requires further refinement to allow reproducibility in other centres. There are image/data artefacts associated with this technology and special techniques are required to reduce these. Specialist software is necessary for clinicians and scientists to use 3D breast photography data in surgical planning and measurement of surgical outcome.