Protection of corneal endothelium from irrigation damage:A comparison of sodium hyaluronate and hydroxypropylmethyl-cellulose

Purpose: To compare the endothelial protection of sodium hyaluronate and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose against endothelial damage induced by irrigation. Methods: An in vitro assay with freshly excised porcine eyes was developed using the Janus green photometry technique. Irrigation and aspiration technique was standardised. Forty pairs of porcine eyes were used. One randomly chosen eye was filled with sodium hyaluronate (SH) and the other with hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC). Irrigation and aspiration was carried out with balanced salt solution for 5 min. Twenty additional pairs of porcine eyes served as controls. Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Both viscoelastic agents protected the endothelium as compared with controls. The endothelial protection, determined with the Janus green photometric technique, was significantly greater with HPMC than with SH. Conclusions: Viscoelastic agents are effective in protecting the endothelium from irrigation damage in porcine eyes in vitro. HPMC provided greater protection than SH in this particular model.

Adaptive binary mask for privacy region protection

Privacy region protection in video surveillance systems is an active topic at present. In previous research, a binary mask mechanism has been developed to indicate the privacy region; however this incurs a significant bitrate overhead. In this paper, an adaptive binary mask is proposed to represent the privacy region. In a practical privacy region protection application, in which the privacy region typically occupies less than half of the overall frame and is rectangular or approximately rectangular, the proposed adaptive binary mask can effectively reduce the bitrate overhead. The proposed method can also be easily applied to the FMO mechanism of H.264/AVC, providing both error resilience and a lower bitrate overhead.

Trends in skin cancer knowledge, sun protection practices and behaviours in the Northern Ireland population

Background: Sun exposure increases risk of skin cancer, especially melanoma, incidence of which continues to rise. Reported skin cancer knowledge and trends in sun care behaviours are documented in a UK region where there has been 20 years of sun-related health promotion campaigns. Methods: In 2000, 2004 and 2008, a 'care in the sun' module was included in the Northern Ireland (NI) Omnibus survey. Randomly selected subjects were asked to complete a sun-related questionnaire and proportions of respondents analysed by demographic and socio-economic factors, with differences tested using z-tests and the chi-squared test. Results: Around 3623 persons responded. Skin cancer knowledge was high (97). Sun avoidance decreased with time and was lowest among younger age groups and males. Sunscreen use was high (70), unchanged over 8 years, and more likely among younger age groups, females, those in paid employment, and those with tertiary level education. Use of sunscreen with minimum Sun Protection Factor (SPF) 15 (a campaign message) increased from 45 to 70 (P

Lighting Strike Protection Systems

refers to composites that are specifically made/modified to provide more than one functionality. Typically, composites' main functionality is structural

Assessing parenting capacity in child protection: towards a knowledge-based model

The assessment of parenting capacity continues to engender public concern in cases of suspected harm to children. This paper outlines a model for approaching this task based on the application of three key domains of knowledge in social work relating to facts, theory and practice wisdom. The McMaster Model of Family Assessment is identified out of this process and reworked to give it a sharper focus on parenting roles and responsibilities. Seven formative dimensions of parenting are then elicited and combined with an analytical process of identifying strengths, concerns, prospects for growth and impact on child outcomes. The resulting assessment framework, it is argued, adds rigour to professional judgements about parenting capacity and enhances formulations on risk in child protection.

Is a single item stress measure independently associated with subsequent severe injury: a prospective cohort study of 16,385 forest industry employees

Background: A previous review showed that high stress increases the risk of occupational injury by three- to five-fold. However, most of the prior studies have relied on short follow-ups. In this prospective cohort study we examined the effect of stress on recorded hospitalised injuries in an 8-year follow-up.
Methods: A total of 16,385 employees of a Finnish forest company responded to the questionnaire. Perceived stress was measured with a validated single-item measure, and analysed in relation recorded hospitalised injuries from 1986 to 2008. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models to examine the prospective associations between work stress, injuries and confounding factors.
Results: Highly stressed participants were approximately 40% more likely to be hospitalised due to injury over the follow-up period than participants with low stress. This association remained significant after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, occupational status, educational level, and physical work environment.
Conclusions: High stress is associated with an increased risk of severe injury.