Dry eye is one of the most common ocular conditions in the world with prevalence of over 10 million in the United States alone [1]. It can result in severe ocular symptoms and visual disability. The primary treatment for dry eyes is instillation of artificial tears over the course of the day [2]. The role of artificial tears is to either replace or augment the native tear film, with the goal of...

The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) segregates more naturally-occurring diseases and phenotypic variation than any other species and has become established as an unparalled model with which to study the genetics of inherited traits. We used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and targeted resequencing of DNA from just five dogs to simultaneously map and identify mutations for two distinct in...

In finite populations the action of neutral mutations is balanced by genetic drift, leading to a stationary distribution of alleles that displays a transition between two different behaviors. For small mutation rates most individuals will carry the same allele at equilibrium, whereas for high mutation rates of the alleles will be randomly distributed with frequencies close to one half for a bia...

We evaluated the effect of 0.1% sodium hyaluronate (unpreserved) in 10 patients with dry eyes. The precorneal tear film break-up time was assessed by the non-invasive technique, and the severity of symptoms was recorded before and after treatment on a 0 to +3 scale. It was found that the tear film stability was significantly increased (p less than 0.05) in eyes treated with sodium hyaluronate. ...

We exactly calculate the particle number N of scalar fields which are created from an initial vacuum in certain higher-dimensional cosmological models. The spacetimes in these models are the four-dimensional Chitre-Hartle or radiation-dominated universe with extra spaces which are static or power-law contracting. Except for some models in which no particles could be produced, the distribution o...

AIMS To assess the outcome of a surgical punctal occlusion technique. METHOD Prospectively, 11 consecutive patients (26 puncta) with severe dry eyes recalcitrant to maximal medical therapy underwent permanent punctal occlusion at a tertiary eye care centre between January 1999 and December 2000. The epithelium of the punctum and the vertical portion of the canaliculus was removed with a corne...

Mr KC, 61 years of age, has extensive actinic damage including squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) and actinic keratoses (AKs) on his face and forehead. He has had cryotherapy for many years with limited success. Lesions have generally resolved with cryotherapy but he finds the treatment very uncomfortable and can only tolerate a small number of lesions being treated on each visit. He develops lesi...