PURPOSE There is evidence that the choroid has some autoregulatory capacity in response to changes in ocular perfusion pressure (OPP). The mediators of this response are hitherto unidentified. The hypothesis for the current study was that endothelin (ET)-1 and/or angiotensin (ANF)-II may be involved in choroidal vasoconstriction during an increase in OPP. METHODS To test this hypothesis a ran...

Legislation establishing the SSI program and subsequent amendments provide for State payments to supplement the basic Federal SSI payment. For former public assistance recipients, State payments are required, if necessary, to maintain prior income levels. For those newly eligible, additional State payments are optional. At the beginning of SSI, most States elected to provide supplementary payme...

PURPOSE To describe the diurnal variation of the ocular perfusion pressure (OPP) in normal, suspects and glaucoma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy-nine subjects were enrolled in a prospective study. The diurnal curve of intraocular pressure (IOP) was performed and blood pressure measurements were obtained. Each participant was grouped into one of the following based upon the clinical e...

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term clinical course of NTG patients who initiated intraocular pressure- (IOP-) lowering therapy. Methods. The present study included 72 normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) patients. The mean deviation (MD) was measured with visual fields. Nocturnal hypotension with weighted standard deviation (wSD) was determined by 24-hour ambulatory bl...

To address devastating environmental crises and to improve human well-being, China has been implementing a number of national policies on payments for ecosystem services. Two of them, the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) and the Grain to Green Program (GTGP), are among the biggest programs in the world because of their ambitious goals, massive scales, huge payments, and potentially en...

We estimate the impact of an unprecedented surge in ad hoc farm payments on grain inventories held by farmers. Payments thought to be decoupled from production may still distort markets if they affect other outcomes such as inventories. Through Market Facilitation Program, US farmers received approximately 23 billion dollars over two marketing years. The economic theory commodity storage sugges...

Payment policy in the United States since the introduction of the Medicare Program for the elderly and disabled populations in the 1960s has been evolving from providing little incentive for hospitals to contain costs to its current form, which creates an enormous incentive for cost containment. The Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) system implemented by Medicare for hospital payment in 1983 is vie...

BACKGROUND Breast conserving surgery (BCS) combined with postoperative radiotherapy has become the gold standard of locoregional treatment for the majority of patients with early-stage breast cancer, offering equivalent survival and improved body image and lifestyle scores as compared to mastectomy. In an attempt to optimize the oncologic safety and cosmetic results of BCS, oncoplastic procedur...

Oligopeptides play important roles in bacterial nutrition and signaling. Using sequences from the available genome database for Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, the oligopeptide permease operon (oppBCDA) of Mycobacterium bovis BCG was cloned from a cosmid library. An opp mutant strain was constructed by homologous recombination with an allele of oppD interrupted by kanamycin and streptomycin r...

PURPOSE To characterize the nyctohemeral rhythm of intraocular pressure (IOP) and ocular perfusion pressure (OPP) in patients with newly diagnosed, untreated normal tension glaucoma (NTG). METHODS Twenty-seven patients with suspected NTG were prospectively included and underwent 24-hour monitoring of IOP and blood pressure (BP), polysomnography, and nailfold capillaropathy. The nyctohemeral r...