dry eye is the major contributor to computer vision syndrome. the reductions in the blink rate and amplitude have been considered as the possible mechanisms leading to this condition. the purpose of this study is to evaluate the changes in the lower tear meniscus heights and areas in the computer reading task, in dry eye subjects, with and without soft contact lenses. in this quasi-experimental...

Dimethylamine (DMA) and trimethylamine (TMA) may be nitrosated endogenously to form N-nitrosodimethylamine, which is a potent carcinogen in many animal species. Significant amounts of DMA, TMA, and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) are found in the blood, urine, gastric fluid, and saliva of both rats and humans. Exposure to these amines arises from dietary sources, endogenous synthesis, and synthes...

Mycoplasma genitalium is now recognized as a possible cause of several idiopathic sexually transmitted disease (STD) syndromes. However, due to the difficulty of culture of this fastidious bacterium, nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are necessary for its detection in patient specimens. In the current study we compared a newly developed research-only transcription-mediated amplification ...

BACKGROUND Bee venom acupuncture (BVA), a novel type of acupuncture therapy in which purified bee venom is injected into the specific acupuncture point on the diseased part of the body, is used primarily for relieving pain and other musculoskeletal symptoms. In the present study, therapeutic potential of BVA to improve atopic dermatitis, a representative allergic dysfunction, was evaluated in t...

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a coating technology used to produce highly uniform thin films. Aluminiumoxide, Al2O3, is mainly deposited using trimethylaluminium (TMA) and water as precursors and is the most studied ALD-process to date. However, only few theoretical studies have been reported in the literature. The surface reaction mechanisms and energetics previously reported focus on a gib...

Intercalation of organic cations in superconducting iron selenide can significantly increase the critical temperature (Tc). We present an electrochemical method using beta-FeSe crystals (Tc ~ 8 K) floating on a mercury cathode to intercalate tetramethylammonium ions (TMA+) quantitatively obtain bulk samples (TMA)0.5Fe2Se2 with Tc = 43 K. The layered crystal structure is closely related ThCr2Si2...

Diffusion parameters of the extracellular space (ECS) are changed in many brain pathologies, disturbing synaptic as well as extrasynaptic "volume" transmission, which is based on the diffusion of neuroactive substances in the ECS. Amyloid deposition, neuronal loss, and disturbed synaptic transmission are considered to be the main causes of Alzheimer's disease dementia. We studied diffusion para...

INTRODUCTION Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is a serious complication of renal transplantation and is mostly related to the prothrombotic effect of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs). A subset of TMA (29%-38%) is localized only to the graft. Case 1: A young woman suffering from autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) underwent kidney transplant. After 2 months, she showed slow renal d...

BACKGROUND Very limited data exist on the comparative performance of nucleic acid amplification tests (NATs) for the screening of pooled specimens for acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. STUDY DESIGN In this study, we compared a transcription-mediated-amplification assay (Procleix HIV-1 Discriminatory Assay, [TMA]) with a branched DNA assay (Bayer Versant HIV-1 RNA 3.0 assay, ...

spin-lattice relaxation time Ti and second moment M 2 have been studied as a function of temperature over the temperature range 445 to 77 K. A discontinuous change in Ti at 365 K, indicates the presence of a phase transition, while the slope change at 152 K, is attributed to a change in the TMA ion dynamics from tumbling to torsion. The 7i results could be explained in terms of inequivalent TMA...