BACKGROUND It has been proposed that the prion, the infectious agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, is PrPSc, a post-translationally modified form of the normal host protein PrPC. We showed previously that mice devoid of PrPC (Prn-p0/0) are completely resistant to scrapie. We now report on the unexpected response of heterozygous (Prn-p0/+) mice to scrapie infection. MATERIALS A...

OBJECTIVE To describe the burden associated with different anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment strategies for wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) in a real-word setting in Japan. METHODS Single-center, cross-sectional survey of caregivers of patients with wAMD performed in a hospital in Mito-City, a rural area in Japan. Caregiver burden was evaluated using the Bur...

AIMS The aim of this study was to compare two treatment options for choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD): (1) bevacizumab administered once a month for 3 months and thereafter as needed (loading dose (LD)); and (2) bevacizumab administered as needed, after the first injection (pro re nata (as needed) (PRN)). METHODS Fifty consecutive patients ...

BACKGROUND Oral propranolol (PRN) has recently been shown to be highly effective for infantile hemangiomas (IHs), and is currently recommended as the first-line treatment of complicated IHs. However, the therapeutic mechanism(s) still remain unclear. METHODS In this study, we tested hemangioma-derived stem cells for expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in vitro and studied ...

Recent advances in Deep Learning show the existence of image-agnostic quasi-imperceptible perturbations that when applied to ‘any’ image can fool a state-of-the-art network classifier to change its prediction about the image label. These ‘Universal Adversarial Perturbations’ pose a serious threat to the success of Deep Learning in practice. We present the first dedicated framework to effectivel...

BACKGROUND To investigate the nationwide trend of ambulatory prescriptions of short-acting nifedipine on a PRN (pro re nata) order over a fifteen-year period in Taiwan. METHODS The systematic sampling claims datasets (0.2% sampling ratio) of ambulatory care visits within Taiwan's National Health Insurance from 1997 to 2011 were analyzed. The prescriptions of short-acting capsule-form nifedipi...

AIMS To demonstrate non-inferiority of ranibizumab treat-and-extend (T&E) with/without laser to ranibizumab pro re nata (PRN) for best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in patients with diabetic macular oedema (DMO). METHODS A 24-month single-masked study with patients randomised 1:1:1 to T&E+laser (n=121), T&E (n=128) or PRN (control; n=123). All patients received monthly injections until BCVA ...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To describe the experience of being a pain resource nurse (PRN), discuss the influence of the PRN's role on colleagues and patient care, and explore barriers to the PRN role. DESIGN Qualitative, exploratory. SETTING A Veterans Administration hospital in the southeastern United States. SAMPLE 12 nurses who received advanced training in pain assessment and management atte...

In this paper, we describe the Parallel Race Network (PRN), a race model with the ability to learn stimulus–response associations using a formal framework that is very similar to the one used by the traditional connectionist networks. The PRN assumes that the connections represent abstract units of time rather than strengths of association. Consequently, the connections in the network indicate ...