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Using a geographical information system (GIS), we investigated the spatiotemporal evolution of a cataract surgery service and its association with socioeconomic factors and private insurance, based on 10-year real-world medical claim data in an Australian population. The data collected cover a decade (2007–2016) from the “45 and Up Study”. A total of 234,201 participants within the cataract surgery service were grouped into 88 Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3s) according to their residential postcodes in New South Wales Australia. We analyzed the spatiotemporal variations and geographical distribution inequality in cataract surgery incidence and its respect to socioeconomic status (SES) and private health insurance coverage by Spearman correlation analysis and Moran’s I test. Then these variations were intuitive displayed by six-quartile maps and a local indicator of spatial association (LISA) maps based on GIS. The average cumulative age-gender-standardized of the incidence of cataract surgery (ICS) was 8.85% (95% CI, 5.33–15.6). Spatial variation was significant (univariate Moran’s I = 0.45, P = 0.001) with incidence gradually decreasing from the coastal regions to the north-western inland regions, suggesting inequality in the cataract surgery service across the state of New South Wales. Notably, clustering of the low incidence areas had gradually disappeared over the decade, suggesting that the cataract surgery service has improved over time. Low scores on the “index of socioeconomic disadvantages” (IRSD) and high private health insurance coverage were significantly associated with a higher incidence of cataract surgery (bivariate Moran’s I = −0.13 and 0.23, P P = 0.02), which is displayed on the map visually and obviously. Spatiotemporal variations in the incidence of cataract surgery are significant, but the low incidence area had gradually disappeared over time. High socioeconomic status and private insurance contribute to a higher incidence of cataract surgery in Australia.

Aerosolization during vitrectomy surgery was assessed by measuring fluorescein droplet spread in the surgical field and airborne particle counts. This study demonstrates that valved-port vitrectomy surgery under regional anesthesia is not likely to be an aerosol generating procedure.

Critical to vertebrate development is a complex program of events that establishes specialized tissues and organs from a single fertilized cell. Transitions in chromatin architecture, through alterations in its composition and modification markings, characterize early development. A variant of the H2A core histone, H2A.Z, is essential for development of both Drosophila and mice. We recently showed that H2A.Z is required for proper chromosome segregation. Whether H2A.Z has additional specific functions during early development remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that depletion of H2A.Z by RNA interference perturbs Xenopus laevis development at gastrulation leading to embryos with malformed, shortened trunks. Consistent with this result, whole embryo in situ hybridization indicates that endogenous expression of H2A.Z is highly enriched in the notochord. H2A.Z modifies the surface of a canonical nucleosome by creating an extended acidic patch and a metal ion-binding site stabilized by two histidine residues. To examine the significance of these specific surface regions in vivo, we investigated the consequences of overexpressing H2A.Z and mutant proteins during X. laevis development. Overexpression of H2A.Z slowed development following gastrulation. Altering the extended acidic patch of H2A.Z reversed this effect. Remarkably, modification of a single stabilizing histidine residue located on the exposed surface of an H2A.Z containing nucleosome was sufficient to disrupt normal trunk formation mimicking the effect observed by RNA interference. Taken together, these results argue that key determinants located on the surface of an H2A.Z nucleosome play an important specific role during embryonic patterning and provide a link between a chromatin structural modification and normal vertebrate development.