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Around 60%--75% of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients initially present with nonspecific ocular symptoms. Failed recognition of these symptoms may delay the diagnosis of MG up to 5 years or more, leading to a reduced likelihood of remission and increased morbidity. Current diagnostic tests are either poorly sensitive for patients presenting with ocular symptoms alone or are time consuming, invasive, require a high level of technical expertise, and generally are universally difficult to obtain. This review will explore quantitative eye and pupil tracking as a potential noninvasive, time-effective, and less technically demanding alternative to current diagnostic tests of MG.Comprehensive literature review.Thirty-two publications using oculography for the diagnosis of MG and 6 studies using pupillometry were evaluated. In MG patients, extra ocular muscle fatigue was evident in reports of intersaccadic, intrasaccadic and postsaccadic abnormalities, changes in optokinetic nystagmus, slow eye movements, disconjugate saccades, and pupillary constrictor muscle weakness.Our review identified several potentially useful variables that derive from oculography and pupillometry studies that could assist with a timely diagnosis of MG. Limitations of this review include heterogeneity in design, sample size, and quality of the studies evaluated. There is a need for larger, well-designed studies evaluating eye-tracking measures in the diagnosis of MG, especially for patients presenting with purely ocular symptoms.

This paper investigates the impacts of COVID-19’s new cases and stimulus packages on the daily stock returns of five key economic sectors (Finance, Fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG), Healthcare, Oil and Gas, and Telecommunication) in Vietnam – one of the best countries in the world for handling COVID-19. The research team uses the Pool OLS method, with the panel data of 11 342 observations from 107 listed firms in these five sectors in the period January-June 2020. The key findings are (i) all sectors’ stock returns are negatively affected by daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the hardest hit is on the financial sector, followed by FMCG, healthcare, oil and gas, and telecommunications sectors. Vietnam did not have many affected cases, but low average income makes investors and consumers more careful and hesitate to spend/invest; (ii) in contrast to prior studies, stimulus packages did not accelerate the growth of stock returns in all sectors, with the order from most to least negatively affected: finance, oil and gas, telecommunication, healthcare, and FMCG. The slow implementation made investors skeptical of the growth potential of firms, they assess the stimulus packages as the signs of economic downturn. This fact leads to different recommendations for the Vietnamese Government in combating COVID-19.

This paper investigates the impacts of COVID-19’s new cases and stimulus packages on the daily stock returns of five key economic sectors (Finance, Fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG), Healthcare, Oil and Gas, and Telecommunication) in Vietnam – one of the best countries in the world for handling COVID-19. The research team uses the Pool OLS method, with the panel data of 11 342 observations from 107 listed firms in these five sectors in the period January-June 2020. The key findings are (i) all sectors’ stock returns are negatively affected by daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the hardest hit is on the financial sector, followed by FMCG, healthcare, oil and gas, and telecommunications sectors. Vietnam did not have many affected cases, but low average income makes investors and consumers more careful and hesitate to spend/invest; (ii) in contrast to prior studies, stimulus packages did not accelerate the growth of stock returns in all sectors, with the order from most to least negatively affected: finance, oil and gas, telecommunication, healthcare, and FMCG. The slow implementation made investors skeptical of the growth potential of firms, they assess the stimulus packages as the signs of economic downturn. This fact leads to different recommendations for the Vietnamese Government in combating COVID-19.

AIMS (1) To determine incidence and reasons for transfer from maintenance haemodialysis (HD) to peritoneal dialysis (PD); (2) To compare mortality of HD patients transferred to PD with those who initiated and remained on PD. METHODS A 1:2 matched cohort of ANZDATA included patients dialyzing over 3 months dividing into 2 groups. Group A (HD to PD) was compared to group B (initiated and remained on PD) and matched PD group (Group C). We compared mortality by total time on dialysis regardless of modality. RESULTS Of 20 882 patients, there were 911 in group A. The transfer rate from HD to PD was 5%, 6.7% and 7.4% at 1,4 and 8 years, respectively. Median time before switching of patients in Group A was 5.9 (4.0-10.9) months. The commonest reported reason for transfer was patient preference (63.8%). Mortality was significantly worse in Group A if dialysis vintage was ≤6 months and from 12-24 months (P

Small shrimp (Acetes japonicus) is a common ingredient in various dried and fermented dishes on Asian countries. In this study, we explored the nutritional qualities of small shrimps with respect to their body length. The shrimp materials were harvested from near-shore waters of Ben Tre province, Vietnam. Various measures including mineral, lipid, salt and astaxanthin content of small shrimps of three size groups including small, medium, and large were evaluated. Current results indicate high salt content of small, medium, and large shrimp, at 23.74 ± 0.01, 24.09 ± 0.01, and 27.97 ± 1.38 mg/g dry basis, respectively. The mineral content seemed to be irrelevant to body size. Large and medium shrimps showed higher lipid content than the small counterpart. However, small shrimps are advantageous in terms of astaxanthin content. Further studies should contemplate nutritional quality with respect to harvest area and dietary scheme.

We examined gonococci isolated in 2004, in East Java and Papua, Indonesia, to review the suitability of ciprofloxacin-based and other treatment regimens. Gonococci from the two provinces were tested in Sydney for susceptibility to penicillin, tetracycline, spectinomycin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, azithromycin and rifampicin. Of 163 gonococcal isolates from East Java (91) and Papua (72), 120 (74%) of gonococci, 62 (68%) and 58 (80%) from East Java and Papua, respectively, were penicillinase-producing gonococci and 162 displayed high-level tetracycline resistance. Eighty-seven isolates (53%) were ciprofloxacin resistant, 44 (48%) from East Java and 43 (60%) from Papua. All isolates were sensitive to cefixime/ceftriaxone, spectinomycin and azithromycin. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of gentamicin were in the range 0.05–8 mg/L. Sixty-nine gonococci (42%) showed combined resistance, to penicillin, tetracycline and quinolones. Quinolone resistance has now reached unacceptable levels, and their use for the treatment of gonorrhoea in Indonesia should be reconsidered.

Ciguatoxins exert their effect on the voltage-sensitive sodium channels of the cellular membranes of all excitable tissues. This effect confers to ciguatera disease (CD) its neurologic hallmarks. A prospective study among French Polynesian adults over a two-month period was conducted to characterize and determine the persistence of neurologic symptoms of CD. We compared 47 patients with CD with 125 controls. In the acute phase of the disease, patients had mainly sensory disturbances as detected by an hypoesthesia on the palm of the hand and poorer sway performance compared with controls. Follow-up two months showed improvement of sway performance that eventually reaching control levels. However, for light-touch threshold, even if we observed a decrease threshold towards normal values, more than 50% of patients did not reach normal values 60 days after disease onset. Our results support the existence of neurologic impairments of CD and suggest their persistence for at least two months after onset.

Objectives: To describe the prevalence and characteristics of isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae grown from urine samples that produced negative results with nucleic acid amplification assays (NAA) targeting the cppB gene. Methods: An initial cluster of culture positive, but cppB gene based NAA negative, gonococcal infections was recognised. Urine samples and suspensions of gonococci isolated over 9 months in the Northern Territory of Australia were examined using cppB gene based and other non-cppB gene based NAA. The gonococcal isolates were phenotyped by determining the auxotype/serovar (A/S) class and genotyped by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results: 14 (9.8%) of 143 gonococci isolated were of A/S class Pro–/Brpyut, indistinguishable on PFGE and negative in cppB gene based, but not other, NAA. Conclusions: This cluster represents a temporal and geographic expansion of a gonococcal subtype lacking the cppB gene with consequent loss of sensitivity of NAA dependent on amplification of this target. Gonococci lacking the cppB gene have in the past been more commonly associated with the PAU-/PCU- auxotype, a gonococcal subtype hitherto infrequently encountered in Australia. NAA based on the cppB gene as a target may produce false positive as well as false negative NAA. This suggests that unless there is continuing comparison with culture to show their utility, cppB gene based NAA should be regarded as suboptimal for use either as a diagnostic or supplemental assay for diagnosis of gonorrhoea, and NAA with alternative amplification targets should be substituted.

The commercial BD ProbeTec ET (BDPT) system for the detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis from clinical specimens was compared with our in-house LightCycler real-time PCR (LC-PCR) assays. Specimens initially positive by the BDPT system were retested by our LC-PCR assays. Our results for C. trachomatis testing indicate a 91.2% agreement when the results of 114 clinical specimens, initially positive by BDPT over a wide range of method-other-than-acceleration (MOTA) scores, were retested by our LC-PCR assay. The agreement between the two systems improved to 96% when only MOTA scores of30,000 were retested by the LC-PCR assay. The overall agreement between the two systems for Neisseria gonorrhoeae detection from 155 clinical specimens was only 77.4%, with agreement particularly low (24.1%) for MOTA scores ranging from 2,000 to 19,999. Repeat testing of specimens with the BDPT only closely correlated with that seen by others demonstrating that reproducibility of the BDPT system for specimens initially within the MOTA score range from 2,000 to 9,999 is problematic, especially for Neisseria gonorrhoeae testing. With our study, we proposed an algorithm for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae testing which involves screening with the BDPT system followed by selective use of our in-house LC-PCR assays.

In April and October in 1991-1993, 5 supervised single doses of ivermectin were given to inhabitants agedor = 3 years in a Polynesian district: the first 3 treatments were with 100 micrograms/kg and the 2 latter with 400 micrograms/kg. At each treatment, about 97% of the eligible population (899) were treated and blood samples were collected just before treatment from 96% of the 613 inhabitants agedor = 15 years. Following the 5 successive treatments, adverse reactions were observed in, respectively, 23.8, 13, 6.2, 13.6 and 7.9% of the microfilariae (mf) carriers, and in less than 1% of amicrofilaraemic subjects. Neither the frequency nor the intensity of adverse reactions was significantly different between single doses of 100 micrograms/kg and 400 micrograms/kg. Although the geometric mean microfilaraemia (GMM) was reduced, the mf carrier prevalence remained unchanged before and after 3 mass treatments with 100 micrograms/kg (21.4 and 20.7% respectively), and the mf recurrence rate 6 months after each dose of 100 micrograms/kg was roughly stable (respectively, 34.3%, 21.6% and 31.2% of the initial GMM). In contrast, after one dose round of 400 micrograms/kg, the mf carrier prevalence decreased significantly to 14.9% (P10(-6)), and the mf recurrence rate dropped to 9.9% (P10(-3)) of the initial GMM. These results confirm the safety and the effectiveness of 400 micrograms/kg of ivermectin for lymphatic filariasis control.

Corrosion processes involve both oxidation and reduction reactions that proceed simultaneously at the metal surface. In aqueous environments dissolved oxygen and chloride ions often play dominant roles in metallic corrosion. Complexation of chloride ions with the metal itself can have a strong effect on both oxidation and reduction reactions at the metal surface. Oxygen, chloride and metal ions can also form surface complexes that can have a significant effect on corrosion processes; in addition, oxygen provides another reduction reaction to the overall corrosion process. Fe, Ni, and Fe-Ni alloys, common construction materials, undergo enhancement or inhibition of the metallic electrodissolution reaction by the presence of chloride ions. Some of this work by our laboratory had been presented at a previous ECS Hawaii meeting and will be reviewed at the present meeting in addition to further experimental results on chloride and hydrogen ion effects on the electrodissolution of Fe-5Ni, Fe-1Ni and Fe-0.5Ni alloys. Experimental

An integrated p-i-n/JFET/resistor has been developed using a GaInAs epitaxial structure grown on a planar substrate A four-layered structure allows separate optimization of both active devices. Owing to the good performances and high reliability of individual components, the sensitivity of these monolithic photoreceivers is evaluated as -29 dBm at 560 Mb/s (10/sup -9/ bit error rate). Remarkable stability over time is exhibited. >

Anodic dissolution of an Fe−5Ni alloy in deoxygenated acidic chloride solutions of 1.0 M ionic strength has been studied. Steady state partial current densities of the iron and nickel components were obtained by atomic absorption spectrophotometry analysis of the solutions. Alloy and component electrodissolution rates show two anodic Tafel regions indicating simultaneous parallel reactions as reported previously for pure iron. Anodic Tafel slopes of 0.075 and 0.04V dec−1 were obtained in the lower (A) and higher (B) polarization regions, respectively. The kinetic results for the alloy are consistent with the Cl− accelerated mechanism in Region (A) and the Bockris or OH− accelerated mechanism in Region (B) for both iron and nickel components as proposed previously for pure iron.