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Po-Jui Chen,1 I-Huang Lin,1 Yi-Chun Chi,2 Chun-Chieh Lai,1 Jia-Horung Hung,1 Sung-Huei Tseng,1 Yi-Hsun Huang1 1Department of Ophthalmology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 2Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, TaiwanCorrespondence: Yi-Hsun Huang, Department of Ophthalmology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, Email jackhyh@gmail.comAbstract: Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and long-term outcomes of treatment with topical 2% ganciclovir solution in immunocompetent patients with aqueous humor polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-proven cytomegalovirus (CMV) anterior uveitis and corneal endotheliitis.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the findings for immunocompetent patients diagnosed with CMV uveitis or endotheliitis based on clinical manifestations and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) examination results and treated with topical 2% ganciclovir solution at National Cheng Kung University Hospital. Clinical outcome measurements included evaluations of the response rate, relapses, resolution of anterior chamber inflammation, visual acuity, and intraocular pressure.Results: The study included 38 eyes of 32 patients. Long-term administration of topical 2% ganciclovir significantly decreased keratic precipitates (p = 0.001), anterior chamber cells (p = 0.001), and reduced intraocular pressure (p < 0.001). Only one eye was unresponsive to topical ganciclovir treatment, and the recurrence decreased to 0.13 relapses per year. The presence of keratic precipitates and higher intraocular pressure at the initial presentation were significantly associated with recurrence (p = 0.036 and p = 0.001, respectively).Conclusions:: Long-term use of topical 2% ganciclovir solution is effective, safe, and applicable when commercialized ganciclovir gel is not available.Keywords: cytomegalovirus, endotheliitis, ganciclovir, uveitis

Objectives To investigate the prognostic value of the preoperative systemic immune‐inflammation index (SII) in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OC‐SCC) treated with curative surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of patients with OC‐SCC who received surgery and postoperative adjuvant RT/CCRT between January 2005 and December 2012. Blood samples were drawn in the 2 weeks preceding surgery. SII was calculated by multiplying the absolute neutrophil and platelet counts, and then, divided by the absolute lymphocyte count, and its optimal cutoff value was identified using the Youden’s index. The study endpoints included overall survival (OS), local control (LC), regional control (RC), and distant control (DC). Results The study sample consisted of 993 patients (58.8% of them treated with CCRT). The optimal cutoff value for SII was 810.6. A total of 347 (34.9%) study participants had high preoperative SII values. After allowance for potential confounders in multivariable analysis, high SII values were independently associated with less favorable DC (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.683, p = 0.001) and OS (adjusted HR = 1.466, p, The SII is defined as platelet × neutrophil/lymphocyte counts. Increased SII values predict poor distant control and overall survival in patients with oral cancer treated with curative resection and adjuvant RT/CCRT. Owing to the higher risk of systemic failure in this patient group, a tight follow‐up surveillance schedule or adjuvant systemic treatment may be advisable pending independent confirmation of our data.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with bile duct invasion is a rare and notorious subtype of HCC. This study included patients that had unresectable HCC with bile duct invasion and proton beam therapy between November 2015 and February 2021. Twenty patients fit the inclusion criteria. The median tumor size was 6.3 cm. Nine patients (45.0%) had major vascular invasions. All included patients received the radiation dose of 72.6 gray relative biological effectiveness due to the proximity of porta hepatis and tumor. The median follow-up time was 19.9 months. The median overall survival was 19.9 months among deceased patients. The 1-year cumulative local recurrence rates were 5.3%, with only two patients developing in-field failure. The 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 79.4% and 53.3%. The 1-year progression-free survival was 58.9%. Four patients developed radiation-induced liver disease. The 1-year cholangitis-free survival was 55.0%. Skin toxicity was the most common acute toxicity and rarely severe. Eight patients developed ≤ grade 3 gastrointestinal ulcers. Proton beam therapy offers desirable survival outcomes for unresectable HCC patients with bile duct invasion. Optimal local tumor control could also be obtained within acceptable toxicities.

Several Francisella spp., including Francisella noatunensis, are regarded as important emerging pathogens of wild and farmed fish. However, very few studies have investigated the virulence factors that allow these bacterial species to be pathogenic in fish. The Francisella pathogenicity island (FPI) is a well-described, gene-dense region encoding major virulence factors for the genus Francisella. pdpA is a member of the pathogenicity-determining protein genes carried by the FPI that are implicated in the ability of the mammalian pathogen Francisella tularensis to escape and replicate in infected host cells. Using a sacB suicide approach, we generated pdpA knockouts to address the role of PdpA as a virulence factor for F. noatunensis. Because polarity can be an issue in gene-dense regions, we generated two different marker-based mutants in opposing polarity (the F. noatunensis subsp. orientalis ΔpdpA1 and ΔpdpA2 strains). Both mutants were attenuated (P < 0.0001) in zebrafish challenges and displayed impaired intracellular replication (P < 0.05) and cytotoxicity (P < 0.05), all of which could be restored to wild-type (WT) levels by complementation for the ΔpdpA1 mutant. Importantly, differences were found for bacterial burden and induction of acute-phase and proinflammatory genes for the F. noatunensis subsp. orientalis ΔpdpA1 and ΔpdpA2 mutants compared to the WT during acute infection. In addition, neither mutant resulted in significant histopathological changes. Finally, immunization with the F. noatunensis subsp. orientalis ΔpdpA1 mutant led to protection (P < 0.012) against an acute 40% lethal dose (LD(40)) challenge with WT F. noatunensis in the zebrafish model of infection. Taken together, the results from this study further demonstrate physiological similarities within the genus Francisella relative to their phylogenetic relationships and the utility of zebrafish for addressing virulence factors for the genus.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is closely related to chronic kidney disease (CKD), and patients with CKD have a high risk of CVD-related mortality. Traditional CVD risk factors cannot account for the higher cardiovascular risk of patients with CKD, and standard CVD interventions cannot reduce the mortality rates among patients with CKD. Nontraditional factors related to mineral and vitamin-D metabolic disorders provide some explanation for the increased CVD risk. Non-dialyzable toxins, indoxyl sulfate (IS) and p-cresol sulfate (PCS)—produced in the liver by colonic microorganisms—cause kidney and vascular dysfunction. Plasma trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO)—a gut microbe-dependent metabolite of dietary L-carnitine and choline—is elevated in CKD and related to vascular disease, resulting in poorer long-term survival. Therefore, the modulation of colonic flora can improve prospects for patients with CKD. Managing metabolic syndrome, anemia, and abnormal mineral metabolism is recommended for the prevention of CVD in patients with CKD. Considering nontraditional risk factors, the use of resveratrol (RSV), a nutraceutical, can be helpful for patients with CVD and CKD. This paper discusses the beneficial effects of RSV on biologic, pathophysiological and clinical responses, including improvements in intestinal epithelial integrity, modulation of the intestinal microbiota and reduction in hepatic synthesis of IS, PCS and TMAO in patients with CVD and CKD.

Background Unresectable esophageal cancer harbors high mortality despite chemoradiotherapy. Better patient selection for more personalized management may result in better treatment outcomes. We presume the ratio of maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) of metastatic lymph nodes to primary tumor (NTR) in 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) may provide prognostic information and further stratification of these patients. Methods The patients with non-metastatic and unresectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) receiving FDG PET/CT staging and treated by chemoradiotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to determine the optimal cut-off value for NTR. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model were used for survival analyses and multivariable analyses, respectively. Results From 2010 to 2016, 96 eligible patients were analyzed. The median follow-up time was 10.2 months (range 1.6 to 83.6 months). Using ROC analysis, the best NTR cut-off value was 0.46 for prediction of distant metastasis. The median distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) was significantly lower in the high-NTR group (9.5 vs. 22.2 months, p = 0.002) and median overall survival (OS) (9.5 vs. 11.6 months, p = 0.013) was also significantly worse. Multivariable analysis revealed that NTR was an independent prognostic factor for DMFS (hazard ratio [HR] 1.81, p = 0.023) and OS (HR 1.77, p = 0.014). Conclusions High pretreatment NTR predicts worse treatment outcomes and could be an easy-to-use and helpful prognostic factor to provide more personalized treatment for patients with non-metastatic and unresectable esophageal SCC.

Background Both medical education and radiation oncology have progressed significantly in the past decade, but a generalized overview of educational research for radiation oncology residents has not been produced. This study examines recent research trends in medical education for residents in radiation oncology through a scoping review. Methods We conducted a scoping review of medical education research for residents in radiation oncology to survey the research trends. We used publications available on MEDLINE, PubMed, and Scopus to conduct this scoping review. Results We screened 221 full-text articles, 146 of which met our inclusion criteria. These publications showed increased activity in medical education research for residents, most involving affiliations in the United States. We identified persistent interest in training-, contouring-, and technology-related issues. An increase in research related to career, treatment quality, and multidisciplinary training was also observed. However, no research about teacher training was identified. Conclusions This scoping review presents the trends in study interests among stakeholders of medical education research in radiation oncology. With an investigation of existing studies, this research identifies areas of high priority and a lack of studies about teacher training. This study provides potential future directions for medical education research for residents in radiation oncology.

Additional file 1 : Table S1. Distribution of the included publications by the categories and years.

Bilayer films consisting of the optically transparent polymers, polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were spin-cast on glass substrates. The upper 13.5 nm layer (PS) was lightly doped with Rhodamine-6 G (RH6G) or MEH-PPV. While the fluorescence of MEH-PPV was independent of PMMA thickness, the lifetime of RH6G increased 3-fold as the underlying PMMA thickness increased from 0 to 500 nm while the collected flux decreased suggesting a reorientation of the smaller molecule's dipole with respect to the air-polymer interface with PMMA thickness. This suggests lifetime may find application for nondestructive thickness measurements of transparent films with sub-micron lateral resolution and large range.

Although both high-index substrates and horizontal-dipole emitters have been shown to be facile approaches for enhancing OLED (organic light emitting diode) light extraction, the full benefits and potential of their combination for OLED optical out-coupling have not been thoroughly studied and explored. Simulation studies indicate that very high optical coupling efficiency into substrates ϕsub (and perhaps similarly high OLED external quantum efficiencies) of ~90% can be possibly obtained with both high-index substrates (refractive index >1.8–1.9) and highly horizontal-dipole emitters (horizontal dipole ratio >85%), together with adoption of low-index or index-matching carrier transport layers and optimization of organic layer and transparent electrode thicknesses. With these judicious device design conditions, all waveguided modes and surface plasmon modes in devices can be effectively suppressed for optimal optical out-coupling. Finally, combining the sapphire substrate having high index of n~1.78, the recently developed OLED emitters having high horizontal emitting dipole ratio of up to 87%, and simple external extraction lens, OLED devices having external quantum efficiency of over 80% was successfully realized.

A panorama is a continuous wide view of a real or virtual environment that provides the viewer with a natural feeling of being in such an environment. Panoramas can provide the visual backdrops and contexts for any augmented information such as audio, text, video, or 3D objects. This augmented panoramic environment can create an interactive space to provide information and bring the panorama to life. Having a panorama of a construction jobsite, and superimposing the building information models on it, would provide construction personnel with a simple way to access their required information in a natural and interactive environment. In this research, a workflow was developed to access building information augmented over the panoramic view of the real-world physical environment of the construction jobsite. A prototype was developed based on the created process and a user participation case study was conducted to test this system on a building renovation project. The results show that, an augmented p...

The effect of 2D quenching on single chain photophysics was investigated by spin coating 13 nm thick films of polystyrene lightly doped with MEH-PPV onto CVD grown graphene and observing the changes in several photoluminescent (PL) observables. With 99% of the PL quenched, we found a 60% drop in the PL lifetime, along with a significant blue-shift of the PL emission due to the preferential quenching of emission at longer wavelengths. During photo-bleaching, the blue spectral shift observed for isolated polymers was eliminated in the presence of the quencher up until 70% of the polymer was photo-bleached. Results were interpreted using a static disorder induced conjugation length distribution model. The quencher, by opening up a new non-radiative decay channel, ensures that excitons do not have sufficient time to migrate to nearby lower energy chromophores. The reduction of energy transfer into the lowest-energy chromophores thus reduces their rate of photo-bleaching. Finally, the difference between the quenched and non-quenched spectra allows the rate of energy transfer along the polymer backbone to be estimated at ∼2 ns-1.

Vibration inspection is an important consideration in maintaining device stability and precision during system operation. Although many methods for vibration measurement have been presented, most of them focus on inspecting violent vibrations, whose displacement variations are larger than hundreds of micrometers. In this study, an active displacement detector is proposed for slight vibration measurement based on the astigmatic theory. The detector is composed of an astigmatic lens, an objective lens, a folding mirror, quarter wave plate, and a polarized beam splitter (PBS). An external control box controls the system's power supply and signal communication between the detector and computer. Instead of traditional passive methods, an active laser beam behaves as a shape indication influenced by the surface deformation of a vibration target. A four-quadrant photodiode (QPD) detects the energy change ratio of a laser beam and translates the signal into the corresponding displacement. It was confirmed by experiment that the displacement detector was able to measure the patterns of different vibration models, including amplitude and frequency information. Even a slight vibration less than few micrometers could be measured successfully by the detector.

PURPOSE:This study evaluated the outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with small normal liver volume (NLV) treated with proton beam therapy (PBT) and introduced estimated standard liver volume (eSLV) as a new constraint. MATERIALS AND METHODS:HCC patients with NLV < 800 cm3 and no distant metastasis who received treatment in our proton center were included. The doses of PBT were mainly 72.6 Gray equivalents (GyE) in 22 fractions and 66 GyE in 10 fractions according to tumor locations. The Urata equation was used to calculate eSLV. RESULTS:Twenty-two patients were treated between November 2015 and December 2016. The 1-year progression-free and overall survival rates were 40.4% and 81.8%, respectively. The 1-year in-field failure-free rate was 95.5%. NLV ranged from 483.9 to 795.8 cm3 (median = 673.8 cm3), eSLV ranged from 889.3 to 1290.0 cm3 (median = 1104.5 cm3), and the resulting NLV/eSLV ratio ranged from 44.3 to 81.2% (median = 57.7%). Non-irradiated liver volume (NILV) ranged from 232.9 to 531.6 cm3 (median = 391.2 cm3). The NILV/eSLV ratio ranged from 21.2 to 48.0% (median = 33.3%). NLV in the patients who received 20% and an rV30/eSLV ratio of >30% are acceptable.

LED strip lighting can provide high quality uniform shadow-free diffuse lighting at low cost as numerous emission sources are controlled by a single transformer. Organic LEDs offer the additional advantages of UV free emission and, for visible light communication, picosecond fluorescent lifetimes allowing the whole visible spectrum to be used without filters. Using parameters determined experimentally for solid-state LED strip lighting and fluorescent lifetimes typical of organic phosphors as the input for a Monte Carlo based ray-tracing simulation, we evaluate the potential bandwidths obtainable for indoor communication. Our work suggests that raw data transfer rates of 4 to 10 Mbps are obtainable in a standard 5m by 5m by 3m room compatible with Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Background The cultivation of empathy for healthcare providers is an important issue in medical education. Narrative medicine (NM) has been shown to foster empathy. To our knowledge, there has been no research that examines whether a NM programme affects multi-professional healthcare providers’ empathy. Our study aims to fill this gap by investigating whether a NM programme effects multi-professional healthcare providers’ empathy. Methods A pre-post questionnaire method was used.142 participants (n = 122 females) who attended the NM programme were divided into single (n = 58) and team groups (n = 84) on the basis of inter-professional education during a period of 2 months. Perceptions of the NM programme were collected using our developed questionnaire. Empathy levels were measured using the Chinese version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Healthcare Providers Version (JSE-HP) – at three time points: prior to (Time 1), immediately after (T2), and 1.5 years (T3) after the programme. Results Participants’ perceptions about the NM programme (n = 116; n = 96 females) suggested an in enhancement of empathy (90.5%). Empathy scores via the JSE-HP increased after the NM programme (T1 mean 111.05, T2 mean 116.19) and were sustainable for 1.5 years (T3 mean 116.04) for all participants (F(2297) = 3.74, p

English version of questionnaire for narrative medicine. Participants’ perceptions about narrative medicine for Table S1. The results show that participants’ perceptions were positive (strongly agree and agree) in terms of enhancement of reflection (106/116, 91.4%), empathy (105/116, 90.5%), and patient-doctor relationships (98/116, 84.5%). (DOC 48 kb)

This paper presents an improved borehole prospecting methodology based on a combination of techniques in the hydrogeological characterization of fractured rock aquifers. The approach is demonstrated by on-site tests carried out in the Hoshe Experimental Forest site and the Tailuge National Park, Taiwan. Borehole televiewer logs are used to obtain fracture location and distribution along boreholes. The heat-pulse flow meter log is used to measure vertical velocity flow profiles which can be analyzed to estimate fracture transmissivity and to indicate hydraulic connectivity between fractures. Double-packer hydraulic tests are performed to determine the rock mass transmissivity. The computer program FLASH is used to analyze the data from the flowmeter logs. The FLASH program is confirmed as a useful tool which quantitatively predicts the fracture transmissivity in comparison to the hydraulic properties obtained from packer tests. The location of conductive fractures and their transmissivity is identified, after which the preferential flow paths through the fracture network are precisely delineated from a cross-borehole test. The results provide robust confirmation of the use of combined flowmeter and packer methods in the characterization of fractured-rock aquifers, particularly in reference to the investigation of groundwater resource and contaminant transport dynamics.

A simple descriptive-statistical approach is proposed for evaluating the transmissivity of fractured-bedrock under field conditions. Based on standard well logging and identification of structural discontinuities from borehole televiewer, the approach consists of four steps: (1) determination of discontinuity properties, namely the frequency of discontinuities and the ratio of open fractures along the borehole; (2) ranking the three well logs and the discontinuity properties into tertiles (high-to-low); (3) performing statistical analysis (F-test) for the three well logs to assess the significance of open fractures on the water-transmitting potential and then assigned a weighting factor; and (4) a semi-quantitative indicator, RGVFO, is obtained by multiplying all predictive indexes and weighting factors. It is a multi-criteria evaluation procedure that elucidates the quantitative and qualitative importance of all selected geophysical indexes. A high cross-correlation between transmissivity to RGVFO value is found, which indicates that by a combined consideration of well logging and structural discontinuities, an appropriate estimate of bedrock water-transmitting potential can be derived.

Plasmonic photocatalytic reactions have been substantially developed. However, the mechanism underlying the enhancement of such reactions is confusing in relevant studies. The plasmonic enhancements of photocatalytic reactions are hard to identify by processing chemically or physically. This review discusses the noteworthy experimental setups or designs for reactors that process various energy transformation paths for enhancing plasmonic photocatalytic reactions. Specially designed experimental setups can help characterize near-field optical responses in inducing plasmons and transformation of light energy. Electrochemical measurements, dark-field imaging, spectral measurements, and matched coupling of wavevectors lead to further understanding of the mechanism underlying plasmonic enhancement. The discussions herein can provide valuable ideas for advanced future studies.

Drawing from the lessons learnt from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the assessment of subsurface environmental hazard around nuclear power plants has emerged as a critical task. Consequently, aiming to better understand the possible environmental impact of radiation leaks into the groundwater, a prescreening programme was initiated in 2011 by the Taiwanese government. As part of this programme, this study conducted various borehole prospecting techniques to identify in situ hydrogeological characteristics at Chin-Shan Nuclear Power Plant. Borehole electrical log, sonic log and temperature/conductivity log were conducted to explain the regional lithologic conditions and permeability of the formation. In conjunction with this, the interwell tracer and pumping test was carried out to simultaneously determine the hydraulic parameters. In our opinion, the implementation of such in situ end-to-end investigations is essential in interpreting in situ fluid and solute transport dynamics prior to programming any numerical scheme for early warning, vulnerability assessment and regular monitoring of a nuclear power plant site.

Intraocular pressure (IOP) is important for the prevention and treatment of certain human eye diseases. For example, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world according to the World Health Organization [1]. The majority of glaucoma patients have an IOP >; 20 mmHg (compared with a normal IOP of 10 mmHg), which could damage patients optic nerves in the backside of the eye and cause irreversible blindness. Currently, there is no cure for glaucoma, but with early diagnosis and proper treatment, the visual loss can be slowed or eliminated. Due to the lack of other symptoms or pain, and the eye's ability to compensate for loss of peripheral vision, many glaucoma patients are unaware of the disease's development until it is severe. In fact, only half of the patients in the United States are aware of having glaucoma. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment are important to prevent blindness. Thus, a device to diagnose early-stage glaucoma is in demand.

We report the bioassisted synthesis of gold nanoparticle/silica (Au NP/silica) tubes using layer-by-layer (LBL) assembled poly(L-lysine)/poly(L-tyrosine) (PLL/PLT) multilayer films deposited on the polycarbonate (PC) membrane pores as both mediating agents and templates. The novelty of this approach is the in situ synthesis of Au NP/silica tubes using PLL/PLT multilayer films for sequential growth of Au NPs and silicas. The experimental data revealed that the buildup of the LBL multilayer films was mainly driven by the formation of hydrogen bond and the polypeptide macromolecular assemblies adopted mainly β-sheet conformation. The as-prepared Au NP/silica tubes possessed promising catalytic activity toward the reduction of p-nitrophenol. The synthesis conditions such as the concentration of gold precursor and polypeptide molecular weight were found to influence the gold weight ratio and particle size in the tubes and the catalytic properties of the Au NP/silica tubes. This approach provides a facile, robust, and green method to obtain nonaggregated metal nanoparticles immobilized in porous oxide network at ambient conditions. Using the synergy between biomimetic or bioassisted synthesis of nanostructured materials and LbL assembly technique, a variety of structures such as films, tubes, and capsules comprising of multiple compositions can be obtained.

A novel approach is proposed to prepare organic-inorganic composite tubular structure by mineralizing silica and/or gold nanoparticle in the LbL assembled polypeptide multilayers films. Mesoporous silica (m-SiO2) and gold nanoparticle/mesoporous silica (Au NP/m-SiO2) tubes were prepared by subsequent calcination. The LbL assembled poly-L-lysine (PLL)/poly-L-tyrosine (PLT) multilayer film within the inner pores of polycarbonate templates acts as both a mineralizing agent and template for the formation of these materials. The as-prepared mesoporous SiO2and Au NP/m-SiO2tubes have well-defined structures. Gold nanoparticles with size smaller than 8 nm were immobilized in the silica network and the as-prepared Au NP/m-SiO2tubes exhibit good catalytic activity towards the reduction of p-nitrophenol. This approach may provide a facile and general method to synthesize organic-inorganic and metal-oxide nanocomposites with different composition and structures.

This paper presents an implantable parylene-based wireless pressure sensor for biomedical pressure sensing applications specifically designed for continuous intraocular pressure (IOP) monitoring in glaucoma patients. It has an electrical LC tank resonant circuit formed by an integrated capacitor and an inductor coil to facilitate passive wireless sensing using an external interrogating coil connected to a readout unit. Two surface-micromachined sensor designs incorporating variable capacitor and variable capacitor/inductor resonant circuits have been implemented to realize the pressure-sensitive components. The sensor is monolithically microfabricated by exploiting parylene as a biocompatible structural material in a suitable form factor for minimally invasive intraocular implantation. Pressure responses of the microsensor have been characterized to demonstrate its high pressure sensitivity ( > 7000 ppm/mmHg) in both sensor designs, which confirms the feasibility of pressure sensing with smaller than 1 mmHg of resolution for practical biomedical applications. A six-month animal study verifies the in vivo bioefficacy and biostability of the implant in the intraocular environment with no surgical or postoperative complications. Preliminary ex vivo experimental results verify the IOP sensing feasibility of such device. This sensor will ultimately be implanted at the pars plana or on the iris of the eye to fulfill continuous, convenient, direct, and faithful IOP monitoring.[2008-0111].

This paper presents the world's first surface-micromachined parylene dual-valved microfluidic system for on-chip unpowered microflow regulation. Incorporating a normally closed and a normally open passive check valve in a back-to-back configuration inside a microchannel, the dual-valved system has successfully regulated the pressure/flow rate of air and liquid without power consumption or electronic/magnetic/thermal transduction. By exclusively using parylene C (poly-para-xylylene C) as the structural material, the fabricated valves have higher flexibility to shunt flows in comparison to other conventional thin-film valves. A state-of-the-art multilayer polymer surface-micromachining technology is applied here to fabricate parylene microvalves of various designs. The parylene-based devices are completely biocompatible/implantable and provide an economical paradigm for fluidic control in integrated lab-on-a-chip systems. Design, fabrication, and characterization of the parylene dual valves are discussed in this paper. Testing results have successfully demonstrated that the microflow regulation of the on-chip dual-valved system can achieve a bandpass profile in which the pressure control range is 0-50 mmHg with corresponding flow rates up to 2 mL/min for air flow and 1 muL/min flow rate for water flow. This regulation range is suitable for controlling biological conditions in human health care, with potential applications including drug delivery and regulation of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients.

Mobile augmented reality (MAR) provides an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use method of accessing information in an intuitive way by visually parsing the environment and relating information in the form of augmentations to specific objects in specific places through handheld mobile devices. With the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry widely adopting building information modeling (BIM) technologies, this research contributes an efficient and cost-effective solution to integrate BIM into MAR by developing a method and workflow that practitioners can use to consolidate, optimize, and visualize their data and models in an MAR environment. Moreover, a real-world application of this method, called BIM2MAR, within facility management practices is described in this paper. In the future, this research will investigate the integration of the BIM2MAR method into cloud computing, as well as conducting user-centered evaluation.

This paper presents the first biocompatible, unpowered, micromachined pressure sensor for intraocular pressure (IOP) sensing. This device is designed for implantation in the eye so that IOP can be faithfully measured externally. It features a parylene-based high-aspect-ratio spiral-tube structure fabricated using a buried-channel process. This passive sensor requires no power from other physical (i.e. electrical and/or magnetic) domains and registers pressure variations by changes of a mechanical in-plane spiral rotation that can be gauged by direct and convenient optical observation. The fabricated device has been tested in various media, and a 1 mm-radius device with a 10-turn spiral has successfully demonstrated continuous spiral rotation when immersed in liquids, with 0.22°/mmHg sensitivity in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and 0.13°/mmHg sensitivity in water. This pressure sensing technology is proposed as a convenient method to monitor in situ IOP in glaucoma patients and to facilitate treatment and scientific study of the disease.

This study reports a novel approach utilizing an octahedral CoII(HAPP)(TFA)2 reagent in the presence of H2O2 with analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) to serve as an efficient probe for bulged DNA structures. Elucidation of DNA bulge-specific recognition pathways and cleavage mechanisms is demonstrated by characterization of bulge-specific cleavage products and other backbone lesion fragments. The cleavage specificity of CoII(HAPP)(TFA)2/H2O2 arises from sugar oxidative strand scission, for which the position of the abstracted hydrogen is unambiguously determined as the 4′-H of the deoxyribose moiety. Furthermore, differentiation between bulge-specific recognition and diffusion-controlled non-selective cleavage can be clarified through time-dependent MALDI-TOFMS studies. The present results demonstrate that MALDI-TOFMS can be a sensitive and efficient technique for complex mechanistic studies of this kind, providing information for future rational drug design targeting bulged DNA structures. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.