• Title/Summary/Keyword: blindness

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The Prison and the Sea

  • Mrazek, Jan
    • SUVANNABHUMI
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.7-40
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    • 2019
  • The essay reflects on the work of Adrian Lapian (1929-2011), an Indonesian scholar of archipelagic/maritime Southeast Asia and its "sea people-sea pirates-sea kings." The essay suggests that Lapian's writing mirrors navigation at sea, and the constant re-orientation and ever-changing, multiple points of view that are part of it. This is contrasted to Foucault's "panopticism" and academic desire for discipline. Taking cue from Lapian's writing and from the present author's experience of seafaring, the essay envisions Southeast Asian studies as a fluid, precarious, disorienting, even nauseating multiplicity of experiences, dialogues, and moving, unstable, and uncertain points of view; a style of learning that is less (neo)colonial, more humble, and closer to experiences in the region, than super-scholarship that imposes universalizing, panoptic standards, theories and methods (typically self-styled as "new") that reduce the particular into a specimen of the general, a cell in the Panopticon. The essay concludes with reflections on certain learning initiatives/traditions at the National University of Singapore, including seafaring voyages-experiences, encounters, and conversations that make students and scholars alike to move and see differently, to be touched, blown away, rocked, swayed, disoriented, swallowed, transformed, and feel anew their places, roots, bonds, distances, fears, blindness, powerlessness.

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Novel potential drugs for the treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma using protein-protein interaction network analysis

  • Parisima Ghaffarian Zavarzadeh;Zahra Abedi
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.6.1-6.8
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    • 2023
  • Glaucoma is the second leading cause of irreversible blindness, and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the most common type. Due to inadequate diagnosis, treatment is often not administered until symptoms occur. Hence, approaches enabling earlier prediction or diagnosis of POAG are necessary. We aimed to identify novel drugs for glaucoma through bioinformatics and network analysis. Data from 36 samples, obtained from the trabecular meshwork of healthy individuals and patients with POAG, were acquired from a dataset. Next, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified to construct a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. In both stages, the genes were enriched by studying the critical biological processes and pathways related to POAG. Finally, a drug-gene network was constructed, and novel drugs for POAG treatment were proposed. Genes with p < 0.01 and |log fold change| > 0.3 (1,350 genes) were considered DEGs and utilized to construct a PPI network. Enrichment analysis yielded several key pathways that were upregulated or downregulated. For example, extracellular matrix organization, the immune system, neutrophil degranulation, and cytokine signaling were upregulated among immune pathways, while signal transduction, the immune system, extracellular matrix organization, and receptor tyrosine kinase signaling were downregulated. Finally, novel drugs including metformin hydrochloride, ixazomib citrate, and cisplatin warrant further analysis of their potential roles in POAG treatment. The candidate drugs identified in this computational analysis require in vitro and in vivo validation to confirm their effectiveness in POAG treatment. This may pave the way for understanding life-threatening disorders such as cancer.

Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma : Neurosurgical Perspective

  • Kwak, Young Ho
    • Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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    • v.65 no.3
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    • pp.370-379
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    • 2022
  • Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the most severe form of physical abuse in children. Such injury involves traumatic damage to the head and/or spine of infants and young children. The term AHT was introduced to include a wider range of injury mechanisms, such as intentional direct blow, throw, and even penetrating trauma by perpetuator(s). Currently, it is recommended to replace the former term, shaken baby syndrome, which implicates shaking as the only mechanism, with AHT to include diverse clinical and radiological manifestations. The consequences of AHT cause devastating medical, social and financial burdens on families, communities, and victims. The potential harm of AHT to the developing brain and spinal cord of the victims is tremendous. Many studies have reported that the adverse effects of AHT are various and serious, such as blindness, mental retardation, physical limitation of daily activities and even psychological problems. Therefore, appropriate vigilance for the early recognition and diagnosis of AHT is highly recommended to stop and prevent further injuries. The aim of this review is to summarize the relevant evidence concerning the early recognition and diagnosis of AHT. To recognize this severe type of child abuse early, all health care providers maintain a high index of suspicion and vigilance. Such suspicion can be initiated with careful and thorough history taking and physical examinations. Previously developed clinical prediction rules can be helpful for decision-making regarding starting an investigation when considering meaningful findings. Even the combination of biochemical markers may be useful to predict AHT. For a more confirmative evaluation, neuroradiological imaging is required to find AHT-specific findings. Moreover, timely consultation with ophthalmologists is needed to find a very specific finding, retinal hemorrhage.

Genetic Studies on the Isolated Population in Korean (韓國人 隔離集團의 遺傳學的 硏究)

  • Lee, Chung Choo
    • The Korean Journal of Zoology
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.19-27
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    • 1978
  • This study has been carried out with the object of researching into the situation of the genetic isolation of a Korean population located near Seoul. The results obtained are summarized as follows: In general, the distribution of P.T.C. threshold values in the population is close to that of the Seoul population. But the nonataster frequency of male in the population is higher than that of female, and this is in agreement with the status of ankyloglossia frequency in male. However the relationship between the two traits has not been clarified. The gene frequencies of rolling and folding of tongue are slightly lower than that of the Seoul population. The gene frequency conditioning the ability to twist the tongue is lower in the male than in the female. The color-blindness is 6.21 percent, and it is slightly higher than that of other Korean population. All considered, the studied population might be regarded to have been kept in genetic isolation.

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Rapid construction delivery of COVID-19 special hospital: Case study on Wuhan Huoshenshan hospital

  • Wang, Chen;Yu, Liangcheng;Kassem, Mukhtar A.;Li, Heng;Wang, Ziming
    • Advances in Computational Design
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    • v.7 no.4
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    • pp.345-369
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    • 2022
  • Infectious disease emergency hospitals are usually temporarily built during the pneumonia epidemic with higher requirements regarding diagnosis and treatment efficiency, hygiene and safety, and infection control.This study aims to identify how the Building Information Modeling (BIM) + Industrialized Building System (IBS) approach could rapidly deliver an infectious disease hospital and develop site epidemic spreading algorithms. Coronavirus-19 pneumonia construction site spreading algorithm model mind map and block diagram of the construction site epidemic spreading algorithm model were developed. BIM+IBS approach could maximize the repetition of reinforced components and reduce the number of particular components. Huoshenshan Hospital adopted IBS and BIM in the construction, which reduced the workload of on-site operations and avoided later rectification. BIM+IBS integrated information on building materials, building planning, building participants, and construction machinery, and realized construction visualization control and parametric design. The delivery of Huoshenshan Hospital was during the most critical period of the Coronavirus-19 pneumonia epidemic. The development of a construction site epidemic spreading algorithm provided theoretical and numerical support for prevention. The agent-based analysis on hospital evacuation observed "arched" congestion formed at the evacuation exit, indicating behavioral blindness caused by fear in emergencies.

Intelligent Shoes for Detecting Blind Falls Using the Internet of Things

  • Ahmad Abusukhon
    • KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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    • v.17 no.9
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    • pp.2377-2398
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    • 2023
  • In our daily lives, we engage in a variety of tasks that rely on our senses, such as seeing. Blindness is the absence of the sense of vision. According to the World Health Organization, 2.2 billion people worldwide suffer from various forms of vision impairment. Unfortunately, blind people face a variety of indoor and outdoor challenges on a daily basis, limiting their mobility and preventing them from engaging in other activities. Blind people are very vulnerable to a variety of hazards, including falls. Various barriers, such as stairs, can cause a fall. The Internet of Things (IoT) is used to track falls and send a warning message to the blind caretakers. One of the gaps in the previous works is that they were unable to differentiate between falls true and false. Treating false falls as true falls results in many false alarms being sent to the blind caretakers and thus, they may reject the IoT system. As a means of bridging this chasm, this paper proposes an intelligent shoe that is able to precisely distinguish between false and true falls based on three sensors, namely, the load scale sensor, the light sensor, and the Flex sensor. The proposed IoT system is tested in an indoor environment for various scenarios of falls using four models of machine learning. The results from our system showed an accuracy of 0.96%. Compared to the state-of-the-art, our system is simpler and more accurate since it avoids sending false alarms to the blind caretakers.

Effects of eye dominance on shade matching and color perception among the dentist population

  • Pattnaik Kalyani;Kannan Subiksha;Amit Jena;Govind Shashirekha;Saumyakanta Mohanty;Gaurav Sharma
    • Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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    • v.48 no.4
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    • pp.40.1-40.8
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    • 2023
  • Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of eye dominance on color perception, and shade matching. Materials and Methods: A total of 104 participants were selected for the study. There were 3 groups: Group I: 3rd and 4th year dental students and interns (n = 40); Group II: postgraduates (n = 34); Group III: senior residents and faculty members (≥ 6 years of clinical experience) (n = 30). All participants were evaluated for congenital color blindness with Ishihara plates, their dominant eye with Mile's test, and their color perception with the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test. The shade guide test was used for shade matching with a second corresponding set of Vitapan classical shade guides. Results: The results of Mile's test revealed that 60.6% were right-eye dominant and 39.4% were left-eye dominant. There was a statistically significant difference among all participants between the dominant eye and the non-dominant eye in shade matching. Conclusions: The dominant eye has a positive effect on shade matching and the ability to match shades becomes better with an increase in clinical experience.

Aneurysmal bone cyst arising from the surgically removed craniofacial fibrous dysplasia in the long-term follow-up: a case report

  • Seungchul Baek;Byung Jun Kim
    • Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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    • v.24 no.5
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    • pp.244-249
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    • 2023
  • Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a rare skeletal disorder characterized by abnormal fibro-osseous connective tissue replacing normal bone. Despite its benign behavior, craniofacial FD can cause morphological disfigurement, headache, and even blindness as a result of the produced mass effect. Surgical resection is recommended when the patient shows apparent clinical symptoms or aggravating facial asymmetry. Postoperative complications have been reported, such as hematoma, surgical site infection, abscess formation, resorption of the bone graft used for reconstruction, and recurrence. An aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) is a rare benign bony lesion that can occur secondary to preexisting bone tumor. Secondary ABCs in craniofacial FD are extremely rare in the literature, accounting for less than 30, all of which are either case reports or series. We report an extremely rare case of symptomatic secondary ABC arising from craniofacial FD that had been misdiagnosed with abscess formation or recurrence and was surgically removed. Notably, 17 years elapsed between the primary surgery and the complication of secondary ABC. The patient underwent total removal of secondary ABC. After surgery, symptoms were relieved, with no recurrence observed during a 6-month follow-up.

A Systematic Review on the Management of Cortical Visual Impairment

  • Myunghwa Oh;Hyunjoong Kim
    • Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.196-204
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    • 2024
  • Objective: Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) is a leading cause of pediatric blindness and the most common form of pediatric visual disability, particularly prevalent among children with cerebral palsy (CP). This systematic review synthesizes the latest research on various interventions for managing CVI, focusing on studies published in the last decade. Design: A systematic review Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in March 2024 across several databases including MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science. Studies were selected based on inclusion criteria set under the PICOSD framework and were limited to those involving human subjects, published in English, and conducted within the past ten years. The selected studies included randomized controlled trials, observational studies, and case reports focusing on rehabilitation, therapy, and surgical interventions for CVI. Results: Out of 221 studies screened, 5 met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed in detail. These studies covered a range of interventions including physiotherapy, sensory integration training, visual training programs, neuromotor rehabilitation, and surgical procedures aimed at improving visual function and overall quality of life for CVI patients. Conclusions: The studies demonstrate the potential benefits of structured, early intervention programs that incorporate family involvement and are tailored to the unique needs of children with CVI. However, there remains a significant need for further research to establish evidence-based practices in this field.

A Study on Antioxidant System in Cataract Patients (한국인 백내장환자의 항산화 체계에 관한 연구)

  • 고영숙;홍영재;정혜연;김수연;이양자
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.229-236
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    • 2002
  • Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide and are characterized by increased opacity of the lens that significantly diminishes visual acuity. It has been suggested that increased risk of lens opacities are associated with age, exposure to sunlight, diabetes, smoking, and poor nutrition. Antioxidant nutrients have born demonstrated to protect the lens membrane and protein against damage due to oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the antioxidant system in the blood of cataract patients. The status of the blood antioxidant system was evaluated based on the levels of antioxidant vitamins and minerals as well as glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and malondialdehyde (M7A) activity in 34 patients with cataracts (17 male and 17 female) and 45 control subjects (20 male and 25 female). After adjusting for age, the results showed significantly lower levels of antioxidant vitamins such as lycopene (M : p < 0.05, F: p < 0.01), zeaxanthin (F: p < 0.01), ${\gamma}$-tocopherol (F: p < 0.01) and ascorbic arid (M: p < 0.05) in the cataract patients than in the control subjects. In contrast, the concentration of cryptoxanthin (F : p < 0.07) showed a significantly higher value in the cataract patients. The serum level of the antioxidant mineral Zn (M : p < 0.01) was found to be significantly lower in the cataract patients while the ratio of cu/zn appeared significantly higher (M : p < 0.05). Significantly higher (M : p < 0.01, F: p < 0.05) concentrations of MDA in serum was found in the cataract patients as compared to the control subjects. GSH-Px activity was significantly lower (F: p < 0.05) in 71e cataract patients. In conclusion, the antioxidant system may play an important roll in cataract creation. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying these findings and to establish preventive measures with an emphasis on antioxidant nutrition for cataract patients.