Postural Balance Ability and the Effect of Visual Restriction on Older Dancers and Non-Dancers

Dance has been suggested to be an advantageous exercise modality for improving postural balance performance and reducing the risk of falls in the older population. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether visual restriction impacts older dancers and non-dancers differently during a quiet stance balance performance test.
We hypothesized higher balance performance and greater balance deterioration due to visual restriction in dancers compared with non-dancers, indicating the superior contribution of the visual channel in the expected higher balance performances of dancers. Sixty-nine (38 men, 31 women, 74 ± 6 years) healthy older adults participated and were grouped into a Greek traditional dance group (n = 31, two to three times/week for 1.5 h/session, minimum of 3 years) and a non-dancer control group (n = 38, no systematic exercise history).
The participants completed an assessment of one-legged quiet stance trials using both left and right legs and with eyes open while standing barefoot on a force plate (Wii, A/D converter, 1,000 Hz; Biovision) and two-legged trials with both eyes open and closed. The possible differences in the anthropometric and one-legged balance parameters were examined by a univariate ANOVA with group and sex as fixed factors.
This ANOVA was performed using the same fixed factors and vision as the repeated measures factor for the two-legged balance parameters. In the one-legged task, the dance group showed significantly lower values in anteroposterior and mediolateral sway amplitudes (p = 0.001 and p = 0.035) and path length measured in both directions (p = 0.001) compared with the non-dancers. In the two-legged stance, we found a significant vision effect on path length (p < 0.001) and anteroposterior amplitude (p < 0.001), whereas mediolateral amplitude did not differ significantly (p = 0.439) between closed and open eyes. The dance group had a significantly lower CoP path length (p = 0.006) and anteroposterior (p = 0.001) and mediolateral sway amplitudes (p = 0.003) both in the eyes-open and eyes-closed trials compared with the control group.
The superior balance performance in the two postural tasks found in the dancers is possibly the result of the coordinated, aesthetically oriented intersegmental movements, including alternations between one- and two-legged stance phases, that comes with dance. Visual restriction resulted in a similar deterioration of balance performance in both groups, thus suggesting that the contribution of the visual channel alone cannot explain the superior balance performance of dancers.

Refractive corneal inlay implantation outcomes: a preliminary systematic review

Purpose: To review all case series of refractive corneal inlay implantation: Flexivue (Presbia, Netherlands), Invue (BioVision, Brügg, Switzerland) and Icolens (Neoptics, Hünenberg, Switzerland) performed in presbyopia patients and to evaluate the reported visual outcomes. In addition, our aim is to provide assessment for complications and to report the satisfaction rates.
Methods: PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were consulted using “refractive corneal inlay”, “Flexivue Inlay”, “Invue Inlay” and “Icolens inlay” as keywords. 147 articles were found, and they were assessed considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After filtering, this systemic review included ten articles, published between 2011 and 2020.
Results: 308 eyes from 308 participants were enrolled in this systematic review. Mean maximum follow-up was 13.9 months. Nine of the ten case series included used femtosecond laser for the corneal pocket creation. Mean pocket depth was 293.75 µm. 77.5% of the eyes reported a postoperative uncorrected near visual acuity of 20/32 or better, and 19.20% of the inlay-implanted eyes achieved an uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/20 or better. The most prominent complications were halos, pain, photophobia, and poor distance visual acuity. 27 eyes (8.7%) had to be explanted due to complications, such as near-distance spectacle dependence or blurred distance vision.
Conclusion: Refractive corneal inlay outcomes demonstrated high efficacy, safety, and satisfaction rates. Furthermore, it is a reversible technique. However, the findings must be viewed with caution due potential conflict of interest. Further research with higher sample size is needed to validate these findings.
Keywords: Flexivue inlay; Icolens inlay; Invue inlay; Refractive inlay.

Quantifying Visual Image Quality: A Bayesian View

Image quality assessment (IQA) models aim to establish a quantitative relationship between visual images and their quality as perceived by human observers. IQA modeling plays a special bridging role between vision science and engineering practice, both as a test-bed for vision theories and computational biovision models and as a powerful tool that could potentially have a profound impact on a broad range of image processing, computer vision, and computer graphics applications for design, optimization, and evaluation purposes.
The growth of IQA research has accelerated over the past two decades. In this review, we present an overview of IQA methods from a Bayesian perspective, with the goals of unifying a wide spectrum of IQA approaches under a common framework and providing useful references to fundamental concepts accessible to vision scientists and image processing practitioners.
We discuss the implications of the successes and limitations of modern IQA methods for biological vision and the prospect for vision science to inform the design of future artificial vision systems. (The detailed model taxonomy can be found at http://ivc.uwaterloo.ca/research/bayesianIQA/.) Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Nitric oxide in infertile females in the niger-delta region of Nigeria

Background: Infertility is a public health challenge and it is a distressing personal tragedy for couples, more so for the female partners. Risk factors and causes of infertility vary from region to region. Reactive species is of current interest in the pathogenesis and management of infertility, especially in the Niger-Delta Region of Nigeria where environmental hazards of oil exploration exists.
Aim: The overall goal of this study was to determine and compare the serum reactive species levels (nitric oxide) in fertile and infertile women attending the infertility clinic at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, and Central Hospital, Warri.
Methods: This was a prospective case-control study in which 70 women evaluated for infertility were recruited into the study. A fertile patient matched for age and body mass index (BMI) attending family planning clinic was selected as control. Serum nitric oxide estimation was done using the BioVision Nitric Oxide Colorimetric Assay Kit. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Student’s t-test was applied to compare the serum levels of nitric acid and the differences were considered significant if P < 0.05.

Biotinylated Bovine Serum Albumin (Biotin-LC-BSA) (3 biotin/BSA)

from Biovision
7097-25 | each: 266.40 EUR

Biotinylated Bovine Serum Albumin (Biotin-LC-BSA) (3 biotin/BSA)

from Biovision
7097-5 | each: 138.00 EUR

Biotinylated Bovine Serum Albumin (Biotin-LC-BSA) (5 biotin/BSA)

from Biovision
7098-25 | each: 279.60 EUR

Biotinylated Bovine Serum Albumin (Biotin-LC-BSA) (5 biotin/BSA)

from Biovision
7098-5 | each: 144.00 EUR

Biotinylated Bovine Serum Albumin (Biotin-LC-BSA) (12 biotin/BSA)

from Biovision
7099-25 | each: 292.80 EUR

Biotinylated Bovine Serum Albumin (Biotin-LC-BSA) (12 biotin/BSA)

from Biovision
7099-5 | each: 157.20 EUR

BIO

from Biovision
1673-1 | each: 189.60 EUR

7BIO

from Biovision
9690-25 | each: 705.60 EUR

7BIO

from Biovision
9690-5 | each: 222.00 EUR

D-(+)-Biotin

from Biovision
9587-10G | each: 418.80 EUR

D-(+)-Biotin

from Biovision
9587-5G | each: 288.00 EUR

Bioymifi

from Biovision
9424-25 | each: 652.80 EUR

Bioymifi

from Biovision
9424-5 | each: 210.00 EUR

Biotin-NHS

from Biovision
2347-1000 | each: 561.60 EUR

Biotin-NHS

from Biovision
2347-250 | each: 326.40 EUR

Biotin-NHS

from Biovision
2347-50 | each: 138.00 EUR
Results: Infertile women had significantly higher mean serum nitric oxide levels than fertile women: 34.33 (SD 5.93) μmol/L versus 18.27 (SD 2.63) μmol/L (P < 0.001). Women with secondary infertility had significantly higher mean levels of nitric oxide than those with primary infertility: 38.13 (SD 3.39) μmol/L versus 22.72 (SD 4.36) μmol/L (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: The study showed that serum nitric oxide level was significantly elevated in women with infertility compared to women of proven fertility. Hence, oxidative stress from reactive species may be a contributory factor to infertility in women in the Niger-Delta Region of Nigeria.