Glass Patterns Research Articles

Radiological and pathological analysis of LDCT screen detected and surgically resected sub-centimetre lung nodules in 44 asymptomatic patients

PurposeOnce lung cancer is detected due to clinical symptoms or by being visible on chest X-ray, it is usually high stage and non-operable. In order to improve mortality rates in lung cancer, low-dose CT (LDCT) screening of “high risk” individuals is gaining popularity. However, the rate of malignancy in LDCT detected sub-centimetre lung nodules is not clear. We aimed to analyze surgically resected specimens in this patient group to explore cost effectiveness and recommendations for clinical management of these nodules. Material & methodsOur hospital pathology database was searched for sub-centimeter lung nodules detected by LDCT screening which were resected. The patient demographics were collected and the radiologic and pathologic characteristics of those nodules were analyzed. ResultsFrom the records, 44 patients with 46 resected subcentimetre nodules were identified. Patients were selected for surgery based on an irregular shape, growth in size during follow up, family history of lung cancer or personal history of cancer of other sites, previous lung disease, smoking and personal anxiety. Of the 44 patients, 33 were women and the ages ranged from 43 to 76 years (56.75±8.44). All nodules were equal to, or less than 10mm with a mean diameter of 7.81±1.80mm (SD). Out of 46 nodules, the pathological diagnoses were: invasive adenocarcinoma (ACa) in 4 (8.7%); adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) or atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) in 29 (63%); benign fibrosis/fibrotic scar with inflammation or calcification in 12 (26.1%); an intrapulmonary benign lymph node in 1 (2.2%). Of the ACa, AIS and AAH groups (a total of 31 patients), 77% were women (24 vs. 7). The cancer or pre-cancer nodules (ACa, AIS and AAH) tended to be larger than benign fibrotic scars (P=0.039). Amongst all characteristics, significant statistical differences were found when the following radiological features were considered: reconstructed nodule shape (P=0.011), margin (P=0.003) and ground glass pattern (P=0.000). The patient’s age, the axial morphology of the lesion, relationship to major vessels or visceral pleura and location within the lung parenchyma were not predictive of the pathologic diagnosis. Only one of the 31 patients with a cancer or pre-cancer nodule was a smoker. ConclusionACa, AIS and AAH nodules detected on LDCT included more women (77%) than men in our cohort. Smoking as inclusive criteria for LDCT screening of lung cancer needs to be further evaluated in the Chinese population. The reconstructed nodule shape, density and margin may help radiologists to identify small cancer and pre-cancer nodules from benign conditions.

Probability, not linear summation, mediates the detection of concentric orientation-defined textures

Previous studies investigating signal integration in circular Glass patterns have concluded that the information in these patterns is linearly summed across the entire display for detection. Here we test whether an alternative form of summation, probability summation (PS), modeled under the assumptions of Signal Detection Theory (SDT), can be rejected as a model of Glass pattern detection. PS under SDT alone predicts that the exponent β of the Quick- (or Weibull-) fitted psychometric function should decrease with increasing signal area. We measured spatial integration in circular, radial, spiral, and parallel Glass patterns, as well as comparable patterns composed of Gabors instead of dot pairs. We measured the signal-to-noise ratio required for detection as a function of the size of the area containing signal, with the remaining area containing dot-pair or Gabor-orientation noise. Contrary to some previous studies, we found that the strength of summation never reached values close to linear summation for any stimuli. More importantly, the exponent β systematically decreased with signal area, as predicted by PS under SDT. We applied a model for PS under SDT and found that it gave a good account of the data. We conclude that probability summation is the most likely basis for the detection of circular, radial, spiral, and parallel orientation-defined textures.

Determination of Fracture Patterns in Glass and Glassy Polymers.

The study of fractures of glass, glassy-type materials, and plastic has long been of interest to the forensic community. The focus of this interest has been the use of glass and polymer fractures to associate items of evidence under the assumption that each fracture is different. Generally, it is well-accepted that deviations exist; however, the emphasis has been on classifying and predicting fracture rather than determining that each fracture is different. This study documented the controlled fracture patterns of 60 glass panes, 60 glass bottles, and 60 plastic tail light lens covers using both dynamic impact and static pressure methods under closely controlled conditions. Each pattern was intercompared, and based on the limited specimens tested in this study, the results illustrate that the fracture patterns are different. Further repetitive studies, under controlled conditions, will be needed to provide more statistical significance to the theory that each fracture forms a nonreproducible fracture pattern.

"Global" visual training and extent of transfer in amblyopic macaque monkeys.

Perceptual learning is gaining acceptance as a potential treatment for amblyopia in adults and children beyond the critical period. Many perceptual learning paradigms result in very specific improvement that does not generalize beyond the training stimulus, closely related stimuli, or visual field location. To be of use in amblyopia, a less specific effect is needed. To address this problem, we designed a more general training paradigm intended to effect improvement in visual sensitivity across tasks and domains. We used a "global" visual stimulus, random dot motion direction discrimination with 6 training conditions, and tested for posttraining improvement on a motion detection task and 3 spatial domain tasks (contrast sensitivity, Vernier acuity, Glass pattern detection). Four amblyopic macaques practiced the motion discrimination with their amblyopic eye for at least 20,000 trials. All showed improvement, defined as a change of at least a factor of 2, on the trained task. In addition, all animals showed improvements in sensitivity on at least some of the transfer test conditions, mainly the motion detection task; transfer to the spatial domain was inconsistent but best at fine spatial scales. However, the improvement on the transfer tasks was largely not retained at long-term follow-up. Our generalized training approach is promising for amblyopia treatment, but sustaining improved performance may require additional intervention.

Security authentication using the reflective glass pattern imaging effect.

The reflective glass pattern imaging effect is investigated experimentally for the utility in forming a synthetic 3D image as a security authentication device in this Letter. An array of homogeneously randomly distributed reflective elements and a corresponding micropattern array are integrated onto a thin layer of polyester film aiming to create a vivid image floating over a substrate surface, which can be clearly visible to the naked eye. By using the reflective-type configuration, the micro-optic system can be realized on a thinner substrate and is immune to external stain due to its flat working plane. A novel gravure-like doctor blading technique can realize a resolution up to 12,000 dpi and a stringent 2D alignment requirement should be imposed. Such devices can find applications in document security and banknotes or other valuable items to protect them against forgery.

Tilt after-effect from perception of global form from Glass Patterns

Tilt after-effect from perception of global form from Glass Patterns

Temporal framing in apparent motion perception cycles with a 12Hz (alpha) rhythm

Visual perception is periodic and structured in recurrent temporal frames. However, it is unclear whether these cycles simply reflect fluctuations of visual excitability, and/or organize perception into discrete moments of information integration in which two events falling within one frame are more likely to be perceived as causally linked. In 1981, Varela et al. probed temporal framing of perception by presenting two sequential flashes at a constant delay and found these flashes to be perceived as simultaneous or sequential depending on the phase of ongoing alpha (7-13Hz) oscillations. These results are still awaiting replication (VanRullen et al, 2014). We here tested periodicity of visual information integration in two behavioural experiments probing (i) simultaneity and (ii) apparent motion perception in double flash stimuli. We flashed two visual events either sequentially or simultaneously. In experiment 1, two dots were displayed in the left and right visual fields, while participants reported whether the events were perceived as sequential or simultaneous. In experiment 2, the two events consisted of random dot patterns that could be perceived as coherent motion, incoherent motion or glass patterns. These stimulus pairs were presented time-locked to a preceding sound (0-300ms delays), shown to reset the phase of visual brain oscillations (Romei et al., 2012). Spectro-temporal dynamics of behavioural time courses (hits) revealed periodicity in perception. Dots perceived as sequential (Group 1, n=19) and apparent motion perception (Group 2, n=19) showed identical, cyclic patterns in the 12Hz (alpha) frequency band (with a significant phase consistency across participants). In contrast, a cyclic pattern in the 4Hz (theta) band was observed in the control conditions (simultaneously presented stimuli), suggesting that the alpha cycles in visual perception go beyond reflecting fluctuations in visual excitability. These data suggest that perceptual frames in the alpha-band play a key role in spatio-temporal visual information integration.

Performance and Analysis of Automatic Detection Of Ground-Glass Pattern in Lung Disease using High-Resolution Computed Tomography

This study proposes an approach for automatic detection of Ground glass pattern, a lung disease, from Computed Tomography (CT) and High Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) scans of the lung. The algorithm is based on frequency spectrum analysis of image using Gabor filter bank. Gabor filter banks are used to support the frequency extraction process. These algorithms when applied to HRCT images will assist doctors to gain more information than from the CT images. The tasks are completed in three steps: Preliminary mask formation, Peripheral mask formation and finally post processing. By these, higher sensitivity and selectivity may be achieved with fast processing time. In the post processing, binary noise removal technique is used to remove noise from the detection mask.

SUBCLINICAL INTERSTITIAL PULMONARY INJURY IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Subjects and methods. The study enrolled 61 inpatients diagnosed with RA (according to the 1987 American College of Rheumatology criteria) who were treated at the V.A. Nasonova Research Institute of Rheumatology; in so doing, high-resolution computed tomography revealed lung changes as a ground glass pattern in 15 patients, reticular striation, traction bronchoectases, and lung tissue changes as honeycomb ones in 25 patients; no lung abnormalities were found in 21 patients. DAS28 was applied to determine the inflammatory activity of RA. The RA patients underwent X-ray studies of the hand, foot, and chest, by using accordingly X-Ray unit and spiral computed tomography scanner (section thickness, 0.65 mm). External respiration function (ERF) indicators were studied with plethysmograph. IgM rheumatoid factor was measured using an immune nephelometer. Serum anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies were assayed by immunochemiluminescence technique on a Cobas e411 analyzer. The xMAP technology using a BioPlex200 analyzer was employed to determine the serum concentrations of 27 cytokines in 15 patients with subclinical IPI and in 25 with clinical IPI. Results and discussion. The major respiratory signs in patients with IPI proved to be cough (24 %), expectoration (20 %), dyspnea (16 %), and crepitation (64 %) on auscultation. Three patients with subclinical IPI were found to have crepitation on auscultation. Respiratory symptoms were absent in the RA patients without IPI. It should be noted that there are a larger number of RA patients with a high smoking index among the RA patients with IPI than among those without IPI (p < 0.05). Investigation of ERF indicators revealed a statistically significantly lower lung diffusing capacity (LDC) in the RA patients with subclinical IPI than in those without IPI (p < 0.05). Other ERF indicators showed no significant deviations of the reference values. LDC and total lung capacity appeared to be statistically significantly lower in the RA patients with clinical IPI than in those without IPI (p < 0.005 and p < 0.05, respectively). The differences in LDC failed to reach the statistical significance in the RA patients with subclinical IPI and in those with clinical IPI. Examination of cytokine concentrations revealed a tendency towards the higher levels of interleukin-7 (IL-7), IL-12, IL-13, IL-15, IL-17, and platelet-derived growth factor BB in the RA patients with subclinical IPI than in those with clinical IPI. At the same time, the differences in the concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) turned out to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). Moreover, the levels of IL-10, interferon-γ, and RANTES proved to be significantly higher in the patients with clinical IPI than in those with subclinical IPI (p < 0.008; p < 0.0003, and p < 0.03, respectively). Conclusion. Thus, the problem associated with the early diagnosis and timely adequate treatment of IPI in patients with RA is relevant. The preclinical form of IPI in patients with RA is associated with ground glass radiological and tomographic patterns and lower LDC values. VEGF may lay a claim to the role of a predictor of pulmonary fibrosis in the RA patients with subclinical IPI.

Exposure to organic solvents used in dry cleaning reduces low and high level visual function.

PurposeTo investigate whether exposure to occupational levels of organic solvents in the dry cleaning industry is associated with neurotoxic symptoms and visual deficits in the perception of basic visual features such as luminance contrast and colour, higher level processing of global motion and form (Experiment 1), and cognitive function as measured in a visual search task (Experiment 2).MethodsThe Q16 neurotoxic questionnaire, a commonly used measure of neurotoxicity (by the World Health Organization), was administered to assess the neurotoxic status of a group of 33 dry cleaners exposed to occupational levels of organic solvents (OS) and 35 age-matched non dry-cleaners who had never worked in the dry cleaning industry. In Experiment 1, to assess visual function, contrast sensitivity, colour/hue discrimination (Munsell Hue 100 test), global motion and form thresholds were assessed using computerised psychophysical tests. Sensitivity to global motion or form structure was quantified by varying the pattern coherence of global dot motion (GDM) and Glass pattern (oriented dot pairs) respectively (i.e., the percentage of dots/dot pairs that contribute to the perception of global structure). In Experiment 2, a letter visual-search task was used to measure reaction times (as a function of the number of elements: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 100) in both parallel and serial search conditions.ResultsDry cleaners exposed to organic solvents had significantly higher scores on the Q16 compared to non dry-cleaners indicating that dry cleaners experienced more neurotoxic symptoms on average. The contrast sensitivity function for dry cleaners was significantly lower at all spatial frequencies relative to non dry-cleaners, which is consistent with previous studies. Poorer colour discrimination performance was also noted in dry cleaners than non dry-cleaners, particularly along the blue/yellow axis. In a new finding, we report that global form and motion thresholds for dry cleaners were also significantly higher and almost double than that obtained from non dry-cleaners. However, reaction time performance on both parallel and serial visual search was not different between dry cleaners and non dry-cleaners.ConclusionsExposure to occupational levels of organic solvents is associated with neurotoxicity which is in turn associated with both low level deficits (such as the perception of contrast and discrimination of colour) and high level visual deficits such as the perception of global form and motion, but not visual search performance. The latter finding indicates that the deficits in visual function are unlikely to be due to changes in general cognitive performance.

Re-evaluating birds' ability to detect Glass patterns.

Glass patterns (GPs) are static stimuli that consist of randomly positioned dot-pairs that are spatially integrated to create the perception of a global form. However, when multiple independently generated static GPs are presented sequentially (termed 'dynamic' GP), observers report a percept of coherent motion, and data show an improvement in sensitivity. This increased sensitivity has been attributed to a summation of the form signals provided by the individual GPs. In Experiment 1, we tested whether pigeons also show a heightened sensitivity to dynamic GPs. Our results show that pigeons are significantly better at learning to discriminate dynamic GPs from noise compared with static GPs. However, in contrast to previous research, we found that pigeons did not perform well enough with our static GPs to extract sensitivity measurements. In Experiment 2, we compared our static GPs to those that have been used previously. We show that the difference in the comparison noise patterns is important. We used dipole noise patterns, while previous studies used uniform noise patterns that differ in mean dot spacing to the S+. We argue that prior findings from the use of GPs in pigeons should be re-evaluated using dynamic GP stimuli with noise that consist of dipoles.

Synthesis and Characterization of Sol-Gel Derived SiO<sub>2</sub>-CaO Glass

A phosphate-free glass based on SiO2-CaO was synthesized by a low temperature acid catalysed sol-gel route. The obtained material was evaluated by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The XRD analysis showed the sol-gel derived glass was amorphous in nature and crystallized when sintered at temperature above 900oC. The crystalline state was consisted of quartz and wollastonite phases. Meanwhile the infrared analysis showed typical transmission bands of monolith silica in the binary glass pattern. The bioactivity of the amorphous glass was investigated in vitro in simulated body fluid (SBF). The amorphous glasses were soaked in SBF for 1, 3 and 7 days. It is notable that the obtained results from FTIR, SEM and EDS analyses showed the deposition of spherical-shaped crystalline hydroxyl-carbonate-apatite (HCA) on the surface of the glass within 3 days of immersion in SBF solution. The HCA deposition was covered most of the surface after 7 days of immersion.

Effects of La2O3, Nd2O3, NiO and CoO additions on the characteristics of SiO2–Al2O3–Y2O3–ZnO glass seals for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells

In this study, nine SiO2–Al2O3–Y2O3–ZnO glasses were prepared to evaluate their applications in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs). La2O3, Nd2O3, NiO and CoO were added to the SiO2–Al2O3–Y2O3–ZnO glass samples to enlarge their CTE and improve their adhesion on SUS430 stainless steel. It was found that YASZ-4 glass was the best candidate as a sealant among the glasses evaluated. The glass transition points, softening points and crystallization peak temperature of the YASZ-4 glass were determined to be 748 °C, 897 °C and 969 °C, respectively, while the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and electrical resistivity at 700 °C were reported to be 8.4 × 10−6 K−1 and 4.43 × 108 Ω-cm, respectively. Partial substitution of Y2O3 with La2O3 and NiO in the SiO2–Al2O3–Y2O3–ZnO glass was observed to increase its CTE and to enhance its adhesion on SUS430. A strict and more sensitive test condition was employed in this study to evaluate the leak rate, which included a helium gas pressure of 1 psi across the glass seals and a small top-loading pressure of 1.0 psi applied on the glass. The leak rate at 700 °C for the first three thermal cycles stabilized at 0.019 sccm/cm and then, slightly decreased to 0.012 sccm/cm after a subsequent 500 h soaking, indicating a trivial degradation of the sealing efficiency against long periods of operation. The XRD pattern of the YASZ-4 glass after a 500 h leakage test revealed that the fully amorphous nature was retained. The addition of 30 mol% LaCoO3 to YASZ-4 glass was further attempted to increase its CTE value; however, results did not show an improvement in terms of a low leak rate.

Doubling and Multiplying the Self/Story in Catherynne M. Valente's The Ice Puzzle: Readers, Writers, and the Best of All Girls

After I presented a paper at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts some years ago, I was asked the following question: Is there a difference between the doubled self and the multiplied self? I was giving a paper on the doubled and multiplied self in two unusual fairy-tale revisions, Kelly Link's Girl Detective and Catherynne M. Valente's The Ice Puzzle. Link's short story is a reworking of, among other narratives, Twelve Dancing Princesses, a fairy tale about twelve princesses who, despite being locked in their bedroom by their father ever)? night, manage to dance their shoes to pieces. Valente's online novel1 is a reworking of, among other narratives, Hans Christian Andersen's Snow a fairy tale uncharacteristic for Andersen in that its protagonist, Gerda, is not tortured terribly, despite being a little girl. Gerda sets out on a quest to rescue her best friend, Kay, from the clutches of the evil Snow Queen, who holds him hostage as he tries to complete a puzzle made of ice; doing so would win him his freedom and a new pair of skates.In my answer to the question at the conference, I noted that both Girl Detective and The Ice Puzzle celebrate the multiplicity of many of their characters, seemingly in opposition to Sigmund Freud's notion of the doppelganger as essentially uncanny and threatening, and I posited that this difference is in some way gendered, as well as genred-that in feminist fantastic discourse the double was a figure to be welcomed and admired rather than feared and/or destroyed (destroying oneself in the process, of course). After moderating the panel, Cristina Bacchilega asked the question that generated this expansion: Is the multiplied self different from the doubled self? Of course, as Bacchilega must have known, the answer is yes. There is a significant difference between the representations of the doubled self and the multiplied self in these radically experimental texts.This is a difference I neglected to address in my book on fairy-tale revisions, Fair)s Tales, Myth, and Psychoanalytic Theory: Feminism and Retelling the Tale. There I engaged with the phenomenon of doubling for female characters and in feminist theory regarding feminine subjectivity, particularly as it involves mothers and daughters. During a brief consideration of doubling outside that dyad, I discussed Link's Girl Detective and the joy associated with the multiple possible selves of the protagonist and the twelve dancing bank robbers without realizing that they represented a significantly different dynamic from that of the simple double. I failed to realize this difference even though most of the doubles I studied represented danger and menace to their protagonists, often in the form of a competitor, whereas Link's multiple selves told quite a different story.In Valente's startlingly beautiful online novel The Ice Puzzle, Hans Christian Andersen's Snow is refracted and transmuted into a variety of settings. None of these shards recreates the original plot of the fairy tale, but each one tells a tale that, by overlaying Snow suggests not only kinship but also a path not taken by the various tales. The story is doubled and multiplied, often in the most elliptical, poetic ways. The novel is conceived of as a puzzle itself, and with each chapter termed a shard, the implication is that something-Andersen's original story?-has been shattered.Consider a shattered mirror and its refractions; each shard shows its own reflection, creating a kaleidoscopic effect. However, the shards are associated with the shards that make up the Snow Queen's shattered mirror of ice, part of which is the ice puzzle that a little girl is trying to solve in one of the novel's through-lines. In each chapter or shard, certain words are surrounded by a pattern of broken glass. The reader pieces these together at the end of the book-they fall into the shape of a broken mirror-which puts the reader in the position of the child, and thus of the Snow Queen herself, because we find at the end of the novel that, when the girl successfully completes the puzzle, she becomes the new Snow Queen. …

Clinical value of surfactant protein D as a biomarker of pulmonary fibrosis in patients with scleroderma systematica in relation to the presence of gastroesophageal reflux

To study the role of serum surfactant protein D (SP-D) as a biomarker of lung injury in scleroderma systematica (SDS) in relation to the presence of gastroesophageal reflux (GER). Fifty-six patients (mean age 46±14 years) with diffuse and circumscribed SDS were examined and underwent pulmonary functional tests, X-ray and, if lung injury was present, high-resolution computed tomography of the lung, echocardiography, gastroduodenoscopy, and barium X-ray of the esophagus; an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine serum SP-D levels. SP-D concentrations significantly correlate with the presence of lung injury in SDS and are significantly higher in the presence of pulmonary fibrosis and the signs of frosted glass and honeycomb lung patterns. SP-D levels were higher in the patients with lung injury and SDS in the group of those with pulmonary fibrosis and GER than in the group of pulmonary fibrosis patients without the latter. Serum SP-D may be considered in a number of biomarkers for the severity of lung injury in SDS, including GER-associated lung injury.

Temporal summation of global form signals in dynamic Glass patterns

The ability to perceive complex objects in the environment requires that the visual system integrate local form information into global shapes. Glass patterns (GPs) are stimuli that are commonly used to study this integration process. GPs consist of randomly positioned dot-pairs oriented in a coherent way to create a global form. When multiple GPs are presented sequentially, observers report a percept of illusory coherent motion and have lower detection thresholds relative to a single presentation GPs. The percept of illusory motion has been attributed to the visual system interpreting the dot-pairs in GPs as motion streaks. However, it remains unclear why dynamic GPs are detected at lower thresholds than static GPs. Two main differences exist between static and dynamic GPs: (a) dynamic GPs contain multiple presentations of global form signals compared to a single presentation in static GPs and (b) dynamic GPs have a greater temporal frequency than static GPs. Here we investigated which of these two factors contributed to the heightened sensitivities for dynamic GPs. We systematically varied the number of unique GPs and the rate at which each unique frame is presented (i.e., temporal frequency). The results show that, within the range of temporal frequency used, the primary influence on detection thresholds was the number of unique frames. These results suggest that the improved detection sensitivities can be driven by a mechanism of temporal summation of global form.

Cyclophosphamide treatment for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies and related interstitial lung disease: a systematic review.

The purpose of this study is to review and summarize published information on the use, effectiveness, and adverse effects of cyclophosphamide (CYC) in the management of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and IIM-related interstitial lung disease (IIM-ILD). We performed a systematic search on various databases from May 1975 to May 2014 to find articles concerning CYC therapy in IIM and IIM-ILD. The initial search involved 310 articles, and the 12 articles that met the study criteria were analyzed in detail. All studies were non-randomized. Intravenous CYC (IVCYC) was administered as treatment for IIM in 11 of the studies. Additionally, eight of the twelve studies assessed the effect of CYC in developing resistance steroids or in refractory IIM. IVCYC pulses of 0.3-1.0g/m(2) or 10-30mg/kg were applied at weekly to monthly intervals for 6-12months together with either glucocorticoids or another immunosuppressive agent. According to a comprehensive analysis of the studies, 80.8% (42/52) and 73.1% (38/52) of patients showed improvement in muscle strength and function. The CK levels of 87.5% (35/40) of patients fell. The forced vital capacity (FVC) and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) improved in 57.6% (34/59) and 64.3% (27/42) of patients. The high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) findings improved in 67.3% (35/52) of patients. IVCYC treatment allowed 58.1% (25/43) of acute/subacute IIM-ILD patients to survive. However, 18 patients died, and the histopathological findings revealed that the 12 deaths were due to diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). HRCT revealed a ground glass (GrG) pattern in 66.7% (12/18) of the deaths. Of the patients who died, 70% (7/10) had pneumomediastinum. IVCYC seems to improve both muscle strength and function and lung function in refractory IIM and IIM-ILD patients, and it appears to be relatively well tolerated and safe.

The effect of simultaneous flickering light stimulation on global form and motion perception thresholds

The question regarding the exact function of the primary visual cortex (V1) in vision has been around ever since the description of residual vision after damage to this cortical area by Riddoch in 1917. In 2002, Schoenfeld and colleagues proposed that V1 can be saturated by flashes of light, by which the function of V1-bypassing visual pathways can be “unmasked”. The Schoenfeld group found that light flashes applied on stimulus onset led to the elevation of brightness increment detection thresholds, but left motion detection thresholds unaltered. Although the proposed method (i.e. the use of light flashes to induce refractoriness in V1) could be a simple, cheap and elegant way of exploring V1 functions, no study has followed up on this. Therefore it is not known if it works at all with other types of stimuli. For that reason, we decided to revisit the idea in a modified form. Global form and motion perception thresholds were assessed with static Glass pattern stimuli and random dot kinematograms, with and without 12Hz flickering light stimulation. Global motion thresholds were almost unaltered by flickering stimulation, while a significant threshold elevation was caused in the global form perception task. The strongest conclusion allowed by our data is that simultaneous flickering photostimulation elevates global form perception thresholds but not global motion perception thresholds. This is in some way related to the refractoriness generated in an unsatisfactorily defined part of V1. We suggest that this does not necessarily reflect the activity of V1-bypassing pathways, and propose that the application of light flashes is a method that deserves more attention in the exploration of the V1-dependent and independent elements of visual consciousness in human subjects.

Development of an inspection system using an UV wavelength for defects on the thin electrode in a multilayer pattern

Generally, the Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), Light-Emitting Diode (LCD), Touch Screen Panel (TSP) glass and Thin Film Transistor (TFT) pattern consists of multiple layers of electrodes separated by thin insulating films. In multilayered devices, when using visible light to inspect the electrode pattern and the defect, the critical shapes of a specific layer are difficult to define. To increase the image contrast between the materials and the layers, this study uses a UV wavelength, which has larger selective differences in reflectance than a visible wavelength. The newly-developed optical system and image analysis units are made to focus on a specific UV range to precisely define a top electrode layer. Two types of magnification systems are developed. Direct side illumination is available in a magnification 1.2 (1.2x) system with a large back focal length (BFL). However, in a magnification 3 (3x) system, on-axis line beam illumination is needed. A multi-point LED source (custom-made) and an anamorphic optical system is used to increase the light efficiency and decrease the noise. Electric units and an algorithm for high-speed image processing and data transfer are also developed. The final images have good selective contrast between the layers despite the high-depth condition decided by the required NA for the target resolution. This system can be used for the inspection of general display panels, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) patterns, and mobile glasses that are composed of multilayered films.

Perception at isoluminance: Role of spatial resolution and background colour.

Introduction. The isoluminance paradigm, in which chromatically defined stimuli are matched for luminance, was developed to investigate the role of colour information in various aspects of visual processing. Performance is typically impaired, leading to the conclusion that particular tasks, e.g. motion and stereo processing, are substantially colour blind. However, other techniques that do not use isoluminance have shown that these processes are strongly sensitive to colour. One such technique is the chromatic noise-in-luminance approach: stimuli are defined by both colour and luminance, but the stimuli to be matched have opposite luminance polarities, e.g. a chromatic dot changes its luminance polarity as is moves. This leads to the question: why are some visual tasks impaired when isoluminant stimuli are used, even though the system is sensitive to colour information? Here we tested two possibilities: 1) colour sensitive cells have poor spatial resolution, and hence are impaired when fine spatial-resolution is required; 2) impairment is specific to isoluminant stimuli presented on a red background (Breitmeyer & Williams, 1990 Vis Res). Methods. Motion and form processing were assessed using global-dot-motion and Glass patterns, respectively. A temporal 2AFC procedure was used. Dot/dipole densities varied from 1 to 2 dots/deg2. The background was either achromatic (grey) or chromatic (red or green). Results. When the grey background was used, performance for the isoluminant dots was not impaired by increasing dot density. Thresholds being at least equal to the chromatic noise-in-luminance condition. Use of a red background impaired performance, particularly with the motion stimuli. Conclusions. Increasing dot density does not impair the processing of all isoluminant stimuli. However, when the stimuli and the background are both chromatic (red and green) performance is impaired, especially with motion stimuli on a red background. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2014