1548 Refining the Usability of a Novel Visual Field Assessment App

Introduction A validated visual field chart designed as a simpler adjunct to formal perimeters is being developed into an app. The app aims to empower patients with pituitary tumours to independently assess their central 25˚ visual field with intra-app instructions and share their results with their clinician. NHSx marked usability as an assessment criterion for validating health apps. This study aims to explore and improve the usability of the beta-version of the app. Method Qualitative methods were employed through observation and semi-structured interviews. Recruitment was through convenience sampling. Participants experienced the app solely based on the intra-app information. Meanwhile, a researcher observed the process. Then, qualitative feedback was generated through semi-structured interviews. Observational data was coded and quantified. Thematic analysis was employed to identify common themes and/or categories of the qualitative feedback. Results 15 participants between 24-58(mean 33.7, SD 10.8) years were recruited. Observational data revealed that 1/15 adhered to all 3 written instructions; 3/15 utilised the hand span distance guidance provided. Participants’ responses on feedback for improvements were coded and categorised. Suggested additional features for improvement – a run-through introduction to the app, a video example of how to conduct the test, a practice run, an option for audio instruction and an option to change font size and type. Suggested additional instructions were to focus on the black dot and remember what you were seeing with the red dots. Conclusions Qualitative methods identified aspects of the app requiring improvements. Participants feedback will be utilised to improve the app.

Trataka Kriya in Individuals with Digital Eye Strain: A Pre–Post Experimental Design

Introduction Digital eye strain is the physical discomfort felt after 2 or more hours in front of a digital screen, including cell phones. Digital eye strain is otherwise known as computer vision syndrome. Trataka is to look at or to gaze—it is a preliminary step for meditation that involves staring at a single point such as a small object, black dot, or candle flame. Objective This study aimed to analyze the effect of trataka kriya in the management of digital eye strain. Materials and Methods Thirty participants of the age group 18 to 40 years were recruited in the study. The study design was a pre–post experiment. A convenient sampling technique was used to recruit the participants. The study included participants who use laptops or smartphones for a minimum of 2 hours daily and also participants having eye strain, dry eyes, burning sensation in the eyes, headache, and eye fatigue. They performed trataka kriya exercises once a day on alternative days for 1 month. Outcome measures was a computer vision syndrome questionnaire to assess the visual fatigue experienced by the study participants and the Schrimer test to find out whether the eye produces enough tears to keep it moist. Statistical Analysis and Results Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 16.0. To compare the computer vision syndrome questionnaire and Schrimer test before and after interventions paired t-test was used. A p-value of less than 0.05 is considered significant for the study. Conclusion The study concludes that there was an improvement in the subjects with digital eye strain after performing trataka kriya. The clinical implication of the study is that this method can be used as one of the nonpharmacological interventions for digital eye strain.

PDCNN: FRAMEWORK for Potato Diseases Classification Based on Feed Foreword Neural Network

The economy is exceptionally reliant on agricultural productivity. Therefore, in domain of agriculture, plant infection discovery is a vital job because it gives promising advance towards the development of agricultural production. In this work, a framework for potato diseases classification based on feed foreword neural network is proposed. The objective of this work is presenting a system that can detect and classify four kinds of potato tubers diseases; black dot, common scab, potato virus Y and early blight based on their images. The presented PDCNN framework comprises three levels: the pre-processing is first level, which is based on K-means clustering algorithm to detect the infected area from potato image. The second level is features extraction which extracts features from the infected area based on hybrid features: grey level run length matrix and 1st order histogram based features. The attributes that extracted from second level are utilized in third level using FFNN to perform the classification process. The proposed framework is applied to database with different backgrounds, totally 120 color potato images, (80) samples used in training the network and the rest samples (40) used for testing. The proposed PDCNN framework is very effective in classifying four types of potato tubers diseases with 91.3% of efficiency.

STUDY OF DEFECT ON LLDPE PLUG FOR TELON OIL PRODUCTS USING A HAITIAN MOLDING INJECTION MACHINE 1600MA AT PT X

The type of plastic packaging that is popular among the public is bottle packaging, plastic bottle packaging always has a bottle cap. Some people only know that the part of the bottle cap is only on the outer cap, even though the plastic bottle cap consists of two types, namely the outer cap (cap) and the inner cap (plug). The plastic material used to make the plug is Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), a telon oil plug is produced using an injection molding machine, by inserting plastic pellets into the hopper and then heating it by the barrel, plastic pellets that have melted will be injected into the mold ( print). In the process of making the telon oil plug, a defect was found. From the observation, it is known that several types of defects that occur during the LLDPE oil plug production process include black dot, flashing, and unmould / short shot. Defects that occur during the telon oil plug production process are caused by damage, contamination, and mismatches in the engine parameter settings. The purpose of this study is to determine the causes and solutions of defects that occur in LLDPE telon oil plugs with the HAITIAN 1600MA injection molding machine at PT X. Some solutions are made to reduce defects that occur in telon oil LLDPE plugs is to clean the material reservoir, repair or replace the mold, clean the hopper before loading the material, and set up the barrel parameter 180-230oC, inject pressure 60 bar, holding pressure 30 bar, speed 17.8 seconds.

Black Dot Type Capitis Tinea Appreciates Bacterial Foliculitis

Tinea capitis is a superficial fungal infection of the scalp and hair, which is seenpredominantly in children. In adults, it is usually related to immunocompromisedpatients and have an atypical features. In patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD),uremia is associated with immune suppression due to the impact of uremic milieu. Allspecimens of tinea capitis should be examined for microscopy, wood’s lamp andculture. Reported a case of 50–year-old male, animal husbandry, presented with itchypapules, pustules, patch alopecia and a hair loss for 6 months. Dermatologic featuresshowed papules, pustules, patch alopecia and black dot. The patient treated withketoconazole shampoo for 3 weeks without any improvement. He had an ESRD for 2years. Gram stain examination and culture showed no bacteri. Wood’s lampexamination showed no fluorescent. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) 10% from scalpscrapings and KOH 20% from hair showed a fungal elements, which support diagnosisof black dot tinea capitis. The patient treated with griseofulvin tablet 500 mg twice aday for 8 weeks, cetirizine tablet 10 mg once daily and 3x/week of ketoconazoleshampoo 2% showed improvement in clinical features and microscopic evaluation.

On-farm evaluations of anaerobic soil disinfestation and grafting for management of a widespread soilborne disease complex in protected culture tomato production

Tomato production in Ohio protected culture systems is hindered by a soilborne disease complex consisting of corky root rot (Pyrenochaeta lycopersici), black dot root rot (Colletotrichum coccodes), Verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae), and root-knot (Meloidogyne hapla and M. incognita). In a survey of 71 high tunnels, C. coccodes was detected in 90% of high tunnels, while P. lycopersici (46%), V. dahliae (48%) and Meloidogyne spp. (45%) were found in nearly half of high tunnels. Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) with wheat bran (20.2 Mg/ha) plus molasses (10.1 Mg/ha) and grafting onto ‘Maxifort’ or ‘Estamino’ rootstocks were evaluated in high tunnels on five farms. In post-ASD bioassays using trial soils, root and taproot rot severity were significantly reduced following ASD, and root-knot galling was also reduced by ASD. Soilborne pathogenic fungi were isolated less frequently from bioassay plants grown in ASD-treated soils than control soils. Similar results were observed in tomato plants grown in high tunnels. Root rot was significantly reduced by ASD in nearly all trials. Corky root rot severity was highest in non-grafted plants grown in non-treated soils, while the lowest levels of corky root rot were observed in Maxifort-grafted plants. Black dot root rot severity was higher or equivalent in grafted plants compared to non-grafted plants. Root-knot severity was lower in plants grown in ASD-treated soils in high tunnels compared to plants grown in control soils, but grafting did not significantly decrease root-knot severity. However, soil treatment did not significantly impact yield, and grafting led to inconsistent impacts on yield.

Identification and Elimination of the Clinically Relevant Multi-Resistant Environmental Bacteria Ralstonia insidiosa in Primary Cell Culture

In times of spreading multidrug-resistant bacteria, species identification and decontamination of cell cultures can be challenging. Here, we describe a mobile cell culture contaminant with “black dot”-like microscopic appearance in newly established irreplaceable hybridoma cell lines and its identification. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, species-specific PCRs, whole genome sequencing (WGS), and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, the contaminant was identified as the ubiquitous environmental and clinically relevant Gram-negative bacterium Ralstonia insidiosa (R. insidiosa), a strong biofilm producer. Further characterizations by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and biochemical API test were not conclusive. Whole genome sequencing of our R. insidiosa isolate revealed numerous drug-resistance determinants. Genome-wide comparison to other Ralstonia species could not unambiguously designate our isolate to R. insidiosa (<95% average nucleotide identity) suggesting a potential novel species or subspecies, closely related to R. insidiosa and R. pickettii. After determining the antibiotic susceptibility profile, the hybridoma cell culture was successfully decontaminated with ciprofloxacin without affecting antibody production.

Effects of different environmental pollutants on the anatomical features of roadside plants

Experiments were conducted in order to investigate anatomical changes in leaves and stems of roadsides plants namely Mango (Mangifera indica), SilKoroi (Albizia procera) and Mahagony (Sweatenia mahogany). Plants that grown nearby roadside areas were exposed to various kinds of pollutants. To carry out the experiment, samples (Fresh leaves and Stems) were collected from two polluted sites and one control site. For anatomical study leaves and stems were cut into sections in the laboratory and changes were identified under the light microscopy. Results revealed that leaves of selected roadside plants had reduced cell size with black dot like substance deposited in the epidermis, palisade and spongy parenchyma in the polluted sites. But leaves of control site plants had normal anatomy. Meanwhile stem showed changes in vascular bundle of pollution affected sites but no change was found in control site. These results highlighted the importance of anatomical data for precious diagnosis of injury and to determine the sensitivity of roadside plants to different environmental pollutants. Progressive Agriculture 30 (4): 344-351, 2019