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Abstract Aim This study examines the impact of COVID‐19 pandemic‐induced behavioral restrictions on child psychiatric inpatients in Japan, particularly focusing on limitations placed on outings and overnight stays as infection‐control measures. Methods Data were collected from inpatients from the children's mental health registry between January 2016 and December 2022. The clinical data, such as age, gender, diagnosis, result of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, frequency of outings and overnight stays before and after the pandemic, were compared. Results During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the decrease in both outings and overnight stays among child psychiatric inpatients in Japan was statistically significant. As a result, home interactions with families decreased. In addition, diagnoses of hospitalized children increased significantly in cases of eating disorders and decreased in diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders. Conclusion These results underscore the need for flexible, individualized approaches to infection control that consider the mental health of hospitalized children.

Abstract Even after idiopathic macular hole (MH) surgery and with successful closure of MH, aniseikonia is a common postoperative symptom. We investigated the correlation of MH diameter, retinal displacement and retinal layer thicknesses with aniseikonia in 41 eyes of 41 patients undergoing MH surgery with internal limiting membrane peeling. Aniseikonia was measured with the New Aniseikonia Test. Retinal displacement (RD%) was defined as change of retinal distance between the temporal margin of the optic papilla and the intersection of the retinal vessels. Changes of thicknesses of the inner nuclear layer (INL%) and the outer retinal layer (OR%) were calculated. Aniseikonia improved postoperatively. Preoperative aniseikonia and their improvement at 6 months correlated with MH diameters (P = 0.004–0.046). Improvement of aniseikonia correlated with temporal RD% (P = 0.002–0.012). Improvement of vertical aniseikonia correlated with INL% at 2 weeks and with the nasal OR% at 1, 3, and 6 months (P =

Abstract Metamorphopsia is an important visual symptom of macular disease. We determined predictors for metamorphopsia investigating the relationships of macular hole (MH) diameter and retinal layer thicknesses with metamorphopsia after MH surgery. Forty-two eyes of 42 consecutive patients undergoing MH surgery were retrospectively studied. Metamorphopsia was measured with M-CHARTS. Inner nuclear layer (INL) and outer retinal layer (OR) thicknesses were measured 1000 μm away from central fovea at using Spectralis. Preoperative M-CHARTS scores correlated with MH diameters (P = 0.007–0.031) and changes of temporal OR thickness (P = 0.008–0.010). Postoperative M-CHARTS score at 3 months correlated with preoperative nasal and inferior OR thicknesses (P = 0.003 and 0.016) and with changes of superior INL at 3 and 6 months (P = 0.011 and 0.025), and score at 1 month with change of temporal OR at 6 months (P = 0.033). Postoperative improvement of M-CHARTS scores correlated with changes of temporal INL and superior OR (P = 0.026 and 0.002). Multiple regression analysis revealed that MH diameter was a significant predictor for metamorphopsia. Photoreceptor displacement and inner retinal change may generate metamorphopsia in MH undergoing surgery, however MH diameter is the most powerful predictor.

Recently, basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) has gained attention in the construction industry because of its worldwide availability and eco-friendly nature. Different from conventional steel bars, BFRP bar do not corrode being an ideal reinforcing material in structures surrounding magnetic fields and marine environments, given its chemical stability. This study investigated the load carrying behavior of concrete beams reinforced with conventional deformed steel bars and seven-bundled BFRP bars through four-point flexural test. For each case, two beams were prepared; one beam was designed with a low reinforcement ratio and another with a high reinforcement ratio in order to obtain a load carrying capacity of around 330–368 kN and 483–519 kN, respectively. Deflection, crack width evolution, and strain behavior of each beam were comparatively analyzed using a digital image correlation (DIC) based technique. The DIC analysis results showed that the neutral axis of bundled BFRP reinforced cases move to the upper end in an early loading stage, with larger cracks width, and the deflection is larger in BFRP cases than in those of steel-reinforced beams with the respective reinforcement ratio. However, the four-point flexural test results revealed that bundled BFRP bars can be used as an alternative to conventional steel bars. The load carrying capacities were obtained similarly to designed values, around 364 and 551 kN for low and high reinforcement ratio cases, respectively.

Abstract Background We aimed to investigate the deformation of the outer nuclear layer using optical coherence tomography in patients with epiretinal membrane (ERM) and its relationship with metamorphopsia. Methods Thirty-nine eyes from 39 patients with ERM were included in the study. Patients with the subtypes of pseudo macula hole and lamellar hole were excluded. Twenty-one fellow eyes without macular disease were included as normal controls. Forty-nine B-scan images were obtained in the range of 20 degrees around the macula using SD-OCT. The outer nuclear layer (ONL) was evaluated as a three-dimensional image (3D-ONL) reconstructed using the distance between the ONL and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) line. The deformation of the ONL was figured at the reference plane and evaluation plane (ONL-B). The characteristic parameters of the ONL-B were defined as circularity, area ratio, and axis ratio. The correlations between these parameters and visual acuity and MCHART score ratio (MH/MV) were then evaluated. Results ONL height was significantly higher in ERM patients than in normal controls (54.1 ± 5.3 μm and 84.1 ± 12.9 μm, respectively; P

AIM: To determine the relationship between the subfoveal choroidal thickness (CT) and intraocular pressure (IOP) following idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM) surgery. METHODS: Retrospective observational case series of patients who had undergone 23-gauge vitrectomy for an ERM. The measurements of CT and IOP were done at the baseline and 1d, 1wk, 1, 3, 6, and 12mo after the surgery. RESULTS: Forty-four eyes of 43 patients with a mean age of 69.8±9.5y were studied. The CT was 200.8±86.3 µm at the baseline, 210.1±83.5 µm at 1d, 213.2±85.4 µm at 1wk, 203.1±84.0 µm at 1mo, 197.5±85.5 µm at 3mo, 197.7±84.0 µm at 6mo, and 191.2±86.8 µm at 12mo after surgery. The CT on day 1 and week 1 after the surgery was significantly thicker than that at the baseline CT (P=0.0023 and P

Purpose. To compare optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) and laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) for the diagnosis of normal-tension glaucoma (NTG). Methods. Twenty-eight eyes of 28 patients with NTG and 25 eyes of 25 normal subjects matched for age, refractive errors, systemic blood pressure, and central corneal thickness were evaluated. OCT-A was used to measure whole image vessel density, inside disc vessel density, and peripapillary vessel density; using LSFG, mean blur rate (MBR) inside the whole optic nerve head (ONH) area (MBRA), and MBR of the vessel area (MBRV) and tissue area (MBRT) inside the ONH, were determined. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and areas under the ROC (AUROC) were used to assess the diagnostic ability of each variable. Results. The AUROC for OCT-A whole image vessel density (0.950) was significantly greater than that for OCT-A peripapillary vessel density (0.830) and for all LSFG parameters (MBRA = 0.793, MBRV = 0.601, and MBRT = 0.61) (P

A laser 2-focus velocimeter (L2F) was used for measurements of velocity and size of droplets in diesel fuel sprays. Diesel fuel was injected intermittently into the atmosphere using a 8-hole injector nozzle. The diameter of the nozzle orifice was 0.112mm. The rail pressure was set at 40MPa by using a common rail system. The period of injector solenoid energizing was set at 0.8ms to investigate the spray behavior under small valve opening. The L2F had a micro-scale probe which consists of two foci. The focal diameter was about 3μm, and the distance between two foci was 20μm. The data sampling rate of the L2F system was markedly high as 15MHz. L2F measurement was conducted at 10mm downstream from the nozzle exit. Temporal and spatial changes in the velocity and size of droplets inside sprays were investigated near the nozzle orifice and were correlated with the needle valve lift of the injector nozzle. Spray images were taken by using a 180ns spark light source, and temporal changes of the spray width were estimated. The spray was divided into two regions; the inner region and the periphery region. The results showed that temporal changes in droplet velocity at the spray center corresponded with the temporal changes in needle valve lift. The droplets’ Weber number in the inner region was larger than that in the periphery region of the spray. It was found that the turbulence intensity of droplet velocity was strongly correlated to the size of droplet in the inner region of the spray.

A laser 2-focus velocimeter (L2F) was used for the measurement of diesel fuel sprays. Temporal and spatial changes in the number, velocity and size of droplets inside sprays were investigated near the nozzle orifice and were correlated with the needle valve lift of the injector nozzle. The L2F had a micro-scale probe which consists of two foci. The focal diameter was about 3μm, and the distance between two foci was 17μm. The data sampling rate of the L2F system was markedly high as 15MHz. Fuel sprays were injected intermittently into the atmosphere by using a common rail injector. The orifice diameter of the injector nozzle was 0.112mm and the rail pressure was 40MPa. The periods of solenoid energizing was set at 2.0ms. Measurement positions were located at 10mm downstream from the exit of the nozzle orifice. The results show that droplets mainly existed in the region off the spray center in the early injection period and concentrated at the spray center in the middle of injection period. Temporal changes in the number of droplets near the spray center were strongly affected by the needle lift and there in the relatively wide region were affected by the injection rate. Temporal changes in the droplet velocity near the spray center were strongly affected by the injection rate. The luminance distribution of the spray image was similar to the distribution of the number of droplets multiplied by the square of droplet size.