Usage of topical insulin for the treatment of diabetic keratopathy, including corneal epithelial defects.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic keratopathy (DK) occurs in 46%-64% of patients with diabetes and requires serious attention. In patients with diabetes, the healing of corneal epithelial defects or ulcers takes longer than in patients without diabetes. Insulin is an effective factor in wound healing. The ability of systemic insulin to rapidly heal burn wounds has been reported for nearly a century, but only a few studies have been performed on the effects of topical insulin (TI) on the eye. Treatment with TI is effective in treating DK. AIM: To review clinical and experimental animal studies providing evidence for the efficacy of TI to heal corneal wounds. METHODS: National and international databases, including PubMed and Scopus, were searched using relevant keywords, and additional manual searches were conducted to assess the effectiveness of TI application on corneal wound healing. Journal articles published from January 1, 2000 to December 1, 2022 were examined. The relevancy of the identified citations was checked against predetermined eligibility standards, and relevant articles were extracted and reviewed. RESULTS: A total of eight articles were found relevant to be discussed in this review, including four animal studies and four clinical studies. According to the studies conducted, TI is effective for corneal re-epithelialization in patients with diabetes based on corneal wound size and healing rate. CONCLUSION: Available animal and clinical studies have shown that TI promotes corneal wound healing by several mechanisms. The use of TI was not associated with adverse effects in any of the published cases. Further studies are needed to enhance our knowledge and understanding of TI in the healing of DK.

Assessing the impact of novelty and conformity on hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines using mRNA technology.

Background: Public hesitancy towards Covid-19 vaccines remains a major hurdle for mass vaccination programs today. While mRNA vaccines are more efficacious than conventional vaccines, it is unknown how much the novelty of this technology increases hesitancy. Methods: We quantify this "novelty penalty" in a large online experiment with 35,173 adults in nine countries. Subjects were randomly selected and assigned to one of two vaccine groups (conventional or mRNA), and one of five hypothetical inoculation rate groups (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, or 80%). Subjects reported their willingness to accept the Covid-19 vaccine on a five-point Likert scale. Results: The novelty of the mRNA vaccine technology reduces the odds of a higher level of vaccine acceptance by 14.2% (odds ratio 0.858; p < 0.001). On the other hand, we find that social conformity reduces vaccine hesitancy. At a 0% inoculation rate, 31.7% report that they are "very likely" to get a mRNA vaccine while at a 20% inoculation rate, willingness jumps to 49.6%. Conclusions: The novelty of the mRNA vaccine increases hesitancy, but social conformity reduces it. A small group of early adopters can provide momentum for vaccination.

The "Inherent Vices" of Policy Design: Uncertainty, Maliciousness, and Noncompliance.

Policy designs must not only "work" in the sense of accomplishing their goals but must also work in their intended fashion. Most research to date has focused on the former topic and dwells on the technical aspects of how various tools and instruments could be utilized to achieve the aims and goals of policymakers. This branch of research tends to underemphasize the difficulties inherent to policy making including policy contexts that are often highly uncertain, policymakers who fall short of an idealized version of high capacity, well-intentioned decisionmakers grappling with relevant public problems, and policy-takers who fail to comply with government wishes. These "inherent vices" of policy making are factors which contribute to policy volatility or the risk of policy failure. The paper stresses the need for improved risk management and mitigation strategies in policy formulation and policy designs to take these risks into account. It sets out and develops an approach borrowed from product failure management (in manufacturing) and portfolio management (in finance) to help better assess and manage these risks.

Motivating household water conservation: A field experiment in Singapore.

We test and compare different incentives in motivating water conservation using a randomized controlled trial. In a field experiment carried out with Singaporean households, regular feedback was given, with informative, normative and monetary incentives provided to different groups. Evidence shows that all households saved an average of 4 Litres of water per person per day, with no difference in treatment effect found across various groups. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the water saving effect is also found to be more significant with high baseline users, who saved up to 5.9 Litres per person per day. High baseline households also respond more positively to the non-monetary incentives.

Multiple vacuolar sorting determinants exist in soybean 11S globulin.

The sorting determinants of glycinin, a soybean (Glycine max) 11S globulin, which mediates protein targeting to the protein storage vacuole (PSV), were investigated in maturing soybean cotyledons by transient expression assays. A C-terminal stretch of 10 amino acids of A1aB1b, a glycinin group I subunit, was sufficient to direct green fluorescent protein (GFP) to the PSV. This peptide may correspond to a C-terminal vacuolar sorting determinant (ctVSD). Because functional inhibition of this putative ctVSD of A1aB1b did not block PSV sorting of A1aB1b, we used the three-dimensional structure of A1aB1b to identify candidates for a sequence-specific determinant (ssVSD). We found that the sequence downstream of disordered region 4 could direct GFP to the PSV and that Ile-297 is critical for sorting. However, functional inhibition of the ctVSD, combined with the Ile297Gly mutation, did not abolish the vacuolar sorting of A1aB1b, suggesting that A1aB1b has a third sorting determinant in addition to ctVSD and ssVSD. A glycinin group II subunit, A3B4, lacked a ctVSD but contained a VSD reminiscent of an ssVSD and an additional sorting determinant. We also demonstrate, by expression of dominant negative mutants of small GTPases and drug treatment experiments, that the trafficking of A1aB1b is COPII vesicle-dependent and wortmannin- and brefeldin A-sensitive.