A survey on the degree of eye discomfort caused by video terminal use among college students in different altitudes.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the risk factors associated with different levels of eye discomfort due to video terminal use among college students at different altitudes. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence and extent of eye discomfort by distributing an questionnaire to university students via the Internet. To analyze the causes and risk factors of eye discomfort among college students at different altitudes after using video terminals. RESULTS: A total of 647 participants who met the criteria were included in this survey, of whom 292 (45.1%) were males and 355 (54.9%) were females. The results of the survey showed 194 (30.0%) participants without eye discomfort and 453 (70.0%) participants with eye discomfort. The results of the univariate comparison of the degree of eye discomfort in the study subjects with different characteristics showed that the differences in the degree of eye discomfort were statistically significant (P < 0.05) for the 7 groups of indicators: gender, region, wearing corneal contact lenses for more than 2 h per day, frequent use of eye drops, sleep time, total time of VDT use per day, and total time per VDT use, while the remaining indicators, including age, profession, and whether refractive surgery or other eye surgery was performed, whether frame glasses were worn for a long time, and duration of daily mask wear were not statistically significant. The results of multi-factor logistic analysis of the degree of eye discomfort in the study subjects with different characteristics showed that gender, region, frequent use of eye drops, sleep time, and total time of VDT use per day were the risk factors affecting the degree of eye discomfort. CONCLUSIONS: Female, high altitude, frequent use of eye drops, shorter daily sleep duration and longer daily VDT use were associated risk factors for the development of severe eye discomfort, where the severity of eye discomfort was significantly negatively correlated with increased sleep duration and significantly positively correlated with increased total time of VDT use.

Investigation and Analysis of Eye Discomfort Caused by Video Display Terminal Use Among Medical Students Studying at High-Altitude Regions.

Objective: To investigate the use of video display terminal (VDT) in high-altitude regions by medical students and the resulted risk factors of eye discomfort. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 686 medical students randomly selected from high-altitude regions, Kunming, Yunnan Province. The prevalence of video display terminal syndrome (VDTs) and related risk factors in medical students were analyzed by instructing students to fill in the eye discomfort symptom questionnaire [Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) scale]. Results: There were 686 participants in this study, including 213 males (31.0%) and 473 females (69.0%). The results of questionnaire survey showed that 184 patients (26.8%) didn't have eye discomfort symptoms and 502 patients (73.2%) had eye discomfort symptoms. The comparison of demographic and ocular characteristics of eye discomfort symptoms group and no eye discomfort symptoms group showed that medical students in the group with ocular discomfort symptoms had longer total duration of video terminal use, longer duration of each VDT use, higher total scores of ocular discomfort symptom scores, and a higher percentage of the ocular discomfort severity group, all with statistically significant differences. There was no significant difference in the remaining parameters between the two groups of participants. The results of multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that the relationship between total sleep time, total duration of VDT use and eye discomfort symptom score was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Besides, ordinal logistic regression was applied further to investigate related factors of the severity of eye discomfort. The model demonstrated that total sleep duration and total VDT using duration were significantly associated with the severity of eye discomfort symptom (P < 0.05).The severity of eye discomfort symptom was significantly negatively related to the increased total sleep duration and it was significantly positively related to the increased VDT use duration. Conclusion: The prevalence of VDTs is high in medical students at high-altitude regions. The longer total duration of daily use of VDT and shorter sleep duration are risk factors associated with VDTs. The severity of eye discomfort symptom was significantly negatively related to the increased total sleep duration and it was significantly positively related to the increased total VDT using duration.

LncRNA MALAT1 aggravates the retinal angiogenesis via miR-320a/HIF-1α axis in diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most serious microvascular complications of diabetes and an important cause of blindness in adults. In previous study, we found that miR-320a alleviated the damage of muller cells in DR. In this study, we mainly explored the mechanism of lncRNA MALAT1 on retinal angiogenesis in DR by regulating miR-320a/HIF-1α. The expression of MALAT1 and miR-320a was detected by RT-qPCR, and the expression of HIF-1α was detected by Western blot. The superoxide anion level, invasion, angiogenesis, and vascular permeability of mouse retinal microvascular endothelial cells (MRMECs) co-cultured with muller cells were evaluated by dihydroethidium, transwell, angiogenesis and immunofluorescence assay. In order to analyze the targeting relationship between miR-320a and MALAT1 or HIF-1α, we performed dual luciferase reporter gene, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and RNA pulldown experiments. The results should that MALAT1 and HIF-1α were highly expressed and miR-320a was low expressed in high glucose (HG)-induced muller cells, and MALAT1 could competitively bind with HIF-1α. Knocking down miR-320a inhibited MRMECs invasion angiogenesis, and vascular permeability by targeting miR-320a. Overexpression of miR-320a down regulated HIF-1α and inhibited the invasion, angiogenesis, and vascular permeability of MRMECs. In conclusion, MALAT1 inhibits HIF-1α expression and MRMECs angiogenesis in DR through spongy miR-320a.

Condensate Oil-Tolerant Foams Stabilized by an Anionic-Sulfobetaine Surfactant Mixture.

Foams are widely used to remove liquid loading at the bottom of gas wells to improve natural gas production. However, it becomes ineffective when a gas well contains a large amount of hydrocarbon condensate because oil will rupture the foams. In this work, condensate oil-tolerant foams were developed and stabilized by a mixture of cocamidopropyl hydroxyl sulfobetaine (CHSB) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The foam properties are examined at different temperatures under atmospheric conditions and high pressures with various contents of condensate oil. It is found that the foam stability is improved when the oil content is increased; in addition, high temperature, high salinity, and high pressure are beneficial for foam stabilizing. To reveal the mechanism of stable foam in the presence of high content of oil, a confocal microscope was employed to visualize oil-foam interactions. It was observed that the high stability of the SDS-CHSB foams is ascribed to the formation of stable pseudoemulsion between oil droplets and the gas-liquid interface. Such condensate oil-tolerant foams show promising potential to be used in the foam-assisted lift process during natural gas production.