Purpose The objectives of the present study were to evaluate whether investigator bias influenced the Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS) scores of children with normal binocular vision (NBV) in our original validation study, reevaluate the usefulness of the cut-off score of 16, and reexamine the validity of the CISS. Methods Six clinical sites participating in the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial (CITT) enrolled 46 children 9 - <18 years with NBV. Examiners masked to the child’s binocular vision status administered the CISS. The mean CISS score was compared to that from the children with NBV in the original, unmasked CISS study and also to that of the 221 symptomatic CI children enrolled in the CITT. Results The mean (±SD) CISS score for 46 subjects with NBV was 10.4 (±8.1). This was comparable to that from our prior unmasked NBV study (mean = 8.1(± 6.2); p = 0.11), but was significantly different from that of the CITT CI group (mean = 29.8 ± 9.0; p < 0.001). Eighty-three percent of these NBV subjects scored less than 16 on the CISS, which is not statistically different from the 87.5% found in the original unmasked study (p = 0.49). Conclusions Examiner bias did not affect the CISS scores for subjects with NBV in our prior study. The CISS continues to be a valid instrument for quantifying symptoms in 9 to <18 year-old children and these results confirm the validity of a cut-point of ≥ 16 in distinguishing children with symptomatic CI from those with NBV.

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Oxidative stress is associated with numerous health conditions and disorders, and aldehydes are known biomarkers of oxidative stress that can be non-invasively measured in exhaled human breath. Few studies report breath aldehyde levels in human populations, and none claim participant numbers in the hundreds or more. Further, the breath community must first define the existing aldehyde concentration variance in a normal population to understand when these levels are significantly perturbed by exogenous stressors or health conditions. In this study, we collected breath samples from 692 participants and quantified C4–C10 straight chain aldehyde levels. C9 aldehyde was the most abundant in breath, followed by C6. C4 and C5 appear to have bimodal distributions. Post hoc, we mined our dataset for other breath carbonyls captured by our assay, which involves elution of breath samples onto a solid phase extraction cartridge, derivatization and liquid chromatography–quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC–qTOF). We found a total of 21 additional derivatized compounds. Using self-reported demographic factors from our participants, we found no correlation between these breath carbonyls and age, gender, body mass index (BMI), ethnicity or smoking habit (tobacco and marijuana). This work was preceded by a small confounders study, which was intended to refine our breath collection procedure. We found that breath aldehyde levels can be affected by participants’ using scented hygiene products such as lotions and mouthwashes, while collecting consecutive breath samples, rinsing the mouth with water, and filtering inspired air did not have an effect. Using these parameters to guide our sampling, subjects were instructed to avoid the prior conditions to provide a breath sample for our study.

A bonding process was developed for glass-to-glass fusion bonding using Borofloat 33 wafers, resulting in high bonding yield and high flexural strength. The Borofloat 33 wafers went through a two-step process with a pre-bond and high-temperature bond in a furnace. The pre-bond process included surface activation bonding using O2 plasma and N2 microwave (MW) radical activation, where the glass wafers were brought into contact in a vacuum environment in an EVG 501 Wafer Bonder. The optimal hold time in the EVG 501 Wafer bonder was investigated and concluded to be a 3 h hold time. The bonding parameters in the furnace were investigated for hold time, applied force, and high bonding temperature. It was concluded that the optimal parameters for glass-to-glass Borofloat 33 wafer bonding were at 550 °C with a hold time of 1 h with 550 N of applied force.

Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death for males in the United States [1]. Over three million Americans with prostate cancer were reported in 2016 [2] marking the prostate cancer as the most prevalent cancer among males in the US. In 2016, 180,890 new cases and 26,120 deaths were reported [1]. The prostate is a male reproductive gland located in the pelvis and surrounded by the rectum posteriorly and the bladder superiorly.