Conical diffraction of linearly polarised light in a biaxial crystal produces a beam with a crescent-shaped intensity profile. Rotation of the plane of polarisation produces the unique effect of spatially moving the crescent-shaped beam around a ring. We use this effect to trap microspheres and white blood cells and to position them at any angular position on the ring. Continuous motion around ...

I reestimate a learning-from-experience model using survey reported inflation expectations and confirm that personal inflation experiences strongly predict inflation expectations. I use the model to study the effect of demographics and history on aggregate inflation expectations. Demographic shocks exert little effect on aggregate inflation expectations and population aging does not explain bet...

For infectious diseases where immunization can offer lifelong protection, a variety of simple models can be used to explain the utility of vaccination as a control method. However, for many diseases, immunity wanes over time and is subsequently enhanced (boosted) by asymptomatic encounters with the infection. The study of this type of epidemiological process requires a model formulation that ca...

Apolipoprotein B-100 (ApoB) is a major component of very-low-density lipoproteins, and is deposited in a region around lipid droplets (LDs) called the ;ApoB-crescent'. The ApoB-crescent is thought to be related to ApoB degradation because it drastically increases when proteasome or autophagy is inhibited. In the present study, we found that ApoB-crescents were significantly reduced when ApoB li...

AIM To study the usefulness of orbital ultrasonography in the diagnosis of papilledema. METHODS Fifty patients who were referred to the neurophthalmology clinic and clinically suspected to have papilledema were selected. Thorough, clinical examination with slitlamp biomicroscopy and visual acuity assessment was done. These patients underwent ultrasonography to demonstrate the crescent sign. T...

A resurgence of pertussis cases among immunized and unimmunized individuals raised questions about vaccine effectiveness and waning immunity. We performed a test-negative case-control study, utilizing Ontario administrative and laboratory data. We used crude and adjusted multivariable logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) comparing the odds of cases being vaccinated against t...

The endocardium, the endothelial lining of the heart, plays complex and critical roles in heart development, particularly in the formation of the cardiac valves and septa, the division of the truncus arteriosus into the aortic and pulmonary trunks, the development of Purkinje fibers that form the cardiac conduction system, and the formation of trabecular myocardium. Current data suggest that th...

The origin of crescent forming cells in human glomerulonephritis (GN) remains unknown. Some animal studies demonstrated that parietal epithelial cells of Bowman's capsule (PECs) were the main component of proliferating cells and PEC-specific tight junction protein claudin-1 was expressed in crescentic lesions. We investigated the expression of claudin-1 in human GN. Immunohistochemistry for cla...

Crescent fracture dislocations are a well-recognised subset of pelvic ring injuries which result from a lateral compression force. They are characterised by disruption of the sacroiliac joint and extend proximally as a fracture of the posterior iliac wing. We describe a classification with three distinct types. Type I is characterised by a large crescent fragment and the dislocation comprises n...

Identifying liquid water on the surface of planets is a high priority, as this traditionally defines habitability. One proposed signature of oceans is specular reflection (“glint”), which increases the apparent albedo of a planet at crescent phases. We post-process a global climate model of an Earthlike planet to simulate reflected lightcurves. Significantly, we obtain glint-like phase variatio...