A new principle for the standardization of long paragraphs for reading speed analysis.

PURPOSE: To investigate the reliability, validity, and statistical comparability of long paragraphs that were developed to be equivalent in construction and difficulty. METHODS: Seven long paragraphs were developed that were equal in syntax, morphology, and number and position of words (111), with the same number of syllables (179) and number of characters (660). For validity analyses, the paragraphs were compared with the mean reading speed of a set of seven sentence optotypes of the RADNER Reading Charts (mean of 7 × 14 = 98 words read). Reliability analyses were performed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha value and the corrected total item correlation. Sixty participants (aged 20-77 years) read the paragraphs and the sentences (distance 40 cm; font: Times New Roman 12 pt). Test items were presented randomly; reading length was measured with a stopwatch. RESULTS: Reliability analysis yielded a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.988. When the long paragraphs were compared in pairwise fashion, significant differences were found in 13 of the 21 pairs (p < 0.05). In two sequences of three paragraphs each and in eight pairs of paragraphs, the paragraphs did not differ significantly, and these paragraph combinations are therefore suitable for comparative research studies. The mean reading speed was 173.34 ± 24.01 words per minute (wpm) for the long paragraphs and 198.26 ± 28.60 wpm for the sentence optotypes. The maximum difference in reading speed was 5.55 % for the long paragraphs and 2.95 % for the short sentence optotypes. The correlation between long paragraphs and sentence optotypes was high (r = 0.9243). CONCLUSIONS: Despite good reliability and equivalence in construction and degree of difficulty, a statistically significant difference in reading speed can occur between long paragraphs. Since statistical significance should be dependent only on the persons tested, either standardizing long paragraphs for statistical equality of reading speed measurements or increasing the number of presented paragraphs is recommended for comparative investigations.

Transient transfection coupled to baculovirus infection for rapid protein expression screening in insect cells.

Baculovirus infected insect cells are widely used for heterologous protein expression. Despite the power of this system, the use of baculovirus techniques for protein expression screening is hampered by the time and resources needed to generate each recombinant baculovirus. Here, we show that a transfection/infection based expression system is suitable for screening of expression constructs in insect cells and represents a valid alternative to other traditional screening methodologies using recombinant baculovirus. The described method is based on gene delivery by transfection coupled to the induction of protein expression by non-recombinant baculovirus infection. Vectors that control expression by a combination of the baculovirus promoters ie1 and p10 and the enhancer element hr5 are among the ones suitable for this method. Infection with non-recombinant baculovirus drastically increases the basal activity of these elements, leading to protein over-expression. Multiple vectors can be simultaneously co-transfected/infected, making transfection/infection amenable for screening of multiple co-expressed proteins and protein complexes. Taken together, our results prove that the transfection/infection protocol is a valid and innovative approach for increasing speed and reducing costs of protein expression screening for structural and functional studies.

Integrating a novel concept of sentence optotypes into the RADNER Reading Charts.

PURPOSE: To add a new set of 24 sentence optotypes to the German version of the RADNER reading charts and to investigate whether sentences constructed based upon an optimised concept of sentence optotypes can be used together with the original 38 sentences. METHODS: Twenty-eight optimised sentence optotypes were constructed based upon the concept of sentence optotypes as established for the RADNER Reading Charts, with words having the same number of characters and syllables being placed in the same positions. The best comparable sentences were statistically selected in 30 volunteers. Reading speed and the number of errors were determined. Validity was analysed in comparison to a 111-word long standardised paragraph and 7 of the 38 original sentence optotypes. RESULTS: The mean reading speed obtained with the 28 sentences was 192.30±26.69 words per minute (wpm), as compared with 192.47±25.32 wpm for the 7 original sentence optotypes and 165.28±20.82 wpm for the long paragraph; 24 of the 28 optimised sentences met our selection criteria for reading speed/time (mean reading speed: 192.41±26.58). The mean number of reading errors was 0.10±0.30. The correlation between the 24 optimised sentence optotypes and the long paragraph was r=0.90. Reliability analyses yielded an overall Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.992. CONCLUSION: The 24 new sentence optotypes can be integrated into the existing set of 38 original sentences. Since all the statistical results obtained were similar to those of the original sentences, the best possible reliability had apparently already been achieved with the original sentence optotypes.

Reading performance of monofocal pseudophakic patients with and without glasses under normal and dim light conditions.

PURPOSE: To evaluate reading performance of patients with monofocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) (Acrysof SN60WF) with or without reading glasses under bright and dim light conditions. SETTING: Austrian Academy of Ophthalmology, Vienna, Austria. DESIGN: Evaluation of a diagnostic test or technology. METHODS: In pseudophakic patients, the spherical refractive error was limited to between +0.50 diopter (D) and -0.75 D with astigmatism of 0.75 D (mean spherical equivalent: right eye, -0.08 ± 0.43 [SD]; left eye, -0.15 ± 0.35). Near addition was +2.75 D. Reading performance was assessed binocularly with or without reading glasses at an illumination of 100 candelas (cd)/m(2) and 4 cd/m(2) using the Radner Reading Charts. RESULTS: In the 25 patients evaluated, binocularly, the mean corrected distance visual acuity was -0.07 ± 0.06 logMAR and the mean uncorrected distance visual acuity was 0.01 ± 0.11 logMAR. The mean reading acuity with reading glasses was 0.02 ± 0.10 logRAD at 100 cd/m(2) and 0.12 ± 0.14 logRAD at 4 cd/m(2). Without reading glasses, it was 0.44 ± 0.13 logRAD and 0.56 ± 0.16 logRAD, respectively (P < .05). Without reading glasses and at 100 cd/m(2), 40% of patients read 0.4 logRAD at more than 80 words per minute (wpm), 68% exceeded this limit at 0.5 logRAD, and 92% exceeded it at 0.6 logRAD. The mean reading speed at 0.5 logRAD was 134.76 ± 48.22 wpm; with reading glasses it was 167.65 ± 32.77 wpm (P < .05). CONCLUSION: A considerable percentage of patients with monofocal IOLs read newspaper print size without glasses under good light conditions.