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Say hello to the talking crosswalk. The first one in Los Angeles introduced itself last summer to 2,500 blind and visually impaired people gathered at Century Boulevard and Concourse Way for an American Council for the Blind convention. The automated voice system is connected to the pedestrian signals in front of the Airport Westin Hotel. It tells when it is safe to cross the busy 120-foot-wide boulevard, and when it is safer to stay on the curb. "Crossing Century at Concourse" the signal announced as pedestrians pressed the "walk" button. When the boulevard traffic came to a halt a few moments later, the voice advised: "The walk sign is on to cross Century." The signal gives pedestrians 25 seconds to cross the 10-lane boulevard -- which is the main entry to Los Angeles International Airport. A beeping loudspeaker next to the button alerts the blind that the crosswalk is there. As an extra touch, an arrow above the signal button vibrates when it is safe to cross the street. Noisemaking pedestrian signals are used at about 30 intersections in Los Angeles, including corners near the Braille Institute on Vermont Avenue and around Cal State-Northridge in the San Fernando Valley. They make coo-coo sounds for north-south crosswalks and peep-peep sounds for east-west crossings, said Brian Gallagher, a transportation engineer in charge of signal timing for the city. "The verbal message is an alternative we wanted to try." Visitors to the American Council for the Blind convention were able to give some feedback. The Council has prepared guidelines for traffic engineers across the country to use for making street crossings safer for sightless pedestrians. The talking signals are manufactured by Polara Engineering for a cost of $485.
Suffer from dry eye? Dr. David Sullivan, Senior Scientist at The Schepens, has been researching what effect hormones-specifically androgen-have in dry eye conditions. He is convinced that understanding their role could lead to relief for millions of people. Estimates are that 10 to 40 million Americans suffer from this potentially incapacitating condition. "Millions of people with severe forms of dry eye are at risk of visual impairment," according to M. Reza Dana, Assistant Scientist at The Schepens. "It's extremely common for people to have visual complaints. Like many conditions, it can be frequently overlooked, misdiagnosed, or inappropriately managed. But it can be associated with significant disease and occasionally with visual loss, so early diagnosis and treatment is important. If left unmanaged, very severe cases may lead to corneal ulceration and scarring, which can lead to blindness. At the Schepens, scientists are attacking the problem at the molecular level, tearing apart the tear film, examining layers of cells, learning what makes tears and what goes wrong. While there is no treatment yet, scientists have several therapeutic models that look promising. The eye surface is constantly moisturizing itself. But the amount of tears decreases with age. Many people, primarily women, get a scratchy, itchy feeling in their eyes, as if they have sandpaper on the surface of their eyes. Tears are made of three layers: a mucous layer, a watery layer, and an oily outer layer. It is this outer layer that prevents rapid evaporation of the tear film. If any of the special secreting glands malfunction, a dry eye condition may result. Two major types of dry eye can occur: "evaporative" - a malfunction with the oily outer layer of tear film causing rapid evaporation and the deprivation of its nourishing moisture; and "tear-deficient" or "aqueous deficient" - a malfunction of the lacrimal gland, due to auto-immune diseases that cause inflammation of the gland. In some forms of dry eye, the mucin layer may be altered, which can lead to non-uniform layers of the tear film. That, in turn, can exacerbate, or perhaps even cause, dry eyes. There is no cure . . . yet. The only help currently is in the form of artificial tears, which treat the symptom but do not get at the underlying cause of the condition. Dr. Sullivan's research shows that androgens (male sex hormones) regulate the function of the tear-producing lacrimal and meibomian glands. Increasing these hormones could restore proper functioning to these glands. Dr. Sullivan has developed a topical eye drop containing androgen that may be tested in clinical trials. If successful, it will be the first therapy to treat the condition, not just a symptom, of dry eye syndrome. "In dry eye due to several auto-immune diseases, menopause and aging, low androgen levels seem to be a common factor. This hormone deficiency seems to contribute to dysfunction in the meibomian or lacrimal glands." Pursuing another related area of dry eye research, Dr. Darlene Dartt, Senior Scientist, and her colleagues are working on the formation of enzymes and proteins that could stimulate natural tear production. Such treatment would require fewer drops and last longer if real tears could be stimulated to moisten the eye. Another promising area of research at the Schepens concerns the dysfunction in the cells that produce the mucous layer of the tear film. Scientists are working to determine what regulates mucin genes, the primary component of the mucous layer, in the eventual hope that they could be regulated therapeutically. In yet another encouraging development, Driss Zoukhri, Investigator at The Schepens, is examining the effects of Sjogren's Syndrome on cells in the lacrimal gland. By examining cells in a normal gland, Zoukhri hopes to discover what is different about the lacrimal cells in Sjogren's Syndrome patients. Such knowledge could lead to new treatments for the condition. All of these efforts hold promise for dry eye sufferers. "It is unlikely that one treatment alone will ever prove to be the magic bullet for all forms of dry eye therapy. Rather, we are looking at developing multiple ways of treating the disorder, so that we can one day provide targeted therapy for each patient, rather than just putting them on artificial tear preparations," said Dr. Dana. Dr. Sullivan is confident that "understanding that comes from the research programs at The Schepens may be translated into new insights and may lead to new and unique therapies to treat dry eye and other ocular disorders.
In April, the FDA approved Visudyne therapy, a type of photodynamic therapy, for the treatment of the wet form of Age-related Macular Degeneration. Results from clinical trials found that Visudyne therapy is a safe and effective sight-saving treatment. This new therapy will prevent rapid and severe vision loss for the more than 200,000 patients diagnosed early with wet AMD. Visudyne is a light-activating drug that targets abnormal blood vessels. A "cool" laser stimulates the drug, which destroys the clearly defined leaky, abnormal blood vessels with minimal damage to the healthy surrounding tissue. |
