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Purpose To provide population-based normative data for monocular visual acuity (VA) and interocular differences in VA (IOD), in African-American and Hispanic children 30–72 months of age without visually significant refractive errors or ophthalmic abnormalities. Methods In a population-based cohort of children in the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study, monocular HOTV VA measurements using the Amblyopia Treatment Study protocol were analyzed using continuous and dichotomous outcomes for VA and IOD, after excluding subjects with ophthalmic abnormalities or refractive error. Results The analysis cohort consisted of 1722 African-American and Hispanic children aged 30 to 72 months. Mean logMAR VA improved with age (P<0.0001) and male gender (p=0.0008). The proportion of children achieving VA 20/40 or better was associated with age (p<0.0001), but not ethnicity or gender, and was 81%, 94%, 99% and virtually 100% in children aged 30–35, 36–47, 48–59, and 60–72 months of age, respectively. The most stringent VA threshold that excluded <5% of normal children was 20/63, 20/50, 20/32, and 20/32 for children aged 30–35, 36–47, 48–59, and 60–72 months, respectively. Children attending preschool or daycare achieved VA 20/32 more often than those not attending, after age adjustment (P=0.01), as did children from higher-income families (p=0.04). There was no association between mean absolute IOD and age (P=0.45), ethnicity (P=0.12), or gender (P=0.19). The proportion of children achieving an IOD of 0–1 lines was higher in males than females (P=0.02); it did not vary by age (P=0.06) or ethnicity (P=0.17). IOD of two or more lines occurred in 6% of normal children. Conclusions Visual acuity test performance in normal preschool children improves with age. We propose new age-specific thresholds for defining abnormal monocular VA using HOTV optotypes in children between 2 and 5 years of age, for use in screening, clinical practice and research.

This study examined the relationship between parental and adolescent eHealth literacy and its impact on online health information seeking. Data were obtained from 1,869 junior high school students and 1,365 parents in Taiwan in 2013. Multivariate analysis results showed that higher levels of parental Internet skill and eHealth literacy were associated with an increase in parental online health information seeking. Parental eHealth literacy, parental active use Internet mediation, adolescent Internet literacy, and health information literacy were all related to adolescent eHealth literacy. Similarly, adolescent Internet/health information literacy, eHealth literacy, and parental active use Internet mediation, and parental online health information seeking were associated with an increase in adolescent online health information seeking. The incorporation of eHealth literacy courses into parenting programs and school education curricula is crucial to promote the eHealth literacy of parents and adolescents.

The morphology and infraciliature of two hypotrichous ciliates, Oxytricha paragranulifera n. sp. and Oxytricha granulifera Foissner and Adam, 1983, collected respectively from the surface of a sandy soil in the Huguang mangrove forest, Zhanjiang, China, and the surface of soil in a forest beside Ziwu Road, Xian, north-west China, were examined. O. paragranulifera n. sp. is characterized by an elongate body with slightly tapered anterior end, two macronuclear nodules and two micronuclei, paroral and endoral in Stylonychia-pattern, colourless cortical granules distributed in clusters or irregular short rows, adoral zone occupying 37 % of the body length, marginal rows almost confluent posteriorly, six dorsal kineties and three caudal cirri, caudal cirri and dorsal bristles almost indistinguishable when viewed in vivo. The well-known O. granulifera Foissner and Adam, 1983 was also redescribed and can be separated from the novel species by having cortical granules arranged along dorsal kineties and marginal rows on both sides (vs grouped in clusters as well as in short irregular rows), paroral and endoral in Oxytricha-pattern (vs in Stylonychia-pattern), macronuclear nodules obviously detached (vs adjacent) and a non-saline terrestrial habitat (vs saline terrestrial). The separation of these two taxa is also firmly supported by the molecular data, which show a significant difference between the two in their SSU rRNA gene sequences (similarity 97.1 %). Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rRNA gene sequence data suggest a close relationship within the Oxytrichidae assemblage between O. paragranulifera n. sp. and O. granulifera.