This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of essential oil massage in improving the overall condition of women in the intra-natal period during labour. This study applied a ...quasi-experimental design and purposive sampling method. Fifty-two participants were recruited from a teaching hospital in eastern Taiwan and assigned randomly to experiment (n = 26) and control groups (n = 26). Participants in the experiment group received massage with essential oils (two drops of lavandulaangustifolia in 5 cc of sweet almond oil) and the participants in the control group received massage with carrier oils (sweet almond oil 5 cc). The duration of massage in these two groups was 15 minutes. Data were collected at four time points: (1) before the massage; (2) immediately after the massage; (3) 30 minutes after the massage; and (4) 60 minutes after the massage. The visual analogue scale of anxiety and Philips M1165A biophysical monitor were employed to measure heartbeat, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation. Findings showed that, 30 minutes after receiving massage with essential oils, the experiment group reported signifi cantly less anxiety and had signifi cantly increased oxygen saturation and decreased diastolic pressure levels as compared with the control group. Applying massage with essential oil can decrease labour anxiety levels during first-time labour. Researchers found no significant differences in other physiological indicators between the two groups. The results from this study support massage with essential oils as an alternative approach to relieving anxiety in women in the intra-natal period during labour.
In this paper, we present a fully automatic, fast and accurate deformable registration technique. This technique deals with free-form deformation. It minimizes an energy functional that combines both ...similarity and smoothness measures. By using calculus of variations, the minimization problem was represented as a set of nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs). A Gauss-Seidel finite difference scheme is used to iteratively solve the PDE. The registration is refined by a multi-resolution approach. The whole process is fully automatic. It takes less than 3 min to register two three-dimensional (3D) image sets of size 256 x 256 x 61 using a single 933 MHz personal computer. Extensive experiments are presented. These experiments include simulations, phantom studies and clinical image studies. Experimental results show that our model and algorithm are suited for registration of temporal images of a deformable body. The registration of inspiration and expiration phases of the lung images shows that the method is able to deal with large deformations. When applied to the daily CT images of a prostate patient, the results show that registration based on iterative refinement of displacement field is appropriate to describe the local deformations in the prostate and the rectum. Similarity measures improved significantly after the registration. The target application of this paper is for radiotherapy treatment planning and evaluation that incorporates internal organ deformation throughout the course of radiation therapy. The registration method could also be equally applied in diagnostic radiology.
Thirty-one cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred after exposure in the emergency room at the National Taiwan University Hospital. The index patient was linked to an outbreak at a ...nearby municipal hospital. Three clusters were identified over a 3-week period. The first cluster (5 patients) and the second cluster (14 patients) occurred among patients, family members, and nursing aids. The third cluster (12 patients) occurred exclusively among healthcare workers. Six healthcare workers had close contact with SARS patients. Six others, with different working patterns, indicated that they did not have contact with a SARS patient. Environmental surveys found 9 of 119 samples of inanimate objects to be positive for SARS coronavirus RNA. These observations indicate that although transmission by direct contact with known SARS patients was responsible for most cases, environmental contamination with the SARS coronavirus may have lead to infection among healthcare workers without documented contact with known hospitalized SARS patients.
Automatic re-contouring in 4D radiotherapy Lu, Weiguo; Olivera, Gustavo H; Chen, Quan ...
Physics in medicine & biology,
2006-Mar-07, Letnik:
51, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Delineating regions of interest (ROIs) on each phase of four-dimensional (4D) computed tomography (CT) images is an essential step for 4D radiotherapy. The requirement of manual phase-by-phase ...contouring prohibits the routine use of 4D radiotherapy. This paper develops an automatic re-contouring algorithm that combines techniques of deformable registration and surface construction. ROIs are manually contoured slice-by-slice in the reference phase image. A reference surface is constructed based on these reference contours using a triangulated surface construction technique. The deformable registration technique provides the voxel-to-voxel mapping between the reference phase and the test phase. The vertices of the reference surface are displaced in accordance with the deformation map, resulting in a deformed surface. The new contours are reconstructed by cutting the deformed surface slice-by-slice along the transversal, sagittal or coronal direction. Since both the inputs and outputs of our automatic re-contouring algorithm are contours, it is relatively easy to cope with any treatment planning system. We tested our automatic re-contouring algorithm using a deformable phantom and 4D CT images of six lung cancer patients. The proposed algorithm is validated by visual inspections and quantitative comparisons of the automatic re-contours with both the gold standard segmentations and the manual contours. Based on the automatic delineated ROIs, changes of tumour and sensitive structures during respiration are quantitatively analysed. This algorithm could also be used to re-contour daily images for treatment evaluation and adaptive radiotherapy.
A partial wave analysis is presented of
J
/
ψ
→
ϕ
π
+
π
−
and
ϕ
K
+
K
−
from a sample of 58M
J
/
ψ
events in the BES II detector. The
f
0
(
980
)
is observed clearly in both sets of data, and ...parameters of the Flatté formula are determined accurately:
M
=
965
±
8
(
stat
)
±
6
(
syst
)
MeV
/
c
2
,
g
1
=
165
±
10
±
15
MeV
/
c
2
,
g
2
/
g
1
=
4.21
±
0.25
±
0.21
. The
ϕ
π
π
data also exhibit a strong
ππ peak centred at
M
=
1335
MeV
/
c
2
. It may be fitted with
f
2
(
1270
)
and a dominant
0
+
signal made from
f
0
(
1370
)
interfering with a smaller
f
0
(
1500
)
component. There is evidence that the
f
0
(
1370
)
signal is resonant, from interference with
f
2
(
1270
)
. There is also a state in
ππ with
M
=
1790
−30
+40
MeV
/
c
2
and
Γ
=
270
−30
+60
MeV
/
c
2
; spin 0 is preferred over spin 2. This state,
f
0
(
1790
)
, is distinct from
f
0
(
1710
)
. The
ϕ
K
K
¯
data contain a strong peak due to
f
2
′
(
1525
)
. A shoulder on its upper side may be fitted by interference between
f
0
(
1500
)
and
f
0
(
1710
)
.
This study aimed to examine the correlation between quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients and that of their spouse caregivers and to identify factors that influence this correlation.
This ...cross-sectional study collected data from 121 cancer patient/spouse caregiver dyads. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale-General (FACT-G) was used to measure patients' QOL, and the Caregiver Quality of Life Index (CQLI) was used to measure spouse caregivers' QOL. Correlation coefficients between patients' and caregivers' QOL were computed for four dimensions of QOL, as well as a total score for QOL. Correlations between patients' and caregivers' total QOL scores were furthered analyzed by three groups of factors: disease-/treatment-related, caregiving-related, and relationship-related variables.
Only the social/family and functional dimensions of patient QOL and total score for patient QOL were associated with each dimension of their caregivers' QOL and with the total score ( r=0.27-0.44). Physical and emotional dimensions of patients' QOL did not significantly influence spouse caregivers' QOL for any dimension nor for the total score. Factors influencing the association between patients' and caregivers' overall QOL included cancer diagnosis, length of hospitalization, caregiving intensity and duration, marital satisfaction, and caregiving self-esteem.
Social and functional aspects of patients' QOL play a significant role in determining the QOL of their spouse caregivers. The strength of association between patients' and spouse caregivers' overall QOL can be moderated by some factors.
A number of different fits to solar neutrino mixing and mass square difference were performed using 1496 days of Super-Kamiokande-I's solar neutrino data. These data select two allowed areas at large ...neutrino mixing when combined with either the solar
8B flux prediction of the standard solar model or the SNO interaction rate measurements. A global fit combining SK data with the solar neutrino interaction rates measured by Homestake, SNO, Gallex/GNO and SAGE prefers a single allowed area, the Large Mixing Angle solution, at the 98.9% confidence level. The mass square difference
Δm
2 between the two mass eigenstates ranges from about 3 to 19×10
−5 eV
2, while the mixing angle
θ is in the range of tan
2
θ≈0.25–0.65.
This study aimed to find echocardiographic parameters that can predict short- and long-term adverse cardiovascular events in patients with AMI.
A total of 126 patients with AMI admitted to our ...hospital from July to December 2012 were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent echocardiographic examination within 12 hours after admission and received regular follow-ups until December 2018. The primary endpoint was a composite of the major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs).
In the first year of this study, a primary endpoint occurred in 35 patients and the predictor derived from the echocardiography of 1-year primary endpoint was LVEF<40% (OR: 9.000, 95% CI 3.242-24.987, p<0.0001) and the area under the curve (AUC) for the predictor was 0.676 (95% CI 0.561-0.790, p=0.002). For the total 5 years, 57 patients underwent primary endpoint. The results of the 5-year primary endpoint were: E/E'>15 (OR: 4.094, 95% CI 1.726-9.710, P=0.001), the wall motion score index was (WMSI)>1.5 (OR: 12.791, 95% CI 1.511-108.312, P=0.019), and the AUC was 0.691 (95% CI 0.595-0.787 P<0.0001).
LVEF is correlated with a short-term outcome (1-year), and WMSI and E/E' can predict a long-term outcome (5-year) in patients with acute myocardial infarction.
The validation of several micellar LC-based analytical methodologies was described. These methods were able to quantify quinolones in fish from fisheries, hydroxytyrosol in olive extracts and ...biogenic amines in anchovy sauce. The validation was performed following the requirements of official guides to provide more reliability. Two guides suggested by renowned institution are described: US FDA Guidance for Industry and EU Regulation 2002/657/EC Decision. The appropriate guide was used for each method, depending of the analyte, the matrix and the scope of sample. The calculated validation parameters were those proposed by the guide: selectivity, calibration range, linearity, LOD and LOQ, inter- and intra-day accuracy and precision, limit of decision, detection capability, robustness, recovery and stability. The methodologies were successfully validated by the selected guideline, indicating their suitability to be applied to analysis of real samples, proven to be useful to its intended purpose.
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