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This study aimed to develop a self-rating anxiety inventory for maintenance haemodialysis patients (AI-MHD) and perform preliminary validation to provide a simple, effective, and highly specific practical tool for effective anxiety disorder screening in haemodialysis patients. Based on existing general anxiety disorder screening scales and common symptoms of MHD patients as a reference and after expert discussions and preliminary validation at a single dialysis centre, a self-rating AI-MHD containing 12 items was developed. Subsequently, the AI-MHD was applied in 4 dialysis centres and compared with GAD-7 and HADS-A. Further multicentre validation showed that Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.918; the AI-MHD score not only significantly differed between the anxiety disorders group and the non-anxiety disorders group (p

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical application effect of "kindergarten effect" in radiotherapy for children with tumor based on the psychology of preschool children aged 3-5 years. METHODS: A total of 30 children, aged 3-5 years, who were admitted to the Department of Radiotherapy, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, from January 2020 to August 2021 were enrolled in this prospective study. The children were randomly divided into a control group and a test group, with 15 children in each group. The children in the test group were treated in "kindergarten mode", i.e., all children were treated together at a specified time and left together after all children completed treatment. Those in the control group were treated alternately with adult patients according to the treatment time based on the type of radiotherapy fixation device. The treatment compliance was evaluated for both groups, and the two groups were compared in terms of the setup errors in the superior-inferior (SI), left-right (LR), and anterior-posterior (AP) directions. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the test group showed a significantly shorter time for finishing the treatment (P

Aim This study was conducted to identify and compare the levels of compassion fatigue and job satisfaction among haemodialysis nurses in public and private hospitals in China and explore explanatory factors based on sociodemographic and occupational characteristics. Methods A descriptive study was conducted using a self-designed demographic questionnaire, the Professional Quality of Life Scale and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, with responses from 283 haemodialysis nurses working at six public and private hospitals in China between June and November 2018. Results The compassion fatigue score of public hospital nurses was significantly higher than that of private hospital nurses. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in compassion fatigue among nurses based on the number of years worked, nature of employment, and education level. Correlational analysis showed a negative correlation between overall job satisfaction and compassion fatigue in both public and private hospitals. Multiple regression analysis showed that compassion fatigue among haemodialysis nurses in public hospitals was associated with years worked, type of employment, and intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, whereas in private hospitals, education level, years worked, and intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction were significant. Conclusion Haemodialysis nurses in public hospitals are more likely to develop compassion fatigue than those in private hospitals.

The wireless sensor network (WSN) provides us with a cost-effective way to remotely monitor a large number of objects, locations, and environmental parameters. Taking advantage of WSNs to applications can add new capabilities to existing products and bring out new services. We propose a novel range-free localization scheme, the Voronoi diagram-based grouping test localization (VTL) scheme, to estimate the location efficiently for WSNs. VTL divides the anchor nodes into multiple groups and uses the corresponding closest Voronoi cells to compute the estimated location. Apart from improving the accuracy of location estimation, it also largely simplifies the implementation. Simulation results show that the VTL scheme has better performance compared with other range-free localization schemes. When reaching a certain anchor node density, the VTL scheme will have higher localization accuracy and a larger percentage of localizable nodes. Hence, VTL is likely more appropriate for upcoming WSN scenarios with large ratios of anchor nodes being available.

Data on knowledge and fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and perceived stress were collected in July 2020 from a convenience sample of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong by asking participants to take part in three questionnaires. First, twelve questions related to knowledge associated with the prevention and identification of COVID-19 were used to assess participants’ knowledge regarding COVID-19. Second, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) was used to assess participants’ perceived fear of infection. Third, the Short Form Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4) was used to measure participants’ perceived stress. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were obtained to assess the relationships between the total scores of the three questionnaires. The relationship between knowledge of COVID and fear of COVID was significant, r(108) = +0.23, p = .02; the relationship between fear of COVID and perceived stress was not statistically significant, r(108) = +0.17, p = .08; the relationship between knowledge of COVID and perceived stress was not statistically significant, r(108) = -0.11, p = .26. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were obtained for each of the three questionnaires to assess internal consistency reliability.

A 73-year-old woman presented with an acute exacerbation of her long-standing psoriasis. Ciclosporin was commenced due to the severity of her symptoms resulting in remission within 2 weeks. Full blood count, urea and electrolytes following initiation of treatment were unremarkable, although she complained of muscle aches, which was attributed to her known multiple sclerosis. Three weeks later she was admitted to the hospital with diarrhoea and vomiting. Repeat blood tests revealed raised creatinine (528 μmol/L (normal range (NR) n=45–84 μmol/L)), urea (32.6 mmol/L (NR 2.5–7.8 mmol/L)) and creatine kinase (6792 IU/L (NR 25–200 IU/L)) levels and reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate of 7. A diagnosis of acute kidney injury secondary to rhabdomyolysis was made due to an interaction between ciclosporin and simvastatin, precipitated by the dehydration from gastroenteritis. Haemofiltration was required to stabilise her renal function and she made a complete recovery.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety performance of a sample of intersections that had been improved with the implementation of certain safety countermeasures targeting right-turn collisions in the city of Edmonton, Canada. A full Bayes approach was used to determine the effectiveness of the improvements by employing a before-and-after design with matched (yoked) comparison groups. Three linear intervention models were considered: a multivariate model that modeled treatment effects as a gradual change, a similar model with the addition of a jump treatment effect, and a univariate model that specifically analyzed right-turn collisions. The results indicated that the safety improvement program was effective; up to 40% of right-turn collisions were reduced. Despite the small sample size, these reductions were statistically significant. The results show the usefulness of the full Bayes technique in performing before-and-after evaluations of traffic treatment programs and in eliminating the need for a reference population and also in allowing for additional types of analysis, including multivariate analysis (modeling collisions of different types and severities at the same time), temporal effects (for both treatment and long-term trends), and greater freedom in the selection of error structure.

New urban planning concepts are being redefined to emphasize walkability (a measure of how walker-friendly an area is) and to accommodate the pedestrian as a key road user. However, the availability of reliable information on pedestrian traffic remains a major challenge and inhibits a better understanding of many pedestrian issues. Therefore, the importance of developing new techniques for the collection of pedestrian data cannot be overstated. This paper describes the use of computer vision techniques for the automated collection of pedestrian data through several applications, including measurement of pedestrian counts, tracking, and walking speeds. An efficient pedestrian-tracking algorithm, the MMTrack, was used. The algorithm employed a large-margin learning criterion to combine different sources of information effectively. The applications were demonstrated with a real-world data set from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The data set included 1,135 pedestrian tracks. Manual counts and tracking were performed to validate the results of the automated data collection. The results show a 5% average error in counting, which is considered reliable. The results of walking speed validation showed excellent agreement between manual and automated walking speed values (root mean square error = 0.0416 m/s, R2 = .9269). Further analysis was conducted on the mean walking speed of pedestrians as it related to several factors. Gender, age, and the group size were found to influence the pedestrian mean walking speed significantly. The results demonstrate that computer vision techniques have the potential to collect microscopic data on road users at a degree of automation and accuracy that cannot be feasibly achieved by manual or semiautomated techniques.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is an intrinsic property that reflects autonomic balance and has been shown to be predictive of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. It can be altered by physiological states such as exercise or pathological conditions. However, there are only a handful of studies on HRV in horses. The aim of this study is to compare HRV parameters before and during exercise in horses. Methods: Time-domain, frequency-domain and non-linear analyses were applied to quantify time series data on RR intervals before and during exercise in horses (n=7). Results: Exercise increased heart rate from 44±8 to 113±17 bpm (ANOVA, P2) were reduced from 29±17 to 2±5, 1138±372 to 22±22 and 860±564 to 9±6, respectively, as was total power (in logarithms) (7.52±0.52 to 3.25±0.73). Poincaré plots of RRn+1 against RRn revealed similar ellipsoid shapes before and after exercise. The SD along the line-of-identity (SD2) and SD perpendicular to the line-of-identity (SD1) were decreased by exercise (62±17 vs. 9±5 and 63±65 vs. 5±3), corresponding to increased SD2/SD1 ratio from 1.33±0.45 to 2.19±0.72. No change in approximate and sample entropy was detected (0.97±0.23 vs. 0.82±0.22 and 1.14±0.43 vs. 1.37±0.49). Detrended fluctuation analysis revealed unaltered short-term fluctuation slopes (0.76±0.27 vs. 1.18±0.55) but increased long-term fluctuation slopes (0.16±0.11 vs. 0.50±0.16) after exercise. Conclusion: Exercise leads to a decrease in HRV but did not affect signal entropy in horses.

A series of dialuminum compounds have been synthesized and their reactivity and application for lactide polymerization have been studied. The reaction of AlH3 x NMe3 with [C4H3NH(2-CH2NHtBu)] in diethyl ether generated a dimeric aluminum hydride compound, [[[C4H3N(2-CH2NtBu)]AlH]2] (1). The structure of 1 was confirmed by spectroscopy of a deuterated analogue of 1 with an Al--D function. Direct treatment of [C4H3NH(2-CH2NHtBu)] with LiAlH4 in diethyl ether resulted in colorless crystals of [[Li[micro-eta1:eta5-C4H3N(2-CH2NtBu)]2Al]2] (2) in 80 % yield after recrystallization from a toluene solution. The micro-eta1:eta5-pyrrolyl protons exhibit high-field shifts at delta=5.73, 6.15, and 6.72 comparable to a similar eta5-bonding mode in the literature. Treatment of 1 with 1 equiv acetone oxime or acetone in dichloromethane gave [[[C4H3N(2-CH2NtBu)]Al[varkappaO,varkappaN-(ON==CMe2)]]2] (3) and [[[C4H3N(2-CH2NtBu)]Al(O--CHMe2)]2] (4) in 67 % and 60 % yield, respectively. Compounds 1-4 have been characterized by X-ray diffractometry and were used as catalysts for epsilon-caprolactone polymerization.

Four new gallium chalcogenides [H2dap]4Ga4Se10 (1), [Mn(dap)3]0.5GaSe2 (2), {[Ni(tepa)]2SO4}[Ni(tepa)(Ga4S6(SH)4)] (3) and [Mn(atep)]Ga2S4 (4) (dap = 1,2-diaminopropane, tepa = tetraethylenepentamine, atep = 4-(2-aminoethyl)triethylenetetramine) have been synthesized by solvothermal methods and structurally characterized. The effects of the strong chelating amines on the topology of gallium chalcogenidometalates have been enumerated. First, in the absence of transition metal ions, the chelating amine can offer more N−H groups than the monoamines to form hydrogen bonds; therefore, compound 1 takes a 2-D polymeric structure constructed by supertetrahedral clusters ([Ga4Se10]8−, T2). Second, when transition metals are incorporated into the chelating amine system, larger [M(dap)3]2+complex cations are formed, which force the anions of compound 2 to adopt a 1-D structure ([GaSe2]− chain). Third, when an appropriate chelating amine (e.g., tepa) is selected, unsaturated transition metal complex cations can be ob...

To date, optical burst switching (OBS) schemes assume the switch reconfiguration time to be negligible, a part of the processing delay of the control packet, or a fixed value added to the data burst length, regardless of the switch status. In this paper, we show that the switching overhead can have a significant impact on the performance of some OBS channel scheduling schemes. We have also proposed methods to alleviate the problem

Congenital triangular alopecia (CTA) also known as temporal triangular alopecia is a benign noncicatricial pattern of hair loss. It typically affects the frontotemporal region and rarely involves the temporoparietal or occipital scalp. It is a nonprogressive disorder that presents as a triangular, oval or lancet-shaped patch of alopecia. CTA can manifest at birth or develop later in life. The exact etiology of this condition remains unknown. Rarely, it may be associated with other disorders such as Down's syndrome and phakomatosis pigmentovascularis. The diagnosis is based on its distinct clinical appearance. Histologically, hair follicles are miniaturized and replaced by sparse vellus hair follicles. Tricoscopy using a polarized light handheld dermatoscope can be a useful diagnostic tool. CTA is often asymptomatic and remains unchanged throughout the life. No treatment is required. Surgical intervention with follicular unit hair transplantation can provide a satisfactory cosmetic result. In this paper, we have identified 126 cases of CTA in the published literature cited on PubMed between 1905 and 2015. From the available evidence, 79% of patients with CTA presented with unilateral hair loss, 18.5% with bilateral involvement and rarely, with occipital alopecia (2.5%). There was no gender predilection. These figures are entirely consistent with previously published data. Physicians should remember to consider CTA as a potential diagnosis in any patient presenting with a nonscarring alopecia in order to avoid unnecessary investigations and treatments.

High slope-efficiency ∼25% for green-to-blue wavelength conversion, rendering 60mW/440nm blue laser by 400mW/532nm pump of 20ns/4KHz, was demonstrated on 7.9µm-period PPLT due to simultaneous phase matching of the 1st-order QPM-OPO with the 2nd-order QPM-SHG process.

Three new indium sulfides, [Ni(dien)2]0.5[InS2] (dien = diethylenetriamine) (1), [Ni(dap)3]0.5[InS2] (dap = 1,2-diaminopropane) (2), and [Ni(tepa)]2[In4S7(SH)2].H2O (tepa = tetraethylenepentamine) (3), have been prepared under solvothermal conditions and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compounds 1 and 2 consist of discrete 1-D {[InS2]-} infinity chains with complex cations as charge-compensating ions, while compound 3 consists of a novel 1-D anionic chain constructed from arachno-shaped In4S11 clusters. The sulfide chain of 3 coordinates into the complex cations via the nonterminal S atoms of the polymeric anion, forming a covalently linked organic-inorganic hybrid compound.

We will describe recent results in all-optical packet switching with all-optical header processing using Fabry-Perot laser diodes (FP-LD). First, we will report an all-optical header processor and control signal generator using a single FP-LD with a special two-intensity-level control signal and a novel self-routing address format for the data packets. We then show that the special control signal can be generated by direct modulation of a DFB laser with square electrical pulses thus simplifying implementation. We will demonstrate that a single Fabry-Perot laser diode can also serve as an all-optical on/off switch with all-optical header processing. The header rate is 5 Gb/s and the payload rate is 10 Gb/s. The all-optical on/off switch can also be realized by using a FP-LD as the header processor only and executing the packet switching at a separate stage. The two-stage implementation of all-optical on/off switch eliminates the residue header bits problems if only a single FP-LD is used. Finally, we propose an all-optical packet-switched ring network which can be constructed from the all-optical on/off switches demonstrated.

By retaining only the most essential packet-switching functions in the optical domain, a single Fabry Perot Laser Diode can function as an all-optical on/off switch with all-optical header processing, and an all-optical add/drop node can be used to construct an all-optical ring network.

Feature Issue on Optical Interconnection Networks (OIN). Two-dimensional (2-D) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) optical switches have the merits of easy fabrication and high reliability. Since the optical signal loss is mainly proportional to the length of signaling paths in the switches, current 2-D MEMS optical switches that use a crossbar structure have a rather limited number of ports. For larger 2-D MEMS optical switches, we may use nonrectangular topology switching fabrics to shorten the internal signaling path or to recollimate the optical signal segment by segment inside the switches. We discuss these approaches from the aspect of implementation and routing control complexity.