Characteristics and outcomes of haematology patients admitted to the intensive care unit

To profile the characteristics and outcomes of adult haematology patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Pattern stability and error correction during in-phase and antiphase four-ball juggling

The authors studied pattern stability and error correction during in-phase and antiphase 4-ball fountain juggling. To obtain ball trajectories, they made and digitized high-speed film recordings of 4 highly skilled participants juggling at 3 different heights (and thus different frequencies). From those ball trajectories, the authors determined and analyzed critical events (i.e., toss, zenith, catch, and toss onset) in terms of variability of point estimates of relative phase and temporal correlations. Contrary to common findings on basic instances of rhythmic interlimb coordination, in-phase and antiphase patterns were equally variable (i.e., stable). Consistent with previous findings, however, pattern stability decreased with increasing frequency. In contrast to previous results for 3-ball cascade juggling, negative lag-one correlations for catch-catch intervals were absent, but the authors obtained evidence for error corrections between catches and toss onsets. That finding may have reflected participants' high skill level, which yielded smaller errors that allowed for corrections later in the hand cycle.

Assessing pain in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit:moving to a 'brain-oriented' approach

Preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit undergo repeated exposure to procedural and ongoing pain. Early and long-term changes in pain processing, stress-response systems and development may result from cumulative early pain exposure. So that appropriate treatment can be given, accurate assessment of pain is vital, but is also complex because these infants' responses may differ from those of full-term infants. A variety of uni- and multidimensional assessment tools are available; however, many have incomplete psychometric testing and may not incorporate developmentally important cues. Near-infrared spectroscopy and/or EEG techniques that measure neonatal pain responses at a cortical level offer new opportunities to validate neonatal pain assessment tools.

Extremity movements help occupational therapists identify stress responses in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit:a systematic review

Accurate assessment and treatment of pain and stress in preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) is vital because pain and stress responses have been linked to long-term alterations in development in this population.

Specific Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program movements are associated with acute pain in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

The Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) is widely used in neonatal intensive care units and comprises 85 discrete infant behaviors, some of which may communicate infant distress. The objective of this study was to identify developmentally relevant movements indicative of pain in preterm infants.

Lack of effect of glutamine administration to boost the innate immune system response in trauma patients in the intensive care unit

The use of glutamine as a dietary supplement is associated with a reduced risk of infection. We hypothesized that the underlying mechanism could be an increase in the expression and/or functionality of Toll-like receptors (TLR), key receptors sensing infections. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether glutamine supplementation alters the expression and functionality of TLR2 and TLR4 in circulating monocytes of trauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Scaled Heavy-Ball Acceleration of the Richardson-Lucy Algorithm

The Richardson-Lucy algorithm is one of the most important algorithms in the image deconvolution area. However, one of its drawbacks is slow convergence. A very significant acceleration is obtained by the technique proposed by Biggs and Andrews (BA), which is implemented in the deconvlucy function of the Image Processing MATLAB toolbox. The BA method was developed heuristically with no proof of convergence. In this paper, we introduce the Heavy-Ball (H-B) method for Poisson data optimization and extend it to a scaled H-B method, which includes the BA method as a special case. The method has proof of the convergence rate of O(k-2), where k is the number of iterations. We demonstrate the superior convergence performance of the scaled H-B method on both synthetic and real 3D images.

A ten year audit of clinical psychology referrals in the regional Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit in Northern Ireland

Objectives: A retrospective audit was conducted into Clinical Psychology referrals made by the adult cystic fibrosis (CF) team over a ten year period from 2001-2010. The aim of the audit was to examine the psychological difficulties referred to Clinical Psychology and identify any trends.
Methods: A database of all referrals received over a ten year period was created. A coding template was created by KR and AC which allowed for the categorisation of referrals into three main themes: Mood disturbance, CF related events and non-CF related events. The same coding template was used to categorise referrals to the children’s CF service. Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data.
Results: In 2009/10, 11% of the adult CF population in Northern Ireland were referred to Clinical Psychology. In the past 10 years there were 200 referrals and 105 adults who accessed Clinical Psychology services. The majority of referrals (67%) were re-referrals (range 2-7). More females were referred and they were also more likely to be referred repeatedly The main reason for referral was anxiety. Depression, adherence and end of life/transplant issues also accounted for a large proportion of referrals. A small proportion of referrals were due to non CF related events. There were age and gender differences in the reasons for referral.
Conclusion: A minority of CF patients attending the regional unit were referred to Clinical Psychology. Those who accessed the services appear to be at increased risk of psychological morbidity as re-referral rates are high. The gender difference in referral and re-referral rates may reflect a difference in psychological morbidity or males not accessing services.

Coordinated Design of Phase Measurement Unit and Power System Stabilisers in Large Scale Power System

This paper presents a case-study of a PMU application with PSS support in a real large scale Chinese power system to suppress inter-area oscillations. The paper uses PMU measured feedback signals from a PSS input signal for dynamic torque analysis (DTA). In the paper, a mathematical model of multi-machine power system is described, followed by formation of the residue and DTA indices. Simulations of the model are used with a large-scale power system model to demonstrate the role of PSS and the equivalence of DTA residue indices.