Search results for "Science & Technology"
showing 10 items of 723 documents
Can a meditation app help my sleep? A cross-sectional survey of Calm users
2021
Use of mindfulness mobile apps has become popular, however, there is little information about subscribers’ perceptions of app content and its impact on sleep and mental health. The purpose of this study was to survey subscribers to Calm, a popular mindfulness meditation app, to explore perceived improvements in sleep and mental health, evaluate what components of the app were associated with improvements in sleep and mental health, and determine whether improvements differed based on sleep quality. Calm subscribers who had used a sleep-related component in the last 90 days completed a Web-based investigator-developed survey and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The survey included questio…
Comparison of short-term light disturbance, optical and visual performance outcomes between a myopia control contact lens and a single-vision contact…
2020
Purpose To compare the optical and visual performance of a dual-focus (DF) contact lens used for myopia control with a single-vision (SV) contact lens of the same material. Methods A randomised, double-masked crossover study. Twenty-eight healthy, myopic volunteers between 18 and 32 years of age (23.49 +/- 4.07 years) participated in this study. The sensory dominant eye for distance vision was determined. Refraction, best-corrected visual acuity (VA) and aberrations for 3 mm and 5 mm pupil diameters were quantified without a contact lens in situ. Subjects were fitted with two contact lens designs: DF and SV, both made of omafilcon A material. The Quality of Vision (QoV) questionnaire, over-…
The Vaccination Concerns in COVID-19 Scale (VaCCS) : Development and validation
2022
Vaccines are highly effective in minimizing serious cases of COVID-19 and pivotal to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite widespread availability, vaccination rates fall short of levels required to bring about widespread immunity, with low rates attributed to vaccine hesitancy. It is therefore important to identify the beliefs and concerns associated with vaccine intentions and uptake. The present study aimed to develop and validate, using the AMEE Guide, the Vaccination Concerns in COVID-19 Scale (VaCCS), a comprehensive measure of beliefs and concerns with respect to COVID-19 vaccines. In the scale development phase, samples of Australian (N = 53) and USA (N = 48) residents completed a…
Pooled analysis of who surgical safety checklist use and mortality after emergency laparotomy
2019
Background The World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist has fostered safe practice for 10 years, yet its place in emergency surgery has not been assessed on a global scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate reported checklist use in emergency settings and examine the relationship with perioperative mortality in patients who had emergency laparotomy. Methods In two multinational cohort studies, adults undergoing emergency laparotomy were compared with those having elective gastrointestinal surgery. Relationships between reported checklist use and mortality were determined using multivariable logistic regression and bootstrapped simulation. Results Of 12 296 patients incl…
Is Active Transport and Leisure-Time Physical Activity Associated With Inflammatory Markers in US Adults? A Cross-Sectional Analyses From NHANES.
2019
BACKGROUND: To investigate the association between levels of active transport and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) with C-reactive protein, white blood cell count, body mass index, waist circumference, and lipids in a large representative sample of adults residing in the United States. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Adjusted multinomial logistic regressions were carried out to quantify associations between levels of self-reported active transport (or LTPA) and quintiles of anthropometric measures and serum markers. RESULTS: A total of 3248 adults were included. For serum inflammatory biomarkers, the authors observed a lower like…
Comparison of visual and refractive results of Toric Implantable Collamer Lens with bioptics for myopic astigmatism.
2013
PURPOSE: To compare visual and refractive results of Toric Implantable Collamer Lens (TICL) and bioptics (ICL plus excimer corneal surgery) to treat myopic astigmatism. METHODS: Eighty-one eyes underwent TICL implantation and 83 eyes were treated with bioptics (corneal ablation was performed between 1.5 and 6 months after ICL implantation). Uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), refraction, adverse events, safety, and efficacy were evaluated 12 months postoperatively. RESULTS: At 12 months postoperatively, the mean spherical equivalent was -0.15 ± 0.36 diopters (D) in the TICL group and -0.08 ± 0.26 D in the bioptics group (p = 0.099). Sixty-six …
Technical note: a comparison of central and peripheral intraocular pressure using rebound tonometry
2007
Purpose: To compare central and peripheral intraocular pressure (IOP) readings obtained with rebound tonometry.Methods: Intraocular pressure was measured on the right eye of 153 patients (65 males, 88 females), aged from 21 to 85 years (mean +/- S.D., 55.5 +/- 15.2 years) with the ICare rebound tonometer at centre, and 2 mm from the limbus (in the nasal and temporal regions along the 0-180O corneal meridian).Results: Intraocular pressure values obtained with the ICare were 14.9 +/- 2.8; 14.1 +/- 2.5 and 14.5 +/- 2.7 mmHg at centre, nasal and temporal corneal locations, respectively. On average, nasal and temporal IOP readings were 0.75 and 0.37 mmHg lower than the central reading (p 0.05, r…
Tear film stability over a myopia control contact lens compared to a monofocal design
2021
Background: To compare the short-term effect of two contact lenses on pre-lens tear film stability and comfort: dual-focus contact lens (MiSight) and a monofocal contact lens (Proclear 1-day).Methods: This randomised, double-masked, crossover study was performed in twenty-eight healthy, myopic volunteers aged between 18 and 32 years (23.5 +/- 4.1 years). Only one randomly chosen eye was assessed. Distance vision and refraction were evaluated at baseline. Each contact lens type (monofocal and dual-focus) was randomly fitted, always in both eyes. A visual analogue scale between 0 and 10 was used to assess general comfort, physical comfort, and visual comfort. Tear Film Surface Quality (TFSQ) …
Sleep during the third trimester of pregnancy: the role of depression and anxiety
2015
Depression has been associated with sleep disturbances in pregnancy; however, no previous research has controlled the possible confounding effect of anxiety on this association. This study aims to analyze the effect of depression on sleep during the third trimester of pregnancy controlling for anxiety. The sample was composed by 143 depressed (n = 77) and non-depressed (n = 66) pregnant women who completed measures of depression, anxiety, and sleep. Differences between groups in sleep controlling for anxiety were found. Depressed pregnant women present higher number of nocturnal awakenings and spent more hours trying falling asleep during the night and the entire 24 h period. Present findin…
Gaussian Mixture Models and Model Selection for [18F] Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Classification in Alzheimer’s Disease
2015
We present a method to discover discriminative brain metabolism patterns in [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) scans, facilitating the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In the work, the term "pattern" stands for a certain brain region that characterizes a target group of patients and can be used for a classification as well as interpretation purposes. Thus, it can be understood as a so-called "region of interest (ROI)". In the literature, an ROI is often found by a given brain atlas that defines a number of brain regions, which corresponds to an anatomical approach. The present work introduces a semi-data-driven approach that is based on learning the charac…