Effect of screening abdominal ultrasound examination on the decision to pursue advanced diagnostic tests and treatment in dogs with neurologic disease.

BackgroundAbdominal ultrasound examinations (AUS) are commonly performed before advanced neurodiagnostics to screen for diseases that might affect diagnostic plans and prognosis.ObjectivesDescribe the type and frequency of abnormalities found by AUS in dogs presenting with a neurological condition, identify risk factors associated with abnormalities, and evaluate treatment decisions based on findings.AnimalsSeven hundred and fifty-nine hospitalized dogs.MethodsRetrospective study. Medical records of dogs presented from 2007 to 2009 for neurologic disease were searched for signalment, neuroanatomic localization, and AUS findings. Whether dogs had advanced neurodiagnostics and treatment was analyzed.ResultsFifty-eight percent of dogs had abnormal findings on AUS. Probability of abnormalities increased with age (P < 0.001). Nondachshund breeds had higher probability of abnormal AUS than dachshunds (odds ratio [OR] = 1.87). Eleven percent of dogs did not have advanced neurodiagnostics and in 1.3%, this was because of abnormal AUS. Dogs with ultrasonographic abnormalities were less likely than dogs without to have advanced neurodiagnostics (OR = 0.3 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.17, 0.52]), however, the probability of performing advanced diagnostics was high regardless of normal (OR = 0.95 [95% CI: 0.92, 0.97]) or abnormal (OR = 0.85 [95% CI: 0.81, 0.88]) AUS. Treatment was more often pursued in small dogs and less often in dogs with brain disease.Conclusions and clinical importanceFindings from screening AUS had a small negative effect on the likelihood of pursuing advanced neurodiagnostics. Although it should be included in the extracranial diagnostic workup in dogs with significant history or physical examination abnormalities, AUS is considered a low-yield diagnostic test in young dogs and dachshunds

Numerical Investigation of Magnetic Resonant Coupling Technique in Inter-Chip Communication via Electromagnetics-TCAD Coupled Simulation

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The Purcell effect of silver nanoshell on the fluorescence of nanoparticles

Proceedings of the Asia Optical Fiber Communication and Optoelectronics Conference, 2007, p. 81-83The Purcell effect on the spontaneously emission rate and fluorescence efficiency of nanoparticles with and without a silver nanoshell will be investigated which are important for nanoparticle applications in biomedical diagnostics, information storage and optoelectronics.published_or_final_versio

A New Low Radiation Wireless Transmission System in Mobile Phone Application Based on Magnetic Resonant Coupling

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Bright betatron x-ray radiation from a laser-driven-clustering gas target

Hard X-ray sources from femtosecond (fs) laser-produced plasmas, including the betatron X-rays from laser wakefield-accelerated electrons, have compact sizes, fs pulse duration and fs pump-probe capability, making it promising for wide use in material and biological sciences. Currently the main problem with such betatron X-ray sources is the limited average flux even with ultra-intense laser pulses. Here, we report ultra-bright betatron X-rays can be generated using a clustering gas jet target irradiated with a small size laser, where a ten-fold enhancement of the X-ray yield is achieved compared to the results obtained using a gas target. We suggest the increased X-ray photon is due to the existence of clusters in the gas, which results in increased total electron charge trapped for acceleration and larger wiggling amplitudes during the acceleration. This observation opens a route to produce high betatron average flux using small but high repetition rate laser facilities for applications

The relationship between web enjoyment and student perceptions and learning using a web-based tutorial

Web enjoyment has been regarded as a component of system experience. However, there has been little targeted research considering the role of web enjoyment alone in student learning using web-based systems. To address this gap, this study aims to examine the influence of web enjoyment on learning performance and perceptions by controlling system experience as a variable in the study. 74 students participated in the study, using a web-based tutorial covering subject matter in the area of 'Computation and algorithms'. Their learning performance was assessed with a pre-test and a post-test and their learning perceptions were evaluated with a questionnaire. The results indicated that there are positive relationships between the levels of web enjoyment and perceived usefulness and non-linear navigation for users with similar, significant levels of system experience. The implications of these findings in relation to web-based learning are explored and ways in which the needs of students who report different levels of web enjoyment might be met are discussed

A New Low Radiation Wireless Transmission System in Mobile Phone Application Based on Magnetic Resonant Coupling

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Moving from evidence-based medicine to evidence-based health.

While evidence-based medicine (EBM) has advanced medical practice, the health care system has been inconsistent in translating EBM into improvements in health. Disparities in health and health care play out through patients' limited ability to incorporate the advances of EBM into their daily lives. Assisting patients to self-manage their chronic conditions and paying attention to unhealthy community factors could be added to EBM to create a broader paradigm of evidence-based health. A perspective of evidence-based health may encourage physicians to consider their role in upstream efforts to combat socially patterned chronic disease

Relationship between cognitive function and symptomology with self-stigma in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

E-PosterBACKGROUND: Self-stigma can be understood as a process of an individual gaining awareness of the associated stereotypes, agreeing with them and thus applying them to oneself [1]. This suggests the involvement of complex cognitive processes behind the development of self-stigma. Previous studies have also suggested that clinical symptoms are related to both cognitive function and self-stigma [2,3]. The current study examined the relationship of cognitive functions, clinical symptoms and self-stigma ...published_or_final_versio