The psychosocial burden of psoriasis and barriers to biologic therapy in Hong Kong: patients’ perspectives

This journal suppl. is proceedings of the 18th MRC 2013INTRODUCTION: Psoriatic skin lesions are often visible and have negative impact on patients’ quality of life (QoL). The introduction of biologic therapies has revolutionised the treatment of psoriasis. They are highly efficacious in clearing skin lesions and relieving joint symptoms. The use of biologics in psoriasis patients is associated with improved QoL and patient satisfaction. In Hong Kong, the psychosocial impacts of psoriasis on patients and their satisfaction towards various treatment modalities have not been well studied. Moreover, the ways local patients come to access the information on biologics and their concerns are unclear. METHODS: We conducted a survey of 85 psoriasis …published_or_final_versio

The use of optical coherence tomography in the assessment of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy

This review was performed to assess the use of optical coherence tomography in diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy and its application in the diagnosis and management of these conditions. A comprehensive literature search on MEDLINE was performed for studies published until 2013 with key words 'diabetes mellitus', 'optical coherence tomography', 'diabetic retinopathy', 'diabetic maculopathy', 'intersessional repeatability', 'diurnal variation' , 'fundus autofluorescence' and 'treatment'. Search results were limited to studies published in English and in human subjects only. The Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study established the current standard of care for diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy with the diagnosis based on slit-lamp biomicroscopy, indirect ophthalmoscopy, and fluorescein angiography. There has been a recent shift to the use of optical coherence tomography in the qualitative and quantitative assessment of such diseases. Furthermore, the advancement of optical coherence tomography from time-domain to spectraldomain technology allows us to visualize pathological changes of diabetic maculopathy in details in different retinal layers. Such observed changes have been used to establish new classifications of diabetic maculopathy. The high sensitivity and quantitative nature of optical coherence tomography make it a highly popular modality used extensively to monitor disease progression and efficacy of new treatment modalities. Optical coherence tomography plays a crucial role in the modern clinical management of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy. Its use has revolutionized the understanding and management of these eye diseases.published_or_final_versio

Reactive sputtered TiO2 thin film humidity sensor with negative substrate bias

This study has demonstrated a simple fabrication process of a thin film ceramic relative humidity sensing chip at low temperature, 500 degreesC. This process window to optimize sensitivity and hysteresis performance of the sensor has been studied using negative sputtering substrate bias and annealing duration. This proposed optimizing method yields an adjustable rutile/anatase phase ratio of titanium oxide. It shows improvement to the hysteresis of sensors and obtains good sensitivity, which is greater than four-orders of magnitude change in de current over 11-97\% relative humidity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Moisture sensor using reactive sputtered TiO(2) thin film with negative substrate bias

Moisture has been known as a major factor in degrading the reliability of electronic packages. It is estimated that over 40 % of failures in electronic devices are induced by moisture. The use of micro-moisture-sensing-chips in electronic package reliability tests can provide in-situ and real-time monitoring device failures under controlled environmental conditions. Some previously published fabrication techniques of high performance moisture sensors include very high temperature powder sintering method [1-3], sol-gel method [4] and etching porous silicon [5] under complex and sophisticated process control. All these methods are not compatible to the conventional IC processing. In this paper, simple and low temperature fabricated moisture sensing chips using reactive sputtering process in thin film technology are characterized. Reactive sputtering process has been widely employed in IC hatch production for its high process control and uniformity. The adsorption response being well fitted into Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) Type III model and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) images illustrate that the sensing films are pore-free. A process window for improving hysteresis performance is obtained by applying a negative substrate bias during sputtering and increasing the annealing time. The sensitivity of four orders of magnitude in d. c. current change over 11 % - 97 % relative humidity (RH) is achieved