Families of stable and metastable solitons in coupled system of scalar fields

In this paper, we obtain stable and metastable soliton solutions of a coupled system of two real scalar fields with five five discrete points of vacua. These solutions have definite topological charges and rest energies and show classical dynamical stability. From a quantum point of view, however, the V-type solutions are expected to be unstable and decay to D-type solutions. The induced decay of a V-type soliton into two D-type ones is calculated numerically, and shown to be chiral, in the sense that the decay products do not respect left-right symmetry.Comment: 9 pages and 5 figure

Dietary and fluid adherence in iranian hemodialysis patients

Adherence to fluid restrictions and dietary and medication guidelines is important for adequate management of hemodialysis (HD) patients. This study aimed at assessing the factors suggestive of adherence in uremic patients on HD. Two hundred HD patients were recruited by census method. Data on blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum potassium and phosphate levels, and interdialytic weight gain (IWG) were collected from medical records and analyzed. Most of the patients (56) did not adhere to fluid restrictions. Nonadherence to phosphate, potassium, and BUN levels was 25.5, 5.5, and 4.5, respectively. In addition, there was a relationship between BUN, serum potassium and phosphate levels, and IWG with educational status (p � .05). However, there was no correlation between BUN, serum potassium and phosphate levels, and IWG with sex, age, financial status, marital status, and duration of dialysis (p > .05). Based on the results, most of the patients adhered to dietary and medication regimens. Educational level of the patients was associated with adherence to fluid restriction. It was concluded that dietary compliance may be improved by using dietary counseling techniques and that education motivates patients to change and comply with dietary recommendations. © 2010 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Self-efficacy in hemodialysis patients and its related factors

 BackgroundEnd-stage-renal-disease (ESRD) patients treated by hemodialysis require major lifestyle changes and self-efficacy in the treatment regimen to comply with their chronic illness. Clients’ perception of being self-efficient results in increased self-care activities and adherence to medical regimen. Although client’s self-efficiency can affect on outcomes of the disease, few study is available in this regard.  Purpose This descriptive correlational study was carried out to identify self-efficacy of hemodialysis patients and its related factors.  Methods200 patients referring to healthcare setting affiliated with Iran Medical University were selected by convenience sampling method. A tool, Guidelines for Health Promotion, was used to assess self-efficacy in the treatment regimen. The tool was made reliable by test-retest method.  ResultsFindings showed that self-efficacy was correlated with educational level, dialysis duration and weight difference between 2 dialysis sessions. In contrast, no correlation was found between self-efficacy and age as well as sex.  Conclusion The study showed a significant relationship between self-efficacy and some personal characteristics of patients. Thus, it is necessary for nurses to assess self-efficacy of their patients. In addition, nurses are in a key position to influence on self-efficacy of their patients and improve self-care activities of them. To achieve these, they can provide necessary instructions for their clients to control stress and emotional as well as physical stimulations.  Keywords: Self-efficacy, Chronic renal disease, Hemodialysis, Nursing.     

Wearable ECG SoC for Wireless Body Area Networks: Implementation with Fuzzy Decision Making Chip

International audienceThe work aims to present an ultra-low power Electrocardiogram (ECG) on a chip with an integrated Fuzzy Decision Making (FDM) chip for Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSN) applications. The developed device is portable, wearable, long battery life, and small in size. The device comprises two designed chips, ECG System-on-Chip and Fuzzy Decision Maker chip. The ECG on-chip contains an analog front end circuit and a 12-bit SAR ADC for signal conditioning, a QRS detector, and relevant control circuitry and interfaces for processing. The analog ECG front-end circuits precisely measure and digitize the raw ECG signal. The QRS complex with a sampling frequency of 256 Hz is extracted after filtering. The extracted QRS details are sent to the decision maker chip, where abnormalities/anomalies in patient’s health are detected and an alert signal is sent to the patient via wireless communication protocol. The patient’s ECG data is wirelessly transmitted to a PC, using ZigBee or a mobile phone. The chip is prototyped and employed in a standard 0.35 µm CMOS process. The operating voltage of Static RAM and digital circuits and analog core circuits are 3.3 V and 1 V, respectively. The total area of the device is about 6 $$\text{cm}^{\text{2}}$$ and consumes about 8.5 µW. Small size and low power consumption show the effectiveness of the proposed design, suitable for wireless wearable ECG monitoring devices