Scoping Review of the development of artificial eyes throughout the years

Losing an eye following trauma can lead to profound psychosocial difficulties making it imperative for the wearer to be fitted with an aesthetically pleasing custom-made artificial eye. Despite recent technological advancements, current design and manufacturing processes have remained unchanged in over 55 years. With the aim of portraying current knowledge regarding the development of artificial eyes in order to aid future development, a scooping review was conducted. Six online search engines were used: Scopus, PubMed, MedLine Complete, Web of Science, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Thirty-eight articles met the inclusion criteria and underwent numerical and thematic analysis with three thematic themes emerging. History and the current process of artificial eyes has been well documented, however, the impact of wearing artificial eyes is sparse. On-going research and development into the design and manufacturing processes of artificial eyes and the psychosocial impact of wearing an artificial eye is needed

Retinoblastoma: Identifying the Diagnostic Signs for Early Treatment

Retinoblastoma is a rare but significant cause of childhood eye cancer world-wide. The prognosis depends upon early diagnosis and treatment but also upon accurate classification of the tumours. Unilateral incidence is normally non-hereditary compared with bilateral incidence where secondary tumours are more common. Survivorship is much better for unilateral compared with bilateral and trilateral retinoblastoma. Early signs are important to detect and photography can assist in identifying no return of “red-eye” during flash photography and yellow appearance of the tumour. Treatment options are discussed together with new psycho-oncology approaches that address potential trauma in the survivor as well as in the family of the survivor

The importance of incorporating technological advancements into the artificial eye process: a perspective commentary

Application of technology into healthcare has typically been targeted to high demand illnesses and treatments. However, with an increasing need to meet patient’s expectations combined with increased accessibility and reduced costs, smaller healthcare fields are starting to investigate its function and usability. Services have historically been led by skills and expertise, and recent developments are being seen by ocularists in the field of prosthetic eyes who acknowledge the potential benefit from technological advancement. Utilising the technologies recently investigated in maxillofacial prosthesis can start the evolutionary process where products are continually re-designed and re-developed to achieve excellent patient outcome and satisfaction levels

An innovative design of actuation mechanism for active seat suspension of an off-road vehicle

In recent years human-machine interaction attracts scientific community attention because of human quality and health issues. Driver seat should be designed so that it would ensure occupational health as well as increase work efficiency. The aim of this research is to maintain seat height at constant level with regard to chassis excitation at different levels of frequency and amplitude by means of new design of pneumatic actuation circuit. Sinusoidal function was used for base vibration since almost all of excitation functions can be derived from it. System response shows in low frequency/high amplitude and high frequency/low amplitude chassis vibration, transmissibility decreased about 60% and 40% compared to solid suspension respectivel

Seeking safety therapy for co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder: A case study in Iran

Background: Literature documents the high prevalence of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (OTSD) in individuals with substance use disorders, which complicate the clinical profile of patients and present challenges for treatment providers. Although several evidence-based integrated therapies are developed for comorbid PTSD/SUD (substance use disorder), there is a considerable gap addressing this co-occurrence and none of such practices are studied yet on such patients. Through A-B-A single subject design. Objectives: The current study aimed to explore the effectiveness of seeking safety (SS), an integrative evidence-based therapy for PTSD/SUD, to reduce PTSD and SUD symptoms in a 32-year-old female with both disorders. Patients and Methods: Measures of PTSD checklist (PTSD ChecklistCivilian; PCL-C), Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS-21) were completed by the participant at baseline, intervention, and 2-month follow-up. Results: Results were analyzed through visual analysis and computing 3 effect size indices including standardized mean difference (SMD), mean baseline reduction (MBLR), and percent of non-overlapping data (PND). Conclusions: Clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, psychological distress, and ASI scores, as well as improvement in coping skills were observed at intervention phase and maintained at 2-month follow-up, which indicated that the participant benefited from SS. © 2018, International Journal of High Risk Behaviors and Addiction

Comparing mindfulness-based group therapy with treatment as usual for opioid dependents: A pilot randomized clinical trial study protocol

Background: In response to high burden of opioid abuse in Iran, Ministry of Health has launched a large-scale opioid maintenance treatment program, delivered through a network of certified drug treatment centers. To promote opioid pharmacotherapies, there is an urgent need to develop and introduce evidence-based psychosocial interventions into the network. Patients and Methods: This is a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to investigate feasibility and effectiveness of adding mindfulness-based group therapy to opioid pharmacotherapies as compared to opioid pharmacotherapies alone. The primary outcomes were treatment retention and percentage of weekly morphine, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepine negative tests. Discussion: This is the first RCT that explores the effectiveness of mindfulness-based relapse prevention group therapy among opioid dependent clients in Iran. The feasibility of group therapy and comparison of outcomes in intervention and control groups should be discussed in the outcome article. © 2015, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences

Effectiveness of mindfulness-based group therapy compared to the usual opioid dependence treatment

Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of mindfulness-based group therapy (MBGT) compared to the usual opioid dependence treatment (TAU).Thirty outpatients meeting the DSM-IV-TR criteria for opioid dependence from Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies (INCAS) were randomly assigned into experimental (Mindfulness-Based Group Therapy) and control groups (the Usual Treatment).The experimental group undertook eight weeks of intervention, but the control group received the usual treatment according to the INCAS program. Methods: The Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Addiction Sevier Index (ASI) were administered at pre-treatment and post-treatment assessment periods. Thirteen patients from the experimental group and 15 from the control group completed post-test assessments. Results: The results of MANCOVA revealed an increase in mean scores in observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, non-reacting, and decrease in mean scores of alcohol and opium in MBGT patient group. Conclusion: The effectiveness of MBGT, compared to the usual treatment, was discussed in this paper as a selective protocol in the health care setting for substance use disorders

Classifying the unknown: discovering novel gravitational-wave detector glitches using similarity learning

The observation of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences by LIGO and Virgo has begun a new era in astronomy. A critical challenge in making detections is determining whether loud transient features in the data are caused by gravitational waves or by instrumental or environmental sources. The citizen-science project \emph{Gravity Spy} has been demonstrated as an efficient infrastructure for classifying known types of noise transients (glitches) through a combination of data analysis performed by both citizen volunteers and machine learning. We present the next iteration of this project, using similarity indices to empower citizen scientists to create large data sets of unknown transients, which can then be used to facilitate supervised machine-learning characterization. This new evolution aims to alleviate a persistent challenge that plagues both citizen-science and instrumental detector work: the ability to build large samples of relatively rare events. Using two families of transient noise that appeared unexpectedly during LIGO's second observing run (O2), we demonstrate the impact that the similarity indices could have had on finding these new glitch types in the Gravity Spy program