8,193 research outputs found
Truth-telling to the patient, family, and the sexual partner: a rights approach to the role of healthcare providers in adult HIV disclosure in China.
Patients' rights are central in today's legislation and social policies related to health care, including HIV care, in not only Western countries but around the world. However, given obvious socio-cultural differences it is often asked how or to what extent patients' rights should be respected in non-Western societies such as China. In this paper, it is argued that the patients' rights framework is compatible with Chinese culture, and that from the perspective of contemporary patient rights healthcare providers have a duty to disclose truthfully the diagnosis and prognosis to their patients, that the Chinese cultural practice of involving families in care should - with consent from the patient - be promoted out of respect for patients' rights and well-being, and that healthcare providers should be prepared to address the issue of disclosing a patient's HIV status to sexual partner(s). Legally, the provider should be permitted to disclose without consent from the patient but not obliged to in all cases. The decision to do this should be taken with trained sensitivity to a range of ethically relevant considerations. Post-disclosure counseling or psychological support should be in place to address the concerns of potentially adverse consequences of provider-initiated disclosure and to maximize the psychosocial and medical benefits of the disclosure. There is an urgent need for healthcare providers to receive training in ethics and disclosure skills. This paper concludes also with some suggestions for improving the centerpiece Chinese legislation, State Council's "Regulations on AIDS Prevention and Control" (2006), to further safeguard the rights and well-being of HIV patients
Evolution of In-Plane Magnetic Anisotropy In Sputtered FeTaN/TaN/FeTaN Sandwich Films
FeTaN/TaN/FeTaN sandwich films, FeTaN/TaN and TaN/FeTaN bilayers were
synthesized by using RF magnetron sputtering. The magnetic properties,
crystalline structures, microstructures and surface morphologies of the
as-deposited samples were characterized using angle-resolved M-H loop tracer,
VSM, XRD, TEM, AES and AFM. An evolution of the in-plane anisotropy was
observed with the changing thickness of the nonmagnetic TaN interlayer in the
FeTaN/TaN/FeTaN sandwiches, such as the easy-hard axis switching and the
appearing of biaxial anisotropy. It is ascribed to three possible mechanisms,
which are interlayer magnetic coupling, stress, and interface roughness,
respectively. Interlayer coupling and stress anisotropies may be the major
reasons to cause the easy-hard axis switching in the sandwiches. Whereas,
magnetostatic and interface anisotropies may be the major reasons to cause
biaxial anisotropy in the sandwiches, in which magnetostatic anisotropy is the
dominant one.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Simultaneous trapping and imaging of microbubbles at clinically relevant flow rates
Mechanisms for non-invasive target drug delivery using microbubbles and ultrasound have attracted growing interest. Microbubbles can be loaded with a therapeutic payload and tracked via ultrasound imaging to selectively release their payload at ultrasound-targeted locations. In this study, an ultrasonic trapping method is proposed for simultaneously imaging and controlling the location of microbubbles in flow by using acoustic radiation force. Targeted drug delivery methods are expected to benefit from the use of the ultrasonic trap, since trapping will increase the MB concentration at a desired location in human body. The ultrasonic trap was generated by using an ultrasound research system UARP II and a linear array transducer. The trap was designed asymmetrically to produces a weaker radiation force at the inlet of the trap to further facilitate microbubble entrance. A pulse sequence was generated that can switch between a long duration trapping waveform and short duration imaging waveform. High frame rate plane wave imaging was chosen for monitoring trapped microbubbles at 1 kHz. The working principle of the ultrasonic trap was explained and demonstrated in an ultrasound phantom by injecting SonoVue microbubbles flowing at 80 mL/min flow rate in a 3.5 mm diameter vessel
Optical spectroscopy study of Nd(O,F)BiS2 single crystals
We present an optical spectroscopy study on F-substituted NdOBiS
superconducting single crystals grown using KCl/LiCl flux method. The
measurement reveals a simple metallic response with a relatively low screened
plasma edge near 5000 \cm. The plasma frequency is estimated to be 2.1 eV,
which is much smaller than the value expected from the first-principles
calculations for an electron doping level of x=0.5, but very close to the value
based on a doping level of 7 of itinerant electrons per Bi site as
determined by ARPES experiment. The energy scales of the interband transitions
are also well reproduced by the first-principles calculations. The results
suggest an absence of correlation effect in the compound, which essentially
rules out the exotic pairing mechanism for superconductivity or scenario based
on the strong electronic correlation effect. The study also reveals that the
system is far from a CDW instability as being widely discussed for a doping
level of x=0.5.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Evolution of superconductivity by oxygen annealing in FeTe0.8S0.2
Oxygen annealing dramatically improved the superconducting properties of
solid-state-reacted FeTe0.8S0.2, which showed only a broad onset of
superconducting transition just after the synthesis. The zero resistivity
appeared and reached 8.5 K by the oxygen annealing at 200\degree C. The
superconducting volume fraction was also enhanced from 0 to almost 100%. The
lattice constants were compressed by the oxygen annealing, indicating that the
evolution of bulk superconductivity in FeTe0.8S0.2 was correlated to the
shrinkage of lattice.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Order statistics for d-dimensional diffusion processes
We present results for the ordered sequence of first passage times of arrival
of N random walkers at a boundary in Euclidean spaces of d dimensions
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