Can virtual nature improve patient experiences and memories of dental treatment? A study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background Dental anxiety and anxiety-related avoidance of dental care create significant problems for patients and the dental profession. Distraction interventions are used in daily medical practice to help patients cope with unpleasant procedures. There is evidence that exposure to natural scenery is beneficial for patients and that the use of virtual reality (VR) distraction is more effective than other distraction interventions, such as watching television. The main aim of this randomized controlled trial is to determine whether the use of VR during dental treatment can improve the overall dental experience and recollections of treatment for patients, breaking the negative cycle of memories of anxiety leading to further anxiety, and avoidance of future dental appointments. Additionally, the aim is to test whether VR benefits dental patients with all levels of dental anxiety or whether it could be especially beneficial for patients suffering from higher levels of dental anxiety. The third aim is to test whether the content of the VR distraction can make a difference for its effectiveness by comparing two types of virtual environments, a natural environment and an urban environment. Methods/design The effectiveness of VR distraction will be examined in patients 18 years or older who are scheduled to undergo dental treatment for fillings and/or extractions, with a maximum length of 30 minutes. Patients will be randomly allocated into one of three groups. The first group will be exposed to a VR of a natural environment. The second group will be exposed to a VR of an urban environment. A third group consists of patients who receive standard care (control group). Primary outcomes relate to patients’ memories of the dental treatment one week after treatment: (a) remembered pain, (b) intrusive thoughts and (c) vividness of memories. Other measures of interest are the dental experience, the treatment experience and the VR experience. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN4144280

Associations between pro-environmental behaviour and neighbourhood nature, nature visit frequency and nature appreciation: Evidence from a nationally representative survey in England

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A predictive model for kidney transplant graft survival using machine learning

Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for end-stage renal failure patients. The predominant method used for kidney quality assessment is the Cox regression-based, kidney donor risk index. A machine learning method may provide improved prediction of transplant outcomes and help decision-making. A popular tree-based machine learning method, random forest, was trained and evaluated with the same data originally used to develop the risk index (70,242 observations from 1995-2005). The random forest successfully predicted an additional 2,148 transplants than the risk index with equal type II error rates of 10%. Predicted results were analyzed with follow-up survival outcomes up to 240 months after transplant using Kaplan-Meier analysis and confirmed that the random forest performed significantly better than the risk index (p<0.05). The random forest predicted significantly more successful and longer-surviving transplants than the risk index. Random forests and other machine learning models may improve transplant decisions.Comment: This work has been published: Pahl ES, Street WN, Johnson HJ, Reed AI. "A Predictive Model for Kidney Transplant Graft Survival Using Machine Learning." 4th International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology (COMIT 2020), November 28-29, 2020, Dubai, UAE. ISBN: 978-1-925953-30-5. Volume 10, Number 16.10.5121/csit.2020.10160

A 200 GHz Monolithic Integrated Power Amplifier in Metamorphic HEMT Technology

A millimeter-wave monolithic integrated circuit power amplifier operating in the frequency range between 186 and 212 GHz is presented. The amplifier, dedicated to high-resolution imaging radar and communication systems, is realized in a 100 nm gate length metamorphic high electron mobility transistor technology. The three-stage design with four parallel transistors in the output stage achieves a linear gain of more than 12 dB and provides a saturated output power of more than 9 dBm and 7 dBm at 192 and 200 GHz, respectively

Identifying and Addressing Sustainable Pasture and Grazing Management Options for a Major Economic Sector–The North Australian Beef Industry

Sustainable use of the northern grazing lands is a long-standing issue for management and policy, heightened by projections of increased climatic variability, uncertainty on forage supplies, vegetation complexes, and weeds and diseases. Meat and Livestock Australia has supported a large study to explore sustainable grazing management strategies and increase the capacity of the sector to address climate change. Potential options were explored by bio-economic modeling of ‘representative’ beef enterprises defined by pastoralists and supported by regional research and extension specialists. Typical options include diversification, infrastructure, flexible stocking rates, wet season resting, and prescribed fire. Concurrent activities by another team included regional impact assessments and surveys of pastoralists’ understanding and attitudes towards climate change and adaptive capacity. The results have been widely canvassed and a program of on-ground demonstrations of various options implemented. The paper describes the structure of this program and highlights key results indicating considerable scope to address sustainability challenges

Systematic Management of Stocking Rates Improves Performance of Northern Australian Cattle Properties in a Variable Climate

The risks for extensive cattle properties in the rangelands of northern Australia arising from high inter-annual rainfall variability are predominantly managed through adjustments in stocking rates (SR). This modelling study compared the performance of SR strategies that varied considerably in the extent that they adjusted SR annually at three locations in northern Australia. At all locations, land types and pasture condition states, the SR strategies that achieved the best pasture condition were those that least increased and most decreased SR annually in response to changes in forage availability. At Donors Hill (Qld), these conservative strategies also achieved the highest cattle live-weight gains per hectare (LWG/ha). While conservative strategies produced the highest percent perennials at Fitzroy Crossing (WA), strategies which allowed larger increases and decreases in SR also performed well, enabling them to also achieve high LWG/ha with little deterioration of pasture condition. A similar trend occurred at Alice Springs (NT), although at this location the strategies with even larger annual increases and decreases in SR achieved relatively high percent perennials and the highest LWG/ha. While systematic management of SR appears to perform better than a constant SR strategy when rainfall variability is high, it is unclear if the magnitude of annual adjustments in SR needs to increase with increasing rainfall variability

Impacts of Projected Climate Change on Pasture Growth and Safe Carrying Capacities for Three Extensive Grazing Land Regions in Northern Australia

The northern beef industry is a major component of the regional economies of Queensland, Northern Territory and northern Western Australia, and has contributed an estimated $5 billion to Australia’s economy in 2009-10. Projected climate change will have an adverse impact on Australia’s agricultural production (McKeon et al. 2008) with an expected 3.5% decline in beef production in northern Australia by 2030 (Heyhoe et al. 2008). The GRASP pasture production model (McKeon et al. 2000) has been used to evaluate impacts of climate change in Australia’s rangelands (Crimp et al. 2002, McKeon et al. 2008), with the positive effects of higher carbon dioxide (CO2) on pasture growth likely to be offset by reductions in pasture productivity and digestibility due to lower rainfall and higher temperatures (Crimp et al. 2002). The impacts of three projected future climates on livestock carrying capacity of grazing lands in Fitzroy, Maranoa-Balonne and Victoria River District regions were assessed using GRASP

Studio della resistenza alla fatica di contatto di acciai sinterizzati trattati termicamente

In questo studio viene proposto un approccio conservativo per la previsione del comportamento a fatica dicontatto di due acciai sinterizzati e trattati termicamente. Il modello utilizzato è incentrato sulla nucleazionedella cricca di fatica, che avviene solamente in presenza di fenomeni di deformazione plastica locale. Ladeformazione plastica locale, a sua volta, si verifica quando lo sforzo massimo è superiore alla resistenza allosnervamento del materiale negli strati subsuperficiali. Sforzo massimo e resistenza alla deformazione plasticasono stati calcolati considerando le peculiarità della microstruttura dei sinterizzati porosi: la distribuzionedella dimensione e del fattore di forma dei pori, che influenzano la frazione di sezione utile resistente, el’eterogeneità microstrutturale e della microdurezza, che influenzano la resistenza allo snervamento dellamatrice. Il modello previsionale è stato validato sperimentalmente