Objective: To observe the effect of Shenfu injection (参附注射液, SFI) in treating non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients on quality of life with gemcitabine (GEM) plus cisplatin (GP) regimen. Methods: ...Objective: To observe the effect of Shenfu injection (参附注射液, SFI) in treating non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients on quality of life with gemcitabine (GEM) plus cisplatin (GP) regimen. Methods: Thirty-four patients were ready to receive GP regimen chemotherapy for treating NSCLC disease, according to lot-drawing, they were divided into SFI pre-treatment group (18 cases) and SFI post-treatment group ( 16 cases). SFI pre-treatment group: During the first treatment course, chemotherapy was begun with SFI 60 ml, intravenous dripping on the 3rd day, once daily, consecutively for 10 days; on the 1st day, GP regimen (GEM 1250 mg/m^2 , intravenous dripping, on the 1st and 8th day; cisplatin 70 mg/m^2 on the 2nd day; 21 days as one cycle) was carried out; in the second treatment course GP regimen was merely given to serve as the self-control. SFI post-treatment group: the medicament sequence order was reversed from that of pre-treatment group. Using dual international quality of life (QOL) scores, the effect of SFI on the patients" QOL was observed through randomized self pre- and post- crossover control. Results: The QOL in the 34 patients after being treated by SFI in combination with GP chemotherapy regimen in one group, and GP chemotherapy regimen alone in the other, was improved in different degrees, with significant difference (P〈0.01); comparision of SFI combined with GP chemotherapy regimen with GP chemotherapy alone showed that QOL in patients was significantly different (P〈0.01). Conclusion: SFI could improve QOL in patients with NSCLC who were treated with GP regimen.展开更多
A review of the development of the key performance metrics of endoscopic mucosal resection(EMR),learning from the experience of the establishment of widespread colonoscopy quality measurements.Potential future perform...A review of the development of the key performance metrics of endoscopic mucosal resection(EMR),learning from the experience of the establishment of widespread colonoscopy quality measurements.Potential future performance markers for both colonoscopy and EMR are also evaluated to ensure continued high quality performance is maintained with a focus service framework and predictors of patient outcome.展开更多
The purpose of this article is to study the effects of different water elevations of non-pressure subirrigation on some indexes of tomato, including soil water status around crop rootzone, morphological indexes, physi...The purpose of this article is to study the effects of different water elevations of non-pressure subirrigation on some indexes of tomato, including soil water status around crop rootzone, morphological indexes, physiological indexes, photosynthetic indexes, yield, quality, and water use efficiency. With the tomato materials of Dongsheng 1, the irrigation experiment was carried out in the greenhouse, and significance analysis was done on the experiment data through the software of DPS. The results showed that different water elevations, had significant influence on the growth, yield, and quality of tomato. The yield of the 6-cm treatment was the highest, the 3-cm treatment was inferior to the 6-cm treatment, and the 0-cm treatment was the lowest. However, the WUE was 0 cm 〉 3 cm 〉 6 cm. The sugar/acid and soluble protein was the highest under the 0-cm treatment, and the content of ascorbic acid did not decrease considerably. When compared to the 0-cm treatment, the ascorbic acid content of 6-cm and 3-cm treatment increased by 19.2 and 6.8%, respectively. These irrigation methods can satisfy the requirements of tomato growth; different water elevations have different influences on the tomato soil water status around crop rootzone, the physiological characteristics, and yield. It also harmonized the percentage between sugar and acid, increased the content of soluble protein and ascorbic acid, and made tomato more delicious. The irrigation methods can improve the quality of tomato by water control, which is worth promoting in the agricultural production.展开更多
Quality of life (QOL) is an important topic in social and medical sciences, it has a multidimensional nature and is influenced by many factors. Aim of the Work: In this study we want to assess the impact of cognitive ...Quality of life (QOL) is an important topic in social and medical sciences, it has a multidimensional nature and is influenced by many factors. Aim of the Work: In this study we want to assess the impact of cognitive impairment on the health related quality of life (HR-QOL) of community dwelling non demented elderly. Subject and Method: 115 non demented elderly, 60 years and older recruited from outpatient geriatric clinic at Al Mansoura General Hospital, Dakahlia, Egypt. Each participant underwent, comprehensive geriatric assessment, assessing cognitive function using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and montreal cognitive function test, assessing the health related quality of life (HR-QOL) by the RAND-36 health survey. Results: We found that the elderly with impaired cognition by both MMSE and Montreal test were significantly older;the ones with lower education, with more depressive symptoms, had more functional impairment and had lower HR-QOL scores than the elderly with normal cognitive function, after controlling for confounders still cognition was a determinant of HR-QOL. Also by linear correlation coefficient a significant correlation between HR-QOL and age, function, cognition and depression was found. Conclusion: Cognition affects significantly HR-QOL of the elderly, so we can say that interventions targeting cognition in the elderly can significantly improve their QOL.展开更多
[Objective] The study aimed to research the effect of several commercial NSP complex enzymes products on broiler meat quality, and provide scientific basis for feed enterprise and breeding farmers choosing NSP complex...[Objective] The study aimed to research the effect of several commercial NSP complex enzymes products on broiler meat quality, and provide scientific basis for feed enterprise and breeding farmers choosing NSP complex enzymes. [ Method] Two hundred ROSS broilers at age of 21 days were designed to five treatment groups, including the positive and negative control treatments, and Group 1 to 3 with feed additive of the commercial non-starch polysaccharide complex enzymes each on base of the negative group diet. At 56 days of age, broilers were killed and meat quality was analyzed. [ Result] The thigh meat color CIELAB a value for the negative control broilers was lower ( P 〈 0.05) than those of the positive control and Group 1. The drip loss of breast meat for Group 1 was the lowest, and the drip loss of thigh meat for the negative control was the highest among all treatments. The shear force for the negative control and Group 3 were higher than those of other three groups. There were no differences (P 〉 0.05) on the contents of chemical components, crude moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, and inosine acid for breast and thigh meat among all treatments. [ Conclusion] NSP complex enzymes with complete enzyme categories and high enzyme activity can improve meat quality in broilers.展开更多
Background: We have developed a new next-generation intrapleural hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC) for non-small cell lung cancer with dissemination, which is a hybrid chemotherapy combined with oral S-1 medication plu...Background: We have developed a new next-generation intrapleural hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC) for non-small cell lung cancer with dissemination, which is a hybrid chemotherapy combined with oral S-1 medication plus conventional cisplatin-based IPHC. We now report the preliminary feasibility and outcome of quality of life (QOL) regarding this hybrid IPHC. Methods: The patient was a 76-year-old male with a 2-cm nodule in the left upper lobe. After partial resection by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), which was diagnosed with advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma with intrapleural dissemination. We initially performed two regimens of systemic chemotherapy, S-1 (day 1 - 21, 100 mg 2X/day) + CDDP (day 8, 60 mg/m<sup>2</sup>) and S-1 (day 1 - 14,100 mg 2X/day) + CBDCA (day 1, AUC 5). The regimen of next-generation IPHC is oral S-1 medication (day 1 - 21, 100 mg/day) + intrapleural hyperthermic perfusion of cisplatin (200 mg/m<sup>2</sup>) with VATS (day 8,43°C, 2 hours). Adverse outcomes, QOL, and pleural effusion were assessed in three regimens. To investigate the outcomes of the QOL, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QOL Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13), the QOL questionnaire for cancer patients treated with anticancer drugs (QOL-ACD), the Cancer Dyspnea Score (CDS), and the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were used. Results: During the IPHC treatment course, grade 3 neutropenia, anemia, and diarrhea were observed. The physical function after IPHC became worse compared to that before the IPHC. Fatigue during chemotherapy (CBDCA+S-1) was more pronounced than that during the IPHC. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea during the IPHC were prevalent than those of chemotherapy. The overall QOL after the IPHC was improved compared to that before the IPHC. Regarding before and after the IPHC, the physical function after the IPHC became worse compared to that before the IPHC, on the other hand, the global QOL before and after the IPHC had not dramatically changed. Pleural effusion was controlled after the IPHC for more than 1 year. Conclusion: The first case of a clinical trial of the next-generation IPHC showed grade 3 adverse events. However, it was an acceptable feasibility compared to the usual platinum doublet chemotherapy. The effectiveness of the IPHC allowed the patient to obtain a good control of the pleural effusion and preserved the patient’s QOL.展开更多
Background: Patient-reported outcomes of the quality of life (QOL) after an open thoracotomy have not been studied. To determine the physical and mental changes in surgical patients is very important for medical staff...Background: Patient-reported outcomes of the quality of life (QOL) after an open thoracotomy have not been studied. To determine the physical and mental changes in surgical patients is very important for medical staffs. The surgical patient’s satisfaction and overall healthy changes were evaluated by the patient-self assessment questionnaires. Materials and Methods: From July 2007 to April 2008, 26 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) underwent surgical resection. The outcome of the QOL was evaluated by using two kinds of questionnaire surveys from the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the anti-aging QOL assessment (AA-QOL). The EORTC QLQ-C30 consisted of five domains (physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social functionings) and global QOL. The AA-QOL contained 51 items;30 physical and 21 mental symptoms regarding the elderly and the aging population. The patients replied to the two questionnaires at two different times, i.e., at pre-surgery (baseline) and at post-surgery (2 weeks after the operation). The obtained data of these scores were averaged and compared between the two points of the pre-surgery and post-surgery. Results: Regarding the outcomes of the EORTC QLQ-C30, the physical and social functioning became significantly worse after the surgery. In contrast, the global QOL significantly became better after the surgery. For the symptom at post-surgery, three of which were “nausea and vomiting”, “pain”, and “appetite loss”, became significantly worse compared to those at pre-surgery. Regarding the outcomes of the AA-QOL, the physical symptoms (muscular pain/stiffness, palpitations, dyspnea, no feeling of good health, anorexia, and coughing and sputum) became significantly worse after the surgery. Regarding the mental symptoms, there were no significant differences. Conclusions: Regarding the outcomes based on the changes in the QOL after surgery, the physical symptoms became worse compared to the mental symptoms. To clarify the perioperative healthy changes of the QOL reported by patients with lung cancers is very important for multidisciplinary teamwork, which should play a role in providing the appropriate care and treatment and useful information for a preoperative patient’s decision making of receiving surgical treatment.展开更多
Objective: To explore the significance of dual-energy CT non-linear fusion technique in improving the quality of CTA image of renal cancer. Methods: The CTA images of 100 patients who had been confirmed by pathology a...Objective: To explore the significance of dual-energy CT non-linear fusion technique in improving the quality of CTA image of renal cancer. Methods: The CTA images of 100 patients who had been confirmed by pathology as renal cancer were collected and were randomly divided into experimental group and control group with 50 cases respectively. The two groups of patients were treated with iodine concentration of 300 mg/ml and 350 mg/ml non-ionic contrast agent, with a dosage of 1.5 ml/kg and an injection rate of 4 ml/s. The contrast agent intelligently tracking method was adopted bolus. The control group used the conventional CTA scanning, with a reference tube voltage/tube current of 100 kv/ref150 mas. The experimental group adopted the double energy scanning, with ball tube A and ball tube B. The reference tube voltage/tube current was 100 kv/ref250 mas and sn150 kv/ref125 mas respectively. The images of the experimental group were non-linear fused to obtain the Mono+ 55 kev single-energy images. The CT value, SNR contrast ratio of the abdominal aorta, renal artery and tumor tissue of the experimental group images and the 100 KV images and the Mono+ 55 kev images of the control group were compared. The objective evaluation and subjective evaluation of the image quality of the three groups of images was performed. Results: The results showed that the 100 kV images of the experimental group were statistically different from those of the control group (P05) in CT value, SNR and CNR (P 0.05). And there was no statistically significant difference between the non-linear fusion single-energy Mono+ 55 kev images and the control group images in CT value, SNR and CNR (P > 0.05). The subjective evaluation of image quality showed that there was no significant difference between Mono+ 55 kev images and control group images, and the quality of Mono+ 55 kev images was higher than that of experimental group 100 kV images. Conclusion: The dual-energy CT non-linear fusion technique can improve the quality of CTA image in patients with renal cancer, and it is possible to obtain high quality CTA images with low iodine concentration contrast agent.展开更多
[Objective]The aim was to improve the quality of the egg in favour of producers and business operators according to the market demand to take scientific feeding and management.[Methods]This paper discussed the researc...[Objective]The aim was to improve the quality of the egg in favour of producers and business operators according to the market demand to take scientific feeding and management.[Methods]This paper discussed the research progress of using machine vision,optical properties,and acoustic resonance technology in the egg quality nondestructive testing. [Results]Egg quality indicators directly affect their edible quality and quality levels. [Conclusion]Egg quality test has practical value and practical significance.展开更多
Majority of the patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC)experience two or more disease related symptoms,which may have a negative impact on their health-related quality of life(HR QOL).These patients p...Majority of the patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC)experience two or more disease related symptoms,which may have a negative impact on their health-related quality of life(HR QOL).These patients prefer a therapy that would improve disease related symptoms,as opposed or treatment that slightly prolongs their survival without improving symptoms.The improvements of the symptoms augment the significance of improved response rates or progression free survivals.The choice of the questionnaires to evaluate patients-reported outcomes(PROs)and HRQOL benefits and methods of collecting the data and their interpretations are very important and are discussed in this manuscript.PROs and HR QOL outcomes are important in patients with advanced NSCLC only when the data are collected and analyzed correctly.Then they can be viewed as components of the total value of a treatment,providing a comprehensive picture of the benefits and risks of anticancer therapies.Enabling the patients to feel during the last months of their lives more comfortable and not be dependent on their loved ones is a very important task in the treatment of advanced NSCLC.展开更多
The aim of this work is to comparatively study two types of control of a three-phase shunt active filter (TSAF) in order to realize a system of depollution of electrical networks so as to improve the quality of electr...The aim of this work is to comparatively study two types of control of a three-phase shunt active filter (TSAF) in order to realize a system of depollution of electrical networks so as to improve the quality of electrical energy. We used two TSA control models which differ in the method of disturbed currents detection, one linear and the other non-linear. The results show that the non-linear control method, although with high calculation blocks, gives more promising results than the linear control method. When connecting a non-linear load (televisions, lamps, variable speed drives, etc.) directly to the public distribution network, the non-linear nature of the load causes the source current to be deformed due to the presence of harmonic currents and voltages. These harmonics thus generate a high reactive power, and therefore considerable electrical losses in the network. One of the solutions to reduce losses on the electricity grid is to incorporate an electronic circuit called a filter into the electricity grid. This work carried out a comparative study of two types of control of a three-phase shunt active filter (TSAF) in order to carry out a system for cleaning up electricity networks in order to improve the quality of electrical energy. We used two TSA control models that differ in the method of detecting disturbed currents, one linear and the other non-linear. The results show that the non-linear control method, although with high calculation blocks, gives better results than the linear control method.展开更多
Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) of quality of life (QOL) during chemotherapy involving lung cancer are very important for the medical staffs. Patients’ satisfaction and healthy changes were evaluated by ...Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) of quality of life (QOL) during chemotherapy involving lung cancer are very important for the medical staffs. Patients’ satisfaction and healthy changes were evaluated by the patient-self assessment. Materials and Methods: From July 2007 to April 2008, a total of 19 patients received chemotherapy. The QOL data were collected by using the QOL questionnaire for cancer patients treated with anticancer drugs (QOL-ACD) and the anti-aging QOL assessment (AA-QOL). The AA-QOL contained 51 items: 30 of physical and 21 of mental symptoms of the elderly and the aging population. The patients replied to the questions at two different times, i.e., at pre-chemotherapy (baseline) and at post-chemotherapy (2 weeks after the chemotherapy). Results: Regarding the hematological toxicities, for the grade 3/4 toxicities, there were 12 neutropenia (12/19, 63.2%) and 3 thrombocytopenia (3/19, 15.8%). For the grade 3 febrile neutropenia, there were 5 cases (5/19, 26.3%). Regarding the non-hematological toxicities, there was no grade 3 and grade 4 toxicities. Based on the outcomes of the QOL-ACD, the three items (“physical condition”, “social attitude”, and “overall QOL”) at post-chemotherapy became significantly worse compared to the baseline. Regarding the outcomes of the AA-QOL, 4 items of physical symptoms (“thirst”, “anorexia”, “early satiety”, and “diarrhea”) became significantly worse compared to the baseline. Regarding the mental symptoms, 2 items (“nothing to look forward in life” and “a sense of uselessness”) became significantly worse compared to the baseline. Conclusion: Regarding the PROs of the QOL during the chemotherapy term, both the physical and mental symptoms had become worse. To clarify the changes in the QOL during chemotherapy is very important for multidisciplinary teamwork, which should play the role of providing the appropriate cares and treatment as patient-support.展开更多
Based on fuzzy Gaussian mixture model (FGMM) and support vector regression (SVR),an improved version of non-intrusive objective measurement for assessing quality of output speech without inputting clean speech is ...Based on fuzzy Gaussian mixture model (FGMM) and support vector regression (SVR),an improved version of non-intrusive objective measurement for assessing quality of output speech without inputting clean speech is proposed for narrowband speech.Its perceptual linear predictive (PLP) features extracted from clean speech and clustered by FGMM are used as an artificial reference model.Input speech is separated into three classes,for each a consistency parameter between each feature pair from test speech signals and its counterpart in the pre-trained FGMM reference model is calculated and mapped to an objective speech quality score using SVR method.The correlation degree between subjective mean opinion score (MOS) and objective MOS is analyzed.Experimental results show that the proposed method offers an effective technique and can give better performances than the ITU-T P.563 method under most of the test conditions for narrowband speech.展开更多
The quality of virtual view based on multi-view video (MVD) plus depth format is often evaluated by PSNR or subjectively judged. However, due to synthesizing arbitrary view images, the virtual view images mostly hav...The quality of virtual view based on multi-view video (MVD) plus depth format is often evaluated by PSNR or subjectively judged. However, due to synthesizing arbitrary view images, the virtual view images mostly have no reference images and are only assessed using non-reference. Virtual view images synthesized by depth estimation reference software (DERS) and view synthesis reference software (VSRS) often accompanied with blockiness and other distortions on the edge. In addition, matching level for the depth map and the corresponding texture maps of left and right views also affects the quality of the virtual view. This paper compares the edge similarity of the depth and the corresponding texture maps which generate the intermediate virtual view and combined with the virtual view's blockiness which causing blur to evaluate the quality of the virtual view. Experiment results show that the proposed method can reflect the quality of the virtual view better.展开更多
Objective: To observe and compare the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with chemotherapy (CT) on immune function and quality of life (QOL)of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in sta...Objective: To observe and compare the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with chemotherapy (CT) on immune function and quality of life (QOL)of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ. Methods: One hundred cases with stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ NSCLC were randomly divided into two groups. The treated group (n=50) received CT combined with TCM, and the control group received CT alone. The percentage of T lymphocyte subset in peripheral blood and the change of natural killer (NK) cell count were observed after treatment. The QOL and tolerance of CT were also compared between the two groups after treatment. Results: In the treated group, CD3 cell count, CD4 cell count, CD4/ CDg ratio and NK cell activity were higher than those in control group, while CD8 cell count in the treated group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05), and QOL and tolerance of CT in the treated group were also better (P<0.05). Conclusion: TCM combined with CT could raise the patients' ability in tolerating CT in stage Ⅲ-ⅣNSCLC.展开更多
Introduction: The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the past many years has been reported to have many cities with highly polluted air quality. The state has been taking meticulous steps in combating air pollutio...Introduction: The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the past many years has been reported to have many cities with highly polluted air quality. The state has been taking meticulous steps in combating air pollution in the form of action plans, introduced especially in its 17 non-attainment cities (NAC). To assess the progress and development of these action plans in UP, the present study has done an in-depth analysis and review of the state’s action plans and city micro action plans. Materials and Methods: In this research study, the analysis of the latest action plan reports, micro action plan reports as well as the recommendations for combating air pollution-related issues in the 17 NAC of the UP state has been well documented. Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has prepared these reports to highlight the progress of the plans in response to the growing air pollution in these cities. The information present in the reports has been used to further study sector-specific, category-specific action plans, institutional responsibility, and the present status of the action plans. Results: On average, the highest weightage in action plans was given to sector-specific categories such as Road dust and construction activities (24%). It was also observed that Urban local bodies (~50%) were majorly responsible to implement the action points and 56% of the action points were jointly implemented by multiple agencies.展开更多
文摘Objective: To observe the effect of Shenfu injection (参附注射液, SFI) in treating non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients on quality of life with gemcitabine (GEM) plus cisplatin (GP) regimen. Methods: Thirty-four patients were ready to receive GP regimen chemotherapy for treating NSCLC disease, according to lot-drawing, they were divided into SFI pre-treatment group (18 cases) and SFI post-treatment group ( 16 cases). SFI pre-treatment group: During the first treatment course, chemotherapy was begun with SFI 60 ml, intravenous dripping on the 3rd day, once daily, consecutively for 10 days; on the 1st day, GP regimen (GEM 1250 mg/m^2 , intravenous dripping, on the 1st and 8th day; cisplatin 70 mg/m^2 on the 2nd day; 21 days as one cycle) was carried out; in the second treatment course GP regimen was merely given to serve as the self-control. SFI post-treatment group: the medicament sequence order was reversed from that of pre-treatment group. Using dual international quality of life (QOL) scores, the effect of SFI on the patients" QOL was observed through randomized self pre- and post- crossover control. Results: The QOL in the 34 patients after being treated by SFI in combination with GP chemotherapy regimen in one group, and GP chemotherapy regimen alone in the other, was improved in different degrees, with significant difference (P〈0.01); comparision of SFI combined with GP chemotherapy regimen with GP chemotherapy alone showed that QOL in patients was significantly different (P〈0.01). Conclusion: SFI could improve QOL in patients with NSCLC who were treated with GP regimen.
文摘A review of the development of the key performance metrics of endoscopic mucosal resection(EMR),learning from the experience of the establishment of widespread colonoscopy quality measurements.Potential future performance markers for both colonoscopy and EMR are also evaluated to ensure continued high quality performance is maintained with a focus service framework and predictors of patient outcome.
基金This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50479051)the Agricultural Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Foundation of China (04EFN217100395)the Innovation Projects of Northwest A & F University for Graduate Students.
文摘The purpose of this article is to study the effects of different water elevations of non-pressure subirrigation on some indexes of tomato, including soil water status around crop rootzone, morphological indexes, physiological indexes, photosynthetic indexes, yield, quality, and water use efficiency. With the tomato materials of Dongsheng 1, the irrigation experiment was carried out in the greenhouse, and significance analysis was done on the experiment data through the software of DPS. The results showed that different water elevations, had significant influence on the growth, yield, and quality of tomato. The yield of the 6-cm treatment was the highest, the 3-cm treatment was inferior to the 6-cm treatment, and the 0-cm treatment was the lowest. However, the WUE was 0 cm 〉 3 cm 〉 6 cm. The sugar/acid and soluble protein was the highest under the 0-cm treatment, and the content of ascorbic acid did not decrease considerably. When compared to the 0-cm treatment, the ascorbic acid content of 6-cm and 3-cm treatment increased by 19.2 and 6.8%, respectively. These irrigation methods can satisfy the requirements of tomato growth; different water elevations have different influences on the tomato soil water status around crop rootzone, the physiological characteristics, and yield. It also harmonized the percentage between sugar and acid, increased the content of soluble protein and ascorbic acid, and made tomato more delicious. The irrigation methods can improve the quality of tomato by water control, which is worth promoting in the agricultural production.
文摘Quality of life (QOL) is an important topic in social and medical sciences, it has a multidimensional nature and is influenced by many factors. Aim of the Work: In this study we want to assess the impact of cognitive impairment on the health related quality of life (HR-QOL) of community dwelling non demented elderly. Subject and Method: 115 non demented elderly, 60 years and older recruited from outpatient geriatric clinic at Al Mansoura General Hospital, Dakahlia, Egypt. Each participant underwent, comprehensive geriatric assessment, assessing cognitive function using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and montreal cognitive function test, assessing the health related quality of life (HR-QOL) by the RAND-36 health survey. Results: We found that the elderly with impaired cognition by both MMSE and Montreal test were significantly older;the ones with lower education, with more depressive symptoms, had more functional impairment and had lower HR-QOL scores than the elderly with normal cognitive function, after controlling for confounders still cognition was a determinant of HR-QOL. Also by linear correlation coefficient a significant correlation between HR-QOL and age, function, cognition and depression was found. Conclusion: Cognition affects significantly HR-QOL of the elderly, so we can say that interventions targeting cognition in the elderly can significantly improve their QOL.
基金funded by the State Ministry of Science and Technology’s scientific and technical personnel serving enterprises action project (2009GJF30046)Key project of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (2008LA006)+1 种基金Science and Technology Bureau Project of Kunming City (08G100112)Yunnan Innovation-oriented Enterprises Trial Projects’Imbursement
文摘[Objective] The study aimed to research the effect of several commercial NSP complex enzymes products on broiler meat quality, and provide scientific basis for feed enterprise and breeding farmers choosing NSP complex enzymes. [ Method] Two hundred ROSS broilers at age of 21 days were designed to five treatment groups, including the positive and negative control treatments, and Group 1 to 3 with feed additive of the commercial non-starch polysaccharide complex enzymes each on base of the negative group diet. At 56 days of age, broilers were killed and meat quality was analyzed. [ Result] The thigh meat color CIELAB a value for the negative control broilers was lower ( P 〈 0.05) than those of the positive control and Group 1. The drip loss of breast meat for Group 1 was the lowest, and the drip loss of thigh meat for the negative control was the highest among all treatments. The shear force for the negative control and Group 3 were higher than those of other three groups. There were no differences (P 〉 0.05) on the contents of chemical components, crude moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, and inosine acid for breast and thigh meat among all treatments. [ Conclusion] NSP complex enzymes with complete enzyme categories and high enzyme activity can improve meat quality in broilers.
文摘Background: We have developed a new next-generation intrapleural hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC) for non-small cell lung cancer with dissemination, which is a hybrid chemotherapy combined with oral S-1 medication plus conventional cisplatin-based IPHC. We now report the preliminary feasibility and outcome of quality of life (QOL) regarding this hybrid IPHC. Methods: The patient was a 76-year-old male with a 2-cm nodule in the left upper lobe. After partial resection by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), which was diagnosed with advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma with intrapleural dissemination. We initially performed two regimens of systemic chemotherapy, S-1 (day 1 - 21, 100 mg 2X/day) + CDDP (day 8, 60 mg/m<sup>2</sup>) and S-1 (day 1 - 14,100 mg 2X/day) + CBDCA (day 1, AUC 5). The regimen of next-generation IPHC is oral S-1 medication (day 1 - 21, 100 mg/day) + intrapleural hyperthermic perfusion of cisplatin (200 mg/m<sup>2</sup>) with VATS (day 8,43°C, 2 hours). Adverse outcomes, QOL, and pleural effusion were assessed in three regimens. To investigate the outcomes of the QOL, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QOL Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13), the QOL questionnaire for cancer patients treated with anticancer drugs (QOL-ACD), the Cancer Dyspnea Score (CDS), and the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were used. Results: During the IPHC treatment course, grade 3 neutropenia, anemia, and diarrhea were observed. The physical function after IPHC became worse compared to that before the IPHC. Fatigue during chemotherapy (CBDCA+S-1) was more pronounced than that during the IPHC. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea during the IPHC were prevalent than those of chemotherapy. The overall QOL after the IPHC was improved compared to that before the IPHC. Regarding before and after the IPHC, the physical function after the IPHC became worse compared to that before the IPHC, on the other hand, the global QOL before and after the IPHC had not dramatically changed. Pleural effusion was controlled after the IPHC for more than 1 year. Conclusion: The first case of a clinical trial of the next-generation IPHC showed grade 3 adverse events. However, it was an acceptable feasibility compared to the usual platinum doublet chemotherapy. The effectiveness of the IPHC allowed the patient to obtain a good control of the pleural effusion and preserved the patient’s QOL.
文摘Background: Patient-reported outcomes of the quality of life (QOL) after an open thoracotomy have not been studied. To determine the physical and mental changes in surgical patients is very important for medical staffs. The surgical patient’s satisfaction and overall healthy changes were evaluated by the patient-self assessment questionnaires. Materials and Methods: From July 2007 to April 2008, 26 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) underwent surgical resection. The outcome of the QOL was evaluated by using two kinds of questionnaire surveys from the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the anti-aging QOL assessment (AA-QOL). The EORTC QLQ-C30 consisted of five domains (physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social functionings) and global QOL. The AA-QOL contained 51 items;30 physical and 21 mental symptoms regarding the elderly and the aging population. The patients replied to the two questionnaires at two different times, i.e., at pre-surgery (baseline) and at post-surgery (2 weeks after the operation). The obtained data of these scores were averaged and compared between the two points of the pre-surgery and post-surgery. Results: Regarding the outcomes of the EORTC QLQ-C30, the physical and social functioning became significantly worse after the surgery. In contrast, the global QOL significantly became better after the surgery. For the symptom at post-surgery, three of which were “nausea and vomiting”, “pain”, and “appetite loss”, became significantly worse compared to those at pre-surgery. Regarding the outcomes of the AA-QOL, the physical symptoms (muscular pain/stiffness, palpitations, dyspnea, no feeling of good health, anorexia, and coughing and sputum) became significantly worse after the surgery. Regarding the mental symptoms, there were no significant differences. Conclusions: Regarding the outcomes based on the changes in the QOL after surgery, the physical symptoms became worse compared to the mental symptoms. To clarify the perioperative healthy changes of the QOL reported by patients with lung cancers is very important for multidisciplinary teamwork, which should play a role in providing the appropriate care and treatment and useful information for a preoperative patient’s decision making of receiving surgical treatment.
文摘Objective: To explore the significance of dual-energy CT non-linear fusion technique in improving the quality of CTA image of renal cancer. Methods: The CTA images of 100 patients who had been confirmed by pathology as renal cancer were collected and were randomly divided into experimental group and control group with 50 cases respectively. The two groups of patients were treated with iodine concentration of 300 mg/ml and 350 mg/ml non-ionic contrast agent, with a dosage of 1.5 ml/kg and an injection rate of 4 ml/s. The contrast agent intelligently tracking method was adopted bolus. The control group used the conventional CTA scanning, with a reference tube voltage/tube current of 100 kv/ref150 mas. The experimental group adopted the double energy scanning, with ball tube A and ball tube B. The reference tube voltage/tube current was 100 kv/ref250 mas and sn150 kv/ref125 mas respectively. The images of the experimental group were non-linear fused to obtain the Mono+ 55 kev single-energy images. The CT value, SNR contrast ratio of the abdominal aorta, renal artery and tumor tissue of the experimental group images and the 100 KV images and the Mono+ 55 kev images of the control group were compared. The objective evaluation and subjective evaluation of the image quality of the three groups of images was performed. Results: The results showed that the 100 kV images of the experimental group were statistically different from those of the control group (P05) in CT value, SNR and CNR (P 0.05). And there was no statistically significant difference between the non-linear fusion single-energy Mono+ 55 kev images and the control group images in CT value, SNR and CNR (P > 0.05). The subjective evaluation of image quality showed that there was no significant difference between Mono+ 55 kev images and control group images, and the quality of Mono+ 55 kev images was higher than that of experimental group 100 kV images. Conclusion: The dual-energy CT non-linear fusion technique can improve the quality of CTA image in patients with renal cancer, and it is possible to obtain high quality CTA images with low iodine concentration contrast agent.
基金Funded by Natural fund project of Shanxi Normal University(872014)Functional Food Project of Shanxi Normal University(870340)
文摘[Objective]The aim was to improve the quality of the egg in favour of producers and business operators according to the market demand to take scientific feeding and management.[Methods]This paper discussed the research progress of using machine vision,optical properties,and acoustic resonance technology in the egg quality nondestructive testing. [Results]Egg quality indicators directly affect their edible quality and quality levels. [Conclusion]Egg quality test has practical value and practical significance.
文摘Majority of the patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC)experience two or more disease related symptoms,which may have a negative impact on their health-related quality of life(HR QOL).These patients prefer a therapy that would improve disease related symptoms,as opposed or treatment that slightly prolongs their survival without improving symptoms.The improvements of the symptoms augment the significance of improved response rates or progression free survivals.The choice of the questionnaires to evaluate patients-reported outcomes(PROs)and HRQOL benefits and methods of collecting the data and their interpretations are very important and are discussed in this manuscript.PROs and HR QOL outcomes are important in patients with advanced NSCLC only when the data are collected and analyzed correctly.Then they can be viewed as components of the total value of a treatment,providing a comprehensive picture of the benefits and risks of anticancer therapies.Enabling the patients to feel during the last months of their lives more comfortable and not be dependent on their loved ones is a very important task in the treatment of advanced NSCLC.
文摘The aim of this work is to comparatively study two types of control of a three-phase shunt active filter (TSAF) in order to realize a system of depollution of electrical networks so as to improve the quality of electrical energy. We used two TSA control models which differ in the method of disturbed currents detection, one linear and the other non-linear. The results show that the non-linear control method, although with high calculation blocks, gives more promising results than the linear control method. When connecting a non-linear load (televisions, lamps, variable speed drives, etc.) directly to the public distribution network, the non-linear nature of the load causes the source current to be deformed due to the presence of harmonic currents and voltages. These harmonics thus generate a high reactive power, and therefore considerable electrical losses in the network. One of the solutions to reduce losses on the electricity grid is to incorporate an electronic circuit called a filter into the electricity grid. This work carried out a comparative study of two types of control of a three-phase shunt active filter (TSAF) in order to carry out a system for cleaning up electricity networks in order to improve the quality of electrical energy. We used two TSA control models that differ in the method of detecting disturbed currents, one linear and the other non-linear. The results show that the non-linear control method, although with high calculation blocks, gives better results than the linear control method.
文摘Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) of quality of life (QOL) during chemotherapy involving lung cancer are very important for the medical staffs. Patients’ satisfaction and healthy changes were evaluated by the patient-self assessment. Materials and Methods: From July 2007 to April 2008, a total of 19 patients received chemotherapy. The QOL data were collected by using the QOL questionnaire for cancer patients treated with anticancer drugs (QOL-ACD) and the anti-aging QOL assessment (AA-QOL). The AA-QOL contained 51 items: 30 of physical and 21 of mental symptoms of the elderly and the aging population. The patients replied to the questions at two different times, i.e., at pre-chemotherapy (baseline) and at post-chemotherapy (2 weeks after the chemotherapy). Results: Regarding the hematological toxicities, for the grade 3/4 toxicities, there were 12 neutropenia (12/19, 63.2%) and 3 thrombocytopenia (3/19, 15.8%). For the grade 3 febrile neutropenia, there were 5 cases (5/19, 26.3%). Regarding the non-hematological toxicities, there was no grade 3 and grade 4 toxicities. Based on the outcomes of the QOL-ACD, the three items (“physical condition”, “social attitude”, and “overall QOL”) at post-chemotherapy became significantly worse compared to the baseline. Regarding the outcomes of the AA-QOL, 4 items of physical symptoms (“thirst”, “anorexia”, “early satiety”, and “diarrhea”) became significantly worse compared to the baseline. Regarding the mental symptoms, 2 items (“nothing to look forward in life” and “a sense of uselessness”) became significantly worse compared to the baseline. Conclusion: Regarding the PROs of the QOL during the chemotherapy term, both the physical and mental symptoms had become worse. To clarify the changes in the QOL during chemotherapy is very important for multidisciplinary teamwork, which should play the role of providing the appropriate cares and treatment as patient-support.
文摘Based on fuzzy Gaussian mixture model (FGMM) and support vector regression (SVR),an improved version of non-intrusive objective measurement for assessing quality of output speech without inputting clean speech is proposed for narrowband speech.Its perceptual linear predictive (PLP) features extracted from clean speech and clustered by FGMM are used as an artificial reference model.Input speech is separated into three classes,for each a consistency parameter between each feature pair from test speech signals and its counterpart in the pre-trained FGMM reference model is calculated and mapped to an objective speech quality score using SVR method.The correlation degree between subjective mean opinion score (MOS) and objective MOS is analyzed.Experimental results show that the proposed method offers an effective technique and can give better performances than the ITU-T P.563 method under most of the test conditions for narrowband speech.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.60832003)the Key Laboratory of Advanced Display and System Application(Shanghai University),Ministry of Education,China(Grant No.p200902)+1 种基金the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality(Grant No.10510500500)the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Higher Education Institutions of China(Grant No.KJ2011Z008)
文摘The quality of virtual view based on multi-view video (MVD) plus depth format is often evaluated by PSNR or subjectively judged. However, due to synthesizing arbitrary view images, the virtual view images mostly have no reference images and are only assessed using non-reference. Virtual view images synthesized by depth estimation reference software (DERS) and view synthesis reference software (VSRS) often accompanied with blockiness and other distortions on the edge. In addition, matching level for the depth map and the corresponding texture maps of left and right views also affects the quality of the virtual view. This paper compares the edge similarity of the depth and the corresponding texture maps which generate the intermediate virtual view and combined with the virtual view's blockiness which causing blur to evaluate the quality of the virtual view. Experiment results show that the proposed method can reflect the quality of the virtual view better.
文摘Objective: To observe and compare the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with chemotherapy (CT) on immune function and quality of life (QOL)of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ. Methods: One hundred cases with stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ NSCLC were randomly divided into two groups. The treated group (n=50) received CT combined with TCM, and the control group received CT alone. The percentage of T lymphocyte subset in peripheral blood and the change of natural killer (NK) cell count were observed after treatment. The QOL and tolerance of CT were also compared between the two groups after treatment. Results: In the treated group, CD3 cell count, CD4 cell count, CD4/ CDg ratio and NK cell activity were higher than those in control group, while CD8 cell count in the treated group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05), and QOL and tolerance of CT in the treated group were also better (P<0.05). Conclusion: TCM combined with CT could raise the patients' ability in tolerating CT in stage Ⅲ-ⅣNSCLC.
文摘Introduction: The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the past many years has been reported to have many cities with highly polluted air quality. The state has been taking meticulous steps in combating air pollution in the form of action plans, introduced especially in its 17 non-attainment cities (NAC). To assess the progress and development of these action plans in UP, the present study has done an in-depth analysis and review of the state’s action plans and city micro action plans. Materials and Methods: In this research study, the analysis of the latest action plan reports, micro action plan reports as well as the recommendations for combating air pollution-related issues in the 17 NAC of the UP state has been well documented. Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has prepared these reports to highlight the progress of the plans in response to the growing air pollution in these cities. The information present in the reports has been used to further study sector-specific, category-specific action plans, institutional responsibility, and the present status of the action plans. Results: On average, the highest weightage in action plans was given to sector-specific categories such as Road dust and construction activities (24%). It was also observed that Urban local bodies (~50%) were majorly responsible to implement the action points and 56% of the action points were jointly implemented by multiple agencies.