Analysis and Visualization of Confounders and Treatment Pathways Leading to Amputation and Non-Amputation in Peripheral Artery Disease Patients Using Sankey Diagrams: Enhancing Explainability.

: This study uses Sankey diagrams to analyze treatment pathways in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), which is a vascular condition characterized by atherosclerotic occlusion of the arteries, particularly in the lower limbs, affecting up to 14% of the general population. This study focuses on the treatment pathways that lead to amputation versus those that do not, utilizing the STARR dataset and the dataset. : The study utilized Sankey diagrams to visualize treatment pathways, highlighting the progression from initial treatments to outcomes.

Vocal and Facial Behavior During Affect Production in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose: We investigate the extent to which automated audiovisual metrics extracted during an affect production task show statistically significant differences between a cohort of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing controls.

Method: Forty children with ASD and 21 neurotypical controls interacted with a multimodal conversational platform with a virtual agent, Tina, who guided them through tasks prompting facial and vocal communication of four emotions-happy, angry, sad, and afraid-under conditions of high and low verbal and social cognitive task demands.

Results: Individuals with ASD exhibited greater standard deviation of the fundamental frequency of the voice with the minima and maxima of the pitch contour occurring at an earlier time point as compared to controls.

Radiographer chest x-ray reporting in Scotland in 2023: An exploratory study into the attitudes and challenges concerning the development of a standardised, countrywide reporting service.

Background: The increasing backlog of chest x-ray (CXR) reports in Scotland is well documented, as is reporting radiographer's (RR) ability to provide a cost effective solution to this. Despite this, only 8 CXR RRs currently work in Scotland. This qualitative descriptive study will explore the perceived reasons for this lack of role development by investigating the relevant enablers and challenges.

The perceptions and experiences of final year undergraduate diagnostic imaging students when facilitating peer-assisted learning within the simulated learning environment.

Introduction: The persistent shortage of radiographers in the UK has prompted the exploration of innovative education models to enhance practice-based learning. Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) has been advocated as a viable method to increase clinical training capacity, yet its application in Diagnostic Imaging is constrained by regulations on ionising radiation. This study investigates the perceptions and experiences of final-year undergraduate Diagnostic Imaging students facilitating PAL within a simulated learning environment.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treating Severe Behavior in a Juvenile Justice Facility: Teaching Behavioral Self-Management via Telehealth.

Adolescents living in residential juvenile justice facilities often receive mental health services during their stay to address committed offenses, yet some display challenging behavior during moments of conflict within the facility. These challenging behaviors could result in risk of harm to self or others, or the individual may experience punishment from facility staff. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of an additive voluntary focused intervention for individuals who continued to display challenging behavior despite participation in "treatment as usual" in a juvenile justice facility.

Impact of sphenoid trigone size and extraocular muscle thickness on the outcome of lateral wall orbital decompression for thyroid eye disease.

Background: To retrospectively review lateral wall orbital decompression for thyroid eye disease (TED) and to evaluate pre-operative CT scans to analyse the variation in proptosis reduction.

Methods: Consecutive lateral wall orbital decompressions performed by a single surgeon were retrospectively reviewed. Pre-operative CT scan features and post-operative proptosis reduction were analysed.

Daily Meditation Practice for Managing Glaucoma Patients' Attitudes and Acceptance.

Prcis: Overall, 63% of glaucoma patients agreed to 45-60 minutes of daily meditation. Predictors of accepting meditation included previous meditation practice, a diagnosis of glaucoma <1 year, and having a marital status of "single".

Purpose: To explore patients' acceptance and barriers towards 45-60 minutes daily meditation for glaucoma management and to identify glaucoma patients with higher perceived stress levels who may benefit more from meditation practice.

Improving Juvenile Justice Settings by Decreasing Coercion: One Lab's Perspectives from Behind the Fence.

In this article, we outline an emerging role for applied behavior analysis in juvenile justice by summarizing recent publications from our lab and discussing our procedures through the lens of coercion proposed by Goltz (2020). In particular, we focus on individual and group interventions that target a range of behaviors emitted by adolescents in a residential treatment facility. In general, individual interventions involve teaching adolescents to (1) respond appropriately to staff, (2) tolerate nonpreferred environmental conditions, and (3) control problematic sexual arousal.

Comparing stimulus preference and response force in a conjugate preparation.

Researchers used a conjugate preparation to evaluate how response force changed based on participants' preferences for visual stimuli. First, researchers used a verbal preference assessment to evaluate each participant's preference for viewing for five object categories of visual stimuli; this process identified high preference (HP) stimuli and low preference stimuli for most participants. Thereafter, researchers exposed each participant to the five stimulus categories in a randomized order while using a force dynamometer to measure their response force to increase visual clarity of each stimulus.

Fluency and the Maintenance of Skills Related to Sex Laws for Individuals Adjudicated for Illegal Sexual Behavior.

Previous research has evaluated the effects of various commonly used mastery criteria on skill maintenance by directly manipulating the accuracy requirement, as well as the sessions across which these accuracy levels must be demonstrated. The current study extends this literature by including a rate dimension within the mastery criterion with a unique population. We implemented a fluency-oriented treatment package to increase intraverbal skills related to state sex laws using a multiple-baseline design across 3 target sets for 2 individuals adjudicated for illegal sexual behavior.

Patients' attitudes towards the potential use of stability tape to minimize head movements during cataract surgery.

Introduction: Head stabilization may reduce intra-operative risk during cataract surgery, but could be misinterpreted as "restraint." We wanted to establish patients' attitudes towards the potential use of stability-tape.

Materials And Methods: One-hundred consecutive patients attending for local-anaesthetic cataract surgery were asked to complete a pre-operative questionnaire.

Psychotropic Drug Withdrawal and Holistic Tapering Strategies: A Case Series.

This case series aims to further the understanding of psychotropic drug withdrawal symptoms, as well as how individuals may be supported using holistic approaches for long term mood support. A secondary objective is to contribute to the evidence base for differentiating psychotropic drug withdrawal from the resurgence of psychiatric symptoms. Patients are described in two groups based on the timeline of psychotropic tapering.

Efficacy of a Multimodal Online Lifestyle Intervention for Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life in Individuals With a History of Major Depressive Disorder.

Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex bio-psycho-social syndrome that affects millions of individuals and is one of the leading causes of impaired quality of life (QOL). In addition to the symptoms of depression and low mood, many individuals with MDD also suffer from isolation without the sense of a supportive, surrounding community. Given the challenges of treating individuals with MDD, social isolation and a lack of communal connection, this randomized controlled trial was designed to determine the efficacy of a multimodal, online and community-based lifestyle intervention for improving depressive symptoms and QOL in individuals with a history of MDD.

Using Arousal Suppression Exercises to Decrease Inappropriate Sexual Arousal in Detained Adolescent Males: Three Clinical Demonstrations.

Reyes, Vollmer, and Hall (2011) found that 2 arousal suppression strategies, 1 of which involved counting backward from 100 to 0, decreased sexual arousal for 2 male sex offenders with intellectual disabilities. In the current clinical study, we taught 3 adolescent males who had been adjudicated for illegal sexual behavior to self-report arousal when they were presented with sexually arousing visual stimuli. Based on the procedures in the Reyes et al.

Behavioral skills training to increase interview skills of adolescent males in a juvenile residential treatment facility.

Some studies suggest that acquiring employment following release from prison may reduce recidivism; however, few studies have evaluated procedures for teaching job-related skills to adolescents in residential detention facilities. Stocco et al. (2017) used behavioral skills training (BST) to improve interview skills of college students.

Effects of Obtrusive Observation and Rules on Classroom Behavior of Adolescents in a Juvenile Residential Treatment Setting.

Several studies have used interdependent group contingencies to decrease disruptive behavior and increase appropriate behavior for groups of adolescents. In addition, one study demonstrated that rules plus feedback about rule violations, without additional group contingencies, decreased problem behavior and increased appropriate behavior for adolescents in three classrooms within a residential juvenile facility. Given the rapid behavior change observed in the aforementioned study, it is possible behavior changes were produced by reactivity to obtrusive observation from program implementers.

A Prospective 2-Year Clinical Evaluation of Augmented Hip Abductor Tendon Repair.

Background: Hip abductor tendon (HAT) tearing is commonly implicated in greater trochanteric pain syndrome. Studies reporting surgical outcomes are often on small cohorts and with limited information on functional improvement.

Purpose: To report the 2-year clinical and functional outcomes in a series of patients undergoing HAT repair augmented with a ligament augmentation and reconstruction system (LARS) ligament.

Tolerance Training with Adolescents in a Residential Juvenile Facility.

For individuals receiving treatment in residential juvenile facilities, the inability to tolerate typical but unpleasant stimulus events may manifest in aggressive behavior toward staff or other residents. Such behaviors can lead to loss of privileges, interfere with other treatments, and contribute to negative staff-student relationships. As a procedure, tolerance training (TT) involves systematically increasing the duration of exposure to an undesired stimulus event or situation.