Energy requirements for patients in convalescent rehabilitation using motor scores as in the Functional Independent Measure.

Background And Objectives: Although appropriate nutrition management could improve rehabilitation outcomes, more than 40 % of patients in a convalescent rehabilitation ward (CRW) suffer from malnutrition. The study was undertaken to investigate whether adequate nutrition for each patient in a CRW could be estimated based on motor scores on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM-M).

Methods And Study Design: In 218 patients in our CRW, both basal energy expenditure (BEE) on admission and average energy intake (EI) for 2 weeks were calculated, and EI was divided by BEE to estimate the activity index (e-AI).

Local thermal elevation probing of metal nanostructures during laser illumination utilizing surface-enhanced Raman scattering from a single-walled carbon nanotube.

Localized laser-induced heating of an individual Au nano-dimer was quantitatively evaluated by measuring the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) from an isolated single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) supported above the nano-gap between the two metal centres of the dimer. The SERS measurement showed an apparent wavenumber shift in the G-band of the Raman spectra with an increase in the power of the illuminated laser light, indicating the laser-induced local thermal elevation of the Au nano-dimer. In addition, it was found that the effect of the laser illumination on the thermal elevation in air was larger than that in aqueous solution, indicating that the localized laser-heating effect is strongly influenced by the surrounding environment.