Suppressing the influence of charge-coupled device vertical blooming on the measurement of laser beam quality factor (M) of a near-infrared laser.

In this paper, a new method, which is based on reconstructing the original intensity distribution of a laser with images captured by a charge-coupled device (CCD) in two orthogonal directions, is proposed for suppressing the influence of CCD vertical blooming on the measurement of the laser beam quality factor (M). A simplified theoretical model for the distribution of CCD blooming is also proposed. With the proposed method and model, the influence of CCD vertical blooming on the measurement of M is simulated.

Factors that affect sleep quality: perceptions made by patients in the intensive care unit after thoracic surgery.

Objective: This study identifies factors affecting sleep patterns among thoracic surgery patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and compares the perceptions of sleep-disturbing factors between nurses and patients.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-two patients and 40 nurses were surveyed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and self-designed questionnaires (for patients and nurses). All statistical analyses were carried out by SPSS, and the following statistical methods were used to evaluate the data: chi-squared test and logistic regression.