Determining the needs of relatives of patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis in the intensive care unit.

Background: The precautions taken in the intensive care unit (ICU) during the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a change in the needs of relatives of patients.

Objective: This research was conducted to determine the needs of relatives of ICU patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 68 relatives of patients treated with COVID-19 in the ICU.

Lithium Niobate - Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy.

In this work, we report on the novel employment of lithium niobate tuning forks as acoustic transducers in photoacoustic spectroscopy for gas sensing. The lithium niobate tuning fork (LiNTF) exhibits a fundamental resonance frequency of 39196.6 Hz and a quality factor Q = 5900 at atmospheric pressure.

Improving feeding skills and transition to breastfeeding in early preterm infants: a randomized controlled trial of oromotor intervention.

Introduction: Oromotor therapy exercises used for preterm infants in the NICU might promote oral-motor skills and shorten discharge day. This study investigates the impact of an oral-motor therapy program on the successful transition to breastfeeding (BF) and the enhancement of feeding skills in preterm infants below 30 weeks of gestational age who experience feeding intolerance.

Methods: The intervention group received oral-motor therapy programme for one month, while the control group did not.

Frequency-Dependent Piezoresistive Effect in Top-down Fabricated Gold Nanoresistors.

Piezoresistive strain gauges allow for electronic readout of mechanical deformations with high fidelity. As piezoresistive strain gauges are aggressively being scaled down for applications in nanotechnology, it has become critical to investigate their physical attributes at different limits. Here, we describe an experimental approach for studying the piezoresistive gauge factor of a gold thin-film nanoresistor as a function of frequency.

Cold Brew Coffee-Pilot Studies on Definition, Extraction, Consumer Preference, Chemical Characterization and Microbiological Hazards.

Cold brew coffee is a new trend in the coffee industry. This paper presents pilot studies on several aspects of this beverage. Using an online survey, the current practices of cold brew coffee preparation were investigated, identifying a rather large variability with a preference for extraction of medium roasted Arabica coffee using 50-100 g/L at 8 °C for about 1 day.

Nonlinear terahertz devices utilizing semiconducting plasmonic metamaterials.

The development of responsive metamaterials has enabled the realization of compact tunable photonic devices capable of manipulating the amplitude, polarization, wave vector and frequency of light. Integration of semiconductors into the active regions of metallic resonators is a proven approach for creating nonlinear metamaterials through optoelectronic control of the semiconductor carrier density. Metal-free subwavelength resonant semiconductor structures offer an alternative approach to create dynamic metamaterials.

Lamellar grating optimization for miniaturized fourier transform spectrometers.

Microfabricated Lamellar grating interferometers (LGI) require fewer components compared to Michelson interferotemeters and offer compact and broadband Fourier transform spectrometers (FTS) with good spectral resolution, high speed and high efficiency. This study presents the fundamental equations that govern the performance and limitations of LGI based FTS systems. Simulations and experiments were conducted to demonstrate and explain the periodic nature of the interferogram envelope due to Talbot image formation.