The assessment of spiritual well-being in cancer patients with advanced disease: which are its meaningful dimensions?

Background: Spirituality is particularly important for patients suffering from life-threatening illness. Despite research showing the benefits of spiritual assessment and care for terminally ill patients, their spiritual needs are rarely addressed in clinical practice. This study examined the factor structure and reliability of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual (FACIT-Sp) in patients with advanced cancer.

Cancer-related fatigue in Italian cancer patients: validation of the Italian version of the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI).

Purpose: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most common symptoms experienced by cancer patients (CPs). The Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) is a reliable instrument to assess CRF in CPs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the BFI (BFI-I).

The effectiveness of the Liverpool care pathway in improving end of life care for dying cancer patients in hospital. A cluster randomised trial.

Background: Most cancer patients still die in hospital, mainly in medical wards. Many studies in different countries have shown the poor quality of end-of-life care delivery in hospitals. The Program "Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient" (LCP), developed in the UK to transfer the hospice model of care into hospitals and other care settings, is a complex intervention to improve the quality of end-of-life care.

Simultaneous measurement of linear and transverse displacements by laser self-mixing.

We present a contactless optical sensor based on the laser-self-mixing effect for real-time measurement of linear and transverse displacements of a moving stage. The sensor is able to measure linear displacements of up to 400 mm along the main optical axis while simultaneously estimating straightness and flatness deviations up to 1 mm. The sensor exploits two identical coplanar nonparallel self-mixing interferometers and requires only one reference plane.

Laser-self-mixing interferometry for mechatronics applications.

We report on the development of an all-interferometric optomechatronic sensor for the detection of multi-degrees-of-freedom displacements of a remote target. The prototype system exploits the self-mixing technique and consists only of a laser head, equipped with six laser sources, and a suitably designed reflective target. The feasibility of the system was validated experimentally for both single or multi-degrees-of-freedom measurements, thus demonstrating a simple and inexpensive alternative to costly and bulky existing systems.