Data were collected at baseline, pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow-ups after 3 and 12months. Treatment effects were assessed with a multivariate analysis of covariance. Results Out of 160 relatives, 81 were assigned to EBT and 79 to the control group. Participants were 54.5 +/- 13.2years old; 69.9% were female. The multivariate model was significant for the pre-/post-comparison (p=0.005)
and the pre-/12-month comparison (p=0.05) but not for the pre-/3-month comparison. Medium to large effects on anxiety and QOL (SWLS, WHOQOL-BREF, QOL-NRS) were found at post-treatment; BVD-523 nmr medium effects on depression and QOL (QOL-NRS) emerged in the 12-month follow-up. No adverse effects of the intervention were observed. Conclusion Existential behavioural therapy appears to exert beneficial effects on distress and QOL of informal caregivers of palliative patients. Further longitudinal evidence is needed to confirm these findings. Copyright
(c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.”
“A dielectric breakdown model based on the phenomenological description of the nucleation and growth of filaments is proposed. This description involves different characteristic times according to the interfacial or bulk nature of the growth processes. The resulting time to breakdown distribution presents Weibull or bimodal shape according to the relative values of those characteristic times. In particular, the I-BET-762 clinical trial variation in the Weibull slope with thickness is observable when the interfacial process characteristic time is the larger. Bimodal shapes are observable LDC000067 in vitro when the characteristics times are in the same range and the surface scaling of the distributions influences the apparent Weibull slopes. The model is compared to experimental constant voltage stress and linear ramp voltage stress measurements made on metal insulator metal and metal oxide semiconductors structures. The physical parameters extracted
are discussed. Breakdown electric fields are derived as functions of temperature, dielectric thickness, and dielectric permittivity consistently with experimental trends. The electric field acceleration factors are also derived and depend on dielectric thickness. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3386517]“
“The outcome of pregnancy in kidney donors has generally been viewed to be favorable. We determined fetal and maternal outcomes in a large cohort of kidney donors. A total of 2102 women have donated a kidney at our institution; 1589 donors responded to our pregnancy surveys; 1085 reported 3213 pregnancies and 504 reported none. Fetal and maternal outcomes in postdonation pregnancies were comparable to published rates in the general population. Postdonation (vs. predonation) pregnancies were associated with a lower likelihood of full-term deliveries (73.7% vs. 84.6%, p = 0.