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- Farr, William J., et al.
(author)
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Feasibility of a randomised controlled trial to evaluate home-based virtual reality therapy in children with cerebral palsy
- 2021
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In: Disability and Rehabilitation. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0963-8288 .- 1464-5165. ; 43:1, s. 85-97
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Evidence is increasing for effective virtual reality therapy for motor rehabilitation for children with Cerebral Palsy. We assessed the feasibility of a virtual reality therapy mode of intervention, appropriateness of measures, and potential cost-effectiveness.Methods: A 12-week, 2-group, parallel-feasibility trial (ISRCT 17624388) using Nintendo Wii FitTM at home. Children aged 5–16, with ambulatory Cerebral Palsy, who were able to follow simple instructions were randomised to two groups; one supported by physiotherapists (individualised activity programme), the other unsupported with children having free choice (control). Children were assessed in clinic at baseline, week 6, and week 12 by blinded assessors. Feasibility of the intervention was assessed via recruitment, adherence, and usefulness of measurement tools.Results: Forty-four children were eligible (out of 48 approached): 31 consented, 30 were randomised, 21 completed the study; 10 in the supported group and 11 in the unsupported group. Nine children discontinued from tiredness, after-school activities, homework, surgery, technical difficulties or negative system feedback. The supported group completed 19 of 36 (IQR 5-35) possible sessions; the unsupported group 24 of 36 sessions (IQR 8-36). Gross Motor Function Measure scores varied by Cerebral Palsy severity after the intervention. There were no adverse events.Conclusion: Virtual reality therapy offers potential as a therapeutic adjunct for children with Cerebral Palsy, warranting substantive confirmatory study. Gross Motor Function Measure, with modifications to improve sensitivity, appeared appropriate as a primary measure, with Timed up and Go test secondary. The intervention was inexpensive costing £20 per child. An explanatory trial to evaluate the clinical/cost-effectiveness of commercial system virtual reality therapy is feasible with minor methodological adaptation.Implications for rehabilitation Home-based interactive computer gaming was feasible, safe and cost effective as a therapy adjunct.Discontinue if additional pressures are present: imminent surgery, family resilience to technical difficulties, negative system feedback, after-school activities.Change in Gross Motor Function Measurement scores varied by severity of Cerebral Palsy.
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- Farr, William, et al.
(author)
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Methodological issues of using placebos in interventions based on digital technology
- 2017
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In: Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine. - : Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine Inc.. - 1839-7808. ; 6:2, s. 56-63
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background/Aims: Use of placebo is the ideal for comparison in clinical trials to reduce biases. With digital technology being used more frequently in healthcare interventions, how do we determine the placebo effect where interventions exploit technology? If placebo in medicine is traditionally defined by a lack of pharmacological agents, how might we begin to move towards controlling for effects of digital technology?Method: This paper explores the traditional placebo effect and discusses its impact in healthcare contexts with digital technology with reference to a particular trial. Different meanings of placebo in the context of evaluating technology suggest new challenges and positive consequences.Results: Methodological considerations are discussed, which enabled the development of a placebo-controlled evaluation of a digital technology in healthcare and rehabilitation.Conclusion: Digital placebo was controlled in our trial by employing technology across all groups in the absence of evidence-based practice and shows how to control for unknown and hidden effects of technology.
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- Fast, Jonatan, et al.
(author)
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Hot-carrier optoelectronic devices based on semiconductor nanowires
- 2021
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In: Applied Physics Reviews. - : AIP Publishing. - 1931-9401. ; 8:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and photodetectors, a portion of electron-hole pairs is generated as so-called hot carriers with anexcess kinetic energy that is typically lost as heat. The long-standing aim to harvest this excess energy to enhance device performance hasproven to be very challenging, largely due to the extremely short-lived nature of hot carriers. Efforts thus focus on increasing the hot carrierrelaxation time and on tailoring heterostructures that allow for hot-carrier extraction on short time and length scales. Recently, semiconductornanowires have emerged as a promising system to achieve these aims, because they offer unique opportunities for heterostructure engineeringas well as for potentially modified phononic properties that can lead to increased relaxation times. In this review we assess thecurrent state of theory and experiments relating to hot-carrier dynamics in nanowires, with a focus on hot-carrier photovoltaics. To providea foundation, we begin with a brief overview of the fundamental processes involved in hot-carrier relaxation and how these can be tailoredand characterized in nanowires. We then analyze the advantages offered by nanowires as a system for hot-carrier devices and review the statusof proof-of-principle experiments related to hot-carrier photovoltaics. To help interpret existing experiments on photocurrent extractionin nanowires we provide modeling based on non-equilibrium Green’s functions. Finally, we identify open research questions that need to beanswered in order to fully evaluate the potential nanowires offer toward achieving more efficient, hot-carrier based, optoelectronic devices.
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- Fortugno, Federico, et al.
(author)
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Symptoms associated with victimization in patients with schizophrenia and related disorders
- 2013
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In: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:3, s. e58142-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Patients with psychoses have an increased risk of becoming victims of violence. Previous studies have suggested that higher symptom levels are associated with a raised risk of becoming a victim of physical violence. There has been, however, no evidence on the type of symptoms that are linked with an increased risk of recent victimization.Methods: Data was taken from two studies on involuntarily admitted patients, one national study in England and an international one in six other European countries. In the week following admission, trained interviewers asked patients whether they had been victims of physical violence in the year prior to admission, and assessed symptoms on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Only patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or related disorders (ICD-10 F20-29) were included in the analysis which was conducted separately for the two samples. Symptom levels assessed on the BPRS subscales were tested as predictors of victimization. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to estimate adjusted odds ratios.Results: Data from 383 patients in the English sample and 543 patients in the European sample was analysed. Rates of victimization were 37.8% and 28.0% respectively. In multivariable models, the BPRS manic subscale was significantly associated with victimization in both samples.Conclusions: Higher levels of manic symptoms indicate a raised risk of being a victim of violence in involuntary patients with schizophrenia and related disorders. This might be explained by higher activity levels, impaired judgement or poorer self-control in patients with manic symptoms. Such symptoms should be specifically considered in risk assessments.
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- Limpert, Steven, et al.
(author)
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Absorption in and scattering from single horizontal Au-contacted InAs/InP heterostructure nanowires
- 2016
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In: 16th International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices, NUSOD 2016. - 9781467386036 ; , s. 221-222
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Finite element modelling (FEM) is used to show that the addition of Au contacts to a single horizontal InAs/InP heterostructure nanowire substantially alters the nanowire's optical properties in comparison to the uncontacted case. It is found that the addition of contacts can increase absorption efficiency, decrease scattering efficiency and shift the location of absorption within the nanowire. Localized surface plasmon resonances are found to develop at nanowire/contact interfaces at infrared wavelengths and contribute to the alteration of the optical response of the nanowire.
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| 9. |
- Limpert, Steven, et al.
(author)
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Bipolar Photothermoelectric Effect Across Energy Filters in Single Nanowires
- 2017
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In: Nano Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1530-6984 .- 1530-6992. ; 17:7, s. 4055-4060
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The photothermoelectric (PTE) effect uses nonuniform absorption of light to produce a voltage via the Seebeck effect and is of interest for optical sensing and solar-to-electric energy conversion. However, the utility of PTE devices reported to date has been limited by the need to use a tightly focused laser spot to achieve the required, nonuniform illumination and by their dependence upon the Seebeck coefficients of the constituent materials, which exhibit limited tunability and, generally, low values. Here, we use InAs/InP heterostructure nanowires to overcome these limitations: first, we use naturally occurring absorption "hot spots" at wave mode maxima within the nanowire to achieve sharp boundaries between heated and unheated subwavelength regions of high and low absorption, allowing us to use global illumination; second, we employ carrier energy-filtering heterostructures to achieve a high Seebeck coefficient that is tunable by heterostructure design. Using these methods, we demonstrate PTE voltages of hundreds of millivolts at room temperature from a globally illuminated nanowire device. Furthermore, we find PTE currents and voltages that change polarity as a function of the wavelength of illumination due to spatial shifting of subwavelength absorption hot spots. These results indicate the feasibility of designing new types of PTE-based photodetectors, photothermoelectrics, and hot-carrier solar cells using nanowires.
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| 10. |
- Limpert, Steven, et al.
(author)
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Single-nanowire, low-bandgap hot carrier solar cells with tunable open-circuit voltage
- 2017
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In: Nanotechnology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0957-4484 .- 1361-6528. ; 28:43
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Compared to traditional pn-junction photovoltaics, hot carrier solar cells offer potentially higher efficiency by extracting work from the kinetic energy of photogenerated 'hot carriers' before they cool to the lattice temperature. Hot carrier solar cells have been demonstrated in high-bandgap ferroelectric insulators and GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, but so far not in low-bandgap materials, where the potential efficiency gain is highest. Recently, a high open-circuit voltage was demonstrated in an illuminated wurtzite InAs nanowire with a low bandgap of 0.39 eV, and was interpreted in terms of a photothermoelectric effect. Here, we point out that this device is a hot carrier solar cell and discuss its performance in those terms. In the demonstrated devices, InP heterostructures are used as energy filters in order to thermoelectrically harvest the energy of hot electrons photogenerated in InAs absorber segments. The obtained photovoltage depends on the heterostructure design of the energy filter and is therefore tunable. By using a high-resistance, thermionic barrier, an open-circuit voltage is obtained that is in excess of the Shockley-Queisser limit. These results provide generalizable insight into how to realize high voltage hot carrier solar cells in low-bandgap materials, and therefore are a step towards the demonstration of higher efficiency hot carrier solar cells.
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