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The current randomized controlled trial investigated the effect of a robotic pet on social and physical frailty in community-dwelling older adults. The intervention group (n = 107) received a robotic pet and the control group (n = 113) received usual care following hospital discharge. Social and physical frailty were measured using the Questionnaire to Define Social Frailty Status and the FRAIL questionnaire. Cognitive function and depression were assessed using the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire and Geriatric Depression Scale, respectively. Continuous outcomes were compared between groups using t tests or Wilcoxon rank sum tests, as appropriate. Categorical outcomes were compared between groups using chi-square tests or Fisher's exact tests, as appropriate. Main findings showed the robotic pet positively impacted cognitive status in participants who reported they enjoyed engaging with their pet. This finding supported the theoretical premise of the current study that greater engagement with the robotic pet would yield greater improvement in study outcomes. [Research in Gerontological Nursing, 15(5), 229–237.]

Objective Childhood cancer patients need to have good treatment adherence. Unfortunately, treatment non-adherence often occurs due to high side-effect burdens of treatment and the lack of knowledge of one's illness and treatment. Therefore, a serious game intervention based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) was designed and developed to motivate childhood cancer patients to undergo treatment, perform daily self-care and educate them about their illness. Methods Childhood cancer patients (6–17 years old) and their caregivers were recruited in a multi-centre, single-arm intervention in Malaysia. A total of 24 child-caregiver dyads have completed the study. This study used PMT-based surveys to collect quantitative data regarding children's motivation to adhere to treatment and perform daily self-care. Additionally, a 20-question multiple-choice quiz was used to determine children's knowledge levels. These surveys were conducted pre-test and post-test. Children's and caregivers' feedback were also gathered post-test as qualitative data. Results The results showed that overall, the children's intention to undergo cancer treatment had increased significantly. A significant increase in the intention to perform daily self-care was found among younger children, while older children showed significant improvement in their cancer knowledge levels. The post-test feedback suggested that the game was liked by both children and caregivers and it provided various benefits to children with cancer. Conclusions Findings suggest that the intervention has the potential to improve childhood cancer patients’ motivation for treatment adherence and daily self-care, in addition to educating them about cancer and treatment.

INTRODUCTION: It is crucial to educate childhood cancer patients (CCPs) about their illness and motivate them for cancer treatment and treatment side-effects management.OBJECTIVES: This paper describes the design, development and pilot evaluation of the proposed serious game intervention with CCPs in Malaysia.METHODS: A single-centre, single-arm intervention was conducted with CCPs (n=8). Surveys were done pre-test and post-test.RESULTS: The Protection Motivation Theory was used to measure the participants' motivation. Self-reported surveys with CCPs and caregiver dyads showed a significant increase in participants’ intention to use cancer treatment. Although the increase in the intention to use daily self-care and cancer knowledge survey scores was not substantial, the post-test caregivers' feedback revealed that the game was beneficial for their children.CONCLUSION: Early results of the study have shown the intervention’s potential to boost the knowledge and motivations of CCPs.

Pediatric medical procedures are often stressful and painful for children, so they can resist and make the work of doctors and nurses a little more complicated. This research aims to develop a virtual pet simulator to distract pediatric patients from pain and stress using smart techniques. The methodology used is SUM. The primary data for the development of the simulator were gravity, the player's position, the speed, and the mass for the calculation of the predictive physics in the toy to interact with the pet. As part of the intelligent techniques, the A-star algorithm was used for the pet to follow the user and the flocking algorithm to have a natural behavior of a group of animals and thus have a higher immersion level. Trials were conducted with pediatric patients where those who made use of the virtual pet simulator during the medical procedure felt less pain and stress than those who did not try the simulator. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use alternatives such as the one developed to reduce pain and stress in pediatric patients.

PurposeChallenges in PET/MRI quantitative accuracy for neurological uses arise from PET attenuation correction accuracy. We proposed and evaluated an automatic pipeline to assess the quantitative accuracy of four MRI-derived PET AC methods using analytically simulated PET brain lesions and ROIs as ground truth for PET activity.MethodsOur proposed pipeline, integrating a synthetic lesion insertion tool and the FreeSurfer neuroimaging framework, inserts simulated spherical and brain ROIs into PET projection space, reconstructing them via four PET MRAC techniques. Utilizing an 11-patient brain PET dataset, we compared the quantitative accuracy of four MRACs (DIXON, DIXONbone, UTE AC, and DL-DIXON) against the gold standard PET CTAC, evaluating MRAC to CTAC activity bias in spherical lesions and brain ROIs with and without background activity against original (lesion free) PET reconstructed images.ResultsThe proposed pipeline yielded accurate results for spherical lesions and brain ROIs, adhering to the MRAC to CTAC pattern of original brain PET images. Among the MRAC methods, DIXON AC exhibited the highest bias, followed by UTE, DIXONBone, and DL-DIXON showing the least. DIXON, DIXONbone, UTE, and DL-DIXON showed MRAC to CTAC biases of − 5.41%, − 1.85%, − 2.74%, and 0.08% respectively for ROIs inserted in background activity; − 7.02%, − 2.46%, − 3.56%, and − 0.05% for lesion ROIs without background; and − 6.82%, − 2.08%, − 2.29%, and 0.22% for the original brain PET images’ 16 FreeSurfer brain ROIs.ConclusionThe proposed pipeline delivers accurate results for synthetic spherical lesions and brain ROIs, with and without background activity consideration, enabling the evaluation of new attenuation correction approaches without utilizing measured PET emission data. Additionally, it offers a consistent method to generate realistic lesion ROIs, potentially applicable in assessing further PET correction techniques.

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the possibilities, advantages and limitations of virtual bronchoscopy using data sets from positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT). Twelve consecutive patients with lung cancer underwent PET/CT. PET was performed with F-18-labelled 2-[fluorine-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D: -glucose ((18)F-FDG). The tracheobronchial system was segmented with a volume-growing algorithm, using the CT data sets, and visualized with a shaded-surface rendering method. The primary tumours and the lymph node metastases were segmented for virtual CT-bronchoscopy using the CT data set and for virtual PET/CT-bronchoscopy using the PET/CT data set. Virtual CT-bronchoscopy using the low-dose or diagnostic CT facilitates the detection of anatomical/morphological structure changes of the tracheobronchial system. Virtual PET/CT-bronchoscopy was superior to virtual CT-bronchoscopy in the detection of lymph node metastases (P=0.001), because it uses the CT information and the molecular/metabolic information from PET. Virtual PET/CT-bronchoscopy with a transparent colour-coded shaded-surface rendering model is expected to improve the diagnostic accuracy of identification and characterization of malignancies, assessment of tumour staging, differentiation of viable tumour tissue from atelectases and scars, verification of infections, evaluation of therapeutic response and detection of an early stage of recurrence that is not detectable or is misjudged in comparison with virtual CT-bronchoscopy.

Considerable work has examined the place of pets in humans' lives, although most of this research takes for granted that pets are certain animals. While these perspectives provide insight into the character of human-nonhuman relationships, the assumptions underlying such research frequently invest in a concept of pets as having essential qualities. This paper explores the possibility that petness, which can generally be defined as the state, quality, or conditions under which a pet is constituted, arises from social relations and the treatment of objects. Using the example of virtual pets I will argue that there is no essential “petness” to anything and that it is a social construct. More specifically, I contend that pets are the product of the investment of human emotion into objects. After outlining how such treatment is not exclusive to the animals that live close to us, but is similarly exhibited toward inanimate entities as well as other sentient creatures, I conclude with some discussion of how pet relations can be understood in the context of late capitalism.

\"In 2016, it was estimated that there were 24 million pets owned in Australia. That's a pet for every person! Not everyone can own pets though, so how can animal lovers still get their fix?\" (Animania) Learn about volunteering at animal shelters, foster care for animals, and virtual pets.