Sicca syndrome (dry mouth and dry eyes) occurs predominantly due to the side effects of medication, systemic diseases (Sjögren’s disease), and radiotherapy of the head and neck region. Sicca complaints decrease the quality of life, cause sleep disturbances, and affect overall health. This systematic literature review investigates the correlation and/or association between dry mouth and dry eyes. A comprehensive search was conducted through PubMed and Web of Science databases up to November 2024. English-language research studies investigating the association and/or correlation between dry mouth and dry eyes were included. Study quality was assessed using NIH quality assessment tools. Data on publication details, participant characteristics, assessment methods, and outcomes was extracted and synthesised based on the type of outcome (objective and/or subjective assessments) and cohort type.
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This study assessed the effect of visitors' personality and emotional response on finding positive meaning in life and the intention to spread positive word of mouth. The sample (n = 260) consists of visitors to Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum near Berlin. Findings indicate that the emotion of interest positively contributes to finding positive meaning in life and positive word of mouth. The effects of personality are marginal. Personality explains little of the variance in positive meaning and positive word of mouth. Emotional response accounts for 25% of the variance in finding positive meaning in life-in terms of finding personal benefit from the visit, controlled for personality. Despite the dominant negative emotional response, tourists find positive meaning in their visit. These findings correspond with those observed in studies on personal trauma and loss. Positive meaning could potentially contribute to adjustment processes to cope with what occurred. Future research should include address longer term effects on postvisit behavior.
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Social media, such as Facebook, offer brands the opportunity to reach their target audience in a less obtrusive way than traditional media, through sponsored posts. Regulations require marketers to explicitly inform consumers about the commercial nature of these posts. This study addresses the effects of sponsorship disclosures by means of a 2 (no disclosure vs. the sponsorship disclosure ‘Sponsored’) × 2 (source: celebrity endorser vs. brand) experiment. Results suggest that a sponsorship disclosure only influences the use of persuasion knowledge when the post is disseminated by a celebrity. Moreover, a disclosure starts a process in which the recognition of advertising (i.e., the activation of conceptual persuasion knowledge) causes consumers to develop distrusting beliefs about the post (i.e., higher attitudinal persuasion knowledge), and in turn, decreases their intention to engage in electronic word of mouth.
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Purpose / objective: Head and neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiation are at risk for developing trismus (reduced mouth opening). Trismus is often a persisting side-effect and difficult to manage. It impairs eating, speech and oral hygiene, affecting quality of life. Although several studies identified the masseter muscle (MM) as one of the main organs at risk, currently this structure is rarely considered during treatment planning. Prospective studies for chemoradiation are lacking. The aim of our study was to quantify the relationship between radiation dose to the MM and development of radiation-induced trismus in an IMRT-VMAT population. Results: At the first evaluation, 6-12 weeks post-treatment, fourteen patients had developed radiation-induced trismus (15%). On average, mouth opening decreased with 4.1 mm, or 8.2 % relative to baseline. Mean dose to the ipsilateral MM was a stronger predictor for trismus than mean dose to the contralateral MM, as indicated by the lowest -2 log likelihood (Table 1). Figure 1A shows the correlation between the ipsilateral mean masseter dose and the relative decrease in mouth opening, with trismus cases indicated in red. No trismus cases were observed in 33 patients (35%) with a mean dose to the ipsilateral MM < 20 Gy. The risk of trismus in the other 60 patients (65%) increased with higher mean doses to the ipsilateral MM. Figure 1B shows the fitted NTCP curve as a function of the mean dose, with a TD50 of 55 Gy. The actual incidence (with 1 SE) of trismus cases within 5 dose bins is indicated as well, showing a good correspondence with the NTCP fit with a relatively large uncertainty in the dose area > 50 Gy. Patients with tumors located in the oropharynx were at highest risk.
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Visits to sites associated with death and suffering are considered emotionally laden. Few studies empirically investigated visitor emotions at such sites. This study examines emotional responses of 241 visitors to concentration camp memorial Neuengamme and assesses how emotions are associated with long-term consequences of revisit intentions and positive word of mouth. Tourists experience negative emotions more intensely compared with positive emotions. Negative emotions predict long-term behavioral intentions more than positive emotions do. Shock and sadness are of particular importance. This study suggests that certain negative emotions also have the power to broaden-and-build and may have long-term behavioral consequences.
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Visits to sites associated with death and suffering are considered emotionally laden. Few studies empirically investigated visitor emotions at such sites. This study examines emotional responses of 241 visitors to concentration camp memorial Neuengamme and assesses how emotions are associated with long-term consequences of revisit intentions and positive word of mouth. Tourists experience negative emotions more intensely compared with positive emotions. Negative emotions predict long-term behavioral intentions more than positive emotions do. Shock and sadness are of particular importance. This study suggests that certain negative emotions also have the power to broaden-and-build and may have long-term behavioral consequences.
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Simulation-based assessment is an effective method for evaluating the competence of individuals in emergency situations. Certain skills are challenging to assess since they cannot be simulated. Consequently, participants need to engage in discursive work to facilitate practice and assessment of unsimulable medical information. This study employs an interactional approach to examine how residents and assessors shape the simulated assessments discursively and what effect this has on the assessment. Simulation-based assessments performed by general practitioners were videotaped. The iterative inductive process of conversation analysis was used to analyze and categorize each verbal initiative to discursively introduce unsimulable medical information. The participants used a range of practices to discursively introduce unsimulable medical information in the scenario. In most cases, residents introduced the medical information with a request for information, thus displaying comprehension of the situation. Residents also asked for confirmation of a specific assessment, thus displaying comprehension of the situation and the expectations. Conversely, assessors can introduce the medical information on behalf of the resident, which restricted residents to display their comprehension. The process of bringing unsimulable medical information discursively into play can be seen as a joint construction. This has implications for understanding assessment and learning in simulation contexts.
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The aim of this systematic review was to examine the association between malnutrition and oral health in older people (≥ 60 years of age). A comprehensive systematic literature search was performed in four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source, and Embase) for literature from January 2000 to May 2020. Both observational and intervention studies were screened for eligibility. Two reviewers independently screened the search results to identify potential eligible studies, and assessed the methodological quality of the full-text studies. A total of 3240 potential studies were identified. After judgement for relevance, 10 studies (cross-sectional (n = 9), prospective cohort (n = 1)) met the inclusion criteria. Three studies described malnourished participants as having fewer teeth, or functional (tooth) units (FTUs), compared to well-nourished participants. Four studies reported soft tissue problems in malnourished participants, including red tongue with blisters, and dry or cracked lips. Subjective oral health was the topic in six studies, with poorer oral health and negative self-perception of oral health in malnourished elderly participants. There are associations between (at risk of) malnutrition and oral health in older people, categorized in hard and soft tissue conditions of the mouth, and subjective oral health. Future research should be focused on longitudinal cohort studies with proper determination of malnutrition and oral health assessments, in order to evaluate the actual association between malnutrition and oral health in older people.
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Communication between healthcare professionals and deaf patients has been particularly challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have explored the possibility to automatically translate phrases that are frequently used in the diagnosis and treatment of hospital patients, in particular phrases related to COVID-19, from Dutch or English to Dutch Sign Language (NGT). The prototype system we developed displays translations either by means of pre-recorded videos featuring a deaf human signer (for a limited number of sentences) or by means of animations featuring a computer-generated signing avatar (for a larger, though still restricted number of sentences). We evaluated the comprehensibility of the signing avatar, as compared to the human signer. We found that, while individual signs are recognized correctly when signed by the avatar almost as frequently as when signed by a human, sentence comprehension rates and clarity scores for the avatar are substantially lower than for the human signer. We identify a number of concrete limitations of the JASigning avatar engine that underlies our system. Namely, the engine currently does not offer sufficient control over mouth shapes, the relative speed and intensity of signs in a sentence (prosody), and transitions between signs. These limitations need to be overcome in future work for the engine to become usable in practice.
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from the article: "In the Netherlands, housing corporations are increasingly adopting self-service technologies (SSTs) to support affairs their tenants need to arrange. The purpose of the study is to examine the customers’ motivations of using SSTs in the context of the Dutch public housing sector. An empirical investigation is presented based on a sample of 1,209 tenants. Using partial least squares (PLS), the acceptance model of Blut, Wang, and Schoefer is adopted and tested. The results show that especially the need for interaction negatively influence the adoption of SSTs by tenants. Positively, subjective norm and self-efficacy influence the adoption. Furthermore, playfulness negatively influences this adoption. Developers of SSTs should focus on its ulitalitarian function, rather then invest in its playfulness. Moreover, adoption is propelled by the encouragement of others. This can be enhanced by positive word-of mouth and should therefore stimulated."
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