This study suggests that although both mindfulness meditation and relaxation therapy are effective in the management of tinnitus, mindfulness meditation is superior to relaxation therapy.

Abstract-Subharmonic generation from ultrasound contrast agents depends on the spectral and temporal properties of the excitation signal. The subharmonic response can be improved by using wideband and long duration signals. However, for sinusoidal tone-burst excitation the effective bandwidth of the signal is inversely proportional with the signal duration. Linear frequency modulated (LFM) and nonlinear frequency modulated (NLFM) chirp excitations allow independent control over the signal bandwidth and duration, therefore in this study LFM and NLFM signals were used for the insonation of microbubble populations. The amplitude modulation of the excitation waveform was achieved by applying different window functions. A customized window was designed for the NLFM chirp excitation by focusing on reducing the spectral leakage at the subharmonic frequency and increasing the subharmonic generation from microbubbles.Subharmonic scattering from a microbubble population was measured for various excitation signals and window functions. At a peak-negative pressure of 600 kPa, the generated subharmonic energy by ultrasound contrast agents was 15.4 dB more for NLFM chirp excitation with 40% fractional bandwidth when compared to tone-burst excitation. For this reason, the NLFM chirp with a customized window was used as an excitation signal to perform subharmonic imaging in an ultrasound flow phantom. Results showed that the NLFM waveform with a customized window improved the subharmonic contrast by 4.35 ± 0.42 dB on average over a Hann windowed LFM excitation.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is shown to be effective in many psychiatric illnesses, but its distorted projection by the Pakistani media and its unregulated use by many physicians across the country have adversely affected its acceptability. Given this situation we aimed to assess the awareness and perceptions regarding ECT as a treatment modality among the psychiatric patients.

There was a considerable discord in opinion about abortion in the study population. Health care providers should involve both parents in making decisions about abortions and counsel them adequately about congenital disorders.

Despite the ubiquitous use over the past 150 years, the functions of the current medical needle are facilitated only by mechanical shear and cutting by the needle tip, i.e. the lancet. In this study, we demonstrate how nonlinear ultrasonics (NLU) extends the functionality of the medical needle far beyond its present capability. The NLU actions were found to be localized to the proximity of the needle tip, the SonoLancet, but the effects extend to several millimeters from the physical needle boundary. The observed nonlinear phenomena, transient cavitation, fluid streams, translation of micro- and nanoparticles and atomization, were quantitatively characterized. In the fine-needle biopsy application, the SonoLancet contributed to obtaining tissue cores with an increase in tissue yield by 3–6× in different tissue types compared to conventional needle biopsy technique using the same 21G needle. In conclusion, the SonoLancet could be of interest to several other medical applications, including drug or gene delivery, cell modulation, and minimally invasive surgical procedures.