BackgroundPerson-centered care is a holistic and integrative approach designed to maintain well-being and quality of life for people with dementia, and it includes the elements of care, the individual, the carers, and the family.AimA systematic literature review and meta-analysis were undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of person-centered care for people with dementia.MethodsLiterature searches were undertaken using six databases including Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database, and KoreaMed using the following keywords: cognition disorder, dementia, person-centered care, patient-centered care, client-centered care, relationship-centered care, and dementia care. The searches were limited to interventional studies written in English and Korean and included randomized controlled studies and noncontrolled studies for people with dementia living in any setting.ResultsNineteen interventional studies, including 3,985 participants, were identified. Of these, 17 studies were from long-term care facilities and two studies were from homecare settings. The pooled data from randomized controlled studies favored person-centered care in reducing agitation, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and depression and improving the quality of life. Subgroup analysis identified greater effectiveness of person-centered care when implemented for people with less severe dementia. For agitation, short-term interventions had a greater effect (standardized mean difference [SMD]: −0.434; 95% conference interval [CI]: −0.701 to −0.166) than long-term interventions (SMD: −0.098; 95% CI: −0.190 to 0.007). Individualized activities resulted in a significantly greater beneficial effect than standard care (SMD: 0.513; 95% CI: −0.994 to −0.032). However, long-term, staff education, and cultural change interventions had a greater effect on improving the quality of life for people with dementia (SMD: 0.191; 95% CI: 0.079 to 0.302).ConclusionThis systematic review and meta-analysis provided evidence for person-centered care in clinical practice for people with dementia. Person-centered care interventions were shown to reduce agitation, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and depression and to improve the quality of life. Person-centered care interventions can effectively reduce agitation for a short term using intensive and activity-based intervention. However, an educational strategy that promotes learning and skill development of internal care staff is needed to enhance patient’s quality of life and to ensure the sustainability of the effects of behavioral problems. The feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention, the severity of patient disease, and intervention type and duration should be considered as part of an intervention design.

Silicon nanowires (NWs) could enable low-cost and efficient photovoltaics, though their performance has been limited by nonideal electrical characteristics and an inability to tune absorption properties. We overcome these limitations through controlled synthesis of a series of polymorphic core/multishell NWs with highly crystalline, hexagonally-faceted shells, and well-defined coaxial p-type∕ n-type (p∕n) and p∕intrinsic∕n (p∕i∕n) diode junctions. Designed 200-300 nm diameter p∕i∕n NW diodes exhibit ultralow leakage currents of approximately 1 fA, and open-circuit voltages and fillfactors up to 0.5 V and 73%, respectively, under one-sun illumination. Single-NW wavelength-dependent photocurrent measurements reveal size-tunable optical resonances, external quantum efficiencies greater than unity, and current densities double those for silicon films of comparable thickness. In addition, finite-difference-time-domain simulations for the measured NW structures agree quantitatively with the photocurrent measurements, and demonstrate that the optical resonances are due to Fabry-Perot and whispering-gallery cavity modes supported in the high-quality faceted nanostructures. Synthetically optimized NW devices achieve current densities of 17 mA∕cm 2 and power-conversion efficiencies of 6%. Horizontal integration of multiple NWs demonstrates linear scaling of the absolute photocurrent with number of NWs, as well as retention of the high open-circuit voltages and short-circuit current densities measured for single NW devices. Notably, assembly of 2 NW elements into vertical stacks yields short-circuit current densities of 25 mA∕cm 2 with a backside reflector, and simulations further show that such stacking represents an attractive approach for further enhancing performance with projected efficiencies of >15% for 1.2 μm thick 5 NW stacks.nanodevices | nanomaterials | nanophotonics | optical nanocavities | solar cells N anostructures and nanostructured materials may enable next-generation solar cells by providing for efficient charge separation (1-16) and tunable optical absorption (11,(17)(18)(19). Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have exhibited promising efficiencies as single NW photovoltaic elements (8)(9)(10)(11)(20)(21)(22) and as vertical arrays configured as photovoltaic (23-26) and photoelectrochemical (27, 28) solar cells, where the vertical array has been used to enhance light absorption (29). In the case of Si-based nanostructures, where Si photovoltaics represent benchmark systems with attractive material abundance and cost (30), the efficiency of NW devices has typically been limited by poor electrical performance and lack of tunable control of absorption properties at specific and broadband wavelengths. For example, previous reports of coaxial (8) and axially modulated (9) p-i-n single-NW photovoltaic devices yielded open-circuit voltages (V OC ) below 0.29 V, and, for coaxial devices, large leakage currents >1 pA. Furthermore, to accurately identify potentially unique absorption modes through photocurrent spectra ...

We report the experimental demonstration of an optically pumped silver-nanopan plasmonic laser with a subwavelength mode volume of 0.56(lambda/2n)(3). The lasing mode is clearly identified as a whispering-gallery plasmonic mode confined at the bottom of the silver nanopan from measurements of the spectrum, mode image, and polarization state, as well as agreement with numerical simulations. In addition, the significant temperature-dependent lasing threshold of the plasmonic mode contrasts and distinguishes them from optical modes. Our demonstration and understanding of these subwavelength plasmonic lasers represent a significant step toward faster, smaller coherent light sources.

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