Mental Comfort Research Articles

A Study on the Role of Gardening and Planning of Green Environments for Daily Use by Residents in Senior Housing

This study examines and analyzes the current state of gardening facilities for residents in 11 senior citizen housing complexes and their understandings, actual gardening behaviors and their effects. The objective is to suggest a direction for the planning of gardening and its spatial composition in senior housing complexes. The study used surveys and interviews and conducted field visits to examine actual gardening facilities. The study produced the following outcomes.1) Elderly people had high expectations that gardening would bring them ′mental comfort and physical health′. Though they are experiencing mental comfort, direct effects on physical health were not seen.2) The common gardening space provided by the facilities subject to the research, were small in size compared to the number of residents and it was inconvenient since it did not take into consideration the characteristics of the gardening activities.3) Elderly people found that gardening encouraged social interactions with other residents and enriched their daily lives.4) Residents in senior housing complexes chose places as gardening spaces that are close to their flats, in particular their living rooms and on the same level for easy horizontal access. From the result of this research, it was clear that diverse gardening space should be provided for the residents to choose and freely express their individual characteristics. In addition, instead of providing a dedicated gardening space, a multipurpose area that could also be used for diverse hobbies was more practical.

What If Patients With Dementia Use Decision Aids to Make an Advance Euthanasia Request?

Levi and Green (2010) successfully argue that the computerbased decision aid Making Your Wishes Known is an optimal instrument to ensure that a patient’s wishes concerning endof-life-care can be known and respected as much as possible. We agree that such an instrument can improve the quality of end-of-life care to an important extent. It can offer people real mental comfort, by allowing them to retain control of their end-of-life care, even after they have lost their decisionmaking capacity (Widdershoven and Berghmans 2001). Suppose, however, that Mrs. Klinger, the 78-year-old lady diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (Levi and Green 2010), lives in Amsterdam and uses the decision aid to develop an advance euthanasia directive. This could be a real-life possibility, since in the Netherlands, euthanasia in persons with severe dementia, as decreed in an advance euthanasia directive, is legally allowed. In such cases, life can be terminated (by administration of lethal drugs) when the dementia reaches a certain stage. In Belgium, bills have been put forward in the Parliament to follow the Dutch example. In this paper we point out what we believe are three pressing problems with the use of the decision aid in order to develop advance euthanasia directives.

Socially Acceptable Pre-collision Safety Strategies for Human-Compliant Navigation of Service Robots

The human-symbiotic service robot raises new safety issues for autonomous navigation in the presence of people. Traditional obstacle-avoidance algorithms that do not differentiate between people and other objects in the environment may fail to secure human safety in both physical and mental aspects. In this paper, a framework for designing active and human-compliant navigation behaviors is proposed, in which a set of safety strategies is put forward to guarantee human physical safety and mental comfort. Based on a questionnaire study, several important pre-collision safety criteria are selected according to the subjects' interpretation in terms of social acceptability. These criteria are characterized quantitively and computed before being integrated into a unified cost grid for safe motion control. These safety strategies not only explore collision-free paths, but also incorporate social conventions into robot navigational behaviors, which will significantly improves humans' safety feeling, regarding the robot's understandable, predictable and polite behaviors. Moreover, a human-compliant robot navigation system for home-care applications is implemented and described in detail. By utilizing the system, a series of experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the method in producing safe and friendly behaviors in different scenarios. The results of the navigation experiments and the human–robot interaction trials validate the effectiveness of the proposed method as well as the participants' subjective preference to the proposed human-compliant navigational behaviors.

Abstract #6: The Combined Effects of Sciemed Flex™ and Brain Function Sqautemetry on Memory and Entrapment Neuropathy: A Neuroendocrinologic Concept Study

Introduction Sciemed Flex™ is a neuroendocrinologic-osteologic supplementary drug designed to promote mental health, systemic comfort, and joint flexibilities. Its formulatory ingredients are MSM (Methylsulfonalmethane), glucosamine Hcl, Chondroitin, manganese sulfate, Piper methysticum extract, totaling 1235 mg altogether, and Ascorbic acid 6 mg (100% DV) as the proprietary blend, with excepients of Calcium phosphate, maltodextrin, cellulose, extra refined vegetable oil, PEG 8000, and glycerol monostearate. Entrapment neuropathy is any mechanically induced irritative/inflammatory disorder that occurs within the neuromuscular anatomical landmarks that clinically manifest tingling, compressive pain, muscular weakness, paresthesias, etc. Entrpament neuropathy characterizes neuroendocrinologic deficits due to its compressive-inflammatory affections to the bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and behavioral trends, etc. It obstructs blood flow, electrolytes, and neuropeptic functions, thereby inducing abnormal homeostasis, hypo or hypertonic metabolism, and painful mood swings. BrainFun™ Squatemetry is a cognitive profiling and therapeutic device that measures the short time, long time, calculative, abstract memories, etc. Method A total of 20 normal persons and 60 patients duly diagnosed routinely and with specialists investigations of x-ray, MRI, ECG, EEG, blood samples were studied. Orthopeadic and neurological examinations, respectively, were studied double blindly under four groups of 20 each, namely normasq, Entrap, Entrapflex, and Entrapflexsq. Sciemed flex tab 1 × 3 daily was given to the third and fourth groups only. Placebo 1 × 3 daily for 30 days was given to the normasq and Entrap groups. BrainFun™ Sqautemetry and physical therapy 3× weekly for 30 days applied to all. Altogether this study is for 90 days, with the second 30 days as recovery follow-up period. It is still ongoing. Pain assessment psychometry was used to infer neuralgia status. Result The Entrapflexsq group showed quicker recovery rate and better cognitive prospective orientations than all. The Entrapflex group improved more than the Entrap group, while the normasq group showed better cognitive prospective orientation than the Entrap group and measured slightly above Entrapflex. Conclusion This result demonstrates that the combination of Sciemed flex tablets, BrainFun™ Sqautemetry, and physical therapy promote mental health, entrapment release, joint flexibility, and general well being, and shows that pain inhibits cognition.

Development of Physical and Mental Comfort Fiber Products "Mental Balance"

Development of Physical and Mental Comfort Fiber Products "Mental Balance"

William S. Burroughs's Phantasmic Geography

tW~ # illiam S. Burroughs's fictions abrade humanist sensibilities and frustrate the impulse to seek meaning. Readers not totally alienated from their culture must struggle to understand his values. Are his orgasmic hanging scenes protests against capital punishment, snuff porn, or signs of obsession, and are they sadistic or masochistic? What difference does the answer make to the impact of the novel? The subject matter undermines mental comfort. Could an itch the reader just scratched turn into a contagious erogenous pustule whose pearly fluids produce luminescent ulcerations? How can we organize our reading experience if Burroughs refuses to indulge us with characters, plots, or systematically developed ideas? do not presume to impose 'story' 'plot' 'continuity.'... I am not an entertainer (Naked Lunch 221). Some readers are content with exposing their minds to the collage of vivid images in hopes of resonant juxtapositions. Some, like Burroughs himself, value the eruption of the unpredictable into their pre-recorded lives (Miles 253). Those wishing to structure their experience, however, will be drawn to the ostentatious repetitions, especially if they read several of these novels. Burroughs's sequences are dreamlike and indeed based on dreams, so repetition seems a suitable place to start seeking significance.1 Given Burroughs's view

Conflicts in School

The conclusion that conflict has saturated our whole society needs no argument. Moreover, the institution known as the school has not escaped it either. It is no exaggeration to say that conflicts of varying intensity are characteristic of most of the schools of Russia. Inasmuch as the pedagogical sphere comprises an aggregate of all types of goal-oriented socialization of the individual, and its essence is the effort to transmit and assimilate social experience, favorable social and psychological conditions are essential to ensure the mental comfort of teachers, students, and parents.

Conflicts in School

The conclusion that conflict has saturated our whole society needs no argument. Moreover, the institution known as the school has not escaped it either. It is no exaggeration to say that conflicts of varying intensity are characteristic of most of the schools of Russia. Inasmuch as the pedagogical sphere comprises an aggregate of all types of goal-oriented socialization of the individual, and its essence is the effort to transmit and assimilate social experience, favorable social and psychological conditions are essential to ensure the mental comfort of teachers, students, and parents.

Water-Wave Sound as a Comfort Factor in Coastal Environment

Natural environment should be effectively preserved from destruction in waterfront development. This study deals with the sound of water waves which constitutes one of the indexes of comfort in coastal areas. The listening test with both the artificial sound with pink noise spectra and the sound of actual water waves at Tokushima coasts was carried out to evaluate the mental comfort as to three sound-wave properties of timbre, rhythm and period. In concl usi on, we found the characteristics of the most comfortable sound of water waves; especially, the sound of water waves with the period range of 6-8 seconds was felt most pleasant.

Age and toxicopathy--Vaud 1977-1978

Recent work on principles of pleasure and on endogenous opioïd system enlightens some regulations of mental comfort and of homeostasis of the nervous system. From this point of view, the choice of specific drugs, during the first months of their use, would give an indirect picture of the troubles which caused initially the use of these substances. The present study discloses, behind the apparent anarchy of mono- and polytoxicopathies, some constant relations between age and sex of drug-users and specific choice of drugs.

Gout and Achievement

To the Editor.— The letter from Norman Sher, MD (243:1711, 1980), might give some small mental comfort to gout sufferers. Unfortunately, the evidence that gout is associated with exceptional achievement is scanty and hardly acceptable at a scientific level. One might equally argue that since uric acid is a risk factor in coronary disease, it is responsible for the great achievement in sufferers from this disease. A large number of prominent people also have been shown to suffer from cancer of the lung, peptic ulcer, constipation, brain tumors, and athlete's foot. When enough anecdotes about a condition exist, one suspects that there might be a scintilla of truth underneath. To confirm the relationship between achievement and gout, one would have to take a large population at random—for instance, large population of a community—and independently determine achievement and the existence of gout or preferably uric acid levels. If there turned out to

Improving Productivity in Hot Weather at Remote Areas

On remote sites with hot weather climate prevailing, productivity has been typically less than in more temperate zones. This is attributed to a variety of reasons not the least of which is management. In hot weather we must, if not eliminate the conditions that deter productivity, at least improve upon them. Working comfort and mental comfort, together with good supervision, is recommended as the solution. Developing and improving methods, techniques, and job conditions are influential on better productivity. Incorporation of good management, trained or experienced workers, and timely delivery of all elements to complete the project will produce good productivity.

Psychiatric ratings in occupational health research: a study of mental symptoms in lacquerers.

Most previous occupational health studies have employed various questionnaires for the quantitative assessment of mental symptoms. However, reporters' errors may reduce the value of the information so obtained. Semistructured psychiatric interviews and rating scales offer another method to collect data on the prevalence of mental symptoms. This paper describes the application of rating techniques in an epidemiological study of the effect on the nervous system of occupational exposure to organic solvents. The results suggest that ratings by trained interviewers are as useful as many neurophysiological and psychometrical methods to detect early neurotoxicity. The contention agrees with a general opinion that slight changes in mental comfort and personality often are the first signs of progressive brain damage.

Search of futuristic principles for the concept of the medical center for young people

The article emphasizes the role of architecture in creating an atmosphere of mental comfort and its positive impact on human health. Futurological tendencies of the organization of the medical space in the medical facilities of the future are analyzed taking into account the views of students.

Gesundeit und Leistungsfahigkeit im Kindes- und Jugendalter

This book constitutes a valuable contribution to the problems of physical fitness of today's children and adolescents. According to the World Health Organization's definition, "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social comfort." The authors proceed to prove in a series of interesting statistical, sociologic and physiological studies, why the general state of health of West Germany's youth falls short of this goal. In spite of the great reduction of infant mortality and the increase of general life-expectancy in the past 80 years, the situation of the child in modern society is considered to be unsatisfactory. One third of the West German population lives in big cities, believed to create a hostile environment to children, i.e. lack of security and "Lebensraum."

Attitude control — I

THE PROBLEM of attitude control exists to a certain extent with all kinds of vehicles, missiles, and projectiles. Attitude control is necessary or desirable for at least the following reasons: 1. To provide mental and physical comfort for passengers. 2. To provide proper environment and positioning to allow instrumentation to function. 3. To provide proper alignment for lift surfaces and thrust vectors.

The religious element in Mau Mau

The Mau Mau leaders were very fully aware that the Kikuyu are by nature an intensely religious people, who could not do without a religion of some sort—people who needed the mental comfort of a “belief”. They knew too that among their own people there were hundreds of thousands who had lost all faith in the religion of their ancestors but who had never accepted Christianity except in a nominal way. The failure of so many to accept Christianity in a deep and real sense arose from the fact that the Christian mission churches had not been content to teach only the simple teaching of Christ but had added to them much that was not in the New Testament, but which was the doctrine of the particular mission or Christian sect to which they belonged. Nevertheless, these tens of thousands of nominal Christians were people who were well acquainted with the outward forms of Christian worship and who had attended church services, so the pattern was a useful one to use. This was more particularly so since this was also the pattern used by the separatist African churches which existed in the tribe, churches which were linked with the Independent Schools movement. And so the outward patterns of Christianity, hymn-singing, formal prayers, sermons, and the recitation of a creed, were adopted as the foundations of the Mau Mau religion, which was to draw the Kikuyu to the political cause of the K.C.A.

PRE-FRONTAL LOBOTOMY

The 15 cases reported range in age from 16 to 62, and presented a wide variety of symptoms, from apparent psychotic deterioration to a chronic but non-psychotic tension state. These patients were all considered to have a hopeless prognosis and most of them had been in hospital for many years, one continuously for 18 years. All but 4 had received one or more forms of shock treatment. The first lobotomy operation of the series was performed April 1, 1942, the last on January 28, 1944; hence the report cannot deal with end-results. However, the first patient is gainfully employed for the first time in his life, but has had a convulsive seizure; 5 of the others are with their families, comfortable and socially acceptable; one of them doing regular housework. One patient is attending a special school. The rest are still in hospital but one of them has freedom of the grounds, not possible before, and makes day-visits away from the hospital. None of the 15, so far, was made worse, and all showed some degree of improvement. Two aged patients, not included in this series, died of post-operative hypostatic pneumonia. Each patient's history is presented as a graph representing onset of illness, the time of hospital residence, and the patient's status in the categories of mental comfort, social acceptability, and capacity for work, before and after lobotomy. (Only 5 representative graphs are reproduced here.) The technique of the operation, its dangers, and the anatomical considerations involved are briefly discussed. It is suggested that anxiety may be an important common factor in a wide variety of syndromes, allayed by lobotomy; and that the operation may intervene to modify the physical basis for a pathogenic degree of "cerebrotonia." In some cases, edema and/or tenderness and blister formation appeared during the month following lobotomy, and is thought to be a trophic disturbance of central origin. There has also been transient diuresis with low specific gravity, in connection with prolonged or periodic enuresis.

Phantastica, Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs: Their Use and Abuse.

The term "phantastica" has been chosen by the author to cover those drugs which, by direct action on the brain, release stores of its latent energy. "They relieve the mentally tortured, assuage the racking pains of the sick, inspire with hope those doomed to death, endow the overworked with new vitality and vigor, such as no strength of will could attain, and replace for an hour its exhaustion and languor of the overworked by mental comfort and content." No wonder there is no race of human beings on earth that does not make use of one or the other of these drugs. These agents are of profound interest and there are few authors better fitted to present this subject to the general reading circle than the pharmacologist Lewin, who has taken a special interest in the study of these drugs. Though Lewin would like to make the term "phantastica" cover

X-ray Treatment of Bone Metastasis

ALL investigators agree that the best treatment of malignancy now known is early and complete removal when this is possible. Since this is, every so often, impossible, many other methods of treatment have been devised. Of all the therapeutic measures, other than surgery, which have been tried, such as caustic pastes, active cautery, various sera, etc., radiation in the form of X-ray and radium has taken an outstanding place and seems to offer the most hope. It has proved so efficacious in skin cancer that it effects real cures in more than 90 per cent of the cases, when given fairly early and in sufficient dosage. The cure of deep-seated cancers by radiation has not yet been solved. The combination of radiation with surgery gives from 25 to 30 per cent better results in all types of cases than surgery alone, according to the statistics of various clinics (1). Medicine should relieve suffering, both mental and physical. Radiation surely gives relief from pain, together with hope and mental comfort to many of these unfortunate sufferers, ever increasing in number, even though it may not produce permanent cures. In 1916, Pfahler, of Philadelphia (2), first reported cases in which, following radiation therapy, bone destroyed by metastatic carcinoma recalcified, with corresponding clinical improvement. A few similar cases have been reported since. I believe it is well to re-emphasize this effect of radiation. My experience with metastatic carcinoma in bone either from breast, prostate, or other source, includes 50 cases. In analyzing the results, I have satisfied myself that, although this treatment does not cure, it prolongs life and relieves the sufferers of their pain to a surprising extent and often makes them able to enjoy life and participate in the activities of their home or even their business to such an extent that they feel the X-ray treatment has put them on their feet again. Out of this group of 50 cases I want to present to you a few as examples. All of these patients were in the Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago. Case Reports Case 1. Mrs. G. T. was referred by Dr. D. B. Phemister. Tuberculous glands of the neck had been removed when the patient was 17 years of age, and again when she was 21 years old. When she was 36 years old her right breast was removed for carcinoma, proved microscopically. Six years later, that is, in 1924, she complained of severe pain in the left shoulder, at which time X-ray examination showed destruction of the head of the humerus, undoubtedly a metastasis (Fig. 1-A). After two months of X-ray treatment, a film showed evidence of calcification. Subsequent films showed rapidly increasing sclerosis in the involved area (Figs. 1-B and 1-C). The patient's pain disappeared and she was able to use her arm normally; for instance, she could drive her car, can fruit, and sweep the floor. Two and one-half years later, February, 1927, a roentgen film and clinical examination showed persistence of this good result (Fig. 1-D).