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Biomedical subjects

C Mory

Publications and source records attributed to C Mory.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

A public software for energy filtering transmission electron tomography (EFTET-J): application to the study of granular inclusions in bacteria from Riftia pachyptila.

Energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) allows the determination of elemental distributions out of a sequence of energy filtered images. Combined with electron tomography, EFTEM is a powerful tool to obtain three-dimensional chemical maps from sub-cellular structures. However, there is no existing software in the public-domain for the computation and analysis of 3D-chemical maps. Here, we present a Java-based program to compute 3D-elemental distribution. This program is available as a set of plug-ins for the public-domain Java image processing program Image J inspired by NIH Image. Its implemented algorithms have been successfully applied to the three-dimensional localization of iron granules in semi thin (200 nm) epon sections from the vent worm Riftia pachyptalia.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2002

[Financial burden on spouses of patients suffering from schizophrenia, depression or anxiety disorder].

The aim of this study was to compare financial burden of spouses, whose relative suffers from schizophrenia, depression or anxiety disorder. 151 spouses filled in the questionnaire about illness related expenses and financial loss. Additionally they estimate their subjective burden according to these experienced costs. Direct cash expenditures on behalf of the patients' illness were reported by 66 % spouses. In the sampling the amount of spent money did not differ statistically, however spouses of patients with anxiety disorder emphasised experiencing financial strain and described more often subjective economic disadvantages. Although most spouses of patients with psychiatric disorders experience illness related financial disadvantages, these costs were usually not considered as serious problem or as burdensome. Based on a subjective hierarchy of burdens financial problems can be regarded as less important for spouses of patients with mental illness. Thus, not only the material, but also the immaterial costs of care giving spouses should be taken into consideration when planning health policy decisions.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

[Does caring for a schizophrenic family member increase the risk of becoming ill? Psychological and psychosomatic troubles in caregivers of Schizophrenia patients].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent caregivers of schizophrenia patients suffer from psychiatric and psychosomatic symptoms themselves; furthermore, whether there are differences between parents and spouses. METHOD: 51 parents and 52 spouses of people with schizophrenia were interviewed regarding psychiatric and psychosomatic troubles using standardized questionnaires and diagnostic methods. RESULTS: A considerably increased prevalence of depressive disorders was found compared to the level in the general population. As well as mothers and wives, caregivers of patients with severe impairments of psycho-social functioning were particularly affected. The severity of the patient's disease and the caregiver's mental problems are significant predictors of psychosomatic complaints in parents and spouses. In addition, caregivers visit physicians more frequently, in particular family doctors, psychiatrists and psychotherapists. DISCUSSION: The results support the hypothesis that the burden carried by caregivers of severely affected schizophrenia patients increases their risk of becoming ill, which, as a consequence, leads to a greater use of medical resources. Specific offers of health care and advice on preventative measures appear to be necessary in order to preclude health impairments to caregivers as early as possible.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

[European standardization and German language adaptation of scales for collection of outcomes and costs of treatment for patients with severe mental disorders].

For the evaluation of the effectiveness of psychiatric service systems internationally standardised instruments for the assessment of the outcome and the costs of psychiatric and psychosocial treatment and care are increasingly needed. Beside the measurement of objective facts there is a growing importance of the consideration of the subjective perspective of patients and relatives. In the research project "Cost-effectiveness analysis of psychiatric service systems in the European comparison" of the Research association for Public Health in Saxony, developments were worked out, in close cooperation with the BIOMED-2 project "European Psychiatric Services: Inputs Linked to Outcome Domains and Needs", German versions of five European standardized instruments for the assessment of needs for care, treatment satisfaction, burden of care on relatives, quality of life and service costs. The psychometric properties of the instruments were tested within the framework of a longitudinal study with 307 patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. As a result of this study, German versions of all relevant European instruments for psychiatric service evaluation are now available.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2001

[Instruments for the economical evaluation of psychiatric service systems: methodological foundations of the European standardisation and the German adaptation].

OBJECTIVE: In the project "Cost-effectiveness of psychiatric service systems. A European comparison" a German version of instruments for the assessment of needs for services (CAN-EU), service satisfaction (VSSS-EU) relatives' burden of care (IEQ-EU) and costs of psychiatric services (CSSRI-EU) was developed in close cooperation with the EPSILON Study group. METHOD: The English original versions of the instruments were translated into German and a back-translation into the original language was carried out by a second translator. The back-translation was screened by the first author of the original version. The German versions of all instruments were tested for comprehensibility and practicability by means of focus groups. The internal consistency of all instruments were tested on a representative sample of 307 patients with schizophrenia according to ICD-10 F20. Test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability was tested by a sub-sample of 50 patients. RESULTS: Psychometric properties of the translated instruments will be presented and discussed. CONCLUSIONS: Statistical methods for the assessment of the reliability coefficients were identical with those of the EPSILON study, therefore the psychometric properties of the German version of the CAN-EU are directly comparable with the other European versions of the instrument.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

[The standardized assessment of the need for treatment and support in severe mental illness: the development and testing of the German version of the Camberwell assessment of Need-EU].

OBJECTIVE: The development and the psychometric testing of the German version of the Camberwell Assessment of Need-EU will be presented. METHOD: The internal consistency of the subscales total needs, met needs and unmet needs was tested by the application of the CAN-EU on a representative sample of 307 patients with schizophrenia according to ICD-10 F20.0. Test-retest-reliability and inter-rater-reliability was tested with a sub-sample of 41 patients. RESULTS: The internal consistency and the test-retest-reliability of the German version of the CAN-EU is satisfying and slightly higher in comparison with the other European versions. The inter-rater-reliability is also satisfying but smaller in comparison with the other European versions. CONCLUSIONS: In general, the psychometric properties of the German version of the CAN-EU are satisfying but the lower inter-rater-reliability in comparison with the other European versions suggests that more precise coding rules for the German version of the CAN-EU must be formulated to improve the inter-rater agreement of the instrument.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

[German adaptation of the client sociodemographic and service receipt inventory - an instrument for the cost of mental health care].

AIM: Psychiatric health services research has to consider health economic points of view more than before as a result of the present-day financial problems in our health care system. Therefore an instrument was developed, which is suitable for the evaluation of cost of mental health care in Germany. METHOD: The Client Sociodemographic and Service Receipt Inventory (CSSRI-EU), which was developed in the UK, was adapted to the German situation and for the first time used in a cost-effectiveness-analysis of mental health care. The adaptation process of the instrument and the practical application are explained and pros and cons considered. RESULTS: The German adaptation of the CSSRI-EU has proven effective in practical application. The instrument offers feasible solutions for many problems with the cost of mental health care. The instrument can be used for the calculation of direct and indirect costs and gives information about service utilization and medication profiles of the clients. CONCLUSION: The German adaptation of the CSSRI-EU is a feasible instrument for the evaluation of the cost of mental health care in Germany.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2001

[The German adaptation of the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale: an instrument for patients' satisfaction with mental health care].

UNLABELLED: The German Adaptation of the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale: An Instrument for Patients' Satisfaction with Mental Health Care. AIM: Measuring effectiveness and quality of care became an important topic in psychiatry. Considering that objective criteria were not sufficient in the past, the subjective perspective gained growing interest. Client satisfaction is an important variable to evaluate psychiatric care. Patient satisfaction can influence treatment outcome as well as it determines the psychiatric system itself. METHOD: The Italian original version of the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS-54) was translated and adapted to the German language. The instrument has been tested in the project "Cost-effectiveness of psychiatric service systems". The process of development, the psychometric testing and the practical application of the German version will be presented in this paper. Additional advantages and disadvantages are discussed. RESULTS: As psychometric properties of the instrument correspond to conventional standards, they are comparable with the results of an international study. The drop out of items cannot be controlled, therefore analysing the data is difficult. CONCLUSION: Although the VSSS shows various methodological limitations, it is at the moment an appropriate instrument for measuring patient satisfaction in the German language.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2001

[The assessment of burden on relatives of mentally ill people: the German version of the involvement evaluation questionnaire (IEQ-EU)].

AIMS: The German Version of the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ-EU), developed for the assessment of burden on relatives of mentally ill people will be presented. Also the results of the reliability analysis will be presented. METHOD: After translation and adaptation of the Dutch version of the IEQ-EU into German, the instrument was tested in the study "Cost-effectiveness of psychiatric service systems". RESULTS: The internal consistency was tested on a sub-sample of 138 relatives and the Test-Retest-Reliability on a sub-sample of 37 relatives. The internal consistency (Cronbachs alpha) is moderate or good and slightly lower in comparison with the other European versions. With the exception of one subscale the results for the intraclass correlation coefficient are equal to the European versions. CONCLUSIONS: The IEQ-EU is an instrument with moderate or good psychometric properties. It covers all important domains, is easy to understand and not time-consuming.

Caregivers↗
PubMed2001

[The analysis of the cost structures of the treatment of schizophrenia by means of standardized assessment instruments].

OBJECTIVE: Aims of the study are the analysis oft the structures and influence factors causing direct costs of schizophrenic diseases by means of international standardized assessment instruments. METHOD: Annual costs of treatment were assessed for a sample of 258 patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20) by means of the German version of the CSSRI. For the analysis of cost variance a regression model was computed using functional level (GAF), symptoms (BPRS 4.0), needs for care (CAN), service satisfaction (VSSS) and subjective quality of life (LQoLP) as predictors. RESULTS: The average yearly treatment costs for the study sample were 12 726,- DM. Costs for sheltered accommodation and for psychiatric inpatient treatment were found to be the largest elements of the entire costs followed by the costs for ambulant medications. Results of the regression analysis show that illness history, the severity of symptoms and the need for care explain the greatest proportion of variance. CONCLUSIONS: The standardized instruments developed in the project enable a systematic and international comparable assessment of the costs in the treatment of schizophrenic diseases. Furthermore the instruments allow to explain 38 % of the cost variance. The impact of the severity of symptoms under statistical control of the functional impairment and the needs for care suggests that an effective reduction of symptoms could lead to savings in the entire treatment costs. However, the great influence of the illness history and, irrespective of the functional impairment, the need for care show that the possibilities for cost savings in the treatment of schizophrenia are generally low.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Element-selective single atom imaging.

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) is widely used to identify elemental compositions of materials studied by microscopy. We demonstrate that the sensitivity and spatial resolution of EELS can be extended to the single-atom limit. A chemical map for gadolinium (Gd) clearly reveals the distribution of Gd atoms inside a single chain of metallofullerene molecules (Gd@C82) generated within a single-wall carbon nanotube. This characterization technique thus provides the "eyes" to see and identify individual atoms in nanostructures. It is likely to find broad application in nanoscale science and technology research.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1994

Scanning transmission electron microscopy of biological structures.

The design of the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) has been conceived to optimize its detection efficiency of the different elastic and inelastic signals resulting from the interaction of the high energy primary electrons with the specimen. Its potential use to visualize and measure biological objects was recognized from the first studies by Crewe and coworkers in the seventies. Later the real applications have not followed the initial hopes. The purpose of the present paper is to describe how the instrument has practically evolved and recently begun to demonstrate all its potentialities for quantitative electron microscopy of a wide range of biological specimens, from freeze-dried isolated macromolecules to unstained cryosections. Emphasis will be put on the mass-mapping, multi-signal and elemental mapping modes which are unique features of the STEM instruments.

Bacteriophage T4↗
PubMed1991

Elemental analysis and fine structure of mitochondrial granules in growth plate chondrocytes studied by electron energy loss spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.

Electron energy loss spectrometry--EELS, and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis--XRMA, were used to study the elemental composition of mitochondrial dense granules-mdg. The study was performed on dry cut thin sections (80-200 nm) of freeze-dried and low temperature embedded cartilage. Results obtained by means of XRMA clearly showed high phosphorus and calcium content in the mdg. Using EELS at 100 kV primary voltage we found that small concentrations of elements (i.e. below typically 1% atomic weight) are difficult to analyze and map, this especially in sections thicker than 50-60 nm. Surprisingly, analysis of calcium can be successfully performed on thicker sections though the edge lies above the carbon K edge while this is not possible for the phosphorus edge which is located at lower energies. This is likely due to the edge shapes (sharp for calcium and delayed for phosphorus), and to the more intense contribution of multiple low loss scattering in the background for phosphorus between 100 and 130 eV. By means of EELS elemental mapping a centrally located core was found in numerous mdg. In the calcium map the signal was strongest in the middle of mdg which corresponds to the area of reduced carbon signal. We found that carbon maps might be used for high resolution structural studies of chemically unfixed and anhydrously processed biological tissues. As carbon is the main constituent of Lowicryl resin its distribution is reversed to the distribution of biological tissue in which the proportion of carbon is lower, but is proportional to water content in the specimen in vivo. Use of EELS in combination with electron microscope with accelerating voltages in range of 140-200 kV together with anhydrous techniques of the tissue preparation will provide a new type of information which might lead to better understanding of the etiology and function of small structures in the cell.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

EELS elemental mapping with unconventional methods. II. Applications to biological specimens.

This article presents two applications of image analysis and processing using the unconventional methods described in the companion paper (part I). Both the information analysis via relative entropy measurement and mapping and the factorial analysis of correspondence are demonstrated to be valuable tools for building an elemental map from a set of noisy energy-filtered images recorded in an analytical transmission electron microscope. Although the only technique considered here is electron energy loss spectroscopy, there is no doubt that such methods can be applied to a wide variety of similar problems: only a reduced number of underlying hypotheses are needed.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1989

Energy filtered STEM imaging of thick biological sections.

Energy filtered imaging of thick biological specimens was analysed using a dedicated STEM fitted with an energy loss spectrometer and interfaced with a sophisticated data collection setup. All images were digital, thus permitting a quantitative analysis of the data. We also present a mathematical explanation of the data, which is useful in predicting the quality of thick specimen images formed with energy filtered electrons. It is known that increasing specimen thickness leads to a decrease of the zero energy loss intensity and an increase in higher (multiply scattered) energy loss electrons. We show that contrast decreases gradually with increased energy loss but, most important, the signal to noise ratio is maximal at an energy loss position slightly below the intensity maximum. This is the optimal position for imaging thick specimens. Moreover our studies confirm that the following parameters have similar effects on the energy loss spectra: (1) increased thickness (t); (2) higher average Z number elements (or lower mean free path); and (3) lower primary voltage (V0).

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Evaluation and optimization of the performance of elastic and inelastic scanning transmission electron microscope imaging by correlation analysis.

Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopes (STEM) offer specific characters, such as multidetector configuration, energy loss spectroscopy, external control of the probe raster, which make them quite suited to digital image acquisition and innovative data processing. Considering pixel intensities as random variables, one can apply cross-correlation techniques to pairs of duplicated images. Such methods are used to investigate imaging properties of the instrument, such as the point resolution and the signal to noise ratio, in its different working modes. Concerning the annular dark field, one shows that there exist optimum values for defocus and angle of illumination which minimize the probe size at a value of about 0.5 nm. The same techniques are also used to evaluate the characteristics of energy filtered images recorded in a specific energy window loss around an ionization edge: the degradation in edge resolution with respect to the accompanying ADF images is only of the order of 0.2 to 0.3 nm, which sets the delocalization parameter for an energy loss of 100 eV (i.e. for U-O4-5) well below 1 nm in agreement with theoretical predictions.

DNA↗
PubMed1988

Developments in processing image sequences for elemental mapping.

Elemental mapping consists in searching the distribution of a given chemical species over an extended specimen area, with relation to topographical or structural features. It can be done with EELS core signals from a combination of several energy filtered images. One major problem encountered in the processing of such sequences of images lies in the extrapolation errors due to a difficult estimate of the background below the characteristic signal. The chosen method must be sufficiently reliable to avoid the risk of both "false positive" and "false negative" values: the first category may stem from spurious signals or from a non-satisfactory fit of the background. The second category is mainly due to a limited sensitivity. The EELS signal is often much weaker than the background intensity; an extrapolation error can therefore transform a negative value into a positive one, or vice versa. The purpose of the present contribution is to check the validity of the processing at different levels: i) different mathematical models of background; ii) different types of fitting procedures (one-parameter and two-parameters fits); iii) different fitting methods and several associated manipulations, such as a quasi local estimation of the involved fitting parameters. The statistical validity of those techniques is discussed through several tests on real images obtained from different specimens (Co/CeO2 catalysts, ferritin molecules, U and Tb staining clusters). Progress is made on the way of quantitative elemental mapping at a given confidence level, and towards the identification of single atoms.

Electron Probe Microanalysis↗