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Background: It is unclear whether women with psoriasis who receive adequate management or achieve better control of their psoriasis before and during pregnancy could eliminate the negative effects. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between physician visits for psoriasis and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Methods: This study used the National Health Insurance database and Birth Certificate Application in Taiwan. This research further categorized the study subjects into mothers with mild/severe psoriasis who visited physicians for psoriasis before delivery, mothers with mild/severe psoriasis who did not visit a physician for psoriasis before delivery, and mothers without psoriasis. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the occurrence of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including maternal and neonatal outcomes. Results: 3,339 mothers with severe psoriasis, 41,296 mothers with mild psoriasis, and 2,017,271 mothers without psoriasis were included in this study. The mothers with mild/severe psoriasis demonstrated a significantly higher risk of labor complications and maternal risk factors. After adjusting for confounders, mothers with severe psoriasis who did not visit a physician for psoriasis demonstrated significantly higher odds of labor complications (OR: 1.217), maternal risk factors (OR: 1.507), having low‑birth weight infants (OR: 1.236), etc., than mothers without psoriasis. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that mothers with psoriasis had a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. In addition, seeking medical care for psoriasis, particularly for women with severe psoriasis, appeared to exert a protective effect against adverse pregnancy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Shared decision-making (SDM) is becoming more popular in various medical specialties as a core component of patient-centered care. However, patients' lack of sufficient disease knowledge remains a barrier to implementing SDM. Objectives: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of two educational approaches for atopic dermatitis (AD) patients, a pamphlet and pamphlet plus video, using assessments of knowledge level and satisfaction. Methods: From August 2021 to February 2023, patients with AD from the dermatology outpatient clinic at Tri-Service General Hospital were included. Educational pamphlets were provided before educational videos, and patients were asked to complete an identical five-question test postpamphlet and postpamphlet plus video, respectively. A questionnaire was used to evaluate patients' satisfaction. The two test scores were compared, and the satisfaction levels were analyzed. Results: The mean postpamphlet plus video score (94.84 ± 10.20) was significantly higher than the mean postpamphlet score (77.42 ± 17.17, P < 0.001) across 62 eligible samples. Gender and age subgroups showed similar trends. In addition, most patients preferred educational pamphlet plus videos (ranging from 37.5% to 75.0% in different subgroups) compared with educational pamphlets (ranging from 0.0% to 3.85%). The educational pamphlet plus video demonstrated high satisfaction in promoting disease knowledge and treatment options for AD. Conclusion: Adding educational video is an efficient approach toward reinforcement of patients' knowledge of AD and further facilitates the implementation of SDM in dermatology practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NPR (Non Photo-Realistic Rendering) is an important issue in Computer Graphics. It presents a totally different style from those using realistic methods. In this paper we take advantage of a 3D NPR system in color presentation, and apply stroke merging and sketch-based modeling to synthesize NPR images with volumetric effects, such as oil painting, bas-relief sculpture, and clay relief. To represent these volumetric visual effects on canvas we adopt a mesh generation method which generates the thickness of strokes. By controlling the ratio of height and width to the base area, the surface curvature is adjusted to reflect the shape differences between impasto oil painting and clay relief. Then a mesh smoothing method is applied to each group of strokes. In addition, users can personalize their own color palette by using keywords such as the name of the artist, or by choosing color sets through our GUI which categorizes color space into an emotional map. Users choose by using keywords, then related images are gathered from online resources using web-mining technology, and the appropriate colors are extracted to construct a color chart by analyzing the images. Then, the color chart is used to control the distribution of colors on the canvas. As shown in the experiment results, our 3D NPR system creates interesting and vivid images of oil painting and clay relief works. Finally, we integrate our volumetric NPR image with a relief mapping technique to provide real-time interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]