BACKGROUND Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for prolonged hospital stays, renal failure, and mortality in patients having coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Complications pose a serious threat to patients and prolong intensive care and hospital stays. Low glomerular filtration rate (GFR) due to existing renal impairment or volume depletion may exacerbate acute renal impairment/fail...

Behavioral therapy techniques for treating phobias often includes graded exposure of the patient to anxiety-producing stimuli (Systematic Desensitization). However, in utilizing systematic desensitization, research reviews demonstrate that many patients appear to have difficulty in applying imaginative techniques. This chapter describes the Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), a new therapeutical app...

Spatial technologies such as GPS and GIS increasingly form the basis for site-specific management in crop production. This paper assesses the contribution of an explicit spatial econometric methodology in the estimation of crop yield functions that are used to optimize fertilizer application. The specific case study is for Nitrogen (N) application to corn production in Argentina, where the impl...

Social phobia is one of the most frequent mental disorders and is accessible to two forms of scientifically validated treatments: anti-depressant drugs and cognitive behavior therapies (CBT). In this last case, graded exposure to feared social situations is one of the fundamental therapeutic ingredients. Virtual reality technologies are an interesting alternative to the standard exposure in soc...