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Quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) vibration isolators have been intensively studied due to their importance in isolating low-frequency vibration, but isolating the ultralow frequency vibration and supporting variable mass are still challenging and open research issues. This paper proposes novel QZS isolators with two or three pairs of oblique bars. The distinctive feature of the proposed isolators is the constant QZS and thus it can achieve the isolation of ultralow frequency vibration and the capacity of supporting variable mass. Static and dynamic analyses of the proposed isolators are carried out to obtain the stiffness and displacement transmissibility. The QZS features of the proposed isolators are compared with the QZS isolators with two or three pairs of oblique springs. Prototypes of the proposed isolators with two or three pairs of oblique bars are fabricated and tested to verify the theoretical formulations and the constant QZS feature. The experiment results show that the proposed QZS isolators with constant QZS features have lower transmissibility and can isolate vibration in the frequency of 1–1.5 Hz. The isolators with constant QZS are expected to be used for practical applications in the situations of large amplitude and ultralow frequency vibration, and variable mass loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence on the association of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) and obesity during the first 5 years of life is limited in China. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between weight, weight for age z score (ZWAZ), weight for length/height z score (ZWHZ), and body mass index for age z score (ZBMI) and 25(OH)D. This was a large population‐based cross‐sectional multicenter study in which the children aged 0–5 years were recruited from 12 children's healthcare centers by a stratified cluster random‐sampling method in 10 cities of the Jiangsu province, China. The 25(OH)D concentration was determined by ELISA. A total of 5289 children were investigated. For 0–71 months children with obesity and nonobesity, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 36.0% and 29.8%, and the 25(OH)D level was 59.8 and 64.0 nmol/L, respectively, and there were all significant difference. Compared with children with nonobesity, children with obesity had higher risk of vitamin D deficiency (OR [95% CI]: 1.33 [1.02, 1.72], p <.05), and had lower 25(OH)D level (β = −3.84, 95% CI = −7.58, −0.09, p <.05). The results for children aged 24–71 months were similar to those for children aged 0–71 months. However, no significant difference was observed in children aged 0–23 months. Vitamin D deficiency was observed in children with greater adiposity during the first 5 years of life. However, the results mainly came from those in the age group of 2 to 5 years instead of the first 2 years in their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Long-acting recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has transformed growth hormone deficiency (GHD) treatment. However, the possibility and rationality for flexible time regimen are pending. Objective: We studied the efficacy of biweekly versus weekly PEGylated rhGH (PEG-rhGH) therapy in GHD children. Design, Setting, and Patients: This multicenter, phase IV trial with a non-inferiority threshold ≥20% enrolled 585 Tanner stage I GHD children. Intervention: Subjects randomly received 0.20 mg/kg once-weekly or biweekly PEG-rhGH, or 0.25 mg/kg.w rhGH once daily for 26 weeks. Main Outcome Measure: The primary outcome was height SD scores for chronological age (HtSDSCA) at week 26 and safety measurements including adverse events (AEs), IGF-2, and IGFBP-2 changes. Results: At week 26, the median HtSDSCA changed from −2.75, −2.82, and −2.78 to −2.31, −2.43, and −2.28 with weekly and biweekly PEG-rhGH, and daily rhGH, respectively. The difference in HtSDSCA was 0.17 ± 0.28 between weekly and biweekly PEG-rhGH, and 0.17 ± 0.27 between daily rhGH and biweekly PEG-rhGH, failing the non-inferiority threshold. Nevertheless, the height velocity of children receiving biweekly PEG-rhGH reached 76.42%–90.34% and 76.08%–90.60% that of children receiving weekly PEG-rhGH and daily rhGH, respectively. The rate of AEs was comparable among the groups. No statistical difference was observed in IGF-2 and IGFBP-2 levels among the groups. IGFBP-2 levels decreased over time in all groups, with no notable difference in IGF-2 and IGFBP-2 changes among the three treatment groups. Conclusions: Although notably promoted height velocity, biweekly PEG-rhGH failed the non-inferiority threshold as compared with either weekly PEG-rhGH or daily rhGH. Compared with short-term rhGH, long-acting PEG-rhGH did not significantly increase tumor-associated IGF-2 and IGFBP-2 expressions. Clinical Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov , identifier NCT02976675. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To explore the vitamin D status with its demographic and lifestyle factors including dietary, supplementation, and physical activity in 0–5 years old children. Methods: This was a large population‐based cross‐sectional multicentre study in which the children were recruited from 12 Children's Health Care Centers by a stratified cluster random‐sampling method in 10 cities in Jiangsu Province, China. Results: A total number of 5289 children were investigated. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 30.1%. The concentration of 25 hydroxyvitamin D was 64.0 (46.3–83.0) nmol mL−1 after adjustment for covariates. Children with higher risk of vitamin D deficiency were more likely to be at older age, girls, survey conducted in spring, location in southern Jiangsu province, residence in urban, outdoor activity < 2 h day−1 (all p < 0.05). Moreover, those with lower risk were more likely to be the number of parity ≥ 2 times, vitamin D supplementation from birth to 6 months, the initial time of vitamin D supplementation after birth ≤ 1 months, vitamin D and calcium supplementation in the last 3 months, and dose of vitamin D supplementation > 400 IU day−1 (all p < 0.05). Children with preferences for sweets, meat consumption > 150.0 g day−1, milk consumption < 250 mL day−1, time of sleeping < 10 h day−1 had higher risks of vitamin D deficiency. However, these relationships were affected by demographics. Conclusions: Vitamin D status during the first five years of life was suboptimal and was associated with demographic and lifestyle determinants including milk, meat, sweets, vitamin D and calcium supplementation, sleeping and outdoor activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is one of the causes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The increase in survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is closely related to early detection and shortening the first defibrillation time. The implementation of AEDs deployment plan in public places in Hangzhou City provides an opportunity to improve the survival rate after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and the benefits and potentials are enormous. Aims and Objective: Placing AEDs in public areas can effectively treat patients with pre-hospital cardiac arrest, by evaluating the configuration and usage of public AEDs in Hangzhou during the past five years, to provide the basis for improving the public areas' configuration AEDs network layout and related training management. Materials and Methods: The number of AEDs in public areas, the use of AEDs and the treatment effect in Hangzhou city from 2015 to 2020 were collected. Results: The number of AEDs in public areas, the use of AEDs and the treatment effect in Hangzhou city from 2015 to 2020 were collected. In 5 years, a total of 1201 AEDs were configured, Placed in densely populated areas such as transportation hubs, schools, and scenic spots as the main locations. 32 patients suffered prehospital cardiac arrest and used AEDs, the average age of the patients was 40.56 ± 17.20, and the ratio of male to female was 3.57:1, In 26 cases, the initial heart rhythm was ventricular fibrillation and defibrillation, Before the first aid personnel arrived, the first witnesses Implement rescue, 22 patients with ventricular fibrillation were resuscitated successfully, 10 cases failed to ROSC. In 6 patients with suspected cardiac arrest, there was no electric shock defibrillation, and the device correctly indicates that the problem is not caused by ventricular fibrillation, In 4 cases, there was no defibrillating rhythm. Conclusion: AEDs in public areas are effectively used to assist in the treatment of patients with cardiac arrest; It can increase the rate of main circulation recovery. We will further increase the number of AEDs in public places, promote first aid training programs for non-professionals, Improving the public health emergency network system is essential to improve the prognosis of patients with cardiac arrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hermetic digital scroll compressor has been widely used as a small-scale organic Rankine cycle application in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. A clunking noise issue is recently found in an air conditioning outdoor unit, and the main cause of the noise is experimentally identified to be the impact of the scrolls in the compressor unit during the switching process. The semi-active control methods are thus designed to greatly reduce the noise level by using additional valves to adjust the pressure changing rate within the modulation chamber. The response time for the impact of the scrolls can then be controlled by the added valves. The additional release valve with a smaller diameter pipe parallel to the main valve is tested firstly for its performance. Slower flow rate is produced and the pipe can extend the response time and decrease the speed of the impact process by reducing the pressure changing rate. The use of a discharge valve is also tested for controlling the pressure changing rate inside the chamber. The discharge valve with an opposite effect to the release valve is found useful for solving the noise issue. Both noise and vibration results confirm that the impact noise in the frequency range of interest can be reduced by using the proposed semi-active control methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Inherited non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL) is a common sensory disorder that afflicts otherwise healthy individuals. The aim of the study was to evaluate the performance of circulating single molecule amplification and re-sequencing technology (cSMART) for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) of NSHL.Method: Neonatal inheritance of NSHL mutations was determined from bloodspots using SNaPshot genotyping. NIPT of cell-free DNA for fetal NSHL mutations in the GJB2, GJB3 and SLC26A4 genes was performed by a multiplex cSMART assay. The percentage of mutant alleles was used to deduce fetal DNA fractions and assign fetal genotypes.Results: A total of 25 plasma samples selected with different fetal NSHL genotypes were coded and retrospectively analyzed by NIPT. Three normal fetuses, 18 carrier fetuses comprising seven GJB2 109G>A, four GBJ2 235delC, three GJB2 299-300delAT and four SLC26A4 IVS7-2A>G heterozygotes and four affected fetuses comprising two GJB2 109G>A homozygotes, one GBJ2 235delC homozygote and one compound GJB2 235delC/299-300delAT heterozygote were identified. All 25 fetal genotypes determined by the cSMART assay were concordant with neonatal genotypes.Conclusion: The cSMART assay applied to cell-free DNA isolated from maternal plasma of pregnant women is highly accurate for calling correct fetal NSHL genotypes. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth hormone deficiency, IGF-2, children, PEGylated recombinant human growth hormone, PEG-rhGH Weekly PEGylated Recombinant Human Growth Hormone for Children With Growth Hormone Deficiency: A Phase IV Non-Inferiority Threshold Targeted Trial Keywords: growth hormone deficiency; PEGylated recombinant human growth hormone; PEG-rhGH; IGF-2; children EN growth hormone deficiency PEGylated recombinant human growth hormone PEG-rhGH IGF-2 children 1 2 2 01/03/22 20211228 NES 211228 The second and third authors, Biao Lu and Yu Liu, were not listed as co-first-authors in the article as published originally. [Extracted from the article]

PURPOSE: To investigate the feasibility of the pin-hole marker measurement of the irregular silicone dental impression accuracy. METHODS: The metal model simulating abutment preparations had triangle-formed circular needles on the surface. Two silicone impressions were made by the metal model with the corresponding pin-hole markers. The dimensional change of the markers was evaluated by stereomicroscope. The records were output by the software which could simulate the centre of a circle to measure the displacement and dimensional accuracy. RESULTS: The outline of pin-hole marker was clear and shape was stable. Values of center coordinates were repeated well. The percentage of linear dimensional change of two impression samples was 0.023% and 0.042% at 48h respectively. Between two abutment preparations, the percentage of linear dimensional change of Zhermeek silicone impression increased 0.214%(45.1µm) at 1h and decreased 0.019%(4.0µm) at 48h while 3M silicone impression increased 0.087%(18.2µm) at 1h and decreased 0.09%(18.8µm) at 48h. CONCLUSION: The pin-hole marker measurement of the irregular silicone impression accuracy was feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]