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Objective: To investigate the association between oral health status and all‐cause mortality in older adults using prospective cohort study design. Setting and participants: In total, 12 809 adults aged ≥70 years (54.3% females) were participants of the ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons (ALSOP). Methods: Participants self‐reported the presence of natural teeth and oral health status. The association of self‐reported oral health, edentulism and the integrative measure of the two with all‐cause mortality were explored using the Cox‐regression models adjusted for age, gender, socio‐economic status, health‐related behaviours, weight status, aspirin and polypharmacy. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported. Results: In total, 22.2% of participants reported edentulism and 13.8% had fair/poor oral health. After adjustment for confounders, risk of all‐cause mortality was higher among those with edentulism (vs. no edentulism) HR (95% CI) 1.43 (1.18, 1.73); and those with edentulism and reporting poor/fair oral health HR (95% CI) 1.69 (1.02, 2.82), or with no edentulism but reporting poor/fair oral health HR (95% CI) 1.46 (1.19–1.80) vs. no edentulism and reporting good/very good/excellent oral health. No association was observed between self‐reported oral health alone and all‐cause mortality. Conclusions: The risk of all‐cause mortality was 69% higher among older adults reporting both edentulism and poor/fair oral health compared with those with teeth and more favourable self‐reported oral health. © 2023 Australian Dental Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronary tree expert (CORTEX) analyzer, which is a vision system for the description of the bidimensional shape and position of coronary vessels using standard nonsubtracted radiographic images, is described. A bottom-up approach was used to deal with the typical characteristics of medical images, such as structural and nonstructural noise and complexity and variability of biological shapes. On these grounds, grouping criteria were utilized to produce intermediate image representations with an increasing complexity in a hierarchical manner (from edge points to curves, segments, bars, and finally to vessels and their mutual relations). In this way, uncertain, inconsistent, and deficient information was efficiently processed. The evaluation of CORTEX segmentation is also performed according to a signal-detection-theory-like approach.

A series of ferrocenylphosphine-stabilized rhodium nanoparticles has been prepared in one pot from the organometallic [Rh(η3-C3H5)3] precursor. This complex has been decomposed by hydrogen treatment (3 bar) in dichloromethane in the presence of five different ferrocene-based phosphine ligands. Very small rhodium nanoparticles in the size range of 1.1–1.7 nm have been obtained. These nanoparticles have shown activity in a model catalytic reaction, namely the hydrogenation of styrene. These results evidence that the metal surface is not blocked despite the steric bulk of the stabilizing ligands. Moreover, certain selectivity has been observed depending on the ligand employed. To the best of our knowledge, such a type of compound has not yet been used for stabilizing metal nanoparticles and our findings highlight the interest to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Subjectively assessed health is related to mortality. Various subjective indicators of health have been studied, but it is unclear whether perceived physical functioning or mental health best accounts for the relation with mortality. Method. We studied the relation of subjective measures of health with all-cause mortality in 5538 participants of age 55 to 96 years at baseline from the Rotterdam Study. Various instruments of subjectively assessed health were used, that included basic activities of daily living (BADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), quality of life (QoL), positive affect, somatic symptoms and negative affect. All participants completed questionnaires for each subjective measure of health and were followed for mortality for a mean of 12.2 (S.E. = 0.09) years. Cox regression analysis was conducted in the total sample. Results. In this cohort, 2021 persons died during 48 534 person-years of follow-up. All measures of subjective health were related to mortality after adjusting for age, gender, education, cognition, prevalent chronic diseases and cardiovascular risk [BADL hazard ratio (HR, calculated per Z-score) = 1.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29-1.41; IADL HR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.22-1.32; QoL HR= 0.85, 95% CI 0.81-0.89; positive affect HR= 0.92, 95% CI 0.88-0.96; somatic symptoms HR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16; and negative affect HR= 1.05, 95% CI 1.01–1.10]. In the mutually adjusted model, only BADL (HR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.16-1.32) and IADL (HR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.04-1.17) remained independently associated with mortality. Conclusions. Measures of subjectively assessed health are important indicators of mortality. Our study shows that of the different measures of subjective health, perceived physical health predicts mortality over and above mental health. Conversely, the association betweenmental health and mortalitymay partly be explained by poor perceived physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Poorer physical health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been shown to predict a higher risk of adverse health outcomes including cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and mortality among community-dwelling older individuals. However, little is known about how physical HRQoL changes over time in older people and the predictors of this trajectory. This study (a) identified trajectories of physical HRQoL among older people and (b) explored whether economic factors, social health, or recent stressors impact physical HRQoL trajectories. Method A cohort of 12,506 community-dwelling Australians aged ≥70 years (54.4% females), enrolled in the ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons (ALSOP) study and was followed for six years. Physical HRQoL was assessed by using a validated instrument (SF-12; version-2) at baseline and over up to six annual follow-ups. Economic factors, social health, and recent stressors (i.e. stressful life events in the last 12 months) were assessed through a questionnaire at baseline. Growth mixture and structural equation modelling were used to identify physical HRQoL trajectories and their predictors. Results Four physical HRQoL trajectories were identified—stable low (7.1%), declining (9.0%), stable intermediate (17.9%) and stable high (66.0%). Living in more disadvantaged areas, having economic burden, no voluntary work, loneliness, or recent stressors (i.e. spousal illness, friend/family illness, financial problem, pet died) were associated with a 10%–152% higher likelihood of being in the stable low or declining physical HRQoL trajectory than the stable high group. Conclusion Specific stressors including financial hardship had a greater impact on adverse physical HRQoL trajectories in older people than other factors. This study highlights that grassroots approaches are needed to emphasize economic autonomy and social support networks in order to support the wellbeing of older people. Volunteering may prevent physical HRQoL decline and requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is associated with higher morbidity and mortality in patient populations. However, whether HRQoL is associated with health outcomes among community-dwelling older people requires further investigation. This study aimed to examine whether HRQoL predicts cognitive decline, dementia, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and mortality in community-dwelling older people living in Australia and the United States. Method A cohort of 19,106 individuals from the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study, aged 65–98 years, initially free of dementia or CVD, and who completed the HRQoL 12-item short form (SF-12, version-2) at baseline (2010–2014), were followed until June 2017. The physical (PCS) and mental component scores (MCS) of SF-12 were generated using standardized norm-based method. Results Over a median of 4.7 years, there were 2,412 cognitive declines, 574 dementia, 922 incident CVD events, and 1,052 deaths. Using Cox proportional-hazard regression adjusted for a range of covariates, every 10-unit increase in PCS was associated with a 6% lower risk of cognitive decline, a 14% lower risk of incident CVD, and 17% lower risk of all-cause mortality, but was not associated with incident dementia. In contrast, higher MCS was only associated with a 12% and 15% lower risk of cognitive decline and dementia, respectively. Findings did not differ by sex. Conclusion Our study provides some of the first evidence that HRQoL can be used in combination with clinical data to identify the future risks of health outcomes among older individuals living in the community. Our findings support the decision of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to incorporate the SF-12 into the annual Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oddball protocol is often used in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to induce P300 ERPs, although, recently, some issues have been shown to detrimentally effect its performance. In this paper, we study a new periodic protocol and explore whether it can compete with the standard oddball protocol within the context of a BCI mouse. We found that the new protocol consistently and significantly outperforms the standard oddball protocol in relation to information transfer rates (33 bits/min for the former and 22 bits/min for the latter, measured at 90% accuracy) as well as P300 amplitudes. Furthermore, we performed a comparison of two periodic protocols with two less conventional oddball-like protocols that reveals the importance of the interactions between task and sequence in determining the success of a protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of both single doping and simultaneous codoping on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of Si nanocrystals are calculated by the first-principles method. We show that the amount of the nanocrystal relaxation around the impurity is directly related to the impurity valence. Moreover, both the neutral impurity formation energies and the impurity activation energies scale with the reciprocal radius. Interestingly, no significant variation of the activation energy on the impurity species is found, and the cluster relaxation gives a minor contribution to it. The role of the impurity position within the nanocrystal has also been elucidated showing that the subsurface positions are the most stable ones. We show that, if the carriers in the Si nanocrystals are perfectly compensated by simultaneous doping with the n- and p-type impurities, the nanocrystals undergo a minor structural distortion around the impurities. The formation energies are always smaller than that for the corresponding single-doped cases. Moreover, in the case of codoping, the bandgap is strongly reduced with respect to the gap of the pure crystals showing the possibility of an impurity-based engineering of the photoluminescence properties of the Si nanocrystals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Application of enhanced recovery protocols (ERP) in esophageal surgery seems to lead an advantage in terms of length of hospital staying and outcomes, but only few data exist on its cost effectiveness. Previous literature analyzed pre- and post-ERP groups, finding a cost reduction with the introduction of the pathway. We aimed to study the influence on costs of accumulating experience and compliance in an ERP group. Seventy-one patients have been treated at our institution from January 2014 to June 2017 with our ERP for Ivor–Lewis esophagectomy. Direct costs were divided into subcategories and were analyzed as a function of calendar year and compliance. Factor affecting costs were searched. Univariable analysis highlighted a significant reduction in costs over time. Increase in compliance led to a progressive cost reduction for each ERP item completed (€14 852–€11 045). While age was not found to significantly influence the cost (p  = 0.341), complications seemed to nullify the effect of experience: the median was €11 507 in uncomplicated patients, and increased to €13 791 in Clavien–Dindo 3–4 (CD3–4) patients. Compliance and CD3–4 remained significant also in multivariable analysis, accomplished by quantile regression, while year of surgery lost its significance. Our results evidence how accumulating experience in ERP led to a cost reduction over time, which was mainly mediated by an increase in compliance. Indeed, compliance was the main factor in reducing ERP cost while CD3–4 complications were the most important factor in cost increasing, nullifying the benefit of compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]