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The global prevalence of diabetes has increased significantly, leading to various complications and a negative impact on quality of life. Hyperglycemia hyperglycemic‐induced oxidative stress (OS) and inflammation are closely associated with the development and progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and its complications. This review explores the effect of T2D on target organ damage and potential treatments to minimize this damage. The paper examines the pathophysiology of T2D, focusing on low‐grade chronic inflammation and OS and on their impact on insulin resistance. The review discusses the role of inflammation and OS in the development of microvascular and macrovascular complications. The findings highlight the mechanisms by which inflammatory cytokines, stress kinases, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) interfere with insulin signaling pathways, leading to impaired glucose metabolism and organ dysfunction. Lifestyle interventions, including a balanced diet and exercise, can help reduce chronic inflammation and OS, thereby preventing and controlling T2D and its associated complications. Additionally, various antioxidants and anti‐inflammatory agents show potential in reducing OS and inflammation. Some anti‐diabetic drugs, like pioglitazone, metformin, and glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) agonists, may also have anti‐inflammatory effects. Further research, including randomized controlled trials, is needed to evaluate the efficacy of these interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As people age, the risk and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), along with cholesterol levels, tend to increase. Nevertheless, epidemiological studies on serum lipids and CRC have produced conflicting results. We previously demonstrated that the reduction of squalene epoxidase (SQLE) due to accumulated cholesterol within cells accelerates CRC progression through the activation of the β‐catenin pathway. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism by which age‐related cholesterol accumulation within tissue accelerates CRC progression and to assess the clinical significance of SQLE in older individuals with elevated CRC risk. Using machine learning‐based digital image analysis with fluorescence‐immunohistochemistry, we assessed SQLE, GSK3βpS9 (GSK3β activity inhibition through serine 9 phosphorylation at GSK3β), p53 wild‐type (p53WT), and p53 mutant (p53MT) levels in CRC tissues. Our analysis revealed a significant reduction in SQLE, p53WT, and p53MT and increase in GSK3βpS9 levels, all associated with the substantial accumulation of intra‐tissue cholesterol in aged CRCs. Cox analysis underscored the significant influence of SQLE on overall survival and progression‐free survival in grade 2–3 CRC patients aged over 50. SQLE and GSK3βpS9 consistently exhibited outstanding prognostic and diagnostic performance, particularly in older individuals. Furthermore, combining SQLE with p53WT, p53MT, and GSK3βpS9 demonstrated a robust diagnostic ability in the older population. In conclusion, we have identified that individuals aged over 50 face an increased risk of CRC progression due to aging‐linked cholesterol accumulation within tissue and the subsequent reduction in SQLE levels. This study also provides valuable biomarkers, including SQLE and GSK3βpS9, for older patients at elevated risk of CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the major causes of mortality across the globe, which impose a substantial burden on health care systems, particularly in low‐ and middle‐income countries. The present study aimed to determine socioeconomic inequality in the prevalence of NCDs using the concentration index (CI). Methods: This cross‐sectional study was conducted on the baseline data of the Bandar Kong cohort. The principal component analysis was used to determine people's socioeconomic status (SES). The CI and Lorenz Curve were used for the assessment of socioeconomic inequality. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between SES and the prevalence of NCDs. A p Value less than 0.05 is considered significant. Results: Frequency and prevalence of diabetes was 653 (16.22%), hypertension 848 (21.06%), chronic lung diseases 161 (4%), epilepsy 70 (1.74%), mental disorders 191 (4.74%), stillbirth 299 (13.94%), thyroid disorders 391 (9.71%) and depression 146 (3.63%). CI for the prevalence of diabetes was [−0.107, %95 CI: −0.146 to −0.068], hypertension [−0.122, %95 CI: −0.155 to −0.088], chronic lung disease [−0.116, %95 CI: −0.202 to −0.03], psychiatric disorders [−0.230, %95 CI: −0.304 to −0.155], depression [−0.132, %95 CI: −0.220 to−0.043] and stillbirth [−0.162, %95 CI: −0.220 to −0.105]. The Gini index was negative for all these diseases, indicating that these are significantly concentrated in people of poor SES. Conclusions: The findings suggest that selected NCDs were concentrated among the poor and the low‐income. Particular attention may be necessary to address the problem of NCDs among these groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospital‐acquired infections (HAIs) are considered a major challenge in health care systems. One of the main HAIs, playing an important role in increased morbidity and mortality, is surgical wound infection. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the incidence rate and risk factors of surgical wound infection in general surgery patients. This cross‐sectional study was performed on 506 patients undergoing general surgery at Razi hospital in Rasht from 2019 to 2020. Bacterial isolates, antibiotic susceptibility pattern, antibiotic administration, and its type, operation duration and shift, the urgency of surgery, people involved in changing dressings, length of hospitalisation, and levels of haemoglobin, albumin, and white blood cells after surgery were assessed. The frequency of surgical wound infection and its association with patient characteristics and laboratory results were evaluated. The SPSS software package (version 16.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyse the data. Quantitative and qualitative variables were presented using mean (standard deviation) and number (percentage). The Shapiro–Wilk test was used to evaluate the normality of the data in this study. The data did not have a normal distribution. Hence, χ2 and Fisher's exact tests were used to evaluate the relationship between variables. Surgical wound infection occurred in 4.7% (24 cases) of patients with a mean age of 59.34 (SD = 14.61) years. Preoperative (>3 days) and postoperative (>7 days) hospitalisation, history of immunodeficiency (P < 0.001), and interns responsible for changing dressings (P = 0.021) were associated with surgical wound infection incidence. About 9.5% and 4.4% of surgical wound infection cases were significantly associated with pre‐ and postoperative antibiotic use. Gram‐positive cocci were the most prevalent strains isolated from 24 surgical wound infection cases (15/24, 62.5%). Among these, Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant species, followed by coagulase‐negative staphylococci. In addition, the most common Gram‐negative isolates identified were Escherichia coli bacteria. Overall, administration of antibiotics, emergency surgery, surgery duration, and levels of white blood cells and creatinine were identified as surgical wound infection‐associated risk factors. Identifying important risk factors could help control or prevent surgical wound infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The most well‐known sort of remote Internet connection is wireless local area networks (WLANs) due to its unsophisticated operation and deployment. Subsequently, the quantity of gadgets getting to the Internet through WLANs, for example, PCs, cell phones, or wearables, is expanding radically at the equivalent time that applications' throughput necessities do. To provide wireless networks with supplementary spectral resources, the researchers are considering the aggregation of frequency spectrums in licensed, unlicensed, and shared access (SA) bands. Channel aggregation/channel bonding (CA/CB) techniques accumulate quite a few channels together as one channel for the purpose of achieving better bandwidth utilization. In this study, we focus on reliable CA/CB techniques in different wireless networks. CA/CB procedures are utilized for empowering higher information rates by transmitting in more extensive channels, accordingly expanding range proficiency with the assured secure channel for communication. We also discuss the spectral scarcity issues in today's wireless IoT network. This paper presents an extensive survey on CA/CB procedures and methods, issues and challenges, and open research areas related to IoT devices. We analyze the performance of channel CA/CB strategies in the different wireless networks too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed to assess the relationship between emotional elder abuse and the developmental function of the family. Design: Community‐based correlational cross‐sectional study was conducted. Methods: Data were collected on 265 older adults from July to October 2019 in Tehran‐Iran. The samples were selected by simple random sampling and they completed self‐report tools: demographic information, emotional elder abuse developmental function in the family. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics and SPSS software v.16. Results: Mean score of the developmental function in the family was 67.38 (SD = 3.22, range = 0–129). There was a significant negative correlation between the total score of developmental function in the families and emotional elder abuse. Moreover, there was a relationship between the subscale of care and regulation, being attracted to human relationships, purposeful exchange, and creating representatives and ideas with emotional elder abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To analyse the effectiveness of targeted stakeholder engagement strategies and the impact they have on antenatal referrals, oral health admission, attendance and education of pregnant women in a rural public dental clinic. Method: Key stakeholders (obstetric trained general practitioners [GPs] and midwives) were educated and motivated to refer pregnant women to the rural public dental clinic via priority referral pathways. A 10‐month pre‐ and post‐intervention period of oral health assessments and treatments was compared and contrasted. Design: Quasi‐experimental study. Setting: A rural health service in the Loddon Mallee region, Victoria. Participants: Local pregnant women, 18 years of age or older, eligible for public dental care. Main outcome measures: Increased oral health admission, attendance and education of pregnant women. Results: Active engagement with key stakeholders significantly increased the oral health referral, admission and attendance of eligible antenatal women. Prior to the intervention, only 15.04% of eligible antenatal women sought oral health treatment, in comparison with 40.37% post‐intervention. Of the 62 women referred, 44 actively received dental care. Conclusion: Active engagement with key stakeholders has demonstrated a clinically effective method of increasing antenatal referrals of socially disadvantaged women to a rural public dental clinic. Further collaboration between healthcare professionals can improve the oral health admission rates, attendance and education of antenatal women and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the effects of rutin flavonoid in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. In this trial (double-blind, placebo-controlled), 50 T2DM patients (supplement, n = 25 and placebo, n = 25) were randomized and supplemented with 500 mg rutin or placebo per day for 3-months. At the beginning and at the end of the study, metabolic parameters including fasting blood glucose (FBG), insulin, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMO-IR), quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-β), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (CHOL), high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c and LDL-c), and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), inflammatory and oxidative stress markers such as interleukin 6 (IL-6), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and malondialdehyde (MDA) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were assessed. The results showed a significant decrease in FBG, insulin, HbA1c, HOMO-IR, LDL-c, TG, VLDL, CHOL, LDL-c. HDL-c ratio, AIP, IL-6, and MDA and a significant increase in HDL-c, QUICKI index, BDNF, and TAC compared with the initial value (p for all <.05). In the adjusted model, the mean changes of FBG, insulin, HbA1c, HOMO-IR, LDL-c, CHOL, LDL.HDL ratio, AIP, MDA, and IL-6 were significantly lower and mean changes of QUICKI index, HDL-c, and TAC were significantly higher in the rutin group compared with the placebo group (adjusted p for all <.05). It seems that rutin may have beneficial effects on improving metabolic parameters, BDNF, and inflammatory and oxidative stress factors in T2DM patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study is to find out the levels of serum vitamin D in periodontitis patients with and without type 2 diabetes and to compare them with healthy subjects. Methods: In this study, 48 periodontitis patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (PDM), 53 periodontitis patients (P), and 42 controls who were in the age ranges of 30–50 years and had the entry requirements were selected. Plaque index, calculus index, modified gingival index, pocket depth, clinical attachment loss (CAL), and tooth loss were measured. Serum 25(OH)D level was estimated by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay, and fasting blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin were estimated by biochemical colorimetric assays. Results: The mean serum 25(OH)D level was 17.06 ± 10.73, 15.12 ± 7.74, and 14.17 ± 11.04 ηg/ml for PDM, P, and control groups, respectively, showing no statistical difference. The mean CAL was significantly high in diabetic patients as compared to other groups. Prediabetes prevalence was significantly high in periodontitis patients as compared to controls. Conclusions: The prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was high in the population studied. Serum levels of 25(OH)D showed no significant difference between groups. Periodontitis patients showed an elevated risk for diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Setting out effective prevention strategies in dental diseases needs recognition related factors of the prevention behaviours and targeting the most disadvantaged groups in the term of dental hygiene. This study aimed to investigate socio‐economic inequality in the dental self‐care status (DSS) of Iranian households and decompose the measured inequality into its contributors. Method: In this cross‐sectional study, pooled data were extracted from Households Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIESs) conducted in Iran from 2012 to 2017. The index of socio‐economic status (SES) for each household was constructed using principal components analysis (PCA). We used Wagstaff normalized concentration index as a measure of socio‐economic inequality in dental self‐care. Decomposition analysis was applied to determine the main factors contributed to the measured inequality. Results: The prevalence of dental self‐care in the whole population was 40.56%. The total concentration index was 0.271 (CI: 0.266, 0.275). The results of decomposition analysis for the measured inequality showed that SES, was the highest positive contributors (90.19%) followed by sex of household's head (12.15%), place of residence (11.79%) and education level of household's head (11.71%). Furthermore, the province of residence had the highest negative contribution (−11.37) to the inequality. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that a huge portion of the observed inequality was explained by SES that might give us a policy recommendation: There is room for improving dental health and reducing inequality in dental self‐care by paying more attention to SES‐disadvantaged households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/Introduction: To evaluate the association between ideal cardiovascular health metrics (ICVHM) and incident type 2 diabetes mellitus among Iranian men and women. Materials and Methods: The study population included 7,488 Iranian adults aged ≥20 years (4,236 women) free from diabetes at baseline. The ICVHM was defined according to the American Heart Association's 2020 impact goals. The multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) for ICVHM both as continuous and categorical variables. Results: Over the median of 9.1 years of follow‐up, we identified 922 new cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus (526 women). Body mass index <30 kg/m2, untreated systolic/diastolic blood pressure <120/80 mmHg in both sexes, and physical activity ≥1,500 MET min/week (only among men) were significantly associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Each additional unit in the ICVHM was associated with a 21 and 15% lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in men and women, respectively (P‐values <0.05). Compared with participants having poor cardiovascular health, the HR for type 2 diabetes mellitus risk was 0.69 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.56–0.85) and 0.35 (95% CI 0.21–0.59) for men with intermediate and ideal CVHM, respectively. The corresponding values for women were 0.79 (95% CI 0.65–0.97) and 0.30 (95% CI 0.15–0.60), respectively. In a subpopulation with nutritional data (n = 2,236), ideal and intermediate nutritional status was associated with 83 and 77% lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus only among women (P‐values <0.05). Conclusion: We found a strong inverse association between having higher global ICVHM with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus; which is mainly attributable to normal blood pressure, normal body weight, and intensive physical activity (only for men). Type 2 diabetes mellitus persists as a world epidemic, which is associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity, particularly from cardiovascular diseases. Adherence to the American Heart Association cardiovascular health metrics, including body mass index, smoking status, physical activity, diet, total cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, and blood pressure, is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and all‐cause mortality. In the current study, we examined the impact of sex on the association between ideal cardiovascular health metrics and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. We found a strong inverse association between having higher global ideal cardiovascular health metrics with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus; the issue is mainly attributable to normal blood pressure, normal bodyweight and intensive physical activity (only for men). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pregnant women taking prenatal care is vital for the health of the mother and the fetus. The duration of pregnancies provides a useful measure of a woman's natural length of pregnancy and may help in predicting an individual woman's due date. The objective of this study was to understand the factors affecting the duration of gestation among women taking prenatal care in Gondar referral hospital, Ethiopia. Methods: A quantitative research design using secondary data available in the form of antenatal care (ANC) cards in the Gondar teaching referral hospital data set. Kaplan–Meier estimate was used to explain the median survival time of duration of gestation. A multivariate AFT model was performed to identify the factors related to the duration of gestation among women. Results: The mean time of the length of pregnancy was 39.5 weeks. The factors such as, the age of women, number of children, number of doctor consultations, and the stage of gestation were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) for the survival time of time to birth of pregnant women in Ethiopia. Weibull AFT model was found to be the best model for predicting the time to birth of pregnant women in Ethiopia. Conclusion: We did not see associations between length of gestation and blood pressure and bleeding during early pregnancy. We also did not find an association with the presence of disease, which has been associated with the length of pregnancy. The frequency of visiting a doctor during the gestation period enhances the length of the gestation period. The shorter gestation period from the due date is dangerous to the health of both mother and her fetus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A significant goal in achieving position calculation is to reduce and simplify the instructions that the Mobile Station (MS) has to accomplish in the location determination algorithm. Standard techniques widely used in many applications can be classified into Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Angle of Arrival (AoA), Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA), and Time of Arrival (ToA). However, all are almost determined by the standard trigonometric complex computation methods that are usually implemented in software where the complexity is considerable. The development of a simple and efficient technique for MS location estimation is the main objective of this paper. To design a modern hardware‐oriented algorithm, a new approach using simple Add‐and‐Shift operations in the computation is proposed and it can be implemented in a hardware target. In order to accelerate the geopositioning process, the Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm has been used in this proposal. The proposed algorithm is simpler and faster than conventional ones; thus, complexity in terms of time, power consumption, and chip area has been reduced. Therefore, the algorithm is suitable for applications with limited computational and power resources. Based on comparisons with the state‐of‐the‐art algorithms, it is concluded that the proposed technique is more exact and less complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The manifold increase in the number of cellular wireless network consumers has presented a monumental challenge to upgrade the current infrastructure for imparting superior throughput and good quality of service. End‐users of the network will want super high‐speed data with very low latency, as well as secure and with a lower packet data drop rate. Joint coordination between various network resources such as that of a dense heterogeneous network is crucial for achieving the above demands. It is also inevitable that such a dense arrangement of small cells or macro cells or other network equipment will be challenged by different forms of interference apart from being costly and less mobile. Beamforming is among the most advanced technology that is available up to date which has shown good results at handling interference and at guiding transmitted data to the desired end‐user. It is quite useful but also struggles from certain factors when deployed in a dense network. A thorough review of recent works of literature is detailed in the current paper with a focus placed on two major fields, which are interference mitigation techniques and gainful interference exploitation techniques. Some highly advanced interference mitigation techniques which are either developed or under development with their merits have been proposed. Most of these techniques use machine learning and artificial intelligence‐based methods to ensure the best quality of service (QoS) to every individual connected to the network. However some research works focused on negating away any kind of interference present in a signal, some focused on harnessing interference for optimizing the power of transmitted signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: We aimed to investigate whether the death of a child, one of the most severe stressors, is associated with the risk of heart failure (HF). Methods and results: We conducted a population‐based cohort study involving parents of live‐born children recorded in the Danish and Swedish Medical Birth Registers during 1973–2016 and 1973–2014, respectively (n = 6 717 349). We retrieved information on child death, HF diagnosis and sociodemographic characteristics of the parents from several nationwide registries. We performed Poisson regression models to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for HF in relation to bereavement. A total of 129 829 (1.9%) parents lost at least one child during the follow‐up. Bereaved parents had a 35% higher risk of HF than the non‐bereaved (IRR 1.35, 95% CI 1.29–1.41; p < 0.001). The increased HF risk was observed not only when the child died due to cardiovascular or other natural causes, but also when the loss was due to unnatural causes. The association tended to be U‐shaped when we categorized the exposed parents by the number of remaining live children at loss or by the age of the deceased child. Conclusion: We found that the death of a child was associated with an increased risk of HF. The finding that not only cardiovascular and other natural deaths, but also unnatural deaths were associated with HF suggests that stress‐related mechanisms may contribute to the development of HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims We aimed to investigate whether the death of a child, one of the most severe stressors, is associated with the risk of heart failure (HF). Methods and results We conducted a population-based cohort study involving parents of live-born children recorded in the Danish and Swedish Medical Birth Registers during 1973-2016 and 1973-2014, respectively (n = 6717 349). We retrieved information on child death, HF diagnosis and sociodemographic characteristics of the parents from several nationwide registries. We performed Poisson regression models to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for HF in relation to bereavement. A total of 129 829 (1.9%) parents lost at least one child during the follow-up. Bereaved parents had a 35% higher risk of HF than the non-bereaved (IRR 1.35, 95% CI 1.29-1.41; p<0.001). The increased HF risk was observed not only when the child died due to cardiovascular or other natural causes, but also when the loss was due to unnatural causes. The association tended to be U-shaped when we categorized the exposed parents by the number of remaining live children at loss or by the age of the deceased child. Conclusion We found that the death of a child was associated with an increased risk of HF. The finding that not only cardiovascular and other natural deaths, but also unnatural deaths were associated with HF suggests that stress-related mechanisms may contribute to the development of HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of live birth/parity number on incident hypertension was investigated among Iranian parous women aged 30–70 years. The study population included 2188 normotensive women who were enrolled in 1999–2001. They were followed for incident hypertension (based on JNC 7 report) by 3‐year intervals up to April 2018. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for a wide set of potential hypertension risk factors, reproductive factors, and pregnancy complications, were applied to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the number of parity/live birth(s) for incident hypertension. Additionally, as a sensitivity analysis, age‐scale Cox regression was also done. During a median follow‐up of 13.5 years, 935 incident hypertension have occurred. Compared to those with two live births, the participants who had 3 and ≥4 live births were at higher risk of hypertension development by the HRs of 1.25 [95% CI: 1.02–1.55] and 1.39 [1.12–1.72], respectively, in the full‐adjusted model. Moreover, each additional live birth increased the risk of hypertension by a HR of 1.06 [95%CI: 1.02–1.11]. Results of parity number were also similar. Considering age as time scale also did not change the results generally. The authors found a significant interaction between live birth/parity number and age groups; the adverse effect of higher live birth/parity numbers on hypertension development was mainly found among those aged < 50 years. To sum up, compared to the live birth/parity number of two, Iranian women with ≥3 live birth/parity had a higher risk of incident hypertension; the issue was more prominent among younger mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives and Design: This cross‐sectional, observational study examined the prevalence of objectively measured chronic disease risk factors among a diverse group of food pantry patrons. Sample and Measurement: Public health nurses performed biometric screenings in community settings for 1,685 unduplicated adults attending food pantries. Results: Over three fourths of participants (81.1%) were overweight or obese. High cholesterol and high blood pressure were detected in 38.4% and 37.7% of participants, respectively. Over half (58%) of the participants were referred to a local community health clinic for follow‐up services. Conclusion: Interventions should target food pantry patrons to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease conditions among this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suboptimal blood pressure (BP) control in patients with type 2 diabetes is associated with adverse micro‐ and macrovascular complications. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of uncontrolled hypertension in an Iranian population with type 2 diabetes. This is a cross‐sectional study of 2612 patients with type 2 diabetes, including 944 patients with hypertension. Controlled and uncontrolled hypertension were assessed. Multivariate logistic regression modeling was used to determined independent predictors of uncontrolled hypertension. Of 2612 patients with type 2 diabetes, 944 (36.1%) patients had hypertension. Of all patients with hypertension, 580 (61.4%) were still on monotherapy. Uncontrolled hypertension was detected in 536 participants (56.8%). Patients with uncontrolled hypertension had significantly higher body mass index (BMI) (29.8±4.8 vs. 28.6±4.6), waist circumference (99.11±10.95 vs. 96.68±10.92), pulse pressure (67.3±17.3 vs. 48.4±10.7), total cholesterol (177.1±45.5 vs. 164.3±40.5), non‐HDL cholesterol (133.0±43.5 vs. 120.1±38.7), triglycerides (175.7±80.3 vs. 157.4±76.7), and Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) (0.57±0.23 vs. 0.52±0.24) (p <.05 for all of them) compared to patients with controlled hypertension. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that uncontrolled hypertension was significantly associated with BMI (p =.001), pulse pressure (p =.001), total cholesterol (p =.006), and non‐HDL cholesterol (p =.009). In patients with triglycerides levels > 200 mg/dl non‐HDL cholesterol had a significant correlation with uncontrolled hypertension (OR = 4.635, CI95%:1.781–12.064, p =.002). In conclusion, BMI, pulse pressure, total cholesterol, and non‐HDL cholesterol are significant predictors of uncontrolled hypertension in patients with type 2 diabetes. Also, ineffective monotherapy, medical inertia and patients' non‐compliance were other contributors to the uncontrolled hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical representations of data offer physical and spatial ways of looking at, navigating, and interacting with data. While digital fabrication has facilitated the creation of objects with data‐driven geometry, rendering data as a physically fabricated object is still a daunting leap for many physicalization designers. Rendering in the scope of this research refers to the back‐and‐forth process from digital design to digital fabrication and its specific challenges. We developed a corpus of example data physicalizations from research literature and physicalization practice. This survey then unpacks the "rendering" phase of the extended InfoVis pipeline in greater detail through these examples, with the aim of identifying ways that researchers, artists, and industry practitioners "render" physicalizations using digital design and fabrication tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Results of studies focusing on chronic kidney disease (CKD) among women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are insufficient and controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence rate of CKD in women with PCOS, compared to a control group of healthy women. Methods: This study was a population‐based cohort study conducted from among 1460 reproductive‐age women including 156 women with PCOS and 1304 controls. Incidence rates per 1000 person‐years of follow‐up were calculated for PCOS and control groups. Cox proportional hazards regression with age as the time‐scale was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals for developing CKD in relation to PCOS in both univariable and multivariable models. Results: During a median follow‐up of 12.9 years, 330 new cases of CKD were identified, including 25 PCOS women (14.8 per 1000 person‐years; 95% CI, 10‐22) and 305 healthy controls (21.5 per 1000 person‐years; 95% CI, 19.2‐24.1). The results of the Cox model showed that the risk of CKD among women with PCOS and healthy women is comparable and women with PCOS did not have a higher risk of developing CKD compared to healthy women (unadjusted HR: 0.883; 95% CI: 0.587‐1.328; P =.551). The results remained unchanged after adjustment for potential confounders of smoking status, BMI, hypertension and diabetes at baseline and follow‐up of study (multiple adjusted HR: 0.911; 95% CI: 0.600‐1.383; P =.661). Conclusion: Our population‐based study with a long‐term follow‐up period showed that the risk of CKD in PCOS patients was similar to the general female population. Large studies, with long‐term follow‐up and more diverse phenotypes, are needed to confirm the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both inflammation and oxidative stress may contribute to pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome (MetS). The C242T polymorphism (rs4673) in the CYBA gene, as the main components of NAD (P) H oxidase, causes inter‐individual variability in the enzyme activity. We aimed to investigate the association between this polymorphism with MetS and its components. Methods: Two hundred nine patients with MetS and 232 controls were included in this study. MetS was defined based on NCEP ATP‐III A criteria with some modifications. The C242T polymorphism within CYBA gene was determined by using PCR‐based restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) method. Results: After applying a multiple logistic regression model with adjusting for potential confounders of MetS including, age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, used medications, and diabetes mellitus, C242T polymorphism was found to be associated with the presence of MetS in men but not in the total population or in women. T allele as compared to C allele was associated with decreased odds of MetS in men (adjusted OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.24‐0.74; P =.003), but not in women (adjusted OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.07‐1.61; P =.890), or in the total population (adjusted OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.51‐1.02; P =.063). Conclusion: This study shows that T allele of C242T polymorphism in CYBA gene is protective against MetS in Iranian men but not in women. Further cohort studies with larger sample size in subgroups of men and women are required to confirm such association in other racial or ethnic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The objective of this study is to systematically review the evidence on correlates of sedentary behaviour (SB) among Asian adults. We searched for studies that examined individual, environmental, and political/cultural correlates of total and domain‐specific SB (transport, occupation, leisure, and screen time) in Asian adults published from 2000 onwards in nine scientific databases. Two reviewers independently screened identified references. Following quality assessment of included studies, we performed narrative synthesis that considered differences based on SB measurements, regions, and population characteristics (PROSPERO: CRD42018095268). We identified 13 249 papers of which we included 49, from four regions and 12 countries. Researchers conducted cross‐sectional analyses and most relied on SB self‐report for SB measurement. Of the 118 correlates studied, the following associations were consistent: higher age, living in an urban area (East Asia), and lower mental health with higher total SB; higher education with higher total and occupational SB; higher income with higher leisure‐time SB; higher transit density with higher total SB in older East Asians; and being an unmarried women with higher SB in the Middle East. We encourage more research in non‐high‐income countries across regions, further exploration of important but neglected correlates using longitudinal designs and qualitative research, and the use of objective instruments to collect SB data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The present study aimed to compare the effects of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines on the lipid profiles of patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: In a 12‐week clinical trial, 80 patients with type 2 diabetes aged 18–65 years were randomly allocated into the case (n = 40) and control (n = 40) groups. The case group received the DASH diet and the control group consumed a dietary pattern in accordance with the ADA guidelines. Fasting blood samples were measured for triglyceride (TG), low‐density lipoprotein (LDL), total cholesterol (TC), high‐density lipoprotein (HDL), very low‐density lipoprotein (VLDL) and free fatty acid (FFA). Moreover, physical activity and 24‐hour dietary recall (24 hours) were assessed at baseline and end of the study. Results: The DASH diet and diabetic diet (in accordance with the ADA guidelines) for 12 weeks significantly decreased TG, TC and VLDL (P < 0.05). FFA showed a significant decrease in both the groups, which was greater in the cases compared with the control group (P = 0.049). Conclusions: Compliance with any DASH or diabetic diet for 12 weeks in patients with type 2 diabetes had beneficial effects on cardiometabolic risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the association between metabolic risk factors in one spouse with incident hypertension in the other. Study sample included 1528 men and 1649 women aged ≥20 years from the Tehran lipid and glucose study with information on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), and dyslipidemia. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated for the association of spousal metabolic factors and incident hypertension among men and women separately. A total of 604 and 566 cases of incident hypertension were observed in men and women, respectively. Among men, spousal DM was associated with a 40% (CI: 1.07-1.83) excess risk of hypertension after adjusting for the men's own and their spouse's risk factors including BMI, DM, smoking, and physical activity level. Among women, spousal DM was associated with more than two times (2.11, 1.69-2.63) higher risk of hypertension. After further adjustment for the women's own and their spouse's risk factors, the association was attenuated and remained marginally significant (1.25, 0.99-1.58; P value = .053). Having a spouse with DM increases an individual's risk of hypertension, which raises the possibility of using preexisting information of one partner to guide the screening of the other partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast are the most common histological subtypes of breast cancer. However, the associations and heterogeneity between histological subtypes and their risk factors are not well established. This study aimed to investigate risk factors for IDC and ILC. This case–control study included 1,009 incident breast cancer cases and 1,009 hospital controls, frequency‐matched by age. Data were obtained from the patients' medical files and an interview administered via a questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression was used and odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. The heterogeneity of the associations was assessed using the Wald test. Family history of breast cancer was associated with IDC (OR 2.64, 95% CI: 1.97–3.55) but not ILC (OR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.42–1.57; p for heterogeneity <0.001). Conversely, a history of miscarriage was associated with ILC (OR 1.71, 95% CI: 1.17–2.51) but not IDC (OR 1.18, 95% CI: 0.95–1.46; p for heterogeneity = 0.04). Similarly, type 2 diabetes was associated with ILC but not IDC (p for heterogeneity = 0.02). Age at first delivery and breastfeeding were significantly associated with IDC but not ILC, though p values for heterogeneity did not reach the significance level. Deliberate weight loss and age at menarche were significantly associated with ILC but not IDC (p for heterogeneity ≥0.27). Smoking, history of benign breast disease and BMI were associated with both subtypes. The present study supports the hypothesis that IDC and ILC are etiologically distinct tumours. What's new? Different subtypes of breast cancer may have different risk factors. These authors investigated the diversity of risk factors relevant in "less‐developed" countries, where patients tend to be younger than in wealthier countries. They conducted a case‐control study comparing risk factors for invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) among 2,000 women in Iran. Many risk factors differed between the two, indicating that IDC and ILC are etiologically different diseases. Factors associated with ILC included type 2 diabetes and history of miscarriage, while IDC risk factors included family history of breast cancer and age at first childbirth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, the commonly used sparse‐based methods, such as sparse representation classifier, have achieved a good recognition result in face recognition. However, there exist several problems in those methods. First, those methods think that the importance of each atom is the same in representing other query samples. This is not reasonable because different atoms contain different amounts of information, their importance should be different when they together represent the query samples. Second, those methods cannot meet the real‐time requirement when dealing with large data set. In this study, on the one hand, the authors propose a fast extended sparse‐weighted representation classifier (FESWRC) by considering the different importance of atoms and using primal augmented Lagrangian method as well as principal component analysis. On the other hand, the authors propose a distinctive feature descriptor, named logarithmic‐weighted sum (LWS) feature descriptor. The authors combine FESWRC and LWS and used for face recognition, this method is called face recognition algorithm based on feature descriptor and weighted linear sparse representation (FDWLSR). Experimental results show that FDWLSR can realise real‐time recognition and the recognition rate can achieve 100.0, 100.0, 91.6, 93.4 and 87.4%, respectively, on the Yale, Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL), faculdade de engenharia industrial (FEI), face recognition technology program (FERET) and labelled face in the wild datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Obesity is an emerging public health problem, with its incidence on the rise. An abnormal metabolic profile is a risk factor for developing obesity. Dietary factors play a central role in the regulation of inflammation and obesity. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of metabolically healthy obese and metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) phenotypes, and their association with dietary inflammatory index (DII) among obese Iranian people. Methods: A cross‐sectional study was conducted from July to October 2017 among 300 obese participants in southern Tehran. DII scores were computed based on the overall inflammatory properties of 32 dietary components using dietary intake assessed by food frequency questionnaire. MUO phenotype was defined as having three or more of these metabolic abnormalities: high blood glucose, high triglycerides, low high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, elevated blood pressure or abdominal obesity. The association was determined using logistic regression analysis. Results: The MUO phenotype (n = 176) was found in 63.5% of obese participants. Compared with participants in the first quartile, those in the fourth quartile of DII score (more pro‐inflammatory diet) had higher odds of MUO phenotype (odds ratio, OR: 2.58 (95% CI: 1.19–5.59), P = 0.04), and there was a significant association between the continuous form of DII score and the odds of MUO phenotype (OR: 1.18 (95% CI: 1.01–1.37)) after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusions: Higher DII scores were positively associated with the MUO phenotype. A more pro‐inflammatory diet is a potential risk factor for MUO phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pruritus is among the most common complaints in the field of dermatology. It is also a disturbing symptom of many systemic disorders. Chronic pruritus (CP) refers to the cases of the symptom which last longer than 6 weeks. We conducted a prospective analysis of patients with generalized pruritus without primary skin lesions. All patients underwent primary evaluations and then were followed from 12 to 18 months for further evaluations. Of the 5,127 patients referred to our dermatology clinic, 49 patients with generalized pruritus without primary skin lesions were evaluated. Most of the patients (44%) were in the age group of 40–60 years and female (58%). The duration of pruritus was 37.04 ± 30.4 weeks. Fifty percent of the patients with generalized pruritus had a systemic cause of pruritus. The most common underlying diseases were thyroid disorders (16.67%), diabetes mellitus (12.5%), and malignancy (8.33%). There were no significant statistical differences among the patients in terms of their age, gender, and disease duration with the underlying diseases (P = 0.47, P = 0.99, P = 0.816, respectively). However, the average age of the onset of pruritus was 12 years earlier in the women regardless of the underlying diseases (P = 0.011). Based on the findings of the study, we recommend considering endocrine disorders and malignancies as the most common underlying diseases leading to chronic pruritus without primary skin lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of CKD in the Iranian general population. In this systematic review and meta‐analysis study, international (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar) and national databases (SID, Magiran) were searched until December 30, 2017. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the Hoy instrument. Out of 1170 initial studies, 9 studies with a total of 70 605 participants were included in the final stage of this study. Based on the results of the random effect method (95% CI), the overall prevalence of chronic kidney disease in 70 605 people was 15.14% (I2 = 99.77%). The prevalence of CKD in female patients (18.80%) was 1.7 times higher than in male patients (10.83). The results of the present study indicate a higher than the global average prevalence of CKD in Iran and the need for additional attention of policy makers on better planning for control and implementation of screening programs in high‐risk populations, such as patients with hypertension and diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Current study aimed to investigate the sex‐stratified secular trend of cardiovascular disease risk factors among an older population in Iran during a median follow‐up period of 8.76 years. Methods: A total of 1490 participants (733 women) aged ≥60 years were evaluated in four study phases of 2002–2005, 2005–2008, 2008–2011 and 2011–2014. The trends of cardiovascular disease risk factors for each sex were estimated using generalized estimating equations. Results: The age‐adjusted prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, central obesity, and chronic kidney disease at the baseline was 24%, 43%, 55%, and 32% in men and 31%, 57%, 60% and 53% in women, respectively, and had noticeable upward trend during the study period to reach 35%, 56%, 61% and 51% in men, and 42%, 71%, 74% and 67% in women, respectively. However, lipid profile parameters showed favorable trends. Despite the increasing trend in drug consumption, approximately 27% of women with diabetes and 37% of men with diabetes did not use antidiabetic medication, respectively; the results were 23% and 35% for hypertensive women and men, respectively. Among men, there was a decreasing trend towards low physical activity, from 40% at baseline to 26% at the most recent follow up. The prevalence of smoking remained steady throughout follow up. Conclusions: Despite the benefits of lipid lowering, the status of other risk factor profiles are often suboptimal in both sexes. There remains much room for improvement in risk factors management, particularly for hypertension, smoking and adiposity status, and a need for an intervention. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 130–137. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal biometrics based recognition systems are gradually gaining more proliferation due to their diversity of application and uses. The recognition system is applied for representation, recognition of generic visual features, and classification of different species based on their phenotype appearances, the morphological image pattern, and biometric characteristics. The muzzle point image pattern is a primary animal biometric characteristic for the recognition of individual cattle. It is similar to the identification of minutiae points in human fingerprints. This study presents an automatic recognition algorithm of muzzle point image pattern of cattle for the identification of individual cattle, verification of false insurance claims, registration, and traceability process. The proposed recognition algorithm uses the texture feature descriptors, such as speeded up robust features and local binary pattern for the extraction of features from the muzzle point images at different smoothed levels of Gaussian pyramid. The feature descriptors acquired at each Gaussian smoothed level are combined using fusion weighted sum‐rule method. With a muzzle point image pattern database of 500 cattle, the proposed algorithm yields the desired level of 93.87% identification accuracy. The comparative analysis of experimental results for proposed work and appearance‐based face recognition algorithms has been done at each level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Verification of image manipulation for various alterations is an indispensable technology to protect original images. Conventional forgery detection methods using fingerprint are useful, since the original image is not required in detection process. However, manipulated local region can't be specified. Further, type of manipulation is not identified. In this article, a novel forgery identification method based on reversible histogram shift is proposed. Our method can detect partial and overall manipulation regions and identify manipulation type. Simulation results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method using various types of manipulated database images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To investigate retinal nerve fibre layer ( RNFL) thickness in people with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and healthy controls. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed from March 2014 to January 2016. All participants underwent anthropometric and serological biochemical measurements, ophthalmological examination, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography ( SD- OCT). Individuals with elevated intraocular pressure, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and other ocular disorders were excluded. T-test, Chi square and general linear models were used to analyse the data. Results In total, 278 eyes from 139 participants were investigated [median (interquartile range) age: 37 (32−43) years]. RNFL thickness was lower in the nasal superior (107.8 ± 19.5μm) and temporal superior (135.7 ± 18.9μm) sectors in MetS group compared with the control group (114.6 ± 22.4 μm, P = 0.013 and 140.7 ± 18.2 μm, P = 0.027, respectively). After multiple adjustments for age, gender and the side of the examined [right ( OD)/left ( OS)] eye, MetS was independently associated with a lower RFNL thickness in the nasal superior (β = 0.20, P = 0.009) and temporal superior (β = 0.14, P = 0.048) sectors. RNFL thickness was significantly reduced in participants with higher numbers of metabolic abnormalities, independent of age, gender and the side of the examined eye ( P = 0.043). Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that MetS is independently associated with reduced RNFL thickness, suggesting that neurodegeneration is implicated in pathogenesis of MetS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual animal biometrics is an emerging research discipline in computer vision, pattern recognition and cognitive science. It is a promising research field that encourages new development of quantified algorithms and methodologies for representing, detection of visible features, phenotypic appearances of species, individuals and recognition of morphological and animal biometric characteristics. Furthermore, it also assists the study of animal trajectory and behaviours analysis of species. Currently, real‐world applications of visual animal biometric systems are gaining more proliferation due to a variety of applications and use, enhancement of quantity and quality of the collection of extensive ecological data and processing. However, to advance visual animal biometrics will require integration of methodologies among the scientific disciplines involved. Such valuable efforts will be worthwhile due to the enormous perspective of this approach rests with the formal abstraction of phenomics, to build well‐developed interfaces between different organisational levels of life. This study provides a comprehensive survey of visual animal biometric systems and recognition approaches for various species and individual animal based on their morphological image pattern and biometric characteristics. This comprehensive review paper encourages the multidisciplinary researchers, scientists, biologists and different research communities to design the better platforms for the development of efficient algorithms and learning models to solve the massive data processing, classification and identification of different species related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing age and sex of subjects from whole‐body features has important applications in a wide variety of areas. However, current techniques for determining this information without subject interaction or high‐resolution images are problematic. While computer vision techniques (e.g. poselets and histogram‐oriented gradients) are functional at a stand‐off, these methods often include areas influenced by characteristics such as clothing or hairstyle which vary by region and culture. Whole‐body anthropometrics, especially those of children and youth experiencing rapid musculoskeletal changes, may help inform robust models of age estimation and sex classification. Models of anthropometric variables were developed from a pre‐existing database for age estimation using linear regression techniques. Sex classification was performed both over the entire subject group as well as three individual age bins (2 ≤ subject age < 8, 8 ≤ subject age < 14, and 14 ≤ subject age). Age estimation models were highly dependent on head size and exhibited r‐squared values as high as 0.91 and root mean square error values as low as 1.29 years. Sex classification was found to be highly linked to a combination of foot, hand, hip, and torso metrics for correct classification as high as 88%. The results presented herein may help develop and focus methods of determining age and sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One sample per person face recognition problem is a challenging problem in face recognition. The authors propose a basis plus variety model on a high‐dimensional unit sphere to tackle the problem. In the model, the query image is approximately a linear combination of the basis image and variety image. The basis images are the neutral images of subjects and variety images are generalised from multi‐sample subjects in the gallery. Particle swarm optimisation is chosen to find out the optimum combination of the basis and variety in terms of the minimum L2 distance relative to the query image. The identity of the query image is equal to the identity of the basis image of the optimum combination. Experiments on the extended Yale face database B and AR database are provided to show the validity of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new design of primary synchronization signal (PSS) sequences and an efficient detection algorithm for multi-beam satellite long-term evolution (LTE) systems are investigated in this paper. First, a transmit-timing adjustment method is proposed to reduce the large time difference of arrival of received signals from different satellites. Then, using the particular subcarrier mapping scheme of LTE, original Zadoff-Chu sequences are generalized to obtain more candidate sequences with good correlation properties. Later on, choosing an optimal subset from these candidate sequences, new PSS sequences for seamless global coverage multi-beam satellite-LTE systems are obtained. Subsequently, an efficient synchronization and low complexity PSS detection algorithm using interference cancellation method is presented. Finally, simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because energy efficiency (EE) is inevitable in future wireless cellular networks, in this paper, we focus on improving the number of bits delivered to users for each unit energy consumption in the downlink of orthogonal frequency-division multiple access cellular networks with base stations (BSs) coordination. Specifically, each BS shares the channel qualities of users with others and jointly choose the set of co-channel users and the transmit power allocated to maximize the EE of the system subject to the transmit power ceiling of each BS and minimum required data rate. We formulate the problem as a nonlinear fractional optimization problem, using nonlinear fractional programming, the original hard-to-solve problem is transferred to a new one that has the same optimal solution and is easier to solve, this enables two iterative algorithms that achieve nearly the same maximum EE. Numerical results are provided to show the convergence and superiority of the two proposed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change of transmission from analogue to digital in television (TV) systems has resulted in the formation of considerable spectrum holes in various geographical locations. Cognitive radio (CR) is one of the best structures that can be opportunistically used for optimal exploitation of these spectral sources. In this study, the authors intend to investigate the use of multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiple access-based structure in the TV white spaces bands in the downlink path with respect to long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) parameters. For this purpose, while different spectrum holes in the TV frequency range have been introduced, their limitations in practical applications have fully been discussed. Besides, since the previous power allocation algorithms are not effective enough to be applied in the present scenario, a proper algorithm for maximising the total capacity of the CR system has been introduced. The performance efficiency of the proposed power allocation algorithm has been evaluated and justified through the consideration of the system parameters based on the LTE-A standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To describe trends in the HIV epidemic among drug users ( DUs) in China from 1995 to 2011. Design, Setting and Participants Data sets from China's national HIV/ AIDS case reporting and sentinel surveillance systems as of December 2011 were used separately for descriptive analysis. Measures Changes in the geographic distribution of the number of HIV cases and HIV prevalence among injecting drug users ( IDUs) and non- IDUs were examined. We also analysed changes in HIV prevalence among the broader DU population, and drug use-related behaviours including types of drugs used, recent injecting and recent needle sharing in the context of the rapid scale-up of DU sentinel sites and national harm reduction programmes. Findings The HIV epidemic among China's DUs is still highly concentrated in five provinces. Here, HIV prevalence peaked at 30.3% [95% confidence interval ( CI) = 28.6, 32.1] among IDUs in 1999, and then gradually decreased to 10.9% (95% CI = 10.6, 11.2) by 2011. We observed a rapid increase in the use of 'nightclub drugs' among DUs from 1.3% in 2004 to 24.4% in 2011. A decline in recent needle sharing among current IDU from 19.5% (95% CI = 19.4, 19.6) in 2006 to 11.3% (95% CI = 11.2, 11.4) in 2011 was found to be correlated with the rapid scale-up of methadone maintenance treatment ( MMT; r(4) = −0.94, P = 0.003) harm reduction efforts. Conclusions While HIV prevalence and needle sharing among current injecting drug users in China have declined dramatically and are correlated with the scale-up of national harm reduction efforts, the recent, rapid increased use of 'nightclub drugs' presents a new challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss performance modeling is important for the purpose of developing efficient dimensioning tools for large complicated networks. The performance modeling involves two challenging problems:(i) it is difficult to achieve in heterogeneous wireless networks, where different networks have different statistical characteristics in service and traffic models and (ii) capacity-constrained femto-macro overlay networks pose significant challenges due to the wide variety of bandwidth requirement of Internet services, the large number of femtocells overlaid by a macrocell, and the need for fast computations imposed by practical requirements of dynamic real-time resource allocation. This paper proposes a new computationally efficient numerical method for the loss probability approximation in hierarchical heterogeneous wireless networks. Verified by simulations, the performance and accuracy of the proposed numerical method is evaluated in a two-tier hierarchical cellular network and compared with an existing approximation method based on multidimensional Markov-modulated Poisson process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]