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Keloid scarring is one of the most common types of pathological scarring. Keloid scars that fail to heal can affect a person's physical and psychological function by causing pain, pruritus, contractures, and cosmetic disfigurement. Silicone gel sheeting (SGS) is made from medical-grade silicone reinforced with a silicone membrane backing and is one of the most commonly used treatments for keloid scars. However, there is no up-to-date systematic review assessing the effectiveness of SGS for keloid scars. A clear and rigorous review of current evidence is required to guide clinicians, healthcare managers and people with keloid scarring.To assess the effectiveness of silicone gel sheeting for the treatment of keloid scars compared with standard care or other therapies.We used standard, extensive Cochrane search methods. The latest search date was December 2021.We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that recruited people with any keloid scars and assessed the effectiveness of SGS.Two review authors independently performed study selection, risk of bias assessment, data extraction and GRADE assessment of the certainty of evidence. We resolved initial disagreements by discussion, or by consulting a third review author when necessary.Two studies met the inclusion criteria. Study sample sizes were 16 and 20 participants. The trials were clinically heterogeneous with differences in causes for scarring (e.g. surgery, infected wounds, and trauma), site (e.g. chest and back), and ages of scars. The duration of follow-up was three and four and a half months. The included studies reported three comparisons; SGS compared with no treatment, SGS compared with non-silicone gel sheeting (a dressing similar to SGS but which does not contain silicone), and SGS compared with intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide. One trial had a split-body design and one trial had an unclear design (resulting in a mix of paired and clustered data). The included studies reported limited outcome data for the primary review outcome of scar severity measured by health professionals and no data were reported for severity of scar measured by patients or adverse events. For secondary outcomes some data on pain were reported, but health-related quality of life and cost-effectiveness were not reported. Both trials had suboptimal outcome reporting, thus many domains in the risk of bias were assessed as unclear. All evidence was rated as being very low-certainty, mainly due to risk of bias, indirectness, and imprecision. SGS compared with no treatment Two studies with 33 participants (76 scars) reported the severity of scar assessed by health professionals, and we are uncertain about the effect of SGS on scar severity compared with no treatment (very low-certainty evidence, downgraded once for risk of bias, once for inconsistency, once for indirectness, and once for imprecision). We are uncertain about the effect of SGS on pain compared with no treatment (21 participants with 40 scars; very low-certainty evidence, downgraded once for risk of bias, once for inconsistency, once for indirectness, and once for imprecision). No data were reported for other outcomes including scar severity assessed by patients, adverse events, adherence to treatment, health-related quality of life and cost-effectiveness. SGS compared with non-SGS One study with 16 participants (25 scars) was included in this comparison. We are uncertain about the effect of SGS on scar severity assessed by health professionals compared with non-SGS (very low-certainty evidence, downgraded once for risk of bias, once for indirectness, and once for imprecision). We are also uncertain about the effect of SGS on pain compared with non-SGS (very low-certainty evidence, downgraded once for risk of bias, once for indirectness, and once for imprecision). No data were reported for other outcomes including scar severity assessed by patients, adverse events, adherence to treatment, health-related quality of life and cost-effectiveness. SGS compared with intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide One study with 17 participants (51 scars) reported scar severity assessed by health professionals, and we are uncertain about the effect of SGS on scar severity compared with intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide (very low-certainty evidence, downgraded once for risk of bias, once for indirectness, and once for imprecision). This study also reported pain assessed by health professionals among 5 participants (15 scars) and we are uncertain about the effect of SGS on pain compared with intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide (very low-certainty evidence, downgraded once for risk of bias, once for indirectness, and twice for imprecision). No data were reported for other outcomes including scar severity assessed by patients, adverse events, adherence to treatment, health-related quality of life and cost-effectiveness.There is currently a lack of RCT evidence about the clinical effectiveness of SGS in the treatment of keloid scars. From the two studies identified, there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate whether the use of SGS compared with no treatment, non-SGS, or intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide makes any difference in the treatment of keloid scars. Evidence from the included studies is of very low certainty, mainly driven by the risk of bias, indirectness, and imprecision due to small sample size. Further well-designed studies that have good reporting methodologies and address important clinical, quality of life and economic outcomes are required to reduce uncertainty around decision-making in the use of SGS to treat keloid scars.

Background Driven by the government’s firm commitment to promoting maternal health, maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in China has achieved a remarkable reduction over the past 25 years. Paralleled with the decline of MMR has been the expansion of hospital bed supply as well as substantial reduction in hospital bed distribution inequalities, which were thought to be significant contributors to the reduction in MMR. However, evidences on the impact of hospital bed supply as well as how its distribution inequality has affected MMR remains scarce in China. Addressing this uncertainty is essential to understand whether efforts made on the expansion of healthcare resource supply as well as on improving its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective has the potential to produce measurable population health improvements. Methods Panel data of 31 provinces in China between 2004 and 2016 were extracted from the national statistical data, including China Statistical Yearbooks, China Health Statistical Yearbooks and other national publications. We firstly described the changes in hospital bed density as well as its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective. Then, a linear mixed model was employed to evaluate the impact of hospital bed supply as well as its distribution inequality on MMR at the provincial level. Results The MMR decreased substantially from 48.3 to 19.9 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2004 and 2016. The average hospital bed density increased from 2.28 per 1000 population in 2004 to 4.54 per 1000 population in 2016, with the average Gini coefficient reducing from 0.32 to 0.25. As indicated by the adjusted mixed-effects regressions, hospital bed density had a negative association with MMR (β = − 0.112, 95% CI: − 0.210--0.013) while every 0.1-unit reduction of Gini coefficient suggested 14.50% decline in MMR on average (β = 1.354, 95% CI: 0.123–2.584). Based on the mediation analysis, the association between hospital bed density or Gini coefficient with MMR was found to be significantly mediated by facility birth rate, especially during the period from 2004 to 2009. Conclusions This study provided empirical evidences on China’s impressive success in the aspect of reducing MMR which could be attributed to the expansion of hospital beds as well as the improvement in its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective. Such findings were expected to provide evidence-based implications for long-term policy-making procedures in order to achieve rational healthcare resource allocations as well as promoting the equity and accessibility to obtaining health care from a holistic perspective. Constant efforts should be made on improving the equity in healthcare resource allocations in order to achieve the penetration of universal healthcare coverage.

Although a number of anti-rheumatic drugs and biologics may be used to alleviate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), these compounds have been associated with bone loss and joint destruction; thus, alternative treatment approaches are required. In the present study, various plant extracts were evaluated for their capacity to inhibit joint destruction, and Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS), obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Panax notoginseng, was identified as such a compound. Therefore, a rabbit antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) model was generated by immunization with ovalbumin in Freund's complete adjuvant, followed by treatment with PNS for 3 months. The morphology of the quadriceps femoris muscle, cartilage chondrocytes and skeletal elements was histologically observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), as well as micro-computed tomography. The results revealed that PNS significantly reduced the histopathological alterations associated with arthritic muscular atrophy and inflammation. In addition, TEM demonstrated that PNS protected chondrocytes from RA-associated damage. Furthermore, the bone density and microarchitecture in rabbits treated with PNS were markedly improved compared with those of the model group. Collectively, these data indicated that treatment with PNS may relieve osteoporosis and prevent joint and bone destruction in AIA.

This letter presents a CMOS reverse received signal strength indicator (reverse-RSSI) based logarithmic power detector (PD). A capacitor attenuation array and unbalanced source-coupled rectifiers are utilized to constitute the reverse-RSSI architecture, which greatly increases the maximum detectable power. Two auxiliary capacitors in the rectifier are introduced to improve linearity at high input power dramatically. The PD with 0.4–5-GHz operating frequency can be fully integrated and has stable and reliable performance according to multiple tests. Measurement results show that the maximum detectable power achieves +35 dBm and dynamic range reaches 45 dB with ±1-dB linearity error. The proposed PD is implemented in a standard 180-nm CMOS process with 0.085 mm2 core area. The total static power consumption is 0.78 mW with a 3.3-V supply voltage.

The production of iron and steel is energy-intensive that motivated the emergence of various energy-saving technologies to reduce energy consumption. However, the effects of water-saving brought by these energy-saving technologies are rarely examined which can lead to misevaluation of their economic feasibility. In this regard, material flow analysis (MFA) was used in this study to establish the water-energy nexus and examine the potential of water-saving and energy-saving effects in the condition of applying various mixes of the 16 technologies (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 2015–2016) in iron and steel industry. Meanwhile, this study classified the selected 16 energy-saving technologies into three groups: direct water-saving technology, indirect water-saving technology, and water consumption technology. The low-temperature steel rolling technology is the only water-consuming energy-saving technology in this study; its indirect specific water computation reaches 0.06 m3/t. The remaining 15 energy-saving technologies have the potential of saving water indirectly, with averaged indirect specific water-saving amounting to 0.28 m3/t. This study also built an evaluation scheme of cost-benefit analysis for energy-saving technologies. With consideration of benefits brought by water saving, eleven technologies have the potential to achieve economic feasibility compared to nine in which mere energy-saving effects being considered. The results show that if the studied 16 technologies are implemented simultaneously, the comprehensive specific energy consumption will be reduced by 4.28 MJ, and the specific fresh water consumption will be reduced by 0.68 m3. Meanwhile, this research found that the cost of most energy-saving technologies will be decreased by an average of 5.52 CNY/GJ, despite the cost of low-temperature steel rolling technology increased by 0.68 CNY/GJ. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of energy-saving technologies taking the benefits of water conservation into consideration. It could provide references for decision-makers to develop commercialization strategies on energy saving technologies in the steel industry.

The three types of elements nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and Sulfur (S) are inextricably linked from the source to the destination throughout the system. To analyze the environmental load caused by the three elements, this study established a material metabolism model to quantify the relationships among metabolic processes on the provincial scale and examined their environmental implications based on Substance Flow Analysis (SFA). The results show that the metabolic fluxes of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur in the socioeconomic system of Liaoning Province in 2016 were 5.339 million tons, 0.582 million tons and 3.084 million tons, respectively. The agricultural sector caused the greatest environmental pressures on water bodies, in which nitrogen and phosphorus accounted for 61.8% and 80.2% of the total water body load. For atmospheric load, the nitrogen and sulfur elements in the industrial sector caused the largest atmospheric load, accounting for 37.8% and 91.4% of the total atmospheric load, respectively. The main source of phosphorus soil load in Liaoning Province is the agricultural production, accounting for 85.3% of the total soil load caused by phosphorus.

With the evolution of economic theory and the change of actual environment, the research on returnee entrepreneurs owns new significance. This article uses Chinese returnee entrepreneurs in Beijing areas as a sample to test the halo effect after returnee entrepreneurs encounter financing expectations violation and uses the theory of identity economics to explain the cause of this halo effect. Questionnaire survey, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used in this study. The conclusion shows that after overseas returnees encounter a violation of financing expectations, not only will they lower their satisfaction with the financing environment but also this negative sentiment will spread to the two areas of policy support environment and entrepreneurial culture environment. The halo effects produced by returnees of different identity types are different, and the halo effect produced by returnees who identify with their own talents will be more obvious.

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to examine the burden of depressive symptoms across the adult age span in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and test if the relationship between depressive symptoms and MS characteristics vary across age groups. Methods: In analyses of the MS Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions (MS PATHS) network of adults with MS, we compared the prevalence of depression in MS PATHS with non-MS controls across age and evaluated for effect modification by age in the association between depressive symptoms and clinical and neuroperformance measures via multivariable-adjusted regression models. Results: In total, 13,821 individuals with MS were included. The prevalence of depression was higher in MS versus non-MS controls, but was similar between men/women across age. The association between depression and processing speed (PST; p for interaction = 0.009) or walking speed ( p for interaction = 0.04) varied by age. For example, younger depressed individuals had 0.45 standard deviation (SD) (95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.62, −0.29) worse PST Z-scores versus non-depressed younger participants, whereas older depressed individuals had 0.20 SD (95% CI = −0.32, −0.08) worse PST Z-scores versus non-depressed older participants. Conclusion: Depressive symptoms and age should be considered when interpreting measures of walking speed and cognitive function; these findings may have implications for analyses of neuroperformance change.

Competition has been widely introduced among hospitals in the hope of improving health-care quality. However, whether competition leads to higher-quality health care is a topic of considerable debate. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of hospital-market competition on unplanned readmission. We searched six electronic databases (PubMed, EmBase, Wiley Online Library, Web of Science, Scopus, and JSTOR) and reference lists of screened articles for relevant studies, and strictly followed methods proposed by the Cochrane Collaboration. Finally, nine observational studies with 2,241,767 patients were included. For the primary outcome, pooled results of three studies showed that it was uncertain whether or not hospital competition reduces readmission (β=0.02, P=0.06; very low certainty of evidence, as they were all observational studies with high heterogeneity). Inconsistent results were found in the remaining six studies, and they were assessed as very low–certainty evidence, downgraded for either inconsistency or indirectness or both. As for secondary outcomes, seven of the nine studies reported on the impact of competition on the risk of mortality, and two reported on length of stay (LOS). It was uncertain whether competition had an effect on mortality or LOS. The relevant studies were limited and of very low certainty, which means there is currently no reliable evidence showing that hospital competition reduces quality of health care in terms of readmission/mortality/LOS. There is a need for rigorous studies to assess the impact of hospital competition on the quality of health care.

Background: As the peak prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) shifts due to an aging patient population, understanding the characteristics that define this older cohort to improve overall management is critical. We sought to determine the clinical characteristics of people with MS over age 60. Methods: Demographics, clinical characteristics, MS disease history, and Multiple Sclerosis Performance Test (MSPT) patient-reported outcomes and neuroperformance tests (NPTs) were collected from 10 academic MS centers in the US and Europe participating in the MS Partners Advancing Technology Health Solutions (MS PATHS) system. We characterized demographic and disease characteristics of included participants using descriptive statistics. We characterized prevalence of comorbidities and compared with estimated prevalences from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) respondents aged ≥60 years in 2017-2018. Results: We identified 2738 individuals over age 60 from MS PATHS, with 58.1% relapsing-remitting (RR) and 41.9% progressive. Our results showed median age (RR=65.7 years, progressive=66.0 years), age of symptom onset (RR and progressive=40.9 years), and disease duration (RR=22.8 years, progressive=23.3 years). Over two-thirds of individuals in our cohort were treated with DMTs. The most common DMT used in RR patients were interferons (17.6%) and glatiramer acetate (16.3%), while glatiramer acetate was the most common (12.0%) in progressive patients. Progressive patients had higher disability (higher median PDDS scores, worse Neuro-Qol T-scores, and worse NPTs) compared to the RR group. Pain was the most common comorbidity, followed by cardiac disease, depression, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity. Compared to older NHANES participants, older people with MS were more likely to have depression (MS PATHS: 51.5% [95% CI: 49.5% to 53.5%] vs. NHANES: 21.7% [95% CI: 1619.3% to 22.2%]) and osteoporosis (MS PATHS: 12.7% [95% CI: 11.3% to 14.1%] vs. NHANES: 8.2% [95% CI: 6.2% to 10.3%]); they were less likely to be obese (MS PATHS: 29.4% [95% CI: 27.7% to 31.2%] vs. NHANES: 45.1% [95% CI: 38.9% to 51.3%]) and have diabetes (MS PATHS: 12.3% [95% CI: 11.1% to 13.6%] vs. NHANES: 22.5% [95% CI: 18.8% to 25.7%]). Conclusions: Our study characterizes a large multi-center international cohort of people with MS over age 60. This contemporary cohort appears less disabled than prior studies, which may reflect long term impact of DMT availability on the natural history of MS. The burden of comorbidity in this population was generally high. Information on DMT use, comorbidity, and disability outcome measures will be beneficial in future studies evaluating the impact of therapeutic interventions in older individuals.

Timely access to emergency care can substantially improve overall population’s health outcomes. However, currently existed evidence focusing on access to emergency care in China remains insufficient. A better understanding of emergency care from the perspective of spatial accessibility is therefore essential to assist in future healthcare planning. This study provided a brief introduction to the emergency medical service system of China, and assessed the spatial accessibility of emergency care as well as its associated social-economic characteristics based on Sichuan province. Based on populational and hospital administrative data in 2018, we employed the nearest-neighbor method to measure the spatial accessibility while identifying its associated social-economic factors via conventional Ordinary Least Square (OLS) model. The shortest travel time analysis reported a relatively high level of overall spatial accessibility to emergency care in Sichuan. However, substantial geographical disparity in accessibility could nevertheless be observed throughout the province, with the eastern area presenting much higher accessibility than the western area. Regression results suggested that county-level discrepancies in accessibility could be significantly attributed to the variance in local economic development, urbanization level and administrative area. These findings indicated that long-term efforts need to be made by central government on optimizing the allocation of healthcare resources, as well as on fortifying financial support and providing preferential policies for economically disadvantaged regions.

This paper presents a CMOS fully-integrated temperature sensor based on a relaxation oscillator for IoT applications. To reduce power consumption, this sensor utilizes the half-period pre-charge compensation relaxation oscillator and uses a time-to-digital convertor (TDC) instead of analog-to-digital convertor (ADC) to count. Besides, the current distribution circuit is employed to improve temperature accuracy. The proposed sensor is implemented in 0.18 µm CMOS and occupies an area of 0.11 mm2. Measurement results show that the temperature sensor achieves an inaccuracy of −0.3/+0.27 °C across −15°C to 65°C after 2-point calibration. The chip consumes 1.3 µW at 27°C with a 650 mV voltage supply.

Solar energy driven photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution over nanocluster modified semiconductor-based photocatalysts and understanding the charge transfer between the interface of nanocluster and semiconductor is of great importance. In this work, a benzyl thiol protected nickel nanocluster (Ni6(SCH2Ph)12) is developed as co-catalyst for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over TiO2 catalyst. By mildly depositing the nanocluster onto the TiO2 surface, a thirty times enhancement of hydrogen evolution efficiency and an evolution rate of 5600 μmol g−1cat h−1 is achieved under simulated sunlight irradiation. It is found that the presence of visible light could not simulate catalytic activity solely, however, it could be a promoter to improve the hydrogen evolution efficiency of Ni6/TiO2 upon ultraviolet irradiation. The boosting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is ascribed to the efficient electron transfer from TiO2 to the nanocluster via a dynamic excitation and electron-hole recombination process assisted by the benzyl group of the ligands, which is evidenced by experimental characterizations and DFT calculations. A pseudo-Z-scheme charge transfer route under simulated solar light irradiation is proposed to illustrate the enhancement of heterogeneous photocatalysis.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the isoxanthanol against Staphylococcus aureus chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in rat model. The isoxanthanol decreased the parasitic load by almost 99% in the Staphylococcus aureus infected rats. It significantly (P 0.05) decreased mortality rate of the rats, prevented pulmonary tissue damage and aggregation of inflammatory cytokines. In Staphylococcus aureus infected rats, isoxanthanol treatment inhibited production of interleukin-18, interleukin-1β and TNF-α significantly (P 0.05) in the BALF and pulmonary tissues. Treatment of the Staphylococcus aureus-infected rats with isoxanthanol inhibited up-regulation of NLRP3, ASC and caspase-1 expression. In Staphylococcus aureus-infected rats the expression of miR-145-5p was remarkably increased on treatment with isoxanthanol. In summary, isoxanthanol prevents Staphylococcus aureus-induced COPD in rats through up-regulation of miR-145-5p and suppression of inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, isoxanthanol can be of therapeutic importance for the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus induced COPD.

Defect engineering on a semiconductor surface can provide coordinatively unsaturated sites for molecular oxygen activation in photocatalysis. In this work, we demonstrated that the vacancy type was key to modulate the molecular oxygen activation process on BiOBr nanosheets. By regulating the reaction time, an oxygen vacancy , a double atom defect cluster and triple atom clusters were accordingly generated on the surface, subsurface and bulk of BiOBr. More importantly, the newly-discovered defect cluster was highly related to the singlet oxygen (1O2) production ability of BiOBr. Meanwhile, the excellent photocatalytic selective oxidation reactions were successfully realized over BiOBr with the defect cluster. In addition, time-dependent defect cluster generation and the associated molecular oxygen activation were discussed.

ObjectivesThe objective of this meta-analysis was to assess whether depression in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients is associated with higher risk of adverse outcomes.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.MethodsEMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched as data sources. We selected prospective cohort studies evaluating the relationship between depression and any adverse medical outcome, including all-cause mortality, cardiac mortality and non-fatal events, from inception to 28 February 2019. Two reviewers independently extracted information and calculated the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with preoperative or postoperative depression compared with non-depressed patients.ResultsEight studies (n=3297) met our inclusion criteria. Most studies found a positive association between depression and adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Meta-analysis yielded an aggregate risk ratio of 1.57 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.92, pConclusionsOur systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that depression is associated with an increased risk of worse clinical outcome or mortality in patients undergoing PCI. Assessment time and length of follow-up do not have a significant effect on this conclusion.

In this paper a new type of curved TFT LCD which is 15inch 1024×768 integrated ASG solution has been presented. Curved display not only can get realistic visual effect but also fit human eyes better. Panel is fixed by curved backlight to achieve curved display. It is found that image quality of curved display is quite different from flat one. In this paper we discuss brightness uniformity of curved display both white and black image. Based on measurement results we discuss the difference between curved and flat LCD. According to the results,brightness uniformity of LCD should be improved by adjusting cell gap, module design and some IC technology such as local dimming.

To evaluate the effectiveness of integrative medicine (IM) on patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and investigate the prognostic factors of CAD in a real-world setting. A total of 1,087 hospitalized patients with CAD from four hospitals in Beijing, China were consecutively selected between August 2011 and February 2012. The patients were assigned to two groups based on the treatment: Chinese medicine (CM) plus conventional treatment, i.e., IM therapy (IM group); or conventional treatment alone (CT group). The endpoint was major adverse cardiac events [MACE; including cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), and revascularization]. A total of 1,040 patients finished the 2-year follow-up. Of them, 49.4% (514/1,040) received IM therapy. During the 2-year follow-up, the total incidence of MACE was 11.3%. Most of the events involved revascularization (9.3%). Cardiac death/MI occurred in 3.0% of cases. For revascularization, logistic stepwise regression analysis revealed that age ⩾ 65 years [odds ratio (OR), 2.224], MI (OR, 2.561), diabetes mellitus (OR, 1.650), multi-vessel lesions (OR, 2.554), baseline high sensitivity C-reactive protein level ⩾ 3 mg/L (OR, 1.678), and moderate or severe anxiety/depression (OR, 1.849) were negative predictors (P

Objective: Investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and race with self-reported fatigue, depression, and anxiety levels in multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: Cross-sectional review of the MS Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions (MS PATHS) database for adults with MS in the United States. We evaluated race and socioeconomic status (available markers: insurance, employment status, or level of education) as predictors of fatigue, depression, and anxiety sub-scores of the Neuro-QoL (Quality of life in neurological disorders), with particular interest between Caucasians/whites (CA) and African Americans/blacks (AA). Multivariate linear regression models included as covariates age, sex, disability status, smoking status, body mass index, and disease-modifying therapy. Results: 7,430 individuals were included; compared to CA, AA tended to be younger, more female-predominant, and had a higher level of disability. AA had completed slightly less education, had a higher level of Medicaid coverage or uninsured status, and had higher rates of unemployed or disabled status. In the univariate model, markers of lower SES, by whichever definition we used, correlated with worse affective symptoms. In the multivariate model stratified by race, CA showed similar trends. In contrast, in AA, only lower SES by employment status was correlated with worse affective symptoms. In both CA and AA, moderate and severe level of disability correlated with worse affective symptoms. Conclusion: SES and race may influence affective symptoms reported by individuals with MS. The reasons for the correlation are likely multifactorial. Longitudinal studies should strive to identify factors associated with risk of affective symptoms in MS that may be modifiable.

In real life, most of the infrastructure networks closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood do not exist independently, but are interconnected with or dependent on each other, so the multilayer network model is proposed to study the independent complex systems and infrastructures. When the nodes in the multilayer network suffer initial failure or attack, the cascade occurs due to the interaction between the “intra-layer” and “inter-layer”, and the failure can propagate in the network layer and across the layers iteratively, so that the scale of the failures is enlarged gradually. As a result, many multilayer networks are more fragile than single networks. The cascading failure of multilayer network usually brings very serious catastrophes to our society. So, conducting the research on preventing the multilayer network from cascading failure and recovering is of great significance. As far as the prevention of cascading failure is concerned, what are mainly included are the strategies such as the fault detection, the protection of important nodes, the optimization of the coupling method of networks, and the backup of nodes. As for the recovery of multi-layer network, included mainly are the strategies such as common boundary node recovery, the idle connected link recovery, the link addition, the priority recovery of important nodes, the topology perturbation, and the repairing of localized attack and adaptive link.

The cumulative effect of childhood adversities on depressive symptoms in later life is well documented. However, there is a dearth of accurate information about this effect among Chinese population. The aim of this study is to examine the cumulative effect of childhood adversities on mid-late depressive symptoms in the Chinese population.Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). We included 17,425 respondents aged 45 and over, and retrospectively collected information of childhood adversities. The depressive symptoms were assessed using a 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). A structural equation model was employed for analysis.Parental mental health problems had a direct effect on mid-late depressive symptoms (β = 0.180, P 0.001). Lack of friends showed direct effect on mid-late depressive symptoms (β = 0.118, P 0.001) and indirect effect through low SES and poor health status in mid-late life (β = 0.054, P 0.001). Poor health status, child neglect and abuse, and low SES in childhood had an indirect effect on mid-late depressive symptoms (β = 0.128, β = 0.040, β = 0.098, P 0.001).Limitations of this study include recall bias on life course data collection, absence of adolescent data, limited construction of latent variables.These findings are crucial for preventing childhood adversities and subsequently reducing the prevalence of depression. Moreover, the indirect effects of childhood adversities suggest that early intervention and resource mobilization can circumvent some of the long-term mental health consequences.

Objectives We aimed to assess the effect of selective intracoronary hypothermia on outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). Background Intracoronary hypothermia, the feasibility and safety of which has been validated in humans, induced by selective trans-coronary infusion of saline at different temperatures can reduce infarct size (IS) prior to reperfusion in animal models of STEMI. Methods Sixty STEMI patients presenting with thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) flow grade 0/1 were randomized after coronary artery angiography. Intracoronary hypothermia was induced by selective trans-coronary infusion of saline at 4°C to the endangered myocardium in the 30 patients. The primary endpoint, absolute IS expressed as IS/myocardium at risk (MaR), was assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at day 7 post-PPCI in 50 patients. Clinical follow-up was undertaken at day 30 after procedure. Results Intracoronary hypothermia was successfully performed in hypothermia group, without increase in arrhythmia or hemodynamic instability. The mean temperature reduction of 5.8 ± 1.1°C in distal coronary artery was achieved before reperfusion. Mean IS/MaR was predominantly reduced in the hypothermia group (44.85 ± 5.89% vs. 50.69 ± 10.75%, P = 0.022), especially in the anterior STEMI subgroup (46.12 ± 7.54% vs. 55.27 ± 11.175%, P = 0.023). The clinical events appeared no statistical difference between the two groups at the 30-day follow-up. Conclusion The statistical difference in IS/MaR by intracoronary hypothermia as adjunctive therapy to PPCI is an important observation and warrants a larger pivotal trial fully powered for efficacy.

This study was based on the questionnaire survey of China Association for Science to research the work satisfaction of Chinese scientists. Cronbach and factor analysis methods were first used for testing the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, the mean and percentage were used for analyzing scientists’ work satisfaction in all aspects, and finally the factor score and t-test were used for comparing the differences in work satisfaction of scientists from Chinese research institutes, universities and enterprises. Conclusions showed that the questionnaire had good reliability and validity, the scientists were satisfied with expertise applications and interpersonal relationships and dissatisfied with wages, benefits and opportunities for further study, and those from universities had higher overall satisfaction, while those from enterprises had lower overall satisfaction.

The mechanical design of computerized glove machine was traditional. It was not only lack of theoretical analysis of key institutions, but running stability needed to be improved. We analyzed the impact of the needle and cams which was based on the computerized glove machine’s knitting theory and key process points. On the basis of SolidWorks, 3-D model of computerized glove machine’s knitting element was created; We imported the 3-D model to ANSYS/LS-DYNA system and realized the motion simulation of needle and cams. As a result, we got the curves of needle’s displacement, velocity and acceleration. According to the simulation parameters of needle’s movement, the knitting element was optimized design. The result reveals that acceleration reaches a maximum of 0.63×105m/s2 when knitting time is 0.052ms. It reduces nearly 16% compare to the result before design optimization of knitting element. The smooth of computerized glove machine is being improved significantly.

This paper presents a temperature and supply voltage variation-tolerant CMOS relaxation oscillator which is suitable for ultra-low power systems. A low-power low-cost half-period pre-charge compensation scheme is proposed to eliminate influences of the delay of the comparator and the RS latch on the frequency stability of the relaxation oscillator. In a clock period consisting of four working stages including normal charge, discharge, pre-charge and hold stage, the threshold voltage of comparators is adjusted dynamically. A 32.7-kHz relaxation oscillator with the proposed half-period pre-charge compensation scheme is implemented in a TSMC 0.18-μm CMOS process, occupying a silicon area of 0.048 mm2. Simulation results show that the proposed relaxation oscillator consumes 51-nW at room temperature from 0.6-V power supply, and temperature stability of 43.1 ppm/°C from −55 °C to 125 °C and ±0.60% frequency variation with supply voltage from 0.5 V to 1.0 V are achieved.

Electric-hydraulic servo system is a nonlinear and uncertain system with time-varying parameters and interference. The fuzzy PID control algorithm is used,which not only keep the flexible characteristic of fuzzy control algorithm but also inherit the traditional PID control algorithm advantages of high control precision. Research shows that fuzzy PID control has the character of fast response speed, rising fast, small lag, small overshoot, anti-interference, do not depend on the accurate model.

Background The cumulative effect of childhood adversities on depressive symptoms in later life is well documented in many countries. However, there is a dearth of accurate information about this effect in the Chinese population. We aimed to examine the cumulative effect of childhood adversities on depressive symptoms in mid-to-late life, using data from the Chinese population. Methods We retrieved data from the third and fourth wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), which was carried out in 2014 and 2015. We included anonymised data from 17 425 respondents aged 45 years and older, and retrospectively collected information about childhood history, including socioeconomic status, health status, child neglect and abuse, friendship, and parental mental health. The information about socioeconomic status and health status in mid-to-late life was also included. The depressive symptoms were assessed using a ten-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). We used a structural equation model and depicted the direct or indirect pathways from five aspects of childhood adversities to depressive symptoms in mid-to-late life. Socioeconomic status and health status in mid-to-late life acted as a mediated factor in this model. Findings The structural equation model had a good satisfactory fit (comparative fit index 0·927; Tucker–Lewis index 0·922; root mean square error of approximation 0·020). Parental mental health problems had a significant direct effect on depressive symptoms in mid-to-late life (β=0·180, p Interpretation Childhood adversities were directly or indirectly associated with depressive symptoms in mid-to-late life, and the cumulative effects were mediated by poor health status and low socioeconomic status in mid-to-late life. These findings are crucial for the development of integrated practices and deployment of available resources to prevent childhood adversities, subsequently reducing the prevalence of depression. Moreover, the indirect pathways from childhood adversities to depressive symptoms in mid-to-late life indicate that early inequality may develop along multiple axes and shape life outcomes in later life, such as socioeconomic status. The findings suggested the interruptive potential of early resource mobilisation and human agency to curb the cumulative effects of adversity. Funding China Medical Board (14-198)

This paper investigated dynamic initiation of crack growth and crack fast propagation for the double cantilever-beam specimen (DCB) of two-dimensional decagonal Al-Ni-Co quasicrystals. The elasto-/hydro-dynamic model for wave propagation and diffusion together with their interaction is adopted. Numerical results of stresses, displacements and dynamic stress intensity factor are obtained by the finite difference method. Dynamic initiation of crack growth and crack fast propagation are discussed in detail in which the latter is a nonlinear problem arising from moving boundary effect, which is in particular explored.

A wide band radio frequency (RF) root-mean-square (RMS) power detector (PD) is presented in this paper. A CMOS rectifier with unbalanced source-coupled pairs and auxiliary capacitors is utilized to constitute the reverse received signal strength indicator (reverse-RSSI) architecture as proposed power detector with operating frequency from 300 MHz to 10 GHz. The auxiliary capacitors are introduced to improve linearity at high input power dramatically. The power detector can be connected to power amplifier without directional coupler due to the capacitor attenuation array. Simulation results show that the maximum detection power is as high as +30 dBm and dynamic range reaches more than 42 dB with ±1 dB error. The proposed power detector is implemented in a standard 180nm CMOS process with 0.113 mm2 core area. The supply voltage is 3.3 V, and its static power consumption is 0.55 mW.

We introduce a simple method to estimate the accuracy of exact solutions under initial value conditions proposed by Petrov and Kudrin [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 190404 (2010)]. We demonstrate that even for a sufficiently weak nonlinearity, the initial value condition difference between linear and nonlinear case may be evident. Our result may be used as a criterion of employing the exact solution to deal with initial value problems of cylindrical electromagnetic wave propagation in a nonlinear nondispersive medium.

Background Total glucosides of paeony (TGP) is a biologically active compound extracted from Paeony root. TGP has been used in rheumatoid arthritis therapy for many years. However, the mechanism by which TGP prevents bone loss has been less explored. Methods TGP was orally administered for 3 months to New Zealand rabbits with antigen-induced arthritis (AIA). Digital x-ray knee images and bone mineral density (BMD) measurements of the subchondral knee bone were performed before sacrifice. Chondrocytes were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Histological analysis and mRNA expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor-B ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) were evaluated in joint tissues. Results The BMD value in TGP rabbits was significantly higher compared with that seen in the AIA model rabbits. In addition, the subchondral bone plate was almost completely preserved by TGP treatment, while there was a decrease in bone plate integrity in AIA rabbits. There was less damage to the chondrocytes of the TGP treated group. Immunohistochemical examination of the TGP group showed that a higher percentage of TGP treated chondrocytes expressed OPG as compared to the chondrocytes isolated from AIA treated animals. In contrast, RANKL expression was significantly decreased in the TGP treated group compared to the AIA group. In support of the immunohistochemistry data, the expression of RANKL mRNA was decreased and OPG mRNA expression was enhanced in the TGP group when compared to that of the AIA model group. Conclusion These results reveal that TGP suppresses juxta-articular osteoporosis and prevents subchondral bone loss. The decreased RANKL and increased OPG expression seen in TGP treated animals could explain how administration of TGP maintains higher BMD.

The Talbot effect is a self-imaging phenomenon of near-field diffraction. When a plane wave is incident on a periodic diffraction grating, the image of the grating is repeated at regular distances away from the grating plane. A Talbot array illuminator is a device that splits singular light beam into an array of beams with periodical optical intensity based on Talbot effect. LiNbO3 (LN) crystal is a kind of practicable material for a Talbot array illuminator due to its perfect optical characteristics. MgO-doped LiNbO3 (MgLN) crystal shows shorter absorption edge wavelength and higher resistance to photorefractive damage than LN. Up to now, the usefulness and simplicity of Talbot effect have still aroused the interest of many scholars.In the conventional method, a Talbot array illuminator is fabricated by using high external electric field to modulate the phase difference. However, essentially, high external electric field restricts the Talbot array illuminator to applications in optical integration and optical micro structure devices. Now we are looking forward to a new way which avoids using high external electric field.In this paper, we systematically study the two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal tunable array beam splitter, which is fabricated by domain-etching in MgLN crystal, and its fractional Talbot effect. The self-imaging phenomenon caused by Talbot effect in the Fresnel field for this phase array coherently illuminated is theoretically analyzed according to Fresnel diffraction theory. We numerically simulate the light intensity distributions of Talbot diffraction image under different values of Talbot coefficient and different values of domain-etching depth. The simulation results show that can change the array period and the structure distribution of the fractional Talbot diffraction image, and the domain-etching depth can modulate the light intensity distribution of diffraction image. Based on the numerical simulation results, the 2D hexagonal array beam splitters are fabricated with different values of domain-etching depth. The fractional Talbot diffraction images of array splitters are obtained at different values of through the optical experiments. The results show that domain-etching depth can effectively modulate the intensity distribution of diffraction image, becoming a tunable array beam splitter successfully. The experimental results agree well with the simulation results. The theoretical and experimental results show that the optimal self-image visibility can be obtained at a Talbot coefficient of 0.5 and a domain-etching depth of 0.39 m, while the duty cycle is 52%. Moreover, a good self-image pattern is also observed under thinner domain-etching depth, which is beneficial to optical integration and micro optical devices.

The innovative nature of the research colleges decides its personnel cultivating objective- innovative talents. The college student management plays a very important role in cultivating innovative talents. This article describes the content and feature of research colleges, analyzes current problems of undergraduate management in research colleges, and finally proposes the countermeasures to improve the undergraduate management in research colleges.

The electroretinogram and responses of intermediate horizontal cells (IHCs) were recorded simultaneously and studied under dark-adapted conditions in intact crucian carp, with the hope of providing an answer to the controversy whether the scotopic b -wave contains contribution from both rods and cones. Our observations indicate that the dark-adapted b -wave follows the univariance principle perfectly in that: (1) b -wave forms and shapes of response amplitude vs light intensity relationships did not depend on the stimulus wavelength; (2) response amplitudes to flashes of mixed wavelengths agreed exactly with the values predicted in accordance with the univariance principle. Furthermore, the spectral sensitivity of the b -wave matched well that of the IHC, receiving input exclusively from rods. In consequence, we conclude that the dark-adapted b -wave merely reflects the activity of the rod system, and the discrepancy between the spectral sensitivities of the b -wave and IHC response compared with the absorption spectrum of the rod photopigment may be due to the self-screening effect caused by the high optical density of porphyropsin in situ .

In this paper, a new solution based on universal kernel modules combined with a configuration platform is proposed. This solution can not only make the development process period of the detection system shorter, but also the system will be more reliable and more accurate. The input information of the universal kernel module in the performance detection system is the steam and water parameters on different operating conditions from the steam turbine heat balance diagrams. In the kernel module a series of the calculation and data treatment will be carried out which includes the thermal system calculations on off-design condition, the equivalent heat drop calculations, energy losses analysis, and the fitting of the correction curves of the important operating parameters of boilers and turbines, such as the main steam, reheat steam, the exhaust steam, etc. All functions of the system, including economic operating optimization, can be realized on the configuration platform which is connected with a database.

In this paper, we study how to use the stochastic resonance principle to detect the weak intermediate and low frequency signals under the condition of intensive noise in mechanical fault diagnosis. According to the relationship among system outputs, system parameters and input signals, we've studied the algorithm and the technology of the software self-adaptive control of the nonlinear bistable system. Using this method, we can obtain output with adequate Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) without solving complex differential equations. The simulation results show the affectivity of this method. This study shows a way to detect the weak singles under the condition of intensive noise.

The mobile robot localization methodologies in common use at present have been introduced. A localization algorithm based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) has been proposed on the basis of environment feature extraction and map building, which can reduce the error in the calculation of the robot’s position and orientation. The method is that the mobile robot analyses and fuses the messages in surroundings from multiple sensors by EKF theory, which enables the robot to identify the surrounding objects clearly and guide itself successfully. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed localization method is effective.

The traditional method of calculating electromagnetic scatterings from the rough sea surface, which does not need a geometrical sample of sea surface, considers mainly the total scattering echoes by average assembling of different incident parameters. With the development of synthetic aperture radar and radar imaging, it is important to fully describe the sea surface at every point, and to obtain the result of electromagnetic scatterings from the facets of the rough sea surface. Meanwhile, with increasing wind speed above the sea surface, the influence of the sea foam layer on the scatterings will increase. In this paper, the facet-model is considered, and taking into account the impact of the foam layer on the scatterings at a large angle incidence, the backscattering coefficient is calculated for different wind speeds; and the result of numerical simulation is compared with the experimental data to verify the accuracy of our method.

A numerical approach of the finite element method is extended to study the scattering properties of an arbitrary dielectric target above the dielectric rough surface. For scattering in an open region, the artificial boundaries should be introduced to truncate the infinite computational domain. A perfectly matched layer (PML), as the artificial boundary of the finite-element-method (FEM) region, is employed to absorb the outward wave scattered from the model. The strategies of hybrid FEM/PML are presented with their validity evaluated by finite element/boundary integral method (FE/BIM), and then the scattering properties of the dielectric composite problem with different material permittivity are discussed in detail. Compared with the published works about FEM/PML, we extend the FEM/PML into the simulations of a dielectric target above the dielectric rough surface.