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AIM Few studies have comprehensively evaluated the factors associated with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in the elderly. The purpose of the study is to identify the factors associated with HRQOL using a comprehensive geriatric assessment of community-dwelling elderly people in Beijing, China. METHODS A cross-sectional survey of 896 community-dwelling elderly people in Beijing was conducted through face-to-face interviews. Data regarding sociodemographic factors, chronic disease (assessed by the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale for Geriatrics, CIRS-G), common geriatric syndromes and HRQOL (assessed by the EuroQol 5-Dimension questionnaire, EQ-5D) were collected using a structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors related to HRQOL. RESULTS The CIRS-G comorbidity index was negatively related to the EQ-5D index and EQ-Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (P

Designing a robot with the best accuracy is always the attractive research direction in robot community. In order to create a Gough-Stewart platform with guaranteed accuracy performance for a dedicated controller, this paper describes a novel advanced optimal design methodology: control-based design methodology. This advanced optimal design method considers the controller positioning accuracy in the design process for getting the optimal geometric parameters of the robot. In this paper, three types of visual servoing controllers are applied to control the motions of the Gough-Stewart platform: leg-direction-based visual servoing, line-based visual servoing and image moment visual servoing. Depend on these controllers, the positioning error models considering the camera observation error together with the controller singularities are analyzed. In the next step, the optimization problems are formulated in order to get the optimal geometric parameters of the robot and the placement of the camera for the Gough-Stewart platform for each type of controller. Then, we perform the co-simulations on the three optimized Gough-Stewart platforms in order to test the positioning accuracy and the robustness with respect to the manufacturing errors. It turns out that the optimal control-based design methodology helps getting both the optimum design parameters of the robot and the performance of the controller {robot + dedicated controller}.

Background Previous reports suggest that the attributes of frailty are multidimensional and include nutrition, cognition, mentality, and other aspects. We aim to develop an early warning model of frailty based on nutritional risk screening and apply the frailty early warning model in the clinic to screen high-risk patients and provide corresponding intervention target information. Methods The proposed study includes two stages. In the first stage, we aim to develop a prediction model of frailty among older inpatients with nutritional risk. Study data were collected from a population-based aging cohort study in China. A prospective cohort study design will be used in the second stage of the study. We will recruit 266 older inpatients (age 65 years or older) with nutritional risk, and we will apply the frailty model in the clinic to explore the predictive ability of the model in participants, assess patients’ health outcomes with implementation of the frailty model, and compare the model with existing frailty assessment tools. Patients’ health outcomes will be measured at admission and at 30-day follow-up. Discussion This project is the first to develop an early prediction model of frailty for older inpatients according to nutritional risk in a nationally representative sample of Chinese older inpatients of tertiary hospitals. The results will hopefully help to promote the development of more detailed frailty assessment tools according to nutritional risk, which may ultimately lead to reduced health care costs and improvement in independence and quality of life among geriatric patients. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1800017682, registered August 9, 2018; and ChiCTR2100044148, registered March 11, 2021.

Little is known about the current representative depression situation among Chinese older inpatients. The aim of this study is to examine prevalence of depression and associated risk factors among Chinese older inpatients by a large-scale cross-sectional national survey. This study is based on baseline survey data from a large-scale cohort study in a representative sample of Chinese older inpatients. The procedure of this study involves physical examination and face-to-face questionnaire interviews. Depression was assessed based on the Geriatric Depression Scale 15. Mixed-effect Poisson regression model was used to examine the relationship between depression and covariates by controlling the cluster effect of hospital wards. Of all 9727 respondents, the mean age of all respondents was 72.4±5.7 years, from 65 to 97. The average GDS score was 2 (1, 4). The prevalence rate of depression was 16.7% (95%CI: 15.8–17.4%) among older inpatients. The prevalence rates were 14.6% for males and 19.5% for females respectively. After controlling the cluster effect of hospital wards, age, gender, ADL score, educational level, BMI, frail, marriage, falls, alcohol drinking, cognitive function, living conditions, vision, hearing, sleep and defecation function were associated with depression. Emaciation (OR=1.176, 95%CI: 1.107–1.249), frail (OR=1.562, 95%CI: 1.489–1.639), divorced or widowed (OR=1.083 95%CI: 1.017–1.153), living in the bungalow (OR=1.075, 95%CI: 1.023–1.130), falls (OR=1.078, 95%CI: 1.030–1.128), cognitive function (OR=1.142, 95%CI: 1.091–1.195), vision dysfunction (OR=1.125, 95%CI: 1.076–1.177), hearing dysfunction (OR=1.061, 95%CI: 1.011–1.113), sleep dysfunction (OR=1.237, 95%CI: 1.194–1.282), defecation dysfunction (OR=1.160, 95%CI: 1.103–1.221) could increase prevalence risk of depression. There was a high prevalence of depression among Chinese older inpatients. Demographic characteristics, physical and mental conditions indicators have strong effect on prevalence and strength of depression. Therefore, it is essential to assess depression and perform comprehensive measures to improve physical and mental conditions in order to manage depressive symptoms in older inpatients.

Background There is still controversy about the relationship between aging and changes in functional ability. This study aims to describe the level of basic activities of daily living (ADL) and higher-level instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) in different age groups and explore the factors associated with functional disability in Chinese older inpatients. Methods This cross-sectional study surveyed 9996 older inpatients aged 65 years and older from six tertiary hospitals in China from October 2018 to February 2019. The levels of ADL and IADL were measured by scores of the Barthel index and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale. A mixed-effect generalized linear model was used to examine the association between functional disability and covariates. Results The average ADL score was 89.51 ± 19.29 and the mean IADL score 6.76 ± 2.01 for all participants. There was a trend of decreasing scores along with aging, and significant differences between age groups were also observed (P Conclusions Functional ability declines with aging, older inpatients are low dependency upon ADL and IADL. There are several associated factors among the participants derived from this investigation of a large-scale, multicenter, nationally representative Chinese older inpatient population. These findings potentially have major importance for the planning of hospital services, discharge planning, and post-discharge care. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1800017682, registered August 9, 2018.

Background To date, most previous studies of frailty among hospitalized elderly Chinese patients have been conducted based on small samples, which cannot represent the elderly patient population. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of and risk factors for frailty among elderly patients in China. Study design and setting This cross-sectional study surveyed 9996 elderly patients from 6 tertiary-level hospitals in China. The prevalence of frailty among patients from selected wards was surveyed by trained investigators. A mixed-effects Poisson regression model was used to analyse the factors associated with frailty among elderly patients. Results The mean age of all subjects was 72.47 ± 5.77 years. The prevalence rate of frailty in this study was 18.02%. After adjustments were made for the confounding effect of the clustering of hospital wards, a mixed-effects Poisson regression model showed that the associated factors of frailty included the following: age (OR: 1.016, 95% CI: 1.012–1.020), BMI 28 (OR: 0.897, 95% CI: 0.856–0.940); higher education level, including middle school (OR: 0.915, 95% CI: 0.857, 0.977) and diploma and above (OR: 0.891, 95% CI: 0.821, 0.966); and current alcohol use (OR: 0.869, 95% CI: 0.815, 0.927). Conclusion We identified a relatively high prevalence of frailty among elderly patients, and there are several associated factors among the population derived from this investigation of a large-scale, multicentre, nationally representative Chinese elderly inpatient population. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1800017682, registered 09 August 2018.

Background Association of oxidative stress biomarkers with aging and several age-related diseases is well documented. However, the possible role of these factors on frailty status in older adults has not been extensively studied. Objective To evaluate whether urinary 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine (8-oxo-Gsn), a biomarker of RNA oxidative damage, was independently associated with frailty. Methods In this cross-sectional analysis, frailty phenotype was assessed among 230 participants living in a senior community. Participants received a comprehensive geriatric assessment. Serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), white blood cell count (WBC), urinary 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine, and 8-oxo-Gsn were measured. Results Participants’ mean age was 83.9 ± 4.4 years. In total, 33 % were frail, 45 % were pre-frail, and 22 % were non-frail. Urinary 8-oxo-Gsn, serum hsCRP, and WBC were significantly higher in the frail group than in the non-frail and pre-frail groups (p-values Conclusion Urinary 8-oxo-Gsn level was independently associated with frailty. This urinary biomarker may be a promising indicator of frailty.

This study investigates the characteristics of the cost performance of megatransport infrastructure projects in Hong Kong and performs dependence analysis of cost overruns. It is based on 5...

In this paper, a circulating current elimination scheme for common dc bus parallel inverter system is proposed. A dead-time elimination sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) is presented to overcome the circulating current caused by dead-time effects. The circulating current elimination scheme combines dead-time elimination SPWM and double loop control method, which is compose of an outer voltage loop and an inner current loop. Synchronizing the pulse width modulation (PWM) signals of each parallel unit, the instantaneous output PWM voltages of the parallel units can be kept the same, apart from the zero crossing of load current. The proposed scheme is easy to be implemented on the digital control board using digital signal processing (DSP) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Experimental results are depicted to demonstrate the validity and features of the proposed circulating current elimination scheme.

The configuration of parallel inverter system (PIS) with common dc link and no isolation measure is proposed. The gate control signals for switches in parallel inverters are synchronised to achieve ideal parallel operation status. Adopting the double loop control method which is composed of an outer voltage loop and an inner current loop, PIS has good dynamic response and robustness. In addition, the circulating current caused by the delay time of control signal transmission is studied in detail. The proposed operation method is easy to be implemented on the digital control board using digital signal processing and field-programmable gate array. The simulation and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the validity and features of the proposed operation method.

Aiming at region segmentation and region labeling for bridge recognition in aerial images, a region segmentation algorithm based on gradient mean square variance is proposed. The noises are removed by using binary pixel density method in water area segmentation. And a new region labeling for connective area algorithm based on pixel in binary image is put forward. 6 neighborhood connection rule is used to label connective areas in the binary image, and connective areas are all labeled by only one scan. Experiments show it is effective for water region segmentation and labeling and can be applied in bridge recognition automatically.

A novel topology of full-bridge isolated DC-DC converters, which is widely used in renewable energy generation and auxiliary railway supply, is presented in this paper. The proposed full-bridge isolated DC-DC converter is composed of a PWM inverter, a diode rectifier and a high frequency (HF) transformer. In this topology, the stabilization of output voltage is difficult to achieve because of high frequency switching operation. The mathematics model of this topology is discussed deeply firstly. The two control methods for stabilizing the output voltage of the full-bridge isolated DC-DC converter are proposed based on modeling and analysis.