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This article details the development of a geometrical-based displacement extraction framework capable of automatically extracting critical infrastructure measurements in one sequence. The framework is a novel rail viaduct bearing inspection pipeline implemented on Bearing Inspector for Narrow-space Observation Version 2 (BINOv2). BINOv2 is a tethered custom unmanned aerial vehicle system utilized to supplant labor-intensive pipelines and enhance inspection accuracy of infrastructure conditions in confined remote locations. The algorithm accepts stereoscopic images taken from a single monocular camera on a bidirectional cascaded linear actuator system in a rack-and-pinion configuration. A point cloud model generated from the image sets then runs through a hierarchical neural network for 3-D segmentation to extract targeted regions of interest. Our training pipeline generates and forms the full model's training dataset using only a small sample of real point clouds. The point cloud generated is inadequate to form the full bearing geometry profile. Therefore, the proposed framework projects best-fit circles based on the point cloud curvature to form the full bearing geometry profile so that the required displacement measurement is available for extraction. Several experiments were conducted on a mock-up and actual operational site to validate the proposed framework's accuracy, its robustness and comparison with other state-of-the-art alternatives.

We have experimentally demonstrated tunable multi-wavelength bright-dark and dark-bright pulse pairs in an all normal dispersion Yb-doped fiber laser (YDFL) with a long cavity configuration. By carefully adjusting the pump power and the polarization state, bright-dark pulse pairs could be converted into dark-bright pulse pairs at the same wavelength. The comb filter provided by the tapered fiber facilitated the formation of the multi-wavelength pulses. And the wavelength-tunable for both bright-dark pulse pairs and dark-bright pulse pairs could be achieved by using a tapered fiber and rotatable polarization controller in the cavity to control the cavity losses. The tunable ranges were 14 nm and 4 nm with wavelength spacings of ~3.5 nm and ~3.7 nm for dual-wavelength pulse pairs and triple-wavelength pulse pairs, respectively.

Utilizing the nonlinear effects in a photonic crystal fiber to broaden the spectrum and reverse saturable absorption to further improve the flatness of the spectrum, ultra-broadband noise-like pulses (NLPs) were produced in a fiber laser. Guided by numerical results, a broadband spectrum with 290 nm 3-dB bandwidth was obtained, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the broadest bandwidth achieved for NLPs. Spectral degradations of the NLPs have also been observed, and are discussed.

We have experimentally and theoretically investigated optical rogue waves (ORWs) in a net negative dispersion Tm-doped fiber laser with a long cavity, adopting nonlinear polarization evolution as a mode-locker as well as a spectral filter. We obtained a state with numerous pulses bunched in a burst accompanied by perturbation within the burst, in which the spectrum was partially perturbed. After statistical analysis, we found that ORWs have existed in this bunching state. By adjusting the intra-cavity polarization controllers, the perturbed pulse bunching turned into a chaotic pulse bunching state, which gave rise to giant pulses with ultra-high amplitudes, and the giant pulses were a precursor of a broad-spectrum noise-like pulse. The probability of occurrence of ORWs was increased in the chaotic state, which is caused by multi-pulse instability induced by the spectral filtering effect. Simulation results confirm the experimental results and demonstrate that the spectral filter bandwidth (SFB) is directly related to the probability of the emergence of ORWs. When increasing the SFB across the range of multi-pulse instability at a fixed pump power, the frequency with which ORWs appear increases.

Introduction: Various interventions have been applied to improve recovery from muscle fatigue based on evidence from subjective outcomes, such as perceived fatigue and soreness, which may partly contribute to conflicting results of reducing muscle fatigue. There is a need to assess the effectiveness of various intervention on reducing neuromuscular fatigue assessed by a quantitative outcome, such as electromyography (EMG). The objective of this review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions and intervention timing for reducing fatigue rates during exercise.Methods: The literature was searched from the earliest record to March 2021. Eighteen studies with a total of 87 data points involving 281 participants and seven types of interventions [i.e., active recovery (AR), compression, cooling, electrical stimulation (ES), light-emitting diode therapy (LEDT), massage, and stretching] were included in this meta-analysis.Results: The results showed that compression (SMD = 0.28; 95% CI = −0.00 to 0.56; p = 0.05; I2 = 58%) and LEDT (SMD = 0.49; 95% CI = 0.11 to 0.88; p = 0.01; I2 = 52%) have a significant recovery effect on reducing muscle fatigue. Additionally, compression, AR, and cooling have a significant effect on reducing muscle fatigue when conducted during exercise, whereas a non-effective trend when applied after exercise.Discussion: This meta-analysis suggests that compression and LEDT have a significant effect on reducing muscle fatigue. The results also suggest that there is a significant effect or an effective trend on reducing muscle fatigue when compression, AR, cooling, and ES are applied during exercise, but not after exercise.

We propose and demonstrate generation of soliton burst mode pulses based on the dispersive Fourier-transform (DFT) technique. The time-domain soliton burst mode is mapped from a multiwavelength dissipative soliton (MWDS) spectrum obtained from a net-normal dispersion L-band mode-locked fiber laser. The interval between adjacent pulses in the soliton burst can be flexibly tuned by precisely controlling the wavelength spacing of the MWDS, which is realized by employing a Mach–Zehnder interferometer comb filter with a tapered fiber in one arm. Our results demonstrate that the combination of an MWDS laser and the DFT technique may indeed be an effective and flexible way to achieve burst mode soliton pulses.

We propose and demonstrate generation of wavelength-tunable burst-mode pulses with controllable pulse numbers and pulse intervals based on the pulse repetition rate multiplication technique. A topological insulator and nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) hybrid mode-locking Er-doped fiber oscillator is used to provide a stable wavelength-tunable mode-locked (WTML) pulse. This pulse is transformed into a burst-mode pulse using the pulse repetition rate multiplication technique. Wavelength tunability is realized by using the NPE device, which can serve as a filter as well as a mode locker by adjusting the polarization controllers. The central wavelength of the burst-mode pulse can be tuned from 1533.49 to 1561.99 nm. Changing the arm length difference in each of the couplers as well as the number of 3-dB couplers, N , allows control of the intraburst pulse spacing and the number of pulses in each burst. Our results demonstrate that the combination of a WTML pulse laser and the pulse repetition rate multiplication technique may indeed be an effective and flexible way to achieve WTML burst-mode soliton pulses.

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between blood pressure (BP) variability (BPV), brain volumes, and cognitive functioning in postmenopausal women with few modifiable cardiovascular risk factors.MethodsStudy participants consisted of postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Memory MRI study (WHIMS-MRI) without cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, or current smoking at baseline (1996–1999). BP readings were taken at baseline and each annual follow-up visit. BPV was defined as the SD associated with a participant's mean BP across visits and the SD associated with the participant's regression line with BP regressed across visits. Brain MRI scans were performed between 2004 and 2006. Cognitive functioning was assessed at baseline and annually thereafter with the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) scoring until 2008. The final sample consisted of 558 women (mean age 69 years, median follow-up time [interquartile range] 8 [0.8] years).ResultsIn adjusted models including mean systolic BP, women in the highest tertile of systolic BPV had lower hippocampal volumes and higher lesion volumes compared to women in the lowest tertile. No relationship between BPV and 3MSE scoring was detected.ConclusionsIn postmenopausal women with few modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, greater visit-to-visit systolic BPV was associated with reductions in hippocampal volume and increases in lesion volumes at later life. These data add evidence to the emerging importance of BPV as a prognostic indicator even in the absence of documented cardiovascular risk factors.

Background Previous studies have demonstrated that EMP1 is an oncogene. In this paper, we aim to uncover the role of EMP1 in stimulating the malignant progression of osteosarcoma (OS) by the IRX2/MMP9 axis. Methods EMP1 levels in 49 OS tissues and adjacent ones were detected. Potential correlation between EMP1 level and clinical data of OS patients was determined. Migratory and invasive abilities in SaOS-2 and U2OS cells influenced by EMP1 were examined by Transwell and wound healing assay. The involvement of IRX2 in OS cell metastasis regulated by EMP1 was finally explored. Results EMP1 was upregulated in OS tissues than those of normal ones. Higher rates of lymphatic metastasis and distant metastasis were found in OS patients expressing higher level of EMP1, who suffered a worse prognosis. Knockdown of EMP1 inhibited migratory and invasive abilities in OS cells. Protein levels of IRX2 and MMP9 were upregulated after overexpression of EMP1. Rescue experiments verified that IRX2 was involved in EMP1-regulated malignant progression of OS. Conclusions EMP1 is upregulated in OS tissues and closely linked to lymphatic metastasis and distant metastasis. It stimulates the malignant progression of OS through the IRX2/MMP9 axis.

This paper describes the development of an automated dimensional extraction algorithm of specific regions, implemented on BINO: Bearing Inspector for Narrow-space Observation. BINO is a tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system designed to eliminate the labor-intensive process and to improve the efficiency of inspecting infrastructures in confined remote locations. The UAV platform provides an effective method to access these hard to reach areas, and the algorithm proposed provides a dimensional analysis of the targeted infrastructure. The algorithm takes in several stereo pair images captured from only a single monocular camera. The availability of the multiple stereo images is possible due to a customized linear actuator where the camera sits on a rack-and-pinion configuration. The algorithm adopts a convolution network for image segmentation to extract crucial areas and, at the same time, generate disparity maps to obtain depth information. A pinhole camera model using the depth information and a single reference object of the bearing enables the derivation of the measurements of the segmented areas. Through experiments, the algorithm has an accuracy of an average RMSE of 1.23mm and a max error of 2.23mm. The ease of conducting inspection using BINO and more accurate measurements from the algorithm ultimately leads to an increase in inspection quality, safety and efficiency.

This paper studies the projection of high velocity fluid stream at a point target by modelling it (for precision) as an entity of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The ‘point-and-shoot’ capability is homogeneous to a visual servo system in robotics. The proposed concept presents a hybrid kinematics modelling for an aerial platform when performing fluidic jetting. The hybrid kinematics studies the rigid and fluid modelling, essentially allowing the fluidic projectile to resemble an entity of the UAV. Alongside the kinematics model, is a visual compensator which describes how the system can employ Computer Vision (CV) techniques + Convolutional Neural Network (CNN); to accurately track the object in view and manipulate the nozzle control for an active closed-loop visual compensation. This paper also addresses how hybrid kinematics can be exploited for precision nozzle control. The results are evaluated through means of simulations and experiments with actual and synthetic data. This pipeline can be extended to almost any UAV with the similar concept. The prototype was deployed on a public sheltered link-way with staged debris.

Publisher's version (útgefin grein), Smoking is a potentially causal behavioral risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D), but not all smokers develop T2D. It is unknown whether genetic factors partially explain this variation. We performed genome-environment-wide interaction studies to identify loci exhibiting potential interaction with baseline smoking status (ever vs. never) on incident T2D and fasting glucose (FG). Analyses were performed in participants of European (EA) and African ancestry (AA) separately. Discovery analyses were conducted using genotype data from the 50,000-single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) ITMAT-Broad-CARe (IBC) array in 5 cohorts from from the Candidate Gene Association Resource Consortium (n = 23,189). Replication was performed in up to 16 studies from the Cohorts for Heart Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium (n = 74,584). In meta-analysis of discovery and replication estimates, 5 SNPs met at least one criterion for potential interaction with smoking on incident T2D at p, WHI program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through contracts HHSN268201100046C, HSN268201100001C, HHSN268201100002C, HHSN268201100003C, HHSN268201100004C, and HHSN271201100004C. The grant funding of WHI are R21 HL123677, R56 DK104806 and R01 MD012765 to NF. The FamHS was funded by R01HL118305 and R01HL117078 NHLBI grants, and 5R01DK07568102 and 5R01DK089256 NIDDK grant." and "The Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (project # Z01-AG000513 and human subjects protocol number 09-AGN248). Support for GENOA was provided by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL119443, HL087660, HL054464, HL054457, and HL054481) of the National Institutes of Health. Ruth loos is supported by the NIH (R01DK110113, U01HG007417, R01DK101855, R01DK107786). The Rotterdam Study GWAS datasets are supported by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research NWO Investments (nr. 175.010.2005.011, 911-03-012), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (014-93-015; RIDE2), and the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA), project nr. 050-060-810. The ERF study as a part of EUROSPAN (European Special Populations Research Network) was supported by European Commission FP6 STRP grant number 018947 (LSHG-CT-2006- 01947) and also received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/grant agreement HEALTH-F4-2007-201413 by the European Commission under the programme "Quality of Life and Management of the Living Resources" of 5th Framework Programme (no. QLG2-CT-2002- 01254). The ERF study was further supported by ENGAGE consortium and CMSB. Highthroughput analysis of the ERF data was supported by joint grant from Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (NWORFBR 047.017.043).ERF was further supported by the ZonMw grant (project 91111025), and this work was partially supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Framingham Heart Study (Contract No. N01-HC25195) and its contract with Affymetrix, Inc for genotyping services (Contract No. N02-HL-6- 4278). This study is also supported by National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) R01 DK078616 to Drs. Meigs, Dupuis and Florez, NIDDK K24 DK080140 to Dr. Meigs, and a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award to Dr. Florez. The HERITAGE Family Study was supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant HL-45670. The Women's Genome Health Study is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Instutute (HL043851 and HL080467) and the National Cancer Institute (CA047988 and UM1CA182913). Additional support for endpoint collection was provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under ARRA funding (HL099355). HyperGEN (Hypertension Genetic Epidemiology Network): The hypertension network is funded by cooperative agreements (U10) with NHLBI: HL54471, HL54472, HL54473, HL54495, HL54496, HL54497, HL54509, HL54515, and 2 R01 HL55673- 12. The AGES study has been funded by NIH contracts N01-AG-1-2100 and 271201200022C. Caroline Hayward is supported by an MRC University Unit Programme Grant MC_UU_00007/10 (QTL in Health and Disease)”and “Generation Scotland received core funding from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorate CZD/16/6, the Scottish Funding Council HR03006 and the Wellcome Trust through a Strategic Award (reference 104036/Z/14/Z) for Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL). Genotyping was funded by the UK's Medical Research Council. Jose C. Florez, NIDDK K24 DK110550 The MESA project is conducted and supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in collaboration with MESA investigators. Support for MESA is provided by contracts 75N92020D00001, HHSN268201500003I, N01-HC-95159, 75N92020D00005, N01-HC-95160, 75N92020D00002, N01-HC-95161, 75N92020D00003, N01-HC-95162, 75N92020D00006, N01-HC-95163, 75N92020D00004, N01-HC-95164, 75N92020D00007, N01-HC-95165, N01-HC-95166, N01-HC-95167, N01-HC-95168, N01-HC-95169, UL1-TR-000040, UL1-TR-001079, UL1-TR-001420, UL1-TR-001881, and DK063491. Additionally, one or more authors are affiliated with the following commercial entities: Interleukin Genetics, GlaxoSmithKline, Daiichi-Sankyo, AstraZeneca, Data Tecnica International LLC, Illumina Inc., University of California Healthcare, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Goldfinch Bio, and Novo Nordisk. Please see the Competing Interests Statement for additional details. The funders provided support in the form of salaries for authors but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.

Evidence on the relations between heart rate, brain morphology, and cognition is limited. We examined the associations of resting heart rate (RHR), visit-to-visit heart rate variation (VVHRV), brain volumes and cognitive impairment. The study sample consisted of postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study and its ancillary MRI sub-studies (WHIMS-MRI 1 and WHIMS-MRI 2) without a history of cardiovascular disease, including 493 with one and 299 women with 2 brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. HR readings were acquired annually starting from baseline visit (1996-1998). RHR was calculated as the mean and VVHRV as standard deviation of all available HR readings. Brain MRI scans were performed between 2005 and 2006 (WHIMS-MRI 1), and approximately 5 years later (WHIMS-MRI 2). Cognitive impairment was defined as incident mild cognitive impairment or probable dementia until December 30, 2017. An elevated RHR was associated with greater brain lesion volumes at the first MRI exam (7.86 cm3 [6.48, 9.24] vs 4.78 cm3 [3.39, 6.17], p-value0.0001) and with significant increases in lesion volumes between brain MRI exams (6.20 cm3 [4.81, 7.59] vs 4.28 cm3 [2.84, 5.73], p-value = 0.0168). Larger ischemic lesion volumes were associated with a higher risk for cognitive impairment (Hazard Ratio [95% confidence interval], 2.02 [1.18, 3.47], p-value = 0.0109). Neither RHR nor VVHRV were related to cognitive impairment. In sensitivity analyses, we additionally included women with a history of cardiovascular disease to the study sample. The main results were consistent to those without a history of cardiovascular disease. In conclusion, these findings show an association between elevated RHR and ischemic brain lesions, probably due to underlying subclinical disease processes.

Our study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of sarcopenia in the disabled elderly in communities in Shanghai, China. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018. Five hundred and seventy two participants (≥60 years) were recruited through cluster sampling from Putuo District of Shanghai. Sarcopenia was defined according to the updated consensus of the European Sarcoma Working Group in 2019. The sarcopenia, depression, and nutrition status were assessed by using SARC-F, the Short Version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10), and the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short form (MNA-SF), respectively Physical activity was also assessed. Our results showed the prevalence of sarcopenia was 0.5%, but the prevalence of low handgrip strength was 37.2% (male, 5.5%; female, 39.1%). The modified Poisson regression model was used to evaluate the relationship among related variables and low handgrip strength. The risk for low handgrip strength was higher in the physically disabled subjects than in the visually disabled ones (aPR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.88-2.42). Depressive symptoms (aPR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.04-1.62) and PASE score (aPR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.99-1.00) were independently associated with low handgrip strength. In summary, the prevalence of EWGSOP2-defined sarcopenia is low and the prevalence of declined muscle strength is high in the disabled elderly. The elderly participants with a physical disability had a higher prevalence of low hand handgrip strength than those with a visual disability. More studies with a larger sample size and longitudinal follow-up are needed to confirm our findings.

Stable bound pulses (BPs) are numerically obtained in an all-normal-dispersion fiber laser (ANDFL) using white noise as the initial field. When the pump power is monotonically increased, a rhythmic behavior of the number of dissipative solitons (DSs) is first discovered. In addition, we have also observed the soliton explosion in the build-up process of BPs and found that for the same number of pulses, the higher pump power would trigger more frequent soliton explosions. The rule of the rhythmic behavior of DSs number with the pump power may provide new insights into the formation and evolution of DSs. These phenomena also contribute to an in-depth understanding of BPs dynamics and enrich DS dynamics.

Wallerian degeneration, the progressive disintegration of distal axons and myelin that occurs after peripheral nerve injury, is essential for creating a permissive microenvironment for nerve regeneration, and involves cytoskeletal reconstruction. However, it is unclear whether microtubule dynamics play a role in this process. To address this, we treated cultured sciatic nerve explants, an in vitro model of Wallerian degeneration, with the microtubule-targeting agents paclitaxel and nocodazole. We found that paclitaxel-induced microtubule stabilization promoted axon and myelin degeneration and Schwann cell dedifferentiation, whereas nocodazole-induced microtubule destabilization inhibited these processes. Evaluation of an in vivo model of peripheral nerve injury showed that treatment with paclitaxel or nocodazole accelerated or attenuated axonal regeneration, as well as functional recovery of nerve conduction and target muscle and motor behavior, respectively. These results suggest that microtubule dynamics participate in peripheral nerve regeneration after injury by affecting Wallerian degeneration. This study was approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Southern Medical University, China (approval No. SMU-L2015081) on October 15, 2015.

This work introduces a new permutation-symmetry-adapted machine learning diabatization procedure, termed the diabatization by equivariant neural network (DENN). In this approach, the permutation symmetric and anti-symmetric elements in diabatic potential energy metrics (DPEMs) were simultaneously simulated by equivariant neural network (ENN). The diabatization by deep neural network (DDNN) scheme was adopted for machine learning diabatization, and non-zero diabatic coupling was included to increase accuracy in the near degenerate region. Based on DENN, the global DPEMs for 11A' and 21A' states of MgH2 have been constructed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first global DPEMs for the MgH2 system. The root-mean-square-errors (RMSEs) for diagonal elements (H11 and H22) and off-diagonal element (H12) around the conical intersection region were 5.824 meV, 5.307 meV, and 5.796 meV, respectively. The RMSEs of global adiabatic energies for two adiabatic states were 4.613 meV and 12.755 meV, respectively. The spectroscopic calculations of 11A' state in the linear HMgH region are in good agreement with the experiment and previous theoretical result. The differences between calculated frequencies and corresponding experiment values are 1.38 cm-1 and 1.08 cm-1 for anti-symmetric stretching fundamental vibrational frequency and first overtone. The global DPEMs obtained in this work should be useful for further quantum mechanics dynamic simulations on the MgH2 system.

We have numerically investigated the required minimum cavity dispersion (RMCD) for obtaining stable pulses in net normal dispersion, graphene mode-locked, Yb-doped fiber lasers (YDFLs). By solving the modified nonlinear Schrodinger equation, we have found that the value of the RMCD was mainly affected by the nonsaturable absorption losses in the graphene saturable absorber (SA), and when monolayer graphene was used as the SA, this value was less than that obtained using multilayer graphene as the SA. We have also found that monolayer graphene YDFLs were more suitable for generating high-power, narrow-width pulses than were multilayer graphene YDFLs.

We demonstrate a wavelength tunable, Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser using a mixture of gold nanorods and nanospheres as a saturable absorber. The laser has a very low Q-switched threshold pump power of 22 mW, and at a pump power of 47.86 mW, a pulse with a maximum pulse energy of 36.01 nJ, repetition rate of 37.50 kHz, and pulse width of $2.74~\mu \text{s}$ was obtained. In addition, by using a tapered fiber as a variable attenuator (ATT), the central wavelength of the laser could be tuned continuously from 1560.97 to 1554.74 nm. The experimental results further verify that a tapered fiber ATT possesses potential advantages for applications in stable, wavelength tunable, all-fiber laser systems.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of intracoronary administration of prourokinase via balloon catheter during primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Acute STEMI patients underwent primary PCI were randomly divided into two groups: intracoronary prourokinase (IP) group (n = 118) and control group (n = 112). During primary PCI, prourokinase or saline were injected to the distal end of the culprit lesion via balloon catheter after balloon catheter dilatation. Demographic and clinical characteristics, infarct size, myocardial reperfusion, and cardiac functions were evaluated and compared between two groups. Hemorrhagic complications and MACE occurred in the 6-months follow up were recorded.No significant differences were observed between two groups with respect to baseline demographic, clinical, and angiographic characteristics (P 0.05). In IP group, more patients had complete ST segment resolution (70%) compared with control group (P 0.05). Patients in IP group showed lower levels of serum CK, CK-MB and TnI, and a much higher myocardial blood flow (MBF) than those in control group (P 0.05). No significant differences of TIMI major or minor bleeding complications were observed between the two groups (P 0.05). At 6-months follow-up, there was a trend that patients in the IP group had a less chance to have MACE, though it was not statistically different (8.5% vs 12.5%, P 0.05).Intracoronary administration of prourokinase via balloon catheter during primary PCI effectively improved myocardial perfusion in STEMI patients.

A Q-switched noise-like pulse operation was observed in a nonlinear polarization evolution based thulium-doped fiber laser. This novel phenomena formed in a noise like background. When the pump power was properly controlled and the polarization controller was carefully adjusted, a noise like mode locked pulse was modulated by a Q-switched pulse envelope, which resulted in the Q-switched noise-like pulse formation. In a single pulse envelope, there exist many mode locked pulses that have fundamental repetition rate which is corresponded to the cavity period. When the pump power was carefully increased from 760 mW to 1000 mW, the repetition rate of the adjacent pulse envelope can increased from 34 to 41.1 kHz, and then intra-cavity pulse energy of a envelope reached about 609 nJ. This phenomenon was first observed in thulium-doped fiber laser. It will add experimental basis for studying of the pulse dynamics in fiber lasers.

High-energy ultra-fast pulse light source has been widely used in laser medical, environmental monitoring, optical communication, photon spectroscopy and other fields. Compared with conventional soliton fiber lasers, self-similar pulsed fiber lasers can produce higher energy optical pulses without optical wave splitting. In this paper, we have optimized design on dispersion-managed high energy self-similar pulse in thulium doped fiber laser by using numerical simulation method. It is found that, when fixing the filter bandwidth, with the increase of the cavity length and the pump power, the output power will increase. At the same time, Further more, with the shorter cavity length and lower pump power, to obtain a high energy self-similar pulse, a filter with broader bandwidth must be used. By optimizing cavity parameters, and choose the cavity length to be 362 cm, corresponding dispersion value of 0.2224 (ps2), filter bandwidth to be 32 nm, the small signal gain g 0 to be 51 dB, pulses with pulse energy up to 32.75 nJ, dechirp pulse width of 142.64 fs have been obtained.

Telomere length is a heritable marker of cellular age that is associated with morbidity and mortality. Poor sleep behaviors, which are also associated with adverse health events, may be related to leukocyte telomere length (LTL). We studied a subpopulation of 3,145 postmenopausal women (1,796 European-American (EA) and 1,349 African-American (AA)) enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative in 1993–1998 with data on Southern blot-measured LTL and self-reported usual sleep duration and sleep disturbance. LTL-sleep associations were analyzed separately for duration and disturbance using weighted and confounder-adjusted linear regression models in the entire sample (AAs + EAs; adjusted for race/ethnicity) and in racial/ethnic strata, since LTL differs by ancestry. After adjustment for covariates, each additional daily hour of sleep beyond 5 hours, approximately, was associated with a 27-base-pair (95% confidence interval (CI): 6, 48) longer LTL in the entire sample. Associations between sleep duration and LTL were strongest among AAs (adjusted β = 37, 95% CI: 4, 70); a similar, nonsignificant association was observed for EAs (adjusted β = 20, 95% CI: −7, 48). Sleep disturbance was not associated with LTL in our study. Our models did not show departure from linearity (quadratic sleep terms: P ≥ 0.55). Our results suggest that longer sleep duration is associated with longer LTL in postmenopausal women.

Background: Low resting heart rate (RHR) has been shown to be predictive of a lower risk for cardiovascular events. Accumulating evidence suggests that RHR may also be related to cognition later in life. To this point, data on the relationship with brain morphology in populations with none or few modifiable cardiovascular risk factors are largely missing. The aim of this study was to assess the associations between mean RHR and brain volumes in elderly postmenopausal women without a history of cardiovascular disease. Methods: The study sample consisted of postmenopausal women without a history of diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation and hypertension who were enrolled in the MRI ancillary study of the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS-MRI). Women with very low (120 bpm) heart rate, suffering from any cancer, emphysema, history of pulmonary embolism or current smokers were excluded. Heart rate readings were taken at baseline (WHI enrollment, 1996-1998) and each annual follow-up visit. Brain MRI scans were performed between 2004-2006. Our final sample consisted of 493 women with a mean age of 69 years who were followed over a median of 8 years with an average of 8 RHR assessments. Results: In multivariate regression models adjusting for age, education, WHI Hormone Trial Randomization assignment (HTR arm), depression, physical activity, alcohol intake, coffee intake, presence of ApoE4 allele, mean systolic blood pressure over time, anti-hypertensive medication use over time and incident cardiovascular disease over time, women in the highest tertile of mean RHR (71-92/min) exhibited significantly higher lesion volumes compared to women in the lowest tertile (51-66/min). Conclusion: In postmenopausal women without a history of cardiovascular disease, high mean RHR was associated with higher white and grey matter lesion volumes later in life reflecting higher volumes of neuronal dysfunction and degeneration.

We propose and demonstrate a wavelength changeable thulium-doped fiber laser (TDFL) based on a monolayer graphene saturable absorber (SA). With different pump powers and polarization controller states, the laser can operate in different operation modes including continuous wave, single solitons, harmonic mode-locked pulses of 2nd to 4th order, and soliton molecules. Wavelength changing over a range of 7–11 nm for different operation regimes was realized by stretching the tapered fiber and adjusting the polarization controller in the cavity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first TDFL that is changeable in wavelength under different operation modes and that is based on a monolayer graphene SA.

The pulse dynamics of a self-starting Yb-doped fiber Mamyshev oscillator without external seed pulses or additional starting arms is demonstrated experimentally. Multiple dynamic patterns of pulses, including single pulses, bound-state pulses, and harmonic mode-locking pulses, are observed at different pump powers and filter spectral separations. The generation and evolution of bound states have also been simulated by establishing the corresponding theoretical model. This is the first systematic theoretical and experimental study of the formation and evolution of bound states in Yb-doped Mamyshev oscillators. The numerical results are in excellent agreement with experiment results, providing validation of both the measurements and the numerical model.

Traditional methods for structural damage evolution and failure mode analysis usually depend on specific failure path analysis, which is inefficient and time-consuming to implement for complex structures. In this paper, an efficient failure path-independent methodology for structural damage evolution and failure mode analysis of framed structures is proposed based on the elastic modulus reduction method. The element bearing ratio, uniformity of element bearing ratio and reference element bearing ratio are defined in terms of the homogeneous generalized yield function of spatial beam element, while a dynamic criterion is presented to identify the highly stressed elements. Subsequently, a self-adaptive strategy of elastic modulus adjustment is developed to reduce the elastic moduli of the highly stressed elements for simulation of structural damage evolution. Finally, the reduction rate of elastic moduli of the highly stressed elements is presented to determine the failed sections among the failure elements in the last iteration, based on which the potential failure mode is identified. The applicability, computational accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methodology are validated by comparing with the elasto-plastic methods through two numerical examples.

Importance Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) kills approximately 1 in every 3 US women. Current cholesterol, hypertension, and aspirin guidelines recommend calculating 10-year risk of ASCVD using the 2013 Pooled Cohort Equations (PCE). However, numerous studies have reported apparent overestimation of risk with the PCE, and reasons for overestimation are unclear. Objective We evaluated the predictive accuracy of the PCE in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a multiethnic cohort of contemporary US postmenopausal women. We evaluated the effects of time-varying treatments such as aspirin and statins, and ascertainment of additional ASCVD events by linkage with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) claims. Design, Setting, and Participants The WHI recruited the largest number of US women (n = 161 808) with the racial/ethnic, geographic, and age diversity of the general population (1993-1998). For this study, we included women aged 50 to 79 (n = 19 995) participating in the WHI with data on the risk equation variables at baseline and who met the guideline inclusion and exclusion criteria. Median follow-up was 10 years. Main Outcomes and Measures For this study, ASCVD was defined as myocardial infarction, stroke, or cardiovascular death. Results Among the 19 995 women (mean [SD] age, 64 [7.3] years; 8305 [41.5%] white, 7688 [38.5%] black, 3491 [17.5%] Hispanic, 103 [0.5%] American Indian, 321 [1.6%] Asian/Pacific Islander, and 87 [0.4%] other/unknown), a total of 1236 ASCVD events occurred in 10 years and were adjudicated through medical record review by WHI investigators. The WHI-adjudicated observed risks were lower than predicted. The observed (predicted) risks for baseline 10-year risk categories less than 5%, 5% to less than 7.5%, 7.5% to less than 10%, and 10% or more were 1.7 (2.8), 4.4 (6.2), 5.3 (8.7), and 12.4 (18.2), respectively. Small changes were noted after adjusting for time-dependent changes in statin and aspirin use. Among women 65 years or older enrolled in Medicare, WHI-adjudicated risks were also lower than predicted, but observed (predicted) risks became aligned after including events ascertained by linkage with CMS for additional surveillance for events: 3.8 (4.3), 7.1 (6.4), 8.3 (8.7), and 18.9 (18.7), respectively. Similar results were seen across ethnic/racial groups. Overall, the equations discriminated risk well (C statistic, 0.726; 95% CI, 0.714-0.738). Conclusions and Relevance Without including surveillance for ASCVD events using CMS, observed risks in the WHI were lower than predicted by PCE as noted in several other US cohorts, but risks were better aligned after including CMS events. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:NCT00000611

Objective— Telomeres are regions at the ends of chromosomes that maintain chromosomal structural integrity and genomic stability. In studies of mainly older, white populations, shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and increased risks of mortality and coronary heart disease (CHD). On average, African Americans (AfAm) have longer LTL than whites, but the LTL–CHD relationship in AfAm is unknown. We investigated the relationship of LTL with CHD and mortality among AfAm. Approach and Results— Using a case–cohort design, 1525 postmenopausal women (667 AfAm and 858 whites) from the Women’s Health Initiative had LTL measured in baseline blood samples by Southern blotting. CHD or mortality hazards ratios were estimated using race-stratified and risk factor–adjusted Cox proportional hazards models. There were 367 incident CHD (226 mortality) events in whites, whereas AfAm experienced 269 incident CHD (216 mortality) events during median follow-up of 13 years. Shorter LTL was associated with older age, current smoking, and white race/ethnicity. In whites, each 1 kilobase decrease in LTL was associated with 50% increased hazard of CHD, hazard ratio=1.50 (95% confidence interval, 1.08–2.10), P =0.017. There was no association between CHD and LTL in AfAm. White women with shorter LTL had higher risks of mortality. In contrast, shorter LTL was weakly associated with decreased mortality hazard in AfAm. Conclusions— As one of the largest prospective studies of LTL associations with incident CHD and mortality in a racially diverse sample, our study suggests differences in LTL associations with CHD and mortality between white and AfAm postmenopausal women.

We propose and demonstrate an adjustable all-fiber comb filter with precisely controlled channel spacing by employing a tapered fiber in one arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) for the first time. Using fused taper technology to draw the fiber, we can precisely control the optical path difference between the two arms of the MZI, thus realizing a precisely controllable channel spacing. By rotating the polarization controller state in the other arm of the MZI, the transmission spectrum wavelength can be continuously tuned. Comb filters with controllable channel spacings from 0.2 to 3.0 nm have been numerically studied and achieved in experiment. Applications of a filter based on a multi-wavelength tunable all-fiber laser source are also demonstrated.

The authors declare no competing financial interests except for the following. B.M.P. serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by the manufacturer (Zoll LifeCor) and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson; O.H.F. received grants from Metagenics (on women’s health and epigenetics) and from Nestle (on child health); L.J.B. is listed as an inventor on Issued U.S. Patent 8,080,371,“Markers for Addiction” covering the use of certain SNPs in determining the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of addiction; P.S. has received research awards from Pfizer Inc., is a consultant for Mundipharma Co. (Cambridge, UK), is a patent holder with Biocompatibles UK Ltd. (Franham, Surrey, UK) (Title: Treatment of eye diseases using encapsulated cells encoding and secreting neuroprotective factor and/or anti-angiogenic factor; Patent number: 20120263794), and has a patent application with University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany) (Title: Agents for use in the therapeutic or prophylactic treatment of myopia or hyperopia; Europäische Patentanmeldung 15 000 771.4); P.W.F. has been a paid consultant for Eli Lilly and Sanofi Aventis and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of a European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project; M.A.N.’s participation is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica Internation and the National Institute on Aging (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA), and he also consults for Illumina, Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and University of California Healthcare among others; and M.J.C. is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company.; International audience; Genome-wide association analysis advanced understanding of blood pressure (BP), a major risk factor for vascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Accounting for smoking behavior may help identify BP loci and extend our knowledge of its genetic architecture. We performed genome-wide association meta-analyses of systolic and diastolic BP incorporating gene-smoking interactions in 610,091 individuals. Stage 1 analysis examined approximately 18.8 million SNPs and small insertion/deletion variants in 129,913 individuals from four ancestries (European, African, Asian, and Hispanic) with follow-up analysis of promising variants in 480,178 additional individuals from five ancestries. We identified 15 loci that were genome-wide significant (p < 5 x 10(-8)) in stage 1 and formally replicated in stage 2. A combined stage 1 and 2 meta-analysis identified 66 additional genome-wide significant loci (13, 35, and 18 loci in European, African, and trans-ancestry, respectively). A total of 56 known BP loci were also identified by our results (p < 5 x 10(-8)). Of the newly identified loci, ten showed significant interaction with smoking status, but none of them were replicated in stage 2. Several loci were identified in African ancestry, highlighting the importance of genetic studies in diverse populations. The identified loci show strong evidence for regulatory features and support shared pathophysiology with cardiometabolic and addiction traits. They also highlight a role in BP regulation for biological candidates such as modulators of vascular structure and function (CDKN1B, BCAR1-CFDP1, PXDN, EEA1), ciliopathies (SDCCAG8, RPGRIP1L), telomere maintenance (TNKS, PINX1, AKTIP), and central dopaminergic signaling (MSRA, EBF2).

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)., Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10−5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10−8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10−8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension., The following authors declare commercial private and/or governmental affiliations: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. Oscar H Franco (OHF) is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Fimlab LTD provided support in the form of salaries for author Terho Lehtimäki (TL) but did not have any additional role in the study design to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Gen‐info Ltd provided support in the form of salaries for author Ozren Polašek (OP) but did not have any additional role in the study design to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

The generation and evolution processes of noise-like pulses (NLPs) in an all-normal-dispersion nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser are numerically and experimentally investigated. We demonstrate that the amplitude modulation induced by reverse saturable absorption and the peak-power-limiting effect of the NPR plays a key role in the formation of fine-structure oscillations of NLPs. The width variation of the NLPs is also discussed in detail.

We demonstrated a new and simple method to implement an all fiber, wavelength switchable, free spectral range (FSR) accurately controlled single-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) comb filter, which consists of a polarization controller (PC) and a segment of tapered fiber in one arm. Through rotating the PC, the wavelength switchable operation was obtained. Using fused taper technology to draw the fiber in one arm can precisely control the optical path different, and the filter with expected FSR of 0.8 nm and 0.4 nm were achieved successfully in theory and experiment.

We experimentally observed the coexistence of polarization domains and polarization locked vector solitons in an Er-doped fiber laser with microfiber-based graphene as a saturable absorber. Taking advantage of the highly nonlinear effect and saturable absorption effect of the microfiber-based graphene saturable absorber, we have obtained polarization domains and their splitting into regularly or irregularly distributed multiple domains under relatively high pump power; at lower pump power and by carefully adjusting the orientation of the intra-cavity polarization controllers, we have also observed polarization locked vector pulses and their disordered soliton bunch or harmonic mode locking.

Background: Use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) has been associated with increased risk of breast cancer in some, but not all, studies. Differences in reported associations from prior studies may be due, in part, to inadequate control of confounding factors. Methods: Participants were 28,561 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative who reported use of either CCBs or other antihypertensive medications (AHMs) at baseline; 1,402 incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed during 12 years of follow-up. Adjusted Cox regression models were used to estimate HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the associations between CCB use relative to other AHM use and breast cancer risk. Results: Use of CCBs was not associated with breast cancer risk (HR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.94–1.20) relative to use of other AHMs. Associations approximated the null value when CCBs were considered by duration of use, length of action, or drug class. Conclusions: We provide additional evidence that CCBs do not influence breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Impact: The results from this study, which includes strong control for potential confounding factors, cast doubt on increases in risk with CCBs. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(8); 1345–8. ©2017 AACR.

We report on the generation of versatile pulse patterns in an erbium-doped fiber laser incorporating a 2D nano-materials, topological insulator (TI): Bi2Te3. By depositing of the TI on a microfier, an effctive saturable absorber (SA) would be created, which has combined the advantages from the strong nonlinear optical response in TI material together with the suffiently-long-range interaction length in fiber taper. The microfiber-based TI SA operates as both an excellent saturable absorber for mode-locking and a high-nonlinear medium for promoting the formation of versatile pulse patterns in the fiber laser. By adjustment the pump power and polarization state, we can adjusted the number of pulse in one pulse envelope and obtain various of multi-solitons.

OBJECTIVE: To examine associations of several aspects of parity and history of lactation with incident hip fractures and clinical fractures and, in a subset of women, with bone mineral density. METHODS: In this observational study, we analyzed data from 93,676 postmenopausal women participating in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and all bone density data from the subset of participants who underwent bone density testing at three clinical centers. At baseline, participants were aged 50–79 years. Using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, we examined associations of fracture incidence and bone density with several aspects of parity (number of pregnancies, age at first pregnancy lasting 6 months or greater, and number of pregnancies lasting 6 months or greater) and breastfeeding (number of episodes of breastfeeding for at least 1 month, number of children breastfed, age when first breastfed, age when last breastfed, total number of months breastfed). RESULTS: The mean baseline age (standard deviation) of participants was 64 (±7.4) years (mean follow-up 7.9 years). During follow-up, the incident rate of hip fracture was 1.27%. Ten percent of participants were nulligravid. In fully adjusted models, number of pregnancies, parity, age at first birth, number of children breastfed, age at first breastfeeding, age at last breastfeeding, and total duration of breastfeeding were not statistically significantly associated with hip fracture incidence. There were no consistent associations of parity or lactation characteristics with overall clinical fracture risk or bone density. However, compared with never breastfeeding, a history of breastfeeding for at least 1 month was associated with a decreased risk of hip fracture (yes compared with no, hazard ratio 0.84, 95% confidence interval 0.73–0.98). CONCLUSION: Patterns of parity and history of lactation were largely unrelated to fracture risk or bone density.

The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has been associated with reduced risks of cancers at several sites in some studies; however, we recently reported no association between their use and total cancer risk in women in a prospective study. Here we examine the association between NSAIDs and total and site-specific cancer incidence in the large, prospective Women's Health Initiative (WHI). Women (129,013) were recruited to participate in the WHI at 40 US clinical centers from 1993 to 1998 and followed prospectively. After 9.7 years of follow-up, 12,998 incident, first primary, invasive cancers were diagnosed. NSAID use was systematically collected at study visits. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between NSAIDs use and total and site-specific cancer risk. Relative to non-use, consistent use (i.e., use at baseline and year 3 of follow-up) of any NSAID was not associated with total cancer risk (HR 1.00, 95% CI: 0.94-1.06). Results for individual NSAIDs were similar to the aggregate measure. In site-specific analyses, NSAIDs were associated with reduced risks of colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, and melanoma. Our study confirms a chemopreventive benefit for colorectal cancer in women and gives preliminary evidence for a reduction of the risk of some rarer cancers. NSAIDs' benefit on cancer risk was therefore limited to specific sites and not evident when total cancer risk was examined. This information may be of importance when NSAIDs are considered as chemopreventive agents.

Background Although epidemiologic studies have shown associations between sedentary behavior and mortality, few have focused on older women with adequate minority representation and few have controlled for both physical activity and functional status. Purpose The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between sedentary time and total; cardiovascular disease (CVD); coronary heart disease (CHD); and cancer mortality in a prospective, multiethnic cohort of postmenopausal women. Methods The study population included 92,234 women aged 50–79 years at baseline (1993–1998) who participated in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study through September 2010. Self-reported sedentary time was assessed by questionnaire and examined in 4 categories (≤4, >4–8, ≥8–11, >11 hours). Mortality risks were examined using Cox proportional hazard models adjusting for confounders. Models were also stratified by age, race/ethnicity, body mass index, physical activity, physical function, and chronic disease to examine possible effect modification. Analyses were conducted in 2012–2013. Results The mean follow-up period was 12 years. Compared with women who reported the least sedentary time, women reporting the highest sedentary time had increased risk of all-cause mortality in the multivariate model (HR=1.12, 95% CI=1.05, 1.21). Results comparing the highest versus lowest categories for CVD, CHD, and cancer mortality were as follows: HR=1.13, 95% CI=0.99, 1.29; HR=1.27, 95% CI=1.04, 1.55; and HR=1.21, 95% CI=1.07, 1.37, respectively. For all mortality outcomes, there were significant linear tests for trend. Conclusions There was a linear relationship between greater amounts of sedentary time and mortality risk after controlling for multiple potential confounders.

Enzyme immunoassays for quantifying hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antigen (Ag) have been proposed as an alternative to HCV RNA detection. The present study aimed to investigate the early kinetics of serum HCVcAg and its usefulness in predicting virological responses. The clinical data of 135 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN-α) and ribavirin was retrospectively collected. The patients were grouped according to their treatment outcomes as follows: sustained virological response (SVR), nonsustained virological response (N-SVR), and relapse. Higher HCVcAg and HCV RNA levels were observed in patients in the N-SVR group than in the other groups at baseline. HCVcAg better predicted rapid virological response (RVR) compared with HCV RNA and had a predictive value similar to that of HCV RNA for SVR and early virological response. In the relapse group, HCV RNA decreased to 0 after 48 weeks, whereas HCVcAg was still detectable, indicating that HCVcAg more sensitively predicted relapse in antiviral therapy than HCV RNA. For patients treated with PEG-INF-α and ribavirin, HCVcAg may more sensitively predict relapse than HCV RNA.

We experimentally investigated the polarization vector characteristics in an Er-doped fiber laser based on graphene that was deposited on microfiber. A variety of dynamic states, including polarization locked fundamental soliton, and polarization domain wall square pulses and their harmonic mode locked counterparts have all been observed with different pump powers and polarization states. These results indicated that the microfiber-based graphene not only could act as a saturable absorber but also could provide high nonlinearity, which is favorable for the cross coupling between the two orthogonal polarization components. It was worth to mention that it is the first time to obtain the polarization domain wall solitons in a mode locked fiber laser.

We experimentally generated the duration-controllable square-wave pulse from an L band dissipative soliton (DS) fiber laser based on the dispersive Fourier transformation (DFT) technique. The rectangular spectrum emitted from an L band dissipative soliton fiber laser is mapped into a time-domain coherent rectangular waveform through the DFT technique. The duration of the square-wave pulse can be controllable with the adjustments of the pump power. The results demonstrate that it is an effective and flexible way to achieve duration-controllable square-wave pulses by combinating with DFT technique and DS fiber laser.

Topological insulators (TIs), are novel two-dimension materials, which can act as effective saturable absorbers (SAs) in a fiber laser. Moreover, based on the evanescent wave interaction, deposition of the TI on microfiber would create an effective SA, which has combined advantages from the strong nonlinear optical response in TI material together with the sufficiently-long-range interaction length in fiber taper. By using this type of TI SA, various scalar solitons have been obtained in fiber lasers. However, a single mode fiber always exhibits birefringence and hence can support two orthogonal degenerate modes. Here we investigate experimentally the vector characters of a TI SA fiber laser. Using the saturated absorption and the high nonlinearity of the TI SA, a rich variety of dynamic states, including polarization-locked dark pulses and their harmonic mode locked counterparts, polarization-locked noise-like pulses and their harmonic mode locked counterparts, incoherently coupled polarization domain wall pulses, including bright square pulses, bright-dark pulse pairs, dark pulses and bright square pulse-dark pulse pairs are all observed with different pump powers and polarization states.

Aims/Objectives The aim of this project was to implement best practice evidence to reduce incidence of falls in an acute care ward. Methods This project was conducted in a 44-bed acute care ward in a 935-bed acute care tertiary hospital from December 2010 to May 2011. This project utilized the Joanna Briggs Institute Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System (JBI PACES), a pre- and post-implementation audit strategy, and the Joanna Briggs Institute Getting Research Into Practice (JBI GRIP) programs. The audits included three out of eight criteria recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The process involved reviewing patients' medical records, verifying implementation of targeted fall preventive interventions, and fall risk assessment training for ward nurses. Results The findings of the post-implementation audit showed small to significant improvement in all three criteria, indicating compliance with best practice. After nurses had attended the education and training programs on fall risk assessment, accuracy in fall risk assessment has improved by 43%, patient and family education documentation showed an improvement of 31%, and targeted fall prevention interventions achieved a 4% improvement. Conclusion This project found that implementing evidence-based practice of the fall prevention criteria has raised awareness, improved knowledge, and reduced rate of falls. For inpatient fall prevention to be effective in the hospital, creating awareness, education, and communication to every staff member and patient and/or caregiver are essential. The pre- and post-implementation clinical audit is a useful method for evaluating the effectiveness of implementing evidence-based clinical practice.

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) is a linear approach for extracting localized feature of facial image. However, NMF may fail to process the data points that are nonlinearly separable. The kernel extension of NMF, named kernel NMF (KNMF), can model the nonlinear relationship among data points and extract nonlinear features of facial images. KNMF is an unsupervised method, thus it does not utilize the supervision information. Moreover, the extracted features by KNMF are not sparse enough. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a supervised KNMF called block kernel NMF (BKNMF). A novel objective function is established by incorporating the intra-class information. The algorithm is derived by making use of the block strategy and kernel theory. Our BKNMF has some merits for face recognition, such as highly sparse features and orthogonal features from different classes. We theoretically analyze the convergence of the proposed BKNMF. Compared with some state-of-the-art methods, our BKNMF achieves superior performance in face recognition.

Only one prior study has examined why adolescent smoking cessation interventions are effective. To address this understudied and important issue, this study examined whether a large adolescent smoking cessation intervention trial’s outcomes were mediated by Social Cognitive Theory processes. In a randomized trial (N = 2,151), counselors proactively delivered a telephone intervention to senior year high school smokers. Mediators and smoking status were self-reported at 12 months post-intervention-eligibility (88.8% retention). At-least-6-months abstinence was the outcome. Among all enrolled smokers, increased self-efficacy to resist smoking in (a) social & (b) stressful situations together statistically mediated 55.6% of the intervention’s effect on smoking cessation (p

Background The Hutchinson Study of High School Smoking randomized trial was designed to rigorously evaluate a proactive, personalized telephone counseling intervention for adolescent smoking cessation. Methods Fifty randomly selected Washington State high schools were randomized to the experimental or control condition. High school junior smokers were proactively identified (N = 2151). Trained counselors delivered the motivational interviewing plus cognitive behavioral skills training telephone intervention to smokers in experimental schools during their senior year of high school. Participants were followed up, with 88.8% participation, to outcome ascertainment more than 1 year after random assignment. The main outcome was 6-months prolonged abstinence from smoking. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results The intervention increased the percentage who achieved 6-month prolonged smoking abstinence among all smokers (21.8% in the experimental condition vs 17.7% in the control condition, difference = 4.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.2 to 8.1, P = .06) and in particular among daily smokers (10.1% vs 5.9%, difference = 4.1%, 95% CI = 0.8 to 7.1, P = .02). There was also generally strong evidence of intervention impact for 3-month, 1-month, and 7-day abstinence and duration since last cigarette (P = .09, .015, .01, and .03, respectively). The intervention effect was strongest among male daily smokers and among female less-than-daily smokers. Conclusions Proactive identification and recruitment of adolescents via public high schools can produce a high level of intervention reach; a personalized motivational interviewing plus cognitive behavioral skills training counseling intervention delivered by counselor-initiated telephone calls is effective in increasing teen smoking cessation; and both daily and less-than-daily teen smokers participate in and benefit from telephone-based smoking cessation intervention.