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To examine the cross-lagged relationship between depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis. A longitudinal, observational study was conducted in two public hospitals in Shanghai, China. The sample consisted of 204 patients at baseline (T1). Of these, 144 completed the 12-month follow-up survey (T2), and 135 completed the 24-month follow-up survey (T3). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and HRQoL was assessed using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life 36 short form. Cross-lagged path analysis was used to examine the temporal relationship between depressive symptoms and domains of health-related quality of life. Lower levels of three out of five domains of HRQoL (physical functioning, burden of kidney disease, and symptoms of kidney disease) at T1 were associated with increases in depressive symptoms at T2. Moreover, higher depressive symptoms at T2 were associated with decreases in four domains of HRQoL (mental functioning, burden of kidney disease, symptoms of kidney disease, and effects of kidney disease) at T3. Patients who had poor HRQoL were more likely to report more subsequent depressive symptoms, which in turn predict lower HRQoL over time. It indicates a need to break this cycle in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis.

Spherical wavefront and array nonstationarity due to physically large antenna array are two typical characteristics specific to massive multiple-input–multiple-output (M-MIMO) propagation. Unfortunately, traditional MIMO channel models need to be enhanced to better characterize these two new propagation features. In light of this limitation, this article proposes an enhanced two-dimensional geometry-based stochastic channel model for 5G M-MIMO communications in real propagation environments. Specifically, a coordinate-based channel model framework is first introduced. Based on this, the impact of spherical wavefront can be mathematically described with the aid of some spatial geometric manipulations. Moreover, a general Markov process is developed to model the array nonstationarity characteristic due to cluster appearance and disappearance along the array. Meanwhile, the associated approach to derive the state transition probabilities of the proposed Markov process is detailed. Finally, capabilities of the proposed channel model in characterizing spherical wavefront and array nonstationarity of M-MIMO channels are shown by the numerical simulations. Moreover, validity of our proposal is verified by the measurement data.

This study used a prospective design to examine the association between self-reported physical activity and posttraumatic growth (PTG) over a 1-year period among 150 patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis. Transport-related, household, and leisure-time physical activity were positively associated with PTG at baseline and follow-up. Total physical activity could predict higher levels of PTG at follow-up, after controlling for baseline PTG and other covariates. The findings indicate that daily physical activity could be a modifiable behavioral factor associated with PTG among patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis. Further study is needed using a randomized controlled design and objective measures of physical activity.

The study aims to characterize physical activity (PA) participation by intensity and examine the biopsychosocial correlates among middle-aged and older adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in China. Data were examined from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The percentages of participation in vigorous, moderate, and light activity among participants with CKD were 22.7%, 42.1%, and 76.3%, respectively. The participants were less likely to engage in vigorous and moderate PA if they were 70 years of age or older, were not married/partnered, were unemployed, lived in urban areas, had an advanced stage of disease, had heart disease, and/or experienced mobility limitations. The magnitude of the associations between biophysical factors and PA participation was small for light PA. The higher the intensity of regular PA, the less likely older adults with CKD were to participate. Practitioners could consider the psychosocial characteristics of the older adults with CKD and facilitate their participation in PA.

Poor nutrition or insufficient physical activity (PA) are risk factors for obesity and chronic diseases. This 2019 cross-sectional study from the school health survey examined the dietary and PA behaviors of Chinese adolescents. A total of 12,860 adolescents aged 11–18 participated through multistage and stratified cluster random sampling. A questionnaire collected data on weight, PA, sedentary lifestyle, and eating habits. Unhealthy behaviors were identified and summed up for each behavior. Participants were then classified into high and low amounts of risk behaviors. Weight status was defined using Body Mass Index (BMI) cutoff points for Chinese individuals aged 6–18. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess effects of lifestyle behaviors on weight status. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 22.3% among all participants (30.6% in boys, 13.2% in girls). Females engaged in more risk physical activities (4.12 vs. 3.80, p < 0.05), while males engaged in more risk dietary activities (2.20 vs. 2.02, p < 0.05). Higher number of risk dietary, PA, and sedentary behaviors were all significantly correlated with higher BMI (dietary: r = 0.064; PA: r = 0.099; sedentary: r = 0.161; p < 0.001 for all) and body weight (dietary: r = 0.124; PA: r = 0.128; sedentary: r = 0.222; p < 0.001 for all). Risk sedentary behaviors was a significant risk factor for overweight/obesity (Adjusted Odds Ratio AOR = 1.30, 95% Confidence Interval CI 1.11–1.52). Obesity and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors remain a concern among Chinese adolescents. These results provide an update on the factors contributing to overweight/obesity among adolescents and call for efforts to address obesity among adolescents.

Understanding the aerodynamics associated with the interaction of fire and cross-wind flow is of great importance because the consequence may have major implications in building design against bushfire (or wildland fire) attacks. However, a fundamental understanding of how the interaction of fire and wind can alter free stream flow aerodynamic properties has remained elusive. The scope of this study is to examine the pool fire and wind interaction under fixed wind velocity condition. This study dissects the fundamental mechanisms of how the interaction of horizontal momentum flow with a vertical buoyant plume leads to enhancement of wind velocity in the horizontal direction at a certain elevation. Changes in flow aerodynamics caused by the interaction of fire and wind were analysed using the computational fluid dynamics approach. The mechanisms causing the changes were explained. A module was developed and added to the FireFOAM solver to evaluate flow acceleration due to the pressure gradient, gravity, and viscous effects. The chosen computational model was validated against two sets of experimental data, namely, a buoyant diffusion fire plume in still air and the other in cross-wind condition. The numerical simulation revealed that due to the interaction of fire and wind, there is a negative longitudinal pressure gradient across the plume axis, causing the flow to accelerate and the velocity profile to alter. It was also shown that the distortion in velocity profile depends on the location downstream of the fire plume. The height of the distortion increases whilst the magnitude of the distortion diminishes as the longitudinal distance from the fire source increases. Investigation of the effects of heat release rate on wind enhancement further showed that fire with a higher heat release rate causes a greater pressure gradient and a lower density, culminating in higher flow acceleration and consequently increase of wind enhancement.

Purpose: Marfan syndrome (MFS) is one of the most common hereditary connective tissue disorders, with various adverse manifestations ranging from typical ocular, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal abnormalities to manifestations involving the lungs, skin, and central nervous system. In patients with MFS, the most lethal manifestations are aortic lesion presenting as aortic insufficiency, thoracic and abdominal aortic dilatation, aneurysm, and dissection. Clinically, these patients often present with various types of arrhythmias and abnormal electrocardiographs (EKGs); however, there have been few studies of MFS-associated arrhythmias either in China or abroad. This investigation aims to elucidate the association between Marfan-associated aortic lesions and accompanying arrhythmia characteristics. Methods: From September 2016 to January 2018, 75 consecutive patients diagnosed with MFS and aortic disease manifestation were enrolled in the study (MFS group). During the same time period, 76 consecutive nonMFS patients with aortic disease were enrolled as positive controls (dissection group) and 100 consecutive healthy patients were enrolled during routine health checkups as negative controls (checkup group). EKG characteristics between the three groups were analyzed. Results: Compared to the checkup group, both the MFS group and dissection group showed more EKG abnormalities (P < 0.01). Even though there was no significant difference in the incidence of EKG abnormalities between the MFS group and the dissection group (P > 0.05), the MFS group showed a significantly higher occurrence of sinus bradycardia and first-degree atrioventricular block (P < 0.05) compared to the dissection group. Furthermore, the MFS group showed a significantly higher occurrence of left ventricular high voltage with accompanying ST-T change (P < 0.01) compared to the dissection group. Finally, the MFS group showed a significantly higher occurrence of left atrial abnormality (P < 0.05) compared to the dissection group. Conclusion: Patients with MFS and aortic disease manifestation have unique EKG abnormality characteristics. This may be associated with the connective tissue disease affecting the physiological electric conduction in the heart and long-term volume overload leading to myocardial damage.

This paper is investigating and comparing three channel models for the fifth generation (5G) wireless communications: the quasi deterministic radio channel generator (QuaDRiGa), the NYUSIM developed by New York University (NYU) and the more general 5G (MG5G) channel model. The three channel models employ different approaches to model the time non-stationary characteristics of the 5G wireless communications, such as the geometry-based drifting modeling and cluster birth-death methodology. Simulations are carried out using the three channel models to analyze the statistical properties including angle power spectrum (APS), power delay profile (PDP), temporal autocorrelation function (ACF), and spatial cross-correlation function (CCF). Simulation results show that the calculation of angular parameters contributes to the performance of APS, generation approaches of path powers and cluster parameters have significant impact on PDP performance, the performance of ACF and CCF varies mainly due to the calculations of path delays and angle spreads for the three channel models in urban macrocell (UMa) mobile NLOS environments.

Background With the development and progression of genetic technology, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) has made it possible to block the inheritance of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) as early as possible. However, we need to know the patients’ fertility intentions and their acceptance of PGT. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data on the basic demographic data, quality of life, social support, fertility willingness, and level of understanding of genetic testing for blocking the inheritance of ADPKD among patients aged 18–45 years in seven hospitals from January 2018 to December 2018. After verification, statistics were calculated. Results A total of 260 patients with ADPKD were interviewed, including 137males (52.7%) and 123 females (47.3%). The overall fertility willingness rate was low (n = 117, 45.0%). The proportion of married patients aged 25–34 years that were at the optimal reproductive age but did not yet have children was relatively high (n = 77, 67.0%). The fertility intentions of ADPKD patients were significantly influenced by age (OR: 0.101, 95% CI 0.045–0.225, P < 0.001) and education level (OR: 2.134, 95% CI 1.162–3.917, P = 0.014). Among patients who are willing to have children, 207 (79.6%) of them would choose PGT technology. Among those who were not sure whether they would choose PGT technology, the first major concern was technical safety (49.2%). Conclusions The reproductive desire of childbearing ADPKD patients in China was low. Strengthening the health education of ADPKD genetic knowledge and reducing the cost of related technologies may improve the fertility intentions and reduce the barriers to acceptance of PGT.

BackgroundChina has experienced an outbreak of a novel human coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since December 2019, which quickly became a worldwide pandemic in early 2020. There is limited evidence on the mortality risk effect of pre-existing comorbidities for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has important implications for early treatment.ObjectiveEvaluate the risk of pre-existing comorbidities on COVID-19 mortality, and provide clinical suggestions accordingly.MethodThis study used a nested case-control design. A total of 94 publicly reported deaths in locations outside of Hubei Province, China, between December 18th, 2019 and March 8th, 2020 were included as cases. Each case was matched with up to three controls, based on gender and age ± 1 year old (94 cases and 181 controls). The inverse probability weighted Cox proportional hazard model was performed.ResultsHistory of comorbidities significantly increased the death risk of COVID-19: one additional pre-existing comorbidity led to an estimated 40% higher risk of death (pConclusionExtra care and early medical intervention are needed for patients with pre-existing comorbidities, especially CHD.

Objective: This study aims to determine the current incidence of atrial fibrillation postaortic repair surgery and further identify its clinical predictors. Patients and Methods: Over a 17-month period starting on September 1, 2016, and ending on January 31, 2018, diverse types of aortic surgery were performed on 126 consecutive patients (age range, 8–75 years and median age, 43 years) with aneurysm (n = 67) or dissection (n = 59) of the ascending, arch, thoracic, or abdominal aorta. Totally 41 patients received operations on an emergency basis because of acute Type A dissection. Potential predictors of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) were estimated by a logistic regression model. Results: The incidence of postoperative new onset of atrial fibrillation (AF) was 26.2% (n = 33). Patients who developed POAF were more likely to be of advanced age (51 ± 16 vs. 40 ± 14, P < 0.01), and female patients were more likely to develop POAF compared with male patients (48.5% vs. 26.9%, P = 0.02). Patients with cardiac dysfunction (39.4% vs. 10.8%, P < 0.01), and those who underwent operations on the ascending aorta (48.5% vs. 29.0%, P = 0.04) were also more likely to develop POAF. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that only advanced age and cardiac dysfunction were independent predictors of POAF (P = 0.029, odds ratio [OR] = 1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.001–0.012; P = 0.003, OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 0.103–0.487). Conclusions: The prevalence of POAF is not rare in terms of patients undergoing aortic repair surgeries. Perioperative heart failure and increasing age may be correlating risk factors.

The study was designed to examine the relationships between sleep disturbance, negative affect and quality of life among patients with maintenance hemodialysis. A total of 118 patients in Shanghai, China, with maintenance hemodialysis (40 years old) participated in the study. They completed three questionnaires: the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the European Quality of 5-Dimensions (EQ-5D-5L). Results showed that male participants' negative affect scored significantly higher than female participants'.The mean global PSQI score was 8.64 (poor sleepers score 6 or more); sleep disturbance affected 63.6% of the patients, which indicated that in general the participants' sleep quality was relatively poor.The patients with worse sleep quality and negative affect were more likely to have a lower quality of life. In addition, the effect of the sleep disturbance on quality of life was mediated by negative affect (The Z value of Sobel test was -3.18, p.01).These findings suggest sleep disturbance and negative affect were common among patients with maintenance hemodialysis and had a negative impact on their quality of life; negative affect may mediate the relationship between sleep disturbance and quality of life.

Introduction Exposure to tobacco-related information is an important factor in youth smoking initiation. This study aims to explore the relationship between exposure to pro-smoking and anti-smoking media and adolescents’ current smoking status and susceptibility to smoking, as well as the interaction between exposure to pro-smoking and anti-smoking media information. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017. We recruited 12278 students from junior, senior and vocational high schools located in Shanghai, China. The exposure of participants to tobacco promotional and control messages over the past 30 days was examined, as well as current smoking and susceptibility to never smokers’ initiation. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using complex samples procedure logistic regression, adjusting for related covariables. Results There were 89.3% and 91.5% of adolescents exposed to tobacco prosmoking and anti-smoking messages. Exposure was more prevalent among males, suburb school and vocational school students. Exposure to pro-tobacco and antitobacco messages, separately, increased and decreased the risk of current smoking and susceptibility to never-smokers’ smoking, respectively, especially among males and junior high school students. Risk was associated with the exposure level (p-trend

Fire protection for heritage villages is a complex issue involving multiple factors, especially for heritage villages comprising brick–timber framed buildings. This study aims to investigate fire hazards in heritage villages and to provide an assessment on fire safety. Site investigations were conducted in a heritage village with data collections in terms of four aspects. First, brick wall condition was investigated. Second, the integrity of timber columns was inspected with the measured wood moisture content. Third, the accessibility of fire brigade intervention and active firefighting facilities was assessed. Finally, other fire hazards, such as disordered electrical wiring, were identified. A linear additive model with multiple attribute evaluation was then used to produce a measure of relative fire hazards. This study revealed significant structural deteriorations in the surveyed heritage village. Several identified fire hazard factors were quantified. Specifically, most external columns suffered different types of damage or erosion, and only 26% of the columns remained intact. The average surface moisture content of timber columns was 12.7% with a standard deviation of 5.95%. Only 10% of the roadways in the village were accessible for fire trucks. A single numerical assessment value represented that the fire safety level in the heritage village was low. The study provided actual information for the development of systematic approach and performance-based design on fire protection in heritage villages.

ObjectivesBuilding individuals’ positive attitudes during a pandemic is essential for facilitating psychological resilience. However, little is known about how public health measures may improve people’s positive attitudes during a pandemic. We investigated the potential mechanism underlying the association between individuals’ perceived effectiveness of public health measures and positive attitudes towards the success of pandemic control during the COVID-19 pandemic, by examining the parallel mediating effects of three types of threat appraisals: concerns about contracting the virus, perceived impact of the pandemic on life and estimated duration of the pandemic.Design, setting and participantsIn February 2020 when the COVID-19 infection was spreading rapidly in China, a large cross-sectional survey was conducted among 132 054 adults from the 16 districts in Shanghai, China.Outcome measuresPerceived effectiveness of the public health measures, positive attitudes towards the success of pandemic control and threat appraisals.ResultsResults of structural equation modelling supported the hypothesised mediation model: perceived effectiveness of public health measures was associated with lower levels of concerns about contracting the virus (β=−0.20), perceived impact of the pandemic (β=−0.13) and perceived duration of the pandemic (β=−0.20), which were then associated with higher levels of positive attitudes towards the success of pandemic control (βs=−0.12 to −0.25).ConclusionsThe findings suggest that threat appraisals may be important pathways through which individuals’ evaluations of prevention strategies may influence their attitudes towards the success of pandemic control. The health authorities should consider reducing people’s inappropriate threat appraisals when designing public health policies to facilitate people’s positive attitudes during a pandemic.

In China, where environmental regulations are less strict, finance would cause pollution to rise by promoting the growth of polluting industries. Exploiting a Chinese dataset over the period 2004–2014, 1% increase in the finance measured by credits to GDP, would cause pollution to rise by 4.29%, which is fairly large and cannot be ignored, and the results is robust when finance is measured by deposits to GDP. Thus, it is concluded that policies focused on pollution reduction would be ineffective and that policies on promoting finance would fall short of their intention to stimulate economic growth.

Reported in this paper is a novel application of statistical analysis of structural fire hazards that were found in heritage housing stock in a metropolitan area. The structural fire hazards in terms of non-compliances to the building regulations are digitised and then subjected to statistical analysis to obtain estimates of probabilities of occurrence under various conditions. The concepts of Hamming distance, Jaccard distance, virtual distance and pairwise Phi correlation coefficients are employed in the analysis to estimate the association between the fire hazards. Estimates of the probability distribution over the number of joint occurrence of hazards and pairwise joint probabilities are also obtained. In addition the 3-tuple and 4-tuple joint probabilities are analysed. Finally, logistic regression models are established to correlate each fire hazard with the others. The results show that not only the probability of occurrence of structural fire hazards is high, but probability of multiple occurrence is also significant. There are indications that some structural fire hazards are correlated. The findings of this study may assist certifying authorities, building surveyors, fire safety engineers and fire services in identifying fire hazards in heritage buildings and developing alleviating and effective strategies or solutions to protect life safety of building occupants as well as the cultural heritage values of the relevant building stock.

Fire-wind enhancement is a phenomenon associated with the increase of free-stream wind velocity due to the interaction of fire and free stream flow. The potential adverse effects of enhanced wind on the pressure loads around buildings highlight the necessity of investigating the phenomenon. The interaction of wind and fire has long been a subject of interest however, investigation of the factors affecting the phenomenon has not received due attention. One of the factors that affect this phenomenon is terrain slope. This paper used a Computational Fluid Dynamic solver called FireFoam to evaluate the effect of terrain slope on fire-wind enhancement. The results revealed that the enhancement of wind velocity due to fire increases with an increase in terrain slope. This is because fire-wind interaction leads to the generation of a favourable longitudinal pressure gradient whose magnitude increases with the increase of terrain slope.

Wind enhancement triggered by fire-wind interaction can potentially pose significant damage to structures built in bushfire prone areas. The effect of terrain slope is one of the parameters contributing to the enhancement of wind by fire that needs to be taken into account. This study employs a validated model of Computational Fluid Dynamics to assess the effects of terrain slope on this phenomenon. A module was developed and appended to the FireFOAM solver to output individual component of flow acceleration. Multiple analyses were used to explain the effects of terrain upslope and downslope on the phenomenon. The results reveal that although the enhancement of wind velocity due to fire increases with an increase in terrain upslope, a terrain downslope reduces flow enhancement by fire. The results also established that while an upslope terrain reinforces the Coanda effects and intensifies attachment of the plume to the ground, the downslope condition mitigates Coanda effects and reduces the flow's tendency to attach to the ground downstream of the fire source. Furthermore, under a constant heat release rate and upstream wind velocity, the maximum magnitude of wind enhancement linearly increases with the increase of upslope angle. Keywords: Upslope, Downslope, Wind enhancement, Fire, CFD, Coanda effects

This study investigated the influence and interaction of tobacco promotional and control information with adolescents’ current smoking and smoking susceptibility. 12,278 students were recruited from junior, senior and vocational high schools located in Shanghai, China. The exposure to tobacco promotional and control message of participants over the past 30 days were examined, as well as current smoking and never smokers’ initiation susceptibility. Complex sample analysis was applied. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted. 89.3% and 91.5% of adolescents investigated were exposed to tobacco promotional and control message respectively, which separately increased and decreased the risk of current smoking and never-smokers’ smoking susceptibility, especially among males and junior high school students. The risk changed in consistency with the exposure level（Ptrend < 0.001）. Tobacco control message seemed to mitigate the influence of tobacco promotions in the risk of both current smoking (OR = 0.64, 95%CI: 0.41–0.99) and smoking susceptibility (OR = 0.65, 95%CI: 0.46–0.93). Tobacco-related message exposure was highly prevalent and associated with youth smoking risk and smoking susceptibility. It is important to enhance the comprehensiveness and enforcement of promotion bans. Given the improvement of tobacco control message on smoking risk brought by tobacco promotions, the publicity and dissemination of tobacco control information need to be consistently strengthened.

In this article, a risk based approach to design for bushfire protection in view of adaptation to global warming is discussed. The concept of design bushfire is explained in an analogy to design flood or design earthquake in terms of event of prescribed return period. In lieu of using the Global Climate Model, the current study is based on the analysis of historical fire weather data from multiple locations in a state wide region. The generalized extreme value (GEV) analysis method is employed to establish the recurrence models for predicting the fire weather index of given return period and the associated fire intensity. To examine the impacts of the climate change, a moving GEV method is utilized to the weather data records over the period of 44 years. The result demonstrated a heterogeneity in the impact of climate change in terms of a given recurrence fire danger index and the potential bushfire severity over the region studied. The implication of this outcome is that the traditional prescriptive approach to design for bushfire protection may not be suited for adaptation to climate change.

ObjectivesThe ways patients cope with advanced cancer can influence their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aims to examine the mediating role of positive and negative mood in the relationship between coping and HRQoL in patients with advanced lung cancer.MethodsA consecutive sample of 261 patients (mean age: 59.99±9.53) diagnosed with stage III or IV lung cancer was recruited from the inpatient unit in a hospital that specialises in chest-related disease in Shanghai, China. Participants completed measurements including Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and 5-level EuroQol 5-dimension instrument.ResultsAlthough the total effects of confrontation on HRQoL were not significant, competing indirect effects via mood were identified: (1) positive indirect effects through positive mood were found for confrontation on mobility, usual activities, pain/discomfort and overall utility index (indirect effect=0.01, 95% CI 0.003 to 0.03); (2) negative indirect effects through negative mood were found for confrontation on mobility, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression and overall utility index (indirect effect=−0.01, 95% CI −0.03 to −0.001). Resigned acceptance was negatively associated with HRQoL, and indirect effects via mood were identified: (1) negative indirect effects through positive mood were found for resigned acceptance on mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and overall utility index (indirect effect=−0.01, 95% CI −0.03 to −0.003); (2) negative indirect effects through negative mood were found for resigned acceptance on domains of HRQoL and overall utility index (indirect effect=−0.04, 95% CI −0.06 to −0.02).ConclusionsConfronting advanced lung cancer can fuel ambivalent emotional experiences. Nevertheless, accepting the illness in a resigned way can be maladaptive for health outcomes. The findings suggest interventions that facilitate adaptive coping, reduce negative mood and enhance positive mood, as this could help to improve or maintain HRQoL in patients with advanced lung cancer.

A fire detection framework based on image processing is presented in this paper. The proposed framework incorporates Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) features and applies it in a novel way for use in fire detection by taking advantage of SIFT's ability to learn and adapt itself with various datasets. The framework was connected to a number of clusters and classifiers and was trained and tested with several fire and non fire image datasets. The performance of two classifiers in terms of the accuracy and sensitivity was examined and a comparison between the proposed framework and an existing image processing fire detection method has been presented. The experimental results, using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification, show that the proposed framework using SIFT features performs well and can achieve an accuracy of 94.7%.

We perform Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses of a low-rise building immersed in a turbulent boundary layer. The Silsoe 6 m cube is chosen as the main case study aiming at representing the key features of the typical wind conditions experienced by low-rise buildings. The turbulent inflow condition is generated by employing a precursor technique. A sensitivity study is conducted to investigate the effects of eight subgrid-scale (SGS) models on the flow around the cube. The incoming turbulence intensity and mesh sizing for each of the SGS models are also explored. The results in terms of time-averaged pressure fields for relatively well-resolved simulations are well compliant with available experimental data and insensitive to the selection of the SGS model. We demonstrate that, while the effect of the aforementioned factors has a limited impact on the first-order statistics of the pressure coefficients, their influence becomes much more pronounced when analysing higher-order statistics (i.e. variance, skewness and kurtosis) and extreme values. The extent of their relative importance depends on the location of the point under investigation and the quantity of interest. The current study provides guidelines on the choice of factors which can strongly affect the results obtained employing CFD simulations when the local peak pressures are of interest, for example, as in the case of cladding design.

Obesity is a major contributor to the development of steatohepatitis and fibrosis from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Hypoxia aggravates progression of NAFLD. In mice on high-fat diet (HFD), hepatic steatosis leads to liver tissue hypoxia, evidenced by accumulation of hypoxia inducible factor-1-alpha (HIF-1α), which is a central regulator of the global response to hypoxia. Hepatocyte cell signaling is an important factor in hepatic fibrogenesis. We here hypothesize that HIF-1α knockout in hepatocyte may protect against liver fibrosis. We first found that HFD led to 80% more hepatic collagen deposition than Hif1a-/- hep mice, which was confirmed by a-SMA staining of liver tissue. Body weight and liver weight were similar between groups. We then found the increasing HIF1a expression and decreasing PTEN expression in the mice on HFD and in PA-treated HepG2 cells. Finally, we found that HIF1 mediated PTEN/nfkb-p65 pathway plays an important role in the development of NAFLD to liver fibrosis. Collectively, these results identify a novel HIF1a/PTEN/NF-κ Bp65 signaling pathway in NAFLD, which could be targeted for the therapy.

Variation in flow characteristics triggered through the fire-wind interface can potentially damage the buildings during bushfires. Fire-wind enhancement which is referred to as the increase of wind velocity, caused by the fire-wind interaction, is one of the destructive phenomena in this regard. In spite of the significance, the underlying mechanism contributing to this phenomenon is still not well understood. This study employs computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation to fundamentally investigate the effects of free-stream wind velocity on fire-wind enhancement through analyzing the momentum and buoyancy of fluid. Fire-wind interaction is shown to cause the generation of fire-induced longitudinal negative pressure gradient which results in fire-induced pressure and viscous forces in longitudinal direction. These forces are further found as the prime reason for the distortion of the wind velocity profile. A module is implemented to the FireFOAM solver to calculate and extract these forces quantitatively. The results reveal that under a constant fire intensity, the level of distortion and/or enhancement in the wind velocity profile comparatively reduces with the increase of free-stream wind velocity. A new non-dimensional group (modified Euler number) is introduced to take into account dominant fire-induced forces causing fire-wind enhancement. Richardson number and the modified Euler number are employed to determine the influence of free-stream wind velocity and longitudinal distance from the fire source on wind velocity enhancement. Large-eddy simulation (LES) results indicate that while the level of enhancement generally depends on both Richardson and the modified Euler number, the location of the maximum level of enhancement along the plume centreline coincides with the maximum value of modified Euler number under a constant free-stream wind velocity scenario.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are critical regulators of gene expression; they have emerged as new players in the pathophysiology of reproductive disorders such as preeclampsia and recurrent miscarriage (RM). In this study, miRNA expression profiles were determined by deep sequencing analysis in placental villi obtained from women with RM and with gestational age-matched normal pregnancy (NP). A total of 69 miRNAs were found to be aberrantly expressed in RM. Five of these human (Homo sapiens) miRNAs (hsa-miRNAs), including hsa-miR-3074-5p, -486-3p, -1269b, -6765-3p and -144-3p, were validated by qRT-PCR in 12 RM and 10 NP placental villi. Hsa-miR-3074-5p expression was significantly higher, while hsa-miR-486-3p expression was significantly lower, in RM compared to NP. Subsequently, the expression of mouse (Mus musculus) miR-486-3p (mmu-miR-486-3p) and mmu-miR-3074-5p, which are identical to hsa-miR-486-3p and hsa-miR-3074-5p, respectively, were examined by qRT-PCR in the uterus during early pregnancy. Mmu-miR-486-3p expression was significantly increased during the peri-implantation period, and the levels were significantly higher at implantation than at non-implantation sites. In contrast, the expression of mmu-miR-3074-5p was markedly decreased at implantation compared to non-implantation sites. These data suggest that miR-486-3p and miR-3074-5p may be involved in embryo implantation and that their aberrant expression is associated with RM. Larger studies are warranted to follow up this pilot study.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of financial burden, using objective and subjective indicators, on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in lung cancer patients. A total of 227 patients diagnosed with lung cancer (from the inpatient unit of the department of internal medicine-chest oncology, in Shanghai Chest Hospital, China) participated in the study. Financial information was measured by direct medical costs, direct nonmedical costs, healthcare-cost-to-income ratio, and perceived financial difficulty. HRQOL was measured using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) scale. Catastrophic health spending, defined as a healthcare-cost-to-income ratio of more than 40%, was reported in 72.7% of the participants, whereas 37.0% reported that healthcare costs exceeded annual household income. Financial difficulty was perceived in 83.7% of the participants. Patients whose healthcare costs exceeded their annual household income and who perceived financial difficulty reported a clinically meaningful difference in overall HRQOL (> 6 points on the FACT-L) compared with participants without catastrophic health spending or perceived financial difficulty. Healthcare costs did not show a significant effect on HRQOL. Healthcare costs exceeding total annual household income and perceived financial difficulty are associated with poorer HRQOL in lung cancer patients. Subjective indicator of financial burden has a stronger effect on quality of life than objective indicators. Health-cost-to-income ratio and perceived financial difficulty can be implied as objective and subjective indicators of financial burden to identify the patients who may need additional assistance. Communication on deciding on cost-effective treatments can be facilitated.

A method of early smoke detection in video using swaying and diffusion feature is presented in this paper. Firstly, in view of early smoke's swaying feature, choquet fuzzy integral was adopted to extract dynamic regions from video frames, and then, a swaying identification algorithm based on centroid calculation was used to distinguish candidate smoke region from other dynamic regions. Secondly, smoke diffusion makes different textures between the bottom region and the top region of smoke. This unique feature was used to differentiate smoke from other candidate smoke regions by Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix. Experiments show that the proposed method is effective, robust, and has a performance of earlier smoke alarm. The processing rate of the smoke detection method achieves 25 frames per second with an image size of 320 × 240 pixels.

Smoking cigarettes and e-cigarettes is widely popular among Chinese students. Considering that school personnel are considered role models in the student community, we investigated the prevalence and determinants of such behavior among high school personnel in China so as to provide references for future related intervention measures. We used a stratified cluster sampling design on a total number of 3311 school employees recruited from 33 representative schools. Complex sampling analysis and logistic regressions were used for univariate and multivariate analyses. Among 3194 participants that met the study criteria, 7.4% were cigarette users, and 3.6% e-cigarette consumers. For conventional cigarette smokers, certain characteristics, such as being older and male, attaining less education, and having been exposed to secondhand smoke, were associated with heavier smoking. Nevertheless, e-cigarette users were predominantly male and of younger age. Those who understood the hazards of conventional cigarette smoking had less inclination to smoke but were at a higher risk of e-cigarette use. Our analysis suggests that it is necessary to target different populations for monitoring and controlling conventional cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use respectively among school personnel. In addition, China is in need of more relevant and strict anti-smoking regulations.

In this work, an experimental and theoretical study of the ignition of 20 mm thick paulownia wood exposed to a clear glass envelope incandescent light was performed. The experimental study includes both calibration tests and ignition experiments. Three simple models are established to estimate the incident heat flux in different positions, and the minimum heat flux to achieve ignition, and to correlate the ignition time with distance between the incandescent lamp and the wood sample. Considerable agreement between experimental and theoretical results was obtained in most cases.

A flame detection synthesis algorithm is presented in this paper. The temporal and spatial of flames, such as flame movement, color clues and flame area variation are incorporated into the scheme to detect fires in video frames. Firstly, Choquet fuzzy integral was adopted to integrate color features and texture feature for extracting dynamic regions from video frames. Secondly, mean filtering was used to smooth RGB value of the video frame pixels and detected dynamic regions were filtered by a flame color filtering algorithm to extract candidate flame regions. Finally, a flame area variation identification algorithm was used to distinguish true flames from candidate flame regions. Experiments show that the proposed method is effective, robust and remains with strong anti-jamming performance against brightness variation. The processing rate of the flame detection method achieves 24 frames per second with image size of 320 × 240 pixels.

This paper describes a probabilistic approach to fire resistance design. The theoretical foundation of the approach is explained. The design parameters of fire resistance level and fire severity are treated as random variables. The failure probability is then analyzed using the convoluted integration of the probability density distribution functions governing the two random variables. The method is applied to both a deemed-to-satisfy building design solution and an alternative solution. The failure probability of the deemed-to-satisfy solution is used as a risk criterion for the acceptance of the alternative solution. The method is also compared with the empirical approaches available in the literature.

Vertical egress from high-rise buildings is a challenge for occupants with mobility impairments. Past research indicates that use of lifts is a feasible option to supplement conventional stair evacuation. There is however one facet of lift evacuation that has limited available data, that is lift reliability. This research investigates lift reliability through a sample of 81 general passenger lifts in service throughout Australia. The sample period was over the past three years. Lift service records were used to ascertain the downtime due to various faults and maintenance. Statistical analyses of the raw data were conducted to obtain the reliability and its probability distribution. The average reliability of lifts was found to be 0.993. This result was compared with that obtained by others in the past.

The association of bushfires with wind has long been recognised, but the mechanism of this interaction has not received due attention. In the current study, a computational fluid dynamics approach was used to reveal the impact of fire-enhanced wind on low-rise building structures. This paper presents the results of a numerical study on bushfire, wind and structure interactions. The fire-enhanced wind was found to significantly distort the wind velocity profile and enhance turbulence properties, and alter the pressure coefficient distributions around a simple building structure represented by a 6 m cube. In particular, the simulated results revealed a significant increase in windward wall pressure coefficient due to the presence of a fire source upstream compared to that without fire. These findings are expected to have a significant impact on the development of improved design practice for the protection of buildings from fire-induced wind storms.

Context Maintenance of quality of life and symptom management are important in lung cancer therapy. To the author's knowledge, the interplay of respiratory symptoms and sleep disturbance in affecting quality of life in advanced lung cancer remains unexamined. Objectives The study was designed to examine the relationships among respiratory symptoms, sleep disturbance, and quality of life in patients with advanced lung cancer. Methods A total of 128 patients with advanced lung cancer (from chest oncology inpatient-units in Shanghai, China) participated in the study. They completed two questionnaires: the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Lung and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Results Symptomatic breathing difficulty, coughing, shortness of breath, and tightness in the chest were reported in 78.1%, 70.3%, 60.9%, and 60.2% of the patients, respectively. Sleep disturbance affected 62.5% of the patients. The patients with severe respiratory symptoms were more likely to be poor sleepers and to have a lower quality of life. After the covariates were controlled for, regression analysis showed that respiratory symptoms and sleep disturbance were significant indicators of quality of life. In addition, some of the effect of the respiratory symptoms on quality of life was mediated by sleep disturbance. Conclusion Respiratory symptoms and sleep disturbance were common in the advanced lung cancer patients and had a negative impact on their quality of life; sleep disturbance may mediate the relationship between respiratory symptoms and quality of life.

Railway transportation is becoming increasingly important in many parts of the world for mass transport of passengers and freight. This study was prompted by the industry’s need to systemically estimate greenhouse gas emissions from railway construction and maintenance activities. In this paper, the emphasis is placed on plain-line railway maintenance and renewal projects. The objective of this study was to reduce the uncertainties and assumptions of previous studies based on ballasted track maintenance and renewal projects. A field-based data collection was carried out on plain-line ballasted track renewals. The results reveal that the emissions from the materials contribute more than nine times the CO2-e emissions than the machines used in the renewal projects. The results show that extending the lifespan of rail infrastructure assets through maintenance is beneficial in terms of reducing CO2-e emissions. Analysis was then carried out using the field data. Then the results were compared to two ballastless track alternatives. The results show that CO2-e emissions per metre from ballasted track were the least overall, however, the maintenance CO2-e emissions are greater than those of ballastless tracks over the infrastructure lifespan, with ballasted track maintenance emitting more CO2-e emissions at the 30 and 60 year intervals and the end of life when compared to the ballastless track types. The outcome of the study can provide decision makers, construction schedulers, environmental planners and project planners with reasonably accurate GHG emission estimates that can be used to plan, forecast and reduce emissions for plain-line renewal projects.

In this article, a study is reported on the ignition of timber board by an incandescent light. A set of experimental tests were conducted to demonstrate the possibility of such an event. Inference was then made to the possible cause of a fire incident that occurred at a building construction site a few years ago. Theoretical analysis was also conducted based on an ignition model. The model is able to correlate the time to ignition with the distance between the light bulb with a given power output and the timber board.

INTRODUCTION: A search of the literature did not reveal known gender differences in biomechanics during parachute landing. METHODS: Eight male and eight female healthy adults participated in this experiment. Each individual jumped from platforms with three different heights (low: 0.32 m; medium: 0.52 m; and high: 0.72 m) and landed on flat ground in a standard half-squat parachute landing technique. The ground reaction force (GRF) normalized to bodyweight (BW), ankle joint kinematics, and the surface electromyogram (EMG) signals of the tibialis anterior (TA) and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) were measured. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the effects of the dropping height and gender factors. RESULTS: The anterior-posterior GRF (men 1.01 BW; women 0.79 BW), rate of loading (men 260 BW x s(-1); women 127 BW x s(-1)), and absolute EMG amplitude of TA (pre-landing: men 219 microv; women 129 microv; post-landing: men 573 microv; women 288 microv) in the men's group were significantly higher than in the women's group, whereas peak angular velocity of dorsiflexion in the women's group (1627 degrees x s(-1)) was significantly higher than in the men's (1188 degrees x s(-1)). DISCUSSION: Women are prone to transform the kinetic energy to the ankle motion, whereas men are more likely to transform it to friction. The co-contraction of the ankle flexor and extensor differs between genders. These factors may be associated with the higher incidence of parachute injuries among women reported by some authors. Language: en

In response to the call for the development of risk informed, performance-based building fire regulations, a literature review was conducted to link the traditional safety factor approach in fire safety engineering to failure probability. It can be demonstrated that a safety factor alone is an insufficient measure, or is only a first-order measure of risk or failure probability. To achieve a higher order estimate of failure probability, an α-percentile method is proposed. As part of this methodology, it is also proposed that the fire engineering briefing process involve nominations of percentile values for design fire scenarios as well as other parameters that define the scenarios.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling (or field modeling) is becoming the main method for numerical simulation of building fires. Among many factors that influence the validity and accuracy of CFD simulation results, the computational domain is sometimes overlooked. In this article, the effects of computational domain on simulation results are analyzed. Simulation results from the use of different domains are compared with experimental data reported in the literature. A parametric study is then conducted to reveal a relationship between the effective domain extension and the heat release rate of the enclosure fire. The effect of computational domain extension in relation to vent opening is also investigated. It is found that the selection of computational domain can have a significant effect on the outcome of enclosure fire simulations. Determination of the appropriate computational domain without unduly sacrificing computational efficiency is also discussed.

A video flame detection method based on the multi-feature fusion is presented in this paper. The temporal and spatial characteristics of flames, such as ordinary flame movement and color clues, a flame flickering detection algorithm is incorporated into the scheme to detect fires in color video sequences. An improved Gaussian mixture model method is firstly adopted to extract moving foreground objects from the still background of detection scenes; secondly, detected moving objects are then categorized into candidate and non-candidate flame regions by using a flame color filtering algorithm; finally, a flame flicker identification algorithm based on statistical frequency counting is used to distinguish true flames from fire-like objects in video images. Testing results show that the proposed algorithms are effective, robust and efficient. The processing rate of the flame detection method can achieve 24 fps with image size of 320 × 240 pixels on a PC with an AMD 2.04 GHz processor.

With the increasing threat of climate change there is a need to use renewable and green materials such as timber for house constructions. Timber is not generally regarded as a suitable material for the construction of homes in bushfire (or wildland fire) prone areas. However, our understanding of the performance of solid timber wall constructions under bushfire conditions is still limited. The objective of this research was to conduct a pilot experimental study of a solid timber wall system to assess its performance under severe bushfire attack conditions typical in Australia's bush land. Eight log wall specimens with and without various protection coatings were exposed to thermal radiation field produced by a gas-fired radiation panel at the BRL A40 level in accordance with the relevant Australian test standard. The heat flux on the exposed surface and temperatures on both the exposed and unexposed surfaces were measured. Flaming combustion and self-extinguishment were observed on most of the specimens while the external radiant heat varied from 40 kW/m 2 to 16 kW/m 2 . The charring depth of the log walls was also measured. The performance of the solid timber walls was evaluated against the relevant standard. The experimental work showed that solid log wall assemblies are resistant to severe bushfire threat and timber can be a suitable material for building in bushfire prone areas if sufficiently thick and well sealed.

A study on building occupant characteristics in mass rapid transit (MRT) stations in Singapore is reported in this paper. The characteristics studied include age group and gender distributions, commuters’ response to fire emergency alarms and their awareness of locations of exits, their walking speeds on walkways and stairs. The study took advantage of the fare card system used in Singapore to ascertain the age group spectrum of the commuters. Surveys were conducted among the MRT commuters to establish their intended response to three types of fire alarm systems, namely the fire alarm bell, the live announcement and the pre-recorded message. Commuter walking speeds were measured with the aid of video recording and on-site observation. The distributions of age groups in the MRT commuters were found to be statistically significantly different from that of general public, as there were mainly adults and fewer children and elderly in comparison to the general population. The distributions of gender groups in the MRT commuters were also found to be statistically significantly different from that of general public, as the female/male ratio among the commuters was greater than that in the general population. The survey results indicated that commuters intended more likely to respond to live announcement warning system than to the other two systems. The commuters’ awareness of egress routes was poor. It was also noted that there was no statistically significant difference in the responses by the two gender groups to the three fire alarm warning systems but the study indicated the statistically significant gender difference in the awareness of fire escape routes. A significantly large proportion of commuters was found unaware of or unfamiliar with the current fire escape route provisions in the MRT stations from the survey. The unimpeded walking speed was found to be gender and age dependant and it may not be appropriate to apply one walking speed for all commuters. Weak correlations were found for linear fit of walking speeds over a wide range of pedestrian density on walkways and staircases. Keywords: Commuters; Evacuation

Fire or smoke alarms are crucial components in building fire safety systems. The effectiveness of fire alarms is investigated in this article. A relationship between effectiveness, efficacy, and reliability is formulated. A comparative study of the effectiveness of fire alarms in two types of occupancies is conducted using the published laboratory and field study results. The current study revealed the difference between the effectiveness of the fire alarm systems in dwelling and commercial stores.

A research project was undertaken to investigate whether the lifts can be used as an alternate emergency evacuation route in apartment buildings. The important parameters in relation to the issues were divided into three categories: human behavioural response, fire hazards and lift operational mechanism. The parameters relating to human behavioural response were modelled and analysed as a stochastic process. The parameters relating to fire hazards were analysed using the concept of fire safety index while the parameters relating to operational mechanism were analysed using probabilistic models. An integrated approach of risk assessment was developed based on the Multi-Objectives Decision Analysis method. The results for lift and stair systems were compared and the feasibility of using lifts with design modifications was analysed. The outcome of the research has shown that lifts as an alternate evacuation facility with enhanced level of safety have potential to improve evacuation efficiency, particularly for aged and disabled persons. Partial evacuation using lifts with a protected lobby is possible. The risk involved in total evacuation using lifts with double protection is comparable with stair-alone evacuation.