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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is common in older adults. CHA2DS2-VASC (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age ≥75 (doubled), diabetes mellitus, prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (doubled), vascular disease, age 65-74, female) and HASBLED(Hypertension, Abnormal Renal/Liver Function, Stroke, Bleeding History or Predisposition, Labile INR, Elderly, Drugs/Alcohol Concomitantly) are the most established risk stratification tools in assessing suitability for anticoagulation in AF. However, there are no established screening tools for geriatric syndromes on anticoagulation risks in older adults.This study examined the association of anticoagulation prescription with geriatric syndromes.Older adults 65 years and above admitted to a tertiary hospital with atrial fibrillation and CHA2DS2-VASC score ≥ 2. Data on demographics, function (modified Barthel's Index (MBI)), cognition (mini-cog), frailty (Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) and FRAIL), geriatric syndromes (EFS), sarcopenia (SARC-F), HASBLED and CHA2DS2-VASC were collected.150 patients aged 65 and above (mean age 79.4 ± 7.1 years) with AF were recruited. 101 (67%) participants were anticoagulated, in univariate analysis comparing those who were anticoagulated with those who were not, age (OR 0.94; 95% CI 0.89-0.99), chronic kidney disease (OR 0.39; 95% CI 0.19-0.80), frailty (OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.60-0.98) and functional status by Barthel's Index (OR 0.75; 95% CI 0.57-0.97) were significantly associated with anticoagulation prescription. In multivariate analysis, age (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.88-0.99) and CKD (OR 0.35; 95% CI 0.16-0.76) remained significant. There was no significant difference in CHA2DS2-VASC, HASBLED, MBI or falls between the groups.Age and CKD were significantly associated with anticoagulation prescription in patients with AF. Further studies on the impact of geriatric syndromes on anticoagulation prescription and outcomes in older adults are needed with specific guidelines for patients with geriatric syndromes and AF.

The dissolution behaviors of various minerals in the tellurium–bismuth ore during oxidic–acidic leaching were investigated systematically in this work. The Te–Bi phase in the ore distributes in network shape, triangular shape, tree shape, strip shape, bulk shape, sparse granule, flake shape, crescent, etc., which are closely intercalated with FeS, FeS2, and CaCO3·(Mg,Fe,Mn)CO3. Under suitable conditions, 95.61% Te and 95.77% Bi can be recovered. Within 20 min of the initial leaching, most of dolomite and Te–Bi phase dissolve rapidly. With the extension of leaching time, a large amount of rod-shape CaSO4 particles form, attach on the surface of the tellurium–bismuth ore particles, and then grow and coarsen. The (Mg,Fe,Al)(Si,Al)Ox(OH)y phase dissolves mainly within 60 min. Fe–S phase can be corroded but cannot dissolve completely. SiO2 cannot dissolve at all. Besides, H2SO4 and Fe3+ play a significant role on the dissolution of various minerals in the ore. Without Fe3+ or H2SO4 in immersion liquid, Te and Bi are difficult to be leached into the lixivium from the tellurium–bismuth ore. As H2SO4 concentration and Fe3+ concentration increase, Te–Bi phase and Fe–Mg–Al–Si–O phase gradually dissolve, the Fe–S phase can be corroded obviously but cannot dissolve, and the Si–O phase has no change. The dissolution of dolomite is mainly controlled by H2SO4. The dissolution behaviors of various minerals in the tellurium–bismuth ore during oxidic–acidic leaching were investigated systematically. Most of dolomite and Te–Bi phase dissolve rapidly. A large amount of rod-shape CaSO4 particles form, attach on the surface of the tellurium–bismuth ore particles, and then grow and coarsen. H2SO4 and Fe3+ play a significant role on the dissolution of various minerals in the ore.

The Shaximiao Formation in the Zhongjiang Gas Field of the Sichuan Basin was initially a high-productivity gas field with the bright spot channel as the vital exploration target. With further development, gas wells were obtained in some nonbright spot areas, which caused interpreters to pay great attention to the channels with nonbright spot abnormal amplitudes. We have developed a method to delineate nonbright spot channels from the complicated sand-mudstone contact relationship. First, we classified sandstone into types I, IIa, IIb, and III, depending on the responses of the amplitude variation with offset from the drilled data, to produce a forward model. We the explain why the hidden channel cannot be identified using the full-angle stack seismic data based on this model. Afterward, we put forward a difference, between the synthetic seismogram responses of bright and nonbright channels, in creating seismic-to-well ties for nonbright channels. This difference from bright channels is that the synthetic data’s wave peak is not corresponding to the peak of the real seismic data. The wave trough has the same situation. Finally, we used far-angle stack seismic data to calculate coherent energy and instantaneous spectral attributes (the latter produced for red-green-blue blending) to identify the hidden channel. We observed that parts of the channel are more clearly visible in the far-angle stack than in the full-angle stack data. In the latter situation, we cannot describe the geometric shape of the channel elaborately. The Shaximiao Formation example is a relatively effective analog for nonbright spot plays compared with elsewhere.

Objectives To develop and cross-validate self-administered Rapid Geriatric Assessment (SA-RGA) app against administered Rapid Geriatric Assessment (A-RGA) to identify seniors with geriatric syndromes such as frailty, sarcopenia, and anorexia of ageing who may benefit from targeted intervention. Design Prospective observational study. Setting Primary Care and Community. Participants A-RGA and SA-RGA app were administered to older adults ≥ 60 years old from December 2020 to April 2021. Measurements The RGA app screens for frailty (FRAIL), sarcopenia (SARC-F), anorexia of aging (SNAQ) and cognition (Rapid Cognitive Screen) with assisted management pathway. Patient Health Questionnaire 9 is administered for those who score positive for fatigue. The diagnostic performance of SA-RGA was compared against A-RGA as a reference by calculating the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) and positive likelihood ratio (+LR). Results 123 participants with a mean age of 71 ± 5.9 years completed both the SA-RGA and A-RGA. Questions on fatigue, 5 or more illnesses, loss of weight and falls in the past year performed better with high sensitivity, specificity, NPV and +LR than self-functional assessment where SA-RGA participants reported lower prevalence on the FRAIL scale aerobic and resistance components, and higher prevalence on the SARC-F strength and rising from a chair components. Conclusion The SA-RGA app performed well in certain domains such as assessment for weight loss, falls, number of chronic illness and fatigue. Self-functional assessment can be improved further by removing ambiguity in wordings such as “some” or “a lot” and replacing it with functional difficulty scale. SA-RGA has the potential to be incorporated in the eHEALTH platforms worldwide for early identifications of older adults at risk and to reduce health inequalities, at the same time building community resilience in the era of Covid-19 pandemic.

Proteins existed in aquatic environments strongly influence the transport, fate of nanomaterials due to the formation of protein-corona surrounding nanomaterials. To date, how do proteins affect the aggregation behaviors of MXene, a new family of two-dimensional materials, in aquatic environment remains unknown. Here the aggregation kinetics of MXene Ti

As a classical visualization tool for seismic facies analysis, the clustering process of self-organizing map (SOM) is generally divided into two stages: feature extraction and clustering. However, when the horizon pickings are ambiguous and waveforms are chaotic, the structural feature extraction cannot correspond well to the topological structure of SOM. To improve the performance of classification, we propose a one-stage method of deep embedded SOM (DESOM) for seismic facies visualization analysis, which means that the extracting feature representation and clustering are completed simultaneously. Moreover, the stability of the DESOM results can be improved by adding sparse constraints, and thus the visualization results can be displayed in more detail. In the experiment, by comparing with the external indexes of clustering and the hierarchical results of prototype categories, the superiorities of the DESOM and sparse DESOM (SDESOM) methods are verified based on a geophysical model. In the field data application, these methods are combined with the Hue, Saturation, Value (HSV) color mapping technology to display the geological structure information of the target horizon. According to the law of the correlation of facies and the internal cluster indexes, it approves that the DESOM method can improve the continuity of channels, and the SDESOM method can obtain more detailed information of seismic facies distribution.

In a healthy body, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants remain balanced. When the balance is broken toward an overabundance of ROS, oxidative stress appears and may lead to oocyte aging. Oocyte aging is mainly reflected as the gradual decrease of oocyte quantity and quality. Here, we aim to review the relationship between oxidative stress and oocyte aging. First, we introduced that the defective mitochondria, the age-related ovarian aging, the repeated ovulation, and the high-oxygen environment were the ovarian sources of ROS in vivo and in vitro. And we also introduced other sources of ROS accumulation in ovaries, such as overweight and unhealthy lifestyles. Then, we figured that oxidative stress may act as the "initiator" for oocyte aging and reproductive pathology, which specifically causes follicular abnormally atresia, abnormal meiosis, lower fertilization rate, delayed embryonic development, and reproductive disease, including polycystic ovary syndrome and ovary endometriosis cyst. Finally, we discussed current strategies for delaying oocyte aging. We introduced three autophagy antioxidant pathways like Beclin-VPS34-Atg14, adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin (AMPK/mTOR), and p62-Keap1-Nrf2. And we also describe the different antioxidants used to combat oocyte aging. In addition, the hypoxic (5% O2 ) culture environment for oocytes avoiding oxidative stress in vitro. So, this review not only contribute to our general understanding of oxidative stress and oocyte aging but also lay the foundations for the therapies to treat premature ovarian failure and oocyte aging in women.

Rong Fu,1 Chuan-Qing Jing,1 Xiu-Rong Li,2 Zhao-Feng Tan,2 Hui-Jie Li2 1Clinical Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, The First Clinical Medical College of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 2Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Hui-Jie Li Email 2008lihuijie@163.comBackground: There are no useful biomarkers for the clinical outcome of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In this study, we aimed to investigate the prognostic value of soluble PD-L1 (sPD-L1) in serum of patients with locally advanced or metastatic ESCC who received cytotoxic chemotherapy as first-line treatment.Materials and Methods: This study evaluated the expression pattern of PD-L1 by immunohistochemistry and sPD-L1 concentration, and correlation with clinicopathological factors and overall survival (OS) in 190 patients with ESCC.Results: sPD-L1 concentration was highly expressed in ESCC, especially in female patients. Patients with a high sPD-L1 level (≥ 0.63 ng/mL) had a shorter OS than those with a low sPD-L1 level (< 0.63 ng/mL). In a multivariate analysis, high sPD-L1 concentration remained an independent prognostic factor of OS after adjustment for possible confounders. However, tissue PD-L1 expression level was non-prognostic in this study.Conclusion: There was no significant correlation between serum sPD-L1 concentration and tissue PD-L1 expression level. sPD-L1 concentration before treatment could be an effective and convenient biomarker of prognosis in patients with locally advanced or metastatic ESCC treated with combination cytotoxic chemotherapy.Keywords: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, PD-L1, soluble PD-L1, prognosis, clinical outcome, chemotherapy

Pre-mRNA processing factors (PRPFs) are vital components of the spliceosome and are involved in the physiological process necessary for pre-mRNA splicing to mature mRNA. As an important member, PRPF6 mutation resulting in autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP) is not common. Recently, we reported the establishment of an induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs; CSUASOi004-A) model by reprogramming the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a PRPF6-related adRP patient, which could recapitulate a consistent disease-specific genotype. In this study, a disease model of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells was generated from the iPSCs of this patient to further investigate the underlying molecular and pathological mechanisms. The results showed the irregular morphology, disorganized apical microvilli and reduced expressions of RPE-specific genes in the patient’s iPSC-derived RPE cells. In addition, RPE cells carrying the PRPF6 mutation displayed a decrease in the phagocytosis of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled photoreceptor outer segments and exhibited impaired cell polarity and barrier function. This study will benefit the understanding of PRPF6-related RPE cells and future cell therapy.

Dentistry requires high manual dexterity, and few studies have investigated the challenges and impact on dental students of attaining manual dexterity skills. This study aimed to investigate dental students' perceptions of manual dexterity, including their awareness of manual dexterity requirements in dentistry, self-perceptions of manual dexterity competency, and whether manual dexterity should be part of admission to dentistry training. A link to a 12-item online Qualtrics survey was sent out to students in either their 2nd or 5th year of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The anonymous survey collected basic demographic data and included closed and open-ended questions about manual dexterity. Descriptive statistics were calculated for quantitative variables and a general inductive approach was used to analyze free-text responses. Those were later grouped into a theoretical domain framework. The overall response rate was 53%. All participants acknowledged the importance of manual dexterity in dentistry. Most participants thought that manual dexterity can be improved with practice and that including a manual dexterity test in the admission criteria may cause unnecessary stress for students. Striving to achieve manual dexterity impacted participants' performance in the BDS course. However, most participants viewed it as a challenge that can be overcome with practice and improvement, and that current BDS admission requirements are sufficient.

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical characteristics of ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization at various sites in infants with shock, and to explore how to quickly select the site for central venous puncture in infants with shock. METHODS: The medical data of 112 infants who were diagnosed with shock and underwent central venous catheterization in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Dongguan Children's Hospital Affiliated to Guangdong Medical University, from January 2016 to December 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. The patients were divided into an ultrasound group (n=70) and a body surface location group (n=42) according to whether the catheterization was carried out under ultrasound guidance. The application of ultrasound-guided catheterization at various sites in infants was summarized and analyzed, and the success rate of one-time puncture, overall success rate, catheterization time, and complications were compared between these sites. RESULTS: Compared with the body surface location group, the ultrasound group had a significantly higher success rate of one-time puncture, a significantly shorter catheterization time, and a significantly reduced incidence rate of complications in internal jugular vein and femoral vein catheterizations (P0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In infants with shock, ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein catheterization can be used as the preferred catheterization method for clinicians.

The key temperature points are the input variables of the thermal error model for prediction and compensation of thermal errors for precision CNC machine tools. However, the revealed time-varying characteristics of the key temperature points may jeopardize the robust prediction. To this end, the segment fusion least squares support vector machine (SF-LSSVM) thermal error modeling method is proposed. Firstly, the temperature data and thermal error data are divided into different segments according to time. Then, using the LSSVM with excellent nonlinear mapping capabilities as the basic model, the sub LSSVM thermal error model building and the corresponding key temperature points selection in each segment are fulfilled with genetic algorithm (GA) in a wrapper manner to preserve the corresponding local prediction characteristics. Finally, pick some of or all the sub LSSVM thermal error models to fuse together as the final thermal error model which may incorporate both the local and global prediction characteristics. The modeling and prediction experiment results on the spindle thermal error of a horizontal machining center demonstrate that the mean root-mean-square error (RMSE) on 5 spindle speeds after compensation is only 3.1 μm. Comparing with two traditional thermal error models, the prediction performance of the present model is improved by up to 51%. This research casts new light on both the mechanism of key temperature points and the prediction method of thermal errors.

Rice and maize are two main crops with different growth habits in Northeast China. To investigate the uptake, translocation, and accumulation of organophosphate esters (OPEs) in those two crops, we measured the OPE concentrations in their agricultural soil-crop systems during different growing seasons. OPE concentrations were higher in paddy (221 ± 62.0 ng/g) than in maize (149 ± 31.6 ng/g) soil, with higher OPE levels in the rhizosphere than in bulk soil for rice, and the opposite in maize. Two-step extractions were used to obtain the labile and stable adsorption components of OPEs. The stable-adsorbed OPEs were activated to be more bioavailable by root exudates as rice grew. OPEs in rice increased linearly with the growing period. The uptake and translocation processes of OPEs by crops were not well-explained by logK

In recent years, the metal additive manufacturing technology has become increasingly mature, but there are still some problems in the forming of large-scale aluminum alloy components, like the low efficiency, high cost, and difficulty in controlling stable morphology and quality. This paper, proposed a new method of metal fused-coating additive manufacturing composite variable polarity tungsten inert gas (MFCAM & TIG). The characteristics of this process were introduced in detail, and the synergistic effects of fused-coating with VP-TIG under the combination process were analyzed. By adopting the cathode crushing effect of the VP-TIG arc, the defects including oxide inclusions in the deposition process were effectively avoided; besides, the cathode cleaning effect were realized. Moreover, the forming characteristics of single-layer single-pass sample were studied, and the process range was obtained. Typically, the deposition process was improved to ensure the surface morphological quality of the component in the forming process. On this basis, a typical three-dimensional (3D) sample was made, which further verified the effectiveness of our new combination method of MFCAM & TIG.

Based on two considerations of making full use of the residual heat of vanadium slag and exploring a novel green vanadium extraction process, this article employs vanadium slag with high MgO content as raw material, blowing oxygen into the molten vanadium slag and using the residual heat of the vanadium slag to carry out high-temperature roasting experiments. XRD and SEM/EDS were used to characterize the phase evolution and morphology of vanadium slag with high MgO content during oxidation. The results show that at a high temperature of 1723 K, the trivalent vanadium in vanadium slag can be partly transformed into acid-soluble pentavalent vanadium. Titanium-bearing spinel was oxidized into a large amount of strip pseudobrookite Fe2TiO5. After oxidation, vanadium existed in the form of the solid solution of magnesium pyrovanadate (Mg, Mn, Ca)2V2O7. The leaching rate of roasted vanadium slag with high MgO content is significantly higher than that of industrial vanadium slag. With the increase of oxygen blowing time from 10 to 30 minutes, the leaching rate of roasted vanadium slag with high MgO content increases from 23.19 to 53.69 pct.

There are still some problems in the electrochemical machining (ECM) of micro-deep holes with a diameter of 100–200 μm. For example, it is difficult to prepare an insulation layer on the outer sidewall of a micro-hollow electrode. Under the influence of high-pressure liquid flushing and bubble tearing in a small machining gap, the prepared insulation layer is easily damaged/fallen off. And the micro-hollow part of the electrode is also easily blocked in the preparation. In order to solve the above problems, a novel method for preparing an insulation layer by asymmetric-timed bipolar electrophoretic coating in an aqueous epoxy acrylic solution was presented. In this method, the liquid-supplied technique that the interior of the micro-hollow electrode was completely filled up with the still deionized water, was ingeniously combined with the repeated and alternating process, in which the positive electrophoretic coating undergoes for a longer period of time and the negative electrophoretic stripping undergoes for a shorter period of time. Through simulation and orthogonal tests, the process parameters of the electrophoretic coating were optimized. Comparative verification experiments were conducted using the prepared sidewall-insulation electrodes. The surface morphology, the electrical insulating property, the size and morphology of the fabricated holes, and the surface morphology of the electrodes after machining were used as indicators for comparing and analyzing the performance of the insulation layers. Finally, a micro-deep hole array was machined on a stainless steel 304 plate with a thickness of 500 μm. The typical hole diameter of the inlet and outlet is about 168 μm. Compared to the machined holes of the sidewall-insulation electrodes prepared by the traditional electrophoretic coating method, the taper is reduced by more than 60%, and the surface quality is improved by about 30%. The results show that the sidewall-insulation layer prepared by the method proposed in this paper has higher compactness, uniformity, durability and consistency, and its performance meets the special requirements of the micro ECM for the electrode sidewall-insulation layer.