Search

Background Hypertension and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are ordinary health problems in the elderly. The research on the status and risk factors of hypertension complicated with MCI in elderly population in the community is insufficient. Objective To inquire into the prevalence of hypertension combined with MCI in urban communities and analyze the possible influencing factors of its comorbidities. Methods Five communities with a relatively high proportion of elderly population were selected in Yinchuan City and Wuzhong City of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region by typical sampling from September to November 2011. A health survey was conducted among all community residents aged≥55 years in the communities. 509 patients with hypertension were included, and multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of hypertension patients with MCI. The regression coefficient of each influencing factor was used as the weight to calculate individual predictive risk value, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of individual predictive risk value for hypertensive patients with MCI. Results The patients were divided into hypertension with MCI group (n=97) and hypertension without MCI group (n=412) according to whether they were combined with MCI. There were statistically significant differences in age distribution, gender, smoking, hypertension grade, depression score, uric acid and albumin between the two groups (P

As promising candidates for widespread application, advanced ceramic fiber mats with robust mechanical properties are urgently needed. However, the brittleness, fatigue failure, and large density of ceramic fiber pose significant obstacles to its practical application. Herein, a novel SiO2 aerogel/ZrO2 composite nanofibrous membrane (SZCNFM) with excellent flexibility was prepared by introducing SiO2 aerogel nanoparticles into ZrO2 nanofiber via simple co‐electrospinning. The developed tetragonal zirconia phase without changing up to 1200°C endows SZCNFM material with excellent thermal stability. Furthermore, the as‐prepared membranes exhibit fatigue resistance ability which can maintain 98% of the original stress after 100 buckling cycle tests. The addition of mesoporous structure aerogel reduces the heat transfer of the nanofibrous membrane, giving its low thermal conductivity (30 mW/m/K) and low‐frequency sound absorption (noise reduction coefficient of 0.52). Combined with the high‐temperature resistance, low thermal conductivity and excellent sound‐absorption ability make it a promising material for heat insulation and acoustic absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pinanamine‐based analog, (1R,2R,3R,5S)‐N‐((3‐cyclopropylthiophen‐2‐yl)methyl)‐2,6,6‐trimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]heptan‐3‐amine (M090) was synthesized and demonstrated with anti‐influenza activity to overcome the multi‐drug resistance. Herein, a rapid and robust liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to quantify M090 in rat plasma. With simple protein precipitation by methanol, the separation of M090 was performed on a Waters BEH‐C18 column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) by gradient elution at 0.4 mL/min with mobile phases consisting of water containing 0.1 % formic acid (phase A) and methanol (phase B). M090 and clenbuterol (internal standard) were detected using multiple reaction monitoring in positive electrospray ionization mode with transitions of m/z 290.3→137.0 and m/z 277.0→203.0, respectively. The method was validated over a linear range of 1.0–2400 ng/mL with a regression coefficient of 0.9974 and no endogenous interference. The intra‐ and inter‐batch precisions were within 8.29% and accuracy ranged from 100.3% to 108.1% for M090. The validated method was utilized to evaluate the in vitro metabolic stability and in vivo pharmacokinetics of M090 in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rituximab (RTX) has been the first option in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). However, the clinical effect was not very satisfactory. This study aimed to explore the clinical efficacy and safety of the combination of RTX and glucocorticoids (GC) in anti-phospholipase A2 receptor (anti-PLA2R) antibody positive IMN. Sixty-six patients were randomly divided into RTX/GC group (RTX infusion plus short-term oral GC) and RTX group (RTX infusion alone) in this prospective cohort study. Complete remission (CR) and partial remission (PR) were the primary outcomes. Adverse events were the secondary outcomes. The laboratory index including serum albumin, 24 h urinary protein, serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and anti-PLA2R antibody titer were also monitored. All patients were followed for at least 12 months. During the 12-month follow-up, the composite remission rates in RTX/GC and RTX groups were 74.3% and 67.7%, and the CR rates were 34.3% and 19.4%, respectively. The median time of remission in RTX/GC group was shorter than the RTX group (P < 0.001). Compared with RTX monotherapy, the combination of RTX and GC significantly decreased the anti-PLA2R antibody titer (P = 0.028). No significant difference was observed in the incidence of adverse events. The results of the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis indicated that the cumulative CR rate and cumulative composite remission rate in RTX/GC group were all better than the RTX group (P = 0.043, P = 0.040, respectively). The combination of RTX and GC was better than RTX monotherapy without increasing the adverse events in the treatment of IMN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiO2 aerogel attracts much interest as thermal insulation material due to ultra-low density and excellent thermal performance at room temperature. However, the poor mechanical property and a mass of heat transfer by radiation in high temperature limit application of aerogels. Herein, a novel aerogel composite multiscale reinforced by glass fibers felt with SiC nanowhiskers (SiCnw) (AFS) was prepared. SiCnw were evenly distributed in glass fibers felts by freeze-drying method to form a uniform multiscale felt. The SiCnw inside felts provided more contact point with aerogel to increase the interfacial adhesion force so that compressive stress of aerogel composites with 4% volume fraction SiCnw was increased to 0.29 MPa. SiCnw blocked infrared radiation to decrease the heat transfer. Therefore, thermal conductivity at 500℃ of aerogel composite with 4% volume fraction SiCnw was only 0.040 W/(m·K). In a word, SiCnw reduced the sensitivity of thermal conductivity to temperature. AFS showed potential in the field of medium and high temperature insulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A GO (graphene oxide)/ZnO/Cu2O antibacterial coating was successfully sprayed on the ultrafine glass fibers using room temperature hydrothermal synthesis and air spraying techniques. The microstructures of the antibacterial coating were characterized, and the results showed that the Cu2ONPs (nano particles)/ZnONPs were uniformly dispersed on the surface of GO. Then, the antibacterial properties of the GO/ZnO/Cu2O (GZC) antibacterial coating were evaluated using the disc diffusion test. It was found that the coating exhibits excellent antibacterial properties and stability against E. coli and S. aureus, and the antibacterial rate of each group of antibacterial powder against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) was 100%. To explore the antibacterial mechanism of the GZC antibacterial powder on the ultrafine glass fibers based on the photocatalysis/oxidative stress method, the photoelectric coupling synergistic effect between GZC antibacterial coating was analyzed deeply. The results all showed that the photochemical activity of GZC antibacterial powder was significantly improved compared with pure component materials. The enhancement of its photochemical activity is beneficial to the generation of ROS (including hydroxyl radicals, superoxide anion radicals, etc.), which further confirms the speculation of the photocatalytic/oxidative stress mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As aging increases, monoclonal gammopathy is becoming more common and monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS) is gaining attention due to frequent renal involvement. Within MGRS, proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits (PGNMID) is a special category. The disease was first described in 2004 and the research history on it is relatively short. Compared with other MGRS, the detection rate of circulating clones is lower in patients with PGNMID, which is easy to miss and misdiagnose in clinical work. In this review, the etiology and clinical features of PGNMID are discussed. It is noted that PGNMID is associated not only with MGRS, but also with malignancy, infection and other factors. PGNMID is not a disease exclusive to the elderly—young people can also develop this disease. Due to the low detection rate of circulating clones in most patients, confirmation of the disease needs to be combined with renal pathology, which emphasizes the importance of completing light and heavy chain subtype staining. Treatment options for patients with PGNMID differ by etiology. For MGRS-associated PGNMID, the current treatment is primarily empirical and more research evidence is needed to fill the treatment gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the finite‐time local piecewise control for parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) by using dynamic output feedback control strategy, where the controller is designed as an ordinary differential equation (ODE). This makes the closed‐loop system PDE‐ODE coupled, which is employed to accurately describe the dynamics of the PDE system. According to the constructed PDE‐ODE coupled model, a local piecewise dynamic feedback control law is first proposed. Sufficient conditions on finite‐time stabilisation of the parabolic PDE‐ODE coupled system by the suggested feedback controller are then developed in the sense of both complete spatial measurement and incomplete spatial measurement of the observed output of the PDE system, respectively. Finally, the issues regarding the finite‐time stabilisation of the closed‐loop system is converted into the feasibility of matrix inequalities, and some simulation studies are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]