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BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Although malnutrition commonly affects stroke patients, there are no validated screening tools. We verified the usefulness of non-paralytic anthropometric measurements for the nutritional screening of stroke. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in consecutive stroke patients with hemiplegia aged [greater-than or slanted equal to]65 years, with Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form score [[less-than or slanted equal to]11. Diagnostic malnutrition criteria from the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism were the reference standards: body mass index (BMI) 10%+BMI RESULTS: We included 488 patients (224 men and 264 women) with a mean age of 78.8 years and mean BMI of 22.0 and 21.1 kg/m.sup.2, respectively. Eighty-one men and 124 women had malnutrition. The AUC for CC, AC, TSF, AMC and Alb was 0.859, 0.825, 0.764, 0.745 and 0.670 for men, and 0.881, 0.843, 0.796, 0.742 and 0.658 for women, respectively. In both sexes, CC had the highest kappa (0.533, 0.608; both P CONCLUSIONS: Non-paralytic CC indicated malnutrition with sufficient accuracy and good correlation with functional capacity; it may be a useful nutritional screening tool for stroke., Author(s): S Nishioka [sup.1] , H Wakabayashi [sup.2] , T Yoshida [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Clinical Nutrition and Food Services, Nagasaki Rehabilitation Hospital, Nagasaki, Japan (2) Department of [...]

Negative hydrogen (H −) ion sources have a wide range of applications. The general requirement for these H − ion sources is to produce intense H − ion beams with good beam optics. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the effects of the beam extraction voltage on the beam divergence angle by three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) modeling. Perveance matching has been studied for a wide range of the extraction voltage with the model geometry of a Linac4 H − ion source. The extracted H − beam divergence angle is evaluated for extraction voltages ranging from 7 to 14 kV by using the Keio-BFX PIC code. The results show divergence minima in the range of 9.2–11.5 kV for the case without surface H − production, which correspond to experimental results. The dependence of divergence on the extraction voltage is explained by the change of the shape of the meniscus. In particular, a flat meniscus corresponds to low beam divergence, and particles extracted through the center of the meniscus have a lower divergence than particles extracted near the Plasma Electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study designed miniaturized coplanar waveguide microwave bandpass filters by developing the interdigital gap which allows strong coupling and modeling corner bends. These filters were designed using high critical temperature superconducting films. Their expected performances were obtained via computer simulation. Experiments were also carried out on a prototype coplanar waveguide filter. Design and simulated performance of these filters are presented.

The performance of a traveling-wave type LiNbO3 optical modulator with superconducting electrode was evaluated. Calculated values of the attenuation constants of the device's superconducting and normal-conducting striplines show that the performance of this optical modulator may be superior than modulators using normal metals with respect to the figure of merit of bandwidth/driving-voltage.

A technique for evaluating the complex conductivities of high temperature superconducting YBCO thin films was verified using the coplanar waveguide resonator methodology. The study involved the measurement of the temperature dependence of the resonant frequency and comparing the figures with those derived from the evaluating technique. The results indicate that the observed temperature dependence of the complex conductivities is capable of distinguishing the effect of weaklink from the intrinsic characteristic of the grain of an epitaxial thin film.

Tunneling spectroscopy of magnetic tunneling junctions with an MgO barrier (CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB) that shows a very high large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio at room temperature was performed. The results revealed that the electronic structure of the MgO barrier has significant influence on the tunneling process of electrons through magnetic tunnel junctions.

Recently, in large-scale hydrogen negative ion sources, the experimental results have shown that ion-ion plasma is formed in the vicinity of the extraction hole under the surface negative ion production case. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the mechanism of the ion-ion plasma formation by our three dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. In the present model, the electron loss along the magnetic filter field is taken into account by the "√τ∕∕/τ┴model." The simulation results show that the ion-ion plasma formation is due to the electron loss along the magnetic filter field. Moreover, the potential profile for the ion-ion plasma case has been looked into carefully in order to discuss the ion-ion plasma formation. Our present results show that the potential drop of the virtual cathode in front of the plasma grid is large when the ion-ion plasma is formed. This tendency has been explained by a relationship between the virtual cathode depth and the net particle flux density at the virtual cathode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: According to the recently proposed diagnostic criteria for sarcopenic dysphagia, sarcopenic dysphagia can be classified as probable or possible based on tongue pressure. However, it is unclear whether patients with probable and possible sarcopenic dysphagia have different characteristics. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether patients with possible and probable sarcopenic dysphagia have different clinical characteristics. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: A rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 129 patients aged ≥65 years with sarcopenic dysphagia were included. Methods: A tongue pressure of <20 kPa was indicative of probable sarcopenic dysphagia, and a tongue pressure of ≥20 kPa was indicative of possible sarcopenic dysphagia. Kuchi-Kara Taberu (KT) index scores were compared between the probable or possible sarcopenic dysphagia groups. Results: According to the tongue pressure, 76 and 53 patients were classified into the probable and possible sarcopenic dysphagia groups, respectively. In multiple linear regression analysis, the presence of probable sarcopenic dysphagia was independently associated with the total KT index score (standardized coefficient: −0.313, regression coefficient: −4.500, 95% confidence interval [CI], −6.920 to −2.080, P < 0.001). The presence of probable sarcopenic dysphagia was independently associated with some subitems of the KT index (willingness to eat, cognitive function while eating, oral preparatory and propulsive phase, severity of pharyngeal dysphagia, eating behavior, and daily living activities). Conclusions: Patients with probable sarcopenic dysphagia were characterized by poor overall eating-related conditions, especially poor swallowing ability, ability to perform activities of daily living, and nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]