Search

Purpose Reduced physical activity is reported in the elderly, especially in institutional residents. Institutionalized older adults exhibit a high prevalence of frailty. In this work, we developed an artificial intelligence of things (AIoT)-based feedback assistive strengthening ergometer (AIFASE), for the physical strengthening of the elderly with intelligent assistance. Methods We conducted a 12-week intervention in a long-term care facility. In total, 16 participants (84.38 ± 6.0 years; 4 males and 12 females) were recruited with 1:1 randomization of exercise to control groups. The muscle strength of the lower extremities, timed up and go test (TUG), and Short-form Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) of the participants were measured. The AIFASE system allows the clinical staff to record the personal physical performance of the elderly and generates personalized exercise prescriptions accordingly. AIFASE also displays the current usage status of all ergometers and the users’ physiological conditions. The algorithms were developed to generate warning alerts when the training workload was too large by personal physiological detection. AIFASE automatically customized the exercise prescription according to the user’s exercise performance. Results After a 12-week AIFASE intervention, the intervention group exhibited significant improvements in the strength of the hip flexor, Semi-Tandem Stand, and Tandem Stand. Conclusion In this study, we developed an AIoT ergometer that delivered customized physical training prescriptions to improve the physical performance of long-term care facility residents. We believe that the application of AIFASE will help improve the quality of institutional care.

Life events and parenting styles might play an important role in children's mental health.This study aims to explore how life events and parenting styles influence children's mental health based on a Chinese sample.A total of 3535 participants had at least one mental disorder (positive group), while a total of 3561 participants had no mental disorders (negative group). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Check List (ASLEC) and Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran (EMBU) were used for screening these two groups.CBCL total scores differed significantly by sex in the Positive group according to the Mann-Whitney tests (Z = -5.40, p 0.001). Multiple regression analyses showed that the dimensions of punishment (p = 0.014) and other (p = 0.048) in the ASLEC scale can significantly predict CBCL total scores in the Positive group. Sex, age and overprotection from the father were risk factors (p 0.001) according to binary logistic regression.Life events and parenting styles may have impacts on mental health. Fathers play a very important role in children's growth. Punitive education and fathers' overprotection might be risk factors for children's mental health.It is a large sample (3535) study of Chinese children and adolescents It provides evidence that life events and parenting styles have impacts on mental health and that fathers play a very important role in children's growth. It is conducive to the development of interventions for the mental health of children and adolescents.

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has recently been demonstrated to contain optically polarized and detected electron spins that can be utilized for implementing qubits and quantum sensors in nanolayered-devices. Understanding the coherent dynamics of microwave driven spins in hBN is of crucial importance for advancing these emerging new technologies. Here, we demonstrate and study the Rabi oscillation and related dynamical phenomena of the negatively charged boron vacancy ($\rm V_B^-$) spins in hBN. We report on different dynamics of the $\rm V_B^-$ spins at weak and strong magnetic fields. In the former case the defect behaves like a single electron spin system, while in the latter case it behaves like a multi-spin system exhibiting the multiple-frequency dynamical oscillation like clear beat in Ramsey fringes. We also carry out theoretical simulations for the spin dynamics of $\rm V_B^-$ and reveal that the nuclear spins can be driven via the strong electric-nuclear coupling existing in $\rm V_B^-$ center, which can be modulated by the magnetic field and microwave field., 9 pages, 5 figures

Bismuth-based materials (e.g., metallic, oxides and subcarbonate) are emerged as promising electrocatalysts for converting CO2 to formate. However, Bio-based electrocatalysts possess high overpotentials, while bismuth oxides and subcarbonate encounter stability issues. This work is designated to exemplify that the operando synthesis can be an effective means to enhance the stability of electrocatalysts under operando CO2RR conditions. A synthetic approach is developed to electrochemically convert BiOCl into Cl-containing subcarbonate (Bi2O2(CO3)xCly) under operando CO2RR conditions. The systematic operando spectroscopic studies depict that BiOCl is converted to Bi2O2(CO3)xCly via a cathodic potential-promoted anion-exchange process. The operando synthesized Bi2O2(CO3)xCly can tolerate − 1.0 V versus RHE, while for the wet-chemistry synthesized pure Bi2O2CO3, the formation of metallic Bio occurs at − 0.6 V versus RHE. At − 0.8 V versus RHE, Bi2O2(CO3)xCly can readily attain a FEHCOO- of 97.9%, much higher than that of the pure Bi2O2CO3 (81.3%). DFT calculations indicate that differing from the pure Bi2O2CO3-catalyzed CO2RR, where formate is formed via a *OCHO intermediate step that requires a high energy input energy of 2.69 eV to proceed, the formation of HCOO− over Bi2O2(CO3)xCly has proceeded via a *COOH intermediate step that only requires low energy input of 2.56 eV.

Background Physical resilience is known to minimize the adverse outcomes of health stressors for older people. However, validated instruments that assess physical resilience in older adults are rare. Therefore, we aimed to validate the Physical Resilience Instrument for Older Adults (PRIFOR) to fill the literature gap. Methods Content analysis with content validity was first carried out to generate relevant items assessing physical resilience for older adults, and 19 items were developed. Psychometric evaluation of the 19 items was then tested on 200 older adults (mean [SD] age = 76.4 [6.6] years; 51.0% women) for item properties, factor structure, item fit, internal consistency, criterion-related validity, and known-group validity. Results All 19 items had satisfactory item properties, as they were normally distributed (skewness = -1.03 to 0.38; kurtosis = -1.05 to 0.32). However, two items were removed due to substantial ceiling effects. The retained 17 items were embedded in three factors as suggested by the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results. All items except one had satisfactory item fit statistics in Rasch model; thus, the unidimensionality was supported for the three factors on 16 items. The retained 16 items showed promising properties in known-group validity, criterion-related validity, and internal consistency (α = 0.94). Conclusions The 16-item PRIFOR exhibits good psychometric properties. Using this instrument to measure physical resilience would be beneficial to identify factors that could protect older people from negative health consequence. With the use of the PRIFOR, intervention effects could also be evaluated. It is helpful to strengthen resilience and thereby facilitate successful aging.

Tip vortex cavitation (TVC) is an important cavitation phenomenon in marine propeller. The formation and evolution of tip vortex cavitation are hot topics consistently both in engineering application and mechanism research. In this paper some recent studies on tip vortex cavitation inception and the noise of tip vortex cavitation evolution are presented. The effects of both flow field and water qualities on tip vortex cavitation inception are considered by experiments and numerical simulations. The results show that besides the average minimum pressure in the vortex core the turbulence fluctuation and water qualities including air content and nuclei distribution have great influence on tip vortex cavitation inception. Based on the idea of first nucleus cavitating in tip vortex core new prediction formula for tip vortex cavitation inception is proposed. The synchronous technique of high speed video observation and noise measurement are adopted to study the development of tip vortex cavitation. S-type total noise characteristics are obtained when cavitation number from low to high. Vortex singing is found in the case where the tip vortex cavitation just before leaves the tip region. The excited mechanism of vortex singing is proposed by analyzing the wave propagation on the interface of vortex cavity.

The stability and existence conditions of Hopf bifurcation of a commensurate fractional-order van der Pol oscillator with time-delayed feedback are studied. Firstly, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point of fractional-order van der Pol oscillator with linear displacement feedback are obtained, and it is found that the conditions are not only related to the feedback gain, but also to the fractional order. Secondly, regarding time delay as a bifurcation parameter, the stability of the commensurate fractional-order van der Pol system with time-delayed feedback is investigated based on the characteristic equation. Under some conditions, the critical value of time delay is calculated. The equilibrium point is stable when the parameter is less than the critical value and will be unstable if the parameter is greater than it. Moreover, the conditions for the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation are obtained. Finally, choosing four typical system parameters, some numerical simulations are carried out to verify the correctness of the obtained theoretical results.