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Background: Hypertension is considered the most important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, but its control is poor worldwide. We aimed to assess the availability and affordability of blood pressure-lowering medicines, and the association with use of these medicines and blood pressure control in countries at varying levels of economic development. Methods: We analysed the availability, costs, and affordability of blood pressure-lowering medicines with data recorded from 626 communities in 20 countries participating in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study. Medicines were considered available if they were present in the local pharmacy when surveyed, and affordable if their combined cost was less than 20% of the households' capacity to pay. We related information about availability and affordability to use of these medicines and blood pressure control with multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models, and compared results for high-income, upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income countries. Data for India are presented separately because it has a large generic pharmaceutical industry and a higher availability of medicines than other countries at the same economic level. Findings: The availability of two or more classes of blood pressure-lowering drugs was lower in low-income and middle-income countries (except for India) than in high-income countries. The proportion of communities with four drug classes available was 94% in high-income countries (108 of 115 communities), 76% in India (68 of 90), 71% in upper-middle-income countries (90 of 126), 47% in lower-middle-income countries (107 of 227), and 13% in low-income countries (nine of 68). The proportion of households unable to afford two blood pressure-lowering medicines was 31% in low-income countries (1069 of 3479 households), 9% in middle-income countries (5602 of 65 471), and less than 1% in high-income countries (44 of 10 880). Participants with known hypertension in communities that had all four drug classes available were more likely to use at least one blood pressure-lowering medicine (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2·23, 95% CI 1·59–3·12); p

Water stress significantly affects on rice yield and quality. Eight Japonica varieties from the first and second accumulated temperature zones of Heilongjiang Province were used as materials and four moisture gradients (0, −10, −25 and −40 kPa) were conducted at the grain-filling stage to clarify the effect of water stress on the rice yield and quality in cold regions. The results showed that the rice yield was reduced due to the decrease in the seed setting rate. Rice chalkiness was significantly increased by drought stress, especially under −10 kPa. The protein content of most varieties was significantly reduced and taste quality was increased under −25 to −40 kPa. The effect on protein components increased with increasing drought stress. The gel consistency decreased and the average chain length of amylopectin was less affected by drought. With an increase in moisture deficit, the rapid viscosity analyzer characteristics and chain length distribution of amylopectin showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing or decreasing and then increasing. The response of starch to mild and severe drought varied. Our study provides a theoretical basis for the efficient utilization of water and high quality and yield of Japonica rice.

This article proposes an on-chip optical temperature sensor based on a cascaded microring resonator, which is composed of a reference ring and a sensing ring cascaded with different temperature sensitivities and free spectral ranges. By changing the temperature of the sensing window environment, the thermal optical effect of the waveguide causes a change in the refractive index of the waveguide, which affects the temperature sensitivity and free spectrum changes of the sensor. The output spectral response of the sensor shifts, achieving temperature sensing detection. The experimental results show that the temperature sensitivity of this microring cascaded temperature sensor is 303.6 pm/°C, which is 3.65 times the limit of a single microring temperature sensitivity of 83 pm/°C. The temperature-sensing range of the sensor is 100°C, which can well meet the temperature-monitoring requirements of ultra-large-scale integrated circuits.

This study investigated the effect of combined thymosin α1 and vitamin C (Tα1 + VitC) on the immunological responses of septic rats. Five groups were designed. The septic model was established by the cecal ligation puncture (CLP) method. The sham group did not undergo CLP, the model group was given normal saline solution, the Tα1 group was given Tα1 (200 µg/kg), the VitC group was given VitC (200 mg/kg), and the Tα1 + VitC group was given Tα1 + VitC. Specimens for immunological analyses were collected at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h posttreatment in each group except for the sham group (only at 48 h). CD4 + CD25 + T cells in the peripheral blood and dendritic cell (DC) proportions in the spleen were analyzed by flow cytometry. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-ß1), and nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) were measured by ELISA. CD4 + CD25 + T cells and OX62 + DCs levels significantly increased in the model group and decreased in the Tα1 and/or VitC treatment groups. Similarly, the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, TGF-ß1, and NF-κB significantly increased in the model group and decreased in the Tα1, VitC, and Tα1 + VitC groups, indicating that combined Tα1 and VitC therapy may help regulate the immunological state of patients with sepsis, thereby improving prognosis.

The osteoporosis model of mouse tibia was established based on castration, and the effect of osteoporosis on the mechanical properties of tibia was investigated. The two-dimensional sections of mouse tibia were obtained by Micro-CT. The three-dimensional digital model of mouse tibia was obtained by reconstruction technology, and trabecular bone shape and density were analyzed. The effect of osteoporosis on the mechanical properties of tibia was explored by testing and finite element simulation. The results showed that osteoporosis could damage the trabecular structure and decrease the mechanical properties of tibia. Compared with healthy tibia, the maximum load, bending stiffness and elastic modulus of tibia decreased by 20%, 30% and 25%, respectively, and the simulation results were in good agreement with the experiment. This study provides an important basis for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis.

The flexibility of the power grid can be significantly promoted by the participation of power customers in dispatch. However, as the uncertainty of customer behavior,the development of demand response services is limited. To solve this problem,the framework of incentive-based demand response is constructed in this paper. The way that load aggregators integrate demand-side resources to participate in the power market is elaborated. And the behavior of power customers responding to incentive policies is transformed into demand elasticity. Then,a data-driven demand elasticity prediction method based on the integrated long short-term memory (LSTM) is proposed. Meanwhile,to improve the performance of the prediction model,the original data is smoothed and scaled,and the weight coefficients of the loss function are added. The simulation results show that,compared with the traditional LSTM algorithm and the k-proximity prediction method,the average forecasting error with the proposed model for the demand elasticity is reduced by 5.33% and 28.8%,and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for the total load prediction is reduced by 2.06% and 3.09%. Additionally,based on integrated LSTM,the influence of smoothing and scaling data preprocessing on prediction accuracy is analyzed. The results show that the prediction accuracy can be significantly promoted by data preprocessing.

This study makes the 3D reconstruction of complex-shaped particles based on the multi-view of 2D images. The complex-shaped calcareous sand particles are taken as samples, and typical complex-shaped particles such as block, strip, and dendrite are reconstructed. The final reconstruction accuracy is characterized by convexity, circularity, aspect ratio, and other shape indicators. In the reconstruction process, the initial projection plane of the particles is rotated around the axis to obtain a series of 2D projection images of the particles, and the boundary coordinates are extracted. Then, the 3D point cloud is used to match the coordinates of the obtained 2D image contours, and the point sets located outside the 2D image contours is deleted so that all points are located within the obtained series of 2D image contours. The point cloud is further materialized and constructed to obtain the 3D solid on this basis. By reconstructing 150 particles of different shapes, it is found that the reconstruction error of more than 90% of the particles is within 10%, among which, the largest error range is dendritic particles with the maximum error of 10.84%, and the minimum error is less than 1%. The method is simple and can effectively construct 3D models of complex-shaped particles with high accuracy.

High-purity and bulk Ta4AlC3 ceramics were successfully fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and subsequent heat treatment, using the raw materials including TaC and Ta2AlC powders. These raw materials were first synthesized by self-propagation high temperature synthesis from elements tantalum, aluminium and carbon black powders, followed by pressure-less sintering. The as-fabricated bulk Ta4AlC3 was relatively stable when subjected to heat treatment at elevated temperature of 1500°C. Moreover, prolonging the heat treatment time resulted in bigger grain sizes and higher densities of the Ta4AlC3. The flexural strength and the fracture toughness of the Ta4AlC3 fabricated by SPS were found to be 411MPa and 7.11MPa•m1/2, respectively. After the heat treatment at 1500°C for 8 h, the flexural strength and the fracture toughness of the Ta4AlC3 could reach 709MPa and 9.23MPa•m1/2, respectively. The special structural characteristics of the ternary ceramics and the increase of density after the heat treatment are the main reasons for the variation in mechanical properties of ternary ceramics.

Tripterygium wilfordii multiglucoside (TWM) is a fat-soluble extract from a Chinese herb T. wilfordii, that’s used in treating rheumatoid arthritis, nephrotic syndrome and other skin diseases. Triptolide (TP) is a major active component in TWM. However, clinical applications of TWM are limited by its various toxicities especially hepatotoxicity. In recent studies, it has been reported that drug-induced liver injury (DILI) could induce the disorder of lipid metabolism in animals. Hence, this study focuses on the metabolic profile of fatty acids in TWM- and TP-induced liver-injured rats. In serum and liver tissue, 16 free and 16 esterified fatty acids were measured by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Metabolic profile of serum fatty acids in rats with liver injury was identified by multivariate statistical analysis. The fatty acid levels in the serum of TWM- and TP-treated rats significantly decreased, whereas those in the liver tissue of TWM- and TP-treated rats obviously increased when compared with the vehicle-treated rats. Four free fatty acids were identified as candidate biomarkers of TWM- and TP-induced liver injury. Therefore, the targeted metabolomic method may be used as a complementary approach for DILI diagnosis in clinic.

Bridge crack detection is essential to ensure bridge safety. The introduction of deep learning technology has made it possible to detect bridge cracks automatically and accurately. In this study, the Inception-Resnet-v2 algorithm was systematically improved and applied to the real-time detection of bridge cracks. We propose an end-to-end bridge crack detection model based on a convolutional neural network. This model combines the advantages of Inception convolution and residual networks, broadening the network width and alleviating the training problem of the deep network. The calculation speed is improved while still ensuring accuracy. Multi-scale feature fusion enables the network to extract contextual information of different scales, which improves the accuracy of crack recognition. The GKA (K-means clustering method based on a genetic algorithm) realizes the accurate segmentation of the target area, greatly enhances the clustering effect, and effectively improves the detection speed. In this model, large fracture datasets are used for training and testing without pre-training. The experimental results show that the performance of this method was improved in all aspects: accuracy, 99.24%; recall, 99.03%; F-measure, 98.79%; and FPS(Frames Per Second), 196.

Objective To study patient-related information and factors altering their decision making in periodontal treatment and treatment behavior via big data analysis of the electronic medical records and to guide better dental care service and improve periodontal treatment. Methods A retrospective study was performed in patients with periodontitis who visited the Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Tongji University from 2014 to 2016. Based on the periodontal sequence treatment procedure, the treatment types were divided into six groups and were analyzed using multivariable regression analysis. Chi-square test was performed according to gender and age. Results Age, payment method, disease severity, exhibited statistically significant differences regarding their effects on patients’ treatment behavior (P ＜ 0.05). Men were more likely to have severe periodontitis than women (male 41.04%; female 31.85%), and use medical insurance more often as payment method (male 86.14%; female 83.74%) (P ＜ 0.05). Compared with the population under 35 years old, moderate and severe periodontitis accounted for a larger proportion (84.58%) in the population over 35 years old. The compliance of the population over 35 years old was poor. Less follow-up reviews were conducted (17.10%) and medical insurance was less often used (49.65%) in this population. The differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05). Conclusion Moderate and severe periodontitis accounted for a larger proportion in the population over 35 years old. Patients over 35 years old tend to choose simpler treatments with lower compliance and frequency of revisits. This situation may be related to the lower proportion of medicare use in this population. The awareness and compliance of periodontal treatment protocols in people over 35 years old needs to be improved.

Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs), being a special kind of beams with spatially variant states of polarizations, are promising in photonics applications, including high-resolution imaging, plasmon excitation, optical trapping, and laser machining. Recently, generating CVBs using metasurfaces has drawn enormous interest owing to their highly designable, multifunctional, and integratable features. However, related studies remain unexplored in the terahertz regime. Here, a generic method for efficiently generating terahertz CVBs carrying orbital angular momentums (OAMs) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated using transmission-type spatial-variant dielectric metasurfaces, which is realized by designing the interference between the two circularly polarized transmission components. This method is based on spin-decoupled phase control allowed by simultaneously manipulating the dynamic phase and geometric phase of each structure, endowing more degree of freedom in designing the vector beams. Two types of metasurfaces which respectively generate polarization-dependent terahertz vector vortex beams (VVBs) and vector Bessel beams (VBBs) are experimentally characterized. The proposed method opens a new window to generate versatile vector beams, providing new capabilities in developing novel, compact, and high-performance devices applicable to broad electromagnetic spectral regimes.

For the planet transmission device whose sun gear shaft is connected with tooth coupling,floating displacement of the sun gear directly determines tilt angle compensating of the tooth coupling,However,because of the sun gear ’s floating displacement multiply affects by comprehensive errors of planetary gear train parts,Its real value is difficult to calculate and measure accurately. This paper proposed a method,which is based on the dynamics analysis principle,to solve the sun gear’s floating displacement. It applies the means of equivalent meshing error to consider the manufacture and installation error of planetary gear train key components,a dynamic model of planetary gear train has been built,and according to the geometric relations between drum shaped spline and sun gear shaft,the tooth profile of drum gear has been modified to reduce the misalignment of the two connecting shafts. Finally,the experiment of certain planetary-gear transmission demonstrates that theoretical model is correct and possesses significant value of engineering applications.

In theoretically,all teeth of spline pair transmitted the same load. In practice,due to manufacturing and mounting errors,not all teeth transmit the same load and as a result,the overloading condition may occur. Based on finite element method,the distribution of contact pressure and load among teeth of involute spline pair with the conditions of angular misalignment,parallel misalignment and those two combined misalignment are investigated. The results have certain guiding significance and engineering application value in guiding involute spline pair manufacturing and assembly.

With the development of DNA Self-Assembly, several phenomena have happened and been discovered, which maybe lead to faulty crystals or patterns with faults. Among those unexpected phenomena, rotated tiles and symmetrical tiles have still not been discussed in detail. There is also no such research that compares the effect of rotated tiles and symmetrical tiles on Binary Counter in DNA SelfAssembly This paper compares and analyses the effect of rotated tiles and symmetrical tiles on binary counter in DNA Self-Assembly. The precise relationship between rotated tiles and symmetrical tiles is achieved taking into account the type of rotated tiles and symmetrical tiles. Experimental simulation results through Xgrow prove that the comparison and analysis is effective and correct.

Background & Aims: Several medications have been suspected to contribute to the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This study assessed the association between medication use and the risk of developing IBD using the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology cohort., Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 133,137 individuals between the ages of 20 and 80 from 24 countries. Country-specific validated questionnaires documented baseline and follow-up medication use. Participants were followed up prospectively at least every 3 years. The main outcome was the development of IBD, including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Short-term (baseline but not follow-up use) and long-term use (baseline and subsequent follow-up use) were evaluated. Results are presented as adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with 95% CIs., Results: During a median follow-up period of 11.0 years (interquartile range, 9.2-12.2 y), there were 571 incident IBD cases (143 CD and 428 UC). Incident IBD was associated significantly with baseline antibiotic (aOR, 2.81; 95% CI, 1.67-4.73; P = .0001) and hormonal medication use (aOR, 4.43; 95% CI, 1.78-11.01; P = .001). Among females, previous or current oral contraceptive use also was associated with IBD development (aOR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.70-2.77; P < .001). Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug users also were observed to have increased odds of IBD (aOR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.23-2.64; P = .002), which was driven by long-term use (aOR, 5.58; 95% CI, 2.26-13.80; P < .001). All significant results were consistent in direction for CD and UC with low heterogeneity., Conclusions: Antibiotics, hormonal medications, oral contraceptives, and long-term nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use were associated with increased odds of incident IBD after adjustment for covariates., (Copyright © 2023 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Higher intake of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has been associated with increased risk of CVD and mortality in observational studies from Western countries but data from non-Western countries are limited., Objectives: We aimed to assess the association between consumption of UPFs and risk of mortality and major CVD in a cohort from multiple world regions., Design: This analysis includes 138,076 participants without a history of CVD between the ages of 35 and 70 y living on 5 continents, with a median follow-up of 10.2 y. We used country-specific validated food-frequency questionnaires to determine individuals' food intake. We classified foods and beverages based on the NOVA classification into UPFs. The primary outcome was total mortality (CV and non-CV mortality) and secondary outcomes were incident major cardiovascular events. We calculated hazard ratios using multivariable Cox frailty models and evaluated the association of UPFs with total mortality, CV mortality, non-CV mortality, and major CVD events., Results: In this study, 9227 deaths and 7934 major cardiovascular events were recorded during the follow-up period. We found a diet high in UPFs (≥2 servings/d compared with 0 intake) was associated with higher risk of mortality (HR: 1.28; 95% CI: 1.15, 1.42; P-trend < 0.001), CV mortality (HR: 1.17; 95% CI: 0.98, 1.41; P-trend = 0.04), and non-CV mortality (HR: 1.32; 95% CI 1.17, 1.50; P-trend < 0.001). We did not find a significant association between UPF intake and risk of major CVD., Conclusions: A diet with a high intake of UPFs was associated with a higher risk of mortality in a diverse multinational study. Globally, limiting the consumption of UPFs should be encouraged., (Copyright © 2022 American Society for Nutrition. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Importance: Depression is associated with incidence of and premature death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer in high-income countries, but it is not known whether this is true in low- and middle-income countries and in urban areas, where most people with depression now live., Objective: To identify any associations between depressive symptoms and incident CVD and all-cause mortality in countries at different levels of economic development and in urban and rural areas., Design, Setting, and Participants: This multicenter, population-based cohort study was conducted between January 2005 and June 2019 (median follow-up, 9.3 years) and included 370 urban and 314 rural communities from 21 economically diverse countries on 5 continents. Eligible participants aged 35 to 70 years were enrolled. Analysis began February 2018 and ended September 2019., Exposures: Four or more self-reported depressive symptoms from the Short-Form Composite International Diagnostic Interview., Main Outcomes and Measures: Incident CVD, all-cause mortality, and a combined measure of either incident CVD or all-cause mortality., Results: Of 145 862 participants, 61 235 (58%) were male and the mean (SD) age was 50.05 (9.7) years. Of those, 15 983 (11%) reported 4 or more depressive symptoms at baseline. Depression was associated with incident CVD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05-1.24), all-cause mortality (HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.11-1.25), the combined CVD/mortality outcome (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.11-1.24), myocardial infarction (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.10-1.37), and noncardiovascular death (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.13-1.31) in multivariable models. The risk of the combined outcome increased progressively with number of symptoms, being highest in those with 7 symptoms (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.12-1.37) and lowest with 1 symptom (HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.92 -1.19; P for trend < .001). The associations between having 4 or more depressive symptoms and the combined outcome were similar in 7 different geographical regions and in countries at all economic levels but were stronger in urban (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.13-1.34) compared with rural (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.19) communities (P for interaction = .001) and in men (HR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.13-1.38) compared with women (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.06-1.23; P for interaction < .001)., Conclusions and Relevance: In this large, population-based cohort study, adults with depressive symptoms were associated with having increased risk of incident CVD and mortality in economically diverse settings, especially in urban areas. Improving understanding and awareness of these physical health risks should be prioritized as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases worldwide.

Background: Vitamin B is frequently used for treating peripheral neuropathy but its efficacy is not clear., Objectives: The objective of this review was to assess the effects of vitamin B for treating generalised peripheral neuropathy., Search Strategy: We searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Group Trials Register (searched August 2005), MEDLINE (January 1966 to September 2005), EMBASE (January 1980 to September 2005), Philippine databases (searched September 2005) and reference lists of articles. We also contacted manufacturers and researchers in the field., Selection Criteria: Randomised and quasi-randomised trials where vitamin B was compared with placebo or another treatment in generalised peripheral neuropathy., Data Collection and Analysis: Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. We contacted study authors for additional information., Main Results: Thirteen studies involving 741 participants with alcoholic or diabetic neuropathy were included. In the comparison of vitamin B with placebo, two small trials showed no significant short-term benefit in pain intensity while one of the trials showed a small significant benefit in vibration detection from oral benfotiamine, a derivative of thiamine. In the larger of two trials comparing different doses of vitamin B complex, there was some evidence that higher doses resulted in a significant short-term reduction in pain and improvement in paraesthesiae, in a composite outcome combining pain, temperature and vibration, and in a composite outcome combining pain, numbness and paraesthesiae. There was some evidence that vitamin B is less efficacious than alpha-lipoic acid, cilostazol or cytidine triphosphate in the short-term improvement of clinical and nerve conduction study outcomes but the trials were small. There were few minor adverse effects reported., Authors' Conclusions: There are only limited data in randomised trials testing the efficacy of vitamin B for treating peripheral neuropathy and the evidence is insufficient to determine whether vitamin B is beneficial or harmful. One small trial in alcoholic peripheral neuropathy reported slightly greater improvement in vibration perception threshold with oral benfotiamine for eight weeks than placebo. In another small study, a higher dose of oral vitamin B complex for four weeks was more efficacious than a lower dose in reducing symptoms and signs. Vitamin B administered by various routes for two to eight weeks was less efficacious than alpha-lipoic acid, cilostazol or cytidine triphosphate in short-term improvement of clinical and nerve conduction study outcomes. Vitamin B is generally well-tolerated.