Exploring Factors Impacting Veterans\u27 Hypertension Control

Exploring factors impacting veterans’ hypertension (HTN) control is essential in reducing the common cardiovascular disease event of stroke, heart attack, chronic kidney disease and mortality. The purpose of this study was to describe multidimensional factors impacting veterans’ HTN control. Utilizing a descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional, retrospective, convenience sampling research design, 331 electronic medical records in a VA dashboard data set were reviewed for men and women veterans between the age 24 and 98 years (M=62, SD=13) in a Southern California Veterans Affair primary care clinic from October 17, 2014 through October 17, 2016. Data were analyzed by univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistics. The study found that self-reported medication adherence to antihypertensive drugs (p \u3c .001) was an independent predictor to veterans’ final systolic blood pressure. Future HTN control research may focus on some theory-guided multidimensional determinants of patients’ adherence to HTN treatments and HTN control outcomes fully, utilizing a consistent HTN definition defined by JNC-7

Exploring Factors Impacting Veterans\u27 Hypertension Control

Exploring factors impacting veterans’ hypertension (HTN) control is essential in reducing the common cardiovascular disease event of stroke, heart attack, chronic kidney disease and mortality. The purpose of this study was to describe multidimensional factors impacting veterans’ HTN control. Utilizing a descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional, retrospective, convenience sampling research design, 331 electronic medical records in a VA dashboard data set were reviewed for men and women veterans between the age 24 and 98 years (M=62, SD=13) in a Southern California Veterans Affair primary care clinic from October 17, 2014 through October 17, 2016. Data were analyzed by univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistics. The study found that self-reported medication adherence to antihypertensive drugs (p \u3c .001) was an independent predictor to veterans’ final systolic blood pressure. Future HTN control research may focus on some theory-guided multidimensional determinants of patients’ adherence to HTN treatments and HTN control outcomes fully, utilizing a consistent HTN definition defined by JNC-7

Novel Adhesive Anchoring System Through Engineered Interface

This report describes a study of an innovative adhesive anchoring system. The weak link in the load transferring path of adhesive anchors is at adhesive-concrete (A-C) interface; hence, the innovation is about creating threads/grooves in drilled holes in concrete before the holes are filled with adhesive and anchors are installed. The new anchoring system is expected to improve the robustness of A-C interface and the consistence of adhesive anchors. The new adhesive anchoring system was verified in this study using both unconfined and confined pullout tests in uncracked concrete. The tests were divided into to two groups, one using traditional adhesive anchors and the other using the new adhesive anchors, considering two anchor sizes and three hole-cleaning conditions that represent typical practices. Finite element (FE) analyses using ABAQUS were also conducted to simulate the behavior of the adhesive anchors under tensile loading. The nonlinear analyses incorporating surface-to-surface contact, concrete damaged plasticity and nonlinear spring models were found suitable to capture the global and local behavior of the adhesive anchors with pullout bond failure. The test results and analyses showed that the new adhesive anchors greatly improved the capacity and consistence of adhesive anchors. Meanwhile, further studies are needed to validate the benefit of the proposed adhesive anchors under a variety of conditions such as sustained loading and in cracked concrete. It is also critical to develop a feasible tool to facilitate the implementation

Plant invasions in China : an emerging hot topic in invasion science

China has shown a rapid economic development in recent decades, and several drivers of this change are known to enhance biological invasions, a major cause of biodiversity loss. Here we review the current state of research on plant invasions in China by analyzing papers referenced in the ISI Web of Knowledge. Since 2001, the number of papers has increased exponentially, indicating that plant invasions in China are an emerging hot topic in invasion science. The analyzed papers cover a broad range of methodological approaches and research topics. While more that 250 invasive plant species with negative impacts have been reported from China, only a few species have been considered in more than a handful of papers (in order of decreasing number of references: Spartina alterniflora, Ageratina adenophora, Mikania micrantha, Alternanthera philoxeroides, Solidago canadensis, Eichhornia crassipes). Yet this selection might rather reflect the location of research teams than the most invasive plant species in China. Considering the previous achievements in China found in our analysis research in plant invasions could be expanded by (1) compiling comprehensive lists of non-native plant species at the provincial and national scales and to include species that are native to one part of China but non-native to others in these lists; (2) strengthening pathways studies (primary introduction to the country, secondary releases within the country) to enhance prevention and management; and (3) assessing impacts of invasive species at different spatial scales (habitats, regions) and in relation to conservation resources

Estimation of Stator Resistance and Rotor Flux Linkage in SPMSM Using CLPSO with Opposition-Based-Learning Strategy

Electromagnetic parameters are important for controller design and condition monitoring of permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) system. In this paper, an improved comprehensive learning particle swarm optimization (CLPSO) with opposition-based-learning (OBL) strategy is proposed for estimating stator resistance and rotor flux linkage in surface-mounted PMSM; the proposed method is referred to as CLPSO-OBL. In the CLPSO-OBL framework, an opposition-learning strategy is used for best particles reinforcement learning to improve the dynamic performance and global convergence ability of the CLPSO. The proposed parameter optimization not only retains the advantages of diversity in the CLPSO but also has inherited global exploration capability of the OBL. Then, the proposed method is applied to estimate the stator resistance and rotor flux linkage of surface-mounted PMSM. The experimental results show that the CLPSO-OBL has better performance in estimating winding resistance and PM flux compared to the existing peer PSOs. Furthermore, the proposed parameter estimation model and optimization method are simple and with good accuracy, fast convergence, and easy digital implementation

Reevaluation of the density dependence of nucleon radius and mass in the global color symmetry model of QCD

With the global color symmetry model (GCM) at finite chemical potential, the density dependence of the bag constant, the total energy and the radius of a nucleon in nuclear matter is investigated. A relation between the nuclear matter density and the chemical potential with the action of QCD being taken into account is obtained. A maximal nuclear matter density for the existence of the bag with three quarks confined within is given. The calculated results indicate that, before the maximal density is reached, the bag constant and the total energy of a nucleon decrease, and the radius of a nucleon increases slowly, with the increasing of the nuclear matter density. As the maximal nuclear matter density is reached, the mass of the nucleon vanishes and the radius becomes infinite suddenly. It manifests that a phase transition from nucleons to quarks takes place.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Exact periodic cross-kink wave solutions for the (2+1)-dimensional Boiti-Leon-Manna-Pempinelli equation

Based on the extended homoclinic test technique and the Hirota’s bilinear method, the (2+1)-dimensional Boiti-Leon-Manna-Pempinelli equation is investigated which describes the fluid propagating and can be considered as a model for an incompressible fluid. With the aid of symbolic computation, we introduce two new Ansätz functions to discuss the multiple periodic-soliton solutions of the (2+1)-dimensional Boiti-Leon-Manna-Pempinelli equation. Some entirely new periodic-soliton solutions are presented. The figures corresponding to these solutions are illustrated to show abundant physics structures