Prevalence and influencing factors of lower urinary tract symptoms in female nurses: a cross-sectional study based on TARGET

BackgroundEven though occupational women have a high incidence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), which seriously affect their daily work life, few large scale sample studies have provided empirical evidence to support this phenomenon among female nurses in China. Consequently, this article investigated female nurses who was presupposed to have a high prevalence of LUTS, which adversely exposes their health and patient safety to these risks. Additionally, it is considered important to explore the factors associated with LUTS in female nurses for patient care safety and nurse bladder health practice.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to assess the incidence of LUTS and symptoms-related risk factors among female nurses, to provide evidence for the prevention and control of LUTS.MethodsAn online survey recruiting 23,066 participants was carried out in a multicenter cross-sectional study in 42 hospitals from December 2020 to November 2022. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis and nomogram were used to identify the factors associated with lower urinary tract symptoms. Besides, SPSS version 26.0, R version 4.2.2, and GraphPad Prism Version 8.3 software packages were used for statistical analysis.ResultsBased on the completion rate of the questionnaire which was 84.1% (n = 19,393), it was found that among 19,393 female nurses, the prevalence of LUTS was 67.71% and this rate was influenced by age, Body Mass Index (BMI), marital status, years of working, menstrual status, mode of delivery, history of breastfeeding, history of miscarriage, history of alcohol and coffee or tea consumption (p < 0.05). Interestingly, we also find that in addition to the above mentioned factors, anxiety, depression, and perceived stress were also related to LUTS in female nurses (p < 0.05).ConclusionGiven the high prevalence of LUTS among female nurses and their potential influencing factors, female nurses should focus on their reproductive health and develop good lifestyle habits. Thus, nursing managers should provide a warm and harmonious work environment and sensitize female nurses to increase their awareness about the importance of drinking clean water and urinating during work in a hygienic environment

Research on virtual self-learning control method for aero-engine

With the development of artificial intelligence technology,intelligent aircraft engines have gradually become a hot spot in the field of aviation today. Traditional aero-engine control heavily relies on the engine model,and the theoretical modeling approach based on aerothermodynamic formula introduces modeling error that may degrade the performance of controller. In this paper a virtual self-learning control method for aero-engine intelligent controller design is proposed. Firstly,a virtual environment is established from the testing data of the aero-engine via LSTM neural network. Secondly,the reinforcement learning algorithm based on TD3 is employed for intelligent controller training in the virtual environment. Finally,the JT9D aero-engine model is utilized for controller performance evaluation. The simulation comparisons between intelligent controller and traditional PID control show that the intelligent controller has remarkable performance due to the less overshoot and shorter setting time

Marginalized particle filtering for online parameter estimation of PEMFC applied to hydrogen UAVs

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are an emerging candidate for clean power generation, with applications in smart grids, vehicles, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Accurate modeling of the power characteristics of PEMFC is required for system management purposes, where an electro-chemical model with unknown parameters is often adopted. Estimation of the unknown parameters is challenging as operating condition shifts and system degradation will lead to variation in PEMFC characteristics, particularly in the presence of system nonlinearities and noise. In this paper, a novel online parameter estimation approach for PEMFC is proposed based on the marginalized particle filtering approach. By introducing a filter derivation based on Bayesian inference and estimating the linear and nonlinear parameters separately, the marginalized approach has reduced computation cost compared with conventional particle filters. Estimation accuracy of the proposed approach is validated by experimental and simulation results, where superior accuracy compared with extended Kalman filter is obtained. Furthermore, a self-designed hydrogen quadrotor was flight-tested and energy management studies were conducted to assess the performance of the proposed estimator in hydrogen unmanned aerial vehicle applications using real flight data

A Comparative Characterization and Expression Profiling Analysis of Fructokinase and Fructokinase-like Genes: Exploring Their Roles in Cucumber Development and Chlorophyll Biosynthesis

Fructokinase (FRK) and fructokinase-like (FLN), belonging to the phosphofructokinase B type subfamily, share substantial sequence similarity, and are crucial in various plant physiological processes. However, there is limited information regarding what functionally differentiates plant FRKs from FLNs. Here, a total of three CsFRKs and two CsFLNs were identified from the cucumber genome. Their significant difference lay in the structure of their G/AXGD motif, which existed as GAGD in CsFRKs, but as G/ASGD in CsFLNs. Comparative phylogenetic analysis classified CsFRKs and CsFLNs into five sub-branches consistent with their quite different exon/intron organizations. Both transcriptome data and RT-qPCR analyses revealed that CsFRK3 was the most active gene, with the highest expression in the majority of tissues tested. Moreover, the expression levels of two putative plastidic genes, CsFRK1 and CsFLN2, were significantly positively associated with chlorophyll accumulation in the chlorophyll-reduced cucumber mutant. Briefly, both CsFRK and CsFLN genes were involved in the development of sink tissues, especially CsFRK3. CsFRK1 and CsFLN2 were recognized as candidates in the chlorophyll biosynthesis pathway of cucumber. These results would greatly assist in further investigation on functional characterization of FRKs and FLNs, especially in the development and chlorophyll biosynthesis of cucumber

The Possibility of Traditional Chinese Medicine as Maintenance Therapy for Advanced Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer has become the leading cause of cancer deaths, with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for around 80% of lung cancer cases. Chemotherapy is the main conventional therapy for advanced NSCLC. However, the disease control achieved with classical chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC is usually restricted to only a few months. Thus, sustaining the therapeutic effect of first-line chemotherapy is an important problem that requires study. Maintenance therapy is given for patients with advanced NSCLC if three is no tumor progression after four to six cycles of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. However, selection of appropriate maintenance therapy depends on several factors, while traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as maintenance therapy is recommended for all kinds of patients. It has been demonstrated that TCM can prolong the survival time, improve the quality of life (QOL), and reduce the side effects for advanced NSCLC. Although the trials we searched about TCM serving as maintenance therapy is only 9 studies, the results indicate TCM can prolong the progression free survival (PFS) and improve the QOL. So it is possible for TCM to be as maintenance therapy for advanced NSCLC. More rigorous trials are required to further verify its efficacy

Waterproof molecular monolayers stabilize 2D materials

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials have rich and unique functional properties, but many are susceptible to corrosion under ambient conditions. Here we show that linear alkylamines n-CmH2m+1NH2, with m = 4 through 11, are highly effective in protecting the optoelectronic properties of these materials, such as black phosphorus (BP) and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs: WS2, 1T′-MoTe2, WTe2, WSe2, TaS2, and NbSe2). As a representative example, n-hexylamine (m = 6) can be applied in the form of thin molecular monolayers on BP flakes with less than 2-nm thickness and can prolong BP’s lifetime from a few hours to several weeks and even months in ambient environments. Characterizations combined with our theoretical analysis show that the thin monolayers selectively sift out water molecules, forming a drying layer to achieve the passivation of the protected 2D materials. The monolayer coating is also stable in air, H2 annealing, and organic solvents, but can be removed by certain organic acids.National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS-1610806

Pool boiling of Novec 7300 and DI water on nano-textured heater covered with supersonically-blown or electrospun polymer nanofibers

In this work we study pool boiling of Novec 7300 and DI water on bare copper surface and copper surface covered with supersonically-blown or electrospun polymer nanofibers. In distinction from the previous works nanofibers were not metal-plated. The elimination of the electroplating makes nano-texturing process extremely simple and applicable to a wide variety of surfaces. On the other hand, it comes with the price of a lower heat removal rate compared to that on metal-plated nanofibers, albeit the present experiments revealed that the reduction is not that drastic as it would be expected. It is also demonstrated that the supersonically-blown polymer nanofibers also outperformed the electrospun nanofiber-coated surface. Supersonically-blown nanofibers provide a large number of nucleation sites than electrospun nanofibers or bare copper surface, and thus, facilitate nucleate boiling much stronger. The ultrafine supersonically-blown polymer nanofibers are very robust and did not delaminate from the heater surface either in Novec 7300 or DI water after prolonged vigorous boiling process. Overall, the enhancement of heat removal due to the ultrafine supersonically-blown polymer nanofibers on the heater surface in Novec 7300 is more significant than in DI water, which is associated with the smaller bubble size in the former case