Bone mineral density loss in women who initiated antihypertensive medications during the menopausal transition in a multicenter, multiethnic, community-based cohort study: women's health across the nation (SWAN)

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the association between initiating antihypertensive medications and bone mineral density (BMD) loss over time in women while transitioning through menopause. Methods: Women who initiated antihypertensive use during menopausal transition were selected from the Study of Women across the Nation. Nonusers were matched to users with two methods: frequency matching and propensity score matching. Femoral neck, total hip and lumbar spine BMD were assessed annually and rate of loss was calculated and used as outcomes. Mixed-effects regression modeling strategy was used to examine the association between antihypertensive use and BMD loss. Results: Among 2365 eligible women, we identified new users of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE), beta blocker, and thiazide diuretics (N= 98, 107, and 99, respectively) and frequency-matched nonusers (N=1001). After propensity score matched sets were created, 69 ACE, 88 beta blocker and 76 thiazide users were matched with equal numbers of nonusers. After adjustment for potential confounders, both methods show that thiazide diuretics have a protective effect on femoral neck, total hip and lumbar annualized BMD loss compared to nonusers. Neither ACE nor beta blocker has an association with BMD loss at any anatomic site. After matched using propensity scores, it shows that thiazide has a significantly protective effect on lumbar spine during late- and post- menopause, but not during pre- /peri-menopause. Conclusion: In this cohort of women across the menopausal transition, use of thiazide diuretics is associated with a decreased rate of bone loss at the lumbar spine, total hip and femoral neck and use of ACE or beta blocker is not associated with bone loss at any of the sites. Public Health Significance: The findings in this study provided reassurance for women who were using ACE or beta blocker to control blood pressure during the menopause transition, because neither of them has any negative effect on BMD loss during the transition. The results of this study also encourage clinicians to integrate the benefits of using thiazide diuretics, from the prospective of protecting the bone loss, into patients’ education, especially for women during late- or post-menopause if there are no other contraindications

Study on compressing principle of the fresh municipal solid waste

Compression garbage trucks mainly work on fresh municipal solid waste (MSW), while fresh MSW has complex composition, high compressibility, high water content. Less research has been done about fresh MSW. Its uncertain mechanical property limits the simulation of garbage compression process, thereby limits the compressor structure analysis and optimization for compression garbage trucks. In order to obtain the mechanical properties of fresh MSW, a special test device combining the direct shear test with the confined compression test was designed, manufactured and assembled. A total fifteen tests from four batches fresh MSW were conducted with the special test devices. And the Duncan-Chang constitutive model parameters by summarizing and organizing test data. Finally, the confined compression test was simulated with the constitutive model, and the constitutive model parameters was verified. The research provides a basis for the simulation of garbage compression process of the compression garbage truck

ω\omega and ρ\rho Photoproduction with an Effective Quark Model Lagrangian

An unified approach for vector meson photoproduction is presented in the constit quark model. The s- and u-channel resonance contributions are generated using an effective quark vector-meson Lagrangian. In addition, taking into account $\pi^0$ and $\sigma$ t-channel exchanges for diffractive production, the available total and differential cross section data for $\omega$, $\rho^0$, $\rho^+$, and $\rho^-$ photoproduction can be well described with the same quark model parameter set. Our results clearly indicate that polarization observables are essential to identify so-called "missing" resonances.Comment: 7 pages, 3 PS figures, submitted to PR

Flexible Coherent Optical Access: Architectures, Algorithms, and Demonstrations

To cope with the explosive bandwidth demand, significant progress has been made in the ITU-T standardization sector to define a higher-speed passive optical network (PON) with a 50Gb/s line rate. Recently, 50G PON becomes mature gradually, which means it is time to discuss beyond 50G PON. For ensuring an acceptable optical power budget, beyond 50G PON will potentially use coherent technologies, which can simultaneously promote the applications of flexible multiple access such as time/frequency-domain multiple access (TFDMA). In this paper, we will introduce the architectures, algorithms, and demonstrations for TFDMA-based coherent PON. The system architectures based on an ultra-simple coherent transceiver and specific signal spectra are designed to greatly reduce the cost of ONUs. Meanwhile, fast and low-complexity digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms are proposed for dealing with upstream and downstream signals. Based on the architectures and algorithms, we experimentally demonstrate the first real-time TFDMA-based coherent PON, which can support at most 256 end users, and peak line rates of 100Gb/s and 200Gb/s in the upstream and downstream scenarios, respectively. In conclusion, the proposed technologies for the coherent PON make it more possible to be applied in the future beyond 50G PON.Comment: The paper has been submitted to the Journal of Lightwave Technolog

Observation of room-temperature ferroelectricity in elemental Te nanowires

Ferroelectrics are essential in low-dimensional memory devices for multi-bit storage and high-density integration. A polar structure is a necessary premise for ferroelectricity, mainly existing in compounds. However, it is usually rare in elemental materials, causing a lack of spontaneous electric polarization. Here, we report an unexpected room-temperature ferroelectricity in few-chain Te nanowires. Out-of-plane ferroelectric loops and domain reversal are observed by piezoresponse force microscopy. Through density functional theory, we attribute the ferroelectricity to the ion-displacement created by the interlayer interaction between lone pair electrons. Ferroelectric polarization can induce a strong field effect on the transport along the Te chain, supporting a self-gated field-effect transistor. It enables a nonvolatile memory with high in-plane mobility, zero supply voltage, multilevel resistive states, and a high on/off ratio. Our work provides new opportunities for elemental ferroelectrics with polar structures and paves a way towards applications such as low-power dissipation electronics and computing-in-memory devices

Quark model approach to the η\eta meson electroproduction on the proton

A recently developed quark model approach to pseudoscalar meson photoproduction is extended to electroproduction process for the $\eta$ meson in the kinematics of momentum transfer $Q^2 \leq$ 4 (GeV/c)$^2$ and total center of mass energy $W \leq$ 1.6 GeV. Existing data are well reproduced and the roles of the $S_{11}(1535)$ and $D_{13}(1520)$ resonances are closely investigated. In the study of the longitudinal excitation of the $S_{11}(1535)$ resonance, a reliable constraint on the $S_{11}(1535)$ properties is obtained by cleanly removing the electromagnetic transition from the $\gamma_{(v)} p \to S_{11}(1535) \to \eta p$ amplitude. Thus, the fitted quantities can be determined with an uncertainty of about 15%. This could be the first direct constraint on the $S_{11}(1535)$ properties in theory.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures; Substantially modified version, to appear on Jour. of Phys.