The association between resilience and survival among Chinese elderly

Based on the unique longitudinal data of the elderly aged 65+ with a sufficiently large sub-sample of the oldest-old aged 85+ from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, we construct a resilience scale with 7 indicators for the Chinese elderly, based on the framework of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Cox proportional hazards regression model estimates show that, after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and initial health status, the total resilience score and most factors of the resilience scale are significantly associated with reduced mortality risk among the young-old and oldest-old. Although the causal mechanisms remain to be investigated, effective measures to promote resilience are likely to have a positive effect on longevity of the elderly in China.China, healthy life expectancy, mortality risk, residence, survival

K-quantum Nonlinear Jaynes-Cummings Model in Two Trapped Ions

A k-quantum nonlinear Jaynes-Cummings model for two trapped ions interacting with laser beams resonant to k-th red side-band of center-of-mass mode, far from Lamb-Dicke regime, has been obtained. The exact analytic solution showed the existence of quantum collapses and revivals of the occupation of two atoms.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Fast Approximate KK-Means via Cluster Closures

$K$-means, a simple and effective clustering algorithm, is one of the most widely used algorithms in multimedia and computer vision community. Traditional $k$-means is an iterative algorithm---in each iteration new cluster centers are computed and each data point is re-assigned to its nearest center. The cluster re-assignment step becomes prohibitively expensive when the number of data points and cluster centers are large. In this paper, we propose a novel approximate $k$-means algorithm to greatly reduce the computational complexity in the assignment step. Our approach is motivated by the observation that most active points changing their cluster assignments at each iteration are located on or near cluster boundaries. The idea is to efficiently identify those active points by pre-assembling the data into groups of neighboring points using multiple random spatial partition trees, and to use the neighborhood information to construct a closure for each cluster, in such a way only a small number of cluster candidates need to be considered when assigning a data point to its nearest cluster. Using complexity analysis, image data clustering, and applications to image retrieval, we show that our approach out-performs state-of-the-art approximate $k$-means algorithms in terms of clustering quality and efficiency

Continuous fabrication of calcium sulfate whiskers with adjustable aspect ratio in microdroplets

Hemi-hydrate and anhydrous CaSO₄ whiskers with adjustable aspect ratio were continuously synthesized by the reactive crystallization of CaCl₂ to K₂ S₂ O₈ in microdroplets. The effects of solvent and reactive temperature were examined, with SEM and XRD characterizations. Hemi-hydrate and anhydrous CaSO₄ whiskers can be, respectively, obtained in aqueous and N,N-dimethylformamide solutions at 90 °C in 180 s. The addition of ethylene glycol or glycerol as well as increasing temperature could lead to the increase in length and aspect ratio of the whiskers. Thus this preparation technique provides a simple continuous route to synthesize CaSO₄ whiskers with two kinds of crystal structures in a short time, and adjustable lengths and aspect ratios

Resilience Significantly Contributes to Exceptional Longevity

Objective. We aim to investigate whether centenarians are significantly more resilient than younger elders and whether resilience significantly contributes to exceptional longevity. Data. We use a unique dataset from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey with the largest sample to date of centenarians, nonagenarians, octogenarians, and a compatible group of young old aged 65–79. Methods and Results. Logistic regressions based on the cross-sectional sample show that after controlling for various confounders, including physical health and cognitive status, centenarians are significantly more resilient than any other old-age group. Logistic regression analyses based on the longitudinal data show that nonagenarians aged 94–98 with better resilience have a 43.1% higher likelihood of becoming a centenarian compared to nonagenarians with lower resilience. Conclusions. Resilience significantly contributes to longevity at all ages, and it becomes even more profound at very advanced ages. These findings indicate that policies and programs to promote resilience would have long-term and positive effects on the well-being and longevity for senior citizens and their families