Analysis of time-domain indices, frequency domain measures of heart rate variability derived from ECG waveform and pulse-wave-related HRV among overweight individuals: an observational study [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Background: Research on the compatibility of time domain indices, frequency domain measurements of heart rate variability obtained from electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms, and pulse wave signal (pulse rate variability; PRV) features is ongoing. The promising marker of cardiac autonomic function is heart rate variability. Recent research has looked at various other physiological markers, leading to the emergence of pulse rate variability. The pulse wave signal can be studied for variations to understand better changes in arterial stiffness and compliance, which are key indicators of cardiovascular health. Methods: 35 healthy overweight people were included. The Lead II electrocardiogram (ECG) signal was transmitted through an analog-to-digital converter (PowerLab 8/35 software, AD Instruments Pty. Ltd., New South Wales, Australia). This signal was utilized to compute Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and was sampled at a rate of 1024 Hz. The same AD equipment was also used to capture a pulse signal simultaneously. The right index finger was used as the recording site for the pulse signal using photoplethysmography (PPG) technology. Results: The participants' demographic data show that the mean age was 23.14 + 5.27 years, the mean weight was 73.68 +  7.40 kg, the mean body fat percentage was 32.23  +  5.30, and the mean visceral fat percentage was 4.60  +  2.0. The findings revealed no noticeable difference between the median values of heart rate variability (HRV) and PRV. Additionally, a strong correlation was observed between HRV and PRV. However, poor agreement was observed in the measurement of PRV and HRV. Conclusion: All indices of HRV showed a greater correlation with PRV. However, the level of agreement between HRV and PRV measurement was poor. Hence, HRV cannot be replaced with PRV and vice-versa

Patient education for individuals with Interstitial Lung Disease: A scoping review. [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

Objectives Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) is a severe and rapidly progressing disease with a high fatality rate. Patient education (PE) has been demonstrated to promote long-term adherence to exercise and lifestyle improvements by assisting patients in developing self-management techniques. Our scoping review's goal was to chart out the prevailing level of research about the content, processes, and effectiveness of PE for patients with ILD. Methods The relevant databases were searched using the rules provided by Arksey and O'Malley in 2005 and the Joanna Briggs Institute reviewers' manual 2015: an approach for JBI scoping reviews. Individuals with ILD, published in English between the years of inception and 2020, and describing PE administered by various healthcare practitioners were among the 355 studies found and reviewed. Thirteen studies met these criteria. Results PE delivery process, delivery techniques, quality of life assessments, common PE themes, and healthcare professional participation were all recognized and cataloged. Conclusion Despite the fact that healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, and physiotherapists) provide PE to patients with ILD regularly, the PE provided varies greatly (contents of PE, process of delivery and delivery techniques). During the scoping review, a significant variation in the themes was addressed. They could not provide any evidence-based specific recommendations for all healthcare practitioners due to the studies' heterogeneity and lack of effectiveness measures

Combinatorial Polymer Electrospun Matrices Promote Physiologically-Relevant Cardiomyogenic Stem Cell Differentiation

Myocardial infarction results in extensive cardiomyocyte death which can lead to fatal arrhythmias or congestive heart failure. Delivery of stem cells to repopulate damaged cardiac tissue may be an attractive and innovative solution for repairing the damaged heart. Instructive polymer scaffolds with a wide range of properties have been used extensively to direct the differentiation of stem cells. In this study, we have optimized the chemical and mechanical properties of an electrospun polymer mesh for directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) towards a cardiomyogenic lineage. A combinatorial polymer library was prepared by copolymerizing three distinct subunits at varying molar ratios to tune the physicochemical properties of the resulting polymer: hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG), hydrophobic poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), and negatively-charged, carboxylated PCL (CPCL). Murine ESCs were cultured on electrospun polymeric scaffolds and their differentiation to cardiomyocytes was assessed through measurements of viability, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), α-myosin heavy chain expression (α-MHC), and intracellular Ca2+ signaling dynamics. Interestingly, ESCs on the most compliant substrate, 4%PEG-86%PCL-10%CPCL, exhibited the highest α-MHC expression as well as the most mature Ca2+ signaling dynamics. To investigate the role of scaffold modulus in ESC differentiation, the scaffold fiber density was reduced by altering the electrospinning parameters. The reduced modulus was found to enhance α-MHC gene expression, and promote maturation of myocyte Ca2+ handling. These data indicate that ESC-derived cardiomyocyte differentiation and maturation can be promoted by tuning the mechanical and chemical properties of polymer scaffold via copolymerization and electrospinning techniques

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Oxidation of vacuum residue by ozone and nitrous oxide: FTIR analysis

91-98Vacuum residue is crude oil fraction obtained at the bottom of vacuum distillation column having boiling point above 565°C. Vacuum residue is often used without further treatment as fuel oil or for the production of asphalt. Ozone (O3) is a triatomic allotrope of oxygen and is an extremely strong oxidizing agent. It can cleave and oxidize benzene and other aromatic structures including PAHs. Nitrous oxide is also a good oxidizing agent relate to a particular state of anion radical oxygen species Oα- (called α-oxygen), which forms on α-sites from N2O. Liquid phase oxidation of vacuum residue at temperature 100-150°C either ozone or nitrous oxide results into conversion of the residue to oxygenated hydrocarbons. This process reduces concentration of aromatics and olefins which are known to be coke precursors in reforming application. The reaction of oxidant with vacuum residue has been investigated in detail using FTIR. </span

Thermal analysis of coaxial coupler for a space helix TWT

227-232Thermal and structural analysis of the coaxial coupler for Ku-band 140 W helix space TWT have been carried out using ANSYS software v.10.1 and discussed in the present paper. To evaluate thermal and structural aspects of the coaxial coupler and helix assembly with three APBN support rods, related studies of the coupler assembly with ten turn of helix and output wave guide coupler for the Ku-band 140 W space TWT during extreme case of operation, i.e. at saturation and with perfectly rigid base-plate at 80°C have also been carried out

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Thermal analysis of slow wave structure for a space helix travelling wave tube

904-907Thermal analysis of the slow-wave structure for Ku-band 140 W helix space traveling wave tube (TWT) has been carried out using ANSYS software v.10.1. To evaluate the thermal aspects of the helix slow-wave structure with three APBN support rods and barrel assembly, the related studies of the slow-wave structure assembly with six, ten and sixteen turns of helix for the Ku-band 140 W space TWT during extreme case of operation, i.e. at saturation and with perfectly rigid base-plate at 80°C have been carried out. The CPU time on Pentium-4, window XP system with 512 MB RAM is 45 min for six turns, one hour for ten turns and one hour 45 min for sixteen turns of helix. The objective of this analysis is reduced the solution time and to get the same result with higher turns of heli

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