Skeletal Muscle Health and Cognitive Function: A Narrative Review

Sarcopenia is the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function with advancing age. It involves both complex genetic and modifiable risk factors, such as lack of exercise, malnutrition and reduced neurological drive. Cognitive decline refers to diminished or impaired mental and/or intellectual functioning. Contracting skeletal muscle is a major source of neurotrophic factors, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which regulate synapses in the brain. Furthermore, skeletal muscle activity has important immune and redox effects that modify brain function and reduce muscle catabolism. The identification of common risk factors and underlying mechanisms for sarcopenia and cognition may allow the development of targeted interventions that slow or reverse sarcopenia and also certain forms of cognitive decline. However, the links between cognition and skeletal muscle have not been elucidated fully. This review provides a critical appraisal of the literature on the relationship between skeletal muscle health and cognition. The literature suggests that sarcopenia and cognitive decline share pathophysiological pathways. Ageing plays a role in both skeletal muscle deterioration and cognitive decline. Furthermore, lifestyle risk factors, such as physical inactivity, poor diet and smoking, are common to both disorders, so their potential role in the muscle–brain relationship warrants investigation.     

PSO优化多核RVM的模拟电路故障预测

针对模拟电路健康管理的特点，提出了一种基于PSO优化多核RVM的模拟电路故障预测方法。利用参数分析得到电路的输出频域响应作为特征，计算其与电路无故障标准响应的欧氏距离来表征电路元件健康值，将多个核函数线性组合，并用PSO优化多核RVM参数后的模型实现对各个时间点元件的健康值变化轨迹进行预测。仿真结果表明，该方法在小样本情况下，预测效果优于单一核函数的RVM模型，适用于健康管理中实时预测，具有较好的实用性。     

Intelligent Information‐Centric Networking routing scheme under imprecise information

Information‐Centric Networking (ICN) has been accepted to overcome some weaknesses of the current Internet architecture, showing that “what is being exchanged” is more important than “who are exchanging information.” Given the inadequate considerations on Quality of Service (QoS) and energy saving in ICN routing, we propose in this paper a routing algorithm to enhance the two aspects. At first, on one hand, Cauchy distribution is used as a fuzzy model to evaluate users' QoS requirements, such as bandwidth, delay, and error rate; on the other hand, we formulate energy saving problem to evaluate the green quality of routing algorithm. Then, we design a link selection approach by considering QoS and energy saving, which belongs to a multi‐objective decision problem resolved by intelligent drops algorithm. Finally, we implement the proposed algorithm and compare it with the famous adaptive forwarding mechanism in terms of some significant metrics, and the experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm is more efficient.     

Three-phase four-wire shunt active power filter based on the SOGI filter and Lyapunov function for DC bus control

The three-phase four-wire shunt active power filter (SAPF) was developed to suppress the harmonic currents generated by nonlinear loads, and for the compensation of unbalanced nonlinear load currents, reactive power, and the harmonic neutral current. In this work, we consider instantaneous reactive power theory (PQ theory) for reference current identification based on the following two algorithms: the classic low-pass filter (LPF) and the second-order generalized integrator (SOGI) filter. Furthermore, since an important process in SAPF control is the regulation of the DC bus voltage at the capacitor, a new controller based on the Lyapunov function is also proposed. A complete simulation of the resultant active filtering system confirms its validity, which uses the SOGI filter to extract the reference currents from the distorted line currents, compared with the traditional PQ theory based on LPF. In addition, the simulation performed also demonstrates the superiority of the proposed approach, for DC bus voltage control based on the Lyapunov function, compared with the traditional proportional-integral (PI) controller. Both novel approaches contribute towards an improvement in the overall performance of the system, which consists of a small rise and settling time, a very low or nonexistent overshoot, and the minimization of the total harmonic distortion (THD).     

Milk from cows fed a diet with a high forage:concentrate ratio improves inflammatory state,oxidative stress,and mitochondrial function in rats

Excessive energy intake may evoke complex biochemical processes characterized by inflammation, oxidative stress, and impairment of mitochondrial function that represent the main factors underlying noncommunicable diseases. Because cow milk is widely used for human nutrition and in food industry processing, the nutritional quality of milk is of special interest with respect to human health. In our study, we analyzed milk produced by dairy cows fed a diet characterized by a high forage:concentrate ratio (high forage milk, HFM). In view of the low n-6:n-3 ratio and high content of conjugated linoleic acid of HFM, we studied the effects of this milk on lipid metabolism, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress in a rat model. To this end, we supplemented for 4 wk the diet of male Wistar rats with HFM and with an isocaloric amount (82 kJ, 22 mL/d) of milk obtained from cows fed a diet with low forage:concentrate ratio, and analyzed the metabolic parameters of the animals. Our results indicate that HFM may positively affect lipid metabolism, leptin:adiponectin ratio, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress, providing the first evidence of the beneficial effects of HFM on rat metabolism.     

Design of Feedback Shift Register of Against Power Analysis Attack

Stream ciphers based on linear feedback shift register (LFSR) are suitable for constrained environments, such as satellite communications, radio frequency identification devices tag, sensor networks and Internet of Things, due to its simple hardware structures, high speed encryption and lower power consumption. LFSR, as a cryptographic primitive, has been used to generate a maximum period sequence. Because the switching of the status bits is regular, the power consumption of the LFSR is correlated in a linear way. As a result, the power consumption characteristics of stream cipher based on LFSR are vulnerable to leaking initialization vectors under the power attacks. In this paper, a new design of LFSR against power attacks is proposed. The power consumption characteristics of LFSR can be masked by using an additional LFSR and confused by adding a new filter Boolean function and a flip-flop. The design method has been implemented easily by circuits in this new design in comparison with the others.     

胸腺五肽辅助治疗肺癌对免疫功能影响及其疗效的系统评价

为了系统地评价胸腺五肽作为辅助药物治疗各种肺癌的疗效及其对机体免疫功能的影响，利用电子检索收集有关胸腺五肽联合放疗或化疗方案治疗肺癌的临床随机对照试验文献，对符合纳入标准的文献，采用RevMan5.3 软件进行系统评价。最终共纳入文献 9 篇，总样本量 784 例。Meta 分析结果表明，胸腺五肽作为辅助药物治疗各种肺癌提高总有效率的差异无统计学意义[OR ＝ 1.44, 95%CI(0.99, 2.10), P ＝0.06 ＞ 0.05]。在对免疫功能的影响方面，胸腺五肽的使用显著增高外周血中的 CD3+ 细胞水平[OR ＝ 5.88, 95% CI(2.34, 9.42), P ＝0.001]，CD4+ 细胞水平也显著上升[OR ＝8.32, 95%CI(5.22, 11.42), P ＜ 0.00001] , CD4＋ /CD8＋比值也有明显的提高[OR ＝ 0.38, 95% CI(0.18, 0.59), P＝0.0002]，但 CD8+ 细胞水平的差异无统计学意义[OR ＝－3.12, 95% CI ( －9.02, 2.79), P ＞0.05]。总的来说，本研究在一定程度上反映了在辅助治疗肺癌方面，胸腺五肽能显著提高外周血中的 CD3+ 细胞水平、CD4+ 细胞水平、CD4+/CD8+ 比值。而对于治疗的有效率、CD8+ 细胞水平，差异无统计学意义。     

Indoor heterogeneous photochemistry of furfural drives emissions of nitrous acid

People spend approximately 80% of their time indoor, making the understanding of the indoor chemistry an important task for safety. The high surface-area-to-volume ratio characteristic of indoor environments leads the semi-volatile organic compounds (sVOCs) to deposit on the surfaces. Using a long path absorption photometer (LOPAP), this work investigates the formation of nitrous acid (HONO) through the photochemistry of adsorbed nitrate anions and its enhancement by the presence of furfural. Using a high-resolution proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS), this work also investigates the surface emissions of VOCs from irradiated films of furfural and a mix of furfural and nitrate anions. Among the emitted VOCs, 2(5H)-furanone/2-Butenedial was observed at high concentrations, leading to maleic anhydride formation after UV irradiation. Moreover, the addition of potassium nitrate to the film formed NO_x and HONO concentrations up to 10 ppb, which scales to ca. 4 ppb for realistic indoor conditions. This work helps to understand the high levels of HONO and NO_x measured indoors.     

Study on metamerism degree evaluation based on wavelength sensitive cone weighting algorithm

Metamerism phenomenon can be used in illuminant detection to ensure the accuracy of light source. A method based on Long‐, Middle‐, Short‐ wavelength cones(LMS) weighting algorithm to evaluate metamerism degree is proposed. The chromatic relationship between the degree of metamerism mismatch and the light source is studied. Herein, the consistency between the metameric indices (MIs) and CIE1976 L*a*b* color difference ranking is analyzed by SRCC, KRCC, PLCC and RMSE. A statistically sampling method to obtain practical LMS cone fundamentals to evaluate metamerism degree is employed. The analysis results obtained show that the method based on LMS weighting algorithm has good evaluation ability and stability in simulation experiments and statistically sampling experiments, which are in line with visual characteristics of human. Proposed method meets the requirements of selecting metameric pairs used in light source detection. The analysis results have certain guiding significance.     

Assessment of spray quality from an external mix nozzle and its impact on SQL grinding performance

Spray quality is the critical factor which decides the efficacy of Small Quantity Lubrication (SQL) technology in a high specific energy involved machining process like grinding. Yet, the understanding about spray quality, the actual process mechanics and its effect on machining performance is inadequate. The present work is an attempt to establish a correlation between the spray input variables, quality of the spray and machining performance of SQL grinding through modelling and experiments. Using computational fluid dynamic techniques, the variation of droplet size, droplet velocity, number of droplets and heat transfer coefficient have been analysed at different input parameters and the computed trends have been verified and validated. CFD modelling of spray indicates that it is possible to produce aerosol medium with high heat dissipation ability at moderately high air pressure and low flow rate. It also shows that any increase in atomising air pressure favourably leads to notable increase in wetting area and also results in substantial enhancement in heat dissipation ability. Reduction of residual stress is thus remarkably good. On the other hand, grinding fluid flow rate, if increased, offers significantly better lubricity and reduces the grinding force which also reduces tensile residual stress. Short spell grinding test results are found to be in good agreement with CFD results.