The home environment in a nationwide sample of multi-family buildings in Sweden: associations with ocular,nasal, throat and dermal symptoms,headache, and fatigue among adults

Risk factors at home for ocular, nasal, throat and dermal symptoms, headache, and fatigue were studied in a nationwide questionnaire survey in Sweden, the BETSI study in 2006. Totally, 5775 adults from a stratified random sample of multi-family buildings participated. Associations between home environment factors and weekly symptoms were analyzed by multi-level logistic regression. In total, 8.3% had ocular symptoms; 11.9% nasal symptoms; 7.1% throat symptoms; 11.9% dermal symptoms; 8.5% headache and 23.1% fatigue. Subjects in colder climate zones had more mucosal and throat symptoms but less fatigue and ocular symptoms. Rented apartments had poorer indoor environment than self-owned apartments. Those living in buildings constructed from 1961 to 1985 had most symptoms. Building dampness, mold and mold odor were risk factors, especially headache and ocular symptoms. Lack of mechanical ventilation system was another risk factor, especially for headache. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), electric radiators, and crowdedness were other risk factors. Oiled wooden floors, recent indoor painting, and new floor materials were negatively associated with symptoms. In conclusion, building dampness, mold, poor ventilation conditions, crowdedness, ETS, and emissions from electric radiators in apartments in Sweden can increase the risk of ocular, nasal, throat and dermal symptoms, headache, and fatigue.     

Development of low-loss lead-germanate glass for mid-infrared fiber optics: II. preform extrusion and fiber fabrication

For lead-germanate glass fibers, reducing the content of hydroxyl (OH) groups and the formation of metallic Pb species is essential to pave the way for their applications as low-loss mid-IR fiber optics since OH and metallic Pb species cause intense absorption and scattering loss, respectively, in the mid-IR spectral range. The first part of this study reported the optimization of the glass melting procedure to obtain low amount of OH while preventing formation of metallic Pb species in lead-germanate glass. Here, the second part of this study reports the investigation of the process conditions to fabricate low-loss lead-germanate glass fiber through further understanding of the co-effects of glass melting and heat treatment atmospheres on the formation of nano- and micron-scale metallic Pb species in both the as-produced and heat treated lead-germanate glasses. Finally, using this advance in knowledge, we successfully fabricated low-loss lead-germanate glass fibers with no presence of reduced metallic Pb particles by optimizing dehydration agent, glass melting, preform extrusion and fiber drawing conditions. The optimized fabrication conditions reduced the unstructured fiber loss by almost one order to <0.3 dB/m at 1.55 μm.     

医用敷料用柔性金属电极的制备及其细胞毒性分析

为研究用于医用敷料的柔性金属电极的制备可行性和安全性,以涤纶非织造布为基布,通过丝网印刷技术,制备以锌为负电极、银为正电极的柔性微电流生物医用敷料。探讨了电极制备过程中的分散剂种类、分散剂含量及黏合剂含量对金属电极电学性能的影响,并分析了金属电极可能引起的细胞毒性问题。实验结果表明:丝网印刷技术能在基布表面均匀地负载锌、银微纳米颗粒;1%的羧甲基纤维素钠和0.5%的吐温-80分别作为锌、银颗粒的分散剂,能使金属颗粒具有良好的分散性;5%和15%的水性丙烯酸乳液分别作为锌、银金属电极的黏合剂,可使电极具有优良的电性能;当金属质量分数为0.5%~1.0%时,金属电极表现出良好的细胞相容性,可作为生物医用敷料为伤口提供外源性微电流。     

Sparse non-convex Lp regularization for cone-beam X-ray luminescence computed tomography

Cone-beam X-ray luminescence computed tomography (CB-XLCT) is an attractive hybrid imaging modality, and it has the potential of monitoring the metabolic processes of nanophosphors-based drugs in vivo. However, the XLCT imaging suffers from a severe ill-posed problem. In this work, a sparse nonconvex L_p (0?p?L₁ regularization. Further, an iteratively reweighted split augmented lagrangian shrinkage algorithm (IRW_SALSA-L_p) was proposed to efficiently solve the non-convex L_p (0?p?p-values (1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8) in both 3D digital mouse experiments and in vivo experiments. The results demonstrate that the proposed non-convex methods outperform L₂ and L₁ regularization in accurately recovering sparse targets in CB-XLCT. And among all the non-convex p-values, our L_p(1/4?p?相似文献   

New exact solutions of the Tzitzéica-type equations in non-linear optics using the expa function method

One specific class of non-linear evolution equations, known as the Tzitzéica-type equations, has received great attention from a group of researchers involved in non-linear science. In this article, new exact solutions of the Tzitzéica-type equations arising in non-linear optics, including the Tzitzéica, Dodd–Bullough–Mikhailov and Tzitzéica–Dodd–Bullough equations, are obtained using the exp_a function method. The integration technique actually suggests a useful and reliable method to extract new exact solutions of a wide range of non-linear evolution equations.     

Reproducible,biocompatible medical materials from biologically derived polysaccharides: Processing and Characterization

Natural polysaccharides like chitosan and dextran have garnered considerable interest in biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nontoxicity. Nonetheless, the development of a reproducible class of medical devices from these materials is challenging and has had limited success. Chitosan and dextran are inherently variable and synthesis using these materials is prone to inconsistencies. In this study, we put forward a robust product development regimen that allows these natural materials to be developed into a reproducible class of biomaterials. First, an array of validated characterization methods (Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, titrations, Ultraviolet spectroscopy, Size Exclusion Chromatography—Multi-Angle Light Scattering, Size Exclusion Chromatography—Refractive Index, and proprietary methods) were developed that allowed rigorous specifications to be set for unprocessed chitosan and dextran, chitosan and dextran intermediates, and chemically modified materials—acrylated chitosan (aCHN) and oxidized dextran (oDEX). Second, a robust and reproducible synthesis scheme involving various in-process controls was developed to chemically modify the unprocessed polysaccharides. Third, purification methods to remove byproducts and low-molecular-weight impurities for both aCHN and oDEX were developed. The study presents a viable strategy for converting variable, natural materials into a reproducible class of biomaterials that can be applied in various biomedical applications. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48454.     

国内外医用防护服结构与功能的比较与分析

为优化医用防护服的结构设计,拓宽材料来源,提高其防护功能,对近期国内外医用防护服构造及功能的研究进展进行综述分析。对比了5种常用医用防护服面料的优缺点,比较了中国、美国和欧盟医用防护服标准以及世界主流品牌医用防护服性能的差异。聚四氟乙烯复合面料在满足防护要求的同时,舒适性更好;液体阻隔性是影响防护服防护功能的主要因素;医用防护服应满足中指圈设计、自粘合式拉链门襟以及胶条密合边缝的前沿设计要求。最后针对医用防护服亟待解决的问题,从国家、技术、防护服本身3个层面对医用防护服未来发展方向进行展望。     

空间红外大口径折射式低温镜头设计与验证

针对目标探测类空间红外相机大范围成像、高灵敏度探测、高精度定位等应用需求,文中提出采用像方远心光路和低温光学技术结合的解决方案,设计了物方视场角8°×8°、入瞳口径265 mm、工作温度200 K的像方远心折射式光学系统。镜头最大口径280 mm,采用多级分散的弹性支撑设计,解决大口径低温透镜装框、透镜组件支撑和镜头整体安装各环节的热应力卸载问题。在保证高刚度和低漏热的情况下,使低温下透镜的热应力对镜头能量集中度的影响降低到可接受范围内。镜头完成装调及室温下像质确认后,进行了力学振动试验,并将其制冷到200 K水平测试像质,测试结果表明,镜头能量集中度达到轴上75%,边缘视场72%。     

A neural network based technique for vibration characterization using Gaussian laser beams

This paper presents a neural network technique combined with an optical measurement system for the characterization of mechanical vibrations in industrial machinery. In the proposed system, the Gaussian beam of a laser source illuminates on an array of photodetectors. If either the laser source or the photodetector array is coupled with a vibrating system, then the optical powers detected by the photodetectors will vary accordingly, and are expected to reflect the magnitude and frequency of the X–Y planar vibrations of the monitored system. The time-varying optical powers are input to an artificial neural network-based vibration monitoring system which maps the power distributions to the X–Y position of the laser beam center. An experimental setup of the system is built and used for training and testing purposes. The obtained experimental results demonstrate the adequacy of combining optical techniques with neural networks to estimate the vibration frequency and magnitude. Estimated frequencies were within 1% of the actual ones, and the estimated magnitudes were within 29% of the actual magnitudes when using a chirp signal in the training phase. The magnitude estimation percentage error was further reduced below 12% when the neural network was trained with a decaying chirp signal.     

Using a hybrid two‐stage DEA model to analyze the profitability and marketability of medical manufacturing firms

The purpose of this study is to develop a modification of the model developed by Chen and Zhu in 2004. Calculating stage and overall efficiencies precisely and consistently has become a major challenge of the two‐stage DEA model. However, most other models do not calculate the optimality of intermediates. Although the model developed by Chen and Zhu measures the optimality of intermediates, the calculated efficiency scores still have some shortfalls. The modified model, named the hybrid two‐stage DEA model, fills the gap between calculating the optimality of intermediates and the consistency of overall efficiency scores. In addition to obtaining an accurate measurement for the optimality of intermediates, the model confines efficiency scores to a range from zero to one (a ratio efficiency score). In an empirical evaluation, we use data from 64 medical manufacturing firms to test the performance of the hybrid model and offer recommendations for the industry.