Biting force and tongue muscle strength as useful indicators for eating and swallowing capability assessment among elderly patients

Weakened capability of eating and swallowing is common among elderly population,affecting negatively on their health and well-being.This work measured occlusal force and tongue muscle strength of elderly patients and then assessed whether correlations existed between oral physiological properties and the eating and swallowing capability.A total of 26 elderly patients with potential swallow disorder were recruited in this work.Participants’denture status and daily diet texture were determined by a pre-questionnaire analysis.Their swallowing capability was assessed and rated by water drinking test.Maximum tongue pressure,incisor occlusal force and hand gripping force were measured for each subject.It was observed that participating subjects have on average a significantly lower biting force and maximum tongue pressure than that of normal adults.The swallowing grades assessed by water drinking test showed significant correlations with both the biting force(r=−0.498,P<0.05)and the tongue muscle strength(r=−0.544,P<0.05).The biting force of dysphagia participants correlates significantly with dental conditions(P<0.05).The observed correlation between tongue pressure and diet texture indicates that tongue muscle strength could be used as a reliable indicator of the eating and swallowing capability for elderly people.

Study on Electrokinetic Remediation of Cadmium-contaminated Soil

In order to improve electrokinetic remediation efficiency of cadmium-contaminated soil,the effects of electric field intensity,remediation time and electrolyte on removal rate of total Cd in Cd-contaminated soil by electrokinetic remediation were studied through the preparation of Cd-contaminated soil and the construction of electrokinetic remediation equipment. The results showed that under the same condition,with the electric field intensity increasing from 2. 5 to 3 V/cm,the total Cd removal rate increased by 10. 62%,and with the increase of the electric field intensity from 3 to 3. 5 V/cm,the removal rate increased by 1. 87%;when the remediation time was prolonged from 72 to 96 h,the removal rate of total Cd increased by 6. 68%,and with the remediation time prolonged from 96 to120 h,the removal rate of total Cd increased by 8. 75%; and with the remediation time prolonged from 120 to 144 h,the removal rate of total Cd only increased by1. 07%. Compared with citric acid as the electrolyte,the acetic acid group improved the remediation efficiency by 12. 14% and the total energy consumption by62. 13%,while the hydrochloric acid group improved the remediation efficiency by 18. 04% and the total energy consumption by 187. 9%. Comprehensively from total Cd removal rate and energy consumption,the remediation effect was the best under the electric field intensity of 3 V/cm and the electrokinetic time of 120 h with acetic acid as the electrolyte,which achieved a total Cd removal rate of 41. 95%.

The effect of urbanization and exposure to multiple environmental factors on life-history traits and breeding success of Barn Swallows(Hirundo rustica)across China

In addition to landscape changes,urbanization also brings about changes in environmental factors that can affect wildlife.Despite the common referral in the published literature to multiple environmental factors such as light and noise pollution,there is a gap in knowledge about their combined impact.We developed a multidimensional environmental framework to assess the effect of urbanization and multiple environmental factors(light,noise,and temperature)on life-history traits and breeding success of Barn Swallows(Hirundo rustica)across rural to urban gradients in four locations spanning over 2500 km from North to South China.Over a single breeding season,we measured these environmental factors nearby nests and quantified landscape urbanization over a 1km~2radius.We then analysed the relationships between these multiple environmental factors through a principal component analysis and conducted spatially explicit linear-mixed effects models to assess their effect on lifehistory traits and breeding success.We were particularly interested in understanding whether and how Barn Swallows were able to adapt to such environmental conditions associated with urbanization.The results show that there is significant variation in the exposure to environmental conditions experienced by Barn Swallows breeding across urbanization gradients in China.These changes and their effects are complex due to the behavioural responses ameliorating potential negative effects by selecting nesting sites that minimize exposure to environmental factors.However,significant relationships between landscape urbanization,exposure to environmental factors,and life-history traits such as laying date and clutch size were pervasive.Still,the impact on breeding success was,at least in our sample,negligible,suggesting that Barn Swallows are extremely adaptable to a wide range of environmental features.

Secure Downlink Transmission Strategies against Active Eavesdropping in NOMA Systems:A Zero-Sum Game Approach

Non-orthogonal multiple access technology(NOMA),as a potentially promising technology in the 5G/B5G era,suffers fromubiquitous security threats due to the broadcast nature of the wirelessmedium.In this paper,we focus on artificial-signal-assisted and relay-assisted secure downlink transmission schemes against external eavesdropping in the context of physical layer security,respectively.To characterize the non-cooperative confrontation around the secrecy rate between the legitimate communication party and the eavesdropper,their interactions are modeled as a two-person zero-sum game.The existence of the Nash equilibrium of the proposed game models is proved,and the pure strategyNash equilibriumand mixed-strategyNash equilibriumprofiles in the two schemes are solved and analyzed,respectively.The numerical simulations are conducted to validate the analytical results,and showthat the two schemes improve the secrecy rate and further enhance the physical layer security performance of NOMA systems.

Error Analysis of Radial Motion Measurement of Ultra-Precision Spindle

This paper gives an error analysis of radial motion measurement of ultra-precision spindle including nonlinearity error of capacitive displacement probes, misalignment error of probes, eccentric error of artifact ball and error induced by different error separating methods. Firstly, nonlinearity of a capacitive displacement probe targeting a spherical surface is investigated through experiment and the phenomena of fake displacement induced by lateral offset of the probe relative to an artifact ball?are?discussed. It is shown that the error motion in radial and axial direction and eccentric rotation of artifact ball will both induce lateral offset which causes a fake output of probes. Moreover, measurement error induced by angular positioning error for three famous error separating methods is detailed.

Bibliometric analysis on Pythagorean fuzzy sets during 2013-2020

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to make a comprehensive analysis of 354 publications about Pythagorean fuzzy sets(PFSs)from 2013 to 2020 in order to comprehensively understand their historical progress and current situation,as well as future development trend.Design/methodology/approach-First,this paper describes the fundamental information of these publications on PFSs,including their data information,annual trend and prediction and basic features.Second,the most productive and influential authors,countries/regions,institutions and the most cited documents are presented in the form of evaluation indicators.Third,with the help of VOSviewer software,the visualization analysis is conducted to show the development status of PFSs publications at the level of authors,countries/regions,institutions and keywords.Finally,the burst detection of keywords,timezone review and timeline review are exported from CiteSpace software to analyze the hotspots and development trend on PFSs.Findings-The annual PFSs publications present a quickly increasing trend.The most productive author is Wei Guiwu(China).Wei Guiwu and Wei Cun have the strongest cooperative relationship.Research limitations/implications-The implication of this study is to provide a comprehensive perspective for the scholars who take a fancy to PFSs,and it is valuable for scholars to grasp the hotspots in this field in time.Originality/value-It is the first paper that uses the bibliometric analysis to comprehensively analyze the publications on PFSs.It can help the scholars in the field of PFSs to quickly understand the development status and trend of PFSs.

Influence of opening ratios and directions of windows on natural smoke exhaust effect in atrium buildings

In this paper,the influence of different opening ratios and different opening directions of the windows on the natural smoke exhaust was studied through a series of real fire experiments and simulation analysis.Increasing the open area of the window could effectively improve the overall smoke exhaust effect.When the top windows were open and the opening ratio increased from 19.2%to 24.3%,the optical density was decreased by 12.4%.The average smoke exhaust rate per unit area of the window did not change significantly.Increasing the area of the natural smoke exhaust window could effectively increase the smoke exhaust rate and improve the overall effect of smoke extraction.When the top windows were open,the temperature rise on the top floor was 30.8%-47.5%lower while the visibility was 16.8%-21.9%higher than that when the side windows were open.