Detection of cognitive impairment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome using mismatch negativity

In this experiment, 97 patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome were divided into three groups （mild, moderate, severe） according to minimum oxygen saturation, and 35 healthy subjects were examined as controls. Cognitive function was determined using the mismatch negativity paradigm and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. The results revealed that as the disease worsened, the mismatch negativity latency was gradually extended, and the amplitude gradually declined in patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome. Importantly, mismatch negativity latency in severe patients with a persistent time of minimum oxygen saturation 〈 60 seconds was significantly shorter than that with a persistent time of minimum oxygen saturation 〉 60 seconds. Correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation between minimum oxygen saturation latency and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores. These findings indicate that intermittent night-time hypoxemia affects mismatch negativity waveforms and Montrea Cognitive Assessment scores. As indicators for detecting the cognitive functional status of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome patients, the sensitivity of mismatch negativity is 82.93%, the specificity is 73.33%, the accuracy rate is 81.52%, the positive predictive value is 85.00%, the negative predictive value is 70.21%, the positive likelihood ratio is 3, and the negative likelihood ratio is 0.23. These results indicate that mismatch negativity can be used as an effective tool for diagnosis of cognitive dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome patients.

Conversion between Vickers hardness and nanohardness by correcting projected area with sink-in and pile-up effects

The Vickers hardness test has been widely used for neutron-irradiated materials and nanoindentation for ion-irradiated materials.Comparing the Vickers hardness and nanohardness of the same materials quantitatively and establishing a correlation between them is meaningful.In this study,five representative materials—pure titanium(Ti),nickel(Ni),tungsten(W),304 coarse-grained stainless steel(CG-SS)and 304 nanocrystalline austenitic stainless steel(NG-SS)—are investigated for comparison.The results show that the relationship between Vickers hardness and nanohardness does not conform to a mathematical geometric relationship because of sink-in and pile-up effects confirmed by finite element analysis(FEA)and the results of optical microscopy.Finally,one new method was developed by excluding the effects of sink-in and pile-up in materials.With this improved correction in the projected area of the Vickers hardness and nanohardness,the two kinds of hardness become identical.