Background: Over the past two decades, China has enjoyed impressive economic development, and her citizens have experienced many remarked changes in their lifestyle. These changes are often ...associated with an increase in obesity and chronic disease. Methods: In this meta-analysis, based on nationally representative data, we studied the current prevalence of obesity and the trends in obesity, mortality and morbidity in China. Results: Between 1992 and 2002, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased in all gender and age groups and in all geographic areas. Using the World Health Organization body mass index cut points, the combined prevalence of overweight and obesity increased from 14.6 to 21.8%. The Chinese obesity standard shows an increase from 20.0 to 29.9%. The annual increase rate was highest in men aged 18-44 years and women aged 45-59 years (approximately 1.6 and 1.0% points, respectively). In general, male subjects, urban residents, and high-income groups had a greater increase. With the increase in overweight and obesity, obesity-, and diet-related chronic diseases (e.g., hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and type 2 diabetes) also increased over the past decade and became a more important preventable cause of death. Hypertension increased from 14.4% in 1991 to 18.8% in 2002 in adults; in older adults aged 35-74 years, it increased from 19.7 to 28.6%. Between 1993 and 2003, the prevalence of CVD increased from 31.4 to 50.0%; diabetes increased from 1.9 to 5.6%. During 1990-2003, although total mortality rate (per 100 000) decreased, overall the mortality rate and contribution (as percentages) to total death of obesity-related chronic disease increased, in particular, in rural areas. Mortality rate (per 100 000) of CVD increased from 128 to 145 and its contribution to total death, 27 to 32%, in rural areas; the figures decreased slightly in urban areas. The mortality rate of 'nutrition, endocrinology and metabolism-related disease' (NEMD) increased in both rural and urban areas between 1990 and 2000, 8.0 to 10.6 and 4.9 to 5.3, respectively. The current prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes among Chinese adults is approximately 20, 20, 15, and 3%, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases have increased in China in the past decade. Our findings provide useful information for the projection of future trends and the formulation of national strategies and programmes that can address the challenges of the growing obesity and chronic disease epidemic.
Varied causative and risk factors can lead to cardiac dysfunction. Cardiac dysfunction often evolves into heart failure by cardiac remodeling due to autonomic nervous system disturbance and ...neurohumoral abnormalities, even if the detriment factors are removed. Renal sympathetic nerve activity plays a pivotal regulatory role in neurohumoral mechanisms. The present study was designed to determine the therapeutic effects of renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) on cardiac dysfunction, fibrosis, and neurohumoral response in transverse aortic constriction (TAC) rats with chronic pressure overload. The present study demonstrated that RSD attenuated myocardial fibrosis and hypertrophy, and structural remodeling of the left atrium and ventricle, up-regulated cardiac beta adrenoceptor (beta-AR, including beta(1)AR and beta(2)AR) and sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase (SERCA) while down-regulated angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT(1)R), and decreased plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), norepinephrine (NE), angiotensin II (Ang II), and arginine vasopressin (AVP) levels in TAC rats with chronic pressure overload. We conclude that RSD attenuates myocardial fibrosis, the left atrial enlargement, and the left ventricular wall hypertrophy; inhibits the overdrive of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), and AVP system in TAC rats with chronic pressure overload. RSD could be a promising non-pharmacological approach to control the progression of cardiac dysfunction.
CHF look-up tables are used widely for the prediction of the critical heat flux (CHF). The CHF look-up table is basically a normalized data bank for a vertical 8
mm water-cooled tube. The 2006 CHF ...look-up table is based on a database containing more than 30,000 data points and provides CHF values at 24 pressures, 20 mass fluxes, and 23 qualities, covering the full range of conditions of practical interest. In addition, the 2006 CHF look-up table addresses several concerns with respect to previous CHF look-up tables raised in the literature. The major improvements of the 2006 CHF look-up table are:
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An enhanced quality of the database (improved screening procedures, removal of clearly identified outliers and duplicate data).
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An increased number of data in the database (an addition of 33 recent data sets).
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A significantly improved prediction of CHF in the subcooled region and the limiting quality region.
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An increased number of pressure and mass flux intervals (thus increasing the CHF entries by 20% compared to the 1995 CHF look-up table).
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An improved smoothness of the look-up table (the smoothness was quantified by a smoothness index).
A discussion of the impact of these changes on the prediction accuracy and table smoothness is presented. The 2006 CHF look-up table is characterized by a significant improvement in accuracy and smoothness.
We in this paper study the macroscopic quantum states of a PT-symmetric Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian for N quantum-dots of two imaginary-levels in an optical cavity. The eigenstate energies are obtained ...in terms of spin-coherent-state variational method, in which PT-symmetric but non-unitary operator is used to diagonalize the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Biorthogonal sets of the trial wave functions necessarily appear as a consequence of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. In the normal phase of zero photon-number average energies are imaginary called the PT-symmetry broken state, while the atomic population is real showing the unstable nature of the system. The energy of superradiant phase (SP) is real called unbroken symmetry state, however the atomic population is pure imaginary. The electrons in SP oscillate between upper and lower levels stimulated by the cavity field. The quantum phase transition from broken to unbroken symmetry states occurs at critical values of the atom-field coupling and nonlinear atom-photon interaction.
•The PT-symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is realized with a modified DM for N quantum dots of two imaginary levels in an optical cavity.•In the normal phase of zero photon-number average energies are imaginary called the PT-symmetry broken state, while the atomic population is real showing the unstable nature of the system.•The energy of the superradiant phase is real called unbroken symmetry state, however the atomic population is pure imaginary.•The electrons in the superradiant phase oscillate between upper and lower levels stimulated by the cavity field.•The quantum phase transition from broken to unbroken symmetry states occurs at critical values of the atom-field coupling and nonlinear atom-photon interaction.
We present high-statistics, precision measurements of the detailed time and energy dependence of the primary cosmic-ray electron flux and positron flux over 79 Bartels rotations from May 2011 to May ...2017 in the energy range from 1 to 50 GeV. For the first time, the charge-sign dependent modulation during solar maximum has been investigated in detail by leptons alone. Based on 23.5×10^{6} events, we report the observation of short-term structures on the timescale of months coincident in both the electron flux and the positron flux. These structures are not visible in the e^{+}/e^{-} flux ratio. The precision measurements across the solar polarity reversal show that the ratio exhibits a smooth transition over 830±30 days from one value to another. The midpoint of the transition shows an energy dependent delay relative to the reversal and changes by 260±30 days from 1 to 6 GeV.
ABSTRACT
Domestically listed Chinese (A‐share) firms have lower stock returns than externally listed Chinese, developed, and emerging country firms during 2000 to 2018. They also have lower net cash ...flows than matched unlisted Chinese firms. The underperformance of both stock and accounting returns is more pronounced for large A‐share firms, while small firms show no underperformance along either dimension. Investor sentiment explains low stock returns in the cross‐country and within‐A‐share samples. Institutional deficiencies in listing and delisting processes and weak corporate governance in terms of shareholder value creation are consistent with the underperformance in stock returns and net cash flows.
A compact online proton spectrometer based on a CMOS plate detector was proposed for the diagnosis of picosecond intense-laser accelerated protons. Inside the CMOS plate detector, a composite ...structure that composed of a scintillator screen, a fiber optic plate (FOP), and a CMOS sensor was designed to detect the protons safely and efficiently. The scintillator screen converted the incident protons to visible light, which, in turn, was collected by using the FOP and detected by using the CMOS sensor. An additional aluminum housing was designed to decrease the strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) impact on the electronic readout system from picosecond laser–plasma interaction. This online spectrometer is compact and cost-effective than the system based on the micro-channel plate or scintillator screen in combination with an electron multiplying CCD camera and has better resistance to radiation damage than the system based on a single CMOS sensor.
In this article, we obtain the multistable macroscopic quantum states and quantum tricritical behavior in generalized Dicke model (DM) analytically by means of spin-coherent-state (SCS) variational ...method for a finite atom number N. The quantum phase transition (QPT) is characterized by the ground state from the normal phase (NP) to the superradiant phases (SP). The second-order QPT turns to the first-order one at the tricritical point of phase boundary. The tricritical behavior of QPT emerges when the coupling strength of the symmetry breaking mechanism increases to a certain extent, which leads to an additional dimension of phase diagram. Beyond the ground state the symmetry-breaking coupling can manipulate the pseudospin flip of higher-level macroscopic states. The critical property of QPT is also demonstrated from the average photon-number, the atomic population as well as Berry phase.
•We firstly obtain the multi-stable macroscopic quantum states of tricritical Dicke-model analytically by means of spin-coherent-state variational method for a finite atom number.•The second-order quantum phase transition turns to the first-order one at the tricritical point of phase boundary when the coupling strength of the symmetry breaking mechanism increases to a certain extent, which leads to an additional dimension of phase diagram and can manipulate the pseudospin flip of higher-level macroscopic states.
As one of the fundamental problems in the field of video understanding, video object segmentation aims at segmenting objects of interest throughout the given video sequence. Recently, with the ...advancements of deep learning techniques, deep neural networks have shown outstanding performance improvements in many computer vision applications, with video object segmentation being one of the most advocated and intensively investigated. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the deep learning-based video segmentation literature, highlighting the pros and cons of each category of approaches. Concretely, we start by introducing the definition, background concepts and basic ideas of algorithms in this field. Subsequently, we summarise the datasets for training and testing a video object segmentation algorithm, as well as common challenges and evaluation metrics. Next, previous works are grouped and reviewed based on how they extract and use spatial and temporal features, where their architectures, contributions and the differences among each other are elaborated. At last, the quantitative and qualitative results of several representative methods on a dataset with many remaining challenges are provided and analysed, followed by further discussions on future research directions. This article is expected to serve as a tutorial and source of reference for learners intended to quickly grasp the current progress in this research area and practitioners interested in applying the video object segmentation methods to their problems. A public website is built to collect and track the related works in this field:
https://github.com/gaomingqi/VOS-Review
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