The Mini Nutritional Assessment combined with body fat for detecting the risk of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in metabolic syndrome.

Malnutrition is a key factor in metabolic syndrome (MS) and sarcopenia, assessing the nutritional status of these patients is a pressing issue. The purpose of this study was to clarify sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in patients with MS based on nutritional status. This was a case-control study between MS/non-MS. Body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Muscle function was assessed by handgrip strength, five times sit-to-stand test, gait speed test and short physical performance battery (SPPB). The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) was performed to assess the nutritional status in the participants in this study. Overall, a total of 56 % and 13 % of participants suffered from possible sarcopenia and sarcopenia, respectively. There was a higher rate of possible sarcopenic obesity in the MS group than in the non-MS group (48·9 % v. 24·7 %, P < 0·01), and all the sarcopenia participants in the MS group had sarcopenic obesity. MNA score was significantly associated with sarcopenia status (P < 0·01). The MNA combined with body fat score showed better acceptable discrimination for detecting sarcopenic obesity and sarcopenia in MS (AUC = 0·70, 95 % CI 0·53, 0·86). In summary, there was a higher prevalence of possible sarcopenic obesity in MS, and all the MS patients with sarcopenia had sarcopenic obesity in the present study. We suggest that the MNA should be combined with body fat percentage to assess the nutritional status of MS participants, and it also serves as a good indicator for sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in MS.

The effects of Baduanjin exercise vs. brisk walking on physical fitness and cognition in middle-aged patients with schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Patients with schizophrenia have deficits in physical and cognitive function that may become salient in their middle ages. These deficits need active intervention to prevent functional decline. Baduanjin and brisk walking show promise as interventions in patients with schizophrenia. This study investigated the effects of Baduanjin exercise vs. brisk walking in middle-aged patients with schizophrenia. Methods: In this single-blind, 2-arm, parallel, randomized controlled trial, 48 participants aged older than 40 years were enrolled and assigned to the intervention group (Baduanjin) or the control group (brisk walking). The training of both groups took place twice a week, 60 min per session, for 12 weeks. The participants were evaluated with physical, cognitive, and functional outcomes at baseline, postintervention, and 4 weeks after the intervention. Results: The results of the study demonstrated significant time effects in walking distance (p = 0.035, η2 = 0.094) and lower extremity strength (p = 0.006, η2 = 0.152). Post-hoc analysis revealed both groups had significant improvement in changes from baseline to the postintervention assessment (ps < 0.05) and follow-up (ps < 0.05). The results demonstrated a significant group-by-time interaction in change scores of global cognition (F = 7.01, p = 0.011, η2 = 0.133). Post-hoc analysis revealed a significant improvement in the Baduanjin group from baseline to postintervention (p = 0.021), but the improvements were not maintained at the follow-up assessment (p = 0.070). The results also demonstrated significant group effects in balance function (p < 0.001, η2 = 0.283), motor dual-task performance (p = 0.026, η2 = 0.103), and cognitive dual-task performance (p < 0.001, η2 = 0.307). Post-hoc analysis revealed that the Baduanjin group improved more than the brisk walking group in the above outcomes (ps < 0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated the differential effects of Baduanjin exercise and brisk walking in middle-aged patients with schizophrenia. Baduanjin might be a beneficial regimen for improving physical and cognitive function in this population. Further research with a larger sample is warranted. Clinical trial registration: [ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [202000817B0C602].

Review the factors associated with dietary sodium adherence in patients with heart failure from selected research-based literatures.

BACKGROUND: Low-sodium dietary is an important measure to avoid heart failure patient's body fluid volume overload. There are still more than 50% of heart failure patients who are incapable of complying low-sodium dietary. This study utilized the systematic literature review method, with the purpose to understand the related factors towards the compliance behavior of low-sodium dietary of patients with heart failure. METHODS: This study typed keywords (congestive heart failure, adherence, compliance, low sodium diet, low salt diet, dietary sodium restriction) from computer databases (CINAHL, Cochrane, Medline, ProQuest Nursing Allied Health, PubMed, and ScienceDirect) and according to inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) Research objects were adult patients admitted to HF, (2) Research content were related to sodium diet compliance behavior. (3) Non-intervention research. Exclusion criteria were as follows: (1) participants who was pregnant women, (2) qualitative research, (3) studies on development of tool, (4) poster. Select needed 14 articles that meet the purposes of this study. In addition, the study also collected 4 more studies with the same purpose from the references that were included in the retrieved articles, and finally a total of 18 studies were included in the analysis of this study. Data analysis uses descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency distribution) and content analysis method. RESULTS: This study use a systematic literature review method, it was found that the results of the studies use nonintervention method, which explored the relevant factors of low-sodium dietary compliance in heart failure patients over the past 20 years, could be summarized in 4 dimensions as social and economic conditions, patient conditions, disease conditions and therapy conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Heart failure patients' compliance behavior toward low-sodium dietary is multi-dimensional. Therefore, this study recommends when the health care providers evaluating patients' compliance behavior of low-sodium dietary, it is necessary to consider more different aspects.

Functional Outcomes in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Middle-Aged and Older Adults with Schizophrenia.

Deficits in cognition, physical, and social functions in adults with schizophrenia may become salient with aging. While animal-assisted therapy (AAT) can benefit physical function in older adults and improve symptoms of psychotic disorders, the effect of AAT on middle-aged patients with schizophrenia is unclear. The current randomized controlled trial aimed to explore the efficacy of AAT for middle-aged patients with schizophrenia. Forty participants were randomly assigned to either the AAT or control group. The AAT group participated in one-hour sessions with dog-assisted group activities once a week for 12 weeks. The controls participated in dose-matched, non-animal-related recreational activities. Both groups remained on their usual psychotropic medication during the trial. Evaluations included the Chair Stand Test (CST), Timed Up-and-Go (TUG) test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), 5-Meter walk test (5MWT), and Assessment of Communication and Interaction Skills (ACIS). The increases in CST repetitions and ACIS scores were larger in the AAT group than in the controls. The two groups did not differ significantly in MoCA scores, TUG performance, or the 5MWT. The AAT group showed a greater increase in lower extremity strength and social skills, but no improvement in cognitive function, agility, or mobility. Further research with more sensitive evaluations and longer follow-up is needed.

Experimental realization of a Fresnel hologram as a super spectral resolution optical element.

A highly dispersive, diffractive optical element is designed and realized for an extremely high spectral resolution spectroscopy for exoplanet telescope application. Our design uses an annular Fresnel hologram to transform incident starlight directly into a spectrogram. The recording of the hologram is accomplished using two spherical waves of different radius of curvature. The resultant hologram consists of an annular grating structure with a gradually shrinking period as a function of increasing radius. The variable period not only could bring the incoming star-light into focus, but also exhibits a large on-axis chromatic behavior. We demonstrate a dispersion of wavelength 430-700 nm over 190 mm on-axis distance, leading to a super fine spectral resolution 0.0266 nm at wavelength 515 nm for a detector size of 20 µm.

The Effects of Biofeedback Training and Smartphone-Delivered Biofeedback Training on Resilience, Occupational Stress, and Depressive Symptoms among Abused Psychiatric Nurses.

Psychiatric ward (PW) nurses are at a higher risk to encounter workplace violence than are other healthcare providers, and many interventions have been developed to improve their mental health. We compared the effectiveness of biofeedback training (BT) and smartphone-delivered BT (SDBT) interventions on occupational stress, depressive symptoms, resilience, heart rate variability, and respiration rate in a sample of abused PW nurses. This was a quasi-experimental study. Structured questionnaires were administered before and six weeks after the intervention. Data were collected from April 2017 to October 2017. A total of 159 abused PW nurses were randomly assigned to BT, SDBT, and control groups, and 135 of them completed all processes of our protocol, with the study consisting of 119 females (88.1%) and 16 males (11.9%) and their age range being from 22 to 59 with the mean age of 35.61 and a standard deviation of 8.16. Compared to the controls, both the BT and the SDBT intervention groups experienced significant improvements in depressive symptoms, resilience, and respiration rate; and the SDBT group experienced significant reductions in occupational stress. Considering the cost, accessibility, restrictions time and space, SDBT be used as an effective intervention in people with resilience or occupational stress.

Biodegradation of the endocrine disrupter 4-t-octylphenol by the non-ligninolytic fungus Fusarium falciforme RRK20: Process optimization, estrogenicity assessment, metabolite identification and proposed pathways.

4-t-octylphenol (4-t-OP), a well-known endocrine disrupting compound, is frequently found in various environmental compartments at levels that may cause adverse effects to the ecosystem and public health. To date, most of the studies that investigate microbial transformations of 4-t-OP have focused on the process mediated by bacteria, ligninolytic fungi, or microbial consortia. There is no report on the complete degradation mechanism of 4-t-OP by non-ligninolytic fungi. In this study, we conducted laboratory experiments to explore and characterize the non-ligninolytic fungal strain Fusarium falciforme RRK20 to degrade 4-t-OP. Using the response surface methodology, the initial biomass concentration and temperature were the factors identified to be more influential on the efficiency of the biodegradation process as compared with pH. Under the optimized conditions (i.e., 28 °C, pH 6.5 with an initial inoculum density of 0.6 g L-1), 25 mg L-1 4-t-OP served as sole carbon source was completely depleted within a 14-d incubation; addition of low dosage of glucose was shown to significantly accelerate 4-t-OP degradation. The yeast estrogenic screening assay further confirmed the loss of estrogenic activity during the biodegradation process, though a longer incubation period was required for complete removal of estrogenicity. Metabolites identified by LC-MS/MS revealed that strain RRK20 might degrade 4-t-OP as sole energy source via alkyl chain oxidation and aromatic ring hydroxylation pathways. Together, these results not only suggest the potential use of non-ligninolytic fungi like strain RRK20 in remediation of 4-t-OP contaminated environments but may also improve our understanding of the environmental fate of 4-t-OP.

Use of dietary sodium intervention effect on neurohormonal and fluid overload in heart failure patients: Review of select research based literature.

AIM: This literature review analyzed ten articles investigating the effects of low dietary sodium intake on neurohormonal and fluid overload on heart failure (HF). BACKGROUND: Recommendations for low dietary sodium to HF patients has been debated in the past one to two decades. METHODS: This report presents a literature review of interventional studies from 2006 to 2015 investigating adult HF patients. RESULTS: The results of the neurohormonal outcome variables seem to be the primary consideration for recommending a low sodium diet to patients with HF. Most of articles in this review reported that 2.6-3 g/day of dietary sodium is effective for decreased BNP, renin, and aldosterone (neurohormonal) plasma levels in patients with HF. CONCLUSIONS: We have to provide the reason, effect, and amount of dietary sodium when providing dietary sodium recommendations to patients.

Stochastic analysis of the extra clustering model for animal grouping.

We consider the extra clustering model which was introduced by Durand et al. (J Theor Biol 249(2):262-270, 2007) in order to describe the grouping of social animals and to test whether genetic relatedness is the main driving force behind the group formation process. Durand and François (J Math Biol 60(3):451-468, 2010) provided a first stochastic analysis of this model by deriving (amongst other things) asymptotic expansions for the mean value of the number of groups. In this paper, we will give a much finer analysis of the number of groups. More precisely, we will derive asymptotic expansions for all higher moments and give a complete characterization of the possible limit laws. In the most interesting case (neutral model), we will prove a central limit theorem with a surprising normalization. In the remaining cases, the limit law will be either a mixture of a discrete and continuous law or a discrete law. Our results show that, except of in degenerate cases, strong concentration around the mean value takes place only for the neutral model, whereas in the remaining cases there is also mass concentration away from the mean.

Development and testing of a scale to assess fluid overload symptoms.

AIM: This study aimed to develop and test the reliability and validity of a scale about fluid overload symptoms in patients with heart failure. BACKGROUND: Fluid overload symptoms are a common cause of admission of patients with heart failure. An instrument that is quick to complete and easy to use for the measurement of fluid overload symptoms would be beneficial for early intervention and avoidance of hospital admission. METHODS: Fifty-six participants were recruited from cardiology wards. Internal consistency reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Validity was assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and exploratory factor analysis. RESULTS: This new instrument had a Cronbach's alpha of .81. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors (breathing symptoms and body fluid accumulation symptoms) with acceptable criterion validity. CONCLUSIONS: The fluid overload symptoms scale exhibits reliability with construct and criterion validity. It would be more beneficial if further testing is done.