The effect of definitions of activities of daily living on estimates of changing ability among older people

Physical functioning status is often assessed using scales of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. Different ways of defining change in adequacy of performance of both activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living tasks may be used, including increasing difficulty in performance, the need for assistance and inability to do tasks. In this prospective study, we investigated the effect of different definitions of decline on estimates of physical function, and explored the relationships between decline in each activity of daily living individually and potential predictors. The study was based on a sample of 999 individuals aged 65 years or more who participated in a national survey of quality of life, of whom 531 (68% of those eligible for follow up) responded 12-18 months later. Different definitions of decline were used and the prevalence of decline was, depending on the individual activities of daily living item, used as an outcome in logistic regression models. The results showed that the strength of association with chronic diseases, demographic, psychological and environmental factors varied by altering the activities of daily living item used. Decline in ability to walk 400 yards was strongly associated with respiratory problems (odds ratio 3.5 [95% confidence interval 1.3-9.0]) while decline in ability to get on a bus was associated with musculoskeletal problems (odds ratio 2.8 [95% confidence interval 1.4-5.6]). In conclusion, the prevalence of decline varies by definition, and summary measures which are customarily used to describe disability, may be inadequate for the assessment and identification of predictors of decline in functional ability.     

Evaluation of Intradermal Injection of Botulinum Toxin A for Facial Lifting

BACKGROUND: Intradermal botolinum toxin A (BTXA) is an advanced technique that emerged in response to the increased demand for noninvasive facial lifting and skin rejuvenation. OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intradermal injections of BTXA for facial lifting. METHODS: Twenty-five female patients with mild symmetrical facial skin laxity were enrolled in this study. All patients were treated with BTXA in one side of the face while the other side was injected with normal saline. The response to treatment was assessed by two dermatologists who evaluated global photographs using a quartile grading scale (QGS). The patient self-assessment and satisfaction questionnaires were recorded. RESULTS: A highly significant difference was found between the side injected with BTXA and the saline injected side (control) (p<0.001). Facial lifting was achieved in 58.66 percent of the sides injected with BTXA. Forty-four percent of patients were very satisfied. Older patients showed better improvement than younger patients (p=<0.001). The results persisted for 16 weeks. No adverse effects were observed. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that intradermal injection of BTXA could be a safe and effective therapeutic option for face lifting.     

A new method for the solution of hybrid analog digital beamforming problems

By going to millimeter wave (mmWave) we can use large scale MIMO due to short mmWave wavelength to overcome path loss by using beamforming to focus power of signal to the receiver. System structure of mmWave band is different with conventional MIMO because of large scale MIMO which is leading to use many RF-chains. For this reason Hybrid structure have been proposed for large Scale MIMO. By going to Hybrid structure a new issue has been created with phase shifter constraint. In this paper we propose a novel solution to make a hybrid precoding and combing to reach high spectral efficiency. Our problem includes a maximizing Frobenius norm of multiplying five complex matrices. As constraints, all elements of some matrices must have unit norm, and also the multiplication of some matrices must have a specific Frobenius norm. A novel solution is proposed for the problem, which is gained in two steps. At the first step, we propose a new decomposition usable for kind of complex matrices which could lead to reduce the dimension of the objective function, and eliminating constraints completely and in the second step, we propose an iterated algorithm for the resulting problem. By proposing another novel technique, we show that in each iteration, the optimal problem is equivalent to a quadratic optimal problem with limitations on the vector norm, and as a result, an optimal problem is obtained quickly. Moreover, some other real examples are included to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Synthesis of thioether derivatives of quinazoline-4-one-2-thione and evaluation of their antiplatelet aggregation activity

A series of 2-(arylmethylthio)-3-phenylquinazolin-4-one derivatives have been synthesized and their antiplatelet aggregation activities were assessed against ADP and arachidonic acid-induced platelet aggregation in human plasma. Among the tested thioethers, derivative 2, 3, 5 and 16 were the most potent compounds with satisfactory IC₅₀ for inhibition of platelet aggregation induced by ADP. Analysis of global physicochemical parameters shows some correlations between activities and molecular volume and also surface area of the studied derivatives.