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BackgroundHearing loss is one of the most common chronic conditions in older adults. In audiology literature, several studies have examined the attitudes and behavior of people with hearing loss; however, not much is known about the manner in which society in general views and perceives hearing loss. This exploratory study was aimed at understanding the social representation of hearing loss (among the general public) in the countries of India, Iran, Portugal, and the UK. We also compared these social representations.Materials and methodsThe study involved a cross-sectional design, and participants were recruited using the snowball sampling method. A total of 404 people from four countries participated in the study. Data were collected using a free-association task where participants were asked to produce up to five words or phrases that came to mind while thinking about hearing loss. In addition, they were also asked to indicate if each word they presented had positive, neutral, or negative associations in their view. Data were analyzed using various qualitative and quantitative methods.ResultsThe most frequently occurring categories were: assessment and management; causes of hearing loss; communication difficulties; disability; hearing ability or disability; hearing instruments; negative mental state; the attitudes of others; and sound and acoustics of the environment. Some categories were reported with similar frequency in most countries (eg, causes of hearing loss, communication difficulties, and negative mental state), whereas others differed among countries. Participants in India reported significantly more positive and fewer negative associations when compared to participants from Iran, Portugal, and the UK. However, there was no statistical difference among neutral responses reported among these countries. Also, more differences were noted among these countries than similarities.ConclusionThese findings provide useful insights into the public perception of hearing loss that may prove useful in public education and counseling.

In this paper, the reservoir characteristics and fluid properties of a reservoir of the Bohai Sea oil field were taken as the research platform. It was confirmed that there exists compatibility between hydrophobically-associating-polymer (HAP) molecular aggregation and pore-throat size. The experiment for oil displacement in heterogeneous cores indicated that there exists applicability of HAP for a heterogeneous reservoir and the applicability can be influenced by polymer concentration. The experiment for oil displacement of parallel cores demonstrated the effect of polymer concentration on the applicability of HAP for reservoir heterogeneity from two aspects of the dynamic behavior of oil displacement and the effectiveness of oil displacement. The results show that with the increase of HAP concentration, the association degree between polymer molecules increases, molecular-clew dimension enlarges, and the compatible size of pore throats of the core increases. The change of HAP concentration not only has an effect on the amount of liquid suctioned by different permeability layers and on the time of profile inversion, but also has an effect on the displacement ability of polymer solution within different layers. As polymer concentration changes, the adaptability of HAP for reservoir heterogeneity changes and the oil-recovery efficiency also changes.

As wireless devices and sensors are increasingly deployed on people, researchers have begun to focus on wireless body-area networks. Applications of wireless body sensor networks include healthcare, entertainment, and personal assistance, in which sensors collect physiological and activity data from people and their environments. In these body sensor networks, quality of service is needed to provide reliable data communication over prioritized data streams. This article proposes BodyQoS, the first running QoS system demonstrated on an emulated body sensor network. BodyQoS adopts an asymmetric architecture, in which most processing is done on a resource-rich aggregator, minimizing the load on resource-limited sensor nodes. A virtual MAC is developed in BodyQoS to make it radio-agnostic, allowing a BodyQoS to schedule wireless resources without knowing the implementation details of the underlying MAC protocols. Another unique property of BodyQoS is its ability to provide adaptive resource scheduling. When the effective bandwidth of the channel degrades due to RF interference or body fading effect, BodyQoS adaptively schedules remaining bandwidth to meet QoS requirements. We have implemented BodyQoS in NesC on top of TinyOS, and evaluated its performance on MicaZ devices. Our system performance study shows that BodyQoS delivers significantly improved performance over conventional solutions in combating channel impairment.

BackgroundInflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an intractable autoimmune disease, relatively common in cats, with chronic vomiting and diarrhea. Previous studies have reported that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) alleviate inflammation by modulating immune cells. However, there is a lack of research on cross-talk mechanism between feline adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (fAT-MSCs) and immune cells in IBD model. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of fAT-MSC on mice model of colitis and to clarify the therapeutic mechanism of fAT-MSCs.ResultsIntraperitoneal infusion of fAT-MSC ameliorated the clinical and histopathologic severity of colitis, including body weight loss, diarrhea, and inflammation in the colon of Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-treated mice (C57BL/6). Since regulatory T cells (Tregs) are pivotal in modulating immune responses and maintaining tolerance in colitis, the relation of Tregs with fAT-MSC-secreted factor was investigated in vitro. PGE2 secreted from fAT-MSC was demonstrated to induce elevation of FOXP3 mRNA expression and adjust inflammatory cytokines in Con A-induced feline peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Furthermore, in vivo, FOXP3+ cells of the fAT-MSC group were significantly increased in the inflamed colon, relative to that in the PBS group.ConclusionOur results suggest that PGE2 secreted from fAT-MSC can reduce inflammation by increasing FOXP3+ Tregs in mice model of colitis. Consequently, these results propose the possibility of administration of fAT-MSC to cats with not only IBD but also other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-018-1684-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A multiphase microstructure comprising of different volume fractions of prior martensite and ultra-fine bainite (bainitic ferrite and retained austenite) was obtained by quenching to certain temperatures, followed by isothermal bainitic transformation. The effect of the prior martensite transformation on the bainitic transformation behavior, microstructures, and mechanical properties were discussed. The results showed that the prior martensite accelerated the subsequent low-temperature bainite transformation, and the incubation period and completion time of the bainite reaction were significantly shortened. This phenomenon was attributed to the enhanced nucleation ratio caused by the introduced strain in austenite, due to the formation of prior martensite and a carbon partitioning between the prior martensite and retained austenite. Moreover, the prior martensite could influence the crystal growth direction of bainite ferrite, refine bainitic ferrite plates, and reduce the dimension of blocky retained austenite, all of which were responsible for improving the mechanical properties of the ultra-fine bainitic steel. When the content of the prior martensite reached 15%, the investigated steels had the best performance, which were 1800 MPa and 21% for the tensile strength and elongation, respectively. Unfortunately, the increased content of the prior martensite could lead to a worsening of the impact toughness.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the approaches to improve the durability and strength of the porous asphalt through laboratory testing. Porous asphalt specimens were prepared using three types of binders: high-viscosity binder (HVB), PG76-22 and PG70-22. Various additives: fibre, hydrated lime and DBS polymer, were utilised in the porous asphalt. Comprehensive laboratory tests, including strength test, binder draindown test, Cantabro abrasion test, moisture susceptibility test, rutting test, thermal stress restrained sample test, and permeability test, were conducted. It is found that HVB significantly improved the overall performance of the porous asphalt; DBS additive improved its high-temperature performance, but lowered the cracking resistance at low temperature as well as the durability; fibre enhanced its durability and anti-cracking performance at low temperature; hydrated lime improved its moisture stability while weakening its durability. It is concluded that HVB and polyester fibre should be used in all porous asphalt; DBS additive is good for porous asphalt in high-temperature areas, and hydrated lime can be added to porous asphalt in rainy areas.