CSR, consumer responses, product category, demographics, China,

ObjectiveWe aimed to examine whether impaired olfaction is associated with cognitive decline and indicators of neurodegeneration in the brain of dementia-free older adults.MethodsWithin the Rush Memory and Aging Project, 380 dementia-free participants (mean age = 78 years) were followed for up to 15 years, and underwent MRI scans. Olfactory function was assessed using the Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT) at baseline, and categorized as anosmia (B-SIT <6), hyposmia (B-SIT 6–10 in men and 6–10.25 in women), and normal (B-SIT 10.25–12 in men and 10.5–12 in women). Cognitive function was annually assessed with a battery of 21 tests, from which composite scores were derived. Structural total and regional brain volumes were estimated. Data were analyzed using linear regression and mixed-effects models.ResultsAt study entry, 138 (36.3%) had normal olfactory function, 213 (56.1%) had hyposmia, and 29 (7.6%) had anosmia. In multiadjusted mixed-effects models, hyposmia (β = −0.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.05 to −0.02) and anosmia (β = −0.13, 95% CI −0.16 to −0.09) were associated with faster rate of cognitive decline compared to normal olfaction. On MRI, impaired olfaction (hyposmia or anosmia) was related to smaller volumes of the hippocampus (β = −0.19, 95% CI −0.33 to −0.05), and in the entorhinal (β = −0.16, 95% CI −0.24 to −0.08), fusiform (β = −0.45, 95% CI −0.78 to −0.14), and middle temporal (β = −0.38, 95% CI −0.72 to −0.01) cortices.ConclusionImpaired olfaction predicts faster cognitive decline and might indicate neurodegeneration in the brain among dementia-free older adults.

Properly designed precoders can significantly improve the spectral efficiency of multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) relay systems. In this paper, we investigate joint source and relay precoding design based on the mean-square-error (MSE) criterion in MIMO two-way relay systems, where two multi-antenna source nodes exchange information via a multi-antenna amplify-and-forward relay node. This problem is non-convex and its optimal solution remains unsolved. Aiming to find an efficient way to solve the problem, we first decouple the primal problem into three tractable sub-problems, and then propose an iterative precoding design algorithm based on alternating optimization. The solution to each sub-problem is optimal and unique, thus the convergence of the iterative algorithm is guaranteed. Secondly, we propose a structured precoding design to lower the computational complexity. The proposed precoding structure is able to parallelize the channels in the multiple access (MAC) phase and broadcast (BC) phase. It thus reduces the precoding design to a simple power allocation problem. Lastly, for the special case where only a single data stream is transmitted from each source node, we present a source-antenna-selection (SAS) based precoding design algorithm. This algorithm selects only one antenna for transmission from each source and thus requires lower signalling overhead. Comprehensive simulation is conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of all the proposed precoding designs.

Halogen-free, low-cost alkyl sulfate-based surface active ionic liquids (SAILs), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dodecyl sulfate ([C4mim][C12SO4]), and N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium dodecyl sulfate ([C4MP][C12SO4]) were easily synthesized through ion exchange reaction. The aggregation behaviors of [C4mim][C12SO4] and [C4MP][C12SO4] in aqueous solution were investigated by surface tension, electric conductivity, and static fluorescence quenching. Both [C4mim][C12SO4] and [C4MP][C12SO4] have rather lower cmc, γcmc values and higher pC20, πcmc values than those reported for the traditional ionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and imidazolium-based SAIL, 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([C12mim]Br), with the same hydrocarbon chain length. The thermodynamic parameters evaluated from electric conductivity measurements show that the micelle formation of [C4mim][C12SO4] and [C4MP][C12SO4] is entropy-driven in the temperature range investigated. Lower average aggregation number indicates that the micelles of two SAILs present much looser structure. It is found that both the nature and the ring type of counterions can affect the aggregation behavior in aqueous solution. 1H NMR results of [C4mim][C12SO4] were used to further verify the mechanism of micelle formation. Hydration ability and steric hindrance of the imidazolium or pyrrolidinium counterion as well as the cooperative hydrophobic interaction of longer alkyl chain of [C12SO4] anion and comparatively shorter alkyl chain of [C4mim] or [C4MP] cation are proposed to play critical roles in the aggregation of [C4mim][C12SO4] and [C4MP][C12SO4].

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This paper proposes an adaptive localized decision variable analysis approach under the decomposition-based framework to solve the large scale multi-objective and manyobjective optimization problems. Its main idea is to incorporate the guidance of reference vectors into the control variable analysis and optimize the decision variables using an adaptive strategy. Especially, in the control variable analysis, for each search direction, the convergence relevance degree of each decision variable is measured by a projection-based detection method. In the decision variable optimization, the grouped decision variables are optimized with an adaptive scalarization strategy, which is able to adaptively balance the convergence and diversity of the solutions in the objective space. The proposed algorithm is evaluated with a suite of test problems with 2-10 objectives and 200-1000 variables. Experimental results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm on the large scale multiobjective and many-objective optimization problems.