Loneliness obviously prevails among empty nest older adults than non-empty nest older adults. Depressive symptoms showed a stronger risk of empty nest older adults being lonely. Family support was suggested as a protective factor for loneliness in both groups. These findings should be considered when developing intervention strategies to reduce loneliness.

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Background: Postoperative sleep disorder is common in elderly surgery patients, and it often worsens their recovery after surgery. This study aimed to explore the effect of intraoperative dexmedetomidine dose on postoperative sleep quality. Methods: Based on information regarding dexmedetomidine use during surgery from an electronic medical record system, 4,349 elderly surgery patients were divided into three groups: 1,374 without intraoperative use of dexmedetomidine (Non-DEX), 917 with dexmedetomidine 0.1-0.2 µg/kg/h (Low-DEX), and 2,058 with dexmedetomidine >0.2 µg/kg/h (High-DEX). The numerical rating scale (NRS) for sleep disturbance during the first night after surgery was recorded, and the incidence of NRS ≥ 6 was considered the primary outcome. Results: NRS (P < 0.001) and incidence of severe sleep disturbance (P < 0.001) were lower in patients receiving intraoperative dexmedetomidine than in those without the intraoperative use of dexmedetomidine. Patients in the Low-DEX group had the lowest incidence, followed by those in the High-DEX and Non-DEX groups (6.7% vs. 13.7% vs. 19.5%). After propensity score matching, 906 pairs of elderly surgery patients were included in the Low-DEX and High-DEX groups, and the Low-DEX group had lower NRS (2.7 ± 2.1 vs. 3.1 ± 2.4, P < 0.001) than the High-DEX group. The incidence of severe sleep disturbance was lower in the Low-DEX group than in the High-DEX group (6.6% vs. 12.8%) with an odds rate of 0.48 (95% confidence interval, 0.35 to 0.67). Conclusions: For elderly patients, intraoperative dexmedetomidine use can significantly improve the quality of the first night sleep after surgery. Low-dose (0.1-0.2 µg/kg/h) dexmedetomidine can have an improvement effect on sleep quality, and it is recommended to improve the quality of postoperative sleep.

In this paper, we demonstrate numerical evidence that interfacial passivation in the Sb 2 Se 3 solar cell forming the configuration of indium tin oxide (ITO)/SnO 2 /CdS/Sb 2 Se 3 /Au is beneficial for suppressing defects and obtaining cells with high efficiency. First, the effects of two types of defects including bulk defects in the Sb 2 Se 3 absorber layer and interfacial defects at the CdS/Sb 2 Se 3 interface on the performance of solar cells are studied, respectively. It is found that the effect of the bulk defects varied greatly in different magnitudes of defect density, whereas significant deterioration could be caused by the interfacial defect at relatively lower defect density. Then, the types of three actual defects named D1, D2, and D3 measured experimentally in the Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells are analyzed by comparing the simulation and experimental results. It is found that the case D1 and D2 existing in the absorber layer while D3 located at the interface makes the simulation and experimental results the most consistent, in which the interfacial defect D3 contributes the most to the degradation of cell performance. Finally, a SnO 2 -free Sb 2 Se 3 solar cell sample is simulated to evaluate the crucial interfacial passivation effect of the SnO 2 layer. The results show that introducing a SnO 2 layer is beneficial for the passivation of not only the interfacial defects but some unclear mechanisms such as deep-level defects which are hard to be measured in the present experiment. The numerical simulation results provide evidence proving the importance of interfacial passivation in actual fabrication processes to improve the performance of Sb 2 Se 3 solar cells.