Recent studies have confirmed that β-adrenergic receptors (β-ARs) are expressed on the surface of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and that the sympathetic nervous system can regulate bone metabolism by activating them. β-AR blockers (BBs) are commonly used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the elderly. It is important to investigate whether BBs have a beneficial effect on bone metabolism in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, so as to expand their clinical application. This article reviews the effects of BB on bone metabolism and the progress of clinical research.

Spectrum sensing is an essential functionality of cognitive radio networks (CRN). Among existing spectrum sensing methods, cooperative spectrum sensing is the best one which can achieve superior sensing performance by introducing spatial diversity of sensing data sources. Such cooperation also introduces additional information exchanging which leads to extra power consumption and reporting delay. In this paper, the optimal sensing performance problem is formulated as a nonlinear binary integer programming problem to find suitable cooperative nodes minimizing the average detection Bayesian risk. The binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) algorithm is adopted to obtain suboptimal solutions to cooperative nodes. Computer simulations show that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the sensing performance compared with the case that all neighboring nodes participate in sensing without discrimination under different scenarios.

Background: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an infectious disease caused by a bunyaviridae virus. Its main clinical manifestation is fever with thrombocytopenia, which may be accompanied by other clinical symptoms. Here, we report a patient diagnosed with SFTS using metagenomic next‑generation sequencing (mNGS). Case Presentation: A 56-year-old female patient was hospitalized with intermittent diarrhea and fever. She visited a local clinic for treatment, but instead of improving, the symptoms progressed to unconsciousness. Diagnosis: Using mNGS, we isolated the bunyaviridae virus and several other pathogens from the patient’s blood samples to confirm the diagnosis. Interventions: The patient was treated with symptomatic and supportive therapy, including intravenous human γ-globulin (20 g/d), platelet transfusion, platelet elevation (subcutaneous injection of recombinant human thrombopoietin, 15,000 IU), white blood cell elevation (subcutaneous injection of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, 200 ug, qd); and antibiotic (cefoperazone sodium and tazobactam sodium, 2 g, q8h), antiviral (ganciclovir, 250 mg, q12h), and antifungal therapy (voriconazole for injection, 0.2 g, q12h). After ten days of treatment, the patient’s condition gradually improved. Conclusion: Compared to traditional detection methods, mNGS has many advantages. It can quickly identify the pathogen when the patient’s clinical manifestations are complex and difficult to diagnose, resulting in the formulation of an effective treatment.

Sarcopenia is a group of clinical syndromes characterized by decreased skeletal muscle mass and strength. The incidence of sarcopenia in the elderly population remains high, which can lead to many adverse events such as falls, fractures, weakness, and also increases the risk of disability and death, so clear diagnosis and early intervention are essential. Computed tomography (CT) has significant advantages over previous diagnostic techniques such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and body composition analysis, and has been increasingly used to diagnose sarcopenia. CT images use artificial intelligence (AI) software to automatically segment muscle groups and calculate body composition parameters, which is convenient and fast for diagnosing sarcopenia. In order to increase the effectiveness of sarcopenia clinical diagnosis, this study aimed to evaluate the benefits of CT compared to other diagnostic techniques and the value of skeletal muscle parameters at various spinal levels on CT images.

A new laser welding process with the local cooling was presented and applied to two automotive dual phase steels, DP780 and DP980. The microstructure, microhardness, tensile properties of welded joints and limiting dome height (LDH) of welded blanks were investigated. It is observed that the local cooling during laser welding process can greatly reduce the martensite tempering and thus reduce the heat affected zone softening. The laser welded joints with the local cooling all failed at the base metal, and exhibit the comparable strength and ductility with the base metal. For the welded blanks with the local cooling, LDH is increased significantly, and failure initiates from the weld and propagates perpendicular to the weld.