Prognostic value of ultrasound-assessed upper limb muscle thickness on mortality in older patients with heart failure: A post-hoc analysis of the SONIC-HF cohort study.

Background And Aims: Upper limb muscle thickness assessed by ultrasound could be useful to estimate whole body muscle mass. We investigated the association between low upper limb muscle thickness and prognosis in older patients with heart failure (HF).

Methods And Results: This study was a post-hoc analysis of a prospective multicenter cohort, namely, the SONIC-HF study.

Earwig fan folding with thick panels.

To address the challenges of scaling biologically inspired deployable structures, particularly focusing on translating the compact folding mechanism of earwig hind wings into human-scale engineering applications. Biological folding systems often lose structural efficiency at larger scales due to scaling laws, such as the square-cube law, making thickness and strength critical considerations. We analysed the geometric principles underlying the earwig () wing-folding mechanism and developed a parametric design methodology to replicate these principles for thick-panel materials.

Tone language experience enhances dimension-selective attention and subcortical encoding but not cortical entrainment to pitch.

What factors determine the importance placed on different sources of evidence during speech and music perception? Attention-to-dimension theories suggest that, through prolonged exposure to their first language (L1), listeners become biased to attend to acoustic dimensions especially informative in that language. Given that selective attention can modulate cortical tracking of sounds, attention-to-dimension accounts predict that tone language speakers would show greater cortical tracking of pitch in L2 speech, even when it is not task-relevant, as well as an enhanced ability to attend to pitch in both speech and music. Here, we test these hypotheses by examining neural sound encoding, dimension-selective attention, and cue-weighting strategies in 54 native English and 60 Mandarin Chinese speakers.

Uniaxial ordering by self-assembly of isotropic octahedral junctions.

We demonstrate that isotropic octahedral (sixfold branched) junctions with three diagonal end point pairs of different colors almost inevitably form a macroscopic assembly of uniaxial order, exhibiting the perfect order of a single color. Monte Carlo simulations of the antiferromagnetic three-state Potts model on the tripartite reo net, consisting of corner-sharing regular octahedrons, confirm this counterintuitive prediction while showcasing switching self-assembly upon an ordering phase transition. The possible inequivalence of three directions, i.

Design, Rational, and Baseline Characteristics of the SONIC-HF Multicenter Registry.

Introduction: Skeletal muscle mass and function are crucial for assessing physical frailty, sarcopenia, and cachexia, which significantly impact the prognosis of geriatric patients with heart failure (HF). Ultrasound-based assessment of skeletal muscles offers a non-invasive, real-time alternative to traditional methods. The study (SONIC-HF) aimed to evaluate the feasibility and prognostic impact of ultrasound-based muscle assessment in geriatric patients with HF.

Sarcopenia in heart failure: Comparison of prognostic value between the Asian working Group for Sarcopenia 2014 and 2019 criteria.

Aim: Sarcopenia is a prevalent comorbidity among older patients with heart failure. This study aimed to evaluate the differences between sarcopenia diagnosed using the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2014 and 2019 criteria in older patients with heart failure.

Methods: This study is a post hoc sub-analysis of data from the FRAGILE-HF study, a prospective, multicenter, observational study.

Association of Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Overlap with Physical Function and Prognosis in Older Patients with Heart Failure: A Post-hoc Analysis of the FRAGILE-HF and SONIC-HF.

Aims: The prevalence and impact of cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic (CKM) overlap on physical function and prognosis in older patients with heart failure (HF) remain unclear. This study aimed to assess the impact of overlapping CKM conditions on physical function and prognosis in older patients with HF.

Methods: This post-hoc analysis of the FRAGILE-HF (main cohort) and SONIC-HF (validation cohort), both prospective multicentre studies, included patients aged ≥65 years who were hospitalised for HF.

Association of pre-admission exercise habit with post-discharge outcomes for older patients with heart failure.

Aims: The benefits of exercise in patients with heart failure are well documented. However, to date, the association between exercise habits and prognosis is yet to be evaluated. In this study, we investigated the association between pre-hospital exercise habits and post-discharge prognosis in older adult patients with heart failure.

Methyl side-groups control the 3̄ phase in core-non-symmetric aryloyl-hydrazine-based molecules.

Control of the formation of liquid crystalline 3̄ gyroid phases and their nanostructures is critical to advance materials chemistry based on the structural feature of three-dimensional helical networks. Here, we present that introducing methyl side-group(s) and slight non-symmetry into aryloyl-hydrazine-based molecules is unexpectedly crucial for their formation and can be a new design strategy through tuning intermolecular interactions: the two chemical modifications in the core portion of the chain-core-chain type molecules effectively lower and extend the 3̄ phase temperature ranges with the increased twist angle between neighboring molecules along the network. The detailed analyses of the aggregation structure revealed the change in the core assembly mode from the double-layered core mode of the mother molecule (without methyl groups) to the single-layered core mode.

Prognostic Value of Sarcopenia Definitions and Outcomes Consortium Criteria in Older Patients with Heart Failure.

Objectives: The Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia in 2019 (AWGS 2019) emphasized muscle mass measurements. In contrast, the Sarcopenia Definitions and Outcomes Consortium (SDOC) prioritizes functional strength and mobility. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the prognostic utility of the SDOC and AWGS 2019 criteria for all-cause mortality in older patients with heart failure.

Prognostic value of Borg scale following 6-min walk test in hospitalized older patients with heart failure.

Aims: The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a widely accepted tool for evaluating exercise tolerance and physical capacity, and the 6-min walk distance (6MWD) is an established prognostic factor in patients with heart failure (HF). However, the prognostic implications of post-6MWT dyspnoea remain unknown. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of Borg scores after the 6MWT in patients with HF.

Aspiring to Aspirate: L2 Acquisition of English Word-Initial /p/ Over 10 Years.

This short report describes a longitudinal examination of the acquisition of English-aspirated stops by an initial cohort of 24 adult Slavic-language (Russian, Ukrainian, and Croatian) speakers. All had arrived in Canada with low oral English proficiency, and all were enrolled in the same language instruction program at the outset. Initial bilabial stops in CVCs were recorded at eight testing times: six during the first year of the study, again at year 7, and finally at year 10.

Prognostic value of weight loss in hospitalized patients with heart failure.

Background: Weight loss is a poor prognostic factor in patients with chronic heart failure (HF). However, whether the same is true for hospitalized patients with HF is unknown, even though hospitalization is the first opportunity for many patients to be diagnosed with HF. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of weight loss in patients hospitalized for HF.

Lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein ratio and score in patients with heart failure: Nutritional status, physical function, and prognosis.

Aims: In heart failure (HF), inflammation is linked to malnutrition and impaired physical function. In this study, we aimed to assess how novel nutritional-inflammatory markers and lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein ratio (LCR) and score (LCS) are associated with the nutritional status, physical function, and prognosis of patients with HF.

Methods And Results: This study was a secondary analysis of the FRAGILE-HF study, a prospective observational study conducted across 15 hospitals in Japan.

Gray-tone appearances on 4-hour delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging indicate severe inner ear pathology and symptoms in sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

Objective: Hybrid of reversed image of positive endolymph signal and negative image of perilymph signal (HYDROPS) in delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) typically depicts normal inner ear as "white-tone" and endolymphatic hydrops as "black-transparent" appearances, whereas ears with auditory and vestibular disorders are occasionally depicted as "gray-tone." This study aimed to investigate the pathological basis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) patients with "gray-tone" appearances on HYDROPS.

Methods: Delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI examinations were conducted on 29 subjects with unilateral SSNHL.

Prognostic Value of Objective Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Patients With Heart Failure: Subanalysis of FRAGILE-HF and Kitasato Cohort.

Background: Social factors encompass a broad spectrum of nonmedical factors, including objective (social isolation [SI]) and perceived (loneliness) conditions. Although social factors have attracted considerable research attention, information regarding their impact on patients with heart failure is scarce. We aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of objective SI and loneliness in older patients with heart failure.