Association between sexual frequency and all-cause mortality in young and middle-aged patients with hypertension: a cohort study of patient data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2014.

BACKGROUND: Sexual activity appears to have protective effects on overall and cardiovascular health. AIM: We hypothesized that decreased sexual frequency would be an early predictor of all-cause mortality in young and middle-aged patients (20 to 59 years old) with hypertension. METHODS: A total of 4565 patients with hypertension (55.6% men; mean [SD] age 40.60 [10.81] years) who had completed a sexual behavior questionnaire were enrolled from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 2005 to 2014. Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to evaluate the relationship between sexual frequency and all-cause mortality. OUTCOMES: The outcome measure for this study is the relationship between sexual frequency and all-cause mortality in young and middle-aged patients with hypertension. RESULTS: During the 68-month median follow-up period, 109 (2.39%) patients died from any cause. After full adjustment for potential confounders, sexual frequency was an independent predictive factor for all-cause mortality in young and middle-aged patients with hypertension. A marital status difference was identified in the subgroup analysis: among patients with a sexual frequency of <12 times/year, only married patients had higher risks of all-cause mortality than the 12-51 times/year group (HR, 0.476, 95% CI, 0.235-0.963, P < .05) and > 51 (HR, 0.452, 95% CI, 0.213-0.961, P < .05) times/year groups. The association of sexual frequency and all-cause mortality was nonlinear. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Increased frequency of sexual activity may have protective effects on overall health and quality of life in patients with hypertension. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: To our knowledge this is the first observational investigation performed to evaluate the correlation between sexual frequency and all-cause mortality in patients with hypertension. A limitation of the study is that the participants in our analysis were between the ages of 20 and 59 years, and this patient sample may not reflect possible outcomes for patients of other age groups. CONCLUSION: The association between lower frequency of sexual intercourse and greater all-cause mortality was significant in young and middle-aged patients with hypertension in the United States.

Diaqua-bis-[4-(4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)benzoato-κO,O']nickel(II).

In the title compound, [Ni(C(9)H(6)N(3)O(2))(2)(H(2)O)(2)], the Ni(II) atom lies on a twofold rotation axis and is six-coordinated by two bidentate chelating 4-(1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)benzoate ligands and two water mol-ecules in a distorted octa-hedral geometry. Inter-molecular O-H⋯N hydrogen bonds link the complex mol-ecules into a two-dimensional network parallel to (010).

Tetra-aqua-bis-[4-(4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)benzoato-κN]copper(II) dihydrate.

In the title compound, [Cu(C(9)H(6)N(3)O(2))(2)(H(2)O)(4)]·2H(2)O, the Cu(II) atom lies on an inversion center and is six-coordinated by two N atoms from two 4-(1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)benzoate ligands and four water mol-ecules in a distorted octa-hedral geometry. In the crystal, inter-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds lead to a three-dimensional supra-molecular network. Intra-molecular O-H⋯N hydrogen bonds and π-π inter-actions between the benzene rings and between the benzene and triazole rings [centroid-centroid distances = 3.657 (1) and 3.752 (1) Å] are observed.

Topology Optimization for FDM Parts Considering the Hybrid Deposition Path Pattern.

Based on a solid orthotropic material with penalization (SOMP) and a double smoothing and projection (DSP) approach, this work proposes a methodology to find an optimal structure design which takes the hybrid deposition path (HDP) pattern and the anisotropic material properties into consideration. The optimized structure consists of a boundary layer and a substrate. The substrate domain is assumed to be filled with unidirectional zig-zag deposition paths and customized infill patterns, while the boundary is made by the contour offset deposition paths. This HDP is the most commonly employed path pattern for the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process. A critical derivative of the sensitivity analysis is presented in this paper, which ensures the optimality of the final design solutions. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through several 2D numerical examples.