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The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and factors of myofascial release therapy combined with electrical and magnetic stimulation in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS). A total of 79 female patients diagnosed with CPPS from January 2021 to December 2022 were prospectively analyzed. Every patient received 3 weeks of treatment which included myofascial release therapy combined with electrical and magnetic stimulation. The visual analog score (VAS) of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) trigger points (TrPs) and the changes in pelvic floor surface electromyography before and after treatment were compared. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of each outcome index. There were significant differences in VASs of muscle TrPs before and after treatment (P < 0.05). For the surface electromyography of PFMs, the differences in pre-baseline rest, post-baseline rest, isometric contractions for muscle endurance evaluation, and coefficient of variation were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Linear regression analysis showed that disease course (X 1), dyspareunia (X 5), and urinary incontinence (X 6) were influencing factors for the decline of pre-baseline rest (r5 = 1.067, R 2 = 0.089), post-baseline rest (r1 = 0.055, r5 = 0.99, R 2 = 0.119), VASs of ischial spine (r5 = 0.916, R 2 = 0.102), obturator internus (r5 = 0.796, r6 = −0.703, R 2 = 0.245), and pubococcygeus (r5 = 0.885, R 2 = 0.149) after treatment in the CPPS group. This study confirmed that individualized myofascial release therapy combined with electrical and magnetic stimulation has significant efficacy for patients with CPPS. At the same time, it is more effective for CPPS patients with longer course of disease, dyspareunia, and without urinary incontinence.

Laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) has become a novel minimally invasive approach applied as an option to perform hysterectomy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of LESS hysterectomy on the sexual function in women with benign gynecologic indications. From October 2016 to May 2021, a total of 486 premenopausal, sexually active women were eligible. Female sexual function index (FSFI) was used to assess sexual function preoperatively and 6, 12 months postoperatively. Total FSFI score ≤26.55 indicated female sexual dysfunction (FSD). Compared with pre-operation, each subdomain and total FSFI scores increased at 6 (all p < 0.05) and 12 months (all p < 0.001). Prevalence of FSD decreased at 6 (30 vs 39.9%, p = 0.002) and 12 months (27 vs 39.9%, p < 0.001). In patients with preoperative FSD, each subdomain and total FSFI scores improved at 6 and 12 months (all p < 0.001), while decreased at 6 months (p < 0.001) and had no significant difference at 12 months (p = 0.54) in patients without preoperative FSD. These results suggest that LESS hysterectomy has a significant positive effect on the sexual function in women with benign gynecologic diseases, especially those with preoperative FSD.

Purpose: To design an unsupervised deep learning (DL) model for correcting Nyquist ghosts of single‐shot spatiotemporal encoding (SPEN) and evaluate the model for real MRI applications. Methods: The proposed method consists of three main components: (1) an unsupervised network that combines Residual Encoder and Restricted Subspace Mapping (RERSM‐net) and is trained to generate a phase‐difference map based on the even and odd SPEN images; (2) a spin physical forward model to obtain the corrected image with the learned phase difference map; and (3) cycle‐consistency loss that is explored for training the RERSM‐net. Results: The proposed RERSM‐net could effectively generate smooth phase difference maps and correct Nyquist ghosts of single‐shot SPEN. Both simulation and real in vivo MRI experiments demonstrated that our method outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art SPEN Nyquist ghost correction method. Furthermore, the ablation experiments of generating phase‐difference maps show the advantages of the proposed unsupervised model. Conclusion: The proposed method can effectively correct Nyquist ghosts for the single‐shot SPEN sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefitting from the development of industrial intelligence, data‐driven soft sensors have been widely applied in industrial processes in recent years. Driven by fluctuations in raw material quality, varying loads, and uncertain disturbances, industrial processes are often characterized by nonstationary properties. However, the nonstationary characteristics of the process are not considered in traditional data‐driven methods, leading to the poor prediction performance of soft sensors. Meanwhile, numerous nonstationary modelling methods have been proposed for process monitoring, with probabilistic stationary subspace analysis (PSSA) showing significant application potential. Unfortunately, PSSA has not yet been used to develop effective soft sensors for nonstationary processes. Therefore, the PSSA model is extended to the regression form (PSSR), and a corresponding soft sensing model is developed in this paper. Unlike previous approaches, the proposed PSSR can offer a suitable description of nonstationary processes and fully capture the mathematical correlation between input and output variables. Finally, the prediction performance of PSSR is verified through case studies on a numerical example and penicillin fermentation process. The experimental results indicate that PSSR can provide a superior solution for soft sensing modelling of nonstationary industrial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Fibroblast activation protein α (FAP) is expressed in normal adipose tissue and related to some pleiotropic metabolic regulators. However, the exact role and mechanism of FAP in obesity and related metabolic disorders are not well understood. Methods: FAP knockout mice were fed a normal diet or a high‐fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. FAP knockout mice or wild‐type mice treated with an FAP inhibitor were subjected to cold stress for 5 days. Results: FAP deficiency protected mice against HFD‐induced obesity and obesity‐associated metabolic dysfunction, including glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and hyperlipidemia. Notably, FAP deficiency largely reversed obesity‐induced adipose tissue macrophage accumulation and M1‐M2 imbalance in white adipose tissue (WAT). Moreover, energy expenditure was significantly higher in FAP‐deficient mice fed an HFD. Both FAP deficiency and inhibition increased cold tolerance through enhancing WAT beiging. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that FAP deficiency protects mice against diet‐induced obesity and related metabolic dysfunction. Furthermore, the protective effects are probably mediated via the promotion of WAT beiging and suppression of inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: In recent years, nanomaterials‐based pesticide carriers have garnered significant attention and sparked extensive research. However, most studies have primarily focused on investigating the impact of physical properties of nanomaterials, such as size and modifiable sites, on drug delivery efficiency of nano‐pesticides. The limited exploration of biologically active nanomaterials poses a significant obstacle to the advancement and widespread adoption of nano‐pesticides. In this study, we prepared chitin nanocrystals (ChNC) based on acid hydrolysis and systematically investigated the differences between nano‐ and normal chitin against plant bacteria (Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci). The primary objective was to seek out nanocarriers with heightened biological activity for the synthesis of nano‐pesticides. RESULTS: Zeta potential analysis, Fourier Transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X‐Ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) identified the successful synthesis of ChNC. ChNC showcased remarkable bactericidal activity at comparable concentrations, surpassing that of chitin, particularly in its ability to inhibit bacterial biofilm formation. Furthermore, ChNC displayed heightened effectiveness in disrupting bacterial cell membranes, resulting in the leakage of bacterial cell contents, structural DNA damage, and impairment of DNA replication. Lastly, potting experiments revealed that ChNC is notably more effective in inhibiting the spread and propagation of bacteria on plant leaves. CONCLUSION: ChNC exhibited higher antibacterial activity compared to chitin, enabling efficient control of plant bacterial diseases through enhanced interaction with bacteria. These findings offer compelling evidence of ChNC's superior bacterial inhibition capabilities, underscoring its potential as a promising nanocarrier for nano‐pesticide research. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]