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The purpose of this study was to review the literature on the effect of scraping therapy on chronic low back pain (LBP) from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).Three English medical electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library) and 2 Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang) were searched. Only randomized controlled trials related to the effects of scraping therapy on chronic LBP were included in this systematic review. Study selection, data extraction, and validation were conducted independently by 2 reviewers. The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated by the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. RevMan 5.3 software was applied to perform meta-analysis of the data.Ten studies comprising 627 participants were included. Overall, the quality of evidence was moderate owing to a lack of blinding and allocation concealment in some studies and unclear risk of selective reporting. Meta-analysis of 9 RCTs indicated that scraping therapy had a statistically significant effect on pain reduction (standard mean difference = -0.66, 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.83 to -0.49, P.001). However, if only a single scrape treatment was carried out, the results did not show that scraping was superior to the control group regarding pain relief (mean difference = -0.35, 95% CI, -1.23 to 0.53, P = .44). Moreover, the results of 6 RCTs involving 468 participants showed significantly greater improvement in lumbar dysfunction (mean difference = -10.05, 95% CI, -13.52 to -2.32, P.001). In addition, the results of 5 RCTs involving 393 participants showed a favorably significant effect on the overall efficacy (odds ratio = 4.74, 95% CI, 2.34-9.62, P.001). As for follow-up effects, meta-analysis of 3 RCTs involving 241 participants showed a promising effect on pain reduction and lumbar function improvement at 1 month and 3 months after the end of treatment, respectively. Only 1 study reported adverse effects, and none were serious.Scraping therapy may have a therapeutic effect for some individuals with chronic LBP. However, due to the limited amount of research and the low methodological quality of the included studies, additional large-scale, multicenter, high-quality RCTs on relieving pain intensity and improving lumbar dysfunction are still necessary.

The anti-tumor activity of ginsenosides has been widely explored, however, there is very little research on the anti-inflammatory potency of Ginkgo biloba L. leaves cyclopeptides (GBLCs). In the current study, four novel GBLCs were isolated and their amino acid sequence was determined. Herein, we found that GBLCs alleviated benzo(a)pyrene (BaP)-induced inflammation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Interestingly, GBLC-4 [Cyclo-(Leu-Phe-Ile-his)] significantly attenuated the BaP-induced reactive oxygen species generation and mitochondrial membrane potential collapse in HUVECs. Furthermore, GBLC-4 attenuated the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and blocked NF-κB pathway activation to mitigate the injuries caused by BaP. Notably, we provide a novel mechanism, suggesting that GBLCs may be potential agents for vascular inflammatory disease therapy.

Solar steam generation is a prospectively technology that could be used to alleviate the problem of water shortage. Here, we design a 1D/2D W18O49/rGO heterostructure and construct a bilayer structure of light absorber, which contains W18O49 nanofibers and rGO nanosheets composite layer for sunlight harvesting and a pre-treated wood layer for water supply and thermal insulation. With an optimized composition of the 1D/2D W18O49/rGO heterostructure, the constructed interfacial evaporation system demonstrate a quick thermal response and achieve a steady-state evaporation efficiency of 86.5% with the evaporation rate of 1.34 kg∙m−2∙h−1 under one sun illumination, and it exhibits excellent cycle stabilities after 25 cycles. Moreover, the salinity of the sea water is greatly reduced, much less than the World Health Organization (WHO) standards of the drinking water. This novel and facile bilayer structure demonstrates substantial promise for application in the fields of solar evaporation to deal with the problem of water shortage.

Recently, the research of identification input design for Bayesian methods has been actively investigated. Either the problem is formulated as a non-convex problem with difficulty in solving or relaxed as a convex problem with a price of some conservativeness. In this contribution, a new minimum power input design problem is formulated by viewing the input as a stochastic process. We seek the minimum energy input with variance constraints over a frequency band. By exploiting the generalized Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov lemma, the stochastic consideration facilitates the input design problem to be presented as a convex problem whose decision variables are a finite number of autocorrelation coefficients. We obtain the autocorrelation coefficients of the desired stochastic input signal by solving the convex problem and extend them by the maximum entropy extension. Then, a specific identification input is sampled from the obtained stochastic process. Simulations results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a novel approach for the input design of the Bayesian frequency response identification. The input design problem is first formulated by considering deterministic inputs, which leads to a non-convex optimization problem. Restricting inputs to be periodic makes the problem convex but introduces conservativeness. The stochastic consideration facilitates the input design problem to be presented as a convex problem whose decision variables are a finite number of autocorrelation coefficients. A multiplied sampled input turns out to be the good input with a certain probability. Then, the optimal input is selected to be the minimum energy one among the good inputs. Simulations results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Myocardial fibrosis plays a central role in the development of heart failure. It has been shown that recurrent exposure to subclinical lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increases mortality and induces cardiac fibrosis in mice, which is not mediated by the common renin-angiotensin system. LPS increased NADPH oxidase2 (NOX2) in isolated adult mouse cardiac fibroblasts and NOX2 may mediate LPS-induced cardiac fibrosis. Therefore, the current study was designed to delineate the role of NOX2 in LPS-induced fibrosis model and to investigate the preventive role of Tanshinone IIA (TIIA) on the development of cardiac fibrosis. The protective mechanism of TIIA was determined to be associated with the inhibition of NOX2, by comparing its effects with the NADPH oxidase inhibitor, apocynin. The results revealed remarkable effects of apocynin and TIIA on attenuating the development of myocardial fibrosis and fibrosis-related genes and mediators. Furthermore, TIIA and apocynin decreased the expression of NADPH oxidase subunits (NOX2 and P67phox) expression and the ROS levels. The anti-fibrotic effect of apocynin suggested that NOX2 inhibition may be a potential preventive strategy for attenuating the progression of LPS-induced cardiac fibrosis. Our results demonstrate that TIIA may be a potent agent against subclinical LPS-induced cardiac fibrosis in mice partially via inhibition of NADPH oxidase 2.

Bayesian nonparametric methods have been introduced in a linear system identification paradigm to avoid the model and order selection problem. In this framework, a finite impulse response (FIR) model is considered, and the impulse response is realized as a zero-mean Gaussian process. The identification results mainly depend on a prior covariance (kernel) which has to be estimated from data. But the Gaussian prior assumption is inappropriate when the impulse response is constrained on an interval. This paper considers the positive FIR model identification problem using non Gaussian prior where a positive model denotes a system with the nonnegative impulse response. A suitable prior is selected as the maximum entropy prior when the impulse response has interval constraints. A truncated multivariate normal prior is shown to be the maximal entropy prior for positive FIR model identification. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed prior shows significantly better robustness.

Acid and alkaline phosphatase (ACP and ALP), encoded separately by the bacterial phoC and phoD genes, participate in the mineralization of organic phosphorus (P) to inorganic P. However, the influence of chemical fertilization on soil phosphatase activities and associated bacterial communities in acidic soils remains unclear. Here, we conducted a 27 year continuous chemical fertilization experiment consisting of the no-fertilizer control (CK), N and P fertilizer (NP), N and K fertilizer (NK), P and K fertilizer (PK), and N, P and K fertilizer (NPK) treatments, in order to investigate phosphatase activities and phoC- and phoD-harboring bacterial communities. Results demonstrated that ACP and ALP activities increased significantly in the NP (198.70 and 35.46 μg pNP g−1 soil h−1, respectively) and NPK treatments (199.62 and 36.51 μg pNP g−1 soil h−1, respectively) compared to CK (143.81 and 22.49 μg pNP g−1 soil h−1, respectively), while ALP activity was reduced for the NK treatment (13.86 μg pNP g−1 soil h−1). The abundance and diversity index of phoC- and phoD-harboring bacteria differed among treatments. The two bacterial community structures exhibited similar trends in terms of the significant differences between N-free (CK and PK) and N-containing (NP, NK and NPK) treatments (Adonis, p

Introduction The primary purpose of this survey was to investigate the attitudes of patients undergoing elective surgery, towards the application of acupuncture to reduce perioperative complications, and to identify the possible factors that influenced their attitudes. Methods The survey was conducted in the Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. A 20-item questionnaire was developed and piloted over a period of eight weeks. Results 176 adult surgical inpatients completed the survey with a response rate of 98.9%. Only about one quarter of the participants had past experience of acupuncture treatment (n = 46, 26.1%) and one third thought acupuncture was effective (n = 61, 34.7%). Less than half of them were willing to use acupuncture for postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) (n = 70, 39.8%), postoperative pain (n = 79, 44.9%), preoperative anxiety and insomnia (n = 65, 36.9%), postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction (n = 76, 43.2%), postoperative urinary retention (n = 81, 46.0%). Patients who were professionals or office workers (chi square = 26.181, p = 0.001) or with better education (chi square = 14.583, p = 0.024) were more willing to use acupuncture, while age or gender did not affect their attitudes. A majority of patients would follow the doctor’s advice about acupuncture (n = 111, 63.1%). Those who had history of PONV were less likely to receive acupuncture (chi square = 10.664, p = 0.005). Conclusions Overall, the surveyed Chinese patients had limited experience and knowledge of acupuncture, and less than half had positive attitudes towards using acupuncture for reducing perioperative complications. Education of patients and their doctors may be promising strategies for improving patients’ willingness to use acupuncture.

Bayesian methods have been extended for the linear system identification problem in the past ten years. The traditional Bayesian identification selects a Gaussian prior and considers the tuning of kernels, i.e., the covariance matrix of a Gaussian prior. However, Gaussian priors cannot express the system information appropriately for identifying a positive finite impulse response (FIR) model. This paper exploits the truncated Gaussian prior and develops Bayesian identification procedures for positive FIR models. The proposed parameterizations in the truncated Gaussian prior can reflect the decay rate and the correlation of the impulse response of the system to be identified. The expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm is tailored to the hyperparameter estimation problem of positive system identification with the truncated Gaussian prior. Numerical experiments compare the truncated Gaussian prior to the traditional Gaussian prior for positive FIR system identification. The simulation results demonstrate that the truncated Gaussian prior outperforms the Gaussian prior.

Low soil nutrient availability severely constrains plant growth and productivity in acidic soil ecosystems. Diazotrophs and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are the important microbial groups that improve the bioavailability of soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), respectively. Therefore, the objective was to investigate the biogeographic patterns and co-occurrence networks of the diazotrophic and AMF communities in the acidic soil ecosystem. We collected 52 soil samples from four long-term field observation stations with spatial distances of 961.3 km in the acidic soil region of southern China, and analyzed the community composition and biogeographic distributions of the diazotrophs and AMF using high-throughput sequencing of the functional gene amplicons. The variation partition analysis indicated that soil physicochemical factors provided more contributions than geographic distance, sampling stations and land-use types in the assembly of the diazotrophic and AMF community communities. Distance-decay relationships and Mantel tests showed that soil physicochemical factors had remarkable effects on both microbial community structures, whereas geographic distance only significantly affected the diazotrophic community variations. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that AMF network was more complex and stable than the diazotrophic network. Furthermore, the dominant genera Bradyrhizbium and Glomus might be the more important keystone taxa in the diazotrophic and AMF networks, respectively. These findings suggest that the diazotrophic and AMF communities exhibit different assembly mechanisms and co-occurrence ecological networks in the acidic soil region of southern China, and both community assemblies were mainly driven by soil physicochemical factors.

The nitrogen (N) cycle process in agricultural soil is affected by fertilization. However, there is limited information on the abundance of N-cycling microbial community and its response to the different fertilization strategies in acidic soil. Using quantitative PCR, we investigated the microbial abundance involving 11 functional genes of the N cycle (nifH, chiA, aprA, archaeal and bacterial amoA, napA, narG, nirS, nirK, norB and nosZ) in an acidic agricultural soil. The soils were subjected to no fertilizer (Control), chemical NPK fertilizer (NPK), NPK combined with quicklime (NPKCa), NPK combined with crop residues (NPKS), NPK combined with quicklime and crop residues (NPKSCa), NPK combined with manure (NPKM) and only manure (M) fertilization for 27 years. Results showed that fertilization improved crop yield and soil nutrient availability, changed soil pH levels and affected the abundance of N-cycling functional genes. Manure application markedly increased the abundance of all genes and was associated with the largest shift in community structure. The variation of microbial community in the fertilization treatments (NPK, NPKCa, NPKS, NPKSCa, M and NPKM) resulted from the distinct contribution of functional genes, in which the nifH, napA and archaeal amoA genes highly contributed to the community variations between manure fertilization and Control. Soil variables, particularly pH, NO3−-N and AP, significantly affected the N-cycling microbial community structure. Overall, the different fertilization strategies demonstrated varying influential patterns on the N-cycling microbial abundance and community by altering soil properties and affecting specific functional gene abundance; in particular, manure treatments had a greater influence compared to chemical fertilizers.

Cardiac dysfunction is a critical event during sepsis/septic shock. Tanshinone IIA (TIIA), a compound extracted from herb medicine Danshen, has been shown possessing anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties. It is possible, therefore, that treatment with TIIA may attenuate cardiac dysfunction during sepsis/septic shock through inhibition of inflammation. To test this possibility, we preadministrated C57BL/6 mice with TIIA prior to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. LPS significantly suppressed left ventricular function as evidenced by decreases in EF% and FS% in mice. However, TIIA pretreatment significantly attenuated cardiac dysfunction following LPS challenge. Furthermore, TIIA markedly attenuated the LPS-induced upregulation of circulating tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels. Meanwhile, LPS challenge significantly increased myocardial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which was attenuated by TIIA. Moreover, TIIA treatment dramatically decreased the level of the Nox2, reduced phosphorylation levels of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) expression. In conclusion, TIIA effectively improves cardiac function during endotoxemia in mice. This is attributed to TIIA reducing inflammatory cytokines release and inhibiting the Nox2 signaling during endotoxemia.

The design and synthesis of solar steam generation materials is a green and promising approach to produce freshwater from seawater or contaminated water. Here, we develop a highly efficient and stable bilayer evaporator by assembling WO3-x nanorods (WO3-x NRs) onto a wood surface. Due to the broad-band absorption of the WO3-x NRs and the multiscatter of the incident light caused by the wood, the prepared solar evaporator with unique light trapping structures shows a high solar absorption (~94.0%). Additionally, combining with the merits of rapid water transport and heat localization, the energy conversion efficiency of the evaporator reaches as high as 82.5% under one sun irradiation and shows a stable water generation capability during long-term illumination cycles, which is one of the best performance compared with other wood-based materials and oxygen-defected tungsten oxide. The evaporator also shows great performance towards the evaporation of seawater and contaminated water, indicating great potential application. This work can provide reference for designing other high photothermal conversion system.

Introduction Auricular acupuncture has been used for pain management but a more recent technique which buries an intradermal needle into the skin may provide longer lasting stimulation and enhance analgesia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of perioperative auricular acupuncture technique via intradermal needling buried on postoperative movement-evoked pain reduction in patients with advanced gastric cancer following open radical gastrectomy. Methods This research is a protocol for a prospective, assessor- and analyst-blinded, randomized controlled pilot trial with two parallel groups. Forty patients who undergo elective open radical gastrectomy will be recruited from 210-bed oncology surgery ward at a 2500-bed medical center between 2019/8/23 and 2020/2/20. Patients will be randomized to either the control group receiving non-invasive sham auricular acupuncture or to the experimental group receiving auricular acupuncture technique via intradermal needling buried, delivered 24 h before surgery and retained & replaced every 3 days for 6 consecutive days. A standard general anesthetic technique will be used for both groups. Rescue analgesia will be given when the VAS score is≥4. Primary outcome measures are Functional Activity Score (FAS) and Numerical Rating Scale score (NRS) for movement-evoked pain. Secondary outcome measures are NRS score for pain at rest, use of rescues analgesic, total opioid consumption, postoperative nausea and vomiting, physiological recovery Outcomes, Quality of Recovery-9 (QoR-9) and patient’s satisfaction. Ethics and dissemination This protocol has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Clinical Research Centre (Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, IRB No. 2019NL-032-02). In addition, the results of the preliminary study will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.

In this work, a series of trifluoroethyl aliphatic carboxylates with different carbon-chain lengths in acyl group are prepared and investigated as the co-solvents for the carbonate-based electrolyte of lithium-ion batteries. The trifluoroethyl aliphatic carbonates are synthesized by a modified one-step approach, using aliphatic carboxylic acid and trifluoroethanol as the raw materials (molar ratio, 1.2:1), hydrogen ion exchange resin as the catalyst and silica gel drier as the de-hydration. The structure and electrochemical properties of the final products have been characterized by FTIR, 1 H NMR, GC–MS, viscosity, conductivity meter and electrochemical measurements. The structure characterizations show that the final products have high purity. Electrochemical tests present that the co-solvents are able to improve the electrochemical performances of graphite electrode at low temperature. In particular, we find that an addition of trifluoroethyl n -hexanoate (TFENH) into 1 M LiPF 6 /EC + EMC electrolyte can significantly decrease the Li de-intercalation potential of graphite by 540 mV and achieve a high capacity retention of 92% at 218 K. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements indicate that the observed performance improvement at low temperature is associated with the decreased surface film resistance ( R SEI ) by the addition of co-solvents.

Introduction Electroacupuncture (EA) has been shown to have antiemetic and analgesic effects; however, optimal timing for the therapy is unclear. Our study aims firstly to investigate the effectiveness and safety of preoperative EA, delivered 24 h before surgery, on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and postoperative pain in patients undergoing gynecologic laparoscopic surgery; and secondly to identify the optimal timing and dose of stimulation of preoperative EA for preventing PONV and postoperative pain. Methods This is a single-center, randomized, controlled, four-arm clinical trial. Participants who meet the selection criteria will be randomly assigned to one of the following four groups: Group 1 (EA delivered 24 h before surgery, n = 103), Group 2 (EA delivered 30 min before surgery, n = 103), Group 3 (EA delivered both 24 h before, and 30 min before surgery, n = 103), Group 4 (usual care, n = 103). All groups will receive routine treatment for PONV and pain. EA will be delivered at bilateral Neiguan (PC6) and Zusanli (ST36). The primary outcomes are the incidence of postoperative nausea (PON) and postoperative vomiting (POV), and pain scores at 24 h after the operation. Secondary outcomes include the incidence of PON and POV, and pain scores at 6 h, 48 h and 72 h after the operation, also the severity of PON and POV, consumption of opioid medications, Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15), days in hospital and time to passage of first flatus. The assessor and the treating anesthetists will be blinded from group allocation. Participants in the three EA groups are unaware of the purpose of the study. Discussion An understanding of optimal timing and dosage of preoperative acupuncture will facilitate the implementation of this non-drug therapy and contribute to the overall improvement of post-surgical care.

The evolvement of oxygen from polyaluminocarbosilane(PACS) to Si-Al-C-(O) fibers and its effect on properties were investigated by element analysis, solid-state 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), thermo-gravimetric analyses(TGA), scanning electron microscope(SEM) and X-ray diffraction(XRD). Element analysis of PACS precursor polymer gives an empirical formula of SiC2.1H11.1O0.12Al0.024. 27Al NMR spectra mass gain shows that the oxygen of cured PACS fibers comes from aluminum aletylacetanate (Al(AcAc)3) and the curing process. Oxygen content can be regarded as a constant mass during the pyrolysis process. During the sintering process of Si-Al-C-O fibers into Si-Al-C fibers, oxygen and carbon decreases with the release of a small amount of CO and/or SiO. Oxygen has a positive effect on the ceramic yield while has a negative effect on the crystallization of Si-Al-C-O fibers. It has great influence on mechanical properties of Si-Al-C-O and excellent tensile strength is usually obtained at the oxygen content of 8%-10%. The Si-Al-C-(O) fibers have excellent thermal stability and creep resistance.

Thermal stability and curing kinetics of polycarbosilane (PCS) fibers were studied by thermogravimetry (TG), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR). Curing is an essential step in the preparation of SiC fibers and the properties of SiC fibers are affected greatly by curing conditions. TG measurement performed in air shows that mass gain starts at approximately 200°C and PCS fibers are sensitive to oxygen. Curing with oxygen, which results in crosslinking on the surface, enabled PCS fibers to retain its shape during high-temperature pyrolysis. The curing of PCS fibers is oxidation of Si H and Si CH 3 , then Si O Si and Si O C bonds are formed. This is a first order reaction, with activation energy of 79.27 kJ/mol, and the pre-exponential factor is calculated as 3.07 × 10 6 . The kinetics model was obtained and the experimental data of PCS fibers show good agreement with the kinetics model.