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Acne vulgaris (AV) is a common skin disease. Fire needle is a method of quickly piercing the local skin lesions with red-hot needles for AV. This work aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of fire needle combined with chemical peels for AV. Eight databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Internet, Wanfang, Sinomed, and VIP databases were searched to enrolled randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing fire needle therapy combined with chemical peels with chemical peels alone. The risk of bias was evaluated by the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. Statistical analysis was completed by RevMan 5.3 and Stata 14.0. Altogether 18 studies including 1213 patients were enrolled. Compared with chemical peels alone, fire needle adjuvant chemical peels therapy improved the total effective rate (RR = 1.37,95% CI [1.26,1.48], p < 0.00001) and skin lesions (MD = −2.11, 95% CI [−2.74, −1.47], p < 0.00001), and reduced the recurrence rate (RR = 0.50,95% CI [0.33,0.76], p = 0.0009).The application of fire needle was associated with few adverse reactions, all of which were well tolerated and transient. Fire needle adjuvant chemical peels therapy is effective and safe for AV. Nevertheless, more large-scale, well-designed clinical studies are warranted to provide evidence-based medical support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the operation process of the high-voltage circuit breaker, the changes of vibration signals reflect the machinery states of the circuit breaker. The extraction of the vibration signal feature will directly influence the accuracy and practicability of fault diagnosis. This paper presents an extraction method based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition) and correlation dimension and a classification method with BP (back propagation) neural network. Firstly, original vibration signals are decomposed into a finite number of stationary intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Secondly, correlation dimension of the top four IMFs by the G-P algorithm is calculated and the characteristic vector of the vibration signal of the circuit breaker is formed. At last, the classification of characteristic parameter is realized with a simple BP neural network for fault diagnosis. The experimentation without loads indicates that the method can easily and accurately diagnose breaker faults and exploit a new road for diagnosis of high-voltage circuit breakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a disease that causes joint destruction and bone erosion, is related to osteoclast activity. RA is generally treated with methotrexate (MTX). In this study, a MTX-Alendronate (ALN) conjugate was synthesized and characterized. The conjugate dramatically inhibited osteoclast formation and bone resorption compared with MTX and ALN used alone or in combination. Due to the characteristics of ALN, the MTX-ALN conjugate can adhere to the exposed bone surface and enhance drug accumulation in the pathological region for targeted therapy against osteoclastogenesis. Additionally, MTX was rapidly released in the presence of lysozyme under mildly acidic conditions, similar to inflammatory tissue and osteoclast-surviving conditions, which contributes to inflammatory inhibition; this was confirmed by the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Our study highlights the use of the MTX-ALN conjugate as a potential therapeutic approach for RA by targeting osteoclastogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]