Effect of acupressure on postpartum low back pain, salivary cortisol, physical limitations, and depression: a randomized controlled pilot study

Objective: To investigate the effect of acupressure on postpartum low back pain (LBP), salivary cortisol, physical limitations, and postpartum depression. Methods: Participants were 70 postpartum women who were randomly assigned to either an intervention (n = 35) or a control (n = 35) group. The intervention group received 10 acupressure sessions (1 session per day, 5 d per week). The control group received 10 sham acupressure sessions. Outcomes were assessed using a visual analogue scale (LBP intensity), salivary cortisol values (LBP biomarker), and Chinese versions of the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (daily activity limitations), Oswestry Disability Index (physical activity limitations), and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (postpartum depression). Results: Participants in the intervention group had significantly lower levels of LBP intensity, daily activity limitations, physical activity limitations, and postpartum depression than those in the control group. There was no significant between-group difference in salivary cortisol. Conclusion: Acupressure may reduce postpartum LBP intensity and limitations in daily and physical activity, and alleviate postpartum depressive symptoms. Acupressure should be offered in postpartum care settings as an alternative treatment for postpartum women with LBP

Repression of autophagy in diabetic cardiomyopathy via RhoA/ROCK2 signaling pathways

375-380Activated RhoA and ROCK is associated with many cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as congestive heart failure (CHF), atherosclerosis and hypertension. However, the role of RhoA/ROCK2 signaling pathway in initiating diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) has not been fully elucidated. Here, we studied the role of RhoA/ROCK2 signaling pathway in induction of DCM through autophagy suppression in diabetic rat animal models. Broadly, we investigated the potential role and mechanism of diabetes induced myocardial dysfunction in rats. DCM was induced by injections of streptozocin (STZ) in experimental Wistar rats. The experimental rats were randomized to be treated with fasudil and lentivirus carrying the RhoA cDNA. Haemodynamic changes, assessment of cardiac weight index, histopathological examinations, cardiomyocyte autophagy and expression of RhoA and ROCK2 mRNAs were compared between groups. The expression of RhoA and ROCK mRNAs was found significantly increased in cardiac tissues compared with control group. The RhoA overexpression significantly decreased the values of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), ±dp/dtmax and repressed autophagy. RhoA/ROCK2 signaling pathway repressed autophagy in diabetic cardiomyopathy indicating that it may serve as a potential therapeutic target for DCM treatment

Microscopic investigation of phonon modes in SiGe alloy nanocrystals

Phonon modes in spherical silicon germanium alloy (SiGe) nanocrystals containing up to 1147 atoms (3.6 nm) have been investigated as a function of the Si concentration. Microscopic details of phonon modes, including phonon frequencies and vibrational amplitudes, phonon density-of-states are calculated directly from the dynamic matrices. In particular, the dependence of phonon frequency on the configuration (such as a different ratio of Si to Ge atoms), and location (surface or interior) of clusters of atoms in SiGe alloy nanocrystals have been investigated. Low frequency surface phonons that are related to the spheroidal and torsional modes of a continuum sphere are identified and their frequency dependence on alloy concentration elucidated. The calculated results are compared with measured Raman spectra in bulk, thin films, and superlattices of SiGe alloy reported in the literature. Insights into the behavior of Raman peaks usually identified as Ge-Ge, Si-Si, and Ge-Si optical phonon modes are presented

Theoretical investigation of the surface vibrational modes in germanium nanocrystals

We have used a microscopic lattice dynamical model to study phonon modes in germanium (Ge) NC with size varying between 47 to 7289 atoms (diametersimilar to6.8 nm). By separating these atoms into bulk and surface atoms we have found that surface modes can exist in Ge NC both at low frequencies (\u3c50\u3ecm(-1)) and at high frequency (similar to260 cm(-1)). The latter mode is a resonant mode which occurs in the pseudogap between the acoustic and optical phonon branches in bulk Ge. From the low frequency surface modes we have been able to reconstruct the spheroidal and torsional Lamb modes which have been used to interpret experimental results. Finally, we found that the Lamb model starts to deviate from the lattice dynamical results for Ge NC with diameternm

MeInfoText: associated gene methylation and cancer information from text mining

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification of the genome. Abnormal DNA methylation may result in silencing of tumor suppressor genes and is common in a variety of human cancer cells. As more epigenetics research is published electronically, it is desirable to extract relevant information from biological literature. To facilitate epigenetics research, we have developed a database called MeInfoText to provide gene methylation information from text mining.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>MeInfoText presents comprehensive association information about gene methylation and cancer, the profile of gene methylation among human cancer types and the gene methylation profile of a specific cancer type, based on association mining from large amounts of literature. In addition, MeInfoText offers integrated protein-protein interaction and biological pathway information collected from the Internet. MeInfoText also provides pathway cluster information regarding to a set of genes which may contribute the development of cancer due to aberrant methylation. The extracted evidence with highlighted keywords and the gene names identified from each methylation-related abstract is also retrieved. The database is now available at <url>http://mit.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/</url>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MeInfoText is a unique database that provides comprehensive gene methylation and cancer association information. It will complement existing DNA methylation information and will be useful in epigenetics research and the prevention of cancer.</p

Power allocation for cache-aided small-cell networks with limited backhaul

Cache-aided small-cell network is becoming an effective method to improve the transmission rate and reduce the backhaul load. Due to the limited capacity of backhaul, less power should be allocated to users whose requested contents do not exist in the local caches to maximize the performance of caching. In this paper, power allocation is considered to improve the performance of cache-aided small-cell networks with limited backhaul, where interference alignment (IA) is utilized to manage interferences among users. Specifically, three power allocation algorithms are proposed. First, we come up with a power allocation algorithm to maximize the sum transmission rate of the network, considering the limitation of backhaul. Second, in order to have more users meet their rate requirements, a power allocation algorithm to minimizing the average outage probability is also proposed. In addition, in order to further improve the users’ experience, a power allocation algorithm that maximizes the average satisfaction of all the users is also designed. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the three proposed power allocation algorithms for cache-aided small-cell networks with limited backhaul

Why Focal Firms Share Information? A Study of the Effects of Power and Information Technology Competence

Supply chain management has become an important issue for Taiwan\u27s manufacturing industry due to escalating global competition. Virtual vertical integration is an important issue in supply chain management. Because organizations only have limited resources, they pursue long-term partnership with specific transaction partners. They share information to improve visibility, speed responses to markets, and reduce costs from information distortion or information asymmetry. This study empirically explores the factors affecting inter-organizational information sharing from the perspective of focal firms. 1,000 questionnaires were administered to top 1,000 manufacturing companies in Taiwan, with 139 valid responses. The results show that partner\u27s power and relation-specific asset investments positively affect inter-organizational information sharing. On the other hand, the partner\u27s power does not significantly affect the organization\u27s relation-specific investments. This study further investigates the moderating role of information technology competence. The result indicates that when an organization has lower information technology competence, the relationship between the partner\u27s power and relation-specific investments is significant. Implications and discussion are then provided