195 research outputs found
The value of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging in predicting postoperative recovery in patients with cervical spondylosis myelopathy: a meta-analysis
This meta-analysis was designed to elucidate whether preoperative signal intensity changes could predict the surgical outcomes of patients with cervical spondylosis myelopathy on the basis of T1-weighted and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging images. We searched the Medline database and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for this purpose and 10 studies meeting our inclusion criteria were identified. In total, 650 cervical spondylosis myelopathy patients with (+) or without (-) intramedullary signal changes on their T2-weighted images were examined. Weighted mean differences and 95g% confidence intervals were used to summarize the data. Patients with focal and faint border changes in the intramedullary signal on T2 magnetic resonance imaging had similar Japanese Orthopaedic Association recovery ratios as those with no signal changes on the magnetic resonance imaging images of the spinal cord did. The surgical outcomes were poorer in the patients with both T2 intramedullary signal changes, especially when the signal changes were multisegmental and had a well-defined border and T1 intramedullary signal changes compared with those without intramedullary signal changes. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging including T1 and T2 imaging can thus be used to predict postoperative recovery in cervical spondylosis myelopathy patients
Clinical Study CEUS Helps to Rerate Small Breast Tumors of BI-RADS Category 3 and Category 4
. Purpose. The primary aim of this study was to explore if classification, whether using the BI-RADS categories based on CEUS or conventional ultrasound, was conducive to the identification of benign and malignant category 3 or 4 small breast lesions. Material and Methods. We evaluated 30 malignant and 77 benign small breast lesions using CEUS. The range of enhancement, type of enhancement strength, intensity of enhancement, and enhancement patterns were independent factors included to assess the BI-RADS categories. Results. Of the nonenhanced breast lesions, 97.8% (44/45) were malignant, while, of the hyperplasic nodules, 96.8% (30/31) showed no enhancement in our study. Category changes of the lesions were made according to the features determined using CEUS. The results showed that these features could improve diagnostic sensitivity (from 70.0 to 80.0, 80.0, 90.0, and 90.0%), reduce the negative likelihood ratio (from 0.33 to 0.22, 0.25, 0.11, and 0.12), and improve the NPV (from 88.8 to 92.2, 91.2, 96.2, and 95.5%). However, this was not conducive to improve diagnostic specificity or the PPV. Conclusion. The vast majority of nonenhanced small breast lesions were malignant and most of the hyperplasic nodules showed no contrast enhancement. As a reference, CEUS was helpful in identifying BI-RADS category 3 or 4 small breast lesions
Modified acupuncture therapy, long-term acupoint stimulation versus sham control for weight control: a multicenter, randomized controlled trial
ObjectiveLong-term acupoint stimulation (LAS), also called embedding acupuncture, is a modified acupuncture technique. The preliminary results have demonstrated its efficacy in body-weight control. However, the low quality of available trials limited its application. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LAS in body-weight control by using a randomized, parallel, sham-controlled clinical trial design.MethodsThis was a randomized, single-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial including 84 adult participants (18–60 years) with a body mass index (BMI) of ≥ 24 kg/m2 conducted in three general hospitals in Shanghai, China. Participants were equally assigned to receive LAS or sham LAS (SLAS) once per 10 days, eight times in total. After completion, an additional intervention with a 3-month follow-up period was set to examine the continued effect of LAS. The primary outcome was the change in body weight from baseline to treatment endpoint within the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis. Secondary outcomes contained changes in waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), lipid metabolism, and visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues.ResultsFrom 14 May 2018 to 03 November 2019, 84 participants out of 201 screened individuals met the eligibility criteria, were randomized, and were analyzed (42 participants in each group). From baseline to treatment endpoint, the body-weight reduction in the LAS group was significantly larger than in the sham control (net difference: 1.57 kg, 95% CI: 0.29–2.86, p = 0.012). The superior weight reduction effect persisted in the follow-up period (net difference: 3.20 kg, 95% CI: 1.17–5.21, p = 0.001). LAS therapy also showed improvement in triglyceride and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) compared with sham control. One participant in the LAS group reported a slightly uncomfortable and tingling sensation after the additional intervention. No other adverse events (AEs) were documented.ConclusionLAS, a modified acupuncture technique, is safe and effective in body-weight control. It could be used as an alternative choice to classical acupuncture for obesity management.Clinical Trial Registration[www.chictr.org.cn], identifier [ChiCTR1800015498]
Magnetic activities and parameters of 43 flare stars in the GWAC archive
In the archive of the Ground Wide Angle Camera (GWAC), we found 43 white
light flares from 43 stars, among which, three are sympathetic or homologous
flares, and one of them also has a quasi-periodic pulsation with a period of
minutes. Among these 43 flare stars, there are 19 new active stars
and 41 stars that have available TESS and/or K2 light curves, from which we
found 931 stellar flares. We also obtained rotational or orbital periods of 34
GWAC flare stars, of which 33 are less than 5.4 days, and ephemerides of three
eclipsing binaries from these light curves. Combining with low resolution
spectra from LAMOST and the Xinglong 2.16m telescope, we found that are in the saturation region in the rotation-activity
diagram. From the LAMOST medium-resolution spectrum, we found that Star \#3
(HAT 178-02667) has double H emissions which imply it is a binary, and
two components are both active stars. Thirteen stars have flare frequency
distributions (FFDs) from TESS and/or K2 light curves. These FFDs show that the
flares detected by GWAC can occur at a frequency of 0.5 to 9.5 yr. The
impact of flares on habitable planets was also studied based on these FFDs, and
flares from some GWAC flare stars may produce enough energetic flares to
destroy ozone layers, but none can trigger prebiotic chemistry on their
habitable planets.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 3 table
Functional building blocks for scalable multipartite entanglement in optical lattices
Featuring excellent coherence and operated parallelly, ultracold atoms in
optical lattices form a competitive candidate for quantum computation. For
this, a massive number of parallel entangled atom pairs have been realized in
superlattices. However, the more formidable challenge is to scale-up and detect
multipartite entanglement due to the lack of manipulations over local atomic
spins in retro-reflected bichromatic superlattices. Here we developed a new
architecture based on a cross-angle spin-dependent superlattice for
implementing layers of quantum gates over moderately-separated atoms
incorporated with a quantum gas microscope for single-atom manipulation. We
created and verified functional building blocks for scalable multipartite
entanglement by connecting Bell pairs to one-dimensional 10-atom chains and
two-dimensional plaquettes of atoms. This offers a new platform
towards scalable quantum computation and simulation
A huge-amplitude white-light superflare on a L0 brown dwarf discovered by GWAC survey
White-light superflares from ultra cool stars are thought to be resulted from
magnetic reconnection, but the magnetic dynamics in a fully convective star is
not clear yet. In this paper, we report a stellar superflare detected with the
Ground Wide Angle Camera (GWAC), along with rapid follow-ups with the F60A,
Xinglong 2.16m and LCOGT telescopes. The effective temperature of the
counterpart is estimated to be K by the BT-Settl model,
corresponding to a spectral type of L0. The band light curve can be modeled
as a sum of three exponential decay components, where the impulsive component
contributes a fraction of 23\% of the total energy, while the gradual and the
shallower decay phases emit 42\% and 35\% of the total energy, respectively.
The strong and variable Balmer narrow emission lines indicate the large
amplitude flare is resulted from magnetic activity. The bolometric energy
released is about ergs, equivalent to an energy release in a
duration of 143.7 hours at its quiescent level. The amplitude of mag ( or mag), placing it one of the highest amplitudes of
any ultra cool star recorded with excellent temporal resolution. We argue that
a stellar flare with such rapidly decaying and huge amplitude at distances
greater than 1 kpc may be false positive in searching for counterparts of
catastrophic events such as gravitational wave events or gamma-ray bursts,
which are valuable in time-domain astronomy and should be given more attention.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, MNRAS accepte
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