Biomechanics of Coupled Motion in the Cervical Spine During Simulated Whiplash in Patients with Pre-existing Cervical or Lumbar Spinal Fusion: A Finite Element Study

<p>It is well understood that loss of motion following spinal fusion increases strain in the adjacent motion segments. However, it is unclear if to date, studies on cervical spine biomechanics can be affected by the role of coupled motions in the lumbar spine. Accordingly, we investigated the biomechanics of the cervical spine following cervical fusion and lumbar fusion during simulated whiplash.</p><p>A validated whole-human finite element model was used to investigate whiplash injury. The cervical spine before and after spinal fusion was subjected to simulated whiplash exposure in accordance with Euro NCAP testing guidelines, and the strains in the anterior longitudinal ligaments of the adjacent motion segments were computed. </p><p>In the models of cervical arthrodesis, peak ALL strains were higher in the motion segments adjacent to the level of fusion, and strains directly increased with longer fusions. The mean strain increase in the motion segment immediately adjacent to the site of fusion from C2-C3 through C5-C6 was 26.1% and 50.8% following single- and two-level cervical fusion (p=0.03). On average, peak strains experienced in a lumbar-fused spine were 1.0% less than those seen in a healthy spine (p=0.61). The C3-C4 motion segment had disproportionately high increases in strain following cervical fusion. The C6-C7 motion segment experienced high absolute strain under all tested conditions but the increase in strain following fusion was very small. This study provides support for both the hypothesis that adjacent segment disease is associated with post-arthrodesis biomechanical influences and the hypothesis that adjacent segment disease is a result of natural history, and inherent structures at risk.</p>Thesi

Can ChatGPT reduce human financial analysts’ optimistic biases?

This paper examines the potential of ChatGPT, a large language model, as a financial advisor for listed firm performance forecasts. We focus on the constituent stocks of the China Securities Index 300 and compare ChatGPT’s forecasts for major financial performance measures with human analysts’ forecasts and the realised values. Our findings suggest that ChatGPT can correct the optimistic biases of human analysts. This study contributes to the literature by exploring the potential of ChatGPT as a financial advisor and demonstrating its role in reducing human biases in financial decision-making

DoSTra: Discovering common behaviors of objects using the duration of staying on each location of trajectories

Since semantic trajectories can discover more semantic meanings of a user\u27s interests without geographic restrictions, research on semantic trajectories has attracted a lot of attentions in recent years. Most existing work discover the similar behavior of moving objects through analysis of their semantic trajectory pattern, that is, sequences of locations. However, this kind of trajectories without considering the duration of staying on a location limits wild applications. For example, Tom and Anne have a common pattern of Home&rarr;Restaurant &rarr; Company &rarr; Restaurant, but they are not similar, since Tom works at Restaurant, sends snack to someone at Company and return to Restaurant while Anne has breakfast at Restaurant, works at Company and has lunch at Restaurant. If we consider duration of staying on each location we can easily to differentiate their behaviors. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for discovering common behaviors by considering the duration of staying on each location of trajectories (DoSTra). Our approach can be used to detect the group that has similar lifestyle, habit or behavior patterns and predict the future locations of moving objects. We evaluate the experiment based on synthetic dataset, which demonstrates the high effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method

Brain Activities Responding to Acupuncture at ST36 (zusanli) in Healthy Subjects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Task-Based fMRI Studies

PurposeStomach 36 (ST36, zusanli) is one of the important acupoints in acupuncture. Despite clinical functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of ST36 acupuncture, the brain activities and the neural mechanism following acupuncture at ST36 remain unclear.MethodsLiterature searches were conducted on online databases, including MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, WeiPu database, and China Biology Medicine, for task-based fMRI studies of acupuncture at ST36 in healthy subjects. Brain regions activated by ST36 acupuncture were systematically evaluated and subjected to seed-based d mapping meta-analysis. Subgroup analysis was conducted on control procedures, manual acupuncture, electrical acupuncture (EA), and acupuncture-specific activations. Meta-regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of needle retention time on brain activities following ST36 acupuncture stimulation. The activated brain regions were further decoded and mapped on large-scale functional networks to further decipher the clinical relevance of acupuncturing at ST36.ResultsA total of sixteen studies, involving a total of 401 right-handed healthy participants, that satisfied the inclusion criteria were included in the present meta-analysis. Meta-analysis showed that acupuncturing on ST36 positively activates the opercular part of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG.R), left superior temporal gyrus (STG.L), and right median cingulate/paracingulate gyri (MCG.R) regions. Needle retention time in an acupuncture session positively correlates with the activation of the left olfactory cortex, as shown in meta-regression analysis. Subgroup analysis revealed that EA stimulation may be a source of heterogeneity in the pooled results. Functional network mappings showed that the activated areas were mapped to the auditory network and salience network. Further functional decoding analysis showed that acupuncture on ST36 was associated with pain, secondary somatosensory, sound and language processing, and mood regulation.ConclusionAcupuncture at ST36 in healthy individuals positively activates the opercular part of IFG.R, STG.L, and MCG.R. The left olfactory cortex may exhibit positive needle retention time-dependent activities. Our findings may have clinical implications for acupuncture in analgesia, language processing, and mood disorders.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://inplasy.com/inplasy-2021-12-0035

Circulating tissue factor-positive procoagulant microparticles in patients with type 1 diabetes

Aim: To investigate the count of circulating tissue factor-positive (TF+) procoagulant microparticles (MPs) in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods: This case-control study included patients with T1DM and age and sex-matched healthy volunteers. The counts of phosphatidylserine-positive (PS+) MPs and TF(+)PS(+)MPs and the subgroups derived from different cell types were measured in the peripheral blood sample of the two groups using multicolor flow cytometric assay. We compared the counts of each MP between groups as well as the ratio of the TF(+)PS(+)MPs and PS(+)MPs (TF(+)PS(+)MPs/PS(+)MPs). Results: We recruited 36 patients with T1DM and 36 matched healthy controls. Compared with healthy volunteers, PS(+)MPs, TF(+)PS(+)MPs and TF(+)PS(+)MPs/PS(+)MPs were elevated in patients with T1DM (PS(+)MPs: 1078.5 +/- 158.08 vs 686.84 +/- 122.04/mu L, P &lt;0.001; TF(+)PS(+)MPs: 202.10 +/- 47.47 vs 108.33 +/- 29.42/mu L, P &lt;0.001; and TF(+)PS(+)MPs/PS(+)MPs: 0.16 +/- 0.04 vs 0.19 +/- 0.05, P = 0.004), mostly derived from platelet, lymphocytes and endothelial cells. In the subgroup analysis, the counts of total and platelet TF(+)PS(+)MPs were increased in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and with higher HbA1c, respectively. Conclusion: Circulating TF(+)PS(+)MPs and those derived from platelet, lymphocytes and endothelial cells were elevated in patients with T1DM.De tre första författarna delar förstaförfattarskapet.</p