Does Additional Dietary Supplementation Improve Physiotherapeutic Treatment Outcome in Tendinopathy? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed to evaluate the effects of dietary supplements in addition to physiotherapeutic treatment on pain and functional outcomes. PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Embase were searched from inception to November 2021 (Prospero registration: CRD42021291951). Studies were eligible if the interventions consisted of physiotherapeutic approaches that were combined with dietary supplementation and if they reported measures of pain and/or function. Six studies were included in the meta-analysis. Standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated and analysed using a Review Manager software. Subgroup analysis was performed to explore possible associations between the study characteristics and the effectiveness of the intervention. Additional dietary supplementation during physiotherapeutic treatment significantly improved the reduction in pain score (SMD = −0.74, 95% CI, −1.37 to −0.10; p 0.05). This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that additional nutritional interventions may improve physiotherapeutic treatment outcomes in the management of tendinopathies.Peer Reviewe

a scoping review

The article processing charge was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 491192747 and the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.To determine the current evidence on artificial neural network (ANN) in prognostic studies of musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) and to assess the accuracy of ANN in predicting the prognosis of patients with MSD. The scoping review was reported under the Preferred Items for Systematic Reviews and the Meta-Analyses extension for Scope Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Cochrane Library, Embase, Pubmed, and Web of science core collection were searched from inception to January 2023. Studies were eligible if they used ANN to make predictions about MSD prognosis. Variables, model prediction accuracy, and disease type used in the ANN model were extracted and charted, then presented as a table along with narrative synthesis. Eighteen Studies were included in this scoping review, with 16 different types of musculoskeletal diseases. The accuracy of the ANN model predictions ranged from 0.542 to 0.947. ANN models were more accurate compared to traditional logistic regression models. This scoping review suggests that ANN can predict the prognosis of musculoskeletal diseases, which has the potential to be applied to different types of MSD.Peer Reviewe

Arthritis prevalence is associated with metabolic syndrome risk factors but not with physical activity in middle-aged and older patients - a cross-sectional study

The article processing charge was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Background: In light of the aging population, increasingly suffering from the metabolic syndrome (MS), strategies need to be developed to address global public health challenges known to be associated with MS such as arthritis. As physical activity (PA) may play a crucial role in tackling those challenges, this study aimed to determine the association between the number of MS risk factors, PA and arthritis in people ≥ 50 years old. Methods: Data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were used to estimate the prevalence of arthritis and MS risk factors in the European population ≥ 50 years and to evaluate the associations between MS risk factors, PA and arthritis. Binary logistic regression was performed to calculate the odds ratio of different factors. Results: 73,125 participants were included in the analysis. 55.75% of patients stated at least one of the three MS risk factors. The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA)/other rheumatism among ≥ 50 years population was 10.19% and 19.32% respectively. Females showed a higher prevalence of arthritis than males. Prevalence did not differ between groups with different levels of PA. Arthritis prevalence was positively correlated with the number of MS risk factors (P  0.05). Conclusion: Middle-aged and older Europeans with multiple comorbidities suffered from RA, OA or other rheumatism more frequently than participants with fewer comorbidities, while the level of physical activity was not associated with the number of metabolic risk factors in patients with RA and OA/other rheumatism.Peer Reviewe

Solving for Dispersivity in Field Dispersion Test of Unsteady Flow in Mixing Flow Field: Mass Transport Modeling

AbstractA combined groundwater flow and mass transport model was constructed to simulate the migration of contaminants and to obtain dispersion parameters from a field dispersion test in unsteady flow in mixing flow field in groundwater. Aquifer parameters were obtained by a pumping test. Tracer tests were carried out in order to characterize the characteristics of groundwater flow and to determine the velocity of the pollutant diffusion process from the source to the pumping well. Groundwater head and velocity were analyzed in the groundwater flow model and the total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration was computed in the mass transport model. The observed drawdown and the observed TDS concentration were found to respectively match closely with the computed drawdown and TDS concentration

The efficacy of different training programs guided by cardiopulmonary exercise test goals for the treatment of male patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

To explore the therapeutic effect of aerobic exercise nursing plans based on target heart rate in cardiopulmonary exercise tests on male patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study recruited 90 male patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who met specific screening criteria and were evenly divided into a control group and an experimental group based on a random number table. The control group received respiratory training based on the target heart rate in the cardiopulmonary exercise test, while the experimental group received aerobic exercise based on the target heart rate in the cardiopulmonary exercise test. Both groups received 12 weeks of exercise each. Cardiopulmonary function tests showed that peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2), anaerobic threshold (AT), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and the FEV1/FVC ratio in the test group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05); furthermore, the carbon dioxide ventilation equivalent (VE/VCO2) slope was significantly lower than that in the control group (p < 0.05). The 6MWT of the test group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). The CAT score, Borg score and scores related to the symptoms, activities, and impacts related to quality-of-life were significantly reduced after intervention (p < 0.05). Aerobic exercise based on cardiopulmonary exercise testing can improve the health status, quality of life and prognosis of COPD patients

THE EXPRESSION OF INTERLEUKIN-1Β AND MIRNA-146A IN THE CEREBRAL CORTEX OF ACUTE ESCHERICHIA COLI MENINGITIS IMMATURE RAT MODEL

The main limitation to advances in treatment of bacterial meningitis and its complications is the incomplete knowledge of the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of this disease. The aim of this research is to detect the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β as pro-inflammatory cytokine and miRNA (miR)-146a as post transcriptional inflammation associated microRNA (miRNA) in the cerebral cortex of acute Escherichia coli (E. coli) meningitis immature rat model. Immature rats in the post natal day 11 (PN11) were used to construct a model of acute E. coli meningitis and served as controls. The expression of IL-1β and miR-146a were detected in the cerebral cortex by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis respectively, 24 hours after bacterial inoculation. In the cerebral cortical tissue of acute E. coli meningitis immature rat model the IL-1β expression was significantly upregulated while the miR-146a expression was significantly downregulated. This study tried to add a new insight on the molecular basis of the E. coli meningitis pathogenesis at its very early stage through detecting the expression of IL-1β and miR-146a in the cerebral cortex of the infected immature rats. Consequently, modulation of the IL-1β- miR-146a axis may be a new target for treatment of acute E. coli meningitis

Gene therapy for C-26 colon cancer using heparin-polyethyleneimine nanoparticle-mediated survivin T34A

Ling Zhang1,*, Xiang Gao1,2,*, Ke Men1, BiLan Wang1, Shuang Zhang1, Jinfeng Qiu1, Meijuan Huang1, MaLing Gou1, Ning Huang2, ZhiYong Qian1, Xia Zhao1, YuQuan Wei11State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, West China Medical School, 2Department of Pathophysiology, College of Preclinical and Forensic Medical Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People&amp;rsquo;s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workBackground: Gene therapy provides a novel method for the prevention and treatment of cancer, but the clinical application of gene therapy is restricted, mainly because of the absence of an efficient and safe gene delivery system. Recently, we developed a novel nonviral gene carrier, ie, heparin-polyethyleneimine (HPEI) nanoparticles for this purpose.Methods and results: HPEI nanoparticles were used to deliver plasmid-expressing mouse survivin-T34A (ms-T34A) to treat C-26 carcinoma in vitro and in vivo. According to the in vitro studies, HPEI nanoparticles could efficiently transfect the pGFP report gene into C-26 cells, with a transfection efficiency of 30.5% &amp;plusmn; 2%. Moreover, HPEI nanoparticle-mediated ms-T34A could efficiently inhibit the proliferation of C-26 cells by induction of apoptosis in vitro. Based on the in vivo studies, HPEI nanoparticles could transfect the Lac-Z report gene into C-26 cells in vivo. Intratumoral injection of HPEI nanoparticle-mediated ms-T34A significantly inhibited growth of subcutaneous C-26 carcinoma in vivo by induction of apoptosis and inhibition of angiogenesis.Conclusion: This research suggests that HPEI nanoparticle-mediated ms-T34A may have a promising role in C-26 colon carcinoma therapy.Keywords: gene therapy, mouse survivin-T34A, colon cancer, polyethyleneimine, nanoparticles, cancer therap

Jet Tomography of Harmonic Fluctuations in the Initial Condition of Heavy Ion Collisions

In this paper we study the jet response (particularly azimuthal anisotropy) as a hard probe of the harmonic fluctuations in the initial condition of central heavy ion collisions. By implementing the fluctuations via cumulant expansion for various harmonics quantified by $\epsilon_n$ and using the geometric model for jet energy loss, we compute the response $\chi^h_n=v_n/\epsilon_n$. Combining these results with the known hydrodynamic response of the bulk matter expansion in the literature, we show that the hard-soft azimuthal correlation arising from their respective responses to the common geometric fluctuations reveals a robust and narrow near-side peak that may provide the dominant contribution to the "hard-ridge" observed in experimental data.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; important updates for figures and table in version 2; some references adde

Response of temperate forest ecosystem services to rainfall: A case study in the forest nature reserves of northern China

In the context of global climate change, temperate forests in climate-sensitive areas are inevitably affected. To deepen the understanding of the impact on precipitation changes into the relationship between key ecosystem services (ESs), this study selected net primary productivity (NPP), soil conservation (SC) and water yield (WY) of temperate forest in northern China as objects, and the Spearman correlation test and redundancy analysis were applied to analyze the response of ESs relationship to precipitation gradient. The results show that precipitation is the meteorological factor with the greatest impact (contribution 21.2%, p&lt;0.01) on ESs and their relationships in temperate forests. The 600-700 mm precipitation gradient is the key turning point in the change of ESs relationship of WY with NPP and SC. This indicates that attention should be paid to the spatial variation of the 600-700 mm precipitation region in the future warm-wet in northern China, which should be used as a dividing line of forest management and policy development. Based on the results, future restoration projects in northern temperate forest should focus on (1) in areas with less than 600-700 mm of precipitation, attention should be paid to the selection of tree species for afforestation to maintain regional water balance; (2) in areas with more than 700 mm of precipitation, soil and water conservation projects need to be planned, especially in mountainous area. The research can not only support the management of temperate forest ecosystems in northern China, but also provide reference to other forest ecosystems to cope with climate change