Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for fatigue after COVID-19 infection: study protocol for a pilot randomized sham-controlled trial

BackgroundAs the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread globally, its sequelae, called Long COVID, have persisted, troubling patients worldwide. Although fatigue is known to be the most frequent among Long COVID symptoms, its mechanism and treatment have not been clearly demonstrated. In 2022, we conducted a preliminary prospective case series and found that acupuncture and moxibustion were feasible interventions for fatigue. This study is a pilot patient-assessor-blinded randomized sham-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for patients with fatigue that has persisted for at least 4 weeks after recovery from COVID-19.MethodsThirty patients will be recruited and randomly assigned to either the acupuncture or sham acupuncture treatment groups. Treatment will be conducted thrice a week for both groups during 4 weeks. The primary outcome will be the efficacy and safety of acupuncture, including numeric rating scale (NRS), brief fatigue inventory (BFI), fatigue severity scale (FSS), and adverse event evaluation. Secondary outcomes will be evaluation of improvement in the comorbid symptoms of fatigue and feasibility variables. Outcome variables will be assessed before treatment, 4 weeks after treatment, and 8 weeks after treatment completion.DiscussionThe results of this study will be used to clarify the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for persistent fatigue in patients with Long COVID. Additionally, the feasibility of the study design was validated to provide evidence for future full-scale randomized controlled trials.Clinical trial registration: identifier: KCT0008656 https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do?seq=24785&search_page=L

Trends and perspectives in bio- and eco-friendly sustainable nanomaterial delivery systems through biological barriers

Many policies, including the European Green Deal, have been released to enhance global economic sustainability. Such policies require new materials to be sustainable, cost-effective, and safe for the fabrication of products that comply with regulations and are acceptable to consumers. In this context, the field of bionanomaterials has shifted toward developing green synthesis methods and the use of sustainable and eco-friendly materials. All these have to be considered for clinical applications along with other key issues and challenges in biomedical science including highly efficient targeted delivery of materials and chemicals with minimal toxicity and side effects. Here, we review the various types of inorganic and organic nanoparticles (NPs) used as the delivery vehicles to specific sites in human bodies, and discuss their advantageous properties and functions along with issues and limitations for clinical therapeutic applications. We summarized the strategies that can overcome both biological barriers such as the blood-brain barrier and harsh physiological conditions to realize clinically meaningful delivery systems, and introduced and discussed green synthesis methods for NPs and their environmental impacts. Finally, the perspectives on the biocompatibility, toxicity and environmental consequences of these NPs developed for biomedical applications are provided.N

The Cost of Quantum Gates

The cost of the most frequently used gates in quantum computation is estimated by counting the sequence of basic physical operations required for implementation on a quantum computer. The sequence of physical operations comprising each gate is minimized using a software algorithm based on commutation rules. Because operation costs are machine dependent, an ideal practical quantum computer is presented and used for calculations. The presented gate costs are not necessarily minimal; however at least they provide reference to the upper bound

Short-term efficacy of intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide for macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion that is refractory to intravitreal bevacizumab

Aims: To evaluate the 1-month efficacy of intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (TA) in treating macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO) that was refractory to intravitreal bevacizumab. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, observational study included 23 eyes from 23 patients with macular edema secondary to RVO. Macular edema that did not respond to two or more consecutive intravitreal bevacizumab injections was treated with intravitreal TA. Central foveal thickness (CFT) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were compared before and one month after TA injection. Results: Fifteen eyes were diagnosed with central RVO, and eight eyes were diagnosed with branch RVO. All patients were previously treated with 2.4 ± 0.6 intravitreal bevacizumab injections. The TA injection was performed, on average, 5.8 ± 1.4 weeks after the last bevacizumab injection. The CFT before TA injection was 516.6 ± 112.4 μm and significantly decreased to 402.3 ± 159.7 μm after TA therapy (P < 0.001). The logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution BCVA was 0.72 ± 0.34 before TA therapy and was not significantly improved by the treatment (0.67 ± 0.35, P = 0.119), despite a decrease in CFT. However, seven eyes (30.4%) had a BCVA gain of one or more lines. Conclusions: Intravitreal TA therapy was beneficial in some patients with macular edema secondary to RVO that was refractory to intravitreal bevacizumab therapy. This study suggests that intravitreal TA should be considered as a treatment option for refractory macular edema

Analysis of Drought Intensity and Trends Using the Modified SPEI in South Korea from 1981 to 2010

The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of drought, such as intensity and trends, based on SPEI (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) at 8 stations in South Korea from 1981 to 2010. The traditional SPEI is based on the Thornthwaite equation for estimating evapotranspiration; SPEI_th. However, a standard of agricultural water management in Korea suggests the FAO Penman-Monteith equation; SPEI_pm. Therefore, we analyzed the intensity, variability, and trends of drought using SPEI_th and SPEI_pm, respectively, and compared the results. SPEI_pm showed slightly more intensive drought rather than SPEI_th except for Chuncheon and Gwangju. In 5 stations—excluding Cheoncheon, Gwangju and Jinju—the cumulative probability that SPEI_pm was below −1.5 was significantly increased from 1981–1995 to 1996–2010. In addition, the northwest and southwest regions had higher intensity of 1-month droughts, and the central and southwest regions had a higher intensity of 3-month droughts. According to the Mann–Kendall test, there was a decreasing trend of 1-month SPEI during the fall season and 3-month SPEI during winter season

The Cost of Quantum Gates

The cost of the most frequently used gates in quantum computation is estimated by counting the sequence of basic physical operations required for implementation on a quantum computer. The sequence of physical operations comprising each gate is minimized using a software algorithm based on commutation rules. Because operation costs are machine dependent, an ideal practical quantum computer is presented and used for calculations. The presented gate costs are not necessarily minimal; however at least they provide reference to the upper bound

Time-Variable Chiroptical Vibrational Sum-Frequency Generation Spectroscopy of Chiral Chemical Solution

© 2021 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.Vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy, a surface-specific technique, was shown to be useful even for characterizing the vibrational optical activity of chiral molecules in isotropic bulk liquids. However, accurately determining the spectroscopic parameters is still challenging because of the spectral congestion of chiroptical VSFG peaks with different amplitudes and phases. Here, we show that a time-variable infrared-visible chiroptical three-wave-mixing technique can be used to determine the spectroscopic parameters of second-order vibrational response signals from chiral chemical liquids. For varying the delay time between infrared and temporally asymmetric visible laser pulses, we measure the chiral VSFG, achiral VSFG, and their interference spectra of bulk R-(+)-limonene liquid and perform a global fitting analysis for those time-variable spectra to determine their spectroscopic parameters accurately. We anticipate that this time-variable VSFG approach will be useful for developing nearly background-free chiroptical characterization techniques with enhanced spectral resolution.11Nsciescopu