Transverse striation needling for 30 cases of cervical spondylosis

目的:观察横纹针法治疗颈型颈椎病的临床疗效。方法:30例颈型颈椎病患者于2013年7月 ~; 2015年3月在厦大医院中山附属演武分院国医堂确诊并纳入。对该30名患者进行横纹针法治疗,即平刺颈椎间横纹处,并配合针刺常规穴位风池(双)、肩井; (双)和肩中俞(双),1次/天,2次/周,共6次。之后进行两个月后的随访。结果:30名患者中,显著有效率为70.0%(21/30),有效率为30; .0% (9/30),总有效率为100.0%。两个月内无复发病情。结论:横纹针法对颈型颈椎病有很好的治疗效果。Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of transverse striation; needling in treatment of cervical spondylosis. Method Thirty patients; were diagnosed with cervical spondylosis in Guoyitang Clinic, Yanwu; Branch of Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University from July, 2013 to; March, 2015, and were included into this study. Transverse striation; needling, i.e. transverse insertion into the transverse striation of the; cervical vertebra, was adopted for the 30 patients, and conventional; acupuncture at Fengchi(风池GB 20, bilateral), Jianjing(肩井GB 21,; bilateral)and Jianzhongshu(肩中俞SI 15, bilateral)was combined. The; treatment was conducted for once a day, twice a week, and 6 times were; needed in total. Follow-up visit was performed two months after the; treatment. Result Among the 30 patients, the markedly effective rate was; 70.0%(21/30), effective rate was 30.0%(9/30), and the total effective; rate was 100.0%. There was no relapse during two months after the; treatment. Conclusion The therapeutic eff ect of transverse striation; needling in treatment of cervical spondylosis was good

Extreme Rainfall in Texas: Patterns and Predictability

Extreme rainfall, with storm total precipitation exceeding 500 mm, occurs several times per decade in Texas. According to a compositing analysis, the large-scale weather patterns associated with extreme rainfall events involve a northward deflection of the tropical trade winds into Texas, with deep southerly winds extending into the middle troposphere. One such event, the July 2002 South-Central Texas flood, is examined in detail. This particular event was associated with a stationary upper-level trough over central Texas and northern Mexico that established a steady influx of tropical moisture from the south. While the onset of the event was triggered by destabilization caused by an upper-level vortex moving over the northeast Mexican coast, a succession of upper-level processes allowed the event to become stationary over south-central Texas and produce heavy rain for several days. While the large-scale signatures of such extreme rain events evolve slowly, the many interacting processes at smaller scales make numerical forecasts highly sensitive to details of the simulations

Modelling the transport of oil after a proposed oil spill accident in Barents Sea and its environmental impact on Alke species

OA Green publisher. Can archive pre-print and post-print or publisher's version/PDF. Link to publisher's version: http://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/82/1/012010Accidental oil spills can have significant effect on the coastal and marine environment. As the oil extraction and exploration activities increase in the Barents Sea, it is of increasingly importance to investigate the potential oil spill incidents associated with these activities. In this study, the transport and fate of oil after a proposed oil spill incident in Barents Sea was modelled by oil spill contingency and response model OSCAR. The possibility that the spilled oil reach the open sea and the strand area was calculated respectively. The influence area of the incident was calculated by combining the results from 200 simulations. The possibility that the spilled oil reach Alke species, a vulnerable species and on the National Red List of birds in Barents Sea, was analyzed by combining oil spill modelling results and the Alke species distribution data. The results showed that oil is dominated with a probability of 70-100% in the open sea to reach an area in a radius of 20km from the release location after 14 days of release. The probability reduces with the increasing distances from the release location. It is higher possibility that the spilled oil will reach the Alke species in the strand area than in the open sea in the summer. The total influence area of the release is 11 429 km2 for the surface water and 1528 km2 for the coastal area

Not a Waste: Wastewater Surveillance to Enhance Public Health

Domestic wastewater, when collected and evaluated appropriately, can provide valuable health-related information for a community. As a relatively unbiased and non-invasive approach, wastewater surveillance may complement current practices towards mitigating risks and protecting population health. Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater programs are now widely implemented to monitor viral infection trends in sewersheds and inform public health decision-making. This review summarizes recent developments in wastewater-based epidemiology for detecting and monitoring communicable infectious diseases, dissemination of antimicrobial resistance, and illicit drug consumption. Wastewater surveillance, a quickly advancing Frontier in environmental science, is becoming a new tool to enhance public health, improve disease prevention, and respond to future epidemics and pandemics

On the existence of the logarithmic surface layer in the inner-core of hurricanes

Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 1394128

Wastewater Analysis of Mpox Virus in a City With Low Prevalence of Mpox Disease: an Environmental Surveillance Study

BACKGROUND: Tracking infectious diseases at the community level is challenging due to asymptomatic infections and the logistical complexities of mass surveillance. Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a valuable tool for monitoring infectious disease agents including SARS-CoV-2 and Mpox virus. However, detecting the Mpox virus in wastewater is particularly challenging due to its relatively low prevalence in the community. In this study, we aim to characterize three molecular assays for detecting and tracking the Mpox virus in wastewater from El Paso, Texas, during February and March 2023. METHODS: In this study, a combined approach utilizing three real-time PCR assays targeting the C22L, F3L, and F8L genes and sequencing was employed to detect and track the Mpox virus in wastewater samples. The samples were collected from four sewersheds in the City of El Paso, Texas, during February and March 2023. Wastewater data was compared with reported clinical case data in the city. FINDINGS: Mpox virus DNA was detected in wastewater from all the four sewersheds, whereas only one Mpox case was reported during the sampling period. Positive signals were still observed in multiple sewersheds after the Mpox case was identified. Higher viral concentrations were found in the pellet than in the supernatant of wastewater. Notably, an increasing trend in viral concentration was observed approximately 1-2 weeks before the reporting of the Mpox case. Further sequencing and epidemiological analysis provided supporting evidence for unreported Mpox infections in the city. INTERPRETATION: Our analysis suggests that the Mpox cases in the community is underestimated. The findings emphasize the value of wastewater surveillance as a public health tool for monitoring infectious diseases even in low-prevalence areas, and the need for heightened vigilance to mitigate the spread of Mpox disease for safeguarding global health. FUNDING: Center of Infectious Diseases at UTHealth, the University of Texas System, and the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute. The content of this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of these funding organizations

Small RNAs Targeting Transcription Start Site Induce Heparanase Silencing through Interference with Transcription Initiation in Human Cancer Cells

Heparanase (HPA), an endo-h-D-glucuronidase that cleaves the heparan sulfate chain of heparan sulfate proteoglycans, is overexpressed in majority of human cancers. Recent evidence suggests that small interfering RNA (siRNA) induces transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) in human cells. In this study, transfection of siRNA against −9/+10 bp (siH3), but not −174/−155 bp (siH1) or −134/−115 bp (siH2) region relative to transcription start site (TSS) locating at 101 bp upstream of the translation start site, resulted in TGS of heparanase in human prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and gastric cancer cells in a sequence-specific manner. Methylation-specific PCR and bisulfite sequencing revealed no DNA methylation of CpG islands within heparanase promoter in siH3-transfected cells. The TGS of heparanase did not involve changes of epigenetic markers histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2), histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) or active chromatin marker acetylated histone H3 (AcH3). The regulation of alternative splicing was not involved in siH3-mediated TGS. Instead, siH3 interfered with transcription initiation via decreasing the binding of both RNA polymerase II and transcription factor II B (TFIIB), but not the binding of transcription factors Sp1 or early growth response 1, on the heparanase promoter. Moreover, Argonaute 1 and Argonaute 2 facilitated the decreased binding of RNA polymerase II and TFIIB on heparanase promoter, and were necessary in siH3-induced TGS of heparanase. Stable transfection of the short hairpin RNA construct targeting heparanase TSS (−9/+10 bp) into cancer cells, resulted in decreased proliferation, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis of cancer cells in vitro and in athymic mice models. These results suggest that small RNAs targeting TSS can induce TGS of heparanase via interference with transcription initiation, and significantly suppress the tumor growth, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis of cancer cells

A record of spontaneous subduction initiation in the Izu–Bonin–Mariana arc

The initiation of tectonic plate subduction into the mantle is poorly understood. If subduction is induced by the push of a distant mid-ocean ridge or subducted slab pull, we expect compression and uplift of the overriding plate. In contrast, spontaneous subduction initiation, driven by subsidence of dense lithosphere along faults adjacent to buoyant lithosphere, would result in extension and magmatism. The rock record of subduction initiation is typically obscured by younger deposits, so evaluating these possibilities has proved elusive. Here we analyse the geochemical characteristics of igneous basement rocks and overlying sediments, sampled from the Amami Sankaku Basin in the northwest Philippine Sea. The uppermost basement rocks are areally widespread and supplied via dykes. They are similar in composition and age—as constrained by the biostratigraphy of the overlying sediments—to the 52–48-million-year-old basalts in the adjacent Izu–Bonin–Mariana fore-arc. The geochemical characteristics of the basement lavas indicate that a component of subducted lithosphere was involved in their genesis, and the lavas were derived from mantle source rocks that were more melt-depleted than those tapped at mid-ocean ridges. We propose that the basement lavas formed during the inception of Izu–Bonin–Mariana subduction in a mode consistent with the spontaneous initiation of subduction

Achieving strength-ductility balance in a laser powder bed fusion fabricated TiB₂/Al–Cu-Mg-Ag alloy

A crack-free, strong and ductile Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloy with TiB2 particles was successfully fabricated with laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). Subsequent solution and aging were designed to modify the microstructure and strengthen the alloy. The as-fabricated alloy achieved an isotropic microstructure consisting of random-orientated and equiaxed grains with an average grain size of about 1.15 µm. The role of TiB2 particles in reducing metallurgical defects (such as hot cracking) and enhancing mechanical performance of the alloy was revealed by multi-scale advanced microstructural characterizations. This benefits from the formation of two-dimensional compounds of Al3Ti on the terminated (0001)TiB2 plane, which could reduce the lattice mismatch, alter the potency of TiB2 particles, and refine the grains. The as-built alloy shows an excellent combination of strength and ductility with a yield strength (YS) of 289 ± 5.7 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 390 ± 6.5 MPa, and elongation to failure (El) of 14.8 ± 1.8%. After the heat treatment, high-density of θ', Ω', and Ω phases were precipitated, significantly improving the YS to 405 ± 3.2 MPa and UTS to 470 ± 3.5 MPa, while slightly decreasing the El to 11.6 ± 0.9%. The strengthening mechanisms are quantitatively evaluated and the plastic instability phenomenon (Lüders band and Portevin-Le-Chatelier effect) of the as-built alloy was also analyzed.</p