Effects of distribution of bone cement on clinical efficacy and secondary fracture after percutaneous kyphoplasty for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of bilateral bone cement distribution on the clinical efficacy of percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) in the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (OVCF).MethodsAccording to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, 109 cases of OVCF patients treated with bipedicular PKP were included in this study from August 2018 to July 2020. According to the distribution morphology of bilateral bone cement in vertebral body, patients were divided into 3 groups, including Group A (n = 44): bilateral diffuse type; Group B (n = 31): bilateral dense type; Group C (n = 34): mixed type. To assess the clinical and radiographic efficacy of the surgery, the visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Oswestry disability index (ODI) score, anterior vertebral height (AVH), anterior vertebral height ratio (AVHR) and local kyphotic angle (LKA) were recorded at preoperatively, 2 days after surgery and 1 year after surgery.ResultsCompared with the preoperative recorded value, the VAS score, ODI score, AVH, AVHR and LKA of the three groups were significantly improved at 2 days after surgery and 1 year after surgery (p < 0.05). At 1 year after surgery, the VAS score of Group A was better than that of groups B and C (p < 0.05), and there were significantly differences in ODI score, AVH, and LKA between Group A and Group B (p < 0.05). Compared with other bone cement distribution patterns, the incidence of recompression in bilateral diffuse bone cement distribution pattern was lower (p < 0.05).ConclusionIn the mid-term follow-up of patients undergoing bipedicular PKP, diffuse and symmetrical distribution of bone cement can obtain better clinical improvement and lower the incidence of secondary compression

Activation of Interleukin-1β Release by the Classical Swine Fever Virus Is Dependent on the NLRP3 Inflammasome, Which Affects Virus Growth in Monocytes

Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) is a classic Flavivirus that causes the acute, febrile, and highly contagious disease known as classical swine fever (CSF). Inflammasomes are molecular platforms that trigger the maturation of proinflammatory cytokines to engage innate immune defenses that are induced upon cellular infection or stress. However, the relationship between the inflammasome and CSFV infection has not been thoroughly characterized. To understand the function of the inflammasome response to CSFV infection, we infected porcine peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs) with CSFV. Our results indicated that CSFV infection induced both the generation of pro-interleukin-1β (pro-IL-1β) and its processing in monocytes, leading to the maturation and secretion of IL-1β through the activation of caspase 1. Moreover, CSFV infection in PBMCs induced the production and cleavage of gasdermin D (GSDMD), which is an inducer of pyroptosis. Additional studies showed that CSFV-induced IL-1β secretion was mediated by NLRP3 and that CSFV infection could sufficiently activate the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome in monocytes. These results revealed that CSFV infection inhibited the expression of NLRP3, and knockdown of NLRP3 enhanced the replication of CSFV. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the NLRP3 inflammasome plays an important role in the innate immune response to CSFV infection

Institutional Change in Water Rights in China: A Study of Water Rights Confirmation and Registration in Delingha City

To achieve the transformation of water rights institution in China from the administrative management to the property rights institution, it is of high significance to discuss the principle of rights confirmation, institution connection, and change. In this paper, we present the process, result, experience, and problems of the authors’ involvement in water rights confirmation and registration in Delingha as the methods designer of water rights confirmation. The conclusions of this paper follow: (1) Equity must be the priority while considering the principles of water rights confirmation. Complying and verifying the results of historical water distribution, strengthening public participation, and selecting persuasive and scientific indicators are the main components that are embodied in the concept of equity. (2) Water rights confirmation is to recognize and revise the distribution result of the old institution. Macroscopically, based on the administrative upper limits set by the “Three Red Lines” and ecologically sustainable requirements, the dual-control method of “matching water use and the Three Red Lines” and “matching water consumption and available water resources” was used to control the total distribution of water rights. From a microscopic point of view, the water abstraction permit was the core indicator of water rights confirmation, after checking with other data. (3) The institutional logic, the responsibilities and roles of the government, and the intellection of water users have changed after the confirmation of water rights. Registration is the key to distinguishing water rights from the traditional administrative institution

Impact of Internet Use on Farmers’ Organic Fertilizer Application Behavior under the Climate Change Context: The Role of Social Network

Climate change and global warming significantly influence farmers’ activity and lead to lower production yield. To increase production without deteriorating the environment, it is vital to substitute chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizer. The utilization of organic fertilizer not only improves the soil quality but also protects the environment and helps mitigate global warming repercussions. So, there is a need to promote organic fertilizer utilization. The Internet, as an essential information medium, presently has a profound influence on farmers’ production behavior. However, the relationship between Internet use and the application of organic fertilizer is explicitly sparse, especially in China. Using the survey data of 797 vegetable growers, the current study explores the impact of Internet use on farmers’ organic fertilizer application behavior. The present study employs the propensity score matching (PSM) method to meet the study objective. According to the findings, it is unveiled that the Internet significantly promotes behavior towards applying organic fertilizer by approximately 10%. Further, the heterogeneity results show that the degree of impact varies due to differences in the level of education, vegetable farming income, and the number of vegetable laborers in the family. Moreover, social networks are also used to explore the nexus between the Internet and organic fertilizer application. The findings reveal that social networks favorably play the mediating role. The overall results propose that policymakers should establish the Internet infrastructure and an official online platform to help farmers consolidate and extend the scale of their social networks and exchange information more conveniently to improve their ability to apply environment-friendly production technology

Impact of Internet Use on Farmers’ Organic Fertilizer Application Behavior under the Climate Change Context: The Role of Social Network

Climate change and global warming significantly influence farmers’ activity and lead to lower production yield. To increase production without deteriorating the environment, it is vital to substitute chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizer. The utilization of organic fertilizer not only improves the soil quality but also protects the environment and helps mitigate global warming repercussions. So, there is a need to promote organic fertilizer utilization. The Internet, as an essential information medium, presently has a profound influence on farmers’ production behavior. However, the relationship between Internet use and the application of organic fertilizer is explicitly sparse, especially in China. Using the survey data of 797 vegetable growers, the current study explores the impact of Internet use on farmers’ organic fertilizer application behavior. The present study employs the propensity score matching (PSM) method to meet the study objective. According to the findings, it is unveiled that the Internet significantly promotes behavior towards applying organic fertilizer by approximately 10%. Further, the heterogeneity results show that the degree of impact varies due to differences in the level of education, vegetable farming income, and the number of vegetable laborers in the family. Moreover, social networks are also used to explore the nexus between the Internet and organic fertilizer application. The findings reveal that social networks favorably play the mediating role. The overall results propose that policymakers should establish the Internet infrastructure and an official online platform to help farmers consolidate and extend the scale of their social networks and exchange information more conveniently to improve their ability to apply environment-friendly production technology

Bending and Buckling of Circular Sandwich Plates with a Hardened Core

Hard-core sandwich plates are widely used in the field of aviation, aerospace, transportation, and construction thanks to their superior mechanical properties such as sound absorption, heat insulation, shock absorption, and so on. As an important form, the circular sandwich is very common in the field of engineering. Thus, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of bending and buckling for isotropic circular sandwich plates with a hard core (SP-HC) are conducted in this study. Firstly, the revised Reissner’s theory was used to derive the bending equations of isotropic circular SP-HC for the first time. Then, the analytic solutions to bending deformation for circular and annular sandwich SP-HCs under some loads and boundary conditions were obtained through the decoupled simplification. Secondly, an analytic solution to bending deformation for a simply supported annular SP-HC under uniformly distributed bending moment and shear force along the inner edge was given. Finally, the differential equations of buckling for circular SP-HCs in polar coordinates were derived to obtain the critical loads of overall instability of SP-HC under simply supported and fixed-end supported boundary conditions. Meanwhile, the numerical simulations using Nastran software were conducted to compare with the theoretical analyses using Reissner’s theory and the derived models in this study. The theoretical and numerical results showed that the present formula proposed in this study can be suitable to both SP-HC and SP-SC. The efforts can provide valuable information for safe and stable application of multi-functional composite material of SP-HC

Thermal Stability of Ultrafine Grained Pure Copper Prepared by Large Strain Extrusion Machining

Ultrafine grained (UFG) pure copper chips with improved material strength have been successfully prepared by large strain extrusion machining (LSEM). However, the thermal stability of the UFG chips has been a key characteristic that has restricted their use in practical applications. To understand the influence of annealing temperature and annealing time on their microstructures and mechanical properties, the UFG chips were subjected to isochronous and isothermal annealing treatments as well as Vickers hardness tests in the present study. From the results, we found that the UFG chips maintain high hardness when annealing at temperatures up to 160 °C but begin to exhibit a reduction in their hardness while the annealing temperature reached above 200 °C. When annealed at 280 °C for 10–240 min, the grain size increased slightly and reached a stable value of 2 µm with an increase in annealing time and with a decrease in the hardness of the chips. These results indicated that UFG pure copper chips have good thermal stability at temperatures below 160 °C