Blood-nourishing and Hard-softening Capsule Costs Less in the Management of Osteoarthritic Knee Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The blood-nourishing and hard-softening (BNHS) capsule is a traditional Chinese formula used in the symptomatic treatment of inflammation and pain. We conducted this randomized controlled trial to compare the efficacy of BNHS with other commonly prescribed drugs. We recruited 120 patients from two teaching hospitals; 30 patients in each hospital were randomly assigned to receive BNHS. In one hospital, the 30 controls were given another traditional Chinese drug; whereas a Western medicine (chondroprotection drug/Viartril-s) was used as the control in the other hospital. Intervention was carried out over a period of 4 weeks. Primary outcome measures included self-reported pain level, and changes in stiffness and functional ability as measured by the Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) index. Mixed models were used for statistical analysis. Substantial improvements in disease-specific symptoms were observed, after 4 weeks of treatment, in patients taking BNHS capsules. As assessed by the WOMAC index, pain level of the BNHS group decreased by 57% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 50, 63], stiffness by 63% (95% CI = 55, 71) and functional ability increased by 56% (95% CI = 50, 63). No significant differences were found in any of the outcome measures between the BNHS group and either of the comparison groups. No severe adverse effects were reported. However, this study lacked a placebo group; therefore, we conclude that BNHS appears to be as effective as commonly prescribed medicines for the relief of pain and dysfunction in knee osteoarthritis patients, but costs a lot less than other Western and herbal drugs in the study

Prospects for shale gas production in China: Implications for water demand

AbstractDevelopment of shale gas resources is expected to play an important role in China's projected transition to a low-carbon energy future. The question arises whether the availability of water could limit this development. The paper considers a range of scenarios to define the demand for water needed to accommodate China's projected shale gas production through 2020. Based on data from the gas field at Fuling, the first large-scale shale gas field in China, it is concluded that the water intensity for shale gas development in China (water demand per unit lateral length) is likely to exceed that in the US by about 50%. Fuling field would require a total of 39.9–132.9Mm3 of water to achieve full development of its shale gas, with well spacing assumed to vary between 300 and 1000m. To achieve the 2020 production goal set by Sinopec, the key Chinese developer, water consumption is projected to peak at 7.22Mm3 in 2018. Maximum water consumption would account for 1% and 3%, respectively, of the available water resource and annual water use in the Fuling district. To achieve China's nationwide shale gas production goal set for 2020, water consumption is projected to peak at 15.03Mm3 in 2019 in a high-use scenario. It is concluded that supplies of water are adequate to meet demand in Fuling and most projected shale plays in China, with the exception of localized regions in the Tarim and Jungger Basins

Teleporting a quantum state in a subset of the whole Hilbert space

We investigate the lower bound of the amount of entanglement for faithfully teleporting a quantum state belonging to a subset of the whole Hilbert space. Moreover, when the quantum state belongs to a set composed of two states, a probabilistic teleportation scheme is presented using a non-maximally entangled state as the quantum channel. We also calculate the average transmission efficiency of this scheme.Comment: 4 pages, no figur

Extensive Crosstalk between O-GlcNAcylation and Phosphorylation Regulates Akt Signaling

O-linked N-acetylglucosamine glycosylations (O-GlcNAc) and O-linked phosphorylations (O-phosphate), as two important types of post-translational modifications, often occur on the same protein and bear a reciprocal relationship. In addition to the well documented phosphorylations that control Akt activity, Akt also undergoes O-GlcNAcylation, but the interplay between these two modifications and the biological significance remain unclear, largely due to the technique challenges. Here, we applied a two-step analytic approach composed of the O-GlcNAc immunoenrichment and subsequent O-phosphate immunodetection. Such an easy method enabled us to visualize endogenous glycosylated and phosphorylated Akt subpopulations in parallel and observed the inhibitory effect of Akt O-GlcNAcylations on its phosphorylation. Further studies utilizing mass spectrometry and mutagenesis approaches showed that O-GlcNAcylations at Thr 305 and Thr 312 inhibited Akt phosphorylation at Thr 308 via disrupting the interaction between Akt and PDK1. The impaired Akt activation in turn resulted in the compromised biological functions of Akt, as evidenced by suppressed cell proliferation and migration capabilities. Together, this study revealed an extensive crosstalk between O-GlcNAcylations and phosphorylations of Akt and demonstrated O-GlcNAcylation as a new regulatory modification for Akt signaling

Exploring the Impact of Differentiated Per-Lane Speed Limits on Traffic Safety of Freeways with Considering the Compliance Rate

This is a subsequent study of a two-lane cellular automata (CA) traffic simulation model proposed by the authors. The current study focused on understanding the impacts of the configuration of the differentiated per-lane speed limit (DPLSL) and its compliance rate on traffic safety indexes, including lane-changing frequency, the coefficient of variation of speed, and incident rate of dangerous situations. The results indicate that freeway sections with DPLSL, especially the ones with complex DPLSL, have potentials to reduce the speed variation, lane changing frequencies, and chances of dangerous situations, resulting in higher traffic safety levels. Furthermore, under DPLSL configurations, the compliance rate of the lane of slow vehicles could positively affect the traffic safety levels. Specifically, as the decrease of the compliance rate, lane changing frequency slightly increases, the coefficient variation of speed especially of the outer lane increases, and the incident rate of the overtaking-on-the-right circumstances increases. In contrast to the simple DPLSL, freeway segments with the complex DPLSL configuration are more sensitive to the influence of the compliance rate

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of the medical fern Drynaria roosii and its phylogenetic analysis

In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of the medical fern Drynaria roosii was completed and analyzed in order to understand the evolution of the genome of the fern lineages. In D. roosii, the circular double-stranded cpDNA sequence of 154,305 bp consists of two inverted repeat (IRA and IRB) regions of 23,416 bp each, a large single-copy (LSC) region of 86,040 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 21,433 bp. The overall GC content is 40.92% and the GC contents of LSC, IRs, and SSC are 39.75%, 45.07%, and 36.60%, respectively. D. roosii with 108 annotated unique genes included 85 protein-coding genes, 19 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Using the whole chloroplast genome sequences alignment of 18 species from ferns, the phylogenetic relationship was built. The phylogenetic position of D. roosii was closely clustered with Adiantum capillus-veneris, Cheilanthes lindheimeri, and Pteridium aquilium subsp. Aquilinum as sister species and then clustered with Alsophila spinulosa, Lygodium japonicum, Diplopterygium glaucum, and Osmundastrum cinnamomeum. D. roosii belongs to Polypodiales. The complete chloroplast genome of D. roosii provides utility information for ferns evolutionary and genomic studies

Sensitivity analysis of upscaling prediction of the mass flux at DNAPL contaminated sites

Dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) contamination is a growing problem. To assess the environmental risk of DNAPL-contaminated sites, the mass flux of the dissolved phase (mass flux) in the source zone of DNAPL contamination is often extrapolated using upscaling models. Due to the large number of parameters in the upscaling model and the high cost of investigation, the key parameters in the model need to be screened to guide the design of a reasonable observation data collection scheme for actual contaminated sites. In this paper, a global sensitivity analysis was first conducted on six parameters (mean groundwater velocity q, standardized concentration C0/Ceq, the mass ratio of ganglia GF0, the fraction of the mass flux attributable to the ganglia dissolution fg, and fitting parameters β1 and β2) in the upscaling model to identify the key parameters, and then a local sensitivity analysis was used to quantify the impact of changes in the key parameters on mass flux prediction. The results showed that the parameters q, C0/Ceq, GF0 and fg had a large impact on the mass flux prediction. The sensitivities of q and C0/Ceq were relatively high throughout the depletion process, while those of GF0 and fg increased continuously with the depletion process, reaching peaks in the middle and late stages of depletion, respectively. For source zones with different structures, the increase in mass flux was essentially constant when q or C0/Ceq increased. As the ganglia-to-pool (GTP) mass ratio increased in source zones, its effect on the mass flux prediction continued to increase or decrease when GF0 or fg increased. Therefore, the investigation needs to focus on q and C0/Ceq when predicting the mass flux, on GF0 when reasonably designing the remediation plan of the source zone, and on fg when predicting the lifetime of the source zone. For all structural source zones, q and C0/Ceq are the most important to investigate, and the investigation cost should be focused on GF0 for source zones with large GTP and fg for source zones with small GTP