Optimized electroacupuncture treatment for female stress urinary incontinence: study protocol for a multi-center randomized controlled trial

BackgroundStress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common condition that can severely affect women’s life quality. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been proved to be an optional treatment for SUI, but the tolerance of EA becomes a factor affecting efficiency, which should not be ignored and needs to be solved urgently. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the use of alternating acupoints combination can solve this problem or not and provide an optimization of EA treatment for female SUI.MethodsThis multi-center randomized controlled trial will enroll 360 patients with SUI. They will be randomly assigned to one of the three groups—sacral acupoints group (sacral group), abdominal acupoints group (abdominal group), or alternating acupoints group (alternating group)—at a 1:1:1 ratio. The patients will receive 18 sessions of EA treatment and will be followed up for 48 weeks after the treatment. The primary outcome measure of the study is the change of urine leakage at week 6. The secondary outcomes include the incontinence episode frequency (IEF), International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF), severity of SUI, patient self-evaluation of therapeutic effects, weekly usage of urine pads, ultrasonography of pelvic floor, specialty therapies for SUI, evaluation of discomfort during EA treatment, patient acceptability evaluation and adverse events related to intervention.DiscussionThis trial is specifically designed to offer an optimized EA treatment for female SUI, aiming to enhance their quality of life.Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier ID:NCT05635669

Novel Algicides against Bloom-Forming Cyanobacteria from Allelochemicals: Design, Synthesis, Bioassay, and 3D-QSAR Study

Cyanobacteria bloom caused by water eutrophication has threatened human health and become a global environmental problem. To develop green algicides with strong specificity and high efficiency, three series of ester and amide derivatives from parent allelochemicals of caffeic acid (CA), cinnamic acid (CIA), and 3-hydroxyl-2-naphthoic acid (HNA) were designed and synthesized. Their inhibitory effects on the growth of five harmful cyanobacterial species, Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa), Microcystis wesenbergii (M. wesenbergii), Microcystis flos-aquae (M. flos-aquae), Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (Ap. flos-aquae), and Anabaena flos-aquae (An. flos-aquae), were evaluated. The results revealed that CIA esters synthesized by cinnamic acid and fatty alcohols showed the best inhibition effect, with EC50 values ranging from 0.63 to >100 µM. Moreover, some CIA esters exhibited a good selectivity in inhibiting cyanobacteria. For example, the inhibitory activity of naphthalen-2-yl cinnamate was much stronger on Ap. flos-aquae (EC50 = 0.63 µM) than other species (EC50 > 10 µM). Three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) analysis was performed and the results showed that the steric hindrance of the compounds influenced the algicidal activity. Further mechanism study found that the inhibition of CIA esters on the growth of M. aeruginosa might be related to the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA)

GPU-Based Block-Wise Nonlocal Means Denoising for 3D Ultrasound Images

Speckle suppression plays an important role in improving ultrasound (US) image quality. While lots of algorithms have been proposed for 2D US image denoising with remarkable filtering quality, there is relatively less work done on 3D ultrasound speckle suppression, where the whole volume data rather than just one frame needs to be considered. Then, the most crucial problem with 3D US denoising is that the computational complexity increases tremendously. The nonlocal means (NLM) provides an effective method for speckle suppression in US images. In this paper, a programmable graphic-processor-unit- (GPU-) based fast NLM filter is proposed for 3D ultrasound speckle reduction. A Gamma distribution noise model, which is able to reliably capture image statistics for Log-compressed ultrasound images, was used for the 3D block-wise NLM filter on basis of Bayesian framework. The most significant aspect of our method was the adopting of powerful data-parallel computing capability of GPU to improve the overall efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can enormously accelerate the algorithm

Research on Rapid Evaluation of Rock Mass Quality Based on Ultrasonic Borehole Imaging Technology and Fractal Method

The distribution of discontinuities in the deep stratigraphic rock mass is random and irregular, and the spatial distribution has statistical self-similarity, which can be analyzed by fractal theory. The borehole wall image obtained based on the ultrasonic borehole imaging technology can clearly reflect the rich structural surface information such as the inclination, density, and crack width of the structural surface in the rock mass. Due to its inherent fractal characteristics, the fractal box dimension of the hole wall image can be used to describe the complexity of the structural surface. In the study, the fractal box dimension of the hole wall image and the RQD value of the rock mass are compared, and it is found that there is a linear correlation between the two. Therefore, the rock quality can be evaluated according to the fractal box dimension value of the hole wall image. Finally, a rapid quantitative evaluation method for rock mass quality classification is established based on ultrasonic borehole imaging technology and fractal method

DEM simulation of the granular Maxwell’s Demon under zero gravity

In this work, granular segregation in a two-compartment cell (Maxwell’s Demon) under zero gravity is studied numerically by DEM simulation for comparison with the experimental observation in satellite SJ-10. The effect of three parameters: the total number of particlesN, the excitation strengthΓ, and the position of the window coupling the two compartments, on the segregationε and the waiting timeτ are investigated. In the simulation, non-zero segregation under zero gravity is obtained, and the segregation ε is found independent of the excitation strengthΓ. The waiting time τ, however, depends strongly onΓ. For higher acceleration Γ, |εi| reaches steady state valueε faster

DEM simulation of the granular Maxwell’s Demon under zero gravity

In this work, granular segregation in a two-compartment cell (Maxwell’s Demon) under zero gravity is studied numerically by DEM simulation for comparison with the experimental observation in satellite SJ-10. The effect of three parameters: the total number of particlesN, the excitation strengthΓ, and the position of the window coupling the two compartments, on the segregationε and the waiting timeτ are investigated. In the simulation, non-zero segregation under zero gravity is obtained, and the segregation ε is found independent of the excitation strengthΓ. The waiting time τ, however, depends strongly onΓ. For higher acceleration Γ, |εi| reaches steady state valueε faster

Analysis Method for Commonality of Module and Part in Modular Product Family

Conference Name:2nd International Conference on Manufacturing Science and Engineering. Conference Address: Guilin, PEOPLES R CHINA. Time:APR 09-11, 2011.An analysis method for commonality of module & part in modular product family was put forward. The part and module commonality in module layer and component part layer of product family were identified, respectively. The formulations of the two commonalities take into account amount of component part or module, variety, volume, price/cost of the part or module, size, geometry, material, manufacturing process, assembly. According to the source of parts, the mathematical formulas of self-made parts and purchased parts were set up respectively in the component part layer. Finally, an example of drive axle of wheel loader was given to indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method

Construction of hole-transported MoO₃₋ₓ coupled with CdS nanospheres for boosting photocatalytic performance via oxygen-defects-mediated Z-scheme charge transfer

The establishment of Z-scheme charge transfer between semiconductors is an effective method to improve the performance of hybridized semiconductor photocatalysts. Herein, the novel photocatalysts consisting of MoO₃₋ₓ and varying amounts of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanospheres were successfully prepared via the one-pot hydrothermal method in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). It is indicated that the PVP not only served as the reducing agent for the formation of oxygen defects in MoO₃₋ₓ, but also the cross-linking agent for the coupling between MoO₃₋ₓ and CdS. The CdS/MoO₃₋ₓ composite allowed for higher visible-light photocatalytic performance for enhanced removal of methylene blue and tetracycline with an efficiency of 97.6% and 85.5%, respectively. The improved performance of the CdS/MoO₃₋ₓ composite was found to be mainly attributable to the remarkable charge carrier separation and transfer between CdS and MoO₃₋ₓ based on the favorable hole-transporting nature and oxygen deficiencies of MoO₃₋ₓ. In addition, the hole-oxidized photocorrosion of CdS was efficiently suppressed due to the presence of hole-attractive MoO₃₋ₓ. At the solid interface, an oxygen-defects-mediated Z-scheme charge carrier transfer pathway was proposed as the underlying mechanism for the superior photocatalytic reaction.Ministry of Education (MOE)The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding from the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Funds Tier 2 (MOE2014-T2-2-074; ARC16/15) and Tier 1 (2015-T1-001-023; RG7/15, and the Joint Singapore-Germany Research Project Fund (SGP-PROG3-019)