Recent developments of acupuncture in Australia and the way forward

Almost one in ten Australians has received acupuncture treatment by acupuncturists and/or medical doctors in private clinics. The majority of Australian health insurance funds offer rebates for acupuncture. Statutory regulations for acupuncture have been implemented in the State of Victoria, Australia. Six acupuncture degree courses have been approved by the Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria and/or accredited by the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association. Furthermore, a number of clinical trials of acupuncture on allergic rhinitis, pain and women's health were carried out in Australia. Recent developments of acupuncture in Australia indicate that through adequate and appropriate evaluation, acupuncture begins to integrate into mainstream health care in Australia

Energy Efficiency Optimization Design of a Forward-Swept Axial Flow Fan for Heat Pump

As one of the key components of the heat pump system, compared to that of a conventional axial fan, the blade tip area of a forward-swept axial fan is much larger than its blade root, which is the main noise source of the fan and also has an important influence on the fan efficiency. Enhancement of the aerodynamic performance and efficiency of a forward-swept axial fan was addressed by utilizing the Bezier function to parameterize the forward-swept curve on blade tops. In order to quickly select an agent model suitable for the project, an ES model was established by integration of the radial basis function model and the Kriging model. When NSGA-II was combined, multi-objective optimization was carried out with the flow rate and total pressure efficiency as optimization goals. Analysis of optimization results revealed that the optimized axial flow fan’s flow rate and total pressure efficiency were improved to some degree. At the design working point, the fan’s flow rate increased by 1.78 m³/min, while the total pressure efficiency increased by 3.0%. These results lay solid foundation for energy saving of the heat pump system

Exploring active and passive interactions in social networking services: a psychological needs perspective

Purpose-People's socializing behavior in social networking services (SNS) presents dramatically different features, forming differentiated online social interaction patterns (DOSIP) in SNS. This study aims to explore the relationships between users' multidimensional psychological needs and multiple social interaction patterns in SNS. Design/methodology/approach-Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs and use and gratifications (U&G) theory,the authors develop the research model to examine the effects of psychological needs on DOSIP. A survey is used to collect the data of SNS users' social interaction. The authors adopt structural equation modeling-neural network (SEM-NN) integrated method to examine the research model. Findings-Need to belong, need for self-esteem, need for social contact, need for emotional expression, need for cognition, and need for external-esteem have significant influences on both active and passive social interactions respectively. Originality/value-Based on the categorization of DOSIP into six types in terms of the level of activity and disclosure ofsocial interaction,the authors constructan integrated research model of multidimensional psychological needs to multiple social interaction patterns, and validate the antecedents of DOSIP from the perspective of psychological needs

Photocatalytic self-cleaning graphene oxide/ZnO hybrid membrane for ultrafast cyclic small organic molecule separation

Graphene oxide (GO) based membranes have attracted tremendous interest owing to their unique lamellar structure resulting in excellent molecular filtration. However, the expansion of interlayer spacing of GO nanoflakes in liquid solutions, particularly in aqueous solution, and the adsorption of foulants in the layered nanoconfinement as well as on the surface adversely affects the long-term performance of the membranes. In this work, one-dimensional zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were integrated with graphene oxide via in-situ crystallization. A fast thermal treatment was applied to partially reduce the graphene oxide nanoflakes and chemically ‘lock’ the newly formed ZnO nanorods during the final step of hybrid membrane fabrication. It was found that the partially reduced graphene oxide (rGO) provided excellent mechanical stability between the nanolayers and also very stable and efficient molecular sieving properties. Interestingly, the ZnO nanorods not only served as a space holder between neighbouring reduced graphene-oxide nanoflakes but also endowed the hybrid membrane with responsive photocatalytic self-cleaning properties, which has been considered one of the most promising approaches for energy-efficient environmental remediation. In water permeation tests, these graphene oxide-zinc oxides (P-rGO/ZnO) membranes exhibited ultrahigh permeance of 400 ± 21 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, more than an order of magnitude higher than the conventional rGO membranes. In the meantime, these membranes exhibited excellent small organic molecule separation efficiencies with &gt;98.8 ± 1.2% rejections toward direct red 80, rose bengal, reactive black 5, and trypan blue. More importantly, under ultraviolet–visible light irradiation, the membrane demonstrated highly efficient self-cleaning behaviour for fast organic dye decomposition, enabling excellent cyclic removal of pre-adsorbed dye molecules. Therefore, this intelligent self-cleaning hybrid membrane has great potential in wastewater purification, particularly for ultrafast small organic molecule removal.</p

Preparation of Graphene/TiO 2

The graphene (GR) was prepared by an improved electrochemical stripping method using a high-purity graphite rod as raw material and high temperature heat reduction in hydrogen atmosphere, and the graphene/TiO2 (GR/TiO2) composite nanomaterials were manufactured by the method of sol-gel and high temperature crystallization in hydrogen atmosphere using butyl titanate and electrolysis graphene as precursors. The physical and chemical properties of the composites had been characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Vis spectrophotometer (UV-Vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM),  and specific surface area (SSA) by BET method. The photocatalytic properties of GR/TiO2 composites nanomaterials in anoxic water were studied by using 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) as probe. The results showed that graphite was well intercalated and peeled by a facile electrolysis method in different electric field environment; a well dispersed and rings structure of graphene was prepared by coupling ultrasound-assisted changing voltage electrochemical stripping technology. The as-prepared GR/TiO2 composites had good performance for the photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-D in anoxic water; the chlorines were removed from benzene ring; the middle products of dichlorophenol, chlorophenol, phloroglucinol, and so forth were produced from the photocatalytic redox reaction of 2,4-D in anoxic water; parts of 2,4-D were decomposed completely, and CO2 and H2O were produced

Adhesive loose packings of small dry particles

5 pages, 4 figure

Soil enzyme activities, soil physical properties, photosynthetic physical characteristics and water use of winter wheat after long-term straw mulch and organic fertilizer application

IntroductionInappropriate residue and nutrient management leads to soil degradation and the decline of soil quality and water storage capacity.MethodsAn ongoing field experiment has been conducted since 2011 to investigate the effects of straw mulching (SM), and straw mulching combined with organic fertilizer (SM+O), on winter wheat yield, including a control treatment (CK, no straw). We studied the effects of these treatments on soil microbial biomass nitrogen and carbon, soil enzyme activity in 2019, photosynthetic parameters, evapotranspiration (ET), water use efficiency (WUE), and yields over five consecutive years (2015-2019). We also analyzed the soil organic carbon, soil structure, field capacity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity in 2015 and 2019. ResultsResults indicate that compared with CK, SM and SM+O treatments increased the proportion of &gt;0.25mm aggregates, soil organic carbon, field capacity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity, but decreased the soil bulk density. In addition, the SM and SM+O treatments also increased soil microbial biomass nitrogen and carbon, the activity of soil enzymes, and decreased the carbon-nitrogen ratio of microbial biomass. Therefore, SM and SM+O treatments both increased the leaf water use efficiency (LWUE) and photosynthetic rate (Pn), and improved the yields and water use efficiency (WUE) of winter wheat. The combination SM (4.5 t/ha)+O (0.75 t/ha) was more effective than SM alone, and both treatments were superior to the control.ConclusionBased on the results of this study, SM+O is recommended as the most effective cultivation practice

Multi-site, Multi-domain Airway Tree Modeling (ATM'22): A Public Benchmark for Pulmonary Airway Segmentation

Open international challenges are becoming the de facto standard for assessing computer vision and image analysis algorithms. In recent years, new methods have extended the reach of pulmonary airway segmentation that is closer to the limit of image resolution. Since EXACT'09 pulmonary airway segmentation, limited effort has been directed to quantitative comparison of newly emerged algorithms driven by the maturity of deep learning based approaches and clinical drive for resolving finer details of distal airways for early intervention of pulmonary diseases. Thus far, public annotated datasets are extremely limited, hindering the development of data-driven methods and detailed performance evaluation of new algorithms. To provide a benchmark for the medical imaging community, we organized the Multi-site, Multi-domain Airway Tree Modeling (ATM'22), which was held as an official challenge event during the MICCAI 2022 conference. ATM'22 provides large-scale CT scans with detailed pulmonary airway annotation, including 500 CT scans (300 for training, 50 for validation, and 150 for testing). The dataset was collected from different sites and it further included a portion of noisy COVID-19 CTs with ground-glass opacity and consolidation. Twenty-three teams participated in the entire phase of the challenge and the algorithms for the top ten teams are reviewed in this paper. Quantitative and qualitative results revealed that deep learning models embedded with the topological continuity enhancement achieved superior performance in general. ATM'22 challenge holds as an open-call design, the training data and the gold standard evaluation are available upon successful registration via its homepage.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures. Homepage: https://atm22.grand-challenge.org/. Submitte

Acupuncture for menstruation-related migraine prophylaxis:A multicenter randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture, an alternative medicine therapy, as a preventive treatment for menstruation-related migraine (MRM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a prospective, multicenter, double-dummy, participant-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial conducted in China between 1 April 2013, and 30 April 2014. The participants were enrolled from four study centers and randomized to into either the acupuncture group, which received 24 sessions of acupuncture at traditional acupoints plus placebo, or the medication group, which received sham acupuncture plus naproxen. The primary endpoint was change from the baseline average number of migraine days per perimenstrual period over cycles 1−3. The secondary endpoints included changes from the baseline average number of migraine days outside the perimenstrual period, mean number of migraine hours during and outside the perimenstrual period, mean visual analog scale score during and outside the perimenstrual period, ≥50% migraine responder rate, and the proportion of participants who used acute pain medication over cycles 1−3 and 4−6. RESULTS: A total of 172 women with MRM were enrolled; 170 in the intention-to-treat analyses. Our primary outcome reported a significant between-group difference that favored the acupuncture group (95% CI, 0.17–0.50; P < 0.001), with the average reduction of migraine days per perimenstrual period from the baseline was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.82–1.07) in the acupuncture group and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.50–0.71) in the medication group over cycles 1−3. CONCLUSION: This study showed that compared to medication, acupuncture reduces the number of migraine days experienced by patients with MRM. For patients who received the acupuncture treatment over three cycles, the preventive effect of the therapy was sustained for six cycles. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: [https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN57133712], identifier [ISRCTN15663606]