Acupuncture Therapy Is More Effective Than Artificial Tears for Dry Eye Syndrome: Evidence Based on a Meta-Analysis

Background. The efficacy of acupuncture in dry eye syndrome patients remains controversial. Methods. Pubmed, Ovid, Cochrane libraries, CNKI, Wanfang, and CQVIP databases were electronically searched until October 1, 2014. Outcomes including tear break-up time (BUT), Schirmer I test (SIT), and cornea fluorescein staining (CFS) were analyzed. A meta-analysis was performed using both fixed- and random-effects models based on heterogeneity across studies. Results. Seven studies were included in this study; 198 and 185 patients were randomly treated with acupuncture and artificial tears, respectively. The overall BUT of patients in acupuncture group was significantly longer than that of the artificial tears group after treatment (P<0.00001). The SIT was significantly higher in the acupuncture group than that in the artificial tears group after treatment (P=0.001). The CFS of patients in acupuncture group was significantly improved compared to that in artificial group (P<0.0001). Conclusions. Acupuncture therapy is effective for the dry eye patients, partly better than artificial tear treatment

Controllable Fabrication and Oil–Water Separation Properties of Polyethylene Terephthaloyl-Ethylenediamine-IPN-poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) Microcapsules

In this paper, we report a microcapsule embedded PNIPAN in P (TPC-EDA) shell and it can be regarded as an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure, which can accelerate the penetration of oily substances at a certain temperature, and the microcapsules are highly monodisperse and dimensionally reproducible. The proposed microcapsules were fabricated in a three-step process. The first step was the optimization of the conditions for preparing oil in water emulsions by microfluidic device. In the second step, monodisperse polyethylene terephthaloyl-ethylenediamine (P(TPC-EDA)) microcapsules were prepared by interfacial polymerization. In the third step, the final microcapsules with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure in P(TPC-EDA) shells were finished by free radical polymerization. We conducted careful data analysis on the size of the emulsion prepared by microfluidic technology and used a very intuitive functional relationship to show the production characteristics of microfluidics, which is rarely seen in other literatures. The results show that when the IPN-structured system swelled for 6 h, the adsorption capacity of kerosene was the largest, which was promising for water–oil separation or extraction and separation of hydrophobic drugs. Because we used microfluidic technology, the products obtained have good monodispersity and are expected to be produced in large quantities in industry

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 4 - Detectors

This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics.This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 3 - Accelerator

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2 s^-1. The complex includes a polarized electron source, an undulator-based positron source, two 6.7 km circumference damping rings, two-stage bunch compressors, two 11 km long main linacs and a 4.5 km long beam delivery system. This report is Volume III (Accelerator) of the four volume Reference Design Report, which describes the design and cost of the ILC.The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2 s^-1. The complex includes a polarized electron source, an undulator-based positron source, two 6.7 km circumference damping rings, two-stage bunch compressors, two 11 km long main linacs and a 4.5 km long beam delivery system. This report is Volume III (Accelerator) of the four volume Reference Design Report, which describes the design and cost of the ILC

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 1 - Executive Summary

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2s^-1. This report is the Executive Summary (Volume I) of the four volume Reference Design Report. It gives an overview of the physics at the ILC, the accelerator design and value estimate, the detector concepts, and the next steps towards project realization.The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2s^-1. This report is the Executive Summary (Volume I) of the four volume Reference Design Report. It gives an overview of the physics at the ILC, the accelerator design and value estimate, the detector concepts, and the next steps towards project realization