No abstract

Vertebral fractures are one of the most common osteoporotic fractures. We sought to investigate the incidence of distant pain after osteoporotic vertebral compressive fracture (OVCF) at the thoracolumbar junction, and to explore the effect of kyphoplasty in the treatment of distant pain post-OVCF. Eighty-seven patients diagnosed OVCF between T11 and L2 were included in the study. The region of pain and its proximity to the thoracolumbar compressive fracture was recorded. For pain management, all patients received kyphoplasty. The follow-up period was every 3 months for 1-year post-surgery. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were used pre-operatively, post-operatively, and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups to assess patient status. All patients completed the operation, with 72 patients having focal pain over the compression fracture. Eleven cases also had pain distal to the fracture region in the following areas: lower back, near the iliac crest (n = 6), the groin (n = 3), and the trochanteric region (n = 2). Four cases had pain in distant to the fracture: lower back, near iliac crest (n = 3), and the trochanteric region (n = 1). All patients had a significant improvement in clinical symptoms. The average VAS and the ODI decreased significantly pre-operatively to post-operatively (p < 0.05). In addition to focal tenderness, many patients with thoracolumbar compression fractures may have pain distant to the fracture. This can be successfully treated using kyphoplasty. This phenomenon also indicates that patients at risk of osteoporosis who also have lower back pain should not neglect the potential for a thoracolumbar fracture.

Skin fibrotic diseases, such as keloids, are mainly caused by pathologic scarring of wounds during healing and characterized by benign cutaneous overgrowths of dermal fibroblasts. Current surgical and therapeutic modalities of skin fibrosis are unsatisfactory. Pinocembrin, a natural flavonoid, has been shown to possess a vast range of pharmacological activities including antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor activities. In this study we explored the potential effect and mechanisms of pinocembrin on skin fibrosis in vitro and in vivo. In vitro studies indicated that pinocembrin dose-dependently suppressed proliferation, migration, and invasion of keloid fibroblasts and mouse primary dermal fibroblasts. The in vivo studies showed that pinocembrin could effectively alleviate bleomycin (BLM)-induced skin fibrosis and reduce the gross weight and fibrosis-related protein expression of keloid tissues in xenograft mice. Further mechanism studies indicated that pinocembrin could suppress TGF-β1/Smad signaling and attenuate TGF-β1-induced activation of skin fibroblasts. In conclusion, our results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of pinocembrin for skin fibrosis.

Both anterior and posterior decompressions (with instrumentation) are effective procedures for improving the neurological outcomes of patients with CSM. However, although the two approaches have similar health care costs, anterior cervical corpectomy (with instrumentation) seems to be subjectively assessed by patients as better.

The cutting forces will generally suffer massive complex factors, such as material deformation, tool eccentricity and system vibration, which will inevitably induce many great difficulties in accurately modeling the cutting force predictions that are very significant to investigate cutting processes. Therefore, the genetic algorithm optimized back-propagation and particle swarm optimization neural networks will be adopted to effectively construct cutting force prediction models. In these two back-propagation prediction models, the main milling parameters will be defined into their input vectors, and the transient milling forces along three different directions will be selected as their output vectors, then the implicit relationships between input and output vectors can be directly generated through practically training and learning these two built back-propagation models with a set of experimental milling force data. Meanwhile, the finite element analysis method will be also used to predict milling forces through programming two easy-to-operate plug-ins that can efficiently construct finite element analysis models, conveniently define processing parameters, and automatically perform mesh generation. Subsequently, the milling forces predicted by the established genetic algorithm optimized back-propagation and particle swarm optimization back-propagation models will be analytically compared with finite element analysis simulations and experiments; also the stress distribution and chip formations of finite element analysis and experiments will be comparatively investigated. Finally, the obtained results clearly indicate that these two back-propagation models built by artificial neural networks can well agree with finite element analysis simulations and experiments, but the particle swarm optimization back-propagation model is superior to the genetic algorithm optimized back-propagation model, which clearly demonstrate the particle swarm optimization back-propagation model has higher efficiencies and accuracies in predicting the average and transient cutting forces for different milling processes on aluminum alloy 7050.

Flexure hinges, which serve as the crucial joints in a large number of compliant mechanisms, have been widely applied in a variety of significant fields where there is high demand for the micro/nano motions with high resolution and high precision. Currently, an increasing number of notched flexure hinges with different structures and performances have been rapidly developed, but the existing performance comparisons on different notched flexure hinges were only conducted on seldom typical structures and are far from the comprehensiveness and fairness due to the different comparative conditions and discrepant evaluating indexes. Therefore, the finite beam-based matrix modeling method and nondimension precision factors will be employed in comprehensive comparing and ranking of 13 types of frequently-used notched flexure hinges in terms of their main compliances, motion accuracies, and stress concentrations, further providing useful practical guidelines to develop the compliant mechanisms with excellent overall performances.

BackgroundBovine serum albumin nanoparticles loaded with isoniazid and rifampicin (INH-RFP-BSA-NPs) were prepared and their release characteristics were studied in vitro.Material/MethodsThe INH-RFP-BSA-NPs were prepared by a modified self-emulsion solvent diffusion method, with albumin and polylactic acid used as carriers and to form the nanoparticles structure. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the morphology of the INH-RFP-BSA-NPs. The size distribution of the INH-RFP-BSA-NPs were assessed using a submicron particle-size analyzer for drug loadings, and the coating rate of the INH-RFP-BSA-NPs was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. A dynamic membrane dialysis method was used to study the in vitro release characteristics of the INH-RFP-BSA-NPs.ResultsThe INH-RFP-BSA-NPs were smooth, sphere-like, relatively uniform in size, and well-dispersed, and the average diameter was 60.5±4.6 nm. Drug loading and entrapment efficiencies were high, at 19.8% and 87.8% for isoniazid, respectively, and 20.1% and 98.0% for rifampicin, respectively. Drug release was slow and sustained with 97.02% INH cumulative release at 6 days, and full release of RFP requiring 5 days.ConclusionsINH-RFP-BSA-NPs exhibit uniform NP diameter, good dispersion, high drug loading and encapsulation rates, and have sustained release properties.

Although the role of iron plaque on rice root surface has been investigated in recent years, its effect on antibiotic uptake remains uncertain. In the study, pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of iron plaque on uptake and translocation of norfloxacin (adding 10 and 50 mg·kg treatments) in rice seedlings grown in paddy soil. Iron plaque was induced by adding different amounts of Fe(II) in soil. The results showed that the presence of norfloxacin can decrease the amount of iron plaque induced. After rice with iron plaque induced, norfloxacin was mainly accumulated in iron plaque on root surface, followed by inside root, but its translocation from root to other rice tissues is not observed. Iron plaque played the role of a barrier for norfloxacin uptake into rice roots under high norfloxacin concentration of 50 mg·kg, however not that under low concentration of 10 mg·kg. And the barrier function was the most strongest with adding Fe(II) of 30 mg·kg as combined action of iron plaque and rhizosphere effect. Fluorescence microscope analysis showed that norfloxacin mainly distributed in the outside of root cell, which showed its translocation as apoplastic pathway in rice. Comparing with non-rhizosphere, more norfloxacin was accumulated in rhizosphere soil. Maybe, strong root oxidization (high Eh values) induced more iron oxide formation in rhizosphere and on root surface, which led to norfloxacin's mobility towards to rhizosphere through its strong adsorption of iron oxides and then promoted its uptake by rice on root surface.