The widely used toxic dye malachite green (MG) poses a significant risk to human health, having a mutagenic effect. Waste date stones were used to produce microwave‐activated carbons and were applied to adsorb the highly toxic dye. The critically important task of selecting the correct design adsorption capacity for different effluent pollutant concentrations to meet effluent discharge limit standards is described and a novel design selection criteria approach is presented.
Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic psychiatric disorder that can cause substantial damage to quality of life. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a promising treatment for OCD patients with the advantages of safety and noninvasiveness.Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the treatment efficacy of cTBS over the bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA) for OCD patients with a single-blind, sham-controlled design.Methods: Fifty-four OCD patients were randomized to receive active or sham cTBS treatment over the bilateral SMA for 4 weeks (5 sessions per week, 20 sessions in total). Twenty-nine patients were included in the active group, and 25 patients were included in the sham group. Patients received 1200 pulses with a resting motor threshold (RMT) intensity of 110%. Patients were assessed at baseline (week 0), the end of treatment (week 4), and follow-up (week 8). Clinical scales included the YBOCS, HAMD24, HAMA14 and OBQ44. A reduction of at least 35% in YBOCS score was defined as treatment response. Three behavioural tests (the Stroop task, stop-signal task (SST), probabilistic reasoning task (PRT)) were also conducted to explore the effect of cTBS on response inhibition and decision-making in OCD patients.Results: The treatment response rates were not significantly different between the two groups at week 4 (active: 23.1% versus sham: 16.7%, p=0.571) and week 8 (active: 26.9% versus sham: 16.7%, p=0.382). Depression and anxiety improvements were significantly different between the two groups at week 4 (HAMD24: F=4.644, p=0.037; HAMA14: F=5.219, p=0.028), and improvement in the active group was greater than that in the sham group. The performances on the PRT and SST had no significant difference between the two groups, while on the Stroop task there was a significant difference; however, further results of simple effect analysis indicated that there were no significant differences between any level of variables. Adverse events were reported for 1 patient in the active group and 2 patients in the sham group. The treatment satisfaction and dropout rates were not significantly different between the two groups.
Conclusions:The results suggested that cTBS over the bilateral SMA was a safe and tolerable treatment for OCD patients, and it could significantly improve the depression and anxiety of OCD patients, but was not enough to improve OCD symptoms in this study. Further studies are needed to improve the efficacy by increasing the duration and quantity and identifying the optimal parameters of cTBS treatments.Keywords:Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Bilateral supplementary motor area; Continuous theta burst stimulation; Treatment Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder characterized by uncontrollable,
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