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Objective: The benefits of Pilates for blood glucose and lipids remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Pilates on their levels.Methods: Searches were conducted in five databases to identify relevant articles published until October 29, 2020. Paired reviewers independently screened the articles and extracted data from each included study. Meta-analysis was performed to assess the effects of Pilates on blood glucose and lipids. Subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were conducted to explore heterogeneity.Results: According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comprising 587 participants were included in the study. Overall, the Pilates group (PG) had a significantly greater reduction in post-prandial blood glucose than the control group (CG) (MD = −22.25 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−28.34, 16.17] mg/dL, P < 0.00001, I2 = 0%); glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (MD = −0.78%, 95% CI: [−1.13, −0.42]%, P < 0.0001, I2 = 88%); total cholesterol (TC) (MD = −20.90 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−37.21, −4.60] mg/dL, P = 0.01, I2 = 84%); triglycerides (TG) (MD = −12.59 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−19.88, −5.29] mg/dL, P = 0.0007, I2 = 86%); and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (MD = −12.39 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−16.82, −7.95] mg/dL, P < 0.00001, I2 = 45%) compared to CG, whereas no significant difference was detected between the two groups in fasting blood glucose (MD = −7.04 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−17.26, 3.17] mg/dL, P = 0.18, I2 = 93%), insulin (MD = −1.44 μU/mL, 95% CI: [−4.30, 1.41] μU/mL, P = 0.32, I2 = 0%); and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (MD = −2.68 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−9.03, 3.67] mg/dL, P = 0.41, I2 = 89%). However, by subgroup analysis, we found that compared to the CG, PG showed no significant improvement in blood glucose and lipids levels for non-diabetics, while it presented a significantly greater decrease in post-prandial blood glucose, TC, TG, and LDL-C for diabetic patients. Notably, for diabetic patients, Pilates and medication treatments showed no significant reduction in fasting blood glucose (MD = −7.00 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−26.06, 12.06] mg/dL, P = 0.40) and HbA1c (MD = −0.23%, 95% CI: [−0.58, 0.13]%, P = 0.21, I2 = 0%) than medications treatment used alone, and Pilates combined with medications and dietary treatments presented no significant improvement in fasting blood glucose than a combination of medications and dietary treatments (MD = −10.90 mg/dL, 95% CI: [−32.35, 10.54] mg/dL, P = 0.32, I2 = 94%).Conclusions: Overall, Pilates could improve post-prandial blood glucose, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, TG, TC, and LDL-C for diabetic patients, which could be influenced by its duration and intensity. Moreover, it had no significant effect on blood glucose and lipids for non-diabetic individuals. However, Pilates, as an adjunctive treatment to medications was not superior to medications used alone in lowering fasting blood glucose and HbA1c. Furthermore, Pilates combined with medications and dietary treatments showed no significant improvement in fasting blood glucose, whereas it had a greater reduction in post-prandial blood glucose and HbA1c for diabetic patients.Systematic Review Registration:https://osf.io/xgv6w.

Introduction. Nonspecific chronic low back pain (NCLBP) became a public health and economic problem. Acupoint injection was used widely for patients with NCLBP. However, there were inconsistent results on the efficacy for these people. Therefore, this review was performed to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of acupoint injection. Materials and Methods. The literature sources were collected via EMBASE, Medline, CENTRAL, CINAHL, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, and Sino-Med Database from their inception to October 13, 2019. Endnote X7, widely used document management software, was used to manage and screen the literature sources. Each record was screened according to the predetermined inclusion criteria by two review authors independently. Quality assessment tool, “Risk of table,” was used to assess the quality of the included studies according to the recommendation of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Data extraction was performed by one reviewer and verified by another reviewer. Any disagreement was addressed via consulting with a third reviewer in the abovementioned processes. All procedures were performed according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Results. This review included 13 studies involving 1381 patients with NCLBP. Quantitative analysis results indicated that there is no sufficient evidence that acupoint injection can improve the pain of patients with low back pain based on two trails: Visual Analogue Scale (VAS: MD = −1.33, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) −3.30 to 0.64, P = 0.18 , random-effect model). When assessing the effectiveness of acupoint injection therapy, the results indicated that acupoint injection can improve the effective rate for nonspecific chronic low back pain (OR = 3.64, 95% CI 2.4 to 5.21, P < 0.0001 , fixed-effect model). Conclusion. There is insufficient evidence to indicate that acupoint injection therapy could improve the pain for patients with NCLBP. However, the level of evidence was downgraded to “very low quality” because of the poor methodological quality and clinical heterogeneity. The results should be interpreted with caution. Higher quality RCTs with more appropriate comparison, more objective outcome instruments, and adequate follow-up periods are necessary to assess the efficacy of acupoint injection for NCLBP. The PROSPERO Research registration identifying number is CRD42019119158.

Xiong’an New Area, located in the middle of the North China Plain, will have been built as a “city of the future.” Urban planning and construction need to comprehensively consider the constraints of hydrogeological conditions such as aquifer structure and parameters. As the main aquifer in this area, the paleo-channel is heterogeneous and anisotropic, and the two-dimensional hydraulic conductivity in each horizontal direction cannot be obtained from aquifer tests. Therefore, this study adopts a chemical kinetics method to calculate the ionic activity and mineral saturation indices of shallow groundwater, determine the groundwater chemical potential field, and construct a horizontal two-dimensional groundwater chemical kinetics model. This model is used to calculate the hydraulic conductivity, flow rate and retention time of groundwater in areas of different chemical kinetics, as well as evaluate horizontal heterogeneity of the Quaternary paleo-channel aquifer. The results indicate that the groundwater chemical potential field can reflect the characteristics of the groundwater seepage field in each horizontal direction. The paleo-channel is the main channel of groundwater circulation, which shows the statistical difference of its permeability. Alluvial and lacustrine strata affect groundwater circulation due to their different hydrogeological structures and permeability. The groundwater chemical kinetics results of hydraulic conductivity along the paleo-channel are approximately consistent with traditional hydrogeological calculation results derived from aquifer test data. Hydraulic conductivity is higher in the extension direction of the paleo-channel, and lower if the path crosscuts multiple paleo-channels. This feature can be used to build a hydrogeological structure model combined with drilling data. Furthermore, excessive groundwater exploitation will change the actual flow rate and retention time of groundwater, thereby affecting the groundwater circulation conditions. This study of groundwater circulation in Xiong’an New Area by means of chemical kinetics makes up for the deficiency in the study of the unconsolidated sedimentary aquifer anisotropy within the paleo-channel.