Clinical effects of Xingnao Kaiqiao acupuncture on neurological impairment following cerebral infarction

BACKGROUND： Although the curative effects of acupuncture have been confirmed by various treatments of cerebral infarction, few studies have investigated when acupuncture can attain the best clinical effect. OBJECTIVE： Four different time points were selected for acupuncture treatment of cerebral infarction to evaluate the appropriate time course for Xingnao Kaiqiao therapy in terms of improved neurological function. DESIGN： Controlled observation. SETTING： Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy of the Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Chinese Armed Police Forces. PARTICIPANTS： A total of 120 inpatients with cerebral infarction of different stages, including 75 males and 45 females, aged 41-75 years, were selected from November 2005 to December 2006 at the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy in Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Chinese Armed Police Forces. Diagnostic criteria： in accordance with ＂main points of diagnosis on different cerebrovascular disease＂ secondly revised in the Second Cerebrovascular Disease Academic Meeting of Chinese Medicine Association in 1986. All accepted subjects provided confirmed consent, and the experiment received ethical permission from the hospital＇s ethics committee. METHODS： ① Experiment grouping： All inpatients were divided into four groups with non-stochastic concurrent control method according to the disease course： Group Ⅰ （onset within 7 hours）, group Ⅱ （onset from 7 hours to 3 days）, group Ⅲ （onset within 4-7 days）, and group IV （onset within 21-180 days）. On the basis of symptomatic treatment with western medicine, each group received Xingnao Kaiqiao therapy after onset within 7 hours, 7 hours to 3 days, 4 to 7days, and 21 to 180 days. ① The principal acupoints were Neiguan, Renzhong, and Sanyinfiao. ② The auxiliary acupoints were Jiquan, Chize, and Weizhong. ③Acupuncture manipulations： initially, Neiguan （PC6, bilateral） was needled at 0.5-1.0 cun vertically with a reducing technique achieved by rotating-swirling and lifting-inserting for l minute. Subsequently, Renzhong （GV26） was needled at 0.3-0.5 cun obliquely towards the nasal septum, with a heavy bird-pecking method until eyeballs were moist or shed tears. Sanyinjiao （SP6, affected limb） was needled at 1.0-1.5 cun obliquely along the medial border of the tibia with a 45° angle between the needle and skin. The technique of reinforcing was achieved by a lifting-inserting method until the affected lower limb twitched three times. The auxiliary acupoint, Jiquan, was selected when the patient extended the affected upper limb abduction. Jiquan was along the downward channel, l cun from the quondam Jiquan （HT1） acupoint; the armpit hair was avoided. Jiquan （affected limb） was needled vertically at 1.0-1.5 cun. The technique of reduction was achieved by lifting-inserting until the affected upper limb twitched three times. Chize （LU5） was selected when the patient flexed the elbow at 120°. Chize was vertically needled at l cun with a lifting-inserting reducing technique until the affected forearm and fingers twitched three times. Weizhong （BL40） was selected when the patient＇s leg was raised straight in a supine position. Weizhong was vertically needled at 0.5 1.0 cun with a lifting-inserting reducing technique until the affected lower limb twitched three times. ⑤ Acupuncture manipulations were achieved by the doctor who is an associate chief physician and doctor of acupuncture and moxibustion and has aptitude for the post＇s specification. ⑥One course of treatment lasted for 10 days and each group was treated for two courses of treatment. ⑦Experiment evaluation： To apply neurological impairment scores for evaluating clinical curative effects before and after treatment with Xingnao Kaiqiao therapy on day 7, 14, and 21（range of 0 45; decreasing score indicates functional improvement）.To evaluate clinical curative effect by clinical effective power： Basic recovery： equal to or more than 81%; significant improvement： 56% to 81% （including 56%）; Improvement： between 36% to 56% （including 36%）; Slight Improvement： 11% to 36% （including 11%）; No change： less than 11%; Aggravation （including death）： negative value. Total effective rate was computed at the same time. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： The total effective rate and amelioration of neurological impairment of the patients after treatment. RESULTS： All 120 patients with cerebral infarction were included in the final analysis, without deletion. ① Comparison of the total effective rate： the total effective rate of group Ⅰ, group Ⅱ, group Ⅲ and group IV was 97%, 93%, 93%, and 67%, respectively. There were significant differences of interclass synthetic curative effects （x^2 = 36.351 7, P 〈 0.01）. ② Amelioration of neurological impairment： A decreased neurological impairment score was observed in group Ⅰ on day 7, 14, and 21 after Xingnao Kaiqiao therapy. The differences between group Ⅳ and the remaining three groups were significant （P 〈 0.05）. CONCLUSION： Xingnao Kaiqiao therapy is helpful for amelioration of neurological impairment in patients during the acute stage cerebral infarction.

mTOR signaling promotes stem cell activation via counterbalancing BMP-mediated suppression during hair regeneration

Hair follicles(HFs)undergo cycles of degeneration(catagen),rest(telogen),and regeneration(anagen)phases.Anagen begins when the hair follicle stem cells(HFSCs)obtain sufficient activation cues to overcome suppressive signals,mainly the BMP pathway,from their niche cells.Here,we unveil that mTOR complex 1(mTORC1)signaling is activated in HFSCs,which coincides with the HFSC activation at the telogen-to-anagen transition.By using both an inducible conditional gene targeting strategy and a pharmacological inhibition method to ablate or inhibit mTOR signaling in adult skin epithelium before anagen initiation,we demonstrate that HFs that cannot respond to mTOR signaling display significantly delayed HFSC activation and extended telogen.Unexpectedly,BMP signaling activity is dramatically prolonged in mTOR signaling-deficient HFs.Through both gain-and loss-of-function studies in vitro,we show that mTORC1 signaling negatively affects BMP signaling,which serves as a main mechanism whereby mTORC1 signaling facilitates HFSC activation.Indeed,in vivo suppression of BMP by its antagonist Noggin rescues the HFSC activation defect in mTORC1-null skin.Our findings reveal a critical role for mTOR signaling in regulating stem cell activation through counterbalancing BMP-mediated repression during hair regeneration.

Half‑Power Prediction and Its Application on the Energy Management Strategy for Fuel Cell City Bus

The fuel cell hybrid powertrain is a potential power supply system for fuel cell vehicles.The underlying problem is that the fuel cell vehicles encounter exhaustive hydrogen consumption.To effectively manage hydrogen consumption,the aim is to propose fuel cell city bus power and control system.The underlying idea is to determine the target power of fuel cell through simulation study on fuel cell and battery energy management strategy and road test verifications.A half-power prediction energy management strategy is implemented to predict the target power of the fuel cell in the current time step based on the demand power of the vehicle and the state of charge(SOC)of the battery in the previous time steps.This offers better understanding of the correlation between fuel cell power and vehicle drive cycle for enabling effective power supply management.The research results show that the half-power prediction energy management strategy effectively reduces the hydrogen consumption of the vehicle by 7.1%and the number of battery cycle by 6.0%,compared to the stepped manage-ment strategy of battery SOC.When applied to a 12-m fuel cell city bus—F12,specially designed and manufactured for the Winter Olympic Games in 2022—the fuel economy of 3.7 kg/100 km is achieved in urban road conditions.This study lays a foundation for providing the powertrain configuration and energy management strategy of fuel cell city bus.

Identification and characterization of an ancient class of small RNAs enriched in serum associating with active infection

Dear Editor,The identification of novel serum biomarkers holds great value for diagnosing and monitoring disease conditions due to its convenient and non-invasive nature.Recently,great interests have been shed on serum microRNAs(miRNAs),which emerge as promising biomarkers for a variety of diseases including cancer and metabolic disorders(Cortez et al.,2011).Despite the concentrated attention on serum miRNAs,the reports on the existence and diagnostic value of other serum small RNAs remain surprisingly few.In present study.

醒脑开窍针刺法结合舌部针刺治疗脑梗死后构音障碍的疗效观察

目的观察醒脑开窍针刺法结合舌部针刺治疗脑梗死后构音障碍的临床疗效。方法选取2015年1月至2020年1月在中国人民武装警察部队特色医学中心住院的脑梗死合并构音障碍患者130例,采用SPSS软件生成随机数字表,按入组时间顺序1∶1随机分为治疗组和对照组,每组65例。2组患者在西医治疗的基础上,治疗组给予醒脑开窍针刺法结合舌部针刺治疗,对照组给予传统针刺结合舌部针刺治疗,每日1次,14 d为1个疗程,共治疗2个疗程。比较2组患者治疗前后中国康复研究中心《构音障碍检查方法》评定等级和改良的Frenchay构音障碍评分,比较2组患者治疗前后中国脑卒中临床神经缺损程度评分量表(CSS)评分和Barthel指数(BI)评分,并评定2组临床疗效。结果治疗2个疗程后,治疗组患者中国康复研究中心构音障碍评定等级高于对照组(Z=-2.348,P<0.05),治疗组患者改良的Frenchay构音障碍评分低于对照组(t=-4.023,P<0.05)。治疗组患者CSS评分低于对照组(t=-3.178,P<0.05),BI指数评分高于对照组(t=3.866,P<0.05)。治疗组总有效率88.9%(56/63),对照组总有效率76.2%(48/63),2组疗效比较差异具有统计学意义(χ2=8.505,P<0.05)。结论醒脑开窍针刺法结合舌部针刺治疗脑梗死后构音障碍疗效显著,可有效促进患者肢体功能康复和日常生活活动能力的提高。