Impacts of acupressure treatment on depression:A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Depression is recognized as a major public health problem with a substantial impact on individuals and society.Complementary therapies such as acupressure may be considered a safe and cost-effective treatment for people with depression.An increasing body of research has been undertaken to assess the effectiveness of acupressure in various populations with depression,but the evidence thus far is inconclusive.AIM To examine the efficacy of acupressure on depression.METHODS A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed,PsycINFO,Scopus,Embase,MEDLINE,and China National Knowledge(CNKI).Randomized clinical trials(RCTs)or single-group trials in which acupressure was compared with control methods or baseline in people with depression were included.Data were synthesized using a random-effects or a fixed-effects model to analyze the impacts of acupressure treatment on depression and anxiety in people with depression.The primary outcome measures were set for depression symptoms.Subgroups were created,and meta-regression analyses were performed to explore which factors are relevant to the greater or lesser effects of treating symptoms.RESULTS A total of 14 RCTs(1439 participants)were identified.Analysis of the betweengroup showed that acupressure was effective in reducing depression[Standardized mean differences(SMDs)=-0.58,95%CI:-0.85 to-0.32,P<0.0001]and anxiety(SMD=-0.67,95%Cl:-0.99 to-0.36,P<0.0001)in participants with mildto-moderate primary and secondary depression.Subgroup analyses suggested that acupressure significantly reduced depressive symptoms compared with different controlled conditions and in participants with different ages,clinical conditions,and duration of intervention.Adverse events,including hypotension,dizziness,palpitation,and headache,were reported in one study.CONCLUSION The evidence of acupressure for mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms was significant.Importantly,the findings should be interpreted with caution due to study limitations.Future research with a well-designed mixed method is required to consolidate the conclusion and provide an in-depth understanding of potential mechanisms underlying the effects.

An integrative protocol for one‑step PCR amplicon library construction and accurate demultiplexing of pooled sequencing data

High-throughput sequencing of amplicons has been widely used to precisely and efficiently identify species compositions and analyze community structures,greatly promoting biological studies involving large amounts of complex samples,especially those involving environmental and pathogen-monitoring ones.Commercial library preparation kits for amplicon sequencing,which generally require multiple steps,including adapter ligation and indexing,are expensive and time-consuming,especially for applications at a large scale.To overcome these limitations,a“one-step PCR approach”has been previously proposed for constructions of amplicon libraries using long fusion primers.However,efficient amplifications of target genes and accurate demultiplexing of pooled sequencing data remain to be addressed.To tackle these,we present an integrative protocol for one-step PCR amplicon library construction(OSPALC).High-quality reads have been generated by this approach to reliably identify species compositions of mock bacterial communities and environmental samples.With this protocol,the amplicon library is constructed through one regular PCR with long primers,and the total cost per DNA/cDNA sample decreases to just 7%of the typical cost via the multi-step PCR approach.Empirically tested primers and optimized PCR conditions to construct OSPALC libraries for 16S rDNA V4 regions are demonstrated as a case study.Tools to design primers targeting at any genomic regions are also presented.In principle,OSPALC can be readily applied to construct amplicon libraries of any target genes using DNA or RNA samples,and will facilitate research in numerous fields.

Luminescent gold(Ⅲ)exciplexes enable efficient multicolor electroluminescence

The control of excited states and related emissive properties of gold(Ⅲ)complexes mainly depends on the modulation of intramolecular electronic interactions among gold(Ⅲ)metal center,chelating ligands and/or peripheral groups.However,luminescent gold(Ⅲ)systems based on intermolecular electronic interactions have never been explored.Here we report a series of proof-of-concept gold(Ⅲ)exciplexes using a simple gold(Ⅲ)complex,AuDPPy,as an electron acceptor.The emissive properties of gold(Ⅲ)exciplexes can be regulated by combining AuDPPy with different donors.Inspiringly,these gold(Ⅲ)exciplexes have donor-dependent emission mechanisms:dominant phosphorescence or dual radiative channels of thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF)and phosphorescence.Consequently,these gold(Ⅲ)exciplexes deliver green-to-red electroluminescence with external quantum efficiencies(EQEs)of up to 10.1%.More importantly,using these gold(Ⅲ)exciplexes to host multi-resonance TADF emitters results in narrowband yellow,orange,and deep-red electroluminescence with high EQEs of 23.5%,24.4%,and 27.4%,respectively,competitive to the highest values for gold(Ⅲ)OLEDs in similar color gamut.

Improving anti-Gram-positive-bacterial performance and osteogenesis for zinc alloy via mussel mimetic polydopamine with non-antibiotic lysozyme and parathyroid hormone

In this work,a novel coating with a non-antibiotic agent for inhibiting Gram-positive bacteria and promoting osteogenesis was prepared on zinc-aluminium alloy(ZA6-1)via mussel mimetic polydopamine(PDA)containing lysozyme(LYS)and parathyroid hormone(PTH).The results indicate that as-deposited coatings can efficiently decrease the degradation rate of ZA6-1 from 0.52 to 0.16 mm/year,and the addition of LYS weakens the coating resistance,while the addition of PTH enhances the coating resis-tance.In spite that no obvious inhibition of Escherichia coli is observed,the coated zinc alloys show good in vitro antibacterial performance against Staphylococcus aureus.Compared with ZA6-1 zinc alloys,the increase of antibacterial efficacy reaches 86.9%-90.1%.Furthermore,the lower hydrophilicity(26.4°),higher osteoblast cell viability(>100%),good osteoblast cell morphology and better osteoblast cell differentiation(ALP=107.7%)for PDA-LYS/PTH coated samples support that as-prepared coating is promising for modifying biodegradable zinc implants.

Planar Magnetic Integrated Harmonic Filter with Reduced EMI Noise

Through the analysis of the circuit structure and electromagnetic interference(EMI)conduction path,the structure of the traditional harmonic filter is optimized so that it has the ability to suppress EMI.Using the structure of planar magnetic integration not only ensures the basic harmonic suppression ability of the harmonic filter,but also improves the EMI suppression effect.With a single-phase voltage source 500-W SiC inverter as the platform,the feasibility and effectiveness of the design scheme are experimentally verified.The results indicated that the planar magnetic integrated harmonic EMI filter satisfies the design requirements.Additionally,the proposed planar magnetic integration scheme can significantly reduce the volume and weight of the filter and increase the power density of the entire system.