Effect of Treatment Temperature on Iron Nitride Foils Irradiated with Nitrogen Plasma

We investigated the effect of treatment temperature on the magnetic property of iron nitride foils irradiated with nitrogen plasma. The iron nitride foils irradiated with nitrogen plasma were composed of ε-Fe2-3N, γ’-Fe4 N and γ nitrogen austenite in α-Fe of the matrix. The saturation magnetization of the iron nitride foils decreased with increasing the surface temperature. The coercive force of the iron nitride foils increased with increasing the surface temperature.

Analysis of the impact of immunotherapy efficacy and safety in patients with gastric cancer and liver metastasis

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer(GC)is the fifth most common type of cancer and has the fourth highest death rate among all cancers.There is a lack of studies examining the impact of liver metastases on the effectiveness of immunotherapy in individuals diagnosed with GC.AIM To investigate the influence of liver metastases on the effectiveness and safety of immunotherapy in patients with advanced GC.METHODS This retrospective investigation collected clinical data of patients with advanced stomach cancer who had immunotherapy at our hospital from February 2021 to January 2023.The baseline attributes were compared using either the Chi-square test or the Fisher exact probability method.The chi-square test and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were employed to assess the therapeutic efficacy and survival duration in GC patients with and without liver metastases.RESULTS The analysis comprised 48 patients diagnosed with advanced GC,who were categorized into two groups:A liver metastasis cohort(n=20)and a non-liver metastatic cohort(n=28).Patients with liver metastasis exhibited a more deteriorated physical condition compared to those without liver metastasis.The objective response rates in the cohort with metastasis and the cohort without metastasis were 15.0%and 35.7%(P>0.05),respectively.Similarly,the disease control rates in these two cohorts were 65.0%and 82.1%(P>0.05),respectively.The median progression-free survival was 5.0 months in one group and 11.2 months in the other group,with a hazard ratio of 0.40 and a significance level(P)less than 0.05.The median overall survival was 12.0 months in one group and 19.0 months in the other group,with a significance level(P)greater than 0.05.CONCLUSION Immunotherapy is less effective in GC patients with liver metastases compared to those without liver metastasis.

Observation on the Therapeutic Effect of Shangjinbitong Powder(伤筋痹痛散)on Improving Acupoint Plaster

Objective:To study the therapeutic effect of Shangjinbitong Powder(伤筋痹痛散)on improving acupoint plaster,in order to provide some scientific basis for clinical use.Methods:This project was carried out from June 2020 to January 2021,30 patients with low back pain in the outpatient department of orthopedics and traumatology in our hospital and 30 patients with low back pain in the rehabilitation department of Fuping County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were selected as the research objects.Patients with low back pain in our hospital were treated with Shangjinbitong Powder as the control group,and patients in rehabilitation department of Fuping County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine as the research group were treated with acupoint plaster improved by Shangjinbitong Powder.After one week of treatment,the effective rates of the two groups were compared.Results:The effective rate of treatment in the study group was significantly higher than that in the control group(P<0.05).There were no adverse reactions such as infection,scald and bleeding in the study group and the control group during the treatment.Conclusion:Shangjinbitong Powder improved acupoint plaster has good curative effect,convenient use,certain safety and clinical popularization value.

An Analysis of Pain Following Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury among Adults in Zimbabwe

The purpose of the study was to analyse on pain following traumatic spinal cord injury, its prevalence, the types of pain present, the common treatments used and their perceived effectiveness in the management of these reported pain types. A cross sectional study was carried out at St Giles Rehabilitation Centre and from members of the Spinal Injuries Association of Zimbabwe (SIAZ). A researcher-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 24 participants with traumatic spinal cord injury. The questionnaire elicited information on demographic data, pain characteristics and the perceived effectiveness of the common treatments used. Among the 24 participants in the study, 17 were males (70.8%) and 7 were females (29.2%). Pain prevalence was 79.2% among the study participants and approximately a fifth (21.03%) of all participants rated their pain as severe. Eight (33.3%) of the participants had neuropathic pain while 11 (45.8%) had both nociceptive and neuropathic pain types. However, no association was found between sex, age, time post injury when tested against the presence of pain (p > 0.05). Weather changes aggravated almost every type of pain reported. Both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods were used to manage the pain but their perceived effectiveness was rated as low. The majority of the traumatic spinal cord injured people experienced some pain and this pain was severe in a fifth of all participants. Pain significantly affected their quality of life. Physiotherapists and other medical professionals need to be aware of this and should employ pain reducing modalities and empathy when dealing with these patients.

Personalised medicine with multiple treatments: a PhD thesis abstract

When there is substantial heterogeneity of treatment effectiveness for comparative treatmentselection, it is crucial to identify individualised treatment rules for patients who have heterogeneous responses to treatment. Existing approaches include directly modelling clinical outcomeby defining the optimal treatment rule according to the interactions between treatment andcovariates and outcome weighted approach that uses clinical outcome as weights to maximise atarget function whose value directly reflects correct treatment assignment. All existing articles ofestimating individualised treatment rules are all assuming just two treatment assignments. Herewe propose an outcome weighted learning approach that uses a vector hinge loss to extend estimating individualised treatment rules in multi-category treatments case. The consistency of theresulting estimator is shown. We also demonstrate the performance of our approach in simulationstudies and a real data analysis.