Should Online Essays Be Used in Academic Evaluations?

China＇s current academic evaluation system sees publications in core journals as a basic index to measure the academic qualification and quality of an academic institute,

The clinical rehabilitation of spine and spinal cord disorders: detection and evaluation using SPECT/CT

Spine-related disorders are caused by several factors including （1） spinal nerve/visceral nerve stimulation by perivertebral aseptic inflammation, （2） spinal nerve/visceral nerve compression by injured periverterbal soft tissue, dislocated perivertebral small joint, and proliferative/degenerative tissue and, （3） secondary damage to the spinal cord, peripheral nerve, vessels and autonomic nerve, which further stimulate nerve root sheath and surround- ing pain-carrying nerve fibers. In many cases, the source of pain cannot be detected by standard image modalities. Particularly in anatomically complex regions like the spine, SPECT/CT can be helpful for some aspects by intro- ducing a metabolical dimension to the classical way of morphology-based diagnostic. The aim of the present review was to give an overview of the adoption of SPECT/CT in a clinical spine-focused setting.

DEVELOPMENT OF TESTER USED IN EVALUATING UNDERWATER BREATHING APPARATUS

A test set-up called hyperbaric unmanned tester has been developed to assess the safety andreliability of deep sea respirator before manned testing. The tester possesses three basic capabili-ties: First, it is to simulate the operational conditions of underwater breathing apparatus. Thatis, it can reproduce ambient pressure as great as that of 300 meters deep sea water and ambienttemperature ranging between 4℃ and 40℃. It is also capable of reproducing the diver’s posture

Functional evaluation using several evoked spinal cord potentials in elderly patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy

BACKGROUND ： The recordings of evoked spinal cord potentials following epidural spinal cord stimulation are thought to be generated by volleys traversing the dorsal column pathway, and it may not directly reflect conduction defects in corticospinat tracts of cervical spinal cord. To our knowledge there has been few report using several evoked spinal cord potentials in function evaluation of the cervical spinal cord in eldedy patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy （CSM）. OBJECTIVE： To investigate the function states of the cervical spinal cord in elderly patients with CSM and explore its pathophysictogic mechanism. DESIGN： Case observation SETTING ： Department of Orthopedics for the aged, Shenzhen Pingle Hospital of Orthopedics. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine. PARTICIPANTS ： A total of 23 eldedy patients with CSM who received treatment in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine of Japan from January 2003 to February 2004 were enrolled in this study. Inclusive criteria： ① Multiple intervertebral levels of cervical spinal cord compression confirmed by MRI, e.g. 3 or more than 3 levels of compressin. ② Age ≥ 70 years old. ③ Numbness and sensory disturbance in the upper limbs and showed hyperreflexia in the lower limbs. Exclusive criteria： Patients with abnormal motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities in both upper and lower limbs were excluded. METHODS： Evoked spinal cord potentials （ESCPs） following transcranial electric stimulation （TCE-ESCPs）, epidural spinal cord stimulation （SpinaI-ESCPs） and median nerve stimulation （MN-ESCPs） were recorded in 23 patients from posterior epidural space intreoperatively. The abnormalities of TCE-ESCPs were defined as attenuation of amplitude of the D wave. The most cranial intervertebral level showing abnormal TCE-ESCPs with a marked reduction in size of the negative peak （reduction of over 50%） was considered as the upper level of the spinal cord lesion with respect to the corticospinal tract in white matter. The abnormalities of SpinaI-ESCPs were defined as marked reduction in the size of negative peak （reduction of over 50%）. The most caudal intervertebral level showing abnormal SpinaI-ESCPs was considered as the lower level of the spinal cord lesion with respect to the dorsal column pathway in white matter. The abnormalities of MN-ESCPs were defined as attenuation of the N13 amplitude,which was considered as the lesion level of the spinal cord with respect to the dorsal horn in gray matter. Radiological investigation： Lateral view of plain X-ray films was obtained in flexion and extension of the cervical spine. Instability of the cervical intervertebral level was determined as horizontal displacement of the vertebral body of over 3 mm. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES ： The results of examination of TCE-ESCPs, SpinaI-ESCPs and MN-ESCPs in el- dedy patients with CSM. RESULTS： The 23 eldedy patients with CSM were participated in the result analysis. ①TCE-ESCPs： The impairment of the corticospinal tract in white matter at single intervertebral level was revealed in 18 of 23 patients by recordings of TCE-ESCPs （sensitivity 78%）. In the 18 patients, the lesion level was shown at the up- per cervical segment in 14 patients （C3-4n=10 and C4-5n=4）, and at the lower cervical segment in 4 patients （C5-6n=4）. ②Spinal-ESCPs： The impairment of the dorsal column pathway of white matter at single intervertebral level was revealed in 17 of 23 patients, by recordings of Spinal-ESCPs （sensitivity 74%）. In the 17 patients, the lesion level was presented at the upper cervical segment in 14 patients （C3-4n=10 and C4-5n=4）, and at the lower cervical segment in 3 patients （C5-6 n=3）. ③MN-ESCPs： All patients revealed abnormal MN-ESCPs at one or more intervertebral levels （sensitivity 100%）. The impairment at single intervertebral level was demonstrated in 17 patients, and the impairment at multiple intervertebral levels was shown in 4 patients （3 patients at the C3-4, C4-4, and C5-4~6, and one patient at the C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7）. ④Radiological findings： The Instability of the intervertebral level at the C3-4 or C4-5 motion segment was seen in 15 patients, with a total of 20 levels, and where 10 were at the C3-4 intervertebral level and 5 were at the C3-4, C4-5 intervertebral level. CONCLUSION ： The results suggest that in most elderly patients with CSM who have multiple intervertebral level compressions of the cervical spinal cord on MRI, white matter is impaired at the single cervical intervertebral level, and not only the dorsal column pathway, but also the corticospinal tract can be affected. Combined the findings of radiography, the excessive motion and instability of the C3-4 or C4-5 intervertebral level plays an important role in inducing the long tract lesion in elderly patients with CSM.

Preoperative evaluation of human crystalline lens hardness using A-scan ultrasound biometry： a pilot study

Dear Editor,I write to present the results of a study on the correlation between the ultrasound energy consumed during phacoemulsification with various preoperative parameters,including best corrected distance visual acuity（BCDVA）,the signal to noise ratio（SNR）obtained by partial coherence laser interferometry and primarily,lens spikes measurements derived by A-scan ultrasound biometry.Quantification of crystalline lens hardness before cataract removal has been attempted by several researchers in the past.These have been in humans and in animals,in vivo and in vitro,and have used a variety of imaging modalities.

IN VITRO AND IN VIVO EVALUATION OF THE SAFETY OF SOME BENINESE PLANTS USED IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

About 80%of population in developing countries use traditional remedies in their usual health care and plants used in traditional medicine are an interesting alternative to expensive and hardly available modern medicines,mainly in rural areas.Moreover,they are a promising source of new drugs structurally innovative.Therefore it is important to investigate their biological properties and we focused on5 beninese plants:Byrsocarpus coccineus Schumach.&Thonn(Connaraceae),Carpolobia lutea G.Don(Polygalaceae),

Could We Use Clinical Benefit to Evaluate the Effects of Chinese Medicine on the Treatment of Cancer?

The patients, who cannot endure the chemotherapy anymore, or internal disease or present drug resistance, normally use CM for improving their physical conditions and inhibiting tumor. CM has got excellent reputation because of the effects. Nonetheless, few clinical articles of CM to treat cancer are published on major international journals up to now.

Image aesthetic quality evaluation using convolution neural network embedded learning

A way of embedded learning convolution neural network(ELCNN) based on the image content is proposed to evaluate the image aesthetic quality in this paper. Our approach can not only solve the problem of small-scale data but also score the image aesthetic quality. First, we chose Alexnet and VGG_S to compare for confirming which is more suitable for this image aesthetic quality evaluation task. Second, to further boost the image aesthetic quality classification performance, we employ the image content to train aesthetic quality classification models. But the training samples become smaller and only using once fine-tuning cannot make full use of the small-scale data set. Third, to solve the problem in second step, a way of using twice fine-tuning continually based on the aesthetic quality label and content label respective is proposed, the classification probability of the trained CNN models is used to evaluate the image aesthetic quality. The experiments are carried on the small-scale data set of Photo Quality. The experiment results show that the classification accuracy rates of our approach are higher than the existing image aesthetic quality evaluation approaches.

Prospective evaluation of gastric emptying using ^(13)C-octanoic breath test in relationship with the metabolic control in patients with type 1and type 2 diabetes

The aims were to prospectively evaluate the association of glycemic control (HbAlc) with gastric emptying in newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetic patients and subjects with longterm diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, the day to day variability of gastric emptying for solids should be assessed. Methods 13 C octanoic breath tests were performed in 15 type 1 diabetic subjects on two separate days within one week. The influence of metabolic control on gastric emptying was prospectively examined over a mean of 8 months in 14 patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes and 44 long term diabetic patients (type 1: n=31; type 2: n=13).Patients with longterm diabetes were stratified according to their HbA 1c at follow up (group 1: HbA 1c U7.5%, n=17; group 2 HbA 1c >7.5%, n=27). 13 C octanoic breath tests were sampled with an isotope selective non dispersive infrared spectrometer. The gastric emptying parameters were calculated using nonlinear regression analysis of the time course of 13 CO 2 exhalation:half emptying time (t 1/2 ) and lag phase (t lag ). Results The intraindividuell coefficient of variation was 17.8% for t 1/2 , and 28.2% for t lag . Mean t 1/2 and t lag in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics were normal at baseline and were significantly increased at follow up. In patients with longterm diabetes, gastric emptying was unchanged during follow up. Gastric emptying was significant delayed in group 2 compared with group 1 at baseline and follow up respectively. There was a significant correlation between HbA 1c and t 1/2 , t lag at follow up. Conclusions 13 C octanoic breath test has a relatively good reproducibility in patients with type 1 diabetes. Gastric emptying times are already significantly increased after few months in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. There is a more pronounced delay of gastric emptying in longterm diabetic subjects with poor compared to patients with good metabolic control.

Evaluation of optical propagation and radiation in optical waveguide using a numerical method

We introduce a mathematical model based on a concept of intrinsic mode in order to analyse and synthesise optical wave propagation and radiation occurring in a non-uniform optical waveguide used in integrated optics as optical coupler. The model is based on numerical evaluation of electromagnetic wave by applying an intrinsic field integral to evaluate the field behaviour inside the optical waveguide. To analyse the field distribution inside the non-uniform waveguide and predict the beam propagation of optical energy involved in the propagation process, it is necessary to track the motion of any observation point along the tapered waveguide itself. Physically, the rays of the spectrum undergo reflections on the waveguide boundaries until the cut-off occurs and the phenomena of radiation begin. The numerical results show good agreement with those obtained by classical methods of evaluation used bv other works.

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY TO EVALUATE THE SAFETY AND EFFICACY USING REMOVING BLOOD STASIS HERBALS FOR PATIENTS WITH INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGE OF HYPERACUTE STAGE AND RELATIVE FACTORS OF HEMATOMA ENLARGEMENT(A MULTICENTER PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED DOUBLE-BLIND PLACEBO

The aim was to investigate whether using a removing blood stasis method in hyperacute intracranial hemorrhage stage can lead to hematoma enlargement and its clinical efficacy.A multicenter retrospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study.We recruited patients aged 18 years or older and presenting at less than 6 h from symptom onset in 8 research centers.All the patients