Meta-analysis of the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of low back fasciitis.

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture has unique advantages in the treatment of low back fasciitis and has been paid increasing attention. At present, many studies have summarized the efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of low back fasciitis, but few have been summarized from the perspective of acupuncture alone. AIM: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of lumbodorsal fasciitis by meta-analysis. METHODS: The randomized controlled trials (RCT) of acupuncture in the treatment of low back fasciitis were searched in Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Library from the data of establishment to July 2023. Two authors independently conducted document screening, data abstraction, and qualitative assessment. RevMan 5.3 software and Stata 17.0 software were used for data analysis. The quantitative data were represented by mean difference (MD). The qualitative data were represented by odds ratio (OR). RESULTS: Finally, a total of 12 RCTs with a total sample size of 930 cases were included, of which 461 patients received simple acupuncture treatment (Group A) and 469 patients received non-simple acupuncture treatment (Group B). The results of the meta-analysis showed that: (1) Clinical total effective rate: The results of subgroup analysis showed that the clinical total effective rate of acupuncture was significantly higher than that of Western medicine [OR = 12.72, 95% CI (2.26, 71.78), P = 0.004]; the total effective rate of the traditional Chinese medicine therapy was significantly higher than that of acupuncture [OR = 0.35, 95% CI (0.19, 0.65), P < 0.001]. (2) Score of the visual analog scale (VAS) after treatment: There was no significant difference in VAS score between Group A and Group B after treatment [MD = -0.22, 95% CI (-1.56, 1.12), P = 0.75]. (3) Oswestry disability index after treatment: The results of subgroup analysis showed that the Oswestry disability index after treatment of acupuncture was significantly lower than that of Western medicine therapy [MD = -0.05, 95% CI (-0.10, -0.00), P = 0.04]; the Oswestry disability index of Chinese medicine therapy was significantly lower than that of acupuncture alone [WD = 0.10, 95% CI (0.05, 0.15), P < 0.001]. CONCLUSION: In the treatment of low back fasciitis, simple acupuncture therapy is superior to Western medicine therapy in improving treatment efficiency and low back muscle dysfunction, but slightly inferior to other traditional Chinese medicine therapies. Due to the limited efficacy of acupuncture, it is recommended to combine other therapies to improve the efficacy. Due to the small number of RTCs included and the unclear evaluation of many bias risks, high-quality, large sample randomized controlled studies are still needed to prove it.

Spontaneous chiral resolution of pentahelicene molecules on Cd(0001).

Chiral resolution is of fundamental importance to conglomerate or racemate crystallization. Here we demonstrate that the spontaneous chiral resolution of pentahelicene racemates occurred in the monolayer domains. When deposited on a Cd(0001) surface, pentahelicene molecules crystallize into a commensurate (6 × 6)R0° structure built mainly from homochiral trimers. Spontaneous chirality separation takes place in the form of opposite mirror domains, where 2D enantiomorphism is not expressed by the oblique adlattice, but by the supramolecular chirality of the pentahelicene trimers. Furthermore, annealing the sample or extreme close-packing lead to the presence of lattice handedness through the formation of a porous network structure or an edge-on phase. These results provide valuable insight for 2D conglomerate crystallization and stereochemical recognition.

Bioaugmentation for low C/N ratio wastewater treatment by combining endogenous partial denitrification (EPD) and denitrifying phosphorous removal (DPR) in the continuous A2/O - MBBR system.

Endogenous partial denitrification (EPD) and denitrifying phosphorous removal (DPR) were combined in a novel A2/O - MBBR (Anaerobic Anoxic Oxic - Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor) system for low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio wastewater treatment. The DPR performance was compared and the nutrient metabolism was elucidated based on the optimization of hydraulic retention time (HRT, 4-12 h) and nitrate recycling (R, 200%-600%). In the continuous-flow, the nitrate (NO3-) denitrification accompanied by nitrite (NO2-, via EPD) accumulation with the nitrate-to-nitrite transformation ratio (NTR) of 35.87%-43.31% in the anoxic zones. At HRT of 12 h with R of 500%, batch test initially revealed the DPR mechanism using both NO3- and NO2- as electron acceptor, where denitrifying phosphorus accumulation organisms (DPAOs) and denitrifying glycogen accumulation organisms (DGAOs) were the main contributors for EPD with incomplete denitrification (NO3- → NO2-). Furthermore, stoichiometry-based functional bacteria analysis displayed that higher bioactivity of DPAOs (NO2-→N2, 57.30%; NO3-→N2, 35.85%) over DGAOs (NO3-→N2, 6.85%) facilitated the anoxic NO3- reduction. Microbial community analysis suggested that Cluster I of Defluviicoccus-GAO group (∼4%) was responsible for stable NO2- accumulation performance via EPD, while increased Accumulibacter-PAO group (by ∼15%) contributed to the advanced nutrient removal. Based on the achievement of NO2- accumulation, the application feasibility of integrated EPD - DPR - Anammox for deep-level nutrient removal was discussed.

Homochiral to heterochiral transition in a pentahelicene monolayer on Bi(111).

We report the nucleation and two dimensional (2D) crystallization of the helical aromatic hydrocarbon pentahelicene ([5]H) on the semimetallic Bi(111) surface studied via low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Individual homochiral dimers and heterochiral trimers appear on the substrate at a low coverage. With an increase in the coverage, a chiral phase transition takes place from the 2D conglomerate of [5]H dimers to the 2D racemate of [5]H trimers. The heterochiral [5]H trimers reveal a wavy arrangement due to the swing of 5[H] trimer rows after every second or third trimers. The swing mechanism of the trimer rows can be attributed to the steric repulsion between the adjacent trimers with same handedness.