Diagnostic and Predictive Efficacy of Synovial Fluid Versus Serum C-Reactive Protein Levels for Periprosthetic Joint Infection and Reimplantation Success.

BACKGROUND: A 2-stage exchange revision for periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is associated with major risks for reinfection. Although serum markers are frequently used for diagnosis, their effectiveness remains debatable. Synovial fluid markers may offer a more accurate diagnosis of PJI; however, the importance of these biomarkers, notably synovial fluid C-reactive protein (syCRP), remains controversial, particularly in the context of reimplantation. The present study aimed to clarify these diagnostic uncertainties by evaluating the diagnostic efficacy of syCRP versus serum CRP (seCRP) levels in the context of PJI and recurring or persisting infections before reimplantation. METHODS: A total of 186 patients were enrolled and divided into 2 groups: aseptic revision (n = 112) and PJI revision (n = 74). Of the PJI group, 65 were categorized as success and 9 as failure, based on the presence of recurrent or persistent infection before reimplantation. The syCRP and seCRP levels and their changes were assessed preoperatively and in the first-stage and second-stage revisions. Additionally, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the ROC curves (AUCs) were analyzed. RESULTS: Both seCRP and syCRP levels were significantly elevated in the PJI group compared with the aseptic group (P < .001). The ROC curve analysis highlighted the enhanced diagnostic accuracy of syCRP for PJI, with an AUC of 0.93 versus 0.80 for seCRP. Furthermore, syCRP proved to be more reliable in predicting reimplantation success, exhibiting an AUC of 0.86 versus 0.63 for seCRP. In evaluating trends in CRP levels to determine reimplantation timing, changes in syCRP levels demonstrated superior diagnostic utility, exhibiting an AUC of 0.79 versus 0.63 for changes in seCRP levels. CONCLUSIONS: In assessing PJI and infections before reimplantation, syCRP may offer enhanced accuracy compared with seCRP. Nevertheless, variations in both syCRP and seCRP levels did not consistently predict the outcome of reimplantation.

Environmental DNA and remote sensing datasets reveal the spatial distribution of aquatic insects in a disturbed subtropical river system.

Biodiversity datasets with high spatial resolution are critical prerequisites for river protection and management decision-making. However, traditional morphological biomonitoring is inefficient and only provides several site estimates, and there is an urgent need for new approaches to predict biodiversity on fine spatial scales throughout the entire river systems. Here, we combined the environmental DNA (eDNA) and remote sensing (RS) technologies to develop a novel approach for predicting the spatial distribution of aquatic insects with high spatial resolution in a disturbed subtropical Dongjiang River system of southeast China. First, we screened thirteen RS-based vegetation indices that significantly correlated with the eDNA-inferred richness of aquatic insects. In particular, the green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI) and normalized difference red-edge2 (NDRE2) were closely related to eDNA-inferred richness. Second, using the gradient boosting decision tree, our data showed that the spatial pattern of eDNA-inferred richness could achieve a high spatial resolution to 500 m reach and accurate prediction of more than 80%, and the prediction efficiency of the headwater streams (Strahler stream order = 1) was slightly higher than the downstream (Strahler stream order >1). Third, using the random forest algorithm, the spatial distribution of aquatic insects could reach a prediction rate of over 70% for the presence or absence of specific genera. Overall, this study provides a new approach to achieving high spatial resolution prediction of the distribution of aquatic insects, which supports decision-making on river diversity protection under climate changes and human impacts.

How do small dams alter river food webs? A food quality perspective along the aquatic food web continuum.

Damming of rivers poses a significant threat to freshwater ecosystems. Previous studies about the impact of damming on river ecosystems have mostly focused on large dams, with the impact of small dams largely unknown. Further, while the impacts of dams on aquatic communities have been widely studied, the effect on energy flow across river food webs remains unclear. In recent years, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid analysis (LC-PUFA) has emerged as a promising technique for assessing food quality and trophic interactions. In this study, LC-PUFA was applied to explore the nutritional effects of small dams on river food webs. A field investigation was conducted at upstream and downstream areas of three small dams in the headwaters of Dongjiang River, China, to evaluate the impact of small dams on the nutritional quality of basal food sources, and their consequent impacts on aquatic consumers and trophic links. Basal food sources (i.e., submerged leaves, macrophytes and periphyton) and aquatic consumers (i.e., macroinvertebrates and fish) were collected, and their fatty acid (FA) composition was measured. Our results showed that periphyton, rather than submerged leaves and macrophytes, was the primary high-quality food source for aquatic consumers, providing them with LC-PUFA, irrespective of whether sites were upstream or downstream. Damming the streams induced changes in aqueous nutrient concentrations (TP, PO4-P, DIN, and TN) from upstream to downstream of the dams, leading to significant variation in periphyton FA content. Compared with periphyton collected at downstream sites, periphyton at upstream sites contained higher LC-PUFA, but lower short-chain PUFA. Differences in periphyton LC-PUFA between the upstream and downstream areas of dams were reflected in the FA profiles of invertebrate grazers and filterers, and further transferred to fish. Furthermore, decreased periphyton nutritional quality at the downstream of the dams was one of the reasons for the simplification of stream food webs. Our results indicated that small dams negatively affected food webs, emphasizing the importance of high-quality food sources for stream ecosystems. We suggest that the trophic integrity of river food webs hinges on the dietary availability of periphyton supplying physiologically highly required nutrients for consumers and must thus not be compromised by damming of streams or other alterations.

Fishing eDNA in One of the World's Largest Rivers: A Case Study of Cross-Sectional and Depth Profile Sampling in the Yangtze.

The world's largest rivers are home to diverse, endemic, and threatened fish species. However, their sheer sizes make large-scale biomonitoring challenging. While environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has become an established monitoring approach in smaller freshwater ecosystems, its suitability for large rivers may be challenged by the sheer extent of their cross sections (>1 km wide and tens of meters deep). Here, we sampled fish eDNA from multiple vertical layers and horizontal locations from two cross sections of the lower reach of the Yangtze River in China. Over half of the ASVs (amplicon sequence variants) were detected in only a single combination of the vertical layers and horizontal locations, with ∼7% across all combinations. We estimated the need to sample >100 L of water across the cross-sectional profiles to achieve ASV richness saturation, which translates to ∼60 L of water at the species level. No consistent pattern emerged for prioritizing certain depth and horizontal samples, yet we underline the importance of sampling and integrating different layers and locations simultaneously. Our study highlights the significance of spatially stratified sampling and sampling volumes when using eDNA approaches. Specifically, we developed and tested a scalable and broadly applicable strategy that advances the monitoring and conservation of large rivers.

Destabilizing Effects of Environmental Stressors on Aquatic Communities and Interaction Networks across a Major River Basin.

Human-driven environmental stressors are increasingly threatening species survival and diversity of river systems worldwide. However, it remains unclear how the stressors affect the stability changes across aquatic multiple communities. Here, we used environmental DNA (eDNA) data sets from a human-dominated river in China over 3 years and analyzed the stability changes in multiple communities under persistent anthropogenic stressors, including land use and pollutants. First, we found that persistent stressors significantly reduced multifaceted species diversity (e.g., species richness, Shannon's diversity, and Simpson's diversity) and species stability but increased species synchrony across multiple communities. Second, the structures of interaction networks inferred from an empirical meta-food web were significantly changed under persistent stressors, for example, resulting in decreased network modularity and negative/positive cohesion. Third, piecewise structural equation modeling proved that the persistent stress-induced decline in the stability of multiple communities mainly depended upon diversity-mediated pathways rather than the direct effects of stress per se; specifically, the increase of species synchrony and the decline of interaction network modularity were the main biotic drivers of stability variation. Overall, our study highlights the destabilizing effects of persistent stressors on multiple communities as well as the mechanistic dependencies, mainly through reducing species diversity, increasing species synchrony, and changing interaction networks.

A Vehicle Simulation Study Examining the Effects of System Interface Design Elements on Performance in Different Vibration Environments Below 3 Hz.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between system interface elements' design features and interaction performance in simulated vehicle vibration environments. BACKGROUND: Touch screens have been widely used in vehicle information systems, but few studies have focused on the decline of touchscreen interaction performance and task load increase when driving on unpaved roads. METHOD: The interaction performance (reaction time and task accuracy rate) with vibration frequencies below 3 Hz (1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 Hz) and different interface design elements was investigated employing a touch screen computer and E-prime software. RESULTS: The results indicate that vehicle vibration (below 3 Hz) can significantly reduce interaction performance with a vehicle information system interface. CONCLUSION: An appropriate increase in the physical size of the interface design features (visual stimulus materials and touch buttons) can help to mitigate this negative effect of vibration. APPLICATION: The results and findings of this study can be utilized for the design of information system interfaces as it relates to the vibration scenario of unpaved roads.

Environmental DNA Biomonitoring Reveals the Interactive Effects of Dams and Nutrient Enrichment on Aquatic Multitrophic Communities.

Dam construction and nutrient enrichment are two pervasive stressors in rivers worldwide, which trigger a sharp decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, the interactive effects of both stressors on multitrophic taxonomic groups remain largely unclear. Here, we used the multitrophic datasets captured by the environmental DNA (eDNA) approach to reveal the interactions between dams and nutrient enrichment on aquatic communities from the aspects of taxonomic α diversity, ß diversity, and food webs. First, our data showed that dams and nutrient enrichment jointly shaped a unique spatial pattern of aquatic communities across the four river systems, and the dissimilarity of community structure significantly declined (i.e., structural homogenization) under both stressors. Second, dams and nutrients together explained 40-50% of the variations in aquatic communities, and dams had a stronger impact on fish, aquatic insects, and bacteria, yet nutrients had a stronger power to drive protozoa, fungi, and eukaryotic algae. Finally, we found that additive, synergistic, and antagonistic interactions of dams and nutrient enrichment were common and coexisted in river systems and led to significantly simplified aquatic food webs, with decreases in modularity (synergistic) and robustness (additive) and an increase in coherence (synergistic). Overall, our study highlights that eDNA-based datasets can provide multitrophic perspectives for fostering the understanding of the interactive effects of multiple stressors on rivers.

Astragalus polysaccharide attenuates LPS-related inflammatory osteolysis by suppressing osteoclastogenesis by reducing the MAPK signalling pathway.

Bacterial products can stimulate inflammatory reaction and activate immune cells to enhance the production of inflammatory cytokines, and finally promote osteoclasts recruitment and activity, leading to bone destruction. Unfortunately, effective preventive and treatment measures for inflammatory osteolysis are limited and usually confuse the orthopedist. Astragalus polysaccharide (APS), the main extractive of Astragali Radix, has been widely used for treating inflammatory diseases. In the current study, in vitro and in vivo experimental results demonstrated that APS notably inhibited osteoclast formation and differentiation dose-dependently. Moreover, we found that APS down-regulated RANKL-related osteoclastogenesis and levels of osteoclast marker genes, such as NFATC1, TRAP, c-FOS and cathepsin K. Further underlying mechanism investigation revealed that APS attenuated activity of MAPK signalling pathways (eg ERK, JNK and p38) and ROS production induced by RANKL. Additionally, APS was also found to suppress LPS-related inflammatory osteolysis by decreasing inflammatory factors' production in vivo. Overall, our findings demonstrate that APS effectively down-regulates inflammatory osteolysis due to osteoclast differentiation and has the potential to become an effective treatment of the disorders associated with osteoclast.

Consideration of Multitrophic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions Improves Indices on River Ecological Status.

Biological quality elements have been developed worldwide to assess whether a water body is in a good status or not. However, current studies mainly focus on a single taxonomic group or a small set of species, often limited by methods of morphological identification, and lack further aspects of biodiversity (e.g., across taxa and multiple attributes) and ecosystem functions. Here, we advance a framework for assessing the river's ecological status based on complete biodiversity data measured by environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding and measurements of ecosystem functions in addition to physicochemical elements across a large riverine system in China. We identified 40 indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem functions, covering five taxonomic groups from bacteria to invertebrates, and associated with multiple attributes of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Our data show that human impact on ecosystems could be accurately predicted by these eDNA-based indicators and ecosystem functions, using cross-validation with a known stressor gradient. Moreover, indices based on these indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem functions not only distinguish the physicochemical characteristics of the sites but also improve the assessment accuracy of 20-30% for the river's ecological status. Overall, by incorporating eDNA-based biodiversity with physicochemical and ecosystem functional elements, the multidimensional perspectives of ecosystem states provide additional information to protect and maintain a good ecological status of rivers.

Occurrence of Phthalates in Bottled Drinks in the Chinese Market and Its Implications for Dietary Exposure.

Ubiquitous occurrences of phthalic acid esters (PAEs) or phthalates in a variety of consumer products have been demonstrated. Nevertheless, studies on their occurrence in various types of bottled drinks are limited. In this study, fifteen PAEs were analyzed in six categories of bottled drinks (n = 105) collected from the Chinese market, including mineral water, tea drinks, energy drinks, juice drinks, soft drinks, and beer. Among the 15 PAEs measured, DEHP was the most abundant phthalate with concentrations ranging from below the limit of quantification (LOQ) to 41,000 ng/L at a detection rate (DR) of 96%, followed by DIBP (DR: 88%) and DBP (DR: 84%) with respective concentration ranges of below LOQ to 16,000 and to 4900 ng/L. At least one PAE was detected in each drink sample, and the sum concentrations of 15 PAEs ranged from 770 to 48,004 ng/L (median: 6286 ng/L). Significant differences with respect to both PAE concentrations and composition profiles were observed between different types of bottled drinks. The median sum concentration of 15 PAEs in soft drinks was over five times higher than that detected in mineral water; different from other drink types. Besides DEHP, DBIP, and DBP, a high concentration of BMEP was also detected in a tea drink. The estimated daily dietary intake of phthalates (EDIdrink) through the consumption of bottled drinks was calculated based on the concentrations measured and the daily ingestion rates of bottled drink items. The EDIdrink values for DMP, DEP, DIBP, DBP, BMEP, DAP, BEEP, BBP, DCP, DHP, BMPP, BBEP, DEHP, DOP, and DNP through the consumption of bottled mineral water (based on mean concentrations) were 0.45, 0.33, 12.5, 3.67, 2.10, 0.06, 0.32, 0.16, 0.10, 0.09, 0.05, 0.81, 112, 0.13, and 0.20 ng/kg-bw/d, respectively, for Chinese adults. Overall, the EDIdrink values calculated for phthalates through the consumption of bottled drinks were below the oral reference doses suggested by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA).

Human activities' fingerprint on multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem functions across a major river catchment in China.

Human-induced global change dramatically alters individual aspects of river biodiversity, such as taxonomic, phylogenetic or functional diversity, and is predicted to lead to losses of associated ecosystem functions. Understanding these losses and dependencies are critical to human well-being. Until now, however, most studies have only looked either at individual organismal groups or single functions, and little is known on the effect of human activities on multitrophic biodiversity and on ecosystem multifunctionality in riverine ecosystem. Here we profiled biodiversity from bacteria to invertebrates based on environmental DNA (hereafter, 'eDNA') samples across a major river catchment in China, and analysed their dependencies with multiple ecosystem functions, especially linked to C/N/P-cycling. Firstly, we found a spatial cross-taxon congruence pattern of communities' structure in the network of the Shaying river, which was related to strong environmental filtering due to human land use. Secondly, human land use explained the decline of multitrophic and multifaceted biodiversity and ecosystem functions, but increased functional redundancy in the riverine ecosystem. Thirdly, biodiversity and ecosystem function relationships at an integrative level showed a concave-up (non-saturating) shape. Finally, structural equation modeling suggested that land use affects ecosystem functions through biodiversity-mediated pathways, including biodiversity loss and altered community interdependence in multitrophic groups. Our study highlights the value of a complete and inclusive assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem functions for an integrated land-use management of riverine ecosystems.

A sensitive LC-MS/MS method to determine ginkgolide B in human plasma and urine: application in a pharmacokinetics and excretion study of healthy Chinese subjects.

1. Ginkgolide B (GB), the most active of the ginkgolides, has been developed as a new drug for the treatment of vascular insufficiency; however, the pharmacokinetics of GB remain unclear. Here, we investigated the pharmacokinetics and urine excretion properties of GB in healthy Chinese subjects administered single- and multiple-dose injectable GB based on a new LC-MS/MS method.2. GB pharmacokinetics were found to be dose-dependent from 20 to 60 mg. GB reached a steady state by day 6 with once-daily dosing at 40 mg. Systemic exposure to GB, as characterised by AUC0-∞, indicated accumulation following repeated once-daily dosing for seven consecutive days. The mean urinary cumulative excretion rate of GB in response to 20, 40, and 60 mg GB was 41.9 ± 18.5%, 32.9 ± 12.2%, and 43.9 ± 8.5%, respectively.3. Dose-proportional pharmacokinetics of GB were observed after intravenous administration in healthy subjects. A gradual reduction in the volume of distribution and slight change in mean resistance time led us to conjecture the limited accumulation of GB based on distribution equilibrium in vivo.4. This comprehensive study of the clinical pharmacokinetics of GB will provide useful information for its application and further development.

The Chinese ACL injury population has a higher proportion of small ACL tibial insertion sizes than Western patients.

PURPOSE: The study purpose is to characterize the sizes of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) insertion site and intercondylar notch in Chinese patients undergoing ACL surgery. The findings will provide a reference for individualized clinical treatment of ACL rupture. METHODS: For this study, 137 patients (102 males, 35 females) with an average age of 30.3 ± 9.5 years (range 14-52 years) undergoing ACL reconstruction were included. The tibial ACL insertion site length and width and the intercondylar notch width were measured on MRI and arthroscopically using a ruler. Descriptive statistics of the patients, the distribution of the measurements and the differences between males and females were calculated. RESULTS: The ACL tibial insertion size and intercondylar notch width in Chinese patients with ACL injuries, as obtained by MRI and intra-operatively, exhibited significant individual variability. The tibial ACL insertion site had a mean length of 13.5 ± 2.1 mm and width of 10.9 ± 1.5 mm as measured on MRI and a mean length of 13.3 ± 2.1 mm and width of 11.0 ± 1.6 mm as measured intra-operatively. The mean intercondylar notch width was 15.2 ± 2.4 mm on MRI and the mean length was 15.0 ± 2.5 mm intra-operatively. The inter-rater reliability between MRI and intra-operative measurements confirmed that the two methods were consistent. In 65.7% of individuals, the ACL tibial insertion length was < 14 mm. CONCLUSION: The distribution of tibial footprint size in Chinese patients is different from that in Western populations. There is a higher proportion of subjects with a tibial footprint size < 14 mm among Chinese patients with ACL injury. Therefore, great care should be taken when treating this population with the double-bundle technique or larger graft options. Level of evidence IV.

Combined Measurement of D-Dimer and C-Reactive Protein Levels: Highly Accurate for Diagnosing Chronic Periprosthetic Joint Infection.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of chronic periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) can be challenging and elusive in the absence of a gold standard. D-dimer plays an important role in inflammation that occurs during infections and therefore could be a valuable biomarker for PJI. This study aims to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of D-dimer in detecting chronic PJI and to improve the accuracy of chronic PJI diagnosis through combined measurement of serum D-dimer with C-reactive protein (CRP)/erythrocyte sedimentation rate. METHODS: One hundred twenty-two patients presenting with a painful knee or hip after total hip or total knee arthroplasty for surgical revision were included in this prospective trial. Our cohort consisted of 55 patients undergoing revision for chronic PJI and 67 patients undergoing revision for aseptic failure. PJI was defined using the Musculoskeletal Infection Society criteria. Receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curve were analyzed for each biomarker. RESULTS: The area under the curve for D-dimer was 0.915 and was more accurate than serum erythrocyte sedimentation rate 0.719 and CRP 0.761. 1170 ng/mL was determined to be the optimal threshold value of D-dimer for the diagnosis of chronic PJI, with a sensitivity of 92.73% and a specificity of 74.63% in the diagnosis of chronic PJI. The combination of D-dimer and CRP tests demonstrated a sensitivity of 98.11% and negative predictive value of 96.55% for the diagnosis of chronic PJI. CONCLUSION: The present study identified the D-dimer is a valuable biomarker in detecting chronic PJI. The combinations of serum D-dimer and CRP led to the improvement of sensitivity compared with those of the single-index test.

In Situ Generation of Bifunctional Fe-Doped MoS2 Nanocanopies for Efficient Electrocatalytic Water Splitting.

Design and synthesis of non-noble metal electrocatalysts with high activity and durability for the electrolysis of water is of great significance for energy conversion and storage. In this work, we prepared a series of Fe-doped MoS2 nanomaterials by simple one-pot solvothermal reactions of (NH4)2MoS4 with FeCl3·6H2O. An optimized working electrode of Fe-MoS2-5 displayed high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with a relatively small overpotential of 173 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm-2 in 0.5 M H2SO4, along with no significant change in catalytic performance even after 1000 cyclic voltammetry (CV) cycles. Fe-MoS2 nanoparticles on nickel foam (NF; denoted as Fe-MoS2/NF) exhibited an overpotential of 230 mV at 20 mA cm-2 for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and 153 mV at 10 mA cm-2 for the HER in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte. Fe-MoS2/NF was stable for more than 140 h under these conditions. Furthermore, the two electrode system of Fe-MoS2/NF (anode)//Fe-MoS2/NF (cathode) electrodes demonstrated excellent electrocatalytic activity toward overall water splitting with a low potential of 1.52 V at 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte.

Surgical injury and repair of hip external rotators in THA via posterior approach: a three-dimensional MRI-evident quantitative prospective study.

BACKGROUND: As one of the classical total hip arthroplasty (THA) approaches, the posterior approach is widely used. However, there is a lack of in-depth quantitative researches on the surgical-related injury to the hip external rotators. The purpose of this study is to quantificationally analyse the surgical injury of hip external rotators after posterior THA and explore the effect of the muscle repair on the muscle recovery using the MRI three-dimensional reconstruction technique combined with the clinical assessment. METHODS: Sixty five patients were eligible to receive a unilateral cementless THA via the posterior approach. During operation, the piriformis tendon was reattached but it was not applicable for the internal obturator muscle. We performed three-dimensional MRI reconstruction of bilateral piriformis and internal obturator muscle along with clinical assessment preoperatively, 6, 12 and 52 weeks postoperatively. RESULTS: Bilateral piriformis and internal obturator muscle were homogeneous preoperatively. Compared with the contralateral side, the volume atrophy and fat-muscle ratio of the piriformis on the operated side increased inconspicuously by 1.64%, 0.26% (p = 0.062, p = 0.071) at 6 weeks and 1.33%, 0.20% (p = 0.057, p = 0.058) at 12 weeks, while 7.28%, 2.09% and 15.71%, 5.14% for the internal obturator muscle (p < 0.01). Up to 52 weeks, the pirformis also showed significant muscle atrophy as well as fatty infiltration (increased by 7.79%, 4.21%; p < 0.01), and 24.18%, 11.91% for the internal obturator muscle (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The THA via posterior approach significantly harms the hip external rotators and the early hip external rotation function. The effective repair could be conducive to the early postoperative recovery of the hip external rotators. TRAIL REGISTRATION: The study has been registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) before the clical trial started, the Clinical Trial Registry Number is ChiCTR-IOR-17013007 . Registered 17 October 2017. The Trial registration is prospective registration.

Comparison between minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis and open reduction-internal fixation for proximal humeral fractures: a meta-analysis based on 1050 individuals.

BACKGROUND: This meta-analysis aimed to compare the clinical outcomes and complications of minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO) and open reduction-internal fixation (ORIF) in patients with proximal humeral fractures. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Ovid, and the Cochrane Library to identify all relevant studies from inception to April 2019. Cochrane Collaboration's Review Manage 5.3 was used for meta-analysis. RESULTS: Sixteen studies involving 1050 patients (464 patients in the MIPO group and 586 patients in the ORIF group) were finally included. According to the meta-analysis, MIPO was superior to ORIF in operation time, blood loss, postoperative pain, fracture union time, and constant score. However, MIPO was associated with more exposure to radiation and axillary nerve injury. No significant differences were found in length of hospital stays and complication except for axillary nerve injury. CONCLUSION: The present evidence indicates that compared to ORIF, MIPO had advantages in functional outcomes, operation time, blood loss, postoperative pain, and fracture union time for the treatment of PHFs. However, the MIPO technique had a higher rate of axillary nerve injury and longer radiation time compared to ORIF.

Large-Scale, Bottom-Up Synthesis of Binary Metal-Organic Framework Nanosheets for Efficient Water Oxidation.

Ultrathin metal-organic framework (MOF) nanosheets (NSs) offer potential for many applications, but the synthetic strategies are largely limited to top-down, low-yield exfoliation methods. Herein, Ni-M-MOF (M=Fe, Al, Co, Mn, Zn, and Cd) NSs are reported with a thickness of only several atomic layers, prepared by a large-scale, bottom-up solvothermal method. The solvent mixture of N,N-dimethylacetamide and water plays key role in controlling the formation of these two-dimensional MOF NSs. The MOF NSs can be directly used as efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, in which the Ni-Fe-MOF NSs deliver a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at a low overpotential of 221 mV with a small Tafel slope of 56.0 mV dec-1 , and exhibit excellent stability for at least 20 h without obvious activity decay. Density functional theory calculations on the energy barriers for OER occurring at different metal sites confirm that Fe is the active site for OER at Ni-Fe-MOF NSs.

Synthesis, Structures, and Near-IR Absorption of Heterole-Fused Earring Porphyrins.

A reaction sequence of regioselective peripheral bromination, Suzuki-Miyaura coupling with 2-borylated thiophene or pyrrole, and oxidative ring-closure with FeCl3 allowed the synthesis of heterole-fused earring porphyrins 4Pd and 9Pd from the parent earring porphyrin 1. Differently pyrrole-fused porphyrins 5H and 6H and their PdII complexes 5Pd and 6Pd were also synthesized. The structures of 4Pd, 5H, 6Pd, and 8Pd have been revealed by X-ray analysis to be slightly twisted owing to constraints imposed by heterole-fused structures. 5Pd exhibits an intensified band at 1505 nm, while 4Pd and 9Pd display small but remarkably red-shifted absorption bands reaching around 2200 nm.

Application of Environmental DNA Metabarcoding for Predicting Anthropogenic Pollution in Rivers.

Rivers are among the most threatened freshwater ecosystems, and anthropogenic activities are affecting both river structures and water quality. While assessing the organisms can provide a comprehensive measure of a river's ecological status, it is limited by the traditional morphotaxonomy-based biomonitoring. Recent advances in environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding allow to identify prokaryotes and eukaryotes in one sequencing run, and could thus allow unprecedented resolution. Whether such eDNA-based data can be used directly to predict the pollution status of rivers as a complementation of environmental data remains unknown. Here we used eDNA metabarcoding to explore the main stressors of rivers along which community structure changes, and to identify the method's potential for predicting pollution status based on eDNA data. We showed that a broad range of taxa in bacterial, protistan, and metazoan communities could be profiled with eDNA. Nutrients were the main driving stressor affecting communities' structure, alpha diversity, and the ecological network. We specifically observed that the relative abundance of indicative OTUs was significantly correlated with nutrient levels. These OTUs data could be used to predict the nutrient status up to 79% accuracy on testing data sets. Thus, our study gives a novel approach to predicting the pollution status of rivers by eDNA data.