Effects of mind-regulating acupuncture on pain, negative emotion and sleep quality in patients with postherpetic neuralgia： a randomized controlled pilot trial. / è°ƒç¥žé’ˆæ³•å¯¹å¸¦çŠ¶ç–±ç–¹åŽé—ç¥žç»ç—›æ‚£è€ ç–¼ç—›ç¨‹åº¦ã€è´Ÿæ€§æƒ ç»ªå’Œç¡çœ è´¨é‡çš„å½±å“.

OBJECTIVES: To observe the effect of mind-regulating acupuncture on pain intensity, sleep quality, negative emotion in patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and evaluate the clinical effect of mind-regulating acupuncture combined with surrounding needling and heavy moxibustion at Ashi points (Extra) in treatment of PHN. METHODS: The patients with PHN were randomly divided into a control group (35 cases, 2 cases dropped out) and a comprehensive therapy group (35 cases). The patients in the control group were treated with surrounding needling and heavy moxibustion at Ashi points. In the comprehensive therapy group, the mind-regulating acupuncture therapy was delivered besides the treatment as the control group. The treatment was given once daily, one course of treatment was composed of 6 days and 2 courses were required in the 2 groups. Before and after treatment, the pain conditions were assessed using pain rating index (PRI), visual analogue scale (VAS) and present pain intensity (PPI), the negative emotions were assessed using Hamilton anxiety scale (HAMA) and Hamilton depression scale (HAMD), and the sleep quality with Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). One week before and one week after treatment, the average sleep time was recorded. The therapeutic effect of 2 groups was evaluated. The effective cases of 2 groups were followed up in 2 months after treatment completion and the recurrence of neuralgia was recorded. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences in the above indicators between the 2 groups before treatment. After 2 courses of treatment, the scores of PRI, VAS, PPI, HAMA, HAMD and PSQI were reduced when compared with those before treatment in the patients of the 2 groups (P<0.05), and the average sleep time was increased (P<0.05). The scores of PRI, VAS, PPI, HAMA, HAMD and PSQI in the comprehensive therapy group, as well as the average sleep time were all improved when compared with those of the control group (P<0.05). The total effective rate in the comprehensive therapy group (34/35, 97.14%) was higher than that of the control group (27/33, 81.82%, P<0.05) and the recurrence rate was lower (ï¼»2/34, 5.88%ï¼½vsï¼»8/27, 29.63%ï¼½, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The combination of mind-regulating acupuncture with surrounding needling and heavy moxibustion at Ashi acupoint can effectively relieve PHN. Compared with the traditional surrounding acupuncture in pain area combined with moxibustion at Ashi points, this comprehensive therapy is more effective for ameliorating pain intensity, improving sleep quality and reducing negative emotions. It is also effective for declining the recurrence.

[Nitric Oxide Removal with a Fe-TiO2/PSF Hybrid Catalytic Membrane Bioreactor].

The Fe-doped titanium dioxide (Fe-TiO2) was prepared by the sol-gel method and was loaded on polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membrane. A novel Fe-TiO2/PSF hybrid catalytic membrane biofilm reactor (HCMBfR) was investigated for nitric oxide removal, to further improve the elimination capacity. HCMBfR exhibited a good stability in the 180-day operation period, the NO removal efficiency was up to 93.2% and the maximum elimination capacity reached 167.1 g · (m³ · h)⁻1. The additional use of the biofilm to wet Fe-TiO2/PSF membrane catalysis reactor led to the enhancement of NO removal efficiency from 59. 5% to 66% . The NO removal efficiency in the intimate coupling of Fe-TiO2/PSF hybrid catalytic membrane and biofilm reactor ( HCMBfR) increased from 1.4% to 13% as compared to that of the membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) only. The optimal illumination intensity, gas residence time, pH and nC/nN were 670 lx, 9 a, 6.8-7.2 and 3.7, respectively.

Repeated Electroacupuncture Persistently Elevates Adenosine and Ameliorates Collagen-Induced Arthritis in Rats.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of repeated electroacupuncture (EA) over 21 days on the adenosine concentration in peripheral blood of rats with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Wistar rats were divided into three groups of 6 animals each: sham-control, CIA-control, and CIA-EA. We determined the adenosine concentration in peripheral blood and assessed pathological changes of ankle joints. Quantitative reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to determine mRNA levels of ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73), adenosine deaminase (ADA), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect expression of ADA and CD73 in synovial tissue. Repeated EA treatment on CIA resulted in the persistence of high concentrations of adenosine in peripheral blood, significantly reduced pathological scores, TNF-α mRNA concentrations, and synovial hyperplasia. Importantly, EA treatment led to a significant increase in CD73 mRNA levels in peripheral blood but was associated with a decrease of CD73 immunostaining in synovial tissue. In addition, EA treatment resulted in a significant decrease of both ADA mRNA levels in peripheral blood and ADA immunostaining in synovial tissue. Thus, repeated EA treatment exerts an anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory effect on CIA by increasing the concentration of adenosine. The mechanism of EA action may involve the modulation of CD73 and ADA expression levels.

[Hydrogen sulfide removal by the combination of non-thermal plasma and biological process].

A bench scale system integrating a non-thermal plasma (NTP) unit with a biotricking filtration (BTF) unit for the treatment of gases containing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) was investigated. The additional use of the biotrickling filter to NTP reactor not only leads to the enhancement of hydrogen sulfide removal efficiency up from 83.4% to 90.1%, but also eliminates gas-phase intermediate products from NTP degradation of H2S to produce sulfate and H2O. The dynamic changes of microbial community in BTF influenced by ozone from NTP were assessed by PCR-DGGE. Results show that the microbial community was affected by ozone. After the integration, a part of microorganisms disappeared, and meanwhile some new microorganisms appeared. The microbial community structure in BTF changed from eight bands to nine bands; three bands which have the functions of desulfurization disappeared and four bands which have the functions of desulfurization appeared; five bands which have the functions of desulfurization and sulfate reduction were unchanged. The bacterial groups in the BTF unit of NTP-BTF system include Uncultured Thiobacillus sp., Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans strain dfI, Uncultured Thiobacillus sp., Uncultured Acidiphilium sp., Uncultured Xanthomonadaceae bacterium clone SBLE6C12, Uncultured 8-Proteobacterium and Paracraurococcus sp. 1PNM-27.

[Gaseous phenol removal in a bio-trickling filter].

The performance of a bio-trickling filter (BTF) for treatment of phenol, a model pollutant, was presented. Influences of factors on phenol removal efficiency were studied. The BTF exhibited a high removal efficiency for phenol. The experimental results showed that the phenol efficiency reached 99.5% and kept 98% in the long-term run. The optimal residence time, pH value and spray density were 20.6 s, 7.0 and 1.67 m(3) x (m(2) x h)(-1), respectively. The microbial community structures in the bio-trickling filter for phenol removal were assessed by PCR-DGGE. Based on the 16S rDNA sequence data,results showed that the predominant bacteria for degradation of phenol were Polaromonas sp., Acinetobacter sp., Acidovorax sp., Veillonella parvula and Corynebacterium sp., GC-MS was used to detect component of BTF's outlet gases and pyruvic acid (CH3COCOOH) was found as one kind of intermediates of phenol degradation. Then one possible biodegradation pathway of phenol was inferred.