Effects of childhood trauma on the symptom-level relation between depression, anxiety, stress, and problematic smartphone use: A network analysis.

BACKGROUND: Childhood trauma experience is closely associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and problematic smartphone use (PSU). However, few studies have explored the complex symptom-level relations between these variables among people with and without trauma experiences, leaving a gap in treating and alleviating these mental disorders among individuals with childhood trauma. METHODS: The current study used a convenience sampling method and recruited 2708 participants who completed Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21), and Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS), dividing them into trauma (n = 1454, Mean age = 19.67) and no-trauma (n = 1254, Mean age = 19.57) groups according to the cut-off scores of CTQ-SF. Symptom network analysis and network comparison test were conducted to construct and compare the network models between trauma and no-trauma groups. RESULTS: The findings indicate that the trauma group and females exhibit greater average levels of DASS-21 and PSU symptoms compared to the no-trauma group and males, respectively. Additionally, the edge between "Stress" and "Anxiety" is the strongest across trauma and no-trauma groups. "Social comfort" is a bridge symptom of the trauma group network and the results of bridge symptoms in the no-trauma group are not stable. LIMITATIONS: This study did not categorize all individuals according to specific types of trauma experiences and it is a cross-sectional design. The prevalences calculated in this study may not be generalizable. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions targeting different bridge symptoms in the trauma and no-trauma network models may help reduce the severity of symptoms.

Elimination of Intragrain Defect to Enhance the Performance of FAPbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells by Ionic Liquid.

Ionic liquids have been widely used to improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and are generally believed to passivate defects on the grain boundaries of perovskites. However, few studies have focused on the relevant effects of ionic liquids on intragrain defects in perovskites which have been shown to be critical for the performance of PSCs. In this work, the effect of ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide (HMII) on intragrain defects of formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) perovskite is investigated. Abundant {111}c intragrain planar defects in pure FAPbI3 grains are found to be significantly reduced by the addition of the ionic liquid HMII, shown by using ultra-low-dose selected area electron diffraction. As a result, longer charge carrier lifetimes, higher photoluminescence quantum yield, better charge carrier transport properties, lower Urbach energy, and current-voltage hysteresis are achieved, and the champion power conversion efficiency of 24.09% is demonstrated. These observations suggest that ionic liquids significantly improve device performance resulting from the elimination of {111}c intragrain planar defects.

DNA Damage-Induced Apoptosis Suppressor Triggers Progression and Stemness of Glioma by Enhancing Lymphoid Enhancer-Binding Factor 1 Expression.

Background: DNA damage-induced apoptosis suppressor (DDIAS) has recently been discovered to induce cancer progression, but its functions and mechanisms in glioma have not been well studied. Methods: DDIAS expression in glioma tissues was analyzed by the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis server (GEPIA) and the Gene Expression database of Normal and Tumor tissue 2 (GENT2) databases. The role of DDIAS in glioma progression was studied by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting DDIAS. The effects of DDIAS on glioma cell viability, cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and tumor sphere formation were determined by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), EdU, Transwell, tumor spheroid formation, extreme limiting dilution analysis assays in vitro and xenograft model construction in vivo. In addition, RNA sequencing and further functional experiments were used to analyze the DDIAS regulatory mechanism in glioma. Results: We found that DDIAS was highly expressed in glioma and that upregulated DDIAS indicated poor prognosis. Functionally, DDIAS knockdown inhibited glioma cell viability, cell proliferation, invasion and migration in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. In addition, lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 (LEF1) was identified as the downstream effector of DDIAS by RNA sequencing. DDIAS downregulation inhibited LEF1 mRNA and protein expression. The expression of DDIAS and LEF1 was positively correlated, and LEF1 overexpression rescued the inhibitory phenotype induced by DDIAS downregulation. We further showed that DDIAS downregulation inhibited cyclin A1, vimentin and the stemness-related factor CD133 and decreased the sphere formation capability, but these features were rescued by upregulation of LEF1. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggest that DDIAS promotes glioma progression and stemness by inducing LEF1 expression, proving that DDIAS may be a potential target for the treatment of glioma.

Femoral neck system as a safe alternative to cannulated compression screw and dynamic hip screw in femoral neck fractures: an early comparative study.

INTRODUCTION: The femoral neck system (FNS) is a safe alternative to cannulated compression screw (CCS) and dynamic hip screw (DHS) in femoral neck fractures. METHODS: A dual-centre retrospective cohort study was performed on femoral neck fractures (AO type 31-B) treated with closed reduction and internal fixation using FNS, DHS or CCS between April 2016 and April 2020. Exclusion criteria were as follows: patients aged below 16 years; chronic fractures beyond 7 days; pathological fractures; fracture extension to the intertrochanteric region or ipsilateral neck and shaft fractures; and open fractures. A total of 85 patients were identified: FNS (n = 28), DHS (n = 29) and CCS (n = 28). RESULTS: The FNS and CCS groups had a lower Garden and Pauwels classification compared to the DHS group (both P < 0.001). Both FNS and CCS groups were comparable in postoperative orthopaedic complications (10.7% [n = 3] vs. 3.6% [n = 1], adjusted P = 0.321). The DHS group had more postoperative orthopaedic complications than the FNS group, but this was not statistically significant (27.6% [n = 8] vs. 10.7% [n = 3], adjusted P = 0.321). There were no significant differences in median time to radiological union or median femoral neck shortening at union (both P > 0.05) among the three groups. CONCLUSION: The new DePuy Synthes FNS is a safe alternative to CCS with comparable complication rates for femoral neck fractures that are less displaced and more stable. The FNS also appears to be a safe alternative to DHS in the fixation of femoral neck fractures for the few cases of high-energy femoral neck fractures.

From Simple to Complex Scenes: Learning Robust Feature Representations for Accurate Human Parsing.

Human parsing has attracted considerable research interest due to its broad potential applications in the computer vision community. In this paper, we explore several useful properties, including high-resolution representation, auxiliary guidance, and model robustness, which collectively contribute to a novel method for accurate human parsing in both simple and complex scenes. Starting from simple scenes: we propose the boundary-aware hybrid resolution network (BHRN), an advanced human parsing network. BHRN utilizes deconvolutional layers and multi-scale supervision to generate rich high-resolution representations. Additionally, it includes an edge perceiving branch designed to enhance the fineness of part boundaries. Building on BHRN, we construct a dual-task mutual learning (DTML) framework. It not only provides implicit guidance to assist the parser by incorporating boundary features, but also explicitly maintains the high-order consistency between the parsing prediction and the ground truth. Toward complex scenes: we develop a domain transform method to enhance the model robustness. By transforming the input space from the spatial domain to the polar harmonic Fourier moment domain, the mapping relationship to the output semantic space is highly stable. This transformation yields robust representations for both clean and corrupted data. When evaluated on standard benchmark datasets, our method achieves superior performance compared to state-of-the-art human parsing methods. Furthermore, our domain transform strategy significantly improves the robustness of DTML dramatically in most complex scenes.

Healthy eating index-2015 and its association with the prevalence of stroke among US adults.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the healthy eating index (HEI) and the prevalence of stroke within a diverse United States population. Employing a cross-sectional design, we utilized data sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dietary information was collected from participants and HEI scores were computed. NHANES employed stratified multistage probability sampling, with subsequent weighted analysis following NHANES analytical guidelines. Thorough comparisons were made regarding the baseline characteristics of individuals with and without stroke. Weighted multivariable logistic regression analysis and restricted cubic spline (RCS) methods were employed to ascertain the association between stroke risk and HEI, with LASSO regression utilized to identify dietary factors most closely linked to stroke risk. Additionally, we constructed a nomogram model incorporating key dietary factors and assessed its discriminatory capability using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Our study encompassed 43,978 participants, representing an estimated 201 million U.S. residents. Participants with a history of stroke exhibited lower HEI scores than their non-stroke counterparts. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated a robust association between lower HEI scores and stroke, even after adjusting for confounding variables. RCS analysis indicated a nonlinear negative correlation between HEI and stroke risk. Furthermore, detailed subgroup analysis revealed a significant gender-based disparity in the impact of dietary quality on stroke risk, with females potentially benefiting more from dietary quality improvements. Sensitivity analysis using unweighted logistic regression yielded results consistent with our primary analysis. The nomogram model, based on key dietary factors identified through LASSO regression, demonstrated favorable discriminatory power, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 79.3% (95% CI 78.4-81.2%). Our findings suggest that higher HEI scores are inversely related to the risk of stroke, with potential greater benefits for women through dietary quality enhancement. These results underscore the importance of improving dietary quality for enhanced stroke prevention and treatment.

Eudesmane sesquiterpenoids with inhibitory effects on NO production from Artemisia princeps.

Five undescribed eudesmane methyl esters (1-5), three undescribed eudesmane-12,6-olides (6-8), and 21 known analogues (9-29) were isolated from the aerial part of Artemisia princeps Pamp. Their structures were established by detailed analysis of the NMR and HRESIMS data. The absolute configurations of 1-8 were determined based on single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and ECD calculations. Moreover, the inhibitory effects on LPS-induced NO production in BV-2 microglial cells of all the isolated compounds were assessed. Except for compounds 2, 4, 10, and 11, the others showed significant inhibitory activities, with IC50 values of 0.73-18.66 µM, wherein the potential structure-activity relationship was also discussed.

Hysterolides A-I, dimeric or monomeric sesquiterpene lactones from Parthenium hysterophorus L.

Nine undescribed sesquiterpene lactones, including two pseudoguaianolide dimers (1 and 2), a pseudoguaiac dilactone (3), and six pseudoguaianolides (4-9), along with 13 known analogues (10-22) were isolated from Parthenium hysterophorus. Among them, hysterolide A (1) possesses an unusual carbon skeleton with a unique cyclobutane ring connecting two pseudoguaianolides. Hysterolide C (3) is a sesquiterpene dilactone incorporating a bicyclo[5.1.0]octane core. Spectroscopic analyses, 13C NMR and ECD calculations, and X-ray diffraction elucidated their structures and absolute configurations. Moreover, all the isolates were assayed for their anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting LPS-induced nitric oxide production in BV-2 microglia cells, wherein, nine compounds displayed significant inhibitory activities with IC50 of 0.52-6.32 µM. Furthermore, the preliminary structure-activity relationship was also established.

3D-printed patient specific surgical guides: Balancing accuracy with practicality.

Introduction: Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has been used in orthopaedic surgery in recent years to manufacture customized surgical cutting jigs. However, there is scarcity of literature and information regarding the optimal parameters of an ideal jig. Our study aims to determine the optimum parameters to design surgical jigs that can produce accurate cuts, and remain practical for use, to serve as a guide for jig creation in future. Methods and materials: A biomechanical lab study was designed to investigate whether the thickness of a jig and the height of its cutting slot can significantly affect cutting accuracy. Surgical jigs were 3D printed in medical grade, and an oscillating sawblade was used to mimic intraoperative surgical cuts through the cutting slots onto wooden blocks, which were then analysed to determine the accuracy of cuts. Results: Statistical analysis was performed on a total of 72 cuts. The cutting accuracy increased when the thickness of the jig increased, at all slot heights. The cutting accuracy also increased as the slot height decreased, at all jig thicknesses. Overall, the parameters for jig construction that yielded the most accurate cuts were a jig thickness of 15 mm, in combination with a slot height of 100 % of the width of the sawblade. Additionally, at a jig thickness of 15 mm, there was no statistically significant difference in cutting accuracy when increasing the slot height to 120 %. Conclusion: This study is the first to propose tangible parameters that can be applied to surgical jig construction to obtain reproducible accurate cuts. Provided that a jig of 15 mm thickness can be accommodated by the size of the wound, the ideal surgical jig with a superior balance of accuracy and useability is 15 mm thick, with a cutting slot height of 120 % of the sawblade thickness.

Characterization of Dof Transcription Factors and the Heat-Tolerant Function of PeDof-11 in Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis).

Abiotic stress is the focus of passion fruit research since it harms the industry, in which high temperature is an important influencing factor. Dof transcription factors (TFs) act as essential regulators in stress conditions. TFs can protect against abiotic stress via a variety of biological processes. There is yet to be published a systematic study of the Dof (PeDof) family of passion fruit. This study discovered 13 PeDof family members by using high-quality genomes, and the members of this characterization were identified by bioinformatics. Transcriptome sequencing and qRT-PCR were used to analyze the induced expression of PeDofs under high-temperature stress during three periods, in which PeDof-11 was significantly induced with high expression. PeDof-11 was then chosen and converted into yeast, tobacco, and Arabidopsis, with the findings demonstrating that PeDof-11 could significantly respond to high-temperature stress. This research lays the groundwork for a better understanding of PeDof gene regulation under high-temperature stress.

A vacuolar transporter plays important roles in zinc and cadmium accumulation in rice grain.

Rice grain is a poor dietary source of zinc (Zn) but the primary source of cadmium (Cd) for humans; however, the molecular mechanisms for their accumulation in rice grain remain incompletely understood. This study functionally characterized a tonoplast-localized transporter, OsMTP1. OsMTP1 was preferentially expressed in the roots, aleurone layer, and embryo of seeds. OsMTP1 knockout decreased Zn concentration in the root cell sap, roots, aleurone layer and embryo, and subsequently increased Zn concentration in shoots and polished rice (endosperm) without yield penalty. OsMTP1 haplotype analysis revealed elite alleles associated with increased Zn level in polished rice, mostly because of the decreased OsMTP1 transcripts. OsMTP1 expression in yeast enhanced Zn tolerance but did not affect that of Cd. While OsMTP1 knockout resulted in decreased uptake, translocation and accumulation of Cd in plant and rice grain, which could be attributed to the indirect effects of altered Zn accumulation. Our results suggest that rice OsMTP1 primarily functions as a tonoplast-localized transporter for sequestrating Zn into vacuole. OsMTP1 knockout elevated Zn concentration but prevented Cd deposition in polished rice without yield penalty. Thus, OsMTP1 is a candidate gene for enhancing Zn level and reducing Cd level in rice grains.

Learning the Relation Between Similarity Loss and Clustering Loss in Self-Supervised Learning.

Self-supervised learning enables networks to learn discriminative features from massive data itself. Most state-of-the-art methods maximize the similarity between two augmentations of one image based on contrastive learning. By utilizing the consistency of two augmentations, the burden of manual annotations can be freed. Contrastive learning exploits instance-level information to learn robust features. However, the learned information is probably confined to different views of the same instance. In this paper, we attempt to leverage the similarity between two distinct images to boost representation in self-supervised learning. In contrast to instance-level information, the similarity between two distinct images may provide more useful information. Besides, we analyze the relation between similarity loss and feature-level cross-entropy loss. These two losses are essential for most deep learning methods. However, the relation between these two losses is not clear. Similarity loss helps obtain instance-level representation, while feature-level cross-entropy loss helps mine the similarity between two distinct images. We provide theoretical analyses and experiments to show that a suitable combination of these two losses can get state-of-the-art results. Code is available at https://github.com/guijiejie/ICCL.

An entomopathogenic fungus exploits its host humoral antibacterial immunity to minimize bacterial competition in the hemolymph.

BACKGROUND: The insect hemolymph (blood-equivalent fluid), composed of a large number of hemocytes (blood cells) and a variety of soluble immune effectors, is hostile for pathogens including fungi. In order to survive in the insect hemocoel (body cavity), the entomopathogenic fungus (EPF) has evolved two classical coping strategies, namely evasion and suppression of the host immune reactions. However, it remains unclear whether EPF has other ways of coping with host immunity. RESULTS: In this study, we demonstrated that Metarhizium rileyi (an EPF) infection by injection of blastospores into the hemocoel enhanced the plasma antibacterial activity of cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), which was partially due to the enhanced expression of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The early stage of M. rileyi infection induced the translocation of gut bacteria into the hemocoel, where they were subsequently cleared due to the enhanced plasma antibacterial activity. Further, we showed that the enhanced plasma antibacterial activity and AMP expression were attributable to M. rileyi but not the invasive gut bacteria (opportunistic bacteria). Elevated ecdysone (major steroid hormone in insects) levels in the hemolymph at 48 h post-M. rileyi infection might contribute to the enhanced expression of AMPs. The fungus-elicited AMPs, such as cecropin 3 or lebocin, exhibited potent inhibitory activity against the opportunistic bacteria but not against hyphal bodies. In addition, the opportunistic bacteria competed with hyphal bodies for amino acid nutrients. CONCLUSIONS: M. rileyi infection induced the translocation of gut bacteria, and then the fungi activated and exploited its host humoral antibacterial immunity to eliminate opportunistic bacteria, preventing them from competing for nutrients in the hemolymph. Unlike the classical strategies, EPF utilizes to evade or suppress host immunity, our findings reveal a novel strategy of interaction between EPF and host immunity. Video Abstract.

Noah: Reinforcement-Learning-Based Rate Limiter for Microservices in Large-Scale E-Commerce Services.

Modern large-scale online service providers typically deploy microservices into containers to achieve flexible service management. One critical problem in such container-based microservice architectures is to control the arrival rate of requests in the containers to avoid containers from being overloaded. In this article, we present our experience of rate limit for the containers in Alibaba, one of the largest e-commerce services in the world. Given the highly diverse characteristics of containers in Alibaba, we point out that the existing rate limit mechanisms cannot meet our demand. Thus, we design Noah, a dynamic rate limiter that can automatically adapt to the specific characteristic of each container without human efforts. The key idea of Noah is to use deep reinforcement learning (DRL) that automatically infers the most suitable configuration for each container. To fully embrace the advantages of DRL in our context, Noah addresses two technical challenges. First, Noah uses a lightweight system monitoring mechanism to collect container status. In this way, it minimizes the monitoring overhead while ensuring a timely reaction to system load changes. Second, Noah injects synthetic extreme data when training its models. Thus, its model gains knowledge on unseen special events and hence remains highly available in extreme scenarios. To guarantee model convergence with the injected training data, Noah adopts task-specific curriculum learning to train the model from normal data to extreme data gradually. Noah has been deployed in the production of Alibaba for two years, serving more than 50000 containers and around 300 types of microservice applications. Experimental results show that Noah can well adapt to three common scenarios in the production environment. It effectively achieves better system availability and shorter request response time compared with four state-of-the-art rate limiters.

Identification and analysis of C-type lectins from Helicoverpa armigera in response to the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium rileyi infection.

C-type lectins (CTLs) function as pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and play an important role in the innate immunity of insects. To investigate the role of CTLs in the antifungal responses, we analyzed expression profiles of 36 CTLs of Helicoverpa armigera in the tissues (hemocytes, fat bodies, and midgut) after the infection by entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium rileyi. The expression levels of many HaCTLs were found to be up-regulated after the infection. Four recombinant HaCTLs (rHaCTL11, rHaCTL12, rHaCTL27, and rHaCTL45) were expressed and purified. Analysis of the purified rHaCTLs revealed that rHaCTLs were able to bind to conidia and hyphal bodies of M. rileyi, and the affinity of rHaCTL11 and rHaCTL27 for hyphal bodies was weaker than for conidia. All these rHaCTLs agglutinate conidia and hyphal bodies in a calcium (Ca2+) dependent manner. Sugar specificity assays showed that d-trehalose, mannan, ß-1,3-glucan, d-galactose, glucose, d-raffinose, lipopolysaccharide, and d-xylose can inhibit the binding of HaCTLs to M. rileyi. Additionally, survival assays showed that pretreatment of fungal conidia with rHaCTL11 significantly reduced the rate of host death, and knockdown of HaCTL11 significantly increased H. armigera sensitivity to fungal infection. These results suggest that HaCTLs play significant role as PRRs in the defense of H. armigera against M. rileyi infection.

Comparison of epidemic characteristics and clinical manifestation of chickenpox between adults and children in Shandong Province from 2019 to 2021 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To analyze the differences between adults and children in the epidemic characteristics and clinical manifestations of chickenpox and provide a reference for the prevention strategy adjustment of chickenpox. Methods: The incidence data of chickenpox surveillance in Shandong Province from January 2019 to December 2021 were collected. Descriptive epidemiological methods were used to analyze the distribution of cases, and the chi-square test was used to compare the differences in epidemiological characteristics and clinical manifestations of varicella cases between adults and children. Results: A total of 66 182 cases of chickenpox were reported from 2019 to 2021, including 24 085 cases of adults chickenpox, the male to female sex ratio was 1∶1 (12 032∶12 053), basically the same for men and women, and 42 097 cases of children chickenpox, with a gender ratio of 1.4∶1, the male to female ratio was 1.4∶1 (24 699∶17 398). Fever in chickenpox cases was mainly low and moderate, but the proportion of moderate fever with temperature between 38.1 and 39.0 ℃ in children cases (35.0%,14 744/42 097) was significantly higher than that in adults (32.0%,7 696/24 085). The number of herpes in chickenpox cases was mainly less than 50, but the proportion of severe cases with 100-200 herpes in children was higher than that in adults. The incidence rate of complications was 1.4% (333/24 085) in adults chickenpox, the incidence rate of complications was 1.7% (731/42 097) in children chickenpox. The incidence of encephalitis and pneumonia in children was higher than in adults, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The proportion of chickenpox cases was mainly outpatient, but the hospitalization rate of children cases was 14.4% (6 049/42 097), higher than that of adults, which was 10.7% (2 585/24 085). Conclusions: There were differences between adult chickenpox and child chickenpox in terms of epidemic and clinical manifestations; the symptoms of child chickenpox were more serious than adult chickenpox. However, the adult chickenpox population is generally susceptible and lacks immune strategy protection, which calls for more attention.

Analysis of Graphic Perception Education for Young Children Based on Fuzzy Clustering Analysis.

Geometric ability includes elements of identification, conceptualization, combination, drawing, and reasoning, and graphic perception is an important part of it. Kindergarten science education includes geometry instruction. Children are guided to perceive the relationship between shapes and figures through direct perception, first-hand experience, and practical operation through concentrated educational activities, and form image-concrete thinking over time, enhancing their perception and experience of the relationship between shapes in the objective world, and accumulating certain mathematical perceptual experience. Clustering is a branch of unsupervised pattern recognition that is very useful. Fuzzy clustering, which establishes the uncertainty description of samples to categories and can objectively reflect the real world, has become the mainstream of cluster analysis research. The graphics perception education of children is investigated using fuzzy clustering analysis. The main topic of this paper is how to apply children's graphics to the design of children's educational institutions and open up new creative perspectives for the design of children's educational institutions. The method of graphic perception education: perception education for preschool children is proposed based on the multichannel characteristics of preschool children's aesthetic perception and with reference to the theory of perception. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm reduces segmentation time by 171.48 s when compared to the traditional FCM algorithm for both noisy and high-quality images and that it is significantly faster than the FCM algorithm in terms of segmentation speed. As a result, the model construction of a set of children's graphic perception education for the cognitive characteristics of the age group children can provide corresponding references and references for related topic research.

Study on Bulk Texture and Mechanical Properties of As-Extruded Wide Mg-Al-Zn Alloy Sheets with Different Al Addition.

The wide Mg alloy sheets produced by hot extrusion usually can easily form an inhomogeneous texture, resulting in anisotropic mechanical properties and poor formability. However, few studies have been carried out on the bulk texture investigation at different areas of as-extruded Mg alloy sheets, especially the Mg alloys with different alloying elements. In this work, the effect of Al on the bulk texture and mechanical properties at different areas for three wide Mg-Al-Zn alloy sheets with different Al contents (Mg-3Al-0.5Zn, Mg-8Al-0.5Zn and Mg-9Al-0.5Zn) are mainly investigated by neutron diffraction. The results showed that a strong and uneven basal texture was formed in the Mg-3Al-0.5Zn sheet. Meanwhile, the intensity of the basal texture was significantly weakened due to the numerous fine precipitates of Mg17Al12 particles, with the Al content increasing, which hinder the grain growth during extrusion, while fine recrystallized grains have a more random orientation. The enhanced tensile properties in Mg-8Al-0.5Zn and Mg-9Al-0.5Zn alloy sheets are ascribed to the cooperation effect of a refined microstructure, precipitates and weakened basal texture. Among the three Mg alloy sheets, the Mg-8Al-0.5Zn alloy sheet has a yield strength of about 270 MPa, an ultimate tensile strength of about 330 MPa and ultimate elongation of about 16% in the extrusion direction, which possesses the most excellent comprehensive mechanical properties.

Effectiveness of anabolic steroids in improving outcomes for post-operative hip fracture patients: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Post-operative elderly hip fracture patients require significant rehabilitation. Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid used to promote muscle growth. This study aims to examine the effect of nandrolone in improving rehabilitation and quality of life in elderly female patients with hip fractures undergoing hemiarthroplasty. Methods: This is a double-blinded prospective randomized-controlled-trial consisting of female patients above the age of 65 with an isolated neck of femur fracture planned for a hip hemiarthroplasty. Participants were randomized into two arms of the study - 50 mg intramuscular nandrolone vs normal saline placebo administered on post-operative day 0, and weeks 2, 6 and 12. The participants were followed up across a 1-year period following the surgery. Clinical outcomes such as time taken to achieve rehabilitation milestones, distance of ambulation and thigh muscle girth, and functional scoring with SF-36 questionnaire were recorded at intervals of 2, 6 and 12 weeks, 6 months and 1 year following the surgery. Results: There were a total of 23 subjects with 11 in the steroid group and 12 in the placebo group. There was no significant difference in demographics and injury patterns between both groups. There was no significant difference for time taken to achieve various rehabilitation milestones and distance of ambulation. SF-36 scores on discharge and at 1-year follow-up mark were comparable. There was no difference in the complication rate between both groups. Conclusion: Intra-muscular Nandrolone after hip surgery in elderly female patients does not result in short to mid-term improved rehabilitation or functional outcomes. Nandrolone did not result in increased short-term complications after hip surgery. Level of evidence: I.