Unconventional Luminescent Centers in Metastable Phases Created by Topochemical Reduction Reactions.

A low-temperature topochemical reduction strategy is used herein to prepare unconventional phosphors with luminescence covering the biological and/or telecommunications optical windows. This approach is demonstrated by using Bi(III)-doped Y2O3 (Y(2-x)Bi(x)O3) as a model system. Experimental results suggest that topochemical treatment of Y(2-x)Bi(x)O3 using CaH2 creates randomly distributed oxygen vacancies in the matrix, resulting in the change of the oxidation states of Bi to lower oxidation states. The change of the Bi coordination environments from the [BiO6] octahedra in Y(2-x)Bi(x)O3 to the oxygen-deficient [BiO(6-z)] polyhedra in reduced phases leads to a shift of the emission maximum from the visible to the near-infrared region. The generality of this approach was further demonstrated with other phosphors. Our findings suggest that this strategy can be used to explore Bi-doped or other classes of luminescent systems, thus opening up new avenues to develop novel optical materials.

[Efficacy of cervical fixed-point traction manipulation for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: a randomized controlled trial].

BACKGROUND: Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy is a commonly encountered and frequently occurring disease. Traditional Chinese osteopathic manipulations may have better therapeutic efficacy than that of other methods in treating patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical therapeutic effects of cervical fixed-point traction manipulation in treating patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: A prospective, randomized controlled trial was adopted. Eighty-four patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy were randomly divided into treatment group (n=42) and control group (n=42). All patients were enrolled from the outpatient service of Department of Rehabilitation of Chinese PLA General Hospital of China. Patients received oral and written information about clinical procedures before giving their written informed consent. The patients were treated with cervical fixed-point traction manipulation (treatment group) or cervical computer traction (control group). Cervical fixed-point traction was performed once every other day for a total of seven treatment periods and cervical computer traction was performed 30 min, once per day for 14 d. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Before and after treatment, visual analogue scale (VAS) score and temperature of upper limb skin (normal limb and abnormal limb) detected by infrared thermal imaging system were contrastively analyzed. RESULTS: Five patients were lost to follow-up, one patient in the treatment group and four patients in the control group. There were significant differences in VAS score and temperature difference between the normal and abnormal upper limbs of infrared thermal imaging in the treatment group (t=28.652, P<0.01; t=64.214, P<0.01) or in the control group (t=14.484, P<0.05; t=84.425, P<0.05) compared between before and after treatment. After treatment, the changes in VAS score and temperature difference of normal and abnormal upper limbs in the treatment group were more obvious compared with the control group (t=7.494, P<0.01; t=5.321, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Cervical fixed-point traction manipulation has better efficacy than cervical computer traction in treating patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.

[A traditional Chinese medicine therapy warming meridians to nourish blood in treating chronic pain due to soft tissue injury of the neck and shoulder: a randomized controlled trial].

BACKGROUND: Pain due to chronic soft tissue injury of the neck and shoulder is a commonly encountered and frequently occurring condition. Traditional Chinese medicine is a common course of treatment for soft tissue injury and may have better therapeutic effects than biomedical options. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical therapeutic effects of Chinese herbal medicine warming meridians to nourish blood on chronic pain due to soft tissue injury in the neck and shoulder. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: A random and control method was adopted. Sixty-three patients with pain of the neck and shoulder due to chronic soft tissue injury, presenting with blood deficiency and cold coagulation syndrome, were randomly divided into treatment group (n=32) and control group (n=31). There was a drop-out case in treatment group. All the patients were collected from the clinic service of the Department of Rehabilitation at the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army. Patients received oral and written information about clinical procedures before signing their written informed consent. Patients in the treatment group were treated with Chinese herbal decoctions for warming meridians to nourish blood and cervical traction. Patients in the control group were treated with cervical traction. The course of treatment was 14 days. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to record test data in the two groups before and after treatment, and therapeutic effect was compared after treatment between the two groups. RESULTS: After treatment, VAS scores of the treatment group and the control group were decreased as compared with before treatment (t=5.01, P<0.01; t=4.91, P<0.01). Difference of VAS scores between before and after treatment in the treatment group was higher than that in the control group (t=2.44, P0.05). CONCLUSION: The treatment method of warming meridians to nourish blood combined with cervical traction has better therapeutic effect than only applying traction for chronic pain due to soft tissue injury of the neck and shoulder.

Ultrabroad Photoluminescence and Electroluminescence at New Wavelengths from Doped Organometal Halide Perovskites.

Doping of semiconductors by introducing foreign atoms enables their widespread applications in microelectronics and optoelectronics. We show that this strategy can be applied to direct bandgap lead-halide perovskites, leading to the realization of ultrawide photoluminescence (PL) at new wavelengths enabled by doping bismuth (Bi) into lead-halide perovskites. Structural and photophysical characterization reveals that the PL stems from one class of Bi doping-induced optically active center, which is attributed to distorted [PbI6] units coupled with spatially localized bipolarons. Additionally, we find that compositional engineering of these semiconductors can be employed as an additional way to rationally tune the PL properties of doped perovskites. Finally, we accomplished the electroluminescence at cryogenic temperatures by using this system as an emissive layer, marking the first electrically driven devices using Bi-doped photonic materials. Our results suggest that low-cost, earth-abundant, solution-processable Bi-doped perovskite semiconductors could be promising candidate materials for developing optical sources operating at new wavelengths.