Preparation of Battery-Grade FePO4·2H2O Using the Stripping Solution Generated from Resource Recycling of Bauxite Residue

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology - A novel process for the high-value-use of iron from bauxite residue was proposed in this work. The process was trying to use the...     

腹膜外入路腹腔镜下膀胱颈悬吊术治疗压力性尿失禁TVT-O术后失败或复发患者的初步经验

目的报道6例经腹膜外途径腹腔镜下膀胱颈Cooper韧带悬吊术(Burch手术)治疗女性压力性尿失禁行经阴道经闭孔尿道中段无张力悬吊术(TVT-O)术后失败或复发患者的初步经验。方法回顾分析2015年6月至2019年9月我们采用经腹腔镜下腹膜外途径Burch手术治疗的6例女性压力性尿失禁TVT-O术后失败或复发患者。自脐下2 cm处切开皮肤并制造腹膜外空间,用2#0薇荞线将尿道旁侧的阴道壁肌层“8字”缝合后再缝合到同侧Cooper韧带上。观察患者手术时间、出血量、住院时间等。结果所有手术均成功,手术时间(37±6)min,术中出血量(17±7)ml,术后住院时间(4.5±0.5)d。6例随访时间3~45个月,所有病例尿失禁症状均消失,均无感染、膀胱损伤、排尿困难、复发等并发症。结论女性压力性尿失禁患者行TVT-O术失败或复发后,选择腹腔镜下经腹膜外途径Burch术安全、有效,可以获得完全尿控,为临床可选方案。     

Enforcing Imprecise Constraints on Generative Adversarial Networks for Emulating Physical Systems

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) were initially proposed to generate images by learning from a large number of samples. Recently, GANs have been used to emulate complex physical systems such as turbulent flows. However, a critical question must be answered before GANs can be considered trusted emulators for physical systems: do GANs-generated samples conform to the various physical constraints? These include both deterministic constraints (e.g., conservation laws) and statistical constraints (e.g., energy spectrum of turbulent flows). The latter have been studied in a companion paper (Wu et al., Enforcing statistical constraints in generative adversarial networks for modeling chaotic dynamical systems. Journal of Computational Physics. 406, 109209, 2020). In the present work, we enforce deterministic yet imprecise constraints on GANs by incorporating them into the loss function of the generator. We evaluate the performance of physics-constrained GANs on two representative tasks with geometrical constraints (generating points on circles) and differential constraints (generating divergence-free flow velocity fields), respectively. In both cases, the constrained GANs produced samples that conform to the underlying constraints rather accurately, even though the constraints are only enforced up to a specified interval. More importantly, the imposed constraints significantly accelerate the convergence and improve the robustness in the training, indicating that they serve as a physics-based regularization. These improvements are noteworthy, as the convergence and robustness are two well-known obstacles in the training of GANs.     

Insulin Dependence Increases the Risk of Complications and Death in Total Joint Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta‐(Regression) Analysis

ObjectivesTo investigate the proportion of insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients among diabetic patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty (TJA) and whether insulin dependence is associated with postoperative complications.MethodsA systematic literature search was performed in EMBASE, PubMed, Ovid, Medline, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, the China Science and Technology Journal Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure from the inception dates to 10 September 2019. Observational studies reporting adverse events with IDDM following TJA were included. Primary outcomes were cardiovascular complications, pulmonary complications, kidney complications, wound complications, infection, and other complications within 30 days of surgery. Secondary outcomes were the proportion of IDDM patients among diabetic patients undergoing TJA and its time trend.ResultsA total of 19 studies involving 85,689 participants were included. Among patients undergoing TJA, 26% of diabetic patients had IDDM. Compared with non‐insulin‐dependent diabetes (NIDDM), the incidences of cardiac arrest (risk ratio [RR], 2.346; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.553 to 3.546), renal failure (relative risk [RR], 2.758; 95% CI, 1.830 to 4.156), deep incisional surgical site infection (RR, 1.968; 95% CI, 1.107 to 3.533), wound dehiscence (RR, 2.209; 95% CI, 1.830 to 4.156), and death (RR, 2.292; 95% CI, 1.568 to 3.349) were all significantly increased in IDDM. A significant time trend was witnessed for the prevalence of IDDM (P = 0.014). There was no statistical significance for organ/space surgical site infection, thrombotic events (deep venous thrombosis/ pulmonary embolism), and revision rates.ConclusionInsulin‐dependent diabetes is an independent high‐risk factor for increased adverse outcomes relative to NIDDM, suggesting that hierarchical and optimal blood glucose management may contribute to reducing the adverse complications after surgery for these patients. In addition, because the risk of sepsis, deep wound infection, organ/space surgical site infection, urinary tract infection, renal insufficiency, and renal failure significantly increase after TJA in IDDM patients, more active postoperative antimicrobial prophylaxis may be needed on the premise of protecting renal function.     

Value of preoperative urine white blood cell and nitrite in predicting postoperative infection following percutaneous nephrolithotomy: a meta-analysis

BackgroundTo evaluate to what degree preoperative urine white blood cell (WBC) and urine nitrite (NIT) values are predictive of postoperative infections following percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL).MethodsA systematic literature search was performed of the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Wanfang Data, National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China Science and Technology Journal Database (CSTJ or VIP) online databases to identify relevant studies that examined the predictive value of urine WBC or NIT as risk factors for post-PCNL infection, and the search was finished on February 28, 2020. Two independent reviewers screened the relevant studies, extracted necessary data from the eligible case-control studies (CCS), and assessed the quality of included studies through the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). RevMan 5.3 software and the Stata 16.0 software were used to complete the statistical analysis of data. Results are expressed as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsAccording to the statistical analysis of 12 eligible studies involving 6113 patients, positive urine WBC (WBC+: OR =3.86, 95% CI: 3.03–4.91, P<0.001) and positive NIT (NIT⁺: OR =7.81, 95% CI: 5.44–11.21, P<0.001) in preoperative tests were identified as independent risk factors for postoperative infections following PCNL.ConclusionsIn summary, as risk factors for postoperative infections, the presence of preoperative urine WBC+ and NIT+ should be evaluated as part of clinical procedure, in order to reduce infections of PCNL.     

Exploration of the association between serum uric acid and testosterone in adult males: NHANES 2011–2016

BackgroundPrevious studies have suggested that the possible relationship between serum uric acid (SUA) and testosterone. However, the results of previous studies are controversial and there is limited evidence examining the relationship between SUA and testosterone in a general US population of men. The objective of this study is to explore the correlation of SUA and testosterone among adult males from the US.MethodsData from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2016 were used, including a total of 7,796 male participants aged 18 years or older and excluding those lacking serum testosterone and uric acid data. Clinical characteristics of the participants among different SUA groups and testosterone groups are compared. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were applied to evaluate the association between SUA and testosterone.ResultsWe found an inverse association between SUA and testosterone after fully adjusted the potential confounding factors in general US adult males. In the multivariate linear regression analysis, we found that increasing age (estimate testosterone percent difference: −0.20% per year, P<0.01), uric acid (estimate testosterone percent difference: −4.40% per md/dL, P<0.01) and BMI (estimate testosterone percent difference: −2.86% per kg/m2, P<0.01) were associated with declining serum testosterone. This association remained significant in sensitivity analysis, while in the stratified analysis, above association was not significant in men with diabetes or aged 65 and over.ConclusionsSUA levels might be negatively associated with serum testosterone in adult males.     

Small animal jet injection technique results in enhanced immunogenicity of hantavirus DNA vaccines

DNA vaccine evaluation in small animals is hampered by low immunogenicity when the vaccines are delivered using a needle and syringe. To overcome this technical hurdle we tested the possibility that a device developed for human intradermal medicine delivery might be adapted to successfully deliver a DNA vaccine to small animals. Disposable syringe jet injection (DSJI) does not currently exist for small animals. However, a commercialized, human intradermal device used to to administer medicines to the human dermis in a 0.1 mL volume was evaluated in Syrian hamsters. Here, we found that hantavirus DNA vaccines administered to hamsters using DSJI were substantially more immunogenic than the same vaccines delivered by needle/syringe or particle mediated epidermal delivery (gene gun) vaccination. By adjusting how the device was used we could deliver vaccine to either subcutaneous tissues, or through the skin into the muscle. RNA and/or antigen expression was detected in epidermal, subepidermal and fibroblast cells. We directly compared six optimized and non-optimized hantavirus DNA vaccines in hamsters. Optimization, including codon-usage and mRNA stability, did not necessarily result in increased immunogenicity for all vaccines tested; however, optimization of the Andes virus (ANDV) DNA vaccine protected vaccinated hamsters from lethal disease. This is the first time active vaccination with an ANDV DNA vaccine has shown protective efficacy in the hamster model. The adaptation of a human intradermal jet injection device for use as a method of subcutaneous and intramuscular jet injection of DNA vaccines will advance the development of nucleic acid based medical countermeasures for diseases modeled in hamsters.     

A head-to-head comparison of measurement properties of the EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L in acute myeloid leukemia patients

Quality of Life Research - This study aimed to compare the measurement properties of EQ-5D-3L(3L) and EQ-5D-5L(5L) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in China. We consecutively recruited...     

The prevalence of stroke and related risk factors among residents aged ≥ 40 years in Chongqing,Southwest China

Journal of Public Health - China bears the largest global stroke burden, yet little is known about its rates in Chongqing, southwest China. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and related risk...