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Purpose: Abnormal central nervous system function is the key central pathological factor leading to chronic pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Acupuncture can effectively relieve the pain of KOA patients. However, the central nervous mechanism of acupuncture treating KOA is not fully understood. This trial will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis techniques to investigate the potential central nervous mechanism of acupuncture treatment of KOA., Materials and Methods: A total of 108 patients will be randomized (in a 1:1:1 ratio) into three groups, this trial will include 4-week treatment, patients in groups A and B will receive 20 acupuncture and sham acupuncture sessions, respectively, patients in group C will not receive any intervention, and all patients will receive fMRI scans before and after the intervention. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index score (WOMAC) will be the primary clinical outcome. Then, we will explore the functional changes of the cognitive control network (CCN) in the brains of KOA patients through whole brain functional connectivity (FC) analysis and seed-based functional connectivity (sFC) analysis. Pearson correlation coefficient will be used to analyze the relationship between the improved value of the clinical correlation scale and the change of fMRI data., Discussion: This trial will analyze the efficacy of verum acupuncture, sham acupuncture and the waiting-list for KOA and explore the activity of the CCN in three groups of patients by fMRI, so as to reveal the central nervous mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of KOA., Study Registration: This study is approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No: 2019HL-133-01) and registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2000038554., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 Yin et al.)

Background . Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a painful, persistent feeling of physical and cognitive subjective fatigue related to cancer or cancer remedy. The occurrence of CRF may be related to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenaline (HPA) axis, inflammatory mediator theory, and gut microbiota. Moreover, acupuncture could play a vital part in the therapy of CRF. The study will evaluate whether acupuncture can improve fatigue symptoms of CRF patients after breast cancer chemotherapy by regulating the gut-brain axis. Methods/design . Seventy patients with CRF will be enrolled in this study, with 35 patients randomly assigned to each group. Blood and feces will be collected at the beginning and end of treatment. Piper fatigue scale, KPS score scale, and quality-of-life scale will be used to observe the changes of fatigue symptoms and life quality of CRF patients and to evaluate the effect of acupuncture on CRF. Then, the method of ELISA will be used to explore the regulatory effect of acupuncture on the HPA axis and inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, based on 16SrDNA, the changes of gut microbiota structure and flora of CRF patients will be observed. Ultimately, the correlation analysis of gut microbiota can be related to inflammatory cytokines, HPA axis, and clinical efficacy evaluation. Discussion . This study will identify the effect and the mechanism of acupuncture therapy in CRF. And it will offer an alternative treatment modality for the treatment of CRF after chemotherapy for breast cancer. Furthermore, it will also provide the clinical and theoretical bases for the extensive application of acupuncture therapy in tumor rehabilitation. Trial Status . Protocol version number and date: V2.0, 6 May 2021. The trial is registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on 20 June 2021 (trial identifier: ChiCTR2100047510)., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2022 Zhuan Lv et al.)

This study aimed to develop a Chinese Mental Resilience Scale. A total of 2500 healthy participants, in two representative samples of the Chinese population, were administered the scale. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis were used to obtain the relevant coefficients and verify the reliability and validity of the scale. Five factors were extracted: willpower, family support, optimism and self-confidence, problem solving, and interpersonal interaction, plus a lying subscale, which together accounted for 54 percent of the total variance. The Chinese Mental Resilience Scale demonstrated good psychometric properties. It can be used to evaluate the mental resilience level of general Chinese population., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

Making a quantitative prediction on the combined risk of the water body is helpful for the objective evaluation of the water environment system's state of health, and also has important results for the water environment system's safety management. In this paper, the Markov status switching theory (Markov Switching, MS), Monte Carlo method (Monte Carlo, MC) and Copula theory were used together, to establish a method for the water environment system's combined risk assessment. This method firstly using MS theory established the water quality time series' autoregression model (MS-AR); then the MS-AR model and MC method were used to carry out random simulation on the water quality time series; finally, multi-dimensional joint distribution among random simulation results were established by Copula function, and this distribution utilized to make a quantitative analysis of the water environment system's combined risk. By means of the above combined risk analysis model, the combined risk prediction and correlation analysis of the water quality of the Guohe River bridge section were carried out. The results showed that the total phosphorus (TP) and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) had an important effect on the Guohe River water environment's state of health, and there was a strong positive correlation between TP and BOD5.