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BACKGROUND: Patients with hypertension are at a high risk for stroke, but a healthy lifestyle can greatly reduce the risk of stroke. However, there has been no research on the change in prestroke health behaviors in Chinese patients with hypertensive stroke over a decade. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to determine whether prestroke health behaviors of patients with hypertensive stroke changed over a decade and to explore the predictors of prestroke health behaviors over a decade. METHODS: This study used data from 2 cross-sectional studies conducted in the neurology departments of 3 hospitals in Guangzhou, China. In total, 110 hypertensive stroke patients were recruited in stage I (2008-2009), and 119 hypertensive stroke patients were recruited in stage II (2018-2019). Patients' stroke knowledge was measured by the Stroke Knowledge Questionnaire. Patients' prestroke health behavior was measured by the Health Behavior Scale for Stroke Patients. RESULTS: The total score of prestroke health behaviors significantly increased over the decade (P < .001), but the scores of the subcategories of low-fat diet, low-sugar diet, and blood pressure checkups decreased over the decade (P < .05). Stroke knowledge was a significant predictor of prestroke health behaviors in stage I (P < .05). Besides stroke knowledge, sex and age were significant predictors of prestroke health behaviors in stage II (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Prestroke health behaviors of hypertensive stroke patients significantly improved over the decade. Moreover, prestroke health behaviors were significantly influenced by stroke-related knowledge over the decade. Healthcare providers should focus in particular on assisting patients who are male, young, and middle-aged, and lack stroke-related knowledge to improve their prestroke health behaviors, especially in terms of adherence to a low-fat/low-sugar diet and regular blood pressure checks.

Background. An increasing number of systematic reviews/meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) of clinical trials have begun to investigate the effects of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) nursing in patients with stroke. To systematically appraise and synthesize these results, we conducted an overview of SRs/MAs. Methods. Eight databases from their inception to April 2020 were searched to include all SRs/MAs on TCM nursing for stroke. Methodological quality assessment was performed using Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2) and evidence quality assessment was performed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). Results. Eleven SRs/MAs regarding TCM nursing for stroke were included. The assessments with AMSTAR-2 indicated that the methodological quality of all included SRs/MAs was critically low. According to the evaluation results of GRADE, 10 (40%) outcomes were rated as critically low-quality evidence, 7 (28%) low-quality evidence, and 8 (32%) moderate-quality evidence. Descriptive analysis results showed that TCM nursing was effective for stroke. Conclusions. All included SRs/MAs suggested positive findings of TCM nursing for stroke, but the credibility of the results is limited. Studies with methodologically rigorous and adequately powered are still needed in this field.

Background Dysphagia is common after stroke. Patients with dysphagia have a higher risk of stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) and poor outcomes. Early detection of dysphagia is necessary to identify and manage patients at high risk of aspiration. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of the systematic administration of the volume-viscosity swallow test (V-VST) in patients with acute ischaemic stroke. Methods This was a retrospective observational study that enrolled patients with acute ischaemic stroke in two consecutive time periods: pre-V-VST, when the 30-mL water-swallowing test (WST) was systematically administered, and V-VST, when all patients underwent the WST and the V-VST test was systematically administered if the patient failed the WST. Results Two hundred and 42 patients were enrolled. The mean age of the participants was 68.8 ± 10.88 years, 61.2% were male, and the median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score was 3 (IQR, 1–6). A total of 147 patients were enrolled during the pre-V-VST period and 95 were enrolled during the V-VST period. There was a significant difference in the occurrence of SAP (21.8% vs. 10.5%, p = 0.024) and the rate of nasogastric tube feeding (25.9% vs. 14.7%, p = 0.040) between the two groups, and no differences were found in the length of hospital stay (p = 0.277) or the total cost of hospitalization (p = 0.846). Conclusions The V-VST was a better clinical screening tool, and it can also provide detailed suggestions regarding dietary modifications to prevent aspiration and SAP.

To assess the efficacy of combining radioimmunoconjugate [(131)I] metuximab with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment compared with RFA alone, a single-center randomized controlled trial was conducted on 127 patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging system (BCLC) classifications of 0-B stage. Patients received either RFA followed by [(131)I] metuximab (n = 62) or RFA alone (n = 65). The primary outcome was overall tumor recurrence. Statistical tests were two-sided. The one- and two-year recurrence rates in the combination group were 31.8% and 58.5%, whereas those in the RFA group were 56.3% and 70.9%, respectively. The median time to overall tumor recurrence was 17 months in the combination group and 10 months in the RFA group (P = .03). The RFA-[(131)I] metuximab treatment showed a greater antirecurrence benefit than RFA in the metuximab target (ie, CD147)-positive subpopulation (P = .007). [(131)I] metuximab may yield prevention of tumor recurrence after RFA.

BP gets local minimization too easily and converges slowly and could not get the global optima. To solve these problems, this paper proposes GA-BP algorithm to predict the purity of vitamin E in obtaining the purity of vitamin E with molecular distillation. The genetic algorithm is applied to optimize the weights of BP neural network and the combination of the advantages of two arithmetic improves the response time efficiently and forecast precision. The simulation results show that this algorithm can get an ideal result on the both, so which has a high application value.

In view of basic BP network lower convergence rate and easily to sink into the partial minimum insufficiency, this paper combines GA with BP to establish the model. The model makes use of GA are powerful approaches to solve global optimization problems, and construct anagenesis neural networks model. Based on the characteristics of the purification of materials, this method about GA-BP network is proposed to predict the purification of materials, test results show that it has better local approximation and generalization capabilities when appropriate numbers and parameters of the GA-BP are chosen.

In order to obtain the optimum craft parameters and improve the product purity and yield,a new optimization design method based on NN and GA is proposed. The neural network is used to build the model of target function, namely, a mapping relationship from craft parameters to purity and yield is established. Taking many craft parameters(feed rate,vacuum, and temperature) as optimal variables, purity and yield as optimization target,the optimization model is build and advance optimizing quality and decrease the number of times of numerical simulation. In this article, the essential oil of schisandra chinensis was produced according to the technology of molecular distillation. The technological parameters were optimized. The process and result prove that this method is effective.