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Background: Safflor yellow (SY) is a water-capacitive component of dried flowers, mainly from safflor in the safflower family, which contains a large amount of bruthin A, or Safflor yellow A (SYA) for short. Studies have reported the protective effects of SYA against oxidative stress injury in nerve cells. Materials and Methods: In this study, H2O2-treated PC12 cells were used as experimental materials to explore how SYA plays a protective role against nerve cells after oxidative stress and to analyze the molecular mechanism of SYA. PC12 cells were treated with H2O2 and SYA solution. Cell proliferation is then detected with Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). The detection method is 5-(and 6)-chloromethyl-2′,7′-dichloro-dihydrofluorescein diacetate (CM-H2DCF-DA) staining reactive oxygen species (ROS). Levels of apoptosis-related proteins, including Bcl2-associated X protein (Bax), B-cell lymphoma (Bcl-2), caspase-3, and cleaved caspase-3, and oxidative stress regulators, namely, nuclear factor erythroid-2-related actor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1), were detected by western blotting. Results: The CCK-8 assay results showed that the survival rate of H2O2-induced PC12 cells was significantly increased after SYA treatment. Fluorescence microscopy (CM-H2DCF-DA staining) indicated that SYA decreased H2O2-induced apoptosis in PC12 cells by reducing intracellular ROS. Western blotting analysis showed that SYA upregulated the expression of Nrf2, HO-1, and Bcl-2 and downregulated the expression of Bax, caspase 3, and cleaved caspase-3 in H2O2-induced PC12 cells. Conclusion: SYA does protect the nerve cells from oxidative stress damage. Its mechanism of action is mainly related to whether the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway is activated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although acupuncture has been shown to be effective at treating overactive bladder (OAB) following stroke, to our knowledge, no randomized controlled trial (RCT) examining the effects of acupuncture on patients with post-stroke OAB has been conducted. The aim of this preliminary study was to explore the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) in the treatment of post-stroke OAB. Methods: This study was a multi-site randomized, assessor-blind, controlled pilot trial of patients with post-stroke OAB. In all, 34 post-stroke subjects (mean age: 71.0 years; 32.4% female) with OAB symptoms were randomly assigned to the treatment group or control group in a 1:1 ratio. The subjects in the treatment group were treated with six sessions of EA for 4 weeks, while the subjects in the control group received usual care. The primary outcome measure was the overactive bladder symptom scale (OABSS). Secondary outcome measures included a three day bladder diary and the stroke-specific quality-of-life scale (SSQoL). Results: EA showed a moderate effect size (ES) on the perceived severity of OAB symptoms as measured by the OABSS at week 5 (one week post-treatment, ES 0.57; p = 0.034) and week 8 (three weeks post-treatment, ES 0.60; p = 0.021), although the results did not remain statistically significant after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing. No significant differences in bladder diary parameters or SSQoL score were found. The EA treatment was well tolerated by the post-stroke subjects. Conclusion: A six-session EA treatment was feasible and appeared to reduce OAB symptoms in post-stroke patients. Further fully powered trials are warranted to confirm the efficacy of EA for those with post-stroke OAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Corticosteroids are frequently used for the treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and have also been reported to have an effect on postoperative analgesia. This study was conducted to assess the pain management effect of perioperative intravenous corticosteroids in patients undergoing total knee or hip arthroplasty and evaluate their early rehabilitation. Method: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched from electronic databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase (Ovid interface), and the Cochrane Library (Ovid interface). Among 932 records identified, 14 RCTs involving 1,023 patients were eligible for data extraction and meta‐analysis. Results: The use of intravenous steroids was associated with reduced pain at rest and with activity during the first 24 hours after operation (P < 0.05). Patient steroid groups had less opioid consumption (P < 0.05). Additionally, patients using intravenous corticosteroids had better outcomes, in terms of nausea and vomiting (both P < 0.05). Moreover, corticosteroids were effective in decreasing the inflammatory marker interleukin‐6 (P < 0.05). Complications such as deep infection and pruritus showed similar occurrence in both the corticosteroid groups and control groups (P > 0.05), while the occurrence of venous thromboembolism was lower in the corticosteroid groups, with a marginally significant difference. In addition, no significant difference in length of hospital stay was observed, irrespective of whether patients received intravenous corticosteroids (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Our results show that intravenous corticosteroids have good efficacy and safety when used perioperatively in total knee or hip arthroplasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-throated flume has been widely used as a flow measurement structure in irrigation channel systems. The key element of the long-throated flume is a throat, the length of which is longer than one and one-half times of the upstream energy head referenced to the throat invert or crest. Measurement accuracy of this flume is based on an accurate prediction of head-loss. This long throat causes the streamlines to be straight enough to sufficiently approximate hydrostatic pressure distributions. Replogle proposed a mathematic model for discharge calculation of various kinds of measurement structures. It is claimed that the model can achieve an accuracy within 2% based on the results of laboratory studies (within the range 0/07 < H1/L < 0.7). However, the additional inaccuracy is associated with errors in measured water level, which can also be improved by proper design of stilling well. When the calibration error is combined with the measurement error, the resulting accuracy of the measurement can be lower than 5%. A series of experiments were carried out in China to verify the effectiveness of this structure. In this experiment, three sets of flume were used: 1) five trapezoid flumes with only side contraction; 2) five trapezoid flumes with only vertical contraction; 3) two flumes with both side and vertical contractions, one with a trapezoid cross section and one with a U-shaped cross section. For the five flumes with only side-contractions, four upstream converging rates (length to width: 2, 2.5, 3, and 4:1) were used. The downstream side expansion rate was the same for all fumes, namely EM'=6. An extra set of models was created from the set with an upstream converging rate of 3:1 by cutting off the half-length of the downstream diverging section. For vertical contraction experiments, the sill height was p1=p2=0.2 m. Four upstream vertical-converging rates (2, 2.5, 3, and 4:1, horizontal to vertical) were used, and the downstream vertical convergence rate remained fixed at EM=6. An extra set of model runs was created from the set with vertical-converging rate of 3:1 by cutting off the half-length of the downstream diverging section similar as with the side contracted flumes. For flumes with side and vertical converge, both trapezoid and U-shaped cross sections were tested. Laboratory experiments showed that the long-throated flume was an effective flow-measurement structure with simple shape, low head loss, high modular limit, high robustness and accuracy. The best side contraction rate and vertical rate was 1:3 for accurate field calibration. When designed properly, downstream water level did not influence measurement accuracy. This should be advocated in most irrigation canals. Based upon test results, a modification was made to the original head loss equation to further increase the calculation accuracy. A local head loss ?Hcon was introduced to the original model to account for the head loss associated with a side contraction. This included a local head loss parameter ci that was used to calculate this extra head loss at the entrance to the throat section. In this paper, the recommended ci value for side contraction rates of 1:2, 1:2.5 and 1:3 were 0.317, 0.263 and 0.203, respectively. For flumes with only one side contraction, the modified method reduced the calculation error from 9.59% to 4.14%. With this new energy loss, calculation accuracy was significantly improved for long-throated flumes with side contractions, this will be helpful for water management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.

Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.