Acupuncture is often used as an adjunctive therapy for gastric ulcer (GU). However, there is still a lack of evidence on the appropriate and optimal interventions for acupuncture. This study aimed to ...optimize the acupuncture treatment of gastric ulcers based on expert consensus for guiding acupuncturists in clinical practice.
To conduct this study, research evidence was gathered from databases in both Chinese and English. After discussion, preliminary clinical questions were developed. Following three rounds of multidisciplinary clinical expert consultation, the initial consensus questionnaire was formed after testing and modification by team members. A Delphi consensus was ultimately reached to answer the questionnaire and develop guidance for acupuncture treatment. A 9-point Likert-type scale was used to measure the agreement of expert consensus, where a score of 80% between 7 and 9 was defined as “agreement.”
After two rounds of Delphi voting, a total of 35 items reached an agreement. These items can be roughly divided into 6 domains. According to expert consensus, the application of acupuncture for gastric ulcer should follow a semistandardized approach. Based on the syndrome differentiation, the main acupoints recommended are Zusanli (ST36), Zhongwan (CV12), Neiguan (PC6), and Sanyinjiao (SP6), while the adjunct acupoints include Taichong (LR3), Guanyuan (CV4), Xuehai (SP10), and Taixi (KI3). In the experience of experts, adverse events associated with acupuncture are typically mild and often manifest as subcutaneous hematomas.
There is a lack of definitive acupuncture guidelines that can effectively determine the optimal therapeutic approach for the treatment of gastric ulcer. This expert consensus provides recommendations for clinical research and practice of acupuncture, with a particular focus on the selection of acupoints. However, further exploration through rigorous studies is necessary due to the limited availability of clinical evidence.
•Experts believe that acupuncture can assist in the treatment of gastric ulcer and reduce adverse drug reactions.•After two rounds of Delphi voting, a total of 35 items were agreed upon, which can be broadly divided into six areas.•Guidance for acupuncture treatment has been developed through expert consensus.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Microencapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs) possess great potential as thermal energy storage materials for heating and cooling applications in industries. However, one important disadvantage ...of many MEPCMs is their low thermal conductivity. To enhance the thermal conductivity of PCMs, additives with high thermal conductivity are usually added into PCMs. However, these additives might not be mixed uniformly with the PCMs. Herein we report the first use of a polyurethane acrylic lacquer and hardener (PALH) as an adhesive to allow the additives to be uniformly coated on the surface of the shell of MEPCMs. A vacuum filtration assisted drop-casting method was employed to coat nano additives such as nano graphite, copper nanowires, titanium carbide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) on the shell of commercial MEPCM (MPCM 28D) using PALH. MWCNT was found to be the most effective in improving the thermal conductivity of the MEPCM, giving an 87% increase when just 5 wt% of MWCNT was added. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) images confirm the successful uniform coating of MWCNT on the shell of MPCM 28D, while Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) thermograms show that the phase change properties of MPCM 28D remain largely similar to the pre-coated MPCM 28D. Furthermore, thermal cycling tests indicate that MWCNT do not significantly affect the energy storage and release performance of MPCM 28D. These results indicate that coating MEPCMs with MWCNT can be a simple and effective method to improve their overall thermal conductivity without sacrificing its performance.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
A battery of siloxane (SiO)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCT) core-shell hybrids are successfully fabricated by encapsulating MWCTs with siloxanes via the hydrolysis-condensation reaction. First, ...MWCT is treated by the surfactant to improve the surface polarity. Then, the hydrolysis-condensation reaction of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and different saline coupling agents is performed on the surface of MWCTs to achieve various core-shell hybrids. These hybrids serve as fillers of epoxy resin (EPR) to prepare high-performance thermally conductive, electrically insulating and strength-enhanced composites at low fillers loadings. The SiO/MWCT/EPR composite possesses high thermal conductivity (0.55 W m−1 K−1, which is 196.7% higher than pure EPR) and excellent electrical insulation (>1012 Ω) at 1 wt% filler loading. The thermal conductivity improvement mechanism for these composites containing SiO/MWCT core-shell hybrids is demonstrated in detail. Moreover, the siloxane encapsulation route for MWCTs significantly declines their electrical conductivity, which greatly upgrades the practical value of as-prepared thermal conductivity composites.
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•Siloxane/carbon nanotube core-shell hybrid is successfully fabricated via the hydrolysis-condensation reaction.•The EPR composites with SiO/MWCT core-shell hybrid fillers possess high thermal conductivity (0.55 W m−1 K−1).•The EPR/SiO/MWCT composite shows excellent electrical insulation (>1012 Ω) at 1 wt% filler loading.•This research provides a practical avenue for producing conductive and electrically insulating materials.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract
The black hole candidate system SLX 1746–331 was back to business in 2023, after a long silence of roughly 13 years. An outburst was observed thoroughly by Insight-HXMT and NICER. The ...outburst is characterized by spectral dominance of the soft state, where the joint Insight-HXMT and NICER spectral analysis shows the temperature dependence of the disk flux follows
T
in
3.98
, and thus suggests that the inner disk reaches its innermost stable circular orbit during almost the entire outburst. By assuming 0.3
L
Edd
for the peak flux and an inclination angle of zero degrees, the lower limit of the compact object hosted in this system is estimated as 3.28 ± 2.14
M
⊙
. We also look into the relation between the disk temperature and disk flux for a sample of black hole systems, and by taking the disk temperature derived in the outburst of SLX 1746–331, such a relation results in a mass estimation of 5.2 ± 4.5
M
⊙
. Finally, the spin of the compact object is constrained to be larger than 0.8 with the spectral model KERRBB.
Recently, various associative dynamic bonds have been introduced into vitrimers to make the materials recyclable. However, for the high-molecular-weight diene vitrimers, there is a big challenge to ...endow the rubbers with great intrinsic recyclability without sacrificing their mechanical properties. Herein, a series of copolymers consisting of polystyrene (PS) blocks and hydroxyl-functionalized polyisoprene blocks are synthesized. After being modified and cross-linked, diene vitrimers PS x IM2 (x = 0, 1, 2, 3) and PS2IM y (y = 1, 2, 3) were prepared, where the contents of styrene units or hydroxyl groups were changed gradually. The resulting samples possess both a dynamic covalent network consisting of vinylogous urethane bonds and a physical network consisting of phase-separated polystyrene domains. The experimental results show that the flow of PS phases above T g,PS effectively accelerates the rearrangement of dynamic covalent networks, so that the exchange activation energy (E a) and topological freezing transition temperature (T v) of the samples decrease with the increase of the PS phase content, giving the samples superior recyclability and self-healing ability. The increase of cross-link density can further improve the recycling performance of the samples, where the toughness recovery ratio of PS2IM3 can reach 100%. Especially for PS2IM2, it showed much better recycled mechanical properties compared with other diene vitrimers reported. With the existence of T g,PS and T v, PS2IM2 also possesses sensitive thermally triggered shape memory performance. Our works provides a broader idea for the recycling of diene vitrimers.
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The intestinal microbiome is critically important in shaping a variety of host physiological responses. However, it remains elusive on how gut microbiota impacts overall growth and more specifically, ...adipogenesis. Using the pig as an animal model, we compared the differences in bacterial community structure throughout the intestinal tract in two breeds (Landrace and Jinhua) of pigs with distinct phenotypes. The Landrace is a commercial purebred and the Jinhua is a Chinese indigenous, slow-growing breed with high propensity for fat deposition. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we revealed that the bacterial communities are more diverse in the duodenum, jejunum, and cecum of Jinhua pigs than in those of Landrace pigs, whereas the ileal and colonic microbiota show a similar complexity between the two breeds. Furthermore, a number of bacterial taxa differentially exist in Jinhua and Landrace pigs throughout the entire intestinal tract, with the jejunal and ileal microbiome showing the greatest contrast. Functional prediction of the bacterial community suggested increased fatty acid biosynthesis in Jinghua pigs, which could partially explain their adiposity phenotype. Further studies are warranted to experimentally verify the relative contribution of each enriched bacterial species and their effect on adipogenesis and animal growth.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy control design problem is investigated for an underwater vehicle manipulator system (UVMS) based on a fuzzy performance observer (FPOB) and fuzzy disturbance observer ...(FDO). The UVMS is considered as a nonlinear system comprising model uncertainties, external disturbances and dead-zone band input nonlinearities. To mitigate the combined effects of the dead-zone and the hysteresis, a novel pre-deadzone compensator is proposed. Then, fuzzy logic systems (FLSs) with online adaptations are utilized to evaluate the unknown components of the inertia matrix, the Coriolis matrix and the damping matrix. In addition, a fuzzy performance observer is constructed whose errors are used to estimate the external disturbances. Further, an H∞ fuzzy control technique is developed to reduce the errors in estimating the external disturbance. Then, the stability and tracking performance of the closed-loop system are analyzed using the Lyapunov stability theory. It is shown that all signals of the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in addressing the tracking control problem of the UVMS in presence of the dead-zone band and disturbances.
•The dead-zone band was adopted to describe combined effects of both dead-zone and hysteresis.•A novel pre-dead-zone compensator was presented to reject the effect of dead-zone.•An adaptive fuzzy control of UVMS was developed based on FPO and FDO.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Highlights
Recent advances of various bottom-up approaches for constructing nanostructured semiconductor thermoelectric materials with different dimensions are reviewed.
The relationships between the ...nanostructures and the key electronic and thermal transport parameters contributing to ZT are discussed.
The challenges of the bottom-up strategies and suggestions for future development toward thermoelectric applications are provided.
The recent advancements in thermoelectric materials are largely credited to two factors, namely established physical theories and advanced materials engineering methods. The developments in the physical theories have come a long way from the “phonon glass electron crystal” paradigm to the more recent band convergence and nanostructuring, which consequently results in drastic improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit value. On the other hand, the progresses in materials fabrication methods and processing technologies have enabled the discovery of new physical mechanisms, hence further facilitating the emergence of high-performance thermoelectric materials. In recent years, many comprehensive review articles are focused on various aspects of thermoelectrics ranging from thermoelectric materials, physical mechanisms and materials process techniques in particular with emphasis on solid state reactions. While bottom-up approaches to obtain thermoelectric materials have widely been employed in thermoelectrics, comprehensive reviews on summarizing such methods are still rare. In this review, we will outline a variety of bottom-up strategies for preparing high-performance thermoelectric materials. In addition, state-of-art, challenges and future opportunities in this domain will be commented.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Heat dissipation has become a central issue for the development of the microelectronic industry. Thermal interface materials (TIMs) have been widely applied to electron component cooling, which is ...used to bond the heat spreader and the chip together. Most research on TIMs has only dealt with thermal conductivity enhancement. However, the mechanical properties and adhesion of TIMs are indispensable for practical applications, as well as postcleaning to remove TIMs. A graphene nanosheet/polyolefin elastomer (GNP/POE) film was designed and prepared by a facile method, in which the heat conduction paths were efficiently constructed, and the good mechanical properties of POE were reserved. The thermal conductivity of as-prepared GNP/POE film can reach 1.07 W m–1 K–1 at an extremely low filler loading of 0.62 wt %. Furthermore, the tensile strength, elongation at break, and adhesion of the prepared GNP/POE film are as good as those of commercial TIM productions. The prepared GNP/POE film can be used as TIMs for chip cooling and exhibits a good heat dissipation effect. Additionally, the prepared GNP/POE film can be peeled off from the chip without residue, after the chip has finished running, which is significant for practical production. This work provides valuable information and insight into the design and fabrication of TIMs in the future.
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