Highlights • Regional and network functional changes could be seen in the early stage of SCI. • Functional changes were associated with clinical symptom severity in SCI patients. • Functional ...reorganization may reflect a compensatory role in the recovery of SCI.
•LaFe11.6Si1.4/Pr2Co7 composites were fabricated by SPS followed by annealing.•10 wt% Pr2Co7 addition and medium LaFe11.6Si1.4 powders were conducive to 1:13 phase formation.•The diffusion of Pr/Co ...into the 1:13 phase improves the TC of these composites.•The composites exhibit excellent (σbc)max of 930–1405 MPa and λ of 14–20.90 W/m∙K.•These composites are promising candidates for near RT cooling applications.
A series of LaFe11.6Si1.4/xwt%Pr2Co7 (x = 0, 5, 10) composites, with a range of particle size of LaFe11.6Si1.4 powders, were successfully fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS), followed by annealing. The influence of the particle size of the LaFe11.6Si1.4 powders and the Pr2Co7 binder content on the phase constitution, microstructure, thermal, mechanical, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties were studied. The Pr2Co7 binder content (10 wt%) and the particle size of LaFe11.6Si1.4 powders (100–200 µm) were chosen to be conducive to the formation of the desired 1:13 phase. The magnetic and magnetocaloric properties were influenced by the synergistic effects of Pr and Co atomic diffusion as well by the particle size of the LaFe11.6Si1.4 majority phase powders. The values of TC, (ΔSM)max and RC for the sample could be tuned in the range of 230–297 K, 1.90–3.70 J/kg·K and 84–149 J/kg (ΔH=2 T), respectively, by tuning the Pr2Co7 content and the particle size of the LaFe11.6Si1.4 powders. Significantly, this TC range covers a wide variety of near room temperature cooling applications. The excellent values of thermal conductivity, maximum compressive strength and strain were in the range of 14–20.90 W/m·K, 930–1405 MPa and 5.9–7.9%, respectively. These features make these materials very promising candidates for near room temperature magnetic cooling applications.
Background
Acupuncture is used to treat chronic functional constipation (CFC) in China, despite limited evidence. We aim to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in managing CFC.
Methods
...A multicenter randomized controlled trial was performed involving 684 patients with CFC; the patients were randomly allocated to receive He acupuncture (n = 172), Shu‐mu acupuncture (n = 171), He‐shu‐mu acupuncture (n = 171), or oral administration of mosapride (n = 170). Sixteen sessions of acupuncture were given in the treatment duration of 4 weeks. The primary outcome was the change in spontaneous bowel movements (SBMs) at week 4 (at the end of treatment) compared to baseline. The secondary outcomes included stool consistency (Bristol scale), the degree of straining during defecation, and adverse events.
Key Results
The SBMs increased in all the four groups at week 4, and the magnitude of increase was equivalent in the four groups (He acupuncture, 2.7 95% CI, 2.3‐3.1; Shu‐mu acupuncture, 2.7 95% CI, 2.3‐3.0; He‐shu‐mu acupuncture, 2.2 95% CI, 1.9‐2.5; and mosapride, 2.4 95% CI, 2.0‐2.9; P = .226). However, the change in SBMs at week 8 was significantly smaller in mosapride group (1.4 95% CI, 1.0‐1.8) than the three acupuncture groups (2.4 95% CI, 2.1‐2.7, 2.3 95% CI, 1.9‐2.7, 2.1 95% CI, 1.7‐2.5 in He, Shu‐mu, and He‐shu‐mu group, respectively, P = .005).
Conclusions & Interferences
The three acupuncture treatments were as effective as mosapride in improving stool frequency and stool consistency in CFC, but the magnitude of the treatment effect is unknown due to the lack of sham acupuncture control.
The effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic functional constipation is unknown. Our study result showed that acupuncture treatments are as effective as mosapride in improving stool frequency and stool consistency.
The independent control of two magnetic electrodes and spin-coherent transport in magnetic tunnel junctions are strictly required for tunneling magnetoresistance, while junctions with only one ...ferromagnetic electrode exhibit tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance dependent on the anisotropic density of states with no room temperature performance so far. Here, we report an alternative approach to obtaining tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in α'-FeRh-based junctions driven by the magnetic phase transition of α'-FeRh and resultantly large variation of the density of states in the vicinity of MgO tunneling barrier, referred to as phase transition tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance. The junctions with only one α'-FeRh magnetic electrode show a magnetoresistance ratio up to 20% at room temperature. Both the polarity and magnitude of the phase transition tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance can be modulated by interfacial engineering at the α'-FeRh/MgO interface. Besides the fundamental significance, our finding might add a different dimension to magnetic random access memory and antiferromagnet spintronics.Tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance is promising for next generation memory devices but limited by the low efficiency and functioning temperature. Here the authors achieved 20% tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance at room temperature in magnetic tunnel junctions with one α'-FeRh magnetic electrode.
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•High density La-Fe-Si based composites were fabricated by short time SPS followed by annealing.•The magnetocaloric and mechanical properties could be tuned by changing the SPS ...temperature.•The optimum process was SPS@1273 K/5min followed by annealing@1323 K/24 h.•Excellent (σbc)max ∼ 1GPa, λ ∼ 17.68 W/m∙K and large (−ΔSM)max ∼ 2.3 J/kg‧K@2T were obtained.
La(Fe,Si)13 based magnetocaloric composites were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS), followed by annealing. The microstructure, mechanical and magnetocaloric properties were investigated. With increasing SPS temperature (TSPS) below 1373 K, the content of (La,Pr)(Fe,Co,Si)13 majority phase increased, while the content of minority phase α-Fe decreased. The increase of TSPS from 973 K to 1373 K greatly improved the composite density, and the density sharply increased from ∼ 68 % to 98 %. After SPS at 1273 K/5 min followed by 1323 K/24 h annealing, high content of 89.35 wt% of the desired (La,Pr)(Fe,Co,Si)13 phase was obtained in LaFe11.6Si1.4/10wt%Pr2Co7 composites. A large increase of Curie temperature (TC) from 196 K to 297 K was observed. The maximum magnetic entropy change (−ΔSM)max reached 2.3 J/(kg‧K) under 2 T magnetic field. ∼ 97 % of full density, excellent compressive strength of ∼ 1GPa and high thermal conductivity of 17.68 W/m∙K were exhibited. Thus, a route to produce high density La-Fe-Si based magnetocaloric composites with excellent mechanical properties and thermal conductivity, good (−ΔSM)max and adjustable TC by short time spark plasma sintering followed by annealing was demonstrated.
The impact of impurity ions on a pedestal has been investigated in the HL-2A Tokamak, at the Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu, China. Experimental results have clearly shown that during the ...H-mode phase, an electromagnetic turbulence was excited in the edge plasma region, where the impurity ions exhibited a peaked profile. It has been found that double impurity critical gradients are responsible for triggering the turbulence. Strong stiffness of the impurity profile has been observed during cyclic transitions between the I-phase and H-mode regime. The results suggest that the underlying physics of the self-regulated edge impurity profile offers the possibility for an active control of the pedestal dynamics via pedestal turbulence.
Randomized trials have not shown major survival benefits when induction chemotherapy plus standard therapy is compared with standard therapy alone in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma ...(OSCC). Induction chemotherapy is likely to be effective for biologically distinct subgroups and biomarker development may lead to identification of patients whose tumors are likely to respond to a particular treatment.
We evaluated immunohistochemical staining for GDF15 in pretreatment biopsy specimens of 230 of 256 OSCC patients who were treated in a prospective, randomized, phase III trial on induction chemotherapy including docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF). Relationship between GDF15 intervention and cell proliferation, migration, invasion, colony formation and tumorigenicity was analyzed using in vitro and in vivo OSCC models.
Low GDF15 expression predicted a better survival in OSCC patients, especially overall survival P = 0.049, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.597 and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS; P = 0.031, HR = 0.562). cN+ patients with low GDF15 expression benefitted from induction TPF in overall survival (P = 0.039, HR = 0.247) and DMFS (P = 0.039, HR = 0.247), cN- patients with high GDF15 expression benefitted from induction TPF in overall survival (P = 0.019, HR = 0.231), disease-free survival (P = 0.011, HR = 0.281), locoregional recurrence-free survival (P = 0.035, HR = 0.347) and DMFS (P = 0.009, HR = 0.197). Decreased GDF15 expression in OSCC lines significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion, colony formation and tumorigenesis through increased phosphorylation of AKT and ERK1/2 (P < 0.05). Likewise, overexpression of GDF15 significantly promoted cell proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation through decreased phosphorylation of AKT and ERK1/2 (P < 0.05).
GDF15 expression can be used as a prognostic biomarker for OSCC, and as a predictive biomarker for benefitting from TPF induction chemotherapy. GDF15 promotes tumorigenesis and progression through phosphorylation of AKT and ERK1/2 in OSCC. The clinical trial in this study was registered with www.ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01542931).
Abstract
This paper presents a simultaneous observation of the inner and outer electron diffusion region (EDR) at the dayside magnetopause by the magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) spacecraft. The EDR ...was observed in magnetic reconnection with a large guide field. The inner EDR was characterized by positive
J
·
E
′
while the outer EDR is manifested by negative
J
·
E
′
and opposite out-of-plane electric field to that in the inner EDR. One pair of the spacecraft detected the inner EDR while the other pair encountered the outer EDR. Moreover, the two pairs were on the opposite side of the X-line as they observed the bidirectional accelerated electron jets. The fortuitous formation of MMS allows us to estimate the maximum length of the inner EDR as ∼36
d
e
and the lower bound of the reconnection rate as 0.142 ± 0.041. These observations have far-reaching implications for understanding the electron physics in reconnection.
Nd-rich phase plays a critical role in wetting grain boundary and facilitating texture formation for hot deformed (HD) Nd-Fe-B magnets. In this study, a non-uniform distribution of Nd-rich phase with ...dimension up to a few micrometers was observed in nanocrystalline HD magnets. The aggregation of the Nd-rich phase is confirmed to result from the low density precursor prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The large local demagnetizing fields induced by Nd-rich phase aggregation led to the open recoil loops and reduced coercivity. Upon reducing recoil loop openness by eliminating Nd-rich phase aggregation, the coercivity of the HD magnet was significantly improved from 226 kA/m to 995 kA/m, and a high maximum energy product of 293 kJ/m3 was obtained. The dependences of microstructure and coercivity on the recoil loop characteristics suggest an essential approach for improving the magnetic properties of nanocrystalline HD Nd-Fe-B magnets.
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