Abstract
Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the differences in the effectiveness of percutaneous radiofrequency thermocoagulation (PRT) and microvascular decompression (MVD) in treating ...glossopharyngeal neuralgia (GPN).
Methods
Medical records of patients were reviewed to investigate their baseline characteristics and immediate postoperative prognosis. Long-term outcomes of these patients were obtained through telephone interviews. Visual analog scale (VAS) and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scores at 1 day and 1, 4, 12, 24, and 48 weeks after surgery were compared between the MVD and PRT groups, in addition to complete pain relief rate, effective rate, adverse reactions, length of hospital stay, and economic indicators.
Results
The VAS and PSQI scores of the two groups at 1 day and 1, 4, 12, 24, and 48 weeks after surgery were significantly lower (
P
< 0.05) than those before surgery. At 48 weeks, the complete remission rate was significantly higher (
P
< 0.05) in the MVD group than in PRT group. No significant difference in adverse reactions was observed between the two groups. The length of hospital stay, operative time, and cost were significantly higher (
P
< 0.05) in the MVD group than in the PRT group.
Conclusions
Both PRT and MVD can significantly reduce patients’ degree of pain and improve their sleep quality. In the medium term, MVD is better than PRT in terms of the complete curative effect. In young patients with GPN, MVD is more often recommended than PRT; however, MVD is costlier than PRT.
Objective
This study aimed to systematically assess the efficacy and complications of radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFT) and percutaneous balloon compression (PBC) for treating trigeminal ...neuralgia (TN).
Methods
Chinese and English studies on RFT and PBC in the treatment of TN were systematically searched using CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and until December 31, 2022. Further, the literature was strictly screened using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The RevMan 5.4 software was used for data processing and meta-analysis.
Results
Overall, 16 studies with 3,326 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis revealed that no significant difference was present between the two groups in terms of the rate of efficacy immediately after surgery, 1 month after surgery, and 3 months after surgery (odds ratio OR = 0.73, 95% confidence interval CI 0.35–1.54,
p
= 0.41; OR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.13–1.32,
p
= 0.13; OR = 0.40, 95% CI 0.10–1.60,
p
= 0.20); however, at 12 months after surgery, the difference was statistically significant (OR = 0.27, 95% CI 0.10–0.75,
p
= 0.01). Notably, there was no significant difference in the postoperative sleep quality index between the two groups immediately after surgery and 1 month after surgery (
SMD
= −0.01, 95% CI −2.47 to 2.44,
p
= 0.99;
SMD
= 0.14, 95% CI −3.95 to 4.22,
p
= 0.95). Further, statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in the incidence of postoperative masticatory muscle strength decline and oral herpes (OR = 0.37; 95% CI 0.21–0.63,
p
= 0.0003; OR = 0.25, 95% CI 0.10–0.61,
p
= 0.003). In addition, a statistically significant difference was found in the recurrence rate at 1-year follow-up (OR = 2.23, 95% CI 1.03–4.81,
p
= 0.04); however, no statistically significant differences were found in the recurrence rate at the 2-year follow-up (OR = 1.95, 95% CI 0.33–11.59,
p
= 0.46).
Conclusion
In the treatment of TN, both RFT and PBC can achieve good short-term efficacy, and no significant differences were noted between the outcomes of the two approaches. Compared with RFT, PBC may result in a lower pain score and recurrence rate in the medium and long terms, but it is a higher incidence of cold sores, and the decrease of masticatory muscle strength is more obvious.
In this paper, we reported on wafer-scale nanoporous (NP) AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet (DUV) distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) with 95% reflectivity at 280 nm, using epitaxial periodically stacked ...n-Al
Ga
N/u-Al
Ga
N structures grown on AlN/sapphire templates via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The DBRs were fabricated by a simple one-step selective wet etching in heated KOH aqueous solution. To study the influence of the temperature of KOH electrolyte on the nanopores formation, the amount of charge consumed during etching process was counted, and the surface and cross-sectional morphology of DBRs were characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). As the electrolyte temperature increased, the nanopores became larger while the amount of charge reduced, which revealed that the etching process was a combination of electrochemical and chemical etching. The triangular nanopores and hexagonal pits further confirmed the chemical etching processes. Our work demonstrated a simple wet etching to fabricate high reflective DBRs, which would be useful for AlGaN based DUV devices with microcavity structures.
Due to the remarkable anti-tumor activities of oridonin (Ori), research on
has attracted more and more attention in the pharmaceutical field. The purpose of this study was to extract Ori from
by ...ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) and prepare Ori liposomes as a novel delivery system to improve the bioavailability and biocompatibility. Response surface methodology (RSM), namely Box-Behnken design (BBD), was applied to optimize extraction conditions, formulation, and preparation process. The results demonstrated that the optimal extraction conditions were an ethanol concentration of 75.9%, an extraction time of 35.7 min, and a solid/liquid ratio of 1:32.6. Under these optimal conditions, the extraction yield of Ori was 4.23 mg/g, which was well matched with the predicted value (4.28 mg/g). The optimal preparation conditions of Ori liposomes by RSM, with an ultrasonic time of 41.1 min, a soybean phospholipids/drug ratio of 9.6 g/g, and a water bath temperature of 53.4 °C, had higher encapsulation efficiency (84.1%). The characterization studies indicated that Ori liposomes had well-dispersible spherical shapes and uniform sizes with a particle size of 137.7 nm, a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.216, and zeta potential of -24.0 mV. In addition, Ori liposomes presented better activity than free Ori. Therefore, the results indicated that Ori liposomes could enhance the bioactivity of Ori, being proposed as a promising vehicle for drug delivery.
We report on studying tunnel junctions and an optical cavity structure for developing epitaxially-stacked high-efficiency 905 nm high-power laser diodes. The GaAs tunnel junctions were explored via ...simulation and experiments to realize a high peak current density of 7.7×10 4 A/cm 2 and a low specific resistance of 1.5×10 -5 Ωcm 2 with a high n-doping concentration of 6×10 19 cm -3 . Employing a low-loss epitaxial structure design, single-, double-, and triple-cavity structure laser diodes demonstrated power scaling by epitaxial stacking. Triple-cavity laser diodes have a low optical loss (0.42 cm -1 ) and generate a peak power of 83 W with a short cavity length of 750 µm at a limited current of 30 A.
A two-stage mixed integer linear programming model (MILP) incorporating a novel method of stochastic scenario generation was proposed in order to optimize the economic performance of the synergistic ...combination of midstream and downstream petrochemical supply chain. The uncertainty nature of the problem intrigued the parameter estimation, which was conducted through discretizing the assumed probability distribution of the stochastic parameters. The modeling framework was adapted into a real-world scale of petrochemical enterprise and fed into optimization computations. Comparisons between the deterministic model and stochastic model were discussed, and the influences of the cost components on the overall profit were analyzed. The computational results demonstrated the rationality of using reasonable numbers of scenarios to approximate the stochastic optimization problem.
We investigate a framework of local field, quality factor and lifetime for tunable graphene nanoribbon plasmonic-photonic absorbers and study the second order and third order nonlinear optical ...response of surface plasmons. The energy exchange of plasmonic-photonic absorber occurs in two main ways: one way is the decay process of intrinsic loss for each resonant mode and another is the decay process of energy loss between graphene surface plasmon (GSP) mode and the external light field. The quality factor and lifetime of the plasmonic-photonic absorber can be obtained with using the coupled mode theory (CMT) and finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, which are effectively tunable with changing Fermi energy, carrier mobility and superstrate refractive index. The evolutions of total energy and lifetime of GSP are also shown, which are helpful for the study of micro processes in a two-dimensional material plasmonic-photonic absorber. The strongly localized fundamental field induces a desired increase of second harmonic (SH) wave and third harmonic (TH) wave. The manipulation of the quality factor and lifetime of the GSP makes graphene an excellent platform for tunable two-dimensional material plasmonic-photonic devices to realize the active control of the photoelectric/photothermal energy conversion process and higher harmonic generation.
The road and marine transportation sectors have attracted a great deal of attention as one of the main sources of carbon emissions. In this study, a LEAP (long-range energy alternatives planning ...system) model is used to predict the energy demand and carbon emissions of the road and marine transportation sectors in Guangdong Province from 2016 to 2030. Based on the model results, if Guangdong Province does not adopt new control measures, in 2030, the energy demand and CO
2
(carbon dioxide) emissions from the road and marine transportation sectors will have increased by 117 and 116%, respectively, compared to the levels in 2015. Conversely, under a low-carbon scenario, carbon emissions will peak by 2027 in Guangdong Province. Motor vehicle control measures generate the strongest reduction in energy consumption and CO
2
emissions for the road and marine transportation sectors in Guangdong Province. Furthermore, the reduction of emissions resulting from these measures would increase over time. Public transportation development and the promotion of clean energy measures also play significant roles in reducing carbon emissions long-term. The contribution of road passenger transport to emission reduction is the largest, followed by marine freight transport and road freight transport. While the energy demand and carbon emissions peak at a similar time in the model, the peak time for CO
2
occurs slightly earlier.
Abstract
In the last decade, two‐dimensional layered materials (2DLMs) have been drawing extensive attentions due to their unique properties, such as absence of surface dangling bonds, ...thickness‐dependent bandgap, high absorption coefficient, large specific surface area, and so on. But the high‐quality growth and transfer of wafer‐scale 2DLMs films is still a great challenge for the commercialization of pure 2DLMs‐based photodetectors. Conversely, the material growth and device fabrication technologies of three‐dimensional (3D) semiconductors photodetectors tend to be gradually matured. However, the further improvement of the photodetection performance is limited by the difficult heterogeneous integration or the inferior crystal quality via heteroepitaxy. Fortunately, 2D/3D van der Waals heterostructures (vdWH) combine the advantages of the two types of materials simultaneously, which may provide a new platform for developing high‐performance optoelectronic devices. Here, we first discuss the unique advantages of 2D/3D vdWH for the future development of photodetection field and simply introduce the structure categories, working mechanisms, and the typical fabrication methods of 2D/3D vdWH photodetector. Then, we outline the recent progress on 2D/3D vdWH‐based photodetection devices integrating 2DLMs with the traditional 3D semiconductor materials, including Si, Ge, GaAs, AlGaN, SiC, and so on. Finally, we highlight the current challenges and prospects of heterointegrating 2DLMs with traditional 3D semiconductors toward photodetection applications.
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