The optimal treatment modality for upper lumbar disc herniation remains unclear. Herein, we compared the clinical efficacy and application value of minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody ...fusion (MIS-TLIF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) for upper lumbar disc herniation. We aimed to provide new evidence to guide surgical decisions for treating this condition.
We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 81 patients with upper lumbar disc herniation admitted between January 2017 and July 2018, including 41 and 40 patients who underwent MIS-TLIF and TLIF, respectively. Demographic characteristics, preoperative functional scores, perioperative indicators, and postoperative complications were compared. We performed consecutive comparisons of visual analog scale (VAS) scores of the lumbar and leg regions, Oswestry disability index (ODI), Japanese Orthopaedic Association scores (JOA), and MacNab scores at the final follow-up, to assess clinical outcomes 5 years postoperatively.
VAS scores of the back and legs were significantly lower in the MIS-TLIF than the TLIF group at 3 months and 1 year postoperatively (P < 0.05). Intraoperative bleeding and postoperative hospitalization time were significantly lower, and the time to return to work/normal life was shorter in the MIS-TLIF than in the TLIF group (P < 0.05). The differences in JOA scores and ODI scores between the two groups at 3 months, 1 year, and 3 years postoperatively were statistically significant (P < 0.05).
The early clinical efficacy of MIS-TLIF was superior to that of TLIF, but no differences were found in mid-term clinical efficacy. Further, MIS-TLIF has the advantages of fewer medical injuries, shorter hospitalization times, and faster postoperative functional recovery.
Abstract
Background
Although oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) has produced good results for lumbar degenerative diseases (LDDs), its efficacy vis-a-vis posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) ...remains controversial. This meta-analysis aimed to compare the clinical efficacy of OLIF and PLIF for the treatment of LDDs.
Methods
A comprehensive assessment of the literature was conducted, and the quality of retrieved studies was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Clinical parameters included the visual analog scale (VAS), and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for pain, disability, and functional levels. Statistical analysis related to operative time, intraoperative bleeding, length of hospital stay, lumbar lordosis angle, postoperative disc height, and complication rates was performed. The PROSPERO number for the present systematic review is CRD42023406695.
Results
In total, 574 patients (287 for OLIF, 287 for PLIF) from eight studies were included. The combined mean postoperative difference in ODI and lumbar VAS scores was − 1.22 and − 0.43, respectively. In postoperative disc, height between OLIF and PLIF was 2.05. The combined advantage ratio of the total surgical complication rate and the mean difference in lumbar lordosis angle between OLIF and PLIF were 0.46 and 1.72, respectively. The combined mean difference in intraoperative blood loss and postoperative hospital stay between OLIF and PLIF was − 128.67 and − 2.32, respectively.
Conclusion
Both the OLIF and PLIF interventions showed good clinical efficacy for LDDs. However, OLIF demonstrated a superior advantage in terms of intraoperative bleeding, hospital stay, degree of postoperative disc height recovery, and postoperative complication rate.
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that occurs in the middle-aged and elderly population and has dyskinesia as the main clinical symptom. Bradykinesia is a typical dyskinesia ...symptom of Parkinson's disease. The evaluation of bradykinesia based on wearable devices is an important support for individualized diagnosis and telemedicine. This paper focuses on the bradykinesia, expound the existing detection and evaluation techniques for wearable devices and data analysis methods. This paper also analyzes and discusses some current problems in the field and future research directions.
Layout synthesis, an important step in quantum computing, processes quantum circuits to satisfy device layout constraints. In this paper, we construct QUEKO benchmarks for this problem, which have ...known optimal depths and gate counts. We use QUEKO to evaluate the optimality of current layout synthesis tools, including Cirq from Google, Qiskit from IBM, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mathsf {t}|\mathsf {ket}\rangle</tex-math> <mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">t</mml:mi><mml:mo>|</mml:mo><mml:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">ket</mml:mi><mml:mo>〉</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="tan-ieq1-3009140.gif"/> </inline-formula> from Cambridge Quantum Computing, and a recent academic work. To our surprise, despite over a decade of research and development by academia and industry on compilation and synthesis for quantum circuits, we are still able to demonstrate large optimality gaps: 1.5-12x on average on a smaller device and 5-45x on average on a larger device. This suggests substantial room for improvement of the efficiency of quantum computer by better layout synthesis tools. Finally, we also prove the NP-completeness of the layout synthesis problem for quantum computing. We have made the QUEKO benchmarks open-source.
Antibiotics such as cephalexin (CLX) are often detected in water and sewage, and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are usually the most effective method to degrade them. Currently, the synergy of ...AOPs has raised lively interest in water and wastewater treatment. Here the sandwiched catalyst of MnO2-NH2/GO/p-C3N4 (MN/GO/CN) is synthesized, in which graphene oxide (GO) acts as “core layer” connecting aminated MnO2 (MnO2-NH2) for catalytic ozonation and proton-functionalized g-C3N4 (p-C3N4) for photocatalysis. The MN/GO/CN combines the AOPs of catalytic ozonation and photocatalysis, initiates hydroxyl radicals 4.2 times the sum of catalytic ozonation and photocatalysis, and achieves the first order kinetics constant of 2.4 × 10-2/s, which is 2.7, 8.1 and 20.1 times that of catalytic ozonation, photo ozonation, and photocatalysis, respectively, and consequently reduces CLX from 1.0 mg/L to below the detection limit within 2.5 min, demonstrating the strong synergism between the AOPs. The sandwich structure enables GO to mediate the electron transfer between p-C3N4 and MnO2-NH2, which not only hinders electron-hole recombination on p-C3N4, but also speeds redox electron cycle on MnO2 to promote the catalytic activity. The simultaneous catalytic ozonation and photocatalysis by sandwiched bifunctional catalyst to obtain synergistic effect will find its broad prospect in water and wastewater treatment.
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•Sandwich structured MnO2-NH2/GO/p-C3N4 is synthesized as bifunctional catalyst.•GO bridges MnO2 via amino groups and p-C3N4 through electrostatic forces.•Bifunctional catalysis degrades CLX from 1 mg/L to below 1×10-5 mg/L in 2.5 min•MnO2-NH2/GO/p-C3N4 wins 45 % synergic index for catalytic ozonation and photocatalysis.
Let μ be a Frostman measure on E⊂Rd. The spherical average estimate∫Sd-1|μ^(rω)|2dω≲r-βwas originally used to attack Falconer distance conjecture, via Mattila’s integral. In this paper we consider ...the pinned distance problem, a stronger version of Falconer distance problem, and show that spherical average estimates imply the same dimensional threshold on both of them. In particular, with the best known spherical average estimates, we improve Peres–Schlag’s result on pinned distance problem significantly. The idea in our approach is to reduce the pinned distance problem to an integral where spherical averages apply. The key new ingredient is the following identity. Using a group action argument, we show that for any Schwartz function f on Rd and any x∈Rd,∫0∞|ωt∗f(x)|2td-1dt=∫0∞|ωr^∗f(x)|2rd-1dr,where ωr is the normalized surface measure on rSd-1. An interesting remark is that the right hand side can be easily seen equal tocd∫Dx-d-12e-2πit-Δf(x)2dt=cd′∫Dx-d-22e2πitΔf(x)2dt.An alternative derivation of Mattila’s integral via group actions is also given in the Appendix.
Despite virtual reality (VR) being initially marketed toward gaming, there are many potential and existing VR applications in various sectors and fields, including education, training, simulations, ...and even in exercise and healthcare. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of general understanding of the strengths and limitations of VR as a technology in various application domains. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to contribute to the library of literature concerning VR technology, its applications in everyday use, and some of its existing drawbacks. Key VR applications were discussed in terms of how they are currently utilized or can be utilized in the future, spanning fields such as medicine, engineering, education, and entertainment. The main benefits of VR are expressed through the text, followed by a discussion of some of the main limitations of current VR technologies and how they can be mitigated or improved. Overall, this literature review shows how virtual reality technology has the potential to be a greatly beneficial tool in a multitude of applications and a wide variety of fields. VR as a technology is still in its early stages, but more people are becoming interested in it and are optimistic about seeing what kind of changes VR can make in their everyday lives. With how rapidly modern society has adapted to personal computers and smartphones, VR has the opportunity to become the next big technological turning point that will eventually become commonplace in most households.
People that hurt others through relationally aggressive behavior (e.g., damaging social reputation, threats of rejection) have a particular personality profile. It consists of high neuroticism, and ...low extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Similar profiles of traits constitute broader personality dimensions known as metatraits of personality conceptualized in the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits (CPM). In the present study, we examined the location of proactive and reactive relational aggression in the circumplex of personality metatraits according to the CPM. Three hundred ninety participants (228 women and 162 men) responded to an online survey. Relational aggression was located between Gamma-Minus (Disharmony) and Alpha-Minus (Disinhibition), but fitted significantly to the theoretical location on the Gamma-Minus metatrait despite of the function (proactive vs. reactive) of relational aggression. We interpret the location of relational aggression within the circumplex of the metatraits with regards to temperamental correlates of metatraits (e.g., temperamental sensitivity).
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