Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial of Pharmacopuncture Therapy for Cervical Disc Herniation: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: Cervical disc herniation (CDH) is increasingly prevalent, highlighting the need for more effective treatments. Although pharmacopuncture therapy is one of the most widely used treatment methods for CDH in Korean medicine clinical practice, there are few high-quality studies conducted in Korea. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pharmacopuncture therapy for CDH through a pragmatic clinical trial that reflects clinical practice while utilizing well-designed study settings of a randomized controlled trial.

Self-Powered Triboelectric Ethanol Sensor Based on CuO-Doped Electrospun PVDF Fiber with Enhanced Sensing Performance.

Electrospinning techniques have been widely applied in diverse applications, such as biocompatible membranes, energy storage systems, and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), with the capability to incorporate other functional materials to achieve specific purposes. Recently, gas sensors incorporating doped semiconducting materials fabricated by electrospinning have been extensively investigated. TENGs, functioning as self-powered energy sources, have been utilized to drive gas sensors without external power supplies.

Numerical investigation of optimal transmission-reception conditions for aliasing-free ultrasound localization microscopy.

Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) can surpass the diffraction-limited resolution of conventional ultrasound by localizing individual microbubbles with sub-pixel precision. However, if the point-spread function (PSF) of the imaging system is insufficiently sampled, aliasing artifacts arise and degrade both microbubble localization and motion correction accuracy. In this study, we derive and validate a set of transmit-receive conditions that ensure artifact-free PSFs without unnecessary computational overhead.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Chuna manual therapy for temporomandibular disorder: A randomized clinical trial.

The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Chuna manual therapy (CMT) for temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) remain unclear. Here, we compared the effectiveness of CMT and usual care for treating myofascial TMD. A 26-week randomized controlled trial was conducted from 2018 to 2019 with 80 patients across five hospitals in Korea who were diagnosed with myofascial TMD and had temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain lasting more than three months.

Anti-Obesity Potential of Barley Sprouts in Dog Diets and Their Impact on the Gut Microbiota.

Barley sprouts, the germinated and grown leaves of barley, contain various bioactive compounds, including policosanol, saponarin, and lutonarin. The ingestion of barley sprouts may benefit canine weight management, potentially owing to the anti-obesity properties of bioactive compounds. However, there is limited evidence on the efficacy and safety of barley sprout supplementation in dogs.

Implantable multilayer interdigitated triboelectric nanogenerator with nano-micro fibrous membrane and embedded switch-controlled capacitor for neck motion energy harvesting.

Implantable electronic devices are increasingly recognized as indispensable technologies for a future-oriented humanity. The challenge of power supply is widely recognized as a significant hurdle, requiring interdisciplinary research efforts for its resolution. In this work, a multilayer interdigitated triboelectric nanogenerator (MI-TENG) is introduced, enhancing electrical output by laminating multiple layers of an interdigitated electrode structure.

Evolution of the module for phloem development in angiosperms.

Bifacial cambium, which produces xylem and phloem, and monopodial architecture, characterized by apical dominance and lateral branching from axillary buds, are key developmental features of seed plants, consisting of angiosperms and gymnosperms. These allow seed plants to adapt to diverse environments by optimizing resource allocation and structural integrity. In seed plants, () family members function in phloem development and strigolactone-induced inhibition of axillary bud outgrowth.

Nutritional value of common carbohydrate sources used in pet foods.

Diet digestibility can vary based on factors such as the type of ingredients, processing techniques, formulation, fiber content, and nutrient interactions. Unlike proteins and fats, there is no specific carbohydrate requirement, which typically constitutes 30%-60% of commercial dried dog foods. Because of the significant proportion of carbohydrates in dog food, this study aimed to evaluate the differences in nutrient digestibility among barley, brown rice, corn, mung bean, and rice, which are common carbohydrate sources in commercial dog foods.

Development of a deep learning model for automatic detection of narrowed intervertebral disc space sites in caudal thoracic and lumbar lateral X-ray images of dogs.

Intervertebral disc disease is the most common spinal cord-related disease in dogs, caused by disc material protrusion or extrusion that compresses the spinal cord, leading to clinical symptoms. Diagnosis involves identifying radiographic signs such as intervertebral disc space narrowing, increased opacity of the intervertebral foramen, spondylosis deformans, and magnetic resonance imaging findings like spinal cord compression and lesions, alongside clinical symptoms and neurological examination findings. Intervertebral disc space narrowing on radiographs is the most common finding in intervertebral disc extrusion.

Spatiotemporal bifurcation of HY5-mediated blue-light signaling regulates wood development during secondary growth.

Plants have evolved photoreceptors to optimize their development during primary growth, including germination, hypocotyl elongation, cotyledon opening, and root growth, allowing them to adapt to challenging light conditions. The light signaling transduction pathway during seedling establishment has been extensively studied, but little molecular evidence is available for light-regulated secondary growth, and how light regulates cambium-derived tissue production remains largely unexplored. Here, we show that CRYPTOCHROME (CRY)-dependent blue light signaling and the subsequent attenuation of ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5) movement to hypocotyls are key inducers of xylem fiber differentiation in Using grafted chimeric plants and hypocotyl-specific transcriptome sequencing of light signaling mutants under controlled light conditions, we demonstrate that the perception of blue light by CRYs in shoots drives secondary cell wall (SCW) deposition at xylem fiber cells during the secondary growth of hypocotyls.

Frequency Detection for String Instruments Using 1D-2D Non-Contact Mode Triboelectric Sensors.

The proliferation of small electronic devices has significantly increased the demand for self-powered sensors. This study introduces a triboelectric frequency sensor (TFS) that combines the frequency-responsive characteristics of triboelectric nanogenerators with a simple one-dimensional structure for sustainable vibration measurement. This sensor is specifically designed to aid in the tuning of string instruments, capable of detecting frequency responses up to 330 Hz generated by string vibrations.

Pharmacopuncture therapy for adhesive capsulitis: A pragmatic randomized controlled pilot study.

Background: Although several studies have reported the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment for adhesive capsulitis (AC), research on pharmacopuncture therapy for AC remains limited. We compared the effectiveness and safety of pharmacopuncture and physiotherapy for AC.

Methods: This pragmatic, randomized, controlled, parallel-group pilot study enrolled patients with limitations of shoulder movement and a numeric rating scale (NRS) score for shoulder pain ≥5 randomized (1:1) to the pharmacopuncture therapy (PPT) and physiotherapy (PT) groups.

Effectiveness and Safety of Pharmacopuncture on Inpatients with Tension Headache Caused by Traffic Accidents: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study investigated the effectiveness and safety of pharmacopuncture for pain relief and functional improvement in patients with traffic accident (TA)-induced acute tension headaches. The study employed a parallel, single-centered, pragmatic, randomized controlled trial design. Eighty patients complaining of acute tension headaches were randomized into the integrative Korean medicine treatment (IKM treatment) group and the pharmacopuncture group on suboccipital muscles (suboccipital muscles pharmacopuncture + IKM treatment), with 40 participants assigned to each group.

Deep coherence learning: An unsupervised deep beamformer for high quality single plane wave imaging in medical ultrasound.

Plane wave imaging (PWI) in medical ultrasound is becoming an important reconstruction method with high frame rates and new clinical applications. Recently, single PWI based on deep learning (DL) has been studied to overcome lowered frame rates of traditional PWI with multiple PW transmissions. However, due to the lack of appropriate ground truth images, DL-based PWI still remains challenging for performance improvements.

Prediction of apparent total tract digestion of crude protein in adult dogs.

To predict the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of crude protein (CP) in dogs we developed an system using an digestion method and a statistical analysis. The experimental diets used chicken meat powder as the protein source, with CP levels of 20% (22.01%, analyzed CP value as dry-based), 30% (31.

Effectiveness of lumbar motion style acupuncture treatment on inpatients with acute low back pain: A pragmatic, randomized controlled trial.

Background And Purpose: This parallel, single-center, pragmatic, randomized controlled study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of motion style acupuncture treatment (MSAT; a combination of acupuncture and Doin therapy) to reduce pain and improve the functional disability of patients with acute low back pain (aLBP) due to road traffic accidents.

Materials And Methods: Ninety-six patients with aLBP admitted to the Haeundae Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine in South Korea due to traffic accidents were treated with integrative Korean medicine (IKM) with additional 3-day MSAT sessions during hospitalization (MSAT group, 48 patients) or without (control group, 48 patients), and followed up for 90 days.

Results: The mean numeric rating scale (NRS) scores of low back pain (LBP) of the MSAT and control groups were both 6.

Cytokinin signaling promotes root secondary growth and bud formation in .

Background: , one of the valuable perennial medicinal plants, stores numerous pharmacological substrates in its storage roots. Given its perennial growth habit, organ regeneration occurs each year, and cambium stem cell activity is necessary for secondary growth and storage root formation. Cytokinin (CK) is a phytohormone involved in the maintenance of meristematic cells for the development of storage organs; however, its physiological role in storage-root secondary growth remains unknown.

Detection of spondylosis deformans in thoracolumbar and lumbar lateral X-ray images of dogs using a deep learning network.

Introduction: Spondylosis deformans is a non-inflammatory osteophytic reaction that develops to re-establish the stability of weakened joints between intervertebral discs. However, assessing these changes using radiography is subjective and difficult. In human medicine, attempts have been made to use artificial intelligence to accurately diagnose difficult and ambiguous diseases in medical imaging.

Performance Verification of Autonomous Driving LiDAR Sensors under Rainfall Conditions in Darkroom.

This research aims to assess the functionality of the VLP-32 LiDAR sensor, which serves as the principal sensor for object recognition in autonomous vehicles. The evaluation is conducted by simulating edge conditions the sensor might encounter in a controlled darkroom setting. Parameters for environmental conditions under examination encompass measurement distances ranging from 10 to 30 m, varying rainfall intensities (0, 20, 30, 40 mm/h), and different observation angles (0°, 30°, 60°).

Rabbit Meat Extract Induces Browning in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes via the AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway.

The browning of white adipocytes may be an innovative approach to address obesity. This study investigated the effects of rabbit meat extract on 3T3-L1 adipocytes, with a specific emphasis on inducing browning. The browning effects of rabbit meat extract were evaluated by analyzing genes specifically expressed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes using quantitative PCR and immunoblotting.

A Robust Triboelectric Impact Sensor with Carbon Dioxide Precursor-Based Calcium Carbonate Layer for Slap Match Application.

As an urgent international challenge, the sudden change in climate due to global warming needs to be addressed in the near future. This can be achieved through a reduction in fossil fuel utilization and through carbon sequestration, which reduces the concentration of CO in the atmosphere. In this study, a self-sustainable impact sensor is proposed through implementing a triboelectric nanogenerator with a CaCO contact layer fabricated via a CO absorption method.

Long-Term Follow-Up of Inpatients with Rotator Cuff Tear Who Received Integrative Korean Medicine Treatment: A Retrospective Analysis and Questionnaire Survey.

Context: Rotator cuff tear is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain and has become a prominent disease most frequently treated by surgery.

Objectives: To investigate the long-term therapeutic effect of integrative Korean medicine (KM) as a conservative treatment in treating rotator cuff tears.

Design: A multicenter observational study.

Discovery of Competent Chromatin Regions in Human Embryonic Stem Cells.

Unlabelled: The mechanisms underlying the ability of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to rapidly activate lineage-specific genes during differentiation remain largely unknown. Through multiple CRISPR-activation screens, we discovered human ESCs have pre-established transcriptionally competent chromatin regions (CCRs) that support lineage-specific gene expression at levels comparable to differentiated cells. CCRs reside in the same topological domains as their target genes.

Effects of resistant starch on anti-obesity status and nutrient digestibility in dogs.

This study investigated the effects of corn resistant starch (RS) on the anti-obesity properties, nutrient digestibility, and blood parameters in healthy beagles. Four spayed and six castrated beagle dogs were divided into a control group (CON) with a diet comprising rice and chicken meal and a treatment group (TRT) with a diet comprising corn with an increased RS content by heating-cooling and chicken meal. All dogs in the CON and TRT groups were fed a 1.