Efficacy of neuromobilization in the treatment of low back pain: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability. Neuromobilization (NM) as a physical therapy technique, offers some degree of symptom improvement. However, some studies have shown that NM can significantly reduce the symptoms of LBP, while others have failed to find similar positive effects. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of NM for LBP. DATA SOURCES: A literature search was conducted across five databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Web of Science) from their inception to December 2023. Study main measures assessed pain, disability, and straight leg raise angle to determine the degree of improvement in patients. RESULTS: Seven randomized controlled trials were included in the analysis. The findings indicated that NM interventions in patients with LBP were more effective than control groups in improving Visual Analog Scale scores (mean difference = 0.62, 95% CI (0.03, 1.21)) and Oswestry Disability Index scores (mean difference = 7.54, 95% CI (4.98, 10.10)). There was no significant difference in straight leg raise results (mean difference = 0.18, 95% CI (-0.08, 0.44)). CONCLUSIONS: NM demonstrated effectiveness in improving Visual Analog Scale and Oswestry Disability Index outcomes in patients with LBP, but straight leg raise outcomes are still uncertain and until more high-quality studies are included, the effectiveness of NM for SLR remains unknown.

Efficacy of different rehabilitation therapies on post-stroke aphasia patients: A network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Although several rehabilitation interventions are effective in post-stroke aphasia (PSA), the efficacy of different rehabilitation interventions compared to each other remains controversial. Here, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of varying rehabilitation interventions in PSA. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials on 8 kinds of rehabilitation interventions to improve speech function in patients with PSA were searched by computer from 10 databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, OVID, CINAHL, Embase, CNKI, WanFang, CBM, and VIP. The search scope was from the establishment of the database to August 2023. The literature screening, extraction of basic information, and quality assessment of the literature were conducted independently by 2 researchers. Network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed using Stata 17.0 software. RESULTS: Fifty-four studies involving 2688 patients with PSA were included. The results of NMA showed that: ① in terms of improving the severity of aphasia, the therapeutic effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation were the most significant; ② motor imagery therapy was the most effective in improving spontaneous speech, repetition, and naming ability; ③ in terms of improving listening comprehension ability, the therapeutic effects of mirror neuron therapy was the most significant. CONCLUSION: The 8 rehabilitation interventions have different focuses in improving the speech function of PSA patients, and the clinical therapists can select the optimal rehabilitation interventions in a targeted manner according to the results of this NMA and the patients' conditions and other relevant factors.

Construction and Electrochemical Properties of Solid-state Supercapacitors with Redox Additives.

Adding redox additives to conventional electrolytes is considered to be an effective method to improve electrochemical performance of the supercapacitors, which is ascribed to the additional Farady capacitance derived from the reversible redox reaction. Here, the influence of K3 Fe(CN)6 on electrochemical properties for single electrode system and the assembled solid-state supercapacitor are investigated. The carbon felt (CF) electrode in the mixed solution of K3 Fe(CN)6 /KCl exhibits remarkable specific capacitance of 2.45 F cm-2 after 5000 cycles, obviously much higher than conventional electrolyte KCl. The capacitance retention and the coulombic efficiency of the solid-state supercapacitor maintains 86.5% and 97% after 2500 cycles, symmetric supercapacitor shows a high energy density of 58 mWh L-1 at power density of 660 mW L-1 . Furthermore, the solid-state SCs exhibit excellent flexibility and four supercapacitors are capable of lighting up an LED lamp, demonstrating the potential of practical applications of the as-prepared solid-state SCs.

Effect of Al and La Doping on the Structure and Magnetostrictive Properties of Fe73Ga27 Alloy.

The changes of microstructure, magnetostriction properties and hardness of the Fe73Ga27-xAlx alloy and (Fe73Ga27-xAlx)99.9La0.1 alloy (x = 0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5) were studied by doping Al into the Fe73Ga27 and (Fe73Ga27)99.9La0.1 alloy, respectively. The results show that both the Fe73Ga27-xAlx alloy and (Fe73Ga27-xAlx)99.9La0.1 alloy are dominated by the A2 phase, and the alloy grains are obvious columnar crystals with certain orientations along the water-cooled direction. A proportion of Al atoms replaced Ga atoms, which changed the lattice constant of the alloy, caused lattice distortion, and produced vacancy effects which affected the magnetostriction properties. La atoms were difficult to dissolve in the matrix alloy which made the alloy grains smaller and enhanced the orientation along the (100) direction, resulting in greater magneto-crystalline anisotropy and greater tetragonal distortion, which is conducive to improving the magnetostriction properties. Fe73Ga24.5Al2.5 alloy has a saturation magnetostrictive strain of 74 ppm and a hardness value of 268.064 HV, taking into account the advantages of saturated magnetostrictive strain and high hardness. The maximum saturation magnetostrictive strain of the (Fe73Ga24.5Al2.5)99.9La0.1 alloy is 115 ppm and the hardness is 278.096 HV, indicating that trace La doping can improve the magnetostriction properties and deformation resistance of Fe-Ga alloy, which provides a new design idea for the Fe-Ga alloy, broadening their application in the field of practical production.