Global research trends in benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: a bibliometric analysis.

Background: Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is the most common disease in which vertigo is the main clinical manifestation, and it has become a global medical problem, affecting a wide range of areas and seriously affecting the quality of human life. Objective: This article presents an analysis of the current characteristics of BPPV-related research and summarizes the current hot topics and trends, with the goal of inspiring future research into the prevention and treatment of BPPV, thereby improving the differential diagnosis and prevention of peripheral vertigo. Methods: A bibliometric approach was used to collect 1,219 eligible studies on BPPV from four databases-PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science-published between 1974 and 2022. The characteristics and status of the accumulated scientific output were processed using R and VOSviewer so that we could visualize any trends or hotspots. Results: The results showed a significant increase in the annual number of publications, with an average annual growth rate of 21.58%. A possible reason for the especially pronounced peak in 2021 was an increase in the prevalence of BPPV as a result of COVID-19. The new coronavirus became a focus of research in 2021. A total of 3,876 authors (of whom 1,097 were first authors) published articles in 307 different journals; 15.7% of the articles were published in Acta Oto-Larygologica, Otology and Neurotology, and Frontiers in Neurology. Acta Oto-Laryngologica was well ahead of the other journals in terms of growth rate and number of articles published. American scholars generated the largest number of articles overall, and the USA was involved in the greatest number of international collaborations, followed by Italy and China. The themes of the research centered around three topics, namely the treatment of BPPV, its influencing factors, and diagnosis. Conclusions: There has been a major increase in BPPV-related research over the last 50 years, leading to an increase in related articles and rapid development of the field. Key directions for future research include the improvement of individualized treatment for residual symptoms after initial treatment of BPPV among the elderly; effective control of comorbidities such as osteoporosis; and secondary inner ear disease, such as Ménière's disease.

Delignified wheat straw for production of xylo-oligosaccharides and monosaccharides using acetic acid/sodium acetate solution.

The production of xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) from lignocelluloses with conjugated acid-base system is highly efficient. However, XOS production from wheat straw with conjugated system of acetic acid/sodium acetate (HAc/NaAc) has not been reported. In addition, the impact of delignification of wheat straw for XOS production was not clear. In this study, the optimal conditions for HAc/NaAc hydrolysis were: 0.4 M, molar ratio 10:1, 170 °C, and 60 min. The yield of XOS could be rose to 50.2% after the HAc/NaAc hydrolysate was hydrolyzed using xylanase. After 70.3% of lignin in wheat straw was removed by hydrogen peroxide-acetic acid treatment, the XOS yield of delignified wheat straw using HAc/NaAc reached 54.7%. Finally, a glucose yield of 96.6% was gained by cellulase from wheat straw solid. This work suggested that HAc/NaAc hydrolysis could efficiently produce XOS from wheat straw and the delignification of wheat straw was conducive to XOS and monosaccharides production.

Paediatric drugs trials in China.

OBJECTIVE: Clinical trials of children's drugs are of great significance to rational drug use in children. However, paediatric drugs trials in China are facing complex challenges. At present, the investigation data on registration status of paediatric drug trials in China are still relatively lacking, and relevant research is urgently needed. METHODS: The advanced retrieval function is used to retrieve clinical trials data in the Clinical Trial.gov and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry databases in 22 April 2019. Fifteen key items were analysed to describe trial characteristics, including: registration number, study start date (year), mode of funding, type of disease, medicine type, research stage, research design, sample size, number of experimental groups, placebo group, blind method, implementation centre, child specific, newborn specific and participant age. RESULTS: A total of 1388 clinical trials of paediatric drugs conducted in China were registered. The number of paediatric drug trials grew steadily over time, from less than 20 per year before 2005 to more than 100 per year after 2012. Most clinical trials were postmarketing (n=800, 57.6%), single-centre (n=1045, 75.3%), intervention studies (n=1161, 83.6%) without blinded methods (1169, 84.2%) and funded by non-profit organisations (n=838, 60.4%). The number of clinical trials for antineoplastic agents (n=254, 18.3%), anti-infectives (n=156, 11.2%) and vaccines (n=154, 11.1%) is the largest. CONCLUSION: Paediatric drug trials in China made a significant progress in recent years. Innovative method and trial design optimisation should be encouraged to accelerate paediatric clinical research. Pharmaceutical companies need to be further stimulated to carry out more high-quality paediatric clinical trials with support of paediatric drug legislation.