The efficacy of nasal administration of esketamine in patients having moderate-to-severe pain after preoperative CT-guided needle localization: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Whether nasal administration of esketamine can provide effective analgesia is unclear in patients with acute pain after preoperative CT-guided needle localization. Methods: In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, patients were assigned to receive either nasal administration of esketamine (0.3 mg/kg or 0.5 mg/kg) or saline (identical in appearance to esketamine) when they had visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores >3/10 during deep breathing after preoperative CT-guided needle localization. The primary outcome was the percentage of patients with satisfactory pain relief, which was defined as VAS pain scores ≤3/10 measured 15 min after intranasal of esketamine or saline. Secondary outcomes included VAS measured following esketamine or saline, the incidence and cumulative dose of rescue hydromorphone use, and related adverse events. Results: A total of 90 patients were included in the final analysis. Following intranasal treatment, the percentage of patients with satisfactory pain relief was 16.7% (5/30) in the saline group, 56.7% (17/30) in the 0.3 mg/kg esketamine group, and 53.3% (16/30) in the 0.5 mg/kg esketamine group (p = 0.002). The median VAS during deep breathing was less after the intranasal administration of esketamine {median (IQR), 3 (3, 5) in 0.3 mg/kg or 0.5 mg/kg esketamine compared to the saline group [5 (4, 6)], p = 0.009}. The incidence of rescue hydromorphone use was detected less in the esketamine group compared to the saline group (43.3% in the 0.3 mg/kg esketamine group, 36.7% in the 0.5 mg/kg esketamine group, and 73.3% in the saline group, p = 0.010). The adverse events were similar among the three groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Intranasal administration of esketamine is easier and more effective in alleviating acute pain in patients after preoperative CT-guided needle localization without significant adverse effects.

Optical fiber time transmission technology based on a double-fiber round-trip method.

In this paper, an optical fiber time transmission technology based on a double-fiber round-trip method is provided. In the system, the one-way transmission delay from the master station to the slave station can be calculated directly through the measurement of three time interval counters and their ratio relationship. The method eliminates the influence of fiber length expansion and round-trip transmission delay fluctuation, which is caused by ambient temperature change. The master and slave stations are connected by 100 km and 80 km optical fibers, respectively, and the temperature of the optical fiber link varies from -20∘C to 40°C. Compared with the single-fiber round-trip method, the time interval error of a double-fiber round-trip method is reduced from 1.4 ns to 80 ps when the wavelength is 1310-1550 nm, and from 320 to 80 ps when the wavelength is 1490-1550 nm.

Robust adaptive unscented Kalman filter and its application in initial alignment for body frame velocity aided strapdown inertial navigation system.

In the in-motion alignment of a strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is usually used to solve non-linear problems. The measurement noise covariance R has a direct influence on the filtering results of the alignment of the SINS. The measurement noise is assumed to follow Gaussian distribution with a constant covariance R . However, these assumptions are often not realistic, neither the Gaussianity nor the constant covariance. This will degrade the performance of the UKF. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel adaptive robust UKF (NARUKF). In the NARUKF, a sliding window is used in estimating the covariance R in real-time. The NARUKF is divided into three main steps, the first step is to use the Mahalanobis distance algorithm to robustify the UKF. The second step is to use the projection statistics algorithm to reweight the abnormal stored innovations. Finally, the covariance R is adaptively estimated. The simulation and experimental results for the problem of the body frame velocity aided SINS in-motion alignment under heavier-tail distribution and/or outlier conditions demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the traditional ones.

Genetic algorithm based fast alignment method for strap-down inertial navigation system with large azimuth misalignment.

In order to shorten the alignment time and eliminate the small initial misalignment limit for compass alignment of strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS), which is sometimes not easy to satisfy when the ship is moored or anchored, an optimal model based time-varying parameter compass alignment algorithm is proposed in this paper. The contributions of the work presented here are twofold. First, the optimization of compass alignment parameters, which involves a lot of trial-and-error traditionally, is achieved based on genetic algorithm. On this basis, second, the optimal parameter varying model is established by least-square polynomial fitting. Experiments are performed with a navigational grade fiber optical gyroscope SINS, which validate the efficiency of the proposed method.

A general separation method of phenolic acids using pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography and its application to oat bran.

pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography technique for the separation of natural and synthetic mixtures has been widely used, especially for organic acids and alkaloids. Phenolic acids are very important compounds due to the potential treatment for a wide variety of diseases. However, there is not a general method for their separation. In this work, the conditions of pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography, involving solvent systems, concentration of retainer and eluter, flow rate of mobile phase as well as sample pretreatment, were optimized to improve extraction efficiency and reduce separation time. Finally a general separation method for seven common phenolic acids has been established using pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography. The separation of these phenolic acids was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of methyl tert-butyl ether/acetonitrile/water at a volume ratio of 4.75: 0.25: 5, where 3mM trifluoroacetic acid was added to the organic stationary phase as a retainer and 3mM NH4OH was added to the aqueous mobile phase as an eluter. As a result, seven phenolic acids, including syringic acid, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid were successfully separated with the purities of 95.9%, 67.3%, 96.9%, 82.4%, 97.0%, 91.0%, and 97.2%, respectively. The established general method has been applied to the crude sample of oat bran pretreated with AB-8 resin. A total of 49.5mg of syringic acid, 109.2mg of p-coumaric acid and 184.5mg of ferulic acid were successfully purified in one run from 1.22g crude extract with the purities of 95.2%, 93.0%, and 91.8%, respectively.

α-Crystallin protects RGC survival and inhibits microglial activation after optic nerve crush.

AIMS: Activation of retinal microglial cells (RMCs) is known to contribute to retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death after optic nerve injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of intravenous injection of α-crystallin on RGC survival and RMC activation in a rat model of optic nerve crush. MAIN METHODS: RGCs were retrogradely labeled with fluorogold. Rats were intravenously injected with normal saline or α-crystallin (0.05g/kg, 0.5g/kg, and 5 g/kg) at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 days after the optic nerve crush. Activated RMCs were characterized using immunofluorescence labeling with CD11b, and TNF-α and iNOS expression was detected using immunoblot analyses. We analyzed the morphology and numbers of RGC and RMC 2 and 4 weeks after injury using fluorescence and confocal microscopy. KEY FINDINGS: The number of RGCs decreased after optic nerve injury, accompanied by significantly increased numbers of activated RMCs. Intravenous injection of α-crystallin decreased the number of RMCs, and enhanced the number of RGCs compared to saline injection. α-Crystallin administration inhibited TNF-α and iNOS protein expression induced by optic nerve injury. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that α-crystallin promotes RGC survival and inhibits RMC activation. Intravenous injection of α-crystallin could be a possible strategy for the treatment of optic nerve injury.