Does Acupuncture Hurt? A Retrospective Study on Pain and Satisfaction during Pediatric Acupuncture.

Previous studies have shown the benefit and safety of pediatric acupuncture, but it is often rejected by patients and their caregivers due to the perception of needling pain associated with acupuncture. A retrospective cohort study of 230 unique patients (1380 sessions) aged 8 to 21 underwent Kiiko Matsumoto Style acupuncture in an outpatient pain clinic. Patients completed a post-acupuncture survey, including the Faces Pain Scale-Revised and Likert-like scales about overall satisfaction, relaxation, and anxiolysis.

Effects of acupuncture on pain and inflammation in pediatric emergency department patients with acute appendicitis: a pilot study.

Objective: Acupuncture has been shown to treat various medical conditions, including acute and chronic pain, and there is limited evidence that acupuncture produces anti-inflammatory effects. This pilot study evaluated the use of acupuncture to treat pain and determine if acupuncture can reduce the inflammatory response in pediatric patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis.

Design: This pilot study used convenience sampling and was conducted in the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) of an urban tertiary care children's hospital.

Single strand break in DNA coupled to the O-P bond cleavage. A computational study.

In the present study, we consider the formation of a single strand break (SSB) in DNA via an alternative mechanism involving O-P bond splitting that was observed as a minor route to DNA damage induced by low-energy electrons (LEEs) or γ radiation. We postulate and characterize, at the B3LYP/6-31++G(**) level, a path that starts with LEE attachment to the nucleotide of thymine resulting in a stable valence radical anion localized on pyrimidine. In the next step, a proton is attached to the C5 position of thymine, producing a neutral monohydroradical of this nucleotide.

Stability of the valence anion of cytosine is governed by nucleobases sequence in the double stranded DNA pi-stack: A computational study.

The stabilities of the valence anion of cytosine (C(-)) in model trimers of complementary base pairs that possess the B-DNA geometry but differ in base sequence are reported. In order to estimate the energetics of electron attachment to the middle cytosine incorporated in the trimer, a thermodynamic cycle employing all possible two-body interaction energies in the neutral and anionic duplex as well as the adiabatic electron affinity of isolated cytosine were developed. All calculations were carried out at the MP2 level of theory with the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set.

Benign decay vs. photolysis in the photophysics and photochemistry of 5-bromouracil. A computational study.

The excited state potential energy surface of 5-bromouracil has been studied with ab initio CASPT2//CASSCF calculations to rationalize the competition between the benign decay and the photolysis found experimentally. The surface is characterized by an extended region of degeneracy between S(1) and S(0). The access to this region has been studied with minimum energy path calculations from the FC structure, the seam of intersection has been mapped in detail, and the decay paths from different regions of the seam have been characterized.

Valence anion of thymine in the DNA pi-stack.

Most of theoretical data on the stability of radical anions supported by nucleic acid bases have been obtained for anions of isolated nucleobases, their nucleosides, or nucleotides. This approach ignores the hallmark forces of DNA, namely, hydrogen bonding and pi-stacking interactions. Since these interactions might be crucial for the electron affinities of nucleobases bound in DNA, we report for the first time on the stability of the thymine valence anion in trimers of complementary bases possessing the regular B-DNA geometry but differing in base sequence.

Barrier-free proton transfer in the valence anion of 2'-deoxyadenosine-5'-monophosphate. II. A computational study.

The propensity of four representative conformations of 2(')-deoxyadenosine-5(')-monophosphate (5(')-dAMPH) to bind an excess electron has been studied at the B3LYP6-31++G(d,p) level. While isolated canonical adenine does not support stable valence anions in the gas phase, all considered neutral conformations of 5(')-dAMPH form adiabatically stable anions. The type of an anionic 5(')-dAMPH state, i.