Background: Dysphagia may delay the functional recovery and substantially affects the quality of life after stroke, mainly if left untreated. Electrical stimulation has been reported as a treatment for pharyngeal dysphagia in recent studies, but the therapeutic effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (VitalStim) therapy lacks convincing supporting evidence and needs further clinical investigation. Methods: A total of 135 subjects were randomly divided into 3 groups: traditional swallowing therapy (n = 45), VitalStim therapy (n = 45), and VitalStim therapy plus traditional swallowing therapy (n = 45). The traditional swallowing therapy included basic training and direct food intake training. Electrical stimulation was applied by an occupational therapist, using a modified handheld battery-powered electrical stimulator (VitalStim Dual Channel Unit and electrodes, Chattanooga Group, Hixson, Tennessee). The surface electromyography (sEMG), standardized swallowing assessment (SSA), videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS), and visual analog scale (VAS) were used to assess swallowing function before and 4 weeks after the treatment. Results: A total of 118 subjects with dysphagia completed the study, 40 in the traditional swallowing group and VitalStim therapy group and 38 in the VitalStim and traditional swallowing therapy group. There were significant differences in sEMG values and SSA and VFSS scores in each group after the treatment (P < .001). After 4-week treatment, sEMG value (917.1; standard deviation [SD], 91.2), SSA value (21.8; SD, 3.5), oral transit time (0.4; SD, 0.1), and pharyngeal transit time (0.8; SD, 0.1) were significantly improved in the VitalStim and traditional swallowing therapy group than in the other 2 groups (P < .001). Conclusions: Data suggest that VitalStim therapy coupled with traditional swallowing therapy may be beneficial for poststroke dysphagia.

Coal is an important resource that has supported China’s economic development. This situation is expected to continue in the immediate future. However, coal mining has also led to serious environmental disasters in some mining areas. Henan Province is one of the 14 large-scale coal bases that are planned by the Chinese state. It is located in the transitional zone between the second and third terrain ladders of China and spans two tectonic units. The geological features and ecological environmental characteristics display wide spatial variations throughout this district, which is an ecologically fragile region of stepped transition type. However, large-scale, extremely intense coal mining activities will inevitably lead to further deterioration of the already fragile ecological and geological (eco-geological) environment, which makes recovery increasingly difficult. Based on the condition of the eco-geological environment and the coal mining industry in the Henan mining area, the mechanisms by which mining-induced damage can occur were analyzed. The characteristics and status of the destruction of ground structures, land resources, water resources, the atmospheric environment, and natural ecology are discussed in this paper. Appropriate mitigation measures are proposed based on the findings. This mainly includes: management practices to prevent and mitigate damage throughout all stages of mining; adoption of mining techniques that will control damage at the source; and, the adoption of appropriate post-mining recovery technologies. The analysis of mining-induced eco-geological environmental damage and mitigation measures is of importance for the prevention of eco-geological disasters, and the promotion of efficient and environmentally sustainable exploitation of coal resources.

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As coal resources trapped under surface buildings in the Wangtaipu coal mine area impede the efficient mining of coal seams and constrain the sustainable development of coal mines, a super-high-water roadway backfill mining technique for preventing building damage was adopted. According to the control principle and theoretical calculations, an engineering design was established including the reasonable width of segment coal pillars in the working face and technical parameter design. The monitoring results after the implementation of the scheme showed that building deformation was controlled within grade I, protecting the surface buildings. A reasonable roadway design parameter was achieved, with a surface subsidence of 27 mm and horizontal deformation of 0.3 mm/m, indicating that it can ensure the safety of surface buildings from the State Bureau of Coal Industry. The practical trial can provide a reference for the extraction of coal resources under similar conditions and is vital for the sustainable development of the mining industry and economic growth. This is because the remaining coal pillar can usually support the overburden load, allowing slight surface movement and deformation. Although the strip mining or room mining method has reduced surface subsidence or damage to a certain extent, the mining rate is low due to the coal pillars. Because the harmonic mining is limited by many factors, such as construction organization, geological conditions, and subsidence factor, it is difficult to realize. Meanwhile, grouting injection technology has been successfully applied to reduce surface subsidence and building damage in populated areas. Alehossein [16] studied shear behaviour of the slurry through field and laboratory testing, and derived formulas for minimum pump pressure and local pressure, and the results are consistent with each other. Shen and Poulsen [17] used numerical modeling to study the evolution of horizontal fractures at bed separations during longwall mining. By analyzing the influence of filling ratio and maximum subsidence on the grouting effect, Xuan and Xu [18] obtained the supporting width that was formed at the center of the gob. Subsequently, the stiffness and distribution of the grouting mass were investigated through field borehole, and the mechanism of grouting to restrain the overburden deformation was revealed [19]. Considering the long-term stability of overburden, the effect of harmonic mining and grouting injection on overburden damage reduction is poor. In fact, the essential problem of "under-three" mining is controlling the movement and deformation of the overlying strata. By contrast, backfill mining has been widely used and is becoming an effective technique for reducing the degree of overburden failure in the green mining technical system, and has been developed to solve the global problems described above, especially for "under-three" mining [20][21][22][23]. In essence, backfill mining reduces the overburden movement by replacing the coal with backfill material. Meanwhile, ...

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