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Objective We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acupoint polyglactin 910 (PGLA) embedding in patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR). Methods A total of 102 CSR patients with neck and shoulder pain were recruited and assigned randomly into three groups: the sham acupoint embedding (SAE) group, the middle-layer acupoint PGLA embedding (MAPE) group, and the deep-layer acupoint PGLA embedding (DAPE) group. The primary outcomes were Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores showing the analgesic effects of treatment. Secondary outcomes included clinical symptoms (evaluated by the Yasuhisa Tanaka 20 (YT-20) score and the neck disability index (NDI)) and patient health status (evaluated by the 36-item short-form survey (SF-36)) as reported in the trial. Results Compared with the SAE group, VAS scores were significantly reduced at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 weeks after the first treatment in both the DAPE and MAPE groups (P < 0.001). Moreover, there were statistically significant increases in the weekly YT-20 scores and significant reductions of the weekly NDI scores compared with baseline values in both the DAPE and MAPE groups (P < 0.001). Compared with baseline values, both the physical component summary (PCS) and the mental component summary scores of the SF-36 at 2, 3, 4, and 10 weeks were significantly higher in the DAPE and MAPE groups (P < 0.001). There were significant lower VAS scores (P < 0.01), higher PCS scores (P < 0.05) at 3 weeks, and lower NDI scores (P < 0.05) at 4 weeks in the DAPE group compared with the MAPE group. Conclusions Both DAPE and MAPE showed significant and long-lasting effects on alleviating pain and improving clinical symptoms as well as quality of life in CSR patients with neck and shoulder pain. A more intense effect was seen in the DAPE group compared with the MAPE group.

Factual data for 70 rapid, giant landslides since 1900 show that the occurrence of these landslides was largely predisposed by tectonics, geological structures, lithology and topography, and often triggered by rainfall and earthquakes. In terms of mobile behavior, the giant landslides can be classified into three types: slides, slide-flows and flows. It is found that each type of landslide was constrained to certain geologic and topographic regimes. There are good correlations between kinematic parameters of landslides and slope geometries, which confirm the important role played by topographical condition in the mobile behavior of landslides. Moreover, it is also found that each type of landslide presents distinct geotechnical characteristics in terms of nature of the slip zone and properties of sliding mass. Brief analyses of five typical cases illustrate that landslide mechanisms can be conceptually depicted by failure mechanisms of their slip zones prior to onset of movement and following energy conversion during movement. Problems and questions related to experience in China suggest that comprehensive and systematic investigation and study on rapid giant landslides are urgently needed.

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