Auricular vagus nerve acupressure for patients with emotional distress under the COVID-19 pandemic:A smartphone-based,randomized controlled trial

Objective: To confirm whether self-administered AVNA treatment is effective in improving emotional distressunder the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: A smartphone-based online, randomized, controlled trial was designed from 26 February 2020 to 28April 2020 in four study sites, including Wuhan, Beijing, Shenyang, and Guangzhou of China. Local residentswho had considerable emotional distress with a score of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) ≥9 were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to three times of AVNA (n = 191) per day, in morning,around noon, and in evening or usual care (UC, n = 215) once daily for 14 days. The primary outcome was theresponse rate, which was the proportion of participants whose Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)score reduced from baseline by ≥ 50%. The assessment was conducted at baseline, 3 days, and 14 days.Results: The AVNA group had a markedly higher response rate than the UC group at 3 days (35.6% vs. 24.9%,P = 0.02) and at 14 days (70.7% vs. 60.6%, P = 0.02). The AVNA group showed significantly greater reductionin scores of HADS at the two measurement points and BAI at 3 days (P ≤ 0.03), with average respective effectsize of 0.217 and 0.195. Participants with AVNA spent less time falling asleep and rated their sleep qualitybeing remarkably higher than those with UC at endpoint.Conclusion: During COVID-19 pandemic period, treatment with self-administrated AVNA was more effectivethan UC in reducing emotional distress of isolated populations. These findings support self-administered AVNAas a treatment option for patients with emotional distress under the COVID-19 pandemic or other emergentevents.

Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in functional dyspepsia: A meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine(CHM)for the treatment of functional dyspepsia(FD).Methods:Web of Science,PubMed,EMBASE,Cochrane Library,and four other Chinese electronic databases,including China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),Chinese Biological Medical Database(CBM),Chinese Scientific Journals Database(VIP),and WanFang Database were used to search(up to Feb,2016)for randomized,double-blind,placebocontrolled trials recruiting adults with FD treated with CHM.Study selection,data extraction,quality assessment,and data analyses were conducted based on Cochrane standards using Review Manager software.Results:Fourteen publications(1424 patients)were included.Evidence revealed that CHM was more efficacious than the placebo in improving global dyspepsia symptoms(RR,1.45;95%CI,1.31e1.60),Chinese medicine syndrome(CMS)(RR,1.36;95%CI,1.23e1.50),and quality of life(SMD,0.30;95%CI,0.15e0.45)in FD patients.Furthermore,the difference in the incidence of adverse events between CHM and placebo groups had no statistical significance(RR,1.06;95%CI,0.66e1.70).Conclusion:This meta-analysis demonstrates that CHM has a therapeutic potential in treating FD with a certain safety.However,due to the restricted number of trials included,wellplanned,long-term studies are necessary to provide credible evidence.

Proteomics analysis of IBS-D with spleen and kidney yang deficiency

Objective:To investigate the molecular mechanism underlying the development of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) with spleen and kidney yang deficiency (SKYD) using a proteomics approach.Methods:Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n =22) were divided into IBS-D (n =12) and normal control (n =10) groups.SKYD was then modeled in IBS-D rats by a combination of acetic acid enema,bondage,rectal dilation,tail stimulation,and Senna gavage.Colon tissue samples were subsequently collected and examined by Q Exactive mass spectrometry to identify differentially expressed proteins between the two groups.Results:The occurrence of SKYD/IBS-D was associated with ribosomal protein S23 (Rps23),protein phosphatase 2 catalytic subunit alpha (Pp2a),and growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (Grb2),which are involved in the ribosome,neurotrophin signaling,and Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) signaling pathways.Conclusion:These data suggest that SKYD/IBS-D pathophysiology likely involves inflammation,cell growth,apoptosis,stress granule formation,immune activation,loss of epithelial cell integrity,and visceral hypersensitivity.

Exploration of Infection Prevention and Control Practice of Designated Hospitals in During Corona Virus Disease 2019 Epidemic Period

Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)is a new infectious disease that appeared in whan in December 2019 Since January23,the national health and fitmess commission has required hospitals to be designated in accordance with the principle of"concentrating patients,experts,resources and treatment".Designated hospitals are often the strength of the general hospital and general hospital complex layers of various kinds of personnel,campus area is large,multi-channel,ordinary outpatient accepts people more,for emergency and severe cases treatment in patients with normal difficulty pressuure big,suspected/confirmed cases,combined with the COVID-19 occurred when the traditional holiday,the country launched the emergency response since,process reform faces a difficult labor,shortage of mampower,protective shortages,short time limit,and many other difficulties,hospital infection prevention and control is facing unprecedented pressure.In this paper,the West China-Guang'an Hospital,Sichuan University(Guang'an people's hospital)as a designated hospital,on the basis of the relevant scheme of the national health committee,epidemic prevention and control of the actual,combined with comprehensive hospital leadership,mampower allocation,protection,security,patient management,disinfection isolation,preview triage,preventive measures,training,monitoring,etc.,with practical experience summary for the COVID-19 diring the hospital infection prevention and control to improve the practice exploration.

Reduced smooth muscle-fibroblasts transformation potentially decreases intestinal wound healing and colitis-associated cancer in ageing mice

Cancer and impaired tissue wound healing with ageing are closely related to the quality of life of the elderly population.Given the increased incidence of cancer and the population ageing trend globally,it is very important to explore how ageing impairs tissue wound healing and spontaneous cancer.In a murine model of DSS-induced acute colitis and AOM/DSS-induced colitis-associated cancer(CAC),we found ageing significantly decreases intestinal wound healing and simultaneous CAC initiation,although ageing does not affect the incidence of AOM-induced,sporadic non-inflammatory CRC.Mechanistically,reduced fibroblasts were observed in the colitis microenvironment of ageing mice.Through conditional lineage tracing,an important source of fibroblasts potentially derived from intestinal smooth muscle cells(ISMCs)was identified orchestrating intestinal wound healing and CAC initiation in young mice.However,the number of transformed fibroblasts from ISMCs significantly decreased in ageing mice,accompanied by decreased intestinal wound healing and decreased CAC initiation.ISMCs-fibroblasts transformation in young mice and reduction of this transformation in ageing mice were also confirmed by ex-vivo intestinal muscular layer culture experiments.We further found that activation of YAP/TAZ in ISMCs is required for the transformation of ISMCs into fibroblasts.Meanwhile,the reduction of YAP/TAZ activation in ISMCs during intestinal wound healing was observed in ageing mice.Conditional knockdown of YAP/TAZ in ISMCs of young mice results in reduced fibroblasts in the colitis microenvironment,decreased intestinal wound healing and decreased CAC initiation,similar to the phenotype of ageing mice.In addition,the data from intestine samples derived from inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)patients show that activation of YAP/TAZ also occurs in ISMCs from these patients.Collectively,our work reveals an important role of the ageing stromal microenvironment in intestinal wound healing and CAC initiation.Furthermore,our work also identified a potential source of fibroblasts involved in colitis and CAC.

高通量筛选系统在定向改造中的新进展

酶和细胞工厂是工业生物技术的核心,在医药、化工、食品、农业、能源等诸多领域发挥重要作用。一般天然酶和细胞均需通过分子改造提高其催化效率、稳定性及立体选择性等。定向改造为快速改善酶和细胞工厂的性能提供了可能性,其中灵敏可靠的高通量筛选方法是决定酶和细胞工厂成功高效定向改造的关键。文中阐述并分析讨论了各种筛选方法的优缺点、适用范围以及信号产生策略,并总结了近3年超高通量筛选技术在酶和细胞工厂定向改造中的最新研究进展。在此基础上,讨论了高通量筛选系统目前面临的限制性因素,并对高通量筛选方法未来的发展趋势作出了展望。希望生物技术和仪器开发等各领域的研究者能够紧密合作,实现协同发展,进一步提升高通量筛选技术的可靠性和适用性。

Curative effect of warming kidney and fortifying spleen recipe on diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome

OBJECTIVE:To observe the curative effect of a recipe for warming the kidney and fortifying the spleen on diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome(IBS-D).METHODS:This multi-center,double-blind,randomized,and controlled trial included 240 patients that met the inclusion criterion and were then divided into two groups of 120.Patients in the treatment group(group A)took modified Sishen Wan orally for warming the kidney and fortifying the spleen and patients in the control group(group B)took a placebo,Chao Maiya,for 4 weeks.28 days after withdrawal,there was a 6-month follow-up to observe patient recurrence condition.The total effective rate,curative effect,and recurrence rate were evaluated after treatment.RESULTS:There was statistical difference(P<0.01)between the two groups in total effective rate(92.24%in the treatment group and 49.07%in the control group),in curative effect of TCM syndrome(90.52%and 47.22%,respectively),and in the recurrence rate(15.79%and 56.86%,respectively)within6 months after treatment.CONCLUSION:Modified Sishen Wan,for warming the kidney and fortifying the spleen,can effectively treat IBS-D and better control its recurrence.

Multi-scale image segmentation of coal piles on a belt based on the Hessian matrix

Segmenting images of coal piles on a belt is an unsolved problem in coal-based machine vision research, though it is an essential step for estimating size distribution and classifying coal. In this investigation, a new algorithm for segmenting images of coal piles on a belt is proposed. A multi^scale linear filter, constructed of a Hessian matrix and Gaussian function, forms the core of this algorithm and obtains an edge intensity image to form good seed regions for a watershed segmentation. Manual segmentation is used to define ground truth segmentation images to quantify the errors of the proposed method. Tests indicate that 12.76% of the visible regions are under- or over-segmented, and that this algorithm is feasible and effective in practical applications.