A new way to analyze the traditional Chinese medicine syndrome:heat toxin syndrome in cerebral infarction

Objective:To establish a diagnostic system for heat toxin syndrome of acute cerebral infarction.Based on this toxin syndrome diagnostic system,the general principles of heat toxin development will be uncovered,and the critical turning point at which the heat toxin syndrome occurs will also be explored.Methods:In this study,a total of 271 hypertension patients with cerebral infarction within 72 h were recruited from the Affiliated Dongfang Hospital of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine,the Affiliated Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine,the Affiliated Renmin Hospital of Peking University,the Second Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,the Affiliated Hospital of Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,the Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and China Meitan General Hospital from August,2008,to December,2009.The patients’Chinese medical information was recorded on days 1,3,5,7,and 14 during their hospitalizations.The medical records were recorded according to traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)theory and included the serum marker levels at the beginning and at the end of the trial.The time line was also analyzed.Results:The level of Hs-CRP,PAG,NSE,OX-LDL,and MMP-9 were abnormal and,were higher in CI patients compared to hypertension patients.In the study of the heat toxin diagnosis system,according to the entropy clustering results,30 combinations of the medical information can be sorted into the traditional syndromes,but 13 combinations cannot be sorted.To obtain more precise symptoms related to the heat toxins,a logistic regression equation was set up with the variables from the unsorted medical information;the dependent variables were fever and BP fluctuation.Weighted variables were obtained.MLP analysis demonstrated that the diagnosis model was stable and precise.The accuracy reached 83.82%.The ROC test showed that seven points of the diagnosis system was the best cutting point,with a sensitivity of 0.857 and a specificity of 0.955.Progressing stroke was related to heat toxin syndrome.When the turning point appeared,the combination of symptoms,such as coma,aphasia,gummy eyes,and halitosis,predicted the deterioration or recovery of CI.The heat toxin syndrome existed in every subtype of CI;however,the observed heat toxin levels were highest in PACI and lowest in LACI.Meanwhile,blood and sputum stasis syndromes transformed into heat toxicity were one source of heat toxin syndrome.Conclusion:Heat toxin syndrome,as well as qi/blood/sputum stasis,co-existed in the CI patients,and the transformation frequently appeared during the process.Three to five days after the onset of CI was the turning point,at which time several combinations of medical indicators make it possible to predict the development of CI.

Observation and analysis of morphology abnormalities in development of Oryzias melastigma embryos

Fish embryos are widely used as models in toxicology,drug development,and human disease research because of their high sensitivity,observability,and operability,providing the basis for an in-depth understanding of the embryogenesis.Increasing studies have indicated that birth defects are hereditary.In this study,we used Oryzias melastigma as a model to conduct a study of 185-day embryogenesis and observed self-induced non-pathological abnormal embryogenesis.O.melastigma experienced pre-puberty stage,adolescence stage,and senescence stage,and individuals produced up to 102 eggs per day.However,the fecundity was markedly reduced during the senescent stage.During the active egg and blastodisc stages,pseudo-fertilization and pseudo-blastocysts were observed.During cleavage at the 4-to 32-cell stages,we observed blastomeres separation or dislocation.Excessively separated blastomeres formed double blastoderms,eventually resulting in conjoined twins.During the blastula stage,we observed abnormally increased cell volume,narrowed and elongated blastocysts,and abnormally coated blastoderms.At the organogenesis stage,we observed abnormal numbers of Kupff er’s vesicles and conjoined twins.Abnormality in the location and number of oil droplets were observed in various development stages.Abnormal development was more commonly observed in fertilized eggs produced by broodstock in pre-puberty or senescence stages,which is probably related to the age of fish and the egg quality.This study can provide the materials for comparative analysis in toxicological and molecular studies of O.melastigma,and may provide evidence for other economic fish that produce sticky eggs.

A healable, mechanically robust and ultrastretchable ionic conductive elastomer for durably wearable sensor

The ionic conductive elastomers show great promise in multifunctional wearable electronics,but they currently suffer from liquid leakage/evaporation or mechanical compliance.Developing ionic conductive elastomers integrating non-volatility,mechanical robustness,superior ionic conductivity,and ultra-stretchability remains urgent and challenging.Here,we developed a healable,robust,and conductive elastomer via impregnating free ionic liquids(ILs)into the ILs-multigrafted poly(urethane-urea)(PUU)elastomer networks.A crucial strategy in the molecular design is that imidazolium cations are largely introduced by double-modification of PUU and centipede-like structures are obtained,which can lock the impregnated ILs through strong ionic interactions.In this system,the PUU matrix contributes outstanding mechanical properties,while the hydrogen bonds and ionic interactions endow the elastomer with self-healing ability,conductivity,as well as non-volatility and transparency.The fabricated ionic conductive elastomers show good conductivity(3.8×10^(-6) S·cm^(-1)),high mechanical properties,including tensile stress(4.64 MPa),elongation(1470%),and excellent healing ability(repairing efficiency of 90%after healing at room temperature for 12 h).Significantly,the conductive elastomers have excellent antifatigue properties,and demonstrate a highly reproducible response after 1000 uninterrupted extension-release cycles.This work provides a promising strategy to prepare ionic conductive elastomers with excellent mechanical properties and stable sensing capacity,and further promote the development of mechanically adaptable intelligent sensors.

Highly-active,metal-free,carbon-based ORR cathode for efficient organics removal and electricity generation in a PFC system

A highly-active,metal-free,carbon-based oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)cathode,i.e.,graphitized Ndoped carbon felt(GNCF),was prepared,for the first time,by in-situ modifying the doping species of polyacrylonitrile(PAN)-based carbon felt(CF)via a facile annealing process in Ar atmosphere.It was applied for dramatically enhanced organics degradation and electricity generation in a photocatalytic fuel cell(PFC)system.The GNCF showed enhanced specific surface area,improved graphitization and raised ratio of graphitic N,therefore resulting in excellently improved ORR performance compared to the CF.When applying the GNCF as a cathode in a PFC system,the proposed PFC showed significant improvement in degrading various model organic contaminants and outputing electricity simultaneously when compared with the PFC with CF.For instance,the apparent rate constant and electricity output efficiency showed~10.6 times and~7.2 times,respectively,improvement when using rhodamine B as model waste.Further improved performance was also achieved by aeration of air or O^(2) due to the fu rther enhanced ORR.The proposed PFC was also efficient in a wide pH,and kept outsta nding stability in long-term utilization.

Westward movement of tertiary education resources along the Belt and Road

Nearly half of the Belt and Road countries are still in the opportunity window of demographic dividend.Based on the experiences of China and many other countries,the improvement of health and education level is necessary to transform the economic potential of the age structure into a demographic dividend.Therefore,in order to develop demographic dividend of the Belt and Road,it is important to increase the human capital investment in these countries.On the other hand,there are some problems in education resources allocations in China,especially in tertiary education resources,resulting in inefficient operation of educational resources and is unconducive to the promotion of tertiary education levels.Therefore,the governments in the Belt and Road region would think about policies and strategies to promote the redistribution of westward movement of tertiary education resources.