The Quest for the Modernization and Internationalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is deeply rooted in ancient Chinese culture and has been practiced by Chinese people for thousands of years in order to maintain their health and fight against disease. This ancient Chinese wisdom has accumulated from the long struggle to cope with various diseases through hundreds or even thousands of trial-and-error practices. However, due to its empirical character, TCM has long been criticized as being deficient in scientific evidence, and is still not widely accepted by the mainstream conventional medical system. The complexity of the chemical components of TCM and the clarification of its mechanisms remain an enormous challenge in the conversion of TCM into an evidence-based medicine. Thanks to incredible progress in biomedical research, TCM has evolved at an astonishing pace in various aspects, as indicated by the 2015 Nobel Prize awarded to Professor Youyou Tu for her discovery of artemisinin.

Drawing mechanisms for top coal in longwall top coal caving(LTCC):A review of two decades of literature

This review details the state of the art in research on top coal drawing mechanisms in Longwall top coal caving(LTCC)by examining the relevant literature over the last two decades.It startswith an introduction of the brief history and basic procedures of LTCC.The framework of research on the drawing mechanism,basic concepts,and some theoretical models of LTCC are detailed in sect.research framework of top coal drawingmechanism.The authors note that theTop coal drawbody(TCD),Top coal boundary(TCB)and Top coal recovery ratio(TCRR)are key factors in the drawingmechanism.TheBody-boundary-ratio(BBR)research system has been the classic framework for research over the last 20 years.The modified Bergmark-Roos model,which considers the effects of the supporting rear canopy,flowing velocity of top coal,and its shape factor,is optimal for characterizing the TCD.A 3Dmodel to describe the TCB that considers the thicknesses of the coal seam and roof strata is reviewed.In sect.physical testing and numerical simulation,the physical tests and numerical simulations in the literature are classified for ease of bibliographical review,and classic conclusions regarding the drawing mechanism of top coal are presented and discussedwith elaborate illustrations and descriptions.The deflection of the TCDis noted,and is caused by the shape of the rear canopy.The inclined coal seam always induces a largerTCD,and a deflection in theTCDhas also been observed in it.The effects of the drawing sequence and drawing interval on the TCRR are reviewed,where a long drawing interval is found to lead to significant loss of top coal.Its flowing behavior and velocity distribution are also presented.Sect.practical applications of drawingmechanisms forLTCCmines 4 summarizes over 10 cases where the TCRRof LTCCmines improved due to the guidance of the drawing mechanism.The final section provides a summary of the work here and some open questions.Prospective investigations are highlighted to give researchers guidance on promising issues in future research on LTCC.

Research progress on the relationship between BRCA1 and hereditary breast cancer

Breast cancer gene 1(BRCA1) gene was the first breast cancel susceptibility gene discovered in familial breast cancer.It has been revealed that BRCA1 can be combined with an array of important protein involved in cell cycle regulation,DNA repair,gene transcription control and apoptosis regulation.It plays a down-regulation effect on tumor growth and an important role in maintaining genomic stability.New research suggests that it also associate with the breast cancer stem cells and microRNA.Its mutations,promoter methylation and ectopic expression may one of the main reasons for the generation and development of hereditary breast cancer.

Probability and reliability analysis of pillar stability in South Africa

A deterministic approach is frequently used in engineering design. In this quantitative design methodology, a safety factor, which is typically a strength-to-stress ratio, is derived as an index for the stability assessment of the engineering design. In underground coal mining applications such as pillar design,however, the inputs of pillar design are variables. This is widely overlooked in the deterministic approach. A probabilistic approach assessing the probability of failure or reliability of a system might be an alternative to the conventional quantitative methodology. This approach can incorporate the degree of uncertainty and deviations of variables and provide more versatile and reliable results. In this research, the reliability of case histories from stable and failed pillars of South Africa presented by Merwe and Mathey is examed. The updated Salamon and Munro strength formula(S-M formula) and Merwe and Mathey strength formula(M-M formula) are evaluated through a probabilistic approach. It is concluded that stable pillar cases have a reliability value greater than 0.83 while the reliability value of failed pillar cases are slightly larger than 0.50. There seems to be a positive relation between safety factor and reliability. The reliability of a pillar increases with pillar width but decreases with depth of cover, pillar height and entry width. The reliability analysis also confirms that M-M strength formula has a better distinction between the stable and failed pillar cases.

Editorial for the Special Issue on New Technology of Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment

Cancer is a global public health threat and a leading cause of death in China.In 2020,the number of new cancer cases around the world reached approximately 19.3 million,and about 10.0 million cancer-related deaths occurred.Tumor diagnosis and treatment remain a huge challenge due to the diversity of cancer etiology,the complicated mechanism and long process of tumorigenesis,and the significant heterogeneity between individuals.As cancer is a systemic disease,tumor diagnosis is multidisciplinary.Tumor treatment has evolved from the initial conventional surgery,radiotherapy,and chemotherapy to the current multimethod and multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment.With the continuous deepening and advancement of research in disease biology,we have gained a better understanding of cancer.

Screening for viruses in lung adenocarcinoma in China

To the Editor,Considerable numbers of cases of lung adenocarcinoma(LUAD)in non-smokers with unclear etiology have been reported.Viral and bacterial infections are the common causes of lung and respiratory diseases.1 However,whether LUAD development coexists with virus infection is still unknown.Histological staining and polymerase chain reaction(PCR)are often used to detect virus in blood,sputum,and alveolar lavage fluid samples.Whole-genome sequencing(WGS)is an unbiased method with a high throughput nature that can be applied for a broader assessment of viruses.Previous studies described the viral landscape in pan-cancer in The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)or cohort studies;however,these studies did not include Asian populations.Therefore,we sought to screen the common viral pathogens in a nationwide cohort of LUAD patients in China and further explored other potential viral pathogens by analyzing the WGS data from our single-center cohort.2 To systematically investigate the viral associations with LUAD in China,we conducted a comprehensive study that included two distinct cohorts.

New glimpses of caveolin-1 functions in embryonic development and human diseases

Caveolin-1(Cav-1)isoforms,including Cav-1αand Cav-1β,were identified as integral membrane proteins and the major components of caveolae.Cav-1 proteins are highly conserved during evolution from Caenorhabditis elegans to human and are capable of interacting with many signaling molecules through their caveolin scaffolding domains to regulate the activities of multiple signaling pathways.Thus,Cav-1 plays crucial roles in the regulation of cellular proliferation,differentiation and apoptosis in a cell-specific and contextual manner.In addition,Cav-1 is essential for embryonic development of vertebrates owing to its regulation of BMP,Wnt,TGF-βand other key signaling molecules.Moreover,Cav-1 is mainly expressed in terminally differentiated cells and its abnormal expression is often associated with human diseases,such as tumor progression,cardiovascular diseases,fibrosis,lung regeneration,and diseases related to virus.In this review,we will further discuss the potential of Cav-1 as a target for disease therapy and multiple drug resistance.