The Significance of Constructing TCM Psychosomatic Medicine from the Holistic View of the Unity of Nature and Man

With the development of medical technology, the problem of fragmentation of medical research has become increasingly prominent, and a series of iatrogenic diseases, drug-induced diseases and drug toxicity and side effects have resulted in an increase in the number of diseases. In the face of these problems, the medical concept has been re-examined and re-thought. The concept of the holistic view of the unity of nature and man in traditional Chinese medicine has certain enlightenment for dealing with the problems in the current medical development. Based on the holistic view of the unity of nature and man, the overall connection between human’s heart and body and nature is explained, and the further construction of TCM psychosomatic medicine is conducive to guiding the diagnosis and treatment of clinical diseases, and providing new enlightenment for the current medical concept thinking and clinical disease research.

The Thought of the Oneness Between Man and Nature in Walden

From the view of the ecological theory, this paper tries to analyze that Thoreau uses Chinese traditional philosophical thought--- the oneness of man and nature to deal with the relationship of human beings and the nature in Walden.

Protecting Our Common Homestead:A Comparative Study on Attitudes Towards Man and Nature in Chinese and the Western Culture

In light of increasingly worsening environmental pollution,this paper,through comparing different attitudes towards the relationship between man and nature in Chinese and the western culture,points out rebuilding a harmonious relationship between man and nature is the common object of human being,and appeals to people to shake off man-centered thinking pattern,and to treat nature as our friend.

Chinese and Western Philosophy on Man and Nature

Throughout history, various cultures have sought to understand the relationship between man and nature. Therefore, the relation-ship between man and nature is one of the basic problems to be solved. The aim of this paper is to compare the differences between the philosophical reactions to the relationship between man and nature in Chinese and Western cultures, the reasons related to the differences and its present developments.

Man and Nature in Chinese and Western Traditions

The Chinese conception of "oneness with man and heaven"and the Western tradition of man’s separation from nature accompanied by a subject- object dichotomy are the cores of each culture, which largely decides the discrepancy in various aspects of the Chinese and Western ways. To have an embedded and penetrating idea about the differences between the two cultures, it is necessary to gain sufficient knowledge of man- nature relation in dominant Chinese and Western conceptions. This paper aims to explore this issue from the perspective of Taoism and Confucianism in Chinese context, and ancient Greek and Hebraic heritage and modern mechanical view in Western tradition.

On the Theory of Harmonious Co-existence between Man and Nature by Marx and Engels

Marx and Engles believed that man and nature develop harmoniously, when the activities of man constitute the content of nature, which is changed constantly because of the activities of man. Marx and Engles also pointed out the duality of the conquest, change and influence exerted on nature by man. On one hand, it can improve people’s living conditions and make people free from the enslavement of the nature. On the other hand, it may also lead to excessively snatching and wrecking nature, then make the deterioration of the environment and ecology out of balance. They also, from the technical angle of ecology, put forward the concrete measures to realize the harmonious symbiosis of man and nature in the development of economy. They also believed that only when socialism or communism is realized, can the conciliation of mankind and nature be realized finally. Marx and Engle’s theory of harmonious symbiosis of man and nature is of great theoretical directive significance for us to insist on the scientific development view.

The Nature of Man and His Place in the Universe——A Comparative Study of An Essay on Man and Gulliver’s Travels

As leading figures in English literature during the Neoclassical period,Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift both showed great concern with the nature of man and his place in the Great Chain of Being.They both emphasized the irreplaceable role of reason in guiding man in his self-positioning in the universe,and pointed out the tragic,pathetic,or detestable fall man was vulnerable to in case of violating the law of nature.Pope attached more importance to setting right man' s position as against God and beast,while Swift showed more interest in the chain of being within the human society;Pope kept warning man against his pride and possible ruin as a result of his ambition,while Swift worried more about man' s degradation due to loss of reason.

Numerical Investigation of Combined Production of Natural Gas Hydrate and Conventional Gas

Natural gas hydrate(NGH)is generally produced and accumulated together with the underlying conventional gas.Therefore,optimizing the production technology of these two gases should be seen as a relevant way to effectively reduce the exploitation cost of the gas hydrate.In this study,three types of models accounting for the coexistence of these gases are considered.Type A considers the upper hydrate-bearing layer(HBL)adjacent to the lower conventional gas layer(CGL);with the Type B a permeable interlayer exists between the upper HBL and the lower CGL;with the type C there is an impermeable interlayer between the upper HBL and the lower CGL.The production performances associated with the above three models are calculated under different conditions,including only a depressurized HBL(only HBL DP);only a depressurized CGL(only CGL DP);and both the HBL and the CGL being depressurized(HBL+CGL DP).The results show that for Type A and Type B coexistence accumulation models,when only HBL or CGL is depressurized,the gas from the other layer will flow into the production layer due to the pressure difference between the two layers.In the coexistence accumulation model of type C,the cumulative gas production is much lower than that of Type A and Type B,regardless of whether only HBL DP,only CGL DP,or HBL+CGL DP are considered.This indicates that the impermeable interlayer restricts the cross-flow of gas between HBL and CGL.For three different coexistence accumulation models,CGL DP has the largest gas-to-water ratio.

Modern Annotation on Marx's Theory of Man and Nature

Marx's theory of man and nature is an indispensable important constituent of Marx's society development theory. The humanity is not always there,and they come from natural world and are long-term development products of the nature. Man has the undeniable dependence on the nature,but this kind of dependence is not the negative adaptation and is that the humanity has the huge motility to the nature. It should correctly process the relation between man and nature,and realize positive cycle and coordinated development between natural ecology and human society. It has the significant theory value and the practical significance for human society's sustainable development to grasp and comprehend scientific connotation of Marx's theory of man and nature.

Man, City, and Nature in The Woman Warrior and Ballad of Eternal Sorrow

In a time of the global market economy, if one wants to live harmoniously together with nature or living environment, he should not think with a theoretical mode of dualist contradiction but that of harmony and coexistence such as ＂wholeness of man and nature＂. To illustrate this point, this paper thinks The Woman Warrior and Ballad of Eternal Sorrow are two significant texts： Ballad of Eternal Sorrow tells an ordinary, self-respecting, and life-respecting story of WANG Qi-yao and the girls like her as well as the city Shanghai. They blend into one harmonious whole： The city is like the girls and the girls match the city. Likewise, The Woman Warrior highlights the significance of naturc on the girl narrator＇s epiphany and healthy growth. The narrator comes to understand that paradoxes are the basic existent condition of human beings and so what she needs to do is to be magnanimous and balanceable in accepting these paradoxes.

Harmony between man and nature:the base for the harmonious society

The harmony between man and nature is the base for the harmonious society. It is determined by the eco-ruleand eco-economic rule. Human being should not violate the eco-rule. However, human being can make eco-systemsupply suit economic growth and its speed through systematical innovation and restriction of human economic activityand choice. Through technological innovation, efficiency satisfaction of unit resource can be increased; structure andfunction of eco-system can be perfected; supply capability of eco-system can be improved. To build the harmonioussociety, human should consider the reasonable distribution of limited resources from two sides. The first one is that theutilization of two functions of resource supply and pollution purification to nature should not exceed its special supplycapability formed under its special structure and function states, i.e. harmony between man and nature. The second sideis human being should think over the reasonable and effective distribution of limited resources in economic society, i.e.harmony between human beings and society. The reasonable economic activity of human being is the key to the harmo-nious development of man and nature.

Man and Nature——A Comparative Study of Views Towards Nature Between Chinese and Westerners

Chinese and westerners, due to the different natural environment they are situated in and further due to different backgroundin history, economy, politics and culture, have made for differences in their ways of seeing nature and the relationship between man andnature, which substantially influences how Chinese and western societies proceed. This is a study on the similarities and differences onpeople's views of nature in the past and the reasons behind the differences.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE IN TRADITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONCEPTS OF CHINA AND WEST

As the process of economic globalization gathers momentum, dialogue between different cultures has become extremely important. There should be dialogue between the Chinese and Western cultures under the principle of equality and mutual respect and understanding to increase consensus for mutual development.

Natural products and food components with anti-Helicobacter pylori activities

The bacterial pathogen Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) colonizes in over half of the world’s population. H. pylori that establishes life-long infection in the stomach is definitely associated with gastro-duodenal diseases and a wide variety of non-gastrointestinal tract conditions such as immune thrombocytopenia. Triple therapy which consists of a proton pump inhibitor and combinations of two antibiotics (amoxicillin, clarithromycin or amoxicillin, metronidazol) is commonly used for H. pylori eradication. Recently, the occurrence of drug-resistant H. pylori and the adverse effect of antibiotics have severely weakened eradication therapy. Generally antibiotics induce the disturbance of human gastrointestinal microflora. Furthermore, there are inappropriate cases of triple therapy such as allergy to antibiotics, severe complications (liver and/or kidney dysfunction), the aged and people who reject the triple therapy. These prompt us to seek alterative agents instead of antibiotics and to develop more effective and safe therapy with these agents. The combination of these agents actually may result in lower a dose of antibiotics. There are many reports world-wide that non-antibiotic substances from natural products potentially have an anti-H. pylori agent. We briefly review the constituents derived from nature that fight against H. pylori in the literature with our studies.

Therapeutic potential of thymoquinone in combination therapy against cancer and cancer stem cells

The long-term success of standard anticancer monotherapeutic strategies has been hampered by intolerable side effects,resistance to treatment and cancer relapse.These monotherapeutic strategies shrink the tumor bulk but do not effectively eliminate the population of self-renewing cancer stem cells(CSCs)that are normally present within the tumor.These surviving CSCs develop mechanisms of resistance to treatment and refuel the tumor,thus causing cancer relapse.To ensure durable tumor control,research has moved away from adopting the monotreatment paradigm towards developing and using combination therapy.Combining different therapeutic modalities has demonstrated significant therapeutic outcomes by strengthening the anti-tumor potential of monotreatment against cancer and cancer stem cells,mitigating their toxic adverse effects,and ultimately overcoming resistance.Recently,there has been growing interest in combining natural products from different sources or with clinically used chemotherapeutics to further improve treatment efficacy and tolerability.Thymoquinone(TQ),the main bioactive constituent of Nigella sativa,has gained great attention in combination therapy research after demonstrating its low toxicity to normal cells and remarkable anticancer efficacy in extensive preclinical studies in addition to its ability to target chemoresistant CSCs.Here,we provide an overview of the therapeutic responses resulting from combining TQ with conventional therapeutic agents such as alkylating agents,antimetabolites and antimicrotubules as well as with topoisomerase inhibitors and non-coding RNA.We also review data on anticancer effects of TQ when combined with ionizing radiation and several natural products such as vitamin D3,melatonin and other compounds derived from Chinese medicinal plants.The focus of this review is on two outcomes of TQ combination therapy,namely eradicating CSCs and treating various types of cancers.In conclusion,the ability of TQ to potentiate the anticancer activity of many chemotherapeutic agents and sensitize cancer cells to radiotherapy makes it a promising molecule that could be used in combination therapy to overcome resistance to standard chemotherapeutic agents and reduce their associated toxicities.

Immune evasion and therapeutic opportunities based on natural killer cells

Natural killer(NK)cells can elicit an immune response against malignantly transformed cells without recognizing antigens,and they also exhibit cytotoxic effects and immune surveillance functions in tumor immunotherapy.Although several studies have shown the promising antitumor effects of NK cells in immunotherapy,their function is often limited in the tumor microenvironment because tumor cells can easily escape NK cell-induced death.Thus,for efficient tumor immunotherapy,the mechanism by which tumor cells escape NK cell-induced cytotoxicity must be fully understood.Various novel molecules and checkpoint receptors that mediate the disruption of NK cells in the tumor microenvironment have been discovered.In this review,we analyze and detail the major activating and inhibitory receptors on the surface of NK cells to delineate the mechanism by which tumor cells suppress NKG2D ligand expression and increase tumor receptor and inhibitory receptor expression[NKG2A,programmed cell death1(PD-1),and T-cell immunoglobulin and immunoreceptor tyrosine inhibitory motif(TIGIT)]on the NK cell surface,and thus inhibit NK cell activity.We also reviewed the current status of treatments based on these surface molecules.By comparing the therapeutic effects related to the treatment status and bypass mechanisms,we attempt to identify optimal single or combined treatments to suggest new treatment strategies for tumor immunotherapy.

Thymoquinone anticancer activity is enhanced when combined with royal jelly in human breast cancer

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common cause of the majority of cancer-related deaths in women,among which triple-negative breast cancer is the most aggressive type of breast cancer diagnosed with limited treatment options.Thymoquinone(TQ),the main bioactive constituent of Nigella sativa,has been extensively studied as a potent anticancer molecule against various types of cancers.Honeybee products such as the royal jelly(RJ),the nutritive secretion fed to honeybee queens,exhibit a variety of biological activities besides its anticancer effect.However,the anticancer activity of the combination of TQ and RJ against breast cancer is still unknown.AIM To investigate cytotoxicity of RJ in FHs 74 Int cells and the anticancer effects of TQ,RJ,and their combinations in the MDA-MB-231 cell line.METHODS Cells were treated with TQ,RJ,and their combinations for 24 h.Using 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay,we determined the half-maximal inhibitory concentration of TQ.Trypan blue and 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays were then performed to assess the cell viability in response to different treatment conditions.Cell death and cycle regulation were investigated using propidium iodide deoxyribonucleic acid staining followed by flow cytometry in response to a single dose of TQ,RJ,and their combination.Immunostaining for cleaved caspase 3 and Ki67 expression was used to determine apoptosis induction and changes in cell proliferation.RESULTS TQ alone inhibited cell viability in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations below and above the half-maximal inhibitory concentration.RJ exhibited relatively nontoxic effects against MDA-MB-231 cells and FHs 74 Int small intestinal cells at concentrations below 5μg/mL.High doses of RJ(200μg/mL)had greater toxicity against MDA-MB-231 cells.Interestingly,the inhibition of cell viability was most pronounced in response to 15μmol/L TQ and 5μg/mL RJ.A dose of 15μmol/L TQ caused a significant increase in the PreG1 population,while a more pronounced effect on cell viability inhibition and PreG1 increase was observed in response to TQ and RJ combinations.TQ was the main inducer of caspase 3-dependent apoptosis when applied alone and in combination with RJ.In contrast,no significant regulation of Ki67 expression was observed,indicating that the decrease in cell viability was due to apoptosis induction rather than to inhibition of cell proliferation.CONCLUSION This study is the first to report enhanced anticancer effects of TQ and RJ combination against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells,which could confer an advantage for cancer therapy.

Effects of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia on anxiety,labor analgesia and motor blocks in women during natural delivery

BACKGROUND The background of this study was analgesia in natural delivery.The combined spinal-epidural anesthesia has obvious analgesic effect on the parturients in natural labor,and combined spinal-epidural anesthesia has been widely used in anesthesia for various diseases.AIM To study the effects of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia on anxiety,labor analgesia,and motor blocks in parturients during natural delivery.METHODS A total of 120 women who gave birth at Changning District Maternal and Child Health Hospital between December 2021 to December 2022 were included;a random number table approach was employed to divide the women into a control group and a joint group,with each group consisting of 60 women.The control group was given epidural anesthesia,while the joint group was given combined spinal-epidural anesthesia.The visual analog scale(VAS)was used to evaluate the degree of maternal pain.Comparisons were made between the two groups’conditions of childbirth and the duration of labor.Apgar scores were used to evaluate the status of the newborns at birth;Self-rating Anxiety Scale(SAS)and General Self-Efficacy Scale(GSES)scores,umbilical artery blood gas analysis indices and stress indices were compared between the two groups;and the frequencies of motor block and postpartum complications were analyzed.RESULTS In comparison to the control group,in the joint group,the VAS scores for the first,second,and third stages of labor were lower(P<0.05).The rates of conversion to cesarean section and postpartum blood loss in the joint group were lower than those in the control group(P<0.05).No significant differences were observed in the Apgar score,the duration of the first stage of labor,or the total duration of labor between the two groups(P>0.05).The second and third stages of labor in the joint group were shorter than those in the control group(P<0.05).When compared to the control group,the postpartum SAS score of the joint group was lower,while the GSES score was greater(P<0.05).Between the control group and the joint group,the differences observed in pH,arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure,arterial oxygen partial pressure,or arterial hydrogen ion concentration were not significant(P>0.05).Nitric oxide,cortisol,and adrenaline levels were lower in the joint group than in the control group(P<0.05).There were no substantial differences in Bromage grade or rate of complications between the two groups(P>0.05).CONCLUSION For parturients during natural delivery,combined spinal-epidural anesthesia can reduce anxiety,provide labor analgesia,shorten labor time,and reduce postoperative stress levels but did not result in a motor block.