Use of Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking to Investigate the Mechanism by Which Ginseng Ameliorates Hypoxia

Hypoxia is a common pathological process in various clinical diseases and is characterized by abnormal changes in metabolism, function, and morphological structure of tissues resulting from insufficient oxygen supply or oxygen barriers in tissues. In particular, hypoxia in vital organs such as the brain and heart is an important cause of death;. The prevention of tissue hypoxia and the

New Application, Development and Aerospace Prospect of fNIR

Functional near-infrared imaging (fNIR) is a non-invasive, convenient, safe and stable imaging method to test biological state. It can obtain the biological tissue hemodynamic data, thus becoming a powerful tool to measure brain activities, mental workload, metabolism and cognitive activities state. First of all, we introduced the characteristics and current situation of fNIR in this article. Then we focused on the applications of fNIR, discussed some existing problems and future directions, including the prospect in aerospace field. Our purpose is to give a comprehensive description of fNIR and show its potential in aerospace field.

Validated,Rapid and Sensitive HPLC-MS/MS Method for Determination of 7,4'-Dihydroxylflavone in Rat Plasma and Its Application to Preliminary Pharmacokinetics

A sensitive,specific and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography-electronic spray ionization-tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated for the determination of 7,4'-dihydroxylflavone(7,4'-DHF)in rat plasma.Genistein(internal standard,IS)was added in the collected plasma samples and subsided together by a simple one-step protein precipitation using acetonitrile-methanol(1:1,v/v).Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax XDB C18 chromatography column and gradient elution with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and 0.1%formic acid was used.The mass spectrometric detection was performed by negative ion electro-spray ionization in multiple selected reactions monitoring(MRM)mode,with the transitions of m/z 253.1→113.0 for 7,4'-DHF and m/z 268.9→158.8 for IS.The calibration curve has liner relationship over the concentration range of 0.1-50.ng/mL(r=0.995.4).The intra-and inter-day precision(RSD%)was less than 10%,and the accuracy(RE%,relative error)ranged from-5.2%to 8.0%.The fully validated method was applied to the pharmacokinetics(PK)of 7,4'-dihydroxylflavone(7,4'-DHF)in rat plasma after oral administration(two doses:15 and 30.mg/kg)and intravenous injection(5.mg/kg).The result showed that Tmax and Cmax was 1.33±0.29.h and 0.12±0.02.ng/mL(15.mg/kg),and 1.17±0.29.h and 0.17±0.04.ng/mL(30.mg/kg),respectively.The bioavailability was 0.078%(15.mg/kg)and 0.070%(30.mg/kg),respectively.

Electric Wheelchair Control System Using Brain-Computer Interface Based on Alpha-Wave Blocking

A brain-computer interface(BCI)-based electric wheelchair control system was developed, which enables the users to move the wheelchair forward or backward, and turn left or right without any pre-learning. This control system makes use of the amplitude enhancement of alpha-wave blocking in electroencephalogram(EEG) when eyes close for more than 1 s to constitute a BCI for the switch control of wheelchair movements. The system was formed by BCI control panel, data acquisition, signal processing unit and interface control circuit. Eight volunteers participated in the wheelchair control experiments according to the preset routes. The experimental results show that the mean success control rate of all the subjects was 81.3%, with the highest reaching 93.7%. When one subject's triggering time was 2.8 s, i.e., the flashing time of each cycle light was 2.8 s, the average information transfer rate was 8.10 bit/min, with the highest reaching 12.54 bit/min.

Monitoring Mental Fatigue in Analog Space Environment Using Optical Brain Imaging

Accurate assessment of mental fatigue level would improve operational safety and efficacy of astronauts for long-term space flight. Identification of neurophysiological markers can index impending overload or fatigue before performance decrements using neuroimaging technologies. The current study utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) to investigate the relationship of hemodynamic response in prefrontal cortex with changes of mental fatigue level, task performance (reaction time) during n-back working memory task and routine work task in analog space environment. Results indicated that the information entropy of hemodynamic response is related to task performance and subjective self-reported measures;the reaction time is predicted by regression analysis;and the accuracy of mental fatigue classification approaches 90%. Since fNIR is a portable, wearable and minimally intrusive methodology, it has the potential to be deployed in future space environments to monitoring mental fatigue and assessing the effort of operators in field environments.