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Ligand fishing is a widely used approach for screening active compounds from natural products. Recently, cell membrane (CM) as affinity ligand has been applied in ligand fishing, including cell membrane chromatography (CMC) and CM-coated magnetic bead. However, these methods possess many weaknesses, including complicated preparation processes and time-consuming operation. In this study, cheap and easily available cellulose filter paper (CFP) was selected as carrier of CM and used to fabricate a novel CM-coated CFP (CMCFP) for the first time. The type of CFP was optimized according to the amount of immobilized protein, and the immobilization of CM onto CFP by the insertion and self-fusion process was verified by confocal imaging. The CMCFP exhibited good selectivity and stability and was used for fishing potentially active compounds from extracts of Angelica dahurica. Three potentially active compounds, including bergapten, pabulenol, and imperatorin, were fished out and identified. The traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform was used to build an active compound-target protein network, and accordingly, the gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit alpha-1 (GABRA1) was deduced as potential target of CM for the active compounds of Angelica dahurica. Molecular docking was performed to evaluate the interaction between active compounds and GABRA1, and bergapten was speculated as a new potentially active compound. Compared with other methods, the fishing assay based on CMCFP was more effective, simpler, and cheaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper media including the People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Health News and Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine were the main media that spread the thought and policy of integrative medicine (IM) in the early stage of the integration of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine (WM) in China. Issues including paper media and its roles for spreading IM, from "TCM learning from WM" to "WM learning from TCM", advocating integration of TCM and WM, promoting IM through multiple channels were analyzed in this article, so as to show the propagation process of IM in China and the roles of the paper media. It was shown that strengthening the propaganda of IM through mainstream media, strengthening media convergence and the role of new media are important in spreading the thought of IM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is divided into three subfields, including Chinese medicine, Chinese herb and acupuncture, attracts increasing attentions due to its challenging and significant medical values. This study employs bibliometric analysis to examine the profile of publication activity in TCM field as well as its subfields. The data are retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded database during 1980-2009, and 16,536 papers are identified for analysis. Generally speaking, proportions of papers in subfield of acupuncture decreased dramatically, while the proportions of papers of Chinese medicine and Chinese herb rose increasingly. This study finds that East Asia has the largest number of TCM papers, followed by North America and Europe. Furthermore, while China is ranked first in terms of the amount of TCM publications, USA gains the highest percentage of citations. As for regional specialty, mainly, scholars in East Asia publish intensively in Chinese medicine, while most of the scholars in North America and Europe probe into the study of acupuncture. In the latest two decades, China took the first place over Japan in subfields of both Chinese medicine and Chinese herb, while the US has always kept the largest share in acupuncture with a marked upward trend. Regarding the top-ranked TCM institution, Chinese Academy of Sciences located in China, is ranked first in the subfields of Chinese medicine and Chinese herb as well. As for Kyung Hee University, which is located in South Korea, is ranked first in the number of acupuncture papers and Harvard University is ranked first in number of acupuncture citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical curative effect is the core value and fundamental pursuit of medicine. The data-driven clinical quantitative evaluation model is an important research issue in clinical efficacy evaluation. The existing clinical efficacy evaluation methods have made a lot of contributions to the structured information of static attributes, but less attention is paid to the heterogeneous information with dynamic and random characteristics. This paper discusses a class of clinical efficacy evaluation decision-making problems that contain both time-series and dynamic characteristics and uses the three-way decision principle to describe these characteristics. The group decision-making theory is introduced to aggregate the evaluation information of time series dynamic features generated in the decision-making process. A time series dynamic three-way group decision model for clinical efficacy evaluation is constructed, the optimal decision rules with minimum expected loss objective are calculated and proofed in the proposed model, and then the optimal treatment alternative is obtained. Finally, taking the decision-making problem of clinical efficacy evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment of atopic dermatitis as the research object, based on the actual clinical data of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM, the decision-making process and steps of the theoretical model constructed in this paper are verified and applied. The data-driven quantitative clinical evaluation model has achieved better application effects than the actual clinical scenarios. The research results in this paper provide new ideas and theoretical methods for real-world clinical efficacy evaluation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncaria rhynchophylla is an important traditional herbal medicine in China, and the yield and quality of Uncaria rhynchophylla can be improved by suitable soil conditioners because of changing the soil properties. In this paper, Uncaria rhynchophylla associated alkaloids and soil microbial communities were investigated. The field experiment was set up with the following control group: (M1, no soil conditioner) and different soil conditioner treatment groups (M2, biomass ash; M3, water retention agent; M4, biochar; M5, lime powder and M6, malic acid). The results showed that M2 significantly increased the fresh and dry weight and the contents of isorhynchophylline, corynoxeine, isocorynoxeine, and total alkaloids. Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Chloroflexi were major bacterial phyla. Correlation analysis showed that fresh and dry weight was significantly positively correlated with Acidobacteria, while alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, phosphatase activity, fresh and dry weight, corynoxeine, and isocorynoxeine were significantly negatively correlated with Chloroflexi. The application of soil conditioner M2 increased the abundance of Acidobacteria and decreased the abundance of Chloroflexi, which contributed to improving the soil nutrient content, yield, and quality of Uncaria rhynchophylla. In summary, biomass ash may be a better choice of soil conditioner in Uncaria rhynchophylla growing areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acupressure is a noninvasive method in traditional Chinese medicine to increase blood circulation, relieve discomfort, promote health, and prevent disease. This paper presents a multifunctional acupoint application system that not only provides real-time visualization of acupoints on mobile devices for users' self-acupressure but also provides health care, education, and entertainment through acupressure. The system allows users to obtain acupoint information to relieve specific discomfort or symptoms. It automatically marks the requested acupoints on a real-time camera stream to guide users to locate acupoints so that even users unfamiliar with acupoints can easily find acupoints for self-acupressure. Three core technologies are used: acupoint localization and knowledge, real-time image recognition, and augmented reality. This paper details the system design and implementation. This system uses Google's machine learning kit for facial detection to extract the user's facial features and contours in real time on a mobile device. These contour points are used as landmarks with specific displacements to locate acupoints. As there are many acupoints and various positioning methods, the acupoint location is traditionally described in words through specific feature points and corresponding displacements related to each person's physiological characteristics. This work proposes a novel acupoint positioning and marking mechanism based on the standard acupoint localization, which formalizes various acupoint positioning methods so that positions can be processed and stored in an acupoint database established in this system. This positioning information allows the proposed mechanism to fulfill real-time visualization of acupoints in augmented reality on the camera stream. Experimental results show that the proposed system locates and marks acupoints with low latency and high accuracy. Moreover, the system also provides recommendations for further medical treatment and a mini-game that tests knowledge of acupoints, which enhances users' experience of acupoint massage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gentiopicroside (GPS), a single compound isolated from Gentiana lutea L. and the crucial representative of secoiridoid constituent, has been permitted for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine. GPS and its metabolites have been increasingly used in the search for clinical management with therapeutic properties and fewer side effects. The objective of this review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the involvement of molecular pathways in the therapeutic effects of GPS on human diseases and chronic conditions. This study presents a meticulously conducted comprehensive search of the PubMed and Google Scholar databases (from 1983 to 2023), aimed at identifying articles relating to regulatory mechanisms of GPS on human diseases and the pharmacokinetics of GPS. The inclusion criteria were meticulously and precisely defined to encompass original research papers that explicitly focused on elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of GPS in various human diseases through in vitro and animal studies. Notably, these studies were mandated to integrate specific genetic markers or pathways as essential components of their research inquiries. The evaluated pharmacokinetic parameters included maximum plasma concentration (Cmax), time to reach maximum plasma concentration (Tmax), area under the curve (AUC), clearance, and plasma half-life (t1/2). Subsequently, through a rigorous screening process of titles and abstracts, studies conducted in vitro or on animals, as well as those reporting pharmacokinetic data related to drugs other than GPS or language barriers, were systematically excluded. Drawing from the data and studies pertaining to this review, we conducted a thorough and informative analysis of the pharmacological characteristics and biological functions of GPS. These encompassed a wide range of effects, including hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic, antioxidant, analgesic, antitumor, and immunomodulatory properties. The analysis provided a comprehensive and insightful understanding of GPS's pharmacological profile and its diverse activities. Enhancing theoretical and experimental methodologies could prove advantageous in expanding the clinical applications of GPS. This could involve optimizing the bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of GPS, uncovering additional biomarkers and potential biotransformation pathways, and investigating its combined effects with standard-of-care medications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common type of liver cancer, with a high mortality rate. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a type of liver cancer that can be effectively managed through early detection and accurate diagnosis, followed by a personalized treatment plan that may include surgical resection, liver transplantation, minimally-invasive techniques, immunotherapy, or targeted therapy depending on the stage and severity of the cancer. This paper discusses recent advances in the early detection, management, and prevention of HCC. The use of newer imaging techniques, such as Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound, along with image segmentation technology and deep learning models, have greatly enhanced the accuracy of HCC detection and diagnosis. Minimally-invasive techniques, such as thermal ablation and radiofrequency ablation, have allowed for more precise and targeted destruction of tumors, while Nanoparticles, immunotherapy and targeted therapy have shown promise in the management of advanced stage HCC. The use of Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has revolutionized HCC research, aiding in the identification of high-risk patients and predicting outcomes. Lifestyle modifications, such as weight management, alcohol avoidance, and hepatitis B vaccinations, can play a critical role in preventing HCC development. Short conclusion: Recent advances in early detection, management, and prevention of HCC have shown promise in improving patient outcomes. The use of newer imaging techniques, minimally-invasive techniques, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and AI and machine learning have greatly enhanced HCC research and management, while lifestyle modifications can play a critical role in prevention. However, further research is required to fully understand the potential benefits of nanoparticles, traditional Chinese medicine and herbal medicines in HCC treatment. Highlights: • Early detection and diagnosis: The advent of newer imaging techniques, such as MRI, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and image segmentation technology, has allowed for earlier and more accurate detection of HCC, with higher sensitivity and specificity than previous techniques. Advances in radiomics and deep learning models have greatly enhanced the accuracy of HCC diagnosis. • AI and machine learning: The use of AI and machine learning has revolutionized HCC research, with greater accuracy and an ability to analyze large volumes of data. AI-based predictive models have been shown to be helpful in identifying high-risk patients and predicting outcomes. • Management: While surgical resection and liver transplantation remain effective treatments for early-stage HCC, advances in minimally-invasive techniques, such as thermal ablation and radiofrequency ablation, have allowed for more precise and targeted destruction of tumors. Additionally, nanoparticles, immunotherapy and targeted therapy have shown significant promise in the management of advanced stage HCC. • Prevention: Lifestyle modifications, such as weight management and alcohol avoidance, along with hepatitis B vaccinations, can play a critical role in preventing HCC development. • Traditional Chinese medicine and herbal medicines in HCC treatment require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical decision-making is a group decision-making process given by the imbalanced decision-making groups, which has hybrid quantitative and qualitative attributes. Data-driven decision-making paradigm is a novel idea for constructing a clinical quantitative decision-making model. The conflict analysis provides an effective method for managing the imbalanced group decision-making problems with hybrid attributes. In this paper, we consider a kind of imbalanced group confilct problems with hybrid quantitative and qualitative attributes information given by large and small groups and use three-way conflict analysis to solve these problems. First, a hybrid information system is repersented the qualitative and quantitative hybrid attribute information given by large and small groups. Further, the real-value information system consisting of hybrid quantitative and qualitative attributes information given by this imbalanced group is transformed into a 19-scale conflict information system. Then, the optimal alternatives are derived by measuring group conflict degree, conflict function, and group conflict measurement in a three-way conflict framework. Finally, the clinical decision-making problem of rheumatoid arthritis treated with integrated TCM and Western medicine clinic as the research object, the conflict analysis process and steps of the theoretical model constructed in this paper are validated and explicitly applied based on the actual clinical data of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, furthermore the quantitative conflict analysis simulated by actual clinical data is given, which obtains application results that are almost consistent with real clinical scenarios. On the one hand, the paper's research extends a novel conflict analysis model and idea for the group conflict analysis with imbalanced, quantitative, and qualitative hybrid information attributes. On the other hand, it also provides a new attempt and exploration for applyling of three-way conflict analysis in clinical decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical questions of acupuncture-moxibustion (Acup-Mox) guidelines are complicated, including not only the curative effect of Acup-Mox intervention measures, but also the operational elements of Acup-Mox. This paper aimed to put forward the idea and process of collecting clinical questions in developing international acupuncture clinical practice guidelines. The experience was collected and the idea of collecting clinical questions of Acup-Mox was formed through expert consultation and discussion in combination with expert opinions. Based on the characteristics of Acup-Mox discipline. This paper put forward the thinking of collecting elements of clinical questions following the intervention-population-outcome-control (I-P-O-C) inquiry process, according to the discipline of Acup-Mox. It was emphasized that in the process of collecting clinical questions, "treatable population" and "alleviable outcome indicators" for a specific Acup-Mox intervention with certain therapeutic effect should be focused on, so as to highlight the pertinence of clinical questions of Acup-Mox guidelines in terms of population and outcome elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an indispensable part of the world health and medical system and plays an important role in treatment, prevention, and health care. These TCM produce a large amount of Chinese medicine herbal residues (CHMRs) during the application process, most of which are the residues after the decoction or extraction of botanical medicines. These CMHRs contain a large number of unused components, which can be used in medical, breeding, planting, materials, and other industries. Considering the practical application requirements, this paper mainly introduces the low-cost treatment methods of CHMRs, including the extraction of active ingredients, cultivation of edible fungi, and manufacture of feed. These methods not only have low upfront investment, but also have some income in the future. Furthermore, other methods are briefly introduced. In conclusion, this paper can provide a reference for people who need to deal with CMHRs and contribute to the sustainable development of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orientin is a flavone isolated from medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that suppresses the growth of cancer cells in vitro. The effects of orientin in hepatoma carcinoma cells remain unknown. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of orientin on the viability, proliferation, and migration of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro. In this study, we found that orientin could inhibit the proliferation, migration, and the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. An activator of NF-κB signaling pathway, PMA, could abolish the inhibitory effect of orientin on NF-κB signaling pathway and proliferation and migration of Huh7 cells. These findings raise the possibility that orientin can be used in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scutellaria baicalensis (SB), also known as the Chinese skullcap, has a long history of being used in Chinese medicine to treat a variety of conditions ranging from microbial infections to metabolic syndrome and malignancies. Numerous studies have reported that treatment with total SB extract or two main flavonoids found in its root and leaves, baicalin (BA) and baicalein (BE), can prevent or alleviate the detrimental toxic effects of exposure to various chemical compounds. It has been shown that BA and BE are generally behind the protective effects of SB against toxicants. This paper aimed to review the protective and therapeutic effects of SB and its main components BA and BE against chemical compounds that can cause intoxication after acute or chronic exposure and seriously affect different vital organs including the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys. In this review paper, we had a look into a total of 221 in vitro and in vivo studies from 1995 to 2021 from the scientific databases PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science which reported protective or therapeutic effects of BA, BE, or SB against drugs and chemicals that one might be exposed to on a professional or accidental basis and compounds that are primarily used to simulate disease models. In conclusion, the protective effects of SB and its flavonoids can be mainly attributed to increase in antioxidants enzymes, inhibition of lipid peroxidation, reduction of inflammatory cytokines, and suppression of apoptosis pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi is a perennial twining vine plant from the Polygonaceae family, which is a Chinese herbal medicine with great value for development and utilization. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology of Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi, as well as an outlook on the future research directions and development prospects of the plant. Data on Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi were obtained from different databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Baidu Academic, Wanfang Database, Google Academic, PubMed, Web of Science, SpringerLink, Wiley; books; standards; and Ph.D. and MSc theses. So far, 86 compounds have been identified from Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi, including anthraquinones, stilbenes, flavonoids, tannins, chromogenic ketones, organic acids and esters, lignans, isobenzofurans, alkaloids, naphthols, and others. Studies have found that Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi has a wide range of pharmacological effects, including antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, antitumor, immunomodulatory, hypoglycemic, and antioxidant effects. Clinically, Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi is very effective in the treatment of gastritis and chronic gastritis. Based on its traditional use, chemical composition, and pharmacological activity, Polygonum ciliinerve (Nakai) Ohwi is a promising source of natural medicine in drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much discussion in the conservation and policy realms of COVID-19 as a zoonotic disease, or a disease transmitted from wildlife to humans. However, wildlife consumption in China is not only a potential source of disease but also a practice embedded in complex beliefs about health. This paper used survey data (N = 974) collected in China in June 2021 to examine attitudes and behaviors related to (a) wildlife consumption, (b) Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and (c) zoonotic risk after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. 40.1% of respondents self-reported that they are less likely to consume wild animals since the outbreak of COVID-19. Respondents who used wildlife supplements for TCM, who believed in the benefits of wild animal consumption and fresh slaughter of wildlife, and who had higher levels of agreement with the zoonotic origin of COVID-19 were more likely to report that they had decreased their wildlife consumption after the outbreak of COVID-19. Use of wildlife in TCM significantly increased the odds that a respondent believed that COVID-19 was very likely zoonotic. We discuss how situating wildlife consumption within complex beliefs about health and disease can assist with protecting wildlife and public health in the wake of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic, non-specific intestinal disease that not only affects the quality of life of patients and their families but also increases the risk of colorectal cancer. The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is an important component of inflammatory response system, and its activation induces an inflammatory cascade response that is involved in the development and progression of UC by releasing inflammatory cytokines, damaging intestinal epithelial cells, and disrupting the intestinal mucosal barrier. Chinese medicine (CM) plays a vital role in the prevention and treatment of UC and is able to regulate NLRP3 inflammasome. Many experimental studies on the regulation of NLRP3 inflammasome mediated by CM have been carried out, demonstrating that CM formulae with main effects of clearing heat, detoxifying toxicity, drying dampness, and activating blood circulation. Flavonoids and phenylpropanoids can effectively regulate NLRP3 inflammasome. Other active components of CM can interfere with the process of NLRP3 inflammasome assembly and activation, leading to a reduction in inflammation and UC symptoms. However, the reports are relatively scattered and lack systematic reviews. This paper reviews the latest findings regarding the NLRP3 inflammasome activation-related pathways associated with UC and the potential of CM in treating UC through modulation of NLRP3 inflammasome. The purpose of this review is to explore the possible pathological mechanisms of UC and suggest new directions for development of therapeutic tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that is used worldwide possesses the satisfactory function of disease prevention, treatment and health care, and this natural medicine seems to be favored due to its low side effects. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which exist in all aspects of our lives, may interfere with the synthesis, action and metabolism of human sex steroid hormones, resulting in the development and fertility problems as well as obesity and the disturbance of energy homeostasis. From planting to processing, TCM may be polluted by various EDCs. Many studies pay attention to this problem, but there are still few reviews on the residues and toxicity risks of EDCs in TCM. In this paper, researches related to EDCs in TCM were screened. The possible contamination sources of TCM from planting to processing and its toxic effects were introduced. Moreover, the residues of metals, pesticides and other EDCs in TCM as well as the health risks of human exposure to EDCs through ingestion of TCM materials were reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current era, the intelligent development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has attracted more and more attention. As the main carrier of clinical medication, formulas use synergies of active substances to enhance efficacy and reduce side effects. Related studies show that there is a nonlinear relationship between the efficacy of formulas and herbs. Deep learning is an effective technique for fitting nonlinear relationships. However, it is not good for using deep learning model directly due to ignoring the characteristics of formulas. In this paper, we propose a detached feature extraction approach (TCM2Vec) based on deep learning for better feature extraction and efficacy prediction. We build two detached encoders, one of it uses cross-feature-based unsupervised pre-training model (FMh2v) to extract the relationship features of herbal medicines for initializing, while the other one simulates multi-dimensional characteristics of medicines by normal distribution. Then we integrate relationships and medicinal characteristics for deep feature extraction. We processed 31,114 unlabeled formulas for pre-training and two classification tasks in-domain for predicting and fine-tuning. One of tasks is multi-classed with 1036 formulas, other one is multi-labelled with 1,723 formulas. For labelled formulas, different feature extraction models based on detached encoder are trained to predict efficacy. Compared with the no pre-training, CBOW and BERT baseline models, FMh2v leads to performance gains. Moreover, the detached encoder offers large positive effects in different models which for efficacy prediction, where ACC increased by 5.80% on average and F1 increased by 12.06% on average. Overall, the proposed feature extraction is an effective method for obtaining characteristic representation of TCM formulas, and provides reference for the adaptability of artificial intelligence technology in the domain of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is one of the leading causes of death in cardiovascular disease. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an important method for the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD), and it has greatly reduced the mortality of ACS patients since its application. However, a series of new problems may occur after PCI, such as in-stent restenosis, no-reflow phenomenon, in-stent neoatherosclerosis, late stent thrombosis, myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, and malignant ventricular arrhythmias, which result in the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) that seriously reduce the postoperative benefit for patients. The inflammatory response is a key mechanism of MACE after PCI. Therefore, examining effective anti-inflammatory therapies after PCI in patients with ACS is a current research focus to reduce the incidence of MACE. The pharmacological mechanism and clinical efficacy of routine Western medicine treatment for the anti-inflammatory treatment of CHD have been verified. Many Chinese medicine (CM) preparations have been widely used in the treatment of CHD. Basic and clinical studies showed that effectiveness of the combination of CM and Western medicine treatments in reducing incidence of MACE after PCI was better than Western medicine treatment alone. The current paper reviewed the potential mechanism of the inflammatory response and occurrence of MACE after PCI in patients with ACS and the research progress of combined Chinese and Western medicine treatments in reducing incidence of MACE. The results provide a theoretical basis for further research and clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile oil from traditional Chinese medicine has various biological activities and has pharmacological activities in the central nervous system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system, etc. These oils are widely used in clinical practice. However, the development of their clinical applications is restricted due to the disadvantages of volatile oils, such as high stimulation, high volatility and poor stability. To improve the stability of a volatile oil in the preparation process, its volatilization and stable release must be controlled. In this paper, porous starch was used as a solid carrier material, and liquid volatile oil was solidified by physical adsorption. GC–MS was used to determine the chemical constituents of the volatile oil, solidified powder and tablets, and the volatilization rules of 34 chemical constituents were analysed statistically. The solidified volatile oil/porous starch powder was characterized by XRD, TGA and DSC, and the VOCs of the volatile oil before and after solidification were analysed by portable GC–MS. Finally, the stable release of the volatile oil could be optimized by changing the porous starch ratio in the formulation. Volatilization was shown to be closely related to the peak retention time and chemical composition, which was consistent with the theory of flavour. The physical properties and chemical composition of the volatile oil did not change after curing, indicating that the adsorption of the volatile oil by porous starch was physical adsorption. In this paper, the porous starch-solidified volatile oil had a slow-release effect, and the production process is simple, easy to operate, and has high application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principles of CBT emphasize the interactions among cognition, emotion, and behavior. CBT's origins lie in Stoicism philosophy and share similarities with the ideas of Confucianism, Taoism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China. The idea of mind–body regulation in traditional Chinese culture has laid a cultural foundation for the promotion of CBT in China. This paper analyzes the applicability and challenges of CBT in China based on the current development of CBT in mainland China and the learning and practice of CBT therapists. It also explores the potential further development of CBT in China and the integration of CBT with the Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher-order relationships are prevalent in the real world, and the strength differences between these relationships are often significant and cannot be ignored. Weighted hypernetworks can more accurately represent these prevalent relationships than simple graphs. Due to various limitations, we may not be able to observe all Higher-order relationships that exist within the network. Therefore, algorithms that can perform weighted hyperlink prediction are of great significance. However, current research on link prediction often focuses on simple networks or ordinary higher-order relationships, without considering the important factor of weight. This paper proposes an algorithm based on topologic similarity to predict whether weighted hyperedges are included in weighted hypernetworks, complementing research in this area. On the artificial weighted hypernetwork, the co-author network of various subjects, and the patent Chinese medicine prescription network, we tested the algorithm's robustness and achieved higher accuracy than other methods. Applying this algorithm can handle the prediction of weighted many-to-many relationships and improve accuracy by utilizing the weights on the weighted hypernetwork. Compared to the unweighted version, the algorithm's accuracy on the patent Chinese medicine prescription network has been improved from 97 to 99%. It has been improved from 94 to 96% on the geology co-author network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intestinal macrophages play crucial roles in both intestinal inflammation and immune homeostasis. They can adopt two distinct phenotypes, primarily determined by environmental cues. These phenotypes encompass the classically activated pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype, as well as the alternatively activated anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. In regular conditions, intestinal macrophages serve to shield the gut from inflammatory harm. However, when a combination of genetic and environmental elements influences the polarization of these macrophages, it can result in an M1/M2 macrophage activation imbalance, subsequently leading to a loss of control over intestinal inflammation. This shift transforms normal inflammatory responses into pathological damage within the intestines. In patients with ulcerative colitis-associated colorectal cancer (UC-CRC), disorders related to intestinal inflammation are closely correlated with an imbalance in the polarization of intestinal M1/M2 macrophages. Therefore, reinstating the equilibrium in M1/M2 macrophage polarization could potentially serve as an effective approach to the prevention and treatment of UC-CRC. This paper aims to scrutinize the clinical evidence regarding Chinese medicine (CM) in the treatment of UC-CRC, the pivotal role of macrophage polarization in UC-CRC pathogenesis, and the potential mechanisms through which CM regulates macrophage polarization to address UC-CRC. Our objective is to offer fresh perspectives for clinical application, fundamental research, and pharmaceutical advancement in UC-CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tianma is the dried tuber of Gastrodia elata Blume (G. elata), which is frequently utilized in clinical practice as a traditional Chinese medicine. Gastrodin (GAS) is the main active ingredient of Tianma, which has good pharmacological activity. Therefore, for the first time, this review focused on the extraction, synthesis, pharmacological effects, and derivatives of GAS and to investigate additional development options for GAS. The use of microorganisms to create GAS is a promising method. GAS has good efficacy in the treatment of neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine diseases, and liver diseases. GAS has significant anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, vascular protective, blood sugar lowering, lipid-regulating, analgesic, anticancer, and antiviral effects. The mechanism involves various signaling pathways such as Nrf2, NF-κB, PI3K/AKT, and AMPK. In addition, the derivatives of GAS and biomaterials synthesized by GAS and PU suggested a broader application of GAS. The research on GAS is thoroughly summarized in this paper, which has useful applications for tackling a variety of disorders and exhibits good development value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese medicine cinobufacini is an extract from the dried skin of Bufo bufo gargarizans Cantor, with active ingredients of bufadienolides and indole alkaloids. With further research and clinical applications, it is found that cinobufacini alone or in combination with other therapeutic methods can play an anti-tumor role by controlling proliferation of tumor cells, promoting apoptosis, inhibiting formation of tumor neovascularization, reversing multidrug resistance, and regulating immune response; it also has the functions of relieving cancer pain and regulating immune function. In this paper, the chemical composition, pharmacological effects, clinical applications, and adverse reactions of cinobufacini are summarized. However, the extraction of monomer components of cinobufacini, the relationship between different mechanisms, and the causes of adverse reactions need to be further studied. Also, high-quality clinical studies should be conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a robust fuzzy design model for a sustainable closed-loop supply chain network. The model is based on a risk dynamic regulation mechanism. In this way, we can solve the problem of sudden disruptions and uncertain demand in the supply chain of Chinese herbal medicines. We also develop a hybrid algorithm solution to solve the model and design a resilient supply chain network. The specific steps are as follows: (1) The risk dynamic regulation mechanism is created with strong risk resistance by considering the information sharing platform, facility defense, drying station scheduling, safety stock, and shared inventory. (2) Based on the dynamic risk regulation mechanism, we establish a sustainable Chinese herbal medicine supply chain network design model. Then, we use the robust fuzzy method and the epsilon constraint to deal with the uncertainty and integrate the model. (3) We introduce opposition-based learning, cosine convergence factor, and levy flight to the original Whale and Grey wolf algorithms to obtain the Hybrid algorithm, which is used to solve the processed model. The results show the model and algorithm proposed in this paper have strong applicability and advantages in designing closed-loop supply chain networks for Chinese herbal medicine and provide references for relevant decision-makers. Article highlights: • We establish a dynamic risk control mechanism with strong anti-risk ability, by considering the information sharing platform, facility defense, drying station scheduling, safety inventory, and other factors. This mechanism effectively enhances the resilience of the Chinese herbal supply chain network and reduces the risk of disruption. • We establish a sustainable closed-loop supply chain network design model, according to the particularity of the Chinese herbal medicine supply chain network in the process of processing, storage, and transportation. The model is based on the dynamic risk control mechanism. We use the robust fuzzy method to handle the uncertainty in the model. In this way, we can enhance the reliability of the Chinese herbal supply chain while effectively controlling costs. • We improve Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm (GWO) and Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) through opposition-based learning, cosine convergence factor, and levy flight. We mixed the improved algorithm to obtain opposition-based levy Grey Whale optimization algorithm (OLGWOA). Through verification, it is concluded that OLGWOA has strong searchability. We also used OLGWOA to solve the model and found the adaptability between the algorithm and the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal plants or Chinese materia medica (CMM) are now attracting worldwide attention as they have increasingly prominent advantages over chemical drugs in disease treatment and healthcare. Since the 1990s, World Health Organization (WHO) and International Organization for Standardization established the Technical Committee of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ISO/TC 249) have carried out the development of quality standards on medicinal plants or CMMs respectively, and a considerable number of monographs and international standards have been published. Since the two international organizations adhere to different principles, the standards they develop naturally have different emphasis. Driven by market demand and international trade, ISO mainly takes quality, efficacy and safety into consideration when developing standards, while WHO pays more attention to clinical practice, quality control and medication guidance. Up to now, there is a lack of comparative analysis on the records, background, principles, basic content, and main requirements of quality standards on medicinal plants or CMMs respectively published by WHO and ISO. Therefore, based on international standards of CMM developed by ISO/TC 249 platform and WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants, this paper systematically compares the purposes, selected principles, standard-developing process, basic content, and main quality requirements to summarize their similarities and differences, and find their merits, aiming to serve as a reference to the development of international standards for CMMs that helps them go global. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebral ischemia, one of the leading causes of neurological dysfunction of brain cells, muscle dysfunction, and death, brings great harm and challenges to individual health, families, and society. Blood flow disruption causes decreased glucose and oxygen, insufficient to maintain normal brain tissue metabolism, resulting in intracellular calcium overload, oxidative stress, neurotoxicity of excitatory amino acids, and inflammation, ultimately leading to neuronal cell necrosis, apoptosis, or neurological abnormalities. This paper summarizes the specific mechanism of cell injury that apoptosis triggered by reperfusion after cerebral ischemia, the related proteins involved in apoptosis, and the experimental progress of herbal medicine treatment through searching, analyzing, and summarizing the PubMed and Web Of Science databases, which includes active ingredients of herbal medicine, prescriptions, Chinese patent medicines, and herbal extracts, providing a new target or new strategy for drug treatment, and providing a reference for future experimental directions and using them to develop suitable small molecule drugs for clinical application. With the research of anti-apoptosis as the core, it is important to find highly effective, low toxicity, safe and cheap compounds from natural plants and animals with abundant resources to prevent and treat Cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury (CIR) and solve human suffering. In addition, understanding and summarizing the apoptotic mechanism of cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury, the microscopic mechanism of CIR treatment, and the cellular pathways involved will help to develop new drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of auxiliary admixture equipment can greatly improve the efficiency of dispensing drugs in Pharmacy Intravenous Admixture Services and ensure the quality of drug dispensing. However, the intravenous drug dispensing process has very high requirements for a clean environment, and it is unclear whether the introduction of auxiliary admixture equipment will affect the clean environment. Therefore, this paper explores the influence of auxiliary admixture equipment on intravenous drug dispensing environment and dispensing quality. We collected inspection data of biosafety cabinets, hand hygiene, and formulated medications using an auxiliary admixture equipment in Pharmacy Intravenous Admixture Services (PIVAS) of Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital Affiliated to Southwest Medical University from July to December 2020. We systematically assessed hygiene conditions, hand hygiene, and the quality of formulated medical solutions using an auxiliary admixture equipment. Under the operation of admixture equipment, the key parameters of biological safety cabinet are as follows: CFU of airborne bacteria/dish (0.5 h) = 0; number of floating particles (≥ 0.5 μm) = 0 or 71/m3; number of floating particles ≥ 5 μm = 0/m3; downstream flow rate = 0.29 m/s; the difference between the measured flow rate and the displayed average flow rate = 0.03 m/s; inflow air rate = 0.61 m/s; flow volume per meter in the working area = 0.12m3/s; working noise = 59.7 dB with a background noise = 54.9 dB; average illuminance value = 479Lx; the pass rate of hand hygiene and glove fingertip = 93.33% and 96.67%, respectively; and maximum number of insoluble particles in formulated solution = 22.4/ml (≥ 10 μm) and 0.7/ml (≥ 25 μm). Endotoxin was tested negative and the proportion of residual liquid was less than 5%. All the above parameters approved the quality control requirements. The results show that the use of auxiliary admixture equipment will not affect the clean environment while improving the efficiency of drug preparation, and can ensure the quality of prepared drug solution. It is worthy of popularization and application, and is of great significance to the development of intravenous drug preparation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents a philosophical appraisal of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from the point of view of the philosophy of science. As it is generally the case with other versions of Traditional Medicine, rather than a coherent research program Traditional Chinese Medicine constitutes an array of various techniques and practices coupled with a diversity of very different speculative doctrines regarding the physiological structure of certain body parts as well as the purported etiology of disease and malfunction. This chapter starts off by describing some of the theoretical assumptions on which TCM relies with the aim of casting light on whether they, alongside the clinical techniques TCM encompasses, can significantly be considered as a scientific theory comparable with that of conventional medicine. In so doing the chapter examines a plurality of demarcation criteria between science and non-science coming from various existing philosophical frameworks old and new. While, as will be shown, a wealth of research based on RCTs (randomized control trials) points out that TCM´s degree of effectiveness is low, that is not the point this paper intends to make. Instead of such an empirical criticism, the author sustains a comparably stronger epistemic contention, namely: even if the clinical results of TCM fared better than they actually do, that observation alone would not be a good reason to consider this branch of traditional medicine as a scientifically respectable endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a serious cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis (AS) causes chronic inflammation and oxidative stress in the body and poses a threat to human health. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is a member of the phospholipase A2 (PLA2) family, and its elevated levels have been shown to contribute to AS. Lp-PLA2 is closely related to a variety of lipoproteins, and its role in promoting inflammatory responses and oxidative stress in AS is mainly achieved by hydrolyzing oxidized phosphatidylcholine (oxPC) to produce lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC). Moreover, macrophage apoptosis within plaque is promoted by localized Lp-PLA2 which also promotes plaque instability. This paper reviews those researches of Chinese medicine in treating AS via reducing Lp-PLA2 levels to guide future experimental studies and clinical applications related to AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a serious respiratory disease, which can lead to acute respiratory failure or death. It is closely related to the pathogenesis of New Coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19). Many researches showed that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) had a good effect on its intervention, and network pharmacology could play a very important role. In order to construct "disease-gene-target-drug" interaction network more accurately, deep learning algorithm is utilized in this paper. Two ALI-related target genes (REAL and SATA3) are considered, and the active and inactive compounds of the two corresponding target genes are collected as training data, respectively. Molecular descriptors and molecular fingerprints are utilized to characterize each compound. Forest graph embedded deep feed forward network (forgeNet) is proposed to train. The experimental results show that forgeNet performs better than support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), logical regression (LR), Naive Bayes (NB), XGBoost, LightGBM and gcForest. forgeNet could identify 19 compounds in Erhuang decoction (EhD) and Dexamethasone (DXMS) more accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wastewater is characterized by high organic content, unstable water quality and quantity and low biodegradability. In this paper, the hydrolytic acidification reactor—aerobic moving bed biofilm (MBBR) process was used to degrade TCM wastewater. Besides, a small pilot study was conducted. The appropriate operating parameters: hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the hydrolytic reactor was 16 h, HRT of MBBR was 30 h, dissolved oxygen of MBBR was 6 mg/L, sludge return ratio of MBBR was 100%. The hydrolytic reactor was started for 25 days. MBBR was run in series with the hydrolytic reactor after 24 days of separate operation. The start-up of the composite reactor was completed after another 26 days. The average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen were 92% and 70%. The hydrolytic reactor was effective in decomposing macromolecules and MBBR had a strong ability to degrade pollutants through the excitation-emission-matrix spectra. The evolution pattern of the dominant bacterial genera and the surface morphology of sludge were studied by scanning electron microscopy and high-throughput sequencing analysis. It could be seen that the surface morphology of the biological filler was suitable for the growth and reproduction of microorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese materia medica resource survey provides an important basis for the development of traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry. During the Chinese materia medica resource survey process, millions of materia medica plant images are collected. The collected image dataset includes some images that are unqualified for image analysis, i.e. they can’t be used to build medicinal plant classifier model. It is a burdensome work to identify the unqualified Chinese materia medica resource images manually. How to screen the unqualified images automatically is an important task of Chinese materia medica resource survey. Image recognition techniques developed quickly in recent years. Outlier detection is a kind of unsupervised method to find the unqualified images automatically. Lots of research work has been done on the topic. Extracted features and correlation metric play important roles on the outlier image detection result. For improving the image screening performance, a novel outlier detection method is proposed in this paper. Convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to extract the complicated features of Chinese materia medica resource images. Extended entropy is introduced into the calculation of information loss that is used to measure the distance between images. Based on the extracted image features and correlation metric, a novel outlier detection method based on clustering is proposed here. The efficiency of the screening method is illustrated with a practical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palpation localization is essential for detecting physiological parameters of the radial artery for pulse diagnosis of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Detecting signal or applying pressure at the wrong location can seriously affect the measurement of pulse waves and result in misdiagnosis. In this paper, we propose an effective and high accuracy regression model using 3-dimensional convolution neural networks (CNN) processing near-infrared picture sequences to locate radial artery upon radius at the wrist. Comparing with early studies using 2-dimensional models, 3Dcnn introduces temporal features with the third dimension to leverage pulsation rhythms, and had achieved superior performance accuracy as 0.87 within 50 pixels at testing resolution of 1024 × 544. Model visualization shows that the additional dimension of the temporal convolution highlights dynamic changes within image sequences. This study presents the great potential of our constructed model to be applied in real wrist palpation location scenarios to bring the key convenience for pulse diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence is a discipline which focuses on the study of simulating and extending human intelligence, while machine learning (ML) is one of the most rapidly developing subfields of AI research. The research of ML in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has a bright prospect, as well as a profound significance. To explore the feasibility of using ML methods to approximate the diagnosis of TCM, support vector machine (SVM) is introduced and investigated for syndrome element differentiation of TCM in this paper. Based on 670 medical records, SVM was used to approximate the mapping relations between inputs (set of clinical manifestations) and outputs (set of syndrome elements). The value orders of syndrome elements were adopted to evaluate the approximation results, while attribute partial order structure diagram was employed to discover and visualize the knowledge of the records. Back propagation neural network (BPNN) and extreme learning machine (ELM), as comparative methods, were also employed to deal with the medical data. The value order's matching results between real and predicted results shows that, for SVM, the matched degree of each record is no less than 65%, while there are at least 88% records whose matched degree is more than 80%; and for BPNN and ELM, the highest proportion of records whose matched degree is more than 80% is only 45%. Using methods of ML to approximate the diagnosis of TCM should be feasible, and more relevant research can be conducted in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese medicine (CM) has a good clinical effect on osteoarthritis (OA), but the mechanism is not very clear. Evidence-based medicine researches have shown that intestinal flora plays a role in the pathogenesis and succession of OA. Intestinal flora affects the efficacy of CM, and CM can affect the balance of intestinal flora. This paper focuses on the relationship between intestinal flora, intestinal microenvironment, brain-gut axis, metabolic immunity and OA, and preliminarily expound the significance of intestinal flora in the pathogenesis of OA and the mechanism of CM intervention. The above discussion will be of great significance in the prevention and treatment of OA by CM from the perspective of intestinal flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including how agricultural activity defines gender roles, the preference for Chinese medicinal herbs, and innovative farming structures.

Electronic health records (EHRs) in hospital information systems contain patients' diagnoses and treatments, so EHRs are essential to clinical data mining. Of all the tasks in the mining process, Chinese word segmentation (CWS) is a fundamental and important one, and most state-of-the-art methods greatly rely on large scale of manually annotated data. Since annotation is time-consuming and expensive, efforts have been devoted to techniques, such as active learning, to locate the most informative samples for modeling. In this paper, we follow the trend and present an active learning method for CWS in EHRs. Specifically, a new sampling strategy combining normalized entropy with loss prediction (NE–LP) is proposed to select the most valuable data. Meanwhile, to minimize the computational cost of learning, we propose a joint model including a word segmenter and a loss prediction model. Furthermore, to capture interactions between adjacent characters, bigram features are also applied in the joint model. To illustrate the effectiveness of NE–LP, we conducted experiments on EHRs collected from the Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The results demonstrate that NE–LP consistently outperforms conventional uncertainty-based sampling strategies for active learning in CWS [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is guidance from different regulatory agencies, there are opportunities to bring greater consistency and stronger applicability to address the practical issues of establishing and operating a data monitoring committee (DMC) for clinical studies of Chinese medicine. We names it as a Chinese Medicine Data Monitoring Committee (CMDMC). A panel composed of clinical and statistical experts shared their experience and thoughts on the important aspects of CMDMCs. Subsequently, a community standard on CMDMCs (T/CACM 1323-2019) was issued by the China Association of Chinese Medicine on September 12, 2019. This paper summarizes the key content of this standard to help the sponsors of clinical studies establish and operate CMDMCs, which will further develop the scientific integrity and quality of clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper primarily argues that Epidemiology is Ecosystem Science. It will not only explore this notion in detail but will also relate it to the argument that Classical Chinese Medicine was/is Ecosystem Science. Ecosystem Science (as instantiated by Epidemiology) and Ecosystem Science (as instantiated by Classical Chinese Medicine) share these characteristics: (a) they do not subscribe to the monogenic conception of disease; (b) they involve multi variables; (c) the model of causality presupposed is multi-factorial as well as non-linear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective view of Chinese medicine, the Gan (Liver) meridian of Foot-Jueyin starts from the great toe, running upward along the medial side of the thigh to the perineal area, where it curves around the external genitalia and goes up to the lower abdomen. In clinical practice, acupoints in the feet of the Gan meridian of Foot-Jueyin are used to treat the genitourinary and external genitalia diseases. Studies have shown that reproductive system diseases have specific pathological reactions in the places (radial side of tibia and foot) where Gan meridian of Foot-Jueyin passes by. Why does this happen? In this article, we begin by briefly reviewing the evidences linking foot and genitalia. We then explore the potential mechanism of the relationship between genitals and the Gan meridian of Foot-Jueyin. The brain cerebral cortex is characterized by cortical interactions. Numerous studies show that different cerebral cortex function areas (especially the adjacent areas) are overlapping and interact with each other. Finally, we presume that there is a specific connection between the feet and the genitals. Physiologically in the cortical homunculus, the genital area lies adjacent or overlapped to the foot areas, the two areas may interact with each other. The functional reorganization between different areas of the cerebral cortex under pathological conditions may be the underlying mechanism of the relationship between the feet and the genitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese Medicine often use the prescription composed of herbs to cure the disease, which requires doctors with the rich professional knowledge and experience. It is much expected that the prescription can be generated automatically to assist doctors in prescribing using such as machine learning on the tongue images. However, it is confronted with two challenges. First, there is not a larger tongue image database available for machine learning. Second, there is no such machine learning method available for generating prescription according to the given tongue image. This paper begins with constructing a larger tongue image database, where each image corresponds to a prescription. It then uses auto-encoder to extract features for the tongue image, on which the recommendation neural network is proposed to recommend herbs for the prescription. Finally, a new prescription generation method is proposed to select optimal herbs from the recommended herbs to form the final prescription. Experimental results on our constructed databases validate the effectiveness and the superior performance of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to offer an intuitionistic triangular fuzzy group decision making method by preference relations. For this purpose, the concept of intuitionistic triangular fuzzy preference relations (ITFPRs) is first offered. Then, an additive consistency concept for ITFPRs is introduced. Meanwhile, a programming model is built to check the consistency of ITFPRs. Considering the case where incomplete ITFPRs are obtained, two programming models are constructed, which aim at maximizing the consistency and minimizing the uncertainty of missing information. To achieve the goals of the minimum total adjustment and the smallest number of adjusted elements, two programming models are established to repair inconsistent ITFPRs. In addition, the weights of decision makers are considered, and the consensus levels of individual ITFPRs are studied to ensure the representativeness of decision results. When individual ITFPRs do not meet the consensus requirement, a programming model to reach the consensus threshold is constructed, which permits different intuitionistic triangular fuzzy variables (ITFVs) to have different adjustments and minimizes the total adjustment. Finally, a group decision making algorithm with ITFPRs is proposed, and its feasibility and efficiency are demonstrated through an example of evaluating the intelligent traditional Chinese medicine decocting centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of blood lactic acid in exercise can make the body feel tired and affect the normal movement of the body. Therefore, from the aspects of energy metabolism, mechanical injury, inflammation, free radicals and lipid peroxidation, and growth factors regulating the repair of skeletal muscle injury, the mechanism of Chinese herbal compound on skeletal muscle exercise induced injury is systematically analyzed and discussed. In order to provide theoretical basis for sports training, public health and labor hygiene, one or two of the seven Chinese herbal prescriptions which have good effects on exercise-induced muscle injury are selected. The paper delivers guidelines for avoiding and decreasing exercise caused lactate accumulation and lactic acid. The results show that Chinese herbal fumigation lotion can effectively remove blood lactic acid, accelerate the recovery of muscle strength, and obviously eliminate exercise-induced muscle fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The misunderstanding of adverse drug reaction labelling information is not conducive to the rational use of drugs. There has been no research on how doctors can effectively transmit information on adverse drug reactions to patients in China. Objective To assess how well patients understand the adverse reactions presented in the labelling of drugs and how much information they want from their doctor regarding the adverse reactions. Setting The study was conducted in secondary medical institutions, tertiary medical institutions and community healthcare centres in Shanghai. Method A cross-sectional self-administered survey was conducted from November 2018 to March 2019. Mixed methods involving paper questionnaires and online surveys (scan a QR code by the WeChat app) were used. Main outcome measure Participants' demand for adverse reaction information. Results A total of 295 people completed the questionnaires, of which 31.8% of people thought that the greater the number of adverse reactions listed on the label of a drug, the more insecure they felt about that drug. At the same time, 30.13% of people thought that if the adverse reactions listed on a label were undefined, then the drug was safe for use (for example, some Chinese patent medicines). Most of the respondents (45.4%) thought that it was better to give a brief description of possible adverse reactions and to answer patients' questions in detail only if necessary. Conclusions Most patients wanted doctors to give them a brief introduction to serious and common adverse reactions when they prescribed drugs, and only a small percentage of people wanted to obtain all the information about adverse reactions. It was found that many people misunderstood the contents of the adverse reactions provided on the labels and equated the number of adverse reactions with drug safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamic L-cube polynomial is proposed to analyze dynamic three-dimensional pulse images (d3DPIs), as an extension of the previous static L-cube polynomial. In this paper, a weighted least squares (WLS) method is proposed to fit the amplitude C(t) of d3DPI at four physiological key points in addition to the best fit of L-cube polynomials to the measured normal and cold-pressor-test (CPT)-induced taut 3DPIs. Compared with other two fitting functions, C(t) of a dynamic L-cube polynomial can be well matched by the proposed WLS method with the least relative error at four physiological key points in one beat with statistical significance, in addition to the best fit of the measured 3DPIs. Therefore, a dynamic L-cube polynomial can reflect dynamic time characteristics of normal and CPT-induced hypertensive taut 3DPIs, which can be used as an evidence of hypertension diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvia cavaleriei var. simplicifolia Stib., a common Chinese herbal medicine, is prescribed to treat dysentery, hemoptysis, boils, and fall injuries. Previous phytochemical investigations have resulted in the isolation of terpenoids, steroids, and phenolic compounds. In this paper, a new germacrane-type sesquiterpenoid named 8,14-O-ditigloyl-9,12-O-diacetyl-6R,7R,8R,9R,12,14-pentahydroxygermacra-1(10)E,4(5)Z-diene was isolated. The chemical structure was established by HR-ESI-MS, 1H, 13C, 2D NMR, and X-Ray. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is the main route of disease control for ancient Chinese. Through thousands of years' development and inheriting, TCM is the most influential traditional medical system which lasts the longest time and used by the largest population. However, there are still much space for data driven TCM information process to take advantage of for real medical application. In this paper, we propose a statistical diagnosis approach to find out the pathogenesises based on the latent semantic analysis of symptoms and the corresponding herbs. We assume that the latent pathogenesis is the inherent connection between symptoms and herbs within a medical case. We therefore develop a novel multi-content model based on LDA. Then three prescription recommendation algorithms are proposed focusing on permanent cure, symptom alleviation and both. We used the proposed model to analyze two TCM domains amenorrhea and lung cancer. Experiment results illustrate that the pathogenesises found by our model correspond well with the theory of TCM and the proposed model provides a theoretical data-driven way to establish diagnosis standards. And the prescription recommendation algorithms help doctor make treatment more accurately, which can lead the development of diagnosis of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]