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Vinegar-baked Radix Bupleuri (VBRB) is usually used to focus other drugs effect on liver in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, no sufficient scientific data are available to support this concept. In this paper, the liver targeting enhancing effect of VBRB on rhein was investigated. 432 of rats were divided into two large groups according to the dose of rhein, low dose group of rhein (LDGR) and high dose group of rhein (HDGR). In each group, the rats were further divided into four subgroups, rhein control and rhein co-administered with three different doses of VBRB peroral. Concentrations of rhein and its metabolite in different tissues were determined by HPLC. Compared to the control group, VBRB significantly increased the distribution of both rhein and its metabolite in liver and meanwhile decreased their distribution in other tissues, indicating a strong liver targeting enhancing effect. This liver targeting effect of VBRB depended on the dose of VBRB and rhein. Low and high dose of VBRB had a more strong effect than medium dose in HDGR; high dose of rhein was more sensitive than low dose of rhein (P <0.05). Rhein existed in two forms after peroral administration in vivo. It was found that the liver targeting effect of VBRB was more remarkable with the native form of rhein compared to its derivative form. The results of this paper demonstrated that co-administration with VBRB is a simple and efficiencient method for liver targeting therapy, and the meridine guide theory of TCM was credible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Mindfulness emphasizes the awareness of the “here-and-now.” Studies in the recent decade have found that mindfulness can affect positive change in child and adolescent school performance. As an emerging field, however, the mechanisms and effects of mindfulness practice on academic performance for children in developing countries have not been elaborated sufficiently in previous studies. Using China as an example context, this paper examines the relationship between mindfulness practice and academic performance of migrant children, and explores the role of executive function in this relationship. Through a survey with 219 fifth-graders in two migrant schools in Beijing, this study validates the positive association between mindfulness, executive function, and better school grades in Chinese, math, and English tests. Additionally, this study adds empirical evidence to the roles of mindfulness in child development, and also sheds light on the pathway through which mindfulness positively correlates with academic performance. These findings provide implications for addressing child academic challenges and conducting further research among migrant children in China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the mediating roles of mathematics anxiety and learning interest between problematic smartphone use and mathematics achievement. After two-stage stratified sampling, 30,601 Chinese fourth-graders participated by completing a paper-based test on mathematics achievement and an online questionnaire that included questions on demographic information as well as the problematic smartphone use, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics learning interest scales. The results showed that (1) smartphone use was more problematic among boys than among girls, and students with a low SES tended to be more problematic smartphone users, (2) problematic smartphone use was negatively correlated with mathematics achievement, (3) mathematics anxiety and learning interest partially mediated the relationship between problematic smartphone use and mathematics achievement, and (4) the relationship between problematic smartphone use and mathematics achievement was serially mediated by mathematics anxiety and then mathematics learning interest. The implications of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed. • This study examines the relation between PSU by pupils and math achievement. • The mediating roles of math anxiety and learning interest are also investigated. • PSU was negatively correlated with mathematics achievement. • Math anxiety and learning interest played partially mediating roles respectively. • Math anxiety and then learning interest also played serially mediating roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes changes which took place in 37 Hong Kong primary schools where class sizes were reduced from 38 to between 20 and 25. Chinese, English and mathematics classes were observed over three years from Primary 1 (aged 6) to Primary 3. For 75% of observations no child was the focus of the teacher''s attention in large classes. Reducing the class size did not change this situation appreciably, although teachers claimed that smaller classes increased the amount of individual attention that pupils received. For some teachers cluster analysis did identify shifts in teaching methods away from whole class instruction and the implications of this finding for when Hong Kong ‘goes to scale’ across the primary phase are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Tripterygium Glycosides (TG) is effective in the treatment of patients with a variety of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, especially rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in clinical. Wilforlide A (T1) serves as a quality control standard of TG that be listed in Drug Standard of Ministry of Public Health of the People''s Republic of China. The pharmacologic actions of T1 remain to be unidentified. In this paper, we studied the anti-inflammatory and immune suppressive effect of T1, and compared it with Triptolide (TP), which believed to be the major active component of TG. Carrageenan-induced rat pedal swelling, tampon-induced rat granulation, and mice ear inhibition rate of swelling trail results show that high-dose T1 has obvious anti-inflammatory effect. Colorimetric detection contents of hemolysin, carbon elimination from plasma of mice, mice delayed hypersensitivity immune, and organ index were measured. The results show that T1 has no significant immune suppressive activity, and there has a significant difference with TP and TG. Therefore, we think the content of TP also should be controlled as a supplement standard in order to ensure safe and effective medication. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The study of Hamiltonian systems is important for space physics and astrophysics. In this paper, we study local behavior of an isolated nilpotent critical point for polynomial Hamiltonian systems. We prove that there are exact three cases: a center, a cusp or a saddle. Then for quadratic and cubic Hamiltonian systems we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a nilpotent critical point to be a center, a cusp or a saddle. We also give phase portraits for these systems under some conditions of symmetry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]