Search

This paper evaluates the influence of different variables on drivers' willingness to accept and use a vehicle-mounted perfume automatic dispersal device (VP-ADD) connected to the vehicle's electronic map. Based on the technical acceptance model, we clarify and condense the explanation of the model used to evaluate the impact of user behavior attitudes and device characteristics on six factors, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards use, intention to use, perceived playfulness, and perceived risk, proposing eight hypotheses. Then, we assessed the responses of 562 drivers in China using SPSS for reliability and validity and AMOS for structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. The findings reveal that the perceived usefulness, ease of use, playfulness, and risk significantly affected the willingness to accept and use the VP-ADD. Furthermore, the perceived risk has a negative influence, while the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived playfulness, and attitude towards use have a positive influence. This research is significant for further development and application of the VP-ADD. It is essential to alleviate driver fatigue, ensure traffic safety, and provide theoretical and empirical support for designing more popular driving assistance devices. Furthermore, it offers valuable insights for developing fatigue driving warning policies, in-vehicle device guidelines, and traffic safety regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrogeology Journal is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ethnopharmacological relevance The history of Chinese spices has received increasing attention in recent years, but little research been carried out on where they fit on the food-medicine continuum for early China, during the formation of the classical medical system. This paper describes how the synaesthetic qualities of spices attracted a particular analysis in that emerging system which serves to mark them as different to other medical materials and foodstuffs. We aim to clarify the special role created for spices to accommodate their boundary-crossing synaesthetic action on the body. Material and methods This paper analyses the contents of several spice bags excavated in 1972 from a tomb that was closed in the second century BCE. It uses archaeological reports of material culture together with the early Chinese textual record, extant in both manuscripts and received texts, to bring out the role of spices in ritual, food and medicine. Results Noting that the flavours and aromas of early China were assigned physiological potency in the first centuries BCE, we argue that by medieval times the unique synaesthetic role that spices played in mediating the senses was systematically medicalised. While being deployed for the purpose of curing disease in medicine, they also remained within the realm of everyday healthcare, and religious practice, deployed both as aromatics to perfume the environment, attracting benign spirits, but also to ward off the agents of disease, as well as for enhancing health through their use in cookery. Conclusion While foodstuffs entered the digestive system spices were all considered ‘pungent’ in the emerging clasical medical system. They acted on the body through the nose and lungs, making them neither food nor drug. This implicit categorisation medicalised spices which, like music, could affect the passions and lighten the spirit, codifying observations about the impact on the body of the ritual environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from leaves of Chinese native Cryptomeria japonica and Cryptomeria fortunei were analyzed by GC and GC–MS. Fifty-seven compounds were identified in the essential oils of C. japonica with α-elemol (20.12%), kaur-16-ene (14.84%), β-phellandrene (5.97%), β-elemene (5.87%), α-eudesmol (5.62%) and β-eudesmol (5.03%) as main constituents. Forty components were identified in the oil of C. fortunei with kaurene (34.04%), α-elemol (13.34%), γ-eudesmol (10.80%), β-eudesmol (10.16%), α-pinene (2.75%) and γ-cadinene (1.92%) as the most abundant components. This study demonstrated the occurrence of α-elemol chemotype in C. japonica and kaurene chemotype in C. fortunei from China. The essential oil compositions of two Cryptomeria samples were shown that they can be used for green plant protection, pharmaceutical, perfume and food industries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Fleagrass, Adenosma buchneroides, is an aromatic perennial herb that occupies an important position in the life of the Akha people. They regard it as a tribal symbol and a gift of love. Fleagrass also has many medicinal uses, and there is considerable potential for its development as an insect repellent. Traditionally, Akha people plant it in swidden fields, but there are few swidden fields in China now. Therefore, the first question this study aims to answer is as follows: how is fleagrass planted and utilized now? At present, fleagrass is only reported to be used by Akha people in Mengla. We also try to understand the following questions: Is fleagrass used in nearby area? If so, how is fleagrass used in nearby area? Furthermore, why is fleagrass used in that way? Methods: From August 2016 to July 2018, field surveys were conducted six times. The ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological uses of A. buchneroides in 13 Akha villages were investigated by means of semi-structured interviews. We assessed the responses of a total of 64 interviewees (32 men and 32 women; mean age, 58.6) from the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China, and from Phongsaly Province, Laos. To explain the bases for the ethnobotanical uses of fleagrass, we used Google Scholar, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure to review the bioactivities of the chemical constituents of A. buchneroides. Results: With the vanishing of swidden agriculture and the development of modern products, fleagrass cultivation is disappearing in China. However, most Akha people in Xishuangbanna still remember and yearn for its traditional uses, and Akha people in a nearby area (northern Laos) continue to plant and utilize it. We documented ten uses of A. buchneroides within five discrete categories. The whole plant of fleagrass has a distinct strong aroma, of which Akha villagers are particularly fond. Akha villagers mostly use this aromatic property as a decoration, perfume, and insect repellent. A. buchneroides is also used as a condiment and for medicinal and ritual purposes, including its use as a cure for insect bites, headaches, influenza, and diarrhoea, and as a part of pray ritual for a bumper harvest. From our literature review, we identified many major chemical compounds contained in the essential oil of A. buchneroides, including thymol, carvacrol, 3-carene, and p-cymene, which have insecticidal or insect-repellent, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Conclusion: Fleagrass is an aromatic plant that is widely used by Aka people. Its chemical composition also has a variety of biological activities. With the vanishing of swidden agriculture and the development of modern products, fleagrass utilization in China is disappearing and its cultural importance is reduced. However, its economic and medicinal value is assignable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fast and sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method was developed for simultaneously analyzing 10 phthalates in perfume, which are forbidden by the hygienic standards for cosmetics in China (2007 edition). Matrix effect is significant on a phthalate when it is co-eluted with other phthalates. Improving the resolution between adjacent phthalate peaks is found effective in reducing the matrix effects. Thus, simultaneous analysis of the 10 phthalates requires successful resolutions of each phthalate. Nonetheless, a trade-off between the resolution and analysis time results either incomplete separation or prolonged analysis time. Here, the UHPLC elution gradient is optimized considering the predicted retention time of each phthalate. The resolutions and matrix effects of targeted compounds are evaluated to determine the optimal elution gradient for UHPLC-MS analysis method. Under the optimized gradient, the resolution between closest phthalate peaks is beyond 1.7, while the analysis time is merely 7 min. Except for dimethyl phthalate (DMP) and dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP), insignificant matrix effects have been found on all the phthalates. Direct quantifications through external calibration curve are appropriate for such analytes. Nonetheless, DMP and DCHP suffering obvious matrix effects require extra analyses of spiked samples for the quantifications through the standard addition method. Instrumental limits of quantitation (iLOQs) are 0.12-89 μg L -1 for the targeted phthalates. Meanwhile, the accuracy and precision of the analytical method are good. Finally, the forbidden phthalates in 26 sampled perfumes are successfully analyzed by the developed method., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)