OBJECTIVE To explore the efficacy of Sour Jujube Seed Decoction combined with Huanglian Wendan Decoction on adult chronic insomnia and its effect on hypnotic withdrawal.METHODS 187 patients with chronic insomnia were included for anal-ysis,including 102 in the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)group and 85 in the western medicine group.The TCM group was trea-ted with Sour Jujube Seed Decoction combined with Huanglian Wendan Decoction,while the western medicine group was treated with benzodiazepine under the consideration of doctor.The intervention period was 1 month,with assessments using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI)conducted before and after the intervention.Follow-up evaluations were performed at 3 months and 6 months re-spectively after the intervention.RESULTS There was no significant difference between the two groups at baseline.After the inter-vention,the PSQI scores of patients in both groups were significantly improved(P<0.01).Among them,the TCM group was better than the western medicine group in the improvement of sleep quality and sleeping pills,total PSQI score reduction(P<0.01).The re-sults of linear regression analysis showed that after controlling for confounding factors,the regression coefficients of the TCM group in two different models were1.821 and 1.922 respectively,and the former was statistically significant(P<0.05).By screening patients who took hypnotics at baseline in the TCM group and comparing them with those in the western medicine group,the influencing factors of hypnotic withdrawal were analyzed.During the 3-month follow-up,25 out of 39 patients in the TCM group and 17 out of 80 patients in the western medicine group had hypnotic withdrawal(χ2= 19.25,P<0.001);during the 6-month follow-up,23 of the 39 patients in the TCM group and 18 of the 79 patients in the western medicine group had hypnotic withdrawal(χ2= 13.53,P<0.001),the with-drawal rate of patients in the TCM group was significantly higher than that in the western medicine group.Further regression analysis showed that after adjusting for confounding factors,the results showed that the western medicine group had a significantly higher rate of not withdrawal than the TCM group at 3 months(OR=5.50,95%CI:2.30～13.72)and 6 months(OR=6.43,95%CI:2.54～17.77),and the results were statistically different(P<0.05).CONCLUSION Sour Jujube Seed Decoction combined with Huangli-an Wendan Decoction is effective in treating adult chronic insomnia and assisting in hypnotic withdrawal.

Prevotella copri and its related taxa are widely detected in mammalian gut microbiomes and have been linked with an enterotype in humans.However,their microevolution and macroevolution among hosts are poorly characterized.In this study,extensively collected marker genes and genomes were analyzed to trace their evolutionary history,host specificity,and biogeographic distribution.Investigations based on marker genes and genomes suggest that a P.copri-containing lineage(PCL)harbors diverse species in higher primates.Firstly,P.copri in the human gut consisted of multiple groups exhibiting high genomic divergence and conspicuous but non-strict biogeographic patterns.Most African strains with high genomic divergence from other strains were phylogenetically located at the root of the species,indicating the co-evolutionary his-tory of P.copri and Homo sapiens.Secondly,although long-term co-evolution between PCL and higher primates was revealed,sporadic signals of co-speciation and extensive host jumping of PCL members were suggested among higher primates.Metagenomic and phylogenetic analyses indicated that P.copri and other PCL species found in domesticated mammals had been recently transmitted from humans.Thirdly,strong evidence was found on the extensively horizontal transfer of genes(e.g.,genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes)among sympatric P.copri groups and PCL species in the same primate host.Our study provides panoramic insights into the combined effects of vertical and horizontal transmission,as well as potential niche adaptation,on the microevolutionary and macroevolutionary history for an enterotype-representative lineage.

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipe-line and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to gen-erate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000.

Objective To investigate the epidemiology of idiopathic scoliosis in China based on a representative sample of primary school children from Beitang district, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. Methods All 11,024 primary school pupils from 11 schools aged 6-13 years were enrolled. A scoliometer was applied to initially screen for idiopathic scoliosis. Those angle of trunk rotation above 4° was invited to a clinical visit. Definite diagnosis was made based on a Cobb angle of 10° or above by X-ray. Inverse probability weights were used to adjust for non-attendance of the physical examination. Results 282 children (2.6%) were screened positive and 128 of them accepted clinical program. 11 children were diagnosed as idiopathic scoliosis, suggesting a prevalence rate of around 0.22% in primary school children in Wuxi. Adjusted for non-response estimated prevalence was slightly lower at 0.21%. Prevalence was higher in girls than in boys. The highest prevalence was found in girls aged 12-13 years. None confirmed case was found in children younger than 10 years old. Conclusion A relatively low overall prevalence of idiopathic scoliosis was found in primary school children of Beitang district, Wuxi. It is suggested to focus on children aged 10-13 years, while the screening for the 6-9 years olds could be slightly postponed.

Curcumin, the medically active component from Curcuma longa (Turmeric), is widely used to treat inflammatory diseases. Protein interaction network (PIN) analysis was used to predict its mechanisms of molecular action. Targets of curcumin were obtained based on ChEMBL and STITCH databases. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) were extracted from the String database. The PIN of curcumin was constructed by Cytoscape and the function modules identified by gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis based on molecular complex detection (MCODE). A PIN of curcumin with 482 nodes and 1688 interactions was constructed, which has scale-free, small world and modular properties. Based on analysis of these function modules, the mechanism of curcumin is proposed. Two modules were found to be intimately associated with inflammation. With function modules analysis, the anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin were related to SMAD, ERG and mediation by the TLR family. TLR9 may be a potential target of curcumin to treat inflammation.

Objective To introduce the design of a non-inferiority clinical trial for evaluating the mild-to-moderate active ulcerative coli-tis. Methods Based on international literature and the European guide-line on the development of new medicinal products for the treatment of ul-cerative colitis, a clinical trial was designed in involving with the positive control, non-inferiority margin, primary endpoint and the dose-finding within accepted efficacy and safety for a treatment of mild-to-moderate active ulcerative colitis. A real example of ulcerative colitis was intro-duced and its primary data were simulated for quantitative analysis. Re-sult For the non-inferiority clinical trial on mild-to-moderate active ulcerative colitis, the standard positive control should be aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) with the dose of 3 g/day, the non-inferior margin is approximately 15%, and the CAI scale is recommended as primary end-point. Conclusion This study can provide some important information for similar clinical research.

In the areas of prevention and life skills counseling for breast cancer, risk assessment and prediction can assist clinicians to decide if chemoprevention or prophylactic surgery is needed or suggestions on improving the quality of life for their clients. Several mathematical models, namely Gail Model, Claus Model, BRCAPRO Model and Cuzick-Tyrer Model etc. have been developed to make predictions, clinically. This paper has reviewed the development, operation, advantage versus disadvantage and areas of application for the four models. Having family history of breast cancer, one subject was calculated on the risks by the four models and different results were found. Up to 45 years old, the accumulative risks from the four models and population risk were 1.9%, 11.8%, 2.5%, 5.0% and i.6%, respectively. To 75 years old, they were 20.2%,32.5%, 13.1%, 25.0% and 8.5%, respectively. The subject had a relatively high breast cancer risk during her lifetime. A new model is supposed to include a variety of important risk factors and to be validated by large scale of case-control samples. Incidence of breast cancer in China had significantly increased during the last ten years, but the research on developing assessment methods of breast cancer risk had never been reported, suggesting that the development of models for Chinese population is necessary.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between the pink teeth phenomenon and the cause of death as well as its significance in forensic medicine. METHODS: Inspection method was adopted to observe the pink teeth phenomenon in different causes of death. Ten rats were selected for every experimental groups, which were then divided into two groups: Eight in fresh group with teeth pulled immediately, and two in decayed group with body decayed in water firstly. The teeth pulled from rats were immersed in 75% alcohol and observed at different immersion time. RESULTS: In every fresh groups, pink teeth phenomenon was not observed when they were pulled immediately, whereas it emerged gradually after the teeth immersed in 75% alcohol, and the color showed distinct and constant four hours later. In decayed groups, Pink teeth phenomenon was observed immediately when teeth pulled, it became distinct and constant after one hour's immersion in alcohol. So it was more distinctive in the decayed groups than that in the fresh groups. CONCLUSION There is no significant connection between the pink teeth phenomenon and the cause of death, thus it may not be subject to forensic identification.
Animals ; Asphyxia/pathology* ; Cause of Death ; Color ; Dental Pulp/pathology* ; Female ; Male ; Postmortem Changes ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Time Factors ; Tooth/pathology*

Collateral therapy includes treatment of diseases of collaterals, and treatment of human other diseases with collaterals as treating subjects. In collateral therapy of Huangdi's Internal Classic, collaterals were used as treating subjects, and the treatment was directly given at the collaterals of lesion; for treatment methods, acupuncture and moxibustion were adopted as main method, including pricking blood therapy, moxibustion of collaterals, acupuncture; the diseases and syndromes of treatment included diseases and syndromes of channels and collaterals, and human other diseases and syndromes; the principles of reinforcing and reducing, and the principles of treatment varying from time to time were stressed, and it indicated contraindications for treatment.
Acupuncture ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Moxibustion

OBJECTIVE: To build an expert system for forensic bones estimation. METHODS: By using the object oriented method, employing statistical data of forensic anthropology, combining the statistical data frame knowledge representation with productions and also using the fuzzy matching and DS evidence theory method. RESULTS: Software for forensic estimation of sex, age and height with opened knowledge base was designed. CONCLUSION This system is reliable and effective, and it would be a good assistant of the forensic technician.
Age Determination by Skeleton/methods* ; Algorithms ; Anthropometry/methods* ; Computer Simulation ; Expert Systems ; Forensic Anthropology/methods* ; Forensic Medicine/methods* ; Humans ; Software Design