1.Herbal Textual Research on Inulae Flos in Famous Classical Formulas
Caixia LIU ; Yue HAN ; Yanzhu MA ; Lei GAO ; Sheng WANG ; Yan YANG ; Wenchuan LUO ; Ling JIN ; Jing SHAO ; Zhijia CUI ; Zhilai ZHAN
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2026;32(3):210-221
In this paper, by referring to ancient and modern literature, the textual research of Inulae Flos has been conducted to clarify the name, origin, production area, quality evaluation, harvesting, processing and others, so as to provide reference and basis for the development and utilization of famous classical formulas containing this herb. After textual research, it could be verified that the medicinal use of Inulae Flos was first recorded in Shennong Bencaojing of the Han dynasty. In successive dynasties, Xuanfuhua has been taken as the official name, and it also has other alternative names such as Jinfeicao, Daogeng and Jinqianhua. The period before the Song and Yuan dynasties, the main origin of Inulae Flos was the Asteraceae plant Inula japonica, and from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the present, I. japonica and I. britannica are the primary source. In addition to the dominant basal species, there are also regional species such as I. linariifolia, I. helianthus-aquatili, and I. hupehensis. The earliest recorded production areas in ancient times were Henan, Hubei and other places, and the literature records that it has been distributed throughout the country since modern times. The medicinal part is its flower, the harvesting and processing method recorded in the past dynasties is mainly harvested in the fifth and ninth lunar months, and dried in the sun, and the modern harvesting is mostly harvested in summer and autumn when the flowers bloom, in order to remove impurities, dry in the shade or dry in the sun. In addition, the roots, whole herbs and aerial parts are used as medicinal materials. In ancient times, there were no records about the quality of Inulae Flos, and in modern times, it is generally believed that the quality of complete flower structure, small receptacles, large blooms, yellow petals, long filaments, many fluffs, no fragments, and no branches is better. Ancient processing methods primarily involved cleaning, steaming, and sun-drying, supplemented by techniques such as boiling, roasting, burning, simmering, stir-frying, and honey-processing. Modern processing focuses mainly on cleaning the stems and leaves before use. Regarding the medicinal properties, ancient texts describe it as salty and sweet in taste, slightly warm in nature, and mildly toxic. Modern studies characterize it as bitter, pungent, and salty in taste, with a slightly warm nature. Its therapeutic effects remain consistent across eras, including descending Qi, resolving phlegm, promoting diuresis, and stopping vomiting. Based on the research results, it is recommended that when developing famous classical formulas containing Inulae Flos, either I. japonica or I. britannica should be used as the medicinal source. Processing methods should follow formula requirements, where no processing instructions are specified, the raw products may be used after cleaning.
2.Herbal Textual Research on Inulae Flos in Famous Classical Formulas
Caixia LIU ; Yue HAN ; Yanzhu MA ; Lei GAO ; Sheng WANG ; Yan YANG ; Wenchuan LUO ; Ling JIN ; Jing SHAO ; Zhijia CUI ; Zhilai ZHAN
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2026;32(3):210-221
In this paper, by referring to ancient and modern literature, the textual research of Inulae Flos has been conducted to clarify the name, origin, production area, quality evaluation, harvesting, processing and others, so as to provide reference and basis for the development and utilization of famous classical formulas containing this herb. After textual research, it could be verified that the medicinal use of Inulae Flos was first recorded in Shennong Bencaojing of the Han dynasty. In successive dynasties, Xuanfuhua has been taken as the official name, and it also has other alternative names such as Jinfeicao, Daogeng and Jinqianhua. The period before the Song and Yuan dynasties, the main origin of Inulae Flos was the Asteraceae plant Inula japonica, and from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the present, I. japonica and I. britannica are the primary source. In addition to the dominant basal species, there are also regional species such as I. linariifolia, I. helianthus-aquatili, and I. hupehensis. The earliest recorded production areas in ancient times were Henan, Hubei and other places, and the literature records that it has been distributed throughout the country since modern times. The medicinal part is its flower, the harvesting and processing method recorded in the past dynasties is mainly harvested in the fifth and ninth lunar months, and dried in the sun, and the modern harvesting is mostly harvested in summer and autumn when the flowers bloom, in order to remove impurities, dry in the shade or dry in the sun. In addition, the roots, whole herbs and aerial parts are used as medicinal materials. In ancient times, there were no records about the quality of Inulae Flos, and in modern times, it is generally believed that the quality of complete flower structure, small receptacles, large blooms, yellow petals, long filaments, many fluffs, no fragments, and no branches is better. Ancient processing methods primarily involved cleaning, steaming, and sun-drying, supplemented by techniques such as boiling, roasting, burning, simmering, stir-frying, and honey-processing. Modern processing focuses mainly on cleaning the stems and leaves before use. Regarding the medicinal properties, ancient texts describe it as salty and sweet in taste, slightly warm in nature, and mildly toxic. Modern studies characterize it as bitter, pungent, and salty in taste, with a slightly warm nature. Its therapeutic effects remain consistent across eras, including descending Qi, resolving phlegm, promoting diuresis, and stopping vomiting. Based on the research results, it is recommended that when developing famous classical formulas containing Inulae Flos, either I. japonica or I. britannica should be used as the medicinal source. Processing methods should follow formula requirements, where no processing instructions are specified, the raw products may be used after cleaning.
3.Design of a smart blood donation assistant based on large language model
Lan LUO ; Kanglie WAN ; Yue ZHENG ; Xiaoya ZHAO ; Zhedong HAN
Chinese Journal of Blood Transfusion 2026;39(2):241-247
Objective: To develop a smart blood donation service assistant for popularizing donation-related knowledge to blood donors via intelligent Q&A support, thereby enabling precise service delivery. Methods: Based on the operational scenarios of the Zhejiang Provincial Blood Center, the system utilized the open-source Dify platform for agent orchestration, and integrated with the DeepSeek model as the language processing engine to support online real-time interaction. External tools, including the Amap API and MySQL database queries, were encapsulated via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). A professional blood knowledge base for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) was constructed using the BGE-M3 embedding model. An innovative dual-large language model collaborative verification mechanism was introduced to design the overall framework. The system was deployed privately using Docker containerization, and offline closed-loop optimization was achieved through customized Python scripts. Results: An interactive interface for blood donors was developed by integrating the chatflow Web component from Dify. The intelligent assistant Agent can recommend optimal blood donation sites and navigation routes by invoking the Amap API based on the donor's location. The Blood Donation Knowledge Agent enables timely responses to inquiries, along with reasonable suggestions and reminders. This agent specializes in the field of voluntary blood donation, empowering the assistant to answer doubts and questions for blood donors in the form of intelligent question-and-answer interaction. It also guides users through preliminary self-assessments, helping potential donors identify eligibility issues beforehand, thereby effectively increasing the on-site success rate of blood donation and reducing resource waste. Conclusion: The smart blood donation assistant validates the feasibility of the "Dify+MCP+RAG" technical architecture within the blood transfusion informatization field. The assistant not only improves the service experience for blood donors, but also, ensures the sustainable evolution of the system through its modular design and closed-loop optimization mechanism, thus providing valuable insights for the intelligent transformation of traditional blood donation service systems.
4.Knowledge graph-enhanced long-tail learning approach for traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation
Weikang KONG ; Chuanbiao WEN ; Yue LUO
Digital Chinese Medicine 2026;9(1):57-67
Objective:
To address the dual challenges of long-tail distribution and feature sparsity in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation within real clinical settings, we propose a data-efficient learning framework enhanced by knowledge graphs.
Methods:
We developed Agent-GNN, a three-stage decoupled learning framework, and validated it on the Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Diagnosis (TCM-SD) dataset containing 54 152 clinical records across 148 syndrome categories. First, we constructed a comprehensive medical knowledge graph encoding the complete TCM reasoning system. Second, we proposed a Functional Patient Profiling (FPP) method that utilizes large language models (LLMs) combined with Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to extract structured symptom-etiology-pathogenesis subgraphs from medical records. Third, we employed heterogeneous graph neural networks to learn structured combination patterns explicitly. We compared our method against multiple baselines including BERT, ZY-BERT, ZY-BERT + Know, GAT, and GPT-4 Few-shot, using macro-F1 score as the primary evaluation metric. Additionally, ablation experiments were conducted to validate the contribution of each key component to model performance.
Results:
Agent-GNN achieved an overall macro-F1 score of 72.4%, representing an 8.7 percentage points improvement over ZY-BERT + Know (63.7%), the strongest baseline among traditional methods. For long-tail syndromes with fewer than 10 samples, Agent-GNN reached a macro-F1 score of 58.6%, compared with 39.3% for ZY-BERT + Know and 41.2% for GPT-4 Few-shot, representing relative improvements of 49.2% and 42.2%, respectively. Ablation experiments confirmed that the explicit modeling of etiology-pathogenesis nodes contributed 12.4 percentage points to this enhanced long-tail syndrome performance.
Conclusion
This study proposes Agent-GNN, a knowledge graph-enhanced framework that effectively addresses the long-tail distribution challenge in TCM syndrome differentiation. By explicitly modeling manifestation-mechanism-essence patterns through structured knowledge graphs, our approach achieves superior performance in data-scarce scenarios while providing interpretable reasoning paths for TCM intelligent diagnosis.
5.Peripheral blood cell counts as predictors of response to neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A retrospective study in a single center
Xingqiang RAN ; Chengcheng ZHANG ; Tao LUO ; Binwen XU ; Yue ZHANG ; Liwen ZHANG ; Maoyong FU
Chinese Journal of Clinical Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2026;33(05):743-750
Objective To explore the predictive value of peripheral blood cells in the efficacy of neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (clinical stages Ⅱ-Ⅳa) who underwent neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College from April 2020 to November 2023. According to whether the pathology was completely relieved after treatment, patients were divided into a pathological complete remission group and a pathological incomplete remission group. The College of American Pathologists criteria were used to evaluate the tumor pathological regression grade (TRG) after neoadjuvant therapy (TRG=0, 1 defined as a good efficacy group, TRG=2, 3 defined as a poor efficacy group). Results A total of 92 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were collected, including 72 males and 20 females. The average age was (65.86±7.66) years. The complete remission of pathology was closely related to the number of lymphocytes in the blood before treatment (P=0.019). The area under the curve (AUC) for predicting complete remission of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy was 0.678, the maximum Youden index was 0.328, and the optimal cutoff value was 1.845. The incidence of postoperative pulmonary infection in the pathological incomplete remission group was higher than that in the pathological complete remission group (25.0% vs. 5.6%, P=0.030). Using the optimal cutoff value, there were statistically significant differences in pathological N stage and pathological TNM stage between patients with lymphocyte counts <1.845×109/L and ≥1.845×109/L (P<0.05). Treatment response (by TRG) was significantly associated with the pretreatment red blood cell count (P=0.009). The AUC for predicting a good TRG response was 0.669, with a maximum Youden index of 0.385 and an optimal cutoff value of 4.235. Between the good and poor response groups, there were statistically significant differences in postoperative pathological T stage (P<0.001), N stage (P=0.041), and TNM stage (P<0.001). When stratified by the optimal cutoff value, there were statistically significant differences in age (P<0.001) and the prevalence of hypertension (P=0.022) between patients with red blood cell counts <4.235×1012/L and ≥4.235×1012/L. Conclusion A pretreatment absolute lymphocyte count ≥1.845×109/L and a red blood cell count <4.235×1012/L are good predictors for pathological complete response and a good pathological response, respectively, following neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
6.The construction and evaluation of heart preservation model for empty beating donor heart based on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation technology
Shijie YIN ; Xiao YUE ; Chunhua WANG ; Wei WU ; Guanbin QIN ; Lan LUO ; Qiangxin HUANG ; Guixin HE
Chinese Journal of Clinical Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2026;33(05):791-798
Objective To explore the construction of heart preservation model of empty beating donor based on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Methods From January 2022 to August 2023, 20 Guangxi Bama miniature pigs weighing 25-30 kg were selected, half male and half female. Under general anesthesia and heparinization, a midline thoracotomy was performed. The pericardium was cut after freeing the anterior and posterior vena cavae, and a perfusion needle was inserted near the brachiocephalic artery in the ascending aorta, connected to a blood collection bag to collect 500-600 mL of blood. The anterior and posterior vena cavae were ligated, the aorta was blocked and perfused with HTK solution to stop the heart beating. The superior and inferior vena cavae were cut off, the right pulmonary vein was decompressed, the aorta and left and right pulmonary arteries and veins were cut off, and the whole heart was removed. An ECMO device was used to continuously perfuse a cardioprotective solution mainly composed of oxygenated warm blood, maintaining the isolated pig heart beating for 8 hours, monitoring (once/hour) ECMO perfusion parameters, blood gas indicators, perfusate electrolytes, inflammatory factors, myocardial enzymes, myoglobin, and troponin levels. Myocardial tissue was taken for hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to observe myocardial cell damage and evaluate the quality of heart preservation. Results Among the 20 isolated beating pig hearts, 17 successfully resumed beating, 3 experienced ventricular fibrillation, resuscitated after intracardiac electrical defibrillation, and all 20 pig hearts successfully beat for 8 hours. There was no statistical difference in ECMO perfusion parameters, blood gas indicators, perfusate electrolytes, and inflammatory factors at each time point (P>0.05). There were statistical increases in myocardial enzymes, myoglobin, and troponin levels (P<0.05). HE staining results suggested that there was no severe myocardial damage. Conclusion ECMO technology can be used for pig heart preservation with good results, and this study provides experimental evidence for improving heart preservation research in clinical heart transplantation.
7.Node-RADS based on dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI for evaluating axillary lymph node metastasis of breast cancer
Nan JIA ; Lu HAN ; Yue DONG ; Guanyu LIU ; Yahong LUO
Chinese Journal of Medical Imaging Technology 2025;41(10):1672-1676
Objective To observe the value of Node-RADS based on dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI(DCE-MRI)for assessing axillary lymph node metastasis of breast cancer.Methods A total of 308 patients with breast cancer were retrospectively enrolled and divided into metastasis group(n=153)and non-metastasis group(n=155)based on the presence of axillary lymph node metastasis or not.Two radiologists independently scored the axillary lymph nodes shown on DCE-MRI according to Node-RADS criteria.Inter-observer scores was assessed using Kappa test.Taken pathological result as the gold standard,receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted,and the area under the curve(AUC)was calculated to evaluate the efficacy of Node-RADS scores for diagnosing axillary lymph node metastasis.Results Good inter-observer consistency of Node-RADS scores was observed.When Node-RADS score>2,the highest AUC of 2 radiologists was 0.928 and 0.921,respectively,being not significantly different(P>0.05).Conclusion Node-RADS based on DCE-MRI had good efficacy for evaluating axillary lymph node metastasis of breast cancer.Node-RADS score higher than 2 strongly indicated possibility of lymph node metastasis.
8.TRIM25 inhibits Japanese encephalitis virus replication in U251 cells by up-regulation of the IFN-β and degrading the viral capsid protein
Chen CHEN ; Kui XU ; Zhuang ZHU ; Rong HUANG ; Yalan FENG ; Ning TAN ; Yajing HE ; Yue LUO ; Jian YANG ; Lei YUAN
Chinese Journal of Microbiology and Immunology 2025;45(2):99-107
Objective:To investigate the inhibitory effect of tripartite motif-containing 25 (TRIM25) on the replication of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in cells and its molecular mechanism.Methods:Human glioma cells (U251 cells) and Kunming mice were infected with JEV, and then the cells and brain tissue samples were collected. The transcription levels of six TRIM genes were detected by real-time PCR, and the expression of TRIM25 in cells was detected by Western blot. U251 and A549 cells overexpressed with TRIM25 and U251 cells knocked out with TRIM25 gene were constructed. Cells were infected with JEV, and the replication of JEV was detected by viral plaque assay, real-time PCR and Western blot. The interaction of TRIM25 with viral proteins was investigated by co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) and indirect immunofluorescence assay. The expression of IFN-β in overexpressed TRIM25 cells was detected by real-time PCR and ELISA.Results:JEV infection promoted the expression of TRIM25 in cells and mouse brain tissues. TRIM25 overexpression restricted JEV replication in U251 and A549 cells, while TRIM25 knockout enhanced JEV replication. TRIM25 overexpression upregulated the level of IFN-β in cells. TRIM25 interacted with JEV capsid protein and promoted the degradation of capsid protein.Conclusion:TRIM25 can inhibit the replication of JEV in cells by upregulating IFN-β and promoting the degradation of JEV C protein.
9.Analysis of respiratory pathogenic microorganisms in plasma samples from healthy plasma donors in winter
Yue WANG ; Li CHENG ; Ying LIU ; Qin GONG ; Jianxiao TONG ; Chuanbo ZHAO ; Jiaru GUO ; Yan LUO ; Jin ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Microbiology and Immunology 2025;45(2):141-148
Objective:To perform routine plasma test, SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test, and respiratory pathogenic microorganism nucleic acid test on plasma samples collected from 1 040 healthy plasma donors in winter.Methods:Plasma samples were collected from 1 040 healthy plasma donors at Yunmeng Plasma Collection Station in the winter of 2020. Routine plasma test, HBV/HCV/HIV nucleic acid test, SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test, and 22 respiratory pathogenic microorganism nucleic acid test were performed to analyze the quality of blood plasmas.Results:All plasma samples were qualified in the routine tests, meeting the requirements of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid. Respiratory pathogenic microorganism nucleic acids were detected in 29 samples with a positive rate of 2.79% (29/1 040). There were 21 cases of simple virus infections, including 17 cases of coronavirus subtype infection, three cases of parainfluenza virus type 2 infection, and one case of human bocavirus infection. Eight cases were mixed infections of viruses and bacteria, four of which were viral infection combined with Bordetella pertussis. The 29 positive samples were collected from people of different age groups, including two from 31-40 years old (1.96%, 2/102 ), three from 41-50 years old (1.59%, 3/189), five from 51-55 years old (1.94%, 5/257), and 19 from 56-60 years old (4.59%, 19/414). Samples from the people aged 56-60 years accounted for the most (39.81%, 414/1 040), as well as the infection rate in this age group. Conclusions:In autumn and winter, respiratory pathogenic microorganism nucleic acid test should be performed when collecting plasma samples from donors aged 56-60 years in addition to meeting the requirements of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. It is also suggested to conduct respiratory pathogenic microorganism nucleic acid test on pooled plasma and blood products.
10.Development and reliability and validity test of post competence assessment scale for nurses in the health management (physical examination) center
Yue LI ; Hua GUAN ; Xiaodan ZHOU ; Xia LUO ; Haiyan WU ; Kunhong MIN ; Rong JIANG
Chinese Journal of Health Management 2025;19(9):728-734
Objective:To develop a post competence assessment scale for nurses in the health management (physical examination) center and assess its reliability and validity.Methods:This study adopted an empirical approach. A total of 801 nurses from the health management (physical examination) center were recruited to participate in this study. A research team was formed in August 2024. This team transformed the previously constructed core competence evaluation index system for health management specialist nurses in the health management (physical examination) center (comprising 6 first-level indicators and 70 third-level indicators) into a preliminary post competence assessment scale. Seven experts evaluated the content validity of the scale. In September 2024, a pilot survey was conducted among 27 nurses from the health management (physical examination) center of Sichuan Provincial People′s Hospital using convenience sampling. From October to November 2024, the first main survey was administered to 385 nurses of health management (physical examination) center across 54 cities in China using both convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods, followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Subsequently, utilizing the refined scale obtained after eliminating certain items, a second main survey was conducted among 389 nurses in the health management (physical examination) center, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability of the final scale was assessed using Cronbach′s α coefficient, split-half reliability, composite reliability, and test-retest reliability.Results:The finalized scale for nurses′ post competency in health management (physical examination) center comprises five dimensions—basic nursing service competency, health management practice competency, knowledge integration competency, professional development competency, and professional attitude—with a total of 57 items. The item level content validity index (I-CVI) of the items of the content validity display scale ranged from 0.857 to 1.000, and the content validity index of each dimension ranged from 0.984 to 1.000. The scale-level Content Validity index/average (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.995. The contribution rate of the 6 factors extracted by EFA was 74.07%. After group discussion and CFA, the scale of the 5-factor structural equation model was constructed. The total Cronbach′s α coefficient of the scale was 0.986, the split-half reliability was 0.865, the composite reliability was 0.960-0.980, the total table test-retest reliability was 0.762, and the test-retest reliability of each dimension was 0.681-0.731.Conclusion:The developed assessment scale for assessing the post competence of nurses in the health management (physical examination) center demonstrates excellent reliability and validity.

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