After being treated with acupuncture, some patients with idiopathic tinnitus may experience a short-term aggravation of tinnitus symptoms on the original basis. These symptoms can be gradually relieved and the overall condition fluctuates towards recovery. This phenomenon has brought some difficulties to patients and clinicians. Based on the academic view of TCM, "destroying pathogens and re-building balance", and in association with the existing understanding of acupuncture in modern medicine for tinnitus, this paper briefly discusses the mechanism and influencing factors of symptom fluctuation in patients with idiopathic tinnitus after acupuncture treatment in terms of both TCM and modern medicine, and proposes the future direction in the research of symptom fluctuation, so as to promote the recognition of clinicians and patients on symptom fluctuation and make rational use of its positive effects. Besides, it is hoped that more researchers will pay attention to symptom fluctuation and advance the exploration of it in academic field.
Humans ; Tinnitus/physiopathology* ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Male ; Female

This article summarizes the clinical experience in treatment of refractory tinnitus with He's santong therapy of acupuncture (three techniques of acupuncture to remove the blockage and promote circulation). Refractory tinnitus is characterized by a mixture of deficiency and excess, which is implicated in the dysfunction of zangfu organs, resulting in physical and mental injuries. In association with the complicated conditions of the diseases and etiology, He's santong therapy of acupuncture is adopted. The needling with filiform needles acts directly on the affected site to regulate the mind and improve the hearing, the fire needling works on removing the refractory illness and blockage through heating up, and bloodletting on activating blood circulation and promoting qi flowing to eliminate the pathogens. The three techniques of acupuncture co-work on harmonizing the mind, promoting the circulations in the ear to stop tinnitus.
Humans ; Tinnitus/physiopathology* ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Female ; Acupuncture Points

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to analyze the bacteria in dental caries and establish an optimized dental-ca-ries diagnosis model based on 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) data of oral flora. METHODS: We searched the public databa-ses of microbiomes including NCBI, MG-RAST, EMBL-EBI, and QIITA and collected data involved in the relevant research on human oral microbiomes worldwide. The samples in the caries dataset (1 703) were compared with healthy ones (20 540) by using the microbial search engine (MSE) to obtain the microbiome novelty score (MNS) and construct a caries diagnosis model based on this index. Nonparametric multivariate ANOVA was used to analyze and compare the impact of different host factors on the oral flora MNS, and the model was optimized by controlling related factors. Finally, the effect of the model was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. RESULTS: 1) The oral microbiota distribution obviously differed among people with various oral-health statuses, and the species richness and species diversity index decreased. 2) ROC curve was used to evaluate the caries data set, and the area under ROC curve was AUC=0.67. 3) Among the five hosts' factors including caries status, country, age, decayed missing filled tooth (DMFT) indices, and sampling site displayed the strongest effect on MNS of samples (P=0.001). 4) The AUC of the model was 0.87, 0.74, 0.74, and 0.75 in high caries, medium caries, low caries samples in Chinese children, and mixed dental plaque samples after controlling host factors, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The model based on the analysis of 16S rRNA data of oral flora had good diagnostic efficiency.
Humans ; Child ; Bacteria/genetics* ; Dental Caries/microbiology* ; Dental Caries Susceptibility ; Microbiota/genetics* ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

This study aimed to investigate the effect and mechanisms of Ephedra Herb (EH) extract on adriamycin-induced nephrotic syndrome (NS), providing an experimental basis for the clinical treatment of NS. Hematoxylin and eosin staining, creatinine, urea nitrogen, and kidn injury molecule-1 were used to evaluate the activities of EH extract on renal function. The levels of inflammatory factors and oxidative stress were detected by kits. The levels of reactive oxygen species, immune cells, and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry. A network pharmacological approach was used to predict the potential targets and mechanisms of EH extract in the treatment of NS. The protein levels of apoptosis-related proteins and CAMKK2, p-CAMKK2, AMPK, p-AMPK, mTOR and p-mTOR in the kidneys were detected by Western blot. The effective material basis of EH extract was screened by MTT assay. The AMPK pathway inhibitor (compound C, CC) was added to investigate the effect of the potent material basis on adriamycin-induced cell injury. EH extract significantly improved renal injury and relieve inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis in rats. Network pharmacology and Western blot results showed that the effect of EH extract on NS may be associated with the CAMKK2/AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. Moreover, methylephedrine significantly ameliorated adriamycin-induced NRK-52e cell injury. Methylephedrine also significantly improved the phosphorylation of AMPK and mTOR, which were blocked by CC. In sum, EH extract may ameliorate renal injury via the CAMKK2/AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. Moreover, methylephedrine may be one of the material bases of EH extract.
Rats ; Animals ; Doxorubicin/adverse effects* ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; AMP-Activated Protein Kinases/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction ; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases/metabolism* ; Apoptosis

Objective:To explore the effect of a new teaching mode, which includes bridge-in, outcome, pre-test, participation, post-test and summary (BOPPPS), on the online teaching of radiobiology related knowledge for cancer radiotherapy practitioners.Methods:Taking the cell survival curve, cell cycle and radiosensitivity as examples, the radiotherapy practitioners in multiple university-affiliated hospitals were organized to carry out a multicenter prospective randomized control study. All practitioners were randomly divided into BOPPPS group and control group. The courses for BOPPPS group were designed as an online classroom, consisting of pre-class preparation, online teaching and post-class stages. The online teaching stage included video viewing, basic knowledge learning, literature discussion, group discussion and others. The control group employed the traditional teaching mode. The χ2 test was used to compare the consistency of general conditions between the two groups, and nonparametric test was used to compare the differences in scores between two or more groups. Results:The score of the pre-class test was 58.56 ± 0.99. Post-class average score for BOPPPS group was 85.48±0.85 and for control group 77.79±1.10, with the former being higher 7.69 ( Z=5.31, P<0.001) than the latter. The average answer time was (296.62±15.40) s for BOPPPS group and (386.41±21.27) s for control group, with the former being shorter 89.79 s ( Z=3.34, P=0.001) than latter. Subgroup analysis shown that the scores of BOPPPS group were significantly rising, regardless of whether or not the students had studied radiobiology courses. Among the students who have not studied these courses, the scores were rising greatly. Moreover, From the analysis of different positions, it was found that both the scores of BOPPPS group and control group have risen, especially for doctors, deputy chief doctors, physicists and technicians. There were also statistically differences between different degrees, with significantly rise in scores for undergraduate and doctoral students ( Z=3.64, 4.18, P<0.001). Conclusions:The flexible application of BOPPPS teaching mode to the online education of such boring disciplines, like radiobiology, is of great significance to raise the theoretical basis of radiotherapy practitioners.

Objective : To investigate whether NaHS，a hydrogen sulfide donor，can improve myocardial injury in sepsis by inhibiting oxidative stress and activating the Xc －/ GPX4 signaling pathway in ferroptosis． Methods : Lipopolysacc-haride(LPS) induced H9c2 in rat cardiomyocytes to form an in vitro model of myocardial injury in sep- sis，which was divided into Control group，LPS group and LPS + NaHS group．The kits were applied to detect the changes of cardiomyocyte viability，Fe2 + ，LDH and CK-MB，determine the levels of oxidative stress indexes GSH and MDA，detect the changes of cellular ROS and mitochondrial membrane potential levels by fluorescent probes， and detect the expression levels of ferroptosis regulatory proteins SLC7A11 and GPX4 by Western blot. Results: Compared with the Control group，H9c2 cell viability decreased，Fe2 + concentration increased ，GSH ，MDA and ROS levels increased，mitochondrial JC-1 monomer increased ，expression levels of ferroptosis regulatory proteins SLC7A11 and GPX4 decreased，and cell damage increased after LPS stimulation (P＜0. 05) ．Compared with the LPS group，NaHS attenuated LPS-induced H9c2 cell injury and elevated Fe2 + concentration，decreased the level of LPS-induced oxidative stress in H9c2 cells ，and increased the expression levels of ferroptosis regulatory proteins SLC7A11 and GPX4 (P＜0. 05 ) ． Conclusion The mechanism by which NaHS attenuates myocardial injury in sepsis may be related to the inhibition of oxidative stress and activation of the Xc －/ GPX4 signaling pathway in fer- roptosis.

The Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) phage, as one of the principal pathogenic bacteria of dental caries, is a main cause of the formation and development of dental caries due to its overproliferation in dental plaque biofilms. Bacterial viruses, also known as bacteriophages, have the capability of specifically infecting bacteria and effectively degrading bacterial biofilms. S. mutans phages, therefore, may prevent and control caries. Therapy based on phages has been applied in many fields, but the application of S. mutans phages in caries remains exploratory. This article will review the research progress of S. mutans phages in clinical caries prevention, aiming to provide a new idea for the clinical prevention of caries. The results of the literature review show that the living bacteriophage system has the advantages of high specificity, high affinity and good safety. However, due to its unstable structure, it can be processed into a more stable formulation by freeze-drying, spray drying, adding stability enhancers, or incorporating bacteriophages into ointments, biodegradable polymer matrices or particles to a certain extent to improve stability. The lysozyme produced by phages can digest the bacterial cell wall and release the assembled phage particles, which effectively cleave biofilms. In addition, the antigen binding fragment library for cariogenic pathogens was screened by phage display technology, and the purpose of caries prevention and treatment was achieved by passive immunization of antigen binding fragments. However, the host range of bacteriophages is narrow, so this kind of problem can be overcome by phage combined with traditional therapy or other drug use or cocktail therapy with multiple phages in clinical caries prevention and control.

The positive aspects of primary caregivers of malignant tumor patients can not only improve the quality of life of the caregivers, but also play a positive role in the treatment of patients. This paper summarized the positive aspects of the main caregivers of the malignant tumor patients from the fields including definition of malignant tumor primary caregivers and their positive aspects, the theoretical framework, measurement tools, influencing factors and intervention measures, and proposed the suggestions on the investigation researches according to the caregivers of patients with different types of disease, exploring the relationship between positive aspects and caregivers' life quality as well as the development of individualized intervention measures, so as to provide reference for future researches and nursing practice.

Objective To investigate the structure and mechanical properties of pods after dehydration and the biomechanical mechanism of spreading pod seed injection due to torsion crack. Methods The layered pods, the cell size and direction at different cellular layers were analyzed by histology, microstructure observation, mechanical property test and high-speed photography. The process of pod ejection was observed, and the principle of pod ejection was summarized. Results The ejection of pods started from the crack of the bottom, and cracked gradually from the bottom to the top. The cell arrangement of two parts of the same pod was opposite. Each pod was divided into 4 layers wherein the first exterior layer and the middle layer were orthogonal to each other. There was a layer of cells between the first exterior layer and the middle layer, of which the cell wall was broken. In the process of dehydration, fibers in the outer layer shrank and fibers in the middle layer stretched. Conclusions Pod fiber will be contracted in the orthogonal direction after dehydration to accumulate elastic performance and generate pre-stress, and finally the pod is cracked to release the pre-stress.

Objective To explore the effects of quality control circle (QCC) in shortening the treatment waiting time of hospitalized patients with lymphoma.Methods QCC activities themed with "shortening treatment waiting time of hospitalized patients" were launched in Department of Lymphoma in Beijing Cancer Hospital since March 2016. The status quo was studied in accordance with quality control procedures, followed by problem analysis and root cause verification using QCC methods and scientific statistical methods. And finally, reformational measures were mapped and carried out accordingly.Results After QCC activities, the admission time of hospitalized patients with lymphoma were reduced from (182.47±22.41) min to (97.70±14.63) min (P<0.05).Conclusions QCC activities can help to shorten the treatment waiting time of hospitalized patients with lymphoma, optimize admission procedures and improve nursing quality.