[Analysis of mental state of allergic rhinitis patients in Chengdu city by symptom check list 90 (SCL-90) scale].

Objective: To analyse the mental state of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) in Chengdu. Methods: One thousand five hundred and thirty-six AR patients from Sichuan Provincial Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan People's Hospital, Sichuan Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were selected from July 2013 to January 2018. Eight hundred and twenty-seven patients were screened into study group by inclusion and exclusion standards. The symptom check list 90 (SCL-90) was used to group and score the mental state of these patients according to nine classification criteria: gender, BMI, age, marital status, monthly salary, disease duration, living environment, education level and working environment. Then, the scores were compared within groups. Inter-group comparison was made between the study group and the Chinese norm, and the positive factors for psychological disorders were extracted. Four symptoms in the study group, i.e. nasal itching, sneezing, clear discharge and nasal congestion, were scored on the visual analogue scale (VAS). SPSS 19.0 software was used to carry out statistical analysis. Partial correlation analysis was performed between the positive factors and the symptom scores by multiple regression statistical method. Results: The total score of SCL-90 in the study group was 2.64±0.25, which was accorded with mild to moderate mental health impairment. There were 124 (15.0%) without mental health damage, 176 (21.3%) with mild damage, 474 (57.3%) with mild to moderate damage, 41 (5.0%) with moderate to severe damage and 12 (1.4%) with severe damage. The in-group comparison showed that the top three categories of different items were the living environment, gender and working environment. The scores of somatization, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, psychosis, other (sleep, diet) and total average score of urban residents were higher than that of country residents (3.29±0.61 vs 2.65±0.50, 2.81±0.77 vs 2.05±0.38, 3.10±0.19 vs 2.49±0.67, 3.40±0.84 vs 2.49±0.70, 3.04±0.64 vs 2.33±0.51, 3.02±0.55 vs 2.40±0.77, 3.40±0.41 vs 2.52±0.77, 2.91±0.11 vs 2.29±0.40, Z value was 4.88, 5.25, 4.57, 5.91, 5.09, 4.63, 5.55, -4.55, respectively, all P<0.05). Women scored higher than man for somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, depression and others (2.66±0.51 vs 2.00±0.45, 3.37±0.47 vs 2.63±0.51, 3.44±0.57 vs 2.85±0.52, 3.47±0.36 vs 2.76±0.45, Z value was -5.10, -5.51, -4.86, -5.28, respectively, all P<0.05). The scores of somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, psychosis and other (sleep, diet) were higher in the indoor group than those in the outdoor group (3.49±0.64 vs 2.78±0.46, 3.33±0.30 vs 2.56±0.68, 3.28±0.60 vs 2.67±0.31, 3.50±0.85 vs 2.85±0.37, Z value was 5.31, 5.79, 4.89, 5.00, respectively, all P<0.05). The outdoor group scored higher on obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety and hostility (3.44±0.40 vs 2.83±0.35, 3.40±0.50 vs 2.57±0.93, 3.34±0.88 vs 2.69±0.56, Z value was 4.96, 6.22, 5.08, respectively, all P<0.05). The inter-group comparison found that depression, anxiety, psychosis and other (sleep, diet) could be partially correlated with VAS scores as 4 positive factors. The results of partial correlation analysis showed that depression was positively correlated with sneezing and nasal runny discharge, anxiety was positively correlated with nasal itching and nasal obstruction, psychosis was positively correlated with nasal itching and sneezing, and other (sleep, diet) was positively correlated with nasal runny discharge and nasal obstruction. Conclusion: AR patients have mild to moderate mental health impairments, which are correlated with AR symptoms.

Quantitative measurements of injections into porous media with contrast based MRI.

Porous flow occurs in a wide range of materials and applies to many commercially relevant applications such as oil recovery, chemical reactors and contaminant transport in soils. Typically, breakthrough and pressure curves of column floods are used in the laboratory characterization of these materials. These characterization methods lack the detail to easily and unambiguously resolve flow mechanisms with similar effects at the core scale that can dominate at the aquifer or oil field scale, as well as the effects of geometry that control the flow at interfaces as in a perforated well or the inlet of an improperly designed column. Non-invasive imaging techniques such as MRI have been shown to provide a far more detailed characterization of the properties of the solid matrix and flow, but usually focus on the intrinsic flow properties of porous media or matching a numerical model to a complex flow system. We show that these MRI techniques, utilizing paramagnetic tagging in combination with a carefully controlled and ideal flow system, can quantitatively characterize the effects of geometry and intrinsic flow properties for a point injection into a core. The use of a carefully controlled and 'idealized' system is essential to be able to isolate and match predicted effects from geometry and extract subtle flow processes omitted in the model that would be hidden in a more heterogeneous system. This approach provides not only a tool to understand the behavior of intentional boundary effects, but also one to diagnose the unintentional ones that often degrade the data from routine column flood measurements.

Oridonin-induced apoptosis in leukemia K562 cells and its mechanism.

Oridonin, an extract from the Chinese herb Rabdosia rubescens, is currently one of the most important traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Recently oridonin has been reported to have anti- tumor effects in a large variety of malignant diseases. In this study, we investigated the apoptotic inducing effect of oridonin in leukemia K562 cells and its mechanism. Cell growth inhibition was measured using a microculture tetrazolium assay, apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry and electron microscopy as well as by DNA fragmentation analysis. Telomerase activity was measured by TRAP-enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay, and the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax proteins was detected by western blot analysis. The results showed that oridonin could inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis on leukemia K562 cells remarkably. Telomerase activity as well as Bcl-2 expression was down- regulated, while Bax expression was up-regulated concurrently, when apoptosis ocurred. We therefore conclude that oridonin demonstrated anti-proliferative and apoptosis-inducing effects on K562 cells in vitro, and that changes in bcl-2 and bax protein levels as well as telomerase activity may play an important role in its mechanism of action.

Resolution of the essential constituents of Ramulus cinnamomi by an evolving chemometric approach.

The analysis of complex mixtures, such as those of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), is difficult by conventional methods of analysis. Chemometric methods provide a new way to solve such problems. Subwindow factor analysis (SFA) paired with the evolving window orthogonal projection (EWOP) method, has been used as a new evolving approach to the resolution of volatile components of Ramulus cinnamomi (RC). Compared with conventional chromatographic analysis, the chromatographic separation conditions necessary are greatly mitigated in our approach, yet the accuracy of qualitative and quantitative results is improved, because the measured data matrix has been resolved into chromatograms and mass spectra of the chemical components. Our method is, moreover, friendly to use and easy to program. Experimental results show the efficiency and convenience of the proposed approach. Forty-seven of the seventy-eight separated constituents in an essential oil, accounting for 89.55% of the sample, were identified by mass spectroscopy (MS).

[Analysis of the essential oil of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. with GC/MS].

AIM: To detect chemical components of the essential oil of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill.. METHODS: The essential oil was analyzed with GC/MS, heuristic evolving latent projections(HELP) resolution and overall volume integration method. RESULTS: HELP method along with the data from GC/MS can be used to conduct the peak purity examination and resolution of overlapping peaks to obtain pure chromatogram and MS spectrum of each component. Fifty six components were separated and 49 of them were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. All the components represent about 98.27% of the total content. CONCLUSION: The resolved pure chromatogram and MS spectrum can greatly enhance the reliability of similar searches in the commercial MS database and thus contribute to the accuracy of the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the essential oil.

Mutation of conserved aspartates affect maturation of presenilin 1 and presenilin 2 complexes.

Presenilin (PS1 and PS2) holoproteins are transiently incorporated into low molecular weight (MW) complexes. During subsequent incorporation into a higher MW complex, they undergo endoproteolysis to generate stable N- and C-terminal fragments (NTF/CTF). Mutation of either of two conserved aspartate residues in transmembrane domains inhibits both presenilin-endoproteolysis and the proteolytic processing of APP and Notch. We show that aspartate-mutant holoprotein presenilins are not incorporated into the high molecular weight, NTF/CTF-containing complexes. Aspartate-mutant presenilin holoproteins also preclude entry of endogenous wild-type PS1/PS2 into the high molecular weight complexes, but do not affect the incorporation of wild-type holoproteins into lower molecular weight holoprotein complexes. These data suggest that the loss-of-function aspartate-mutants cause altered PS complex maturation, and argue that the functional presenilin moieties are contained in the high molecular weight presenilin NTF/CTF-containing complexes.

Electrochemical therapy (ECT) for thyroid adenoma during acupuncture anaesthesia: analysis of 46 patients.

Between February 1989 and April 1993, 46 patients with thyroid adenoma were treated by electrochemical treatment (ECT) during acupuncture anaesthesia. After three months to four years follow up period, the cure rate was 97.8%. ECT is a new technique which provides simple, effective and safe treatment of thyroid adenoma. Treatment of benign tumours with ECT represents a new application.