Remote terahertz wireless power transfer with self-resonating spoof plasmonic structures.

In this paper, we use a pair of self-resonating subwavelength spoof plasmonic structures to achieve remote non-radiative terahertz wireless power transfer, while nearly without affecting the electromagnetic environment of free space around the structure. The resonating frequency and quality factor of the magnetic dipole mode supported by the spoof plasmonic structures can be freely tuned by tailoring the geometric structure. By putting the weak source and detector into the self-resonating structures, we can find that the effective non-radiative terahertz power transferring distance can reach several hundred times the radius of the structures. Finally, we also demonstrate the efficient wireless power transfer capability for the multi-target receiving system. These results may provide a novel approach to the design of non-radiative terahertz wireless power transfer and communications.

Recent progress of mechanosensitive mechanism on breast cancer.

The mechanical environment is important for tumorigenesis and progression. Tumor cells can sense mechanical signals by mechanosensitive receptors, and these mechanical signals can be converted to biochemical signals to regulate cell behaviors, such as cell differentiation, proliferation, migration, apoptosis, and drug resistance. Here, we summarized the effects of the mechanical microenvironment on breast cancer cell activity, and mechanotransduction mechanism from cellular microenvironment to cell membrane, and finally to the nucleus, and also relative mechanosensitive proteins, ion channels, and signaling pathways were elaborated, therefore the mechanical signal could be transduced to biochemical or molecular signal. Meanwhile, the mechanical models commonly used for biomechanics study in vitro and some quantitative descriptions were listed. It provided an essential theoretical basis for the occurrence and development of mechanosensitive breast cancer, and also some potential drug targets were proposed to treat such disease.

Mental health literacy and suicidal ideation among Chinese college students: The mediating role of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Mental health literacy (MHL) is essential to mental health. Symptoms of depression and anxiety are significant antecedents and closely related to suicide among college students. Few studies have explored the mediating role of depressive and anxiety symptoms between MHL and suicidal ideation. METHODS: 5578 college students were included in the analysis. The online Wenjuanxing platform was used to collect data from November 2020 to March 2021. The bootstrapping method was used to test the mediating role of depressive and anxiety symptoms in the links between MHL and suicidal ideation. RESULTS: Approximately 18.8 % of Chinese college students in our study reported having suicidal ideation. MHL exhibited a significant and negative correlation with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and suicidal ideation, whereas depressive and anxiety symptoms correlated significantly and positively with suicidal ideation. Compared with the lowest MHL quartile, the 3rd and 4th quartiles of MHL were associated with a significantly lower risk of suicidal ideation after adjusting for various confounding factors. Depressive and anxiety symptoms partially mediated the relationship between MHL and suicidal ideation, and the mediating effect of depressive symptoms was significantly greater than that of anxiety symptoms. LIMITATIONS: This study was a cross-sectional survey. Future longitudinal studies on this relation are needed. CONCLUSIONS: Depressive and anxiety symptoms mediate the relationship between MHL and suicidal ideation. Comprehensive school-based specific psychological education programs are needed to improve college students' MHL and change their attitudes toward mental health services.

First cocrystal of esculetin: Simultaneously optimized in vitro/vivo properties and antioxidant effect.

Esculetin (ELT) is one of the best-known and simplest coumarins with powerful natural antioxidant effects but insoluble and difficult to absorb. In order to overcome the problems, cocrystal engineering was first applied to ELT in this paper. Nicotinamide (NAM) was selected as the coformer for its excellent water solubility and potential synergistic antioxidant effect with ELT. The structure of the ELT-NAM cocrystal was successfully prepared and characterized by IR, SCXRD, PXRD, and DSC-TG. Furthermore, the in vitro/vivo properties and antioxidant effects of the cocrystal were adequately studied. The results highlight that the ELT obtained tremendous improvements in water solubility and bioavailability after cocrystal formation. Meanwhile, the synergistic enhancement of ELT with NAM in antioxidant effect was demonstrated by the DPPH assay. Ultimately, the simultaneously optimized in vitro/vivo properties and antioxidant activity of the cocrystal created an improved practical effect of hepatoprotective in rat experiments. The investigation is significant for developing coumarin drugs represented by ELT.

Altered gut bacterial-fungal interkingdom networks in children and adolescents with depression.

BACKGROUND: Most studies of the gut-brain axis have focused on bacteria; little is known about commensal fungi. Children and adolescents with depression were reported to have gut bacterial microbiota dysbiosis, but the role of the mycobiota has not been evaluated. METHODS: Faecal samples were obtained from 145 children and adolescents with depression and 110 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We analysed the fungal microbiota, including in terms of their associations with the gut microbiota, and subjected the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) rRNA gene to mitochondrial sequencing. RESULTS: Our findings revealed unaltered fungal diversity, but altered taxonomic composition, of the faecal fungal microbiota in the children and adolescents with depression. Key fungi such as Saccharomyces and Apiotrichum were enriched in the depressed patients, while Aspergillus and Xeromyces showed significantly decreased abundance. Interestingly, the bacterial-fungal interkingdom network was markedly altered in the children and adolescents with depression, and mycobiome profiles were associated with different bacterial microbiomes. LIMITATION: The cross-sectional design precluded the establishment of a causal relationship between the gut mycobiota and the children and adolescents with depression. CONCLUSIONS: The gut mycobiome is altered in the children and adolescents with depression. Our findings suggest that fungi play an important role in the balance of the gut microbiota and may help identify novel therapeutic targets for depression.

Depressive Symptoms as a Mediator between Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Suicidal Ideation among Chinese College Students.

The purpose of this study was to verify the mediating role of depressive symptoms between excessive daytime sleepiness and suicidal ideation in college students. Of the 6944 participants, 2609 (37.6%) were male and 4335 (62.4%) were female. College students with excessive daytime sleepiness (p < 0.001) and those with depressive symptoms (p < 0.001) were more likely to have suicidal ideation. Moreover, both excessive daytime sleepiness (ß = 0.14, 95% CI: 1.01−1.32) and depressive symptoms (ß = 1.47, 95% CI: 3.80−5.00) were associated with suicidal ideation. The effect size of the mediating role of depressive symptoms in excessive daytime sleepiness to suicidal ideation was 50.41% for the entire sample, 58.33% for males, and 42.98% for females. Depressive symptoms partially mediated the relationship between excessive daytime sleepiness and suicidal ideation. The timely assessment of depressive symptoms in college students with excessive daytime sleepiness, and intervention, may reduce their risk of suicidal ideation.

Micropollutant removal and disinfection byproduct control by sequential peroxymonosulfate-UV treatment in water: A case study with sulfamethoxazole.

UV/peroxymonosulfate (UV/PMS) advanced oxidation process has attracted significant attention for removal of micropollutants in water. However, during practical water treatment applications, the PMS treatment must be performed before the UV treatment to achieve full contact. In this study, sulfamethoxazole (SMX) was selected as the target micropollutant. Four different operational approaches, including UV alone, PMS alone, simultaneous UV/PMS and sequential PMS-UV, were compared for their differences in SMX removal and disinfection by-product (DBP) formation potentials during chlorine-driven disinfection. Among the four approaches, UV/PMS and PMS-UV achieved over 90% removal efficiencies for SMX without substantial differences. For raw water, the trichloronitromethane (TCNM) formation potential after treatment with PMS-UV was lower than that after UV/PMS treatment. The time interval over which the PMS-UV process was conducted had little effect on the final removal efficiency for SMX. However, a brief (5 min) pre-PMS treatment significantly reduced the TCNM formation potential and the genotoxicity from DBPs. The formation risk for TCNM during chlorination increased markedly with increasing PMS dosages, and the appropriate dosage under these experimental conditions was suggested to be 0.5-1.0 mmol/L. Under alkaline conditions, PMS-UV treatment can enhance SMX degradation as well as dramatically reduced the formation potentials for haloketones, haloacetonitriles and halonitromethanes. This study suggests that proper optimization of UV/PMS processes can remove SMX and reduce its DBP formation.

Endogenous Ca2+ release was involved in 50-Hz MF-induced proliferation via Akt-SK1 signal cascade in human amniotic epithelial cells.

The mechanism underlying the biological effects caused by an extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) is still unclear. Previously, we found that L-type calcium channel and sphingosine kinase 1 (SK1) were involved in 50-Hz MF exposure-induced cell proliferation. In the present study, the role of intracellular Ca2+ and signal molecules related to SK1 in cell proliferation induced by 50-Hz MF was investigated in human amniotic epithelial (FL) cells. Results showed that the intracellular Ca2+ chelator, BAPTA, could completely inhibit 50-Hz MF-induced cell proliferation, whereas NIF, the inhibitor of L-type calcium channel, only partly blocked it. When cells were cultured in calcium-free medium, MF exposure also increased intracellular Ca2+, activated SK1 and promoted cell proliferation although all of those increasing levels were lower than those in complete medium. Moreover, MF-activated SK1 could be completely inhibited by BAPTA, and MF-induced cell proliferation was abolished by SKI II, the specific inhibitor of SK1. Additionally, a 50-Hz MF exposure did not affect the activation of ERK and PKCα under the condition of calcium-free medium, but activated the Akt, which could be precluded entirely by BAPTA, but not be inhibited by NIF. Treatment of FL cells with LY294002, the inhibitor of Akt, could delete the MF-induced SK1 activation under the condition of calcium-free medium. Based on the data from the present experiment, it is concluded that endogenous Ca2+ release was involved in 50-Hz MF-induced cell proliferation via Akt-SK1 signal cascade.

Copy number variation profile-based genomic typing of premenstrual dysphoric disorder in Chinese.

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) affects nearly 5% of women of reproductive age. Symptomatic heterogeneity, together with largely unknown genetics, has greatly hindered its effective treatment. In the present study, analysis of genomic sequencing-based copy number variations (CNVs) called from 100 kb white blood cell DNA sequence windows by means of semisupervized clustering led to the segregation of patient genomes into the D and V groups, which correlated with the depression and invasion clinical types, respectively, with 89.0% consistency. Application of diagnostic CNV features selected using the correlation-based machine learning method enabled the classification of the CNVs obtained into the D group, V group, total patient group, and control group with an average accuracy of 83.0%. The power of the diagnostic CNV features was 0.98 on average, suggesting that these CNV features could be used for the molecular diagnosis of the major clinical types of PMDD. This demonstrated concordance between the CNV profiles and clinical types of PMDD supported the validity of symptom-based diagnosis of PMDD for differentiating between its two major clinical types, as well as the predominantly genetic nature of PMDD with a host of overlaps between multiple susceptibility genes/pathways and the diagnostic CNV features as indicators of involvement in PMDD etiology.

Analysis of the Status Quo and Influencing Factors of Community Residents' Awareness of Basic Life Support and Willingness to Attempt Rescue.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate community residents' awareness of basic life support (BLS) and their willingness to attempt rescue. METHODS: From October to December 2020, in the communities of Nantong City, a stratified three-stage random sampling method was adopted to select residents from 12 neighborhood committees over the age of 18 with whom to conduct a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. A self-designed questionnaire was adopted, the contents of which included the general situation of the respondent, knowledge, attitude, and behavior in relation to BLS; the Cronbach's α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.719. RESULTS: A total of 3000 questionnaires were distributed, of which 2812 were valid, with a valid response rate of 93.73%. Of the 2812 respondents, 41.18% had seen an automatic external defibrillator (AED), 48.83% had experience of' cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and 25.07% of the respondents had experience of' AEDs. When an accident occurred, 50.50% of residents were willing to attempt rescue, 70.80% were willing to attempt rescue under professional guidance, and 71.23% were willing to attempt rescue after learning BLS techniques. Of the residents who were unwilling to attempt rescue, 32.75% were worried about their lack of ability, 27.91% were concerned about legal issues, 14.01% feared infectious diseases, and 10.35% were unwilling to perform mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration. Age, occupation, education level, and whether they had participated in first aid training were the influencing factors. CONCLUSION: Residents in Nantong have less knowledge of BLS, and their knowledge of CPR is better than that of AEDs. Residents have a strong willingness to learn BLS. Measures need to be taken to improve their understanding of BLS and their application skills. Residents have high levels of willingness to attempt rescue, but a certain percentage of residents have concerns. Interventions can be made to target the different reasons.

[Effect of electroacupuncture on expression of heat shock protein 70 in mice with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on the body weight, disease progression and the expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in lumbar spinal cord of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) mice, so as to explore the mechanism of EA on treating ALS. METHODS: Eighteen ALS transgenic SOD1G93A mice were randomly divided into model, EA and medication groups, with 6 mice in each group, and six C57BL/6J mice were used as the normal group. Mice in the EA group received EA at "Quchi"(LI11)-"Hegu"(LI4), "Zusanli"(ST36)- "Sanyinjiao"(SP6), 30 min/time, 5 times/week, for 8 weeks.Mice in the medication group were given riluzole solution (7.6 mg·kg-1·d-1) by gavage for 8 weeks. The body weight of the mice was recorded and the motor function of the hind limbs was evaluated by the neurological function scoring stan-dard of the ALS Therapeutic Development Institute. The expression of HSP70 in lumbar spinal cord was detected by Western blot and immunohistochemistry, respectively. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, the body weight and the expression of HSP70 in the model group decreased significantly (P<0.05), while no significant difference in the body weight was found among other groups(P>0.05). After intervention and in comparison with the model group, the disease onset time and paralysis time of the EA group and the medication group were significantly delayed (P<0.05, P<0.01), the expression of HSP70 in the EA group and the medicine group was significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01).But there was no significant difference in the survival time among all groups(P＞0.05). The disease onset time of the EA group was shorter than that in the medication group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: EA can increase the expression of HSP70 in lumbar spinal cord, thereby delaying the progression of ALS.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of outdoor walking with overall mental health in later life.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of three walking parameters (frequency, duration, and intensity) with overall mental health in older adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2014 with 1255 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older in Taipei, Taiwan. Among them, 408 participants completed the one-year follow-up survey in 2015. Self-reported outdoor walking during the past 7 days was measured by asking the frequency, duration, and intensity. Metabolic equivalent (MET) values (<2.5, 2.5-<3.5, 3.5-<4.5, and ≥4.5 MET) were assigned to the four levels of speed (slow pace, average, brisk, and fast pace) based on the average walking distance per minute. Overall mental health was assessed using the Five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5). Multivariable linear regression models were conducted to explore the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between outdoor walking and overall mental health, adjusting for socio-demographic factors, lifestyle behaviors, comorbidity and health status. RESULTS: Among the walking parameters, only walking intensity emerged as a significant predictor of subsequent overall mental health. Multivariable regression analysis showed that light-to-moderate intensity (approximately 2.5-<4.5 METs) was significantly associated with better overall mental health at 12-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Outdoor walking at light-to-moderate intensity is prospectively associated with better overall mental health in later life.

Exploring lipid biomarkers of coronary heart disease for elucidating the biological effects of gelanxinning capsule by lipidomics method based on LC-MS.

High-throughput lipidomics technology was used to explore the potential therapeutic targets and mechanism of action of gelanxinning capsule on rat model with coronary heart disease (CHD). This study attempts to provide a novel method to interpret the molecular mechanism of traditional medicine. The lipid markers of CHD were determined by full-scan analysis based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography-high-definition mass spectrometry. Then, the metabolic changes associated with gelanxinning capsule treatment via the modulation of lipid biomarkers and pathway in rats were characterized. After gelanxinning treatment, the metabolic profile tended to recover compared with the model group. A total of 26 potential biomarkers were identified to represent the disorders of lipid metabolism in CHD animal model, of which 19 were regulated by gelanxinning capsule administration, and four metabolic pathways such as glycerophospholipid metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor biosynthesis, and glycerolipid metabolism were involved. From the pathway analysis, it was found that glycerophospholipid metabolism and sphingolipid metabolism with significant differences have the potential to be regarded as new targets for the treatment of CHD. Gelanxinning capsule with its good therapeutic effect protects against CHD by regulating lipid biomarkers and pathway from lipidomics-guided biochemical analysis.

Peracetic acid-based advanced oxidation processes for decontamination and disinfection of water: A review.

Peracetic acid (PAA) has attracted growing attention as an alternative oxidant and disinfectant in wastewater treatment due to the increased demand to reduce chlorine usage and control disinfection byproducts (DBPs). These applications have stimulated new investigations on PAA-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which can enhance water disinfection and remove micropollutants. The purpose of this review is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of scientific information and experimental data reported in recent years on the applications of PAA-based AOPs for the removal of chemical and microbiological micropollutants from water and wastewater. Various methods of PAA activation, including the supply of external energy and metal/metal-free catalysts, as well as their activation mechanisms are discussed. Then, a review on the usage of PAA-based AOPs for contaminant degradation is given. The degradation mechanisms of organic compounds and the influence of the controlling parameters of PAA-based treatment systems are summarized and discussed. Concurrently, the application of PAA-based AOPs for water disinfection and the related mechanisms of microorganism inactivation are also reviewed. Since combining UV light with PAA is the most commonly investigated PAA-based AOP for simultaneous pathogen inactivation and micropollutant oxidation, we have also focused on PAA microbial inactivation kinetics, together with the effects of key experimental parameters on the process. Moreover, we have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of UV/PAA as an AOP against the well-known and established UV/H2O2. Finally, the knowledge gaps, challenges, and new opportunities for research in this field are discussed. This critical review will facilitate an in-depth understanding of the PAA-based AOPs for water and wastewater treatment and provide useful perspectives for future research and development for PAA-based technologies.

The jasmonate-responsive transcription factor CbWRKY24 regulates terpenoid biosynthetic genes to promote saponin biosynthesis in Conyza blinii H. Lév.

Conyza blinii H. Lév., the most effective component is saponin, is a biennial medicinal material that needs to be overwintered. WRKY transcription factors family is a large protein superfamily that plays a predominant role in plant secondary metabolism, but their characteristics and functions have not been identified in C. blinii. The CbWRKY24 sequence was selectedfrom the transcriptome database of the C. blinii leaves constructed in our laboratory. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that it was associated with AaWRKY1 which can regulate artemisinin synthesis in Artemisia annua. Expression analysis in C. blinii revealed that CbWRKY24 was mainly induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and cold treatments. Transcriptional activity assay showed that it had an independent biological activity. Overexpression of CbWRKY24 in transient transformed C. blinii resulted in improved totalsaponins content, which was attributed to upregulate the expression level of keys genes from mevalonate (MVA) pathway in transient transformed plants compared to wild type (WT) plants. Meanwhile, overexpression the CbWRKY24 in transient transformed tomato fruits showed that the transcript level of related genes in lycopene pathway decreased significantly when compared to WT tomatofruits. Additionally, the MeJA-response-element was found in the promoter regions of CbWRKY24 and the histochemical staining experiments showed that promoter had GUS activity in transiently transformed tobacco leaves. In summary, our results indicated that we may have found a transcription factor that can regulate the biosynthesis of terpenoids in C. blinii.

Ultrafast nonlinear optical properties and carrier dynamics of silver nanoparticle-decorated ZnO nanowires.

Silver (Ag) nanoparticle-decorated zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (Ag-ZnO) have been successfully synthesized by chemical vapour deposition and the magnetron sputtering method. Scanning electron microscopy images indicate that Ag nanoparticles are distributed uniformly on the surface of the ZnO nanowires. The results of room temperature photoluminescence (RTPL) reveal two major emission peaks for the Ag-ZnO nanowires, and the emission peaks in the visible region are stronger than those of the unmodified ZnO nanowires. The mechanism of RTPL and low temperature photoluminescence (LTPL) emission is discussed in detail. Nonlinear optical properties and ultrafast dynamics have been investigated using the Z-scan and two color pump-probe (TCPP) techniques, respectively. The nonlinear absorption properties in the nano-, pico- and femto-second regime have been analyzed using the singlet state three-level and four-level models, respectively. The samples show self-focusing nonlinearity and good two-photon absorption (TPA)-induced ground state saturation absorption as well as excited state reverse saturable absorption behavior. For the nanosecond and picosecond pulses, the reverse saturated absorption in the excited state mainly originates from the absorption at low excited states or deep levels; however, for the femtosecond pulse, it is caused by the absorption at high excited states. The TCPP results show that the ground state or deep level light bleaching (for nano- and pico-second regime) and TPA-induced excited-state absorption (for femtosecond regime) behaviors range from 470 nm to 620 nm. The remarkable nonlinear optical properties reveal that Ag-ZnO nanowires are potential nanocomposite materials for the development of nonlinear optical devices.

Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of InN Thin Films Under 532 nm Nanosecond Laser Pulses.

In order to investigate the third-order nonlinear optical properties of InN thin film, the sample was deposited on sapphire substrates by reactive RF magnetron sputtering. The prepared samples with a hexagonal wurtzite structure were confirmed by both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The optical absorption spectrum of the prepared samples was measured by a double beam UV/Visible spectrophotometer. The results show that the optical bandgap of deposited thin film is 2.06 eV. The third-order nonlinear optical coefficients of the film were measured by using the open and closed aperture transmission Z-scan (TZ-scan) technique under nanosecond laser pulses with a wavelength of 532 nm. The test results show that the prepared InN thin film performs strong saturation absorption, and the InN thin film with positive nonlinear refractive index coefficient is the self-focusing material under the conditions of the nanosecond laser pulses with the photon energy larger than the bandgap of prepared samples.

[Simultaneous quantitative analysis of different ceramide species in cells by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) method for simultaneous quantitative analysis of different ceramide species in cells. METHODS: The analysis was performed on an Agilent 1290 HPLC system with a ZORBAX Eclipse XDB-C8 (150.0 mm × 2.1 mm, 3.5 µL) column and a temperature of 35 ℃. Methanol with 1 mmol/L ammonium formate and 0.2% formic acid was used as mobile phase A and 100% methanol was used as mobile phase B. And the ceramides were separated by gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. Electrospray ionization (ESI) with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) was used in the analysis. RESULTS: Four ceramide species all had a good linear response in the determination ranges (R² ≥ 0.9987). The average recoveries (n = 9) were 99.1%,99.9%,100.5% and 98.2% with RSDs of 5.6%, 5.1%, 4.7% and 5.5%, respectively. In addition, the levels of ceramides in FL cells were relatively stable, while the C24-ceramide had the highest level. CONCLUSION: The HPLC-ESI-MS method for simultaneous analysis of ceramides has high accuracy, reproducibility and linearity, which may be used for quantification of ceramide species in cells.

Metabolomics coupled with pattern recognition and pathway analysis on potential biomarkers in liver injury and hepatoprotective effects of yinchenhao.

Metabolomics can provide an opportunity to develop the systematic analysis of the metabolites in biological samples and has been increasingly applied to discovering and identifying biomarkers and perturbed pathways. It enables us to better understand the metabolic pathways which can clarify the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM). Yinchenhao (YCH, Artemisia annua L), a famous TCM plant, has been used clinically for more than a thousand years to relieve liver diseases in Asia, and its mechanisms are not still completely clear. Here, metabolomic techniques may provide additional insight, and our investigation was designed to assess the effects and possible mechanisms of YCH on α-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced liver injury. Metabolite profiling was performed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI-Q-TOF/MS) combined with pathway analysis and pattern recognition approaches including independent component analysis (ICA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Biochemistry test was also performed for the liver tissue and plasma samples. The changes in metabolic profiling were restored to their baseline values after YCH treatment according to the ICA score plots. Of note, YCH has a potential pharmacological effect through regulating multiple perturbed pathways to normal state, correlating well to the assessment of biochemistry test. Five different potential biomarkers in the positive mode contributing to the treatment of YCH were discovered. Pathway analysis showed that these metabolites were associated with perturbations in pyrimidine metabolism, primary bile acid biosynthesis, and propanoate metabolism, which may be helpful to further understand the action mechanisms of YCH. It showed that changed biomarkers and pathways may provide evidence to insight into drug action mechanisms and drug discovery.

[Analysis of syndrome discipline of generalized anxiety disorder using data mining techniques].

OBJECTIVE: To study the use of data mining techniques in analyzing the syndrome discipline of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). METHODS: From August 1, 2009 to July 31, 2010, 705 patients with GAD in 10 hospitals of Beijing were investigated over one year. Data mining techniques, such as Bayes net and cluster analysis, were used to analyze the syndrome discipline of GAD. RESULTS: A total of 61 symptoms of GAD were screened out. By using Bayes net, nine syndromes of GAD were abstracted based on the symptoms. Eight syndromes were abstracted by cluster analysis. After screening for duplicate syndromes and combining the experts' experience and traditional Chinese medicine theory, six syndromes of GAD were defined. These included depressed liver qi transforming into fire, phlegm-heat harassing the heart, liver depression and spleen deficiency, heart-kidney non-interaction, dual deficiency of the heart and spleen, and kidney deficiency and liver yang hyperactivity. Based on the results, the draft of Syndrome Diagnostic Criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder was developed. CONCLUSION: Data mining techniques such as Bayes net and cluster analysis have certain future potential for establishing syndrome models and analyzing syndrome discipline, thus they are suitable for the research of syndrome differentiation.