Data mining on varieties, therapeutic uses and medicinal characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine preparations for treating hair loss

Purpose: To review the varieties, therapeutic uses, and medicinal characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) preparations for treating hair loss, and to provide a reference for research and development of new drugs.Methods: For this review, literature from the last 50 years pertaining to the treatment of hair loss via TCM were collected mainly from China National Knowledge Infrastructure database and Wanfang Data Resource System database. Information on Chinese traditional patent medicines and ethnomedicines for treating hair loss was drawn from books.Results: A total of 322 preparations were identified, including 135 preparations made by medical institutions, 108 Chinese traditional patent medicines, 60 preparations produced by doctors themselves, and 19 ethnomedicines. The forms of dosage included  decoctions, pills, capsules, tablets, granules, tinctures, liniments, and powders. These preparations are traditionally used in the treatment of skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases. A total of 400 medicinal materials were used in preparations, including 339 from plants, 40 from animals, 14 from minerals. The most commonly used Chinese medicinal materials in order of frequency were Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) DC., Fallopia multiflora (Thunb.) Haraldson, Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, Ligustrum lucidum W.T. Aiton and Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.Conclusion: TCM preparations for treating hair loss are abundant in variety. They are mainly decoctions, and primarily botanical medicinal materials. Most of the preparations are composed of Chinese medicinal materials for ‘toning the kidneys’ and ‘nourishing the liver’. They are used mainly in the treatment of seborrheic alopecia and alopecia areat

Applying contrastive pre-training for depression and anxiety risk prediction in type 2 diabetes patients based on heterogeneous electronic health records: a primary healthcare case study

Objective: Due to heterogeneity and limited medical data in primary healthcare services (PHS), assessing the psychological risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients in PHS is difficult. Using unsupervised contrastive pre-training, we proposed a deep learning framework named depression and anxiety prediction (DAP) to predict depression and anxiety in T2DM patients. // Materials and Methods: The DAP model consists of two sub-models. Firstly, the pre-trained model of DAP used unlabeled discharge records of 85 085 T2DM patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University for unsupervised contrastive learning on heterogeneous electronic health records (EHRs). Secondly, the fine-tuned model of DAP used case–control cohorts (17 491 patients) selected from 149 596 T2DM patients’ EHRs in the Nanjing Health Information Platform (NHIP). The DAP model was validated in 1028 patients from PHS in NHIP. Evaluation included receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC-AUC) and precision-recall area under the curve (PR-AUC), and decision curve analysis (DCA). // Results: The pre-training step allowed the DAP model to converge at a faster rate. The fine-tuned DAP model significantly outperformed the baseline models (logistic regression, extreme gradient boosting, and random forest) with ROC-AUC of 0.91±0.028 and PR-AUC of 0.80±0.067 in 10-fold internal validation, and with ROC-AUC of 0.75 ± 0.045 and PR-AUC of 0.47 ± 0.081 in external validation. The DCA indicate the clinical potential of the DAP model. // Conclusion: The DAP model effectively predicted post-discharge depression and anxiety in T2DM patients from PHS, reducing data fragmentation and limitations. This study highlights the DAP model’s potential for early detection and intervention in depression and anxiety, improving outcomes for diabetes patients

An Exposome Atlas of Serum Reveals the Risk of Chronic Diseases in the Chinese Population

Although adverse environmental exposures are considered a major cause of chronic diseases, current studies provide limited information on real-world chemical exposures and related risks. For this study, we collected serum samples from 5696 healthy people and patients, including those with 12 chronic diseases, in China and completed serum biomonitoring including 267 chemicals via gas and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Seventy-four highly frequently detected exposures were used for exposure characterization and risk analysis. The results show that region is the most critical factor influencing human exposure levels, followed by age. Organochlorine pesticides and perfluoroalkyl substances are associated with multiple chronic diseases, and some of them exceed safe ranges. Multi-exposure models reveal significant risk effects of exposure on hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome and hyperuricemia. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive human serum exposome atlas and disease risk information, which can guide subsequent in-depth cause-and-effect studies between environmental exposures and human health

High Yield Preparation Method of Thermally Stable Cellulose Nanofibers

The preparation of nanocellulose fibers (NFs) is achieved through pretreating cellulose in a NaOH/urea/thiourea solution, and then defibrillating the fibers through ultrasonication, resulting in a high yield of 85.4%. Extensive work has been done to optimize the preparation parameters. The obtained NFs are about 30 nm in diameter with cellulose II crystal structure. They possess high thermal stability with an onset of thermal degradation at 270 °C and a maximum degradation temperature of 370 °C. Such NFs have potential applications in transistors and batteries with high thermal stability. NFs-H were obtained by homogenizing undefibrillated fibers separated from the preparation of NFs. NFs-H were also in cellulose II crystal form but with lower thermal stability due to low crystallinity. They can be applied to make highly transparent paper

Study on the Design Parameters of Landscape Elements of Urban Tunnel Body Segments in China Based on Biomass Perception

To provide a comprehensive analysis of how an intricate landscape environment comprising various landscape elements influences driving safety and comfort. Beginning with the individual design of the tunnel body section, which includes the roof, sidewalls, road surface, and sidewalk facade markings, this paper references the driver’s biomass index to identify design alterations that satisfy basic safety requirements through simulated driving experiments. Subsequently, employing orthogonal experimental design and semi-supervised clustering algorithms, we ascertain the optimal combination of the four main landscape elements of the tunnel body section that align with both safety and comfort objectives. The experimental findings demonstrate that a safe and comfortable landscape design for urban tunnel sections does not entail a single optimal design; rather, any landscape design conforming to the criterion of “patterned landscapes are set on the side walls and roofs of the tunnel instead of the surface of the road” is the optimal design

How do user opinions influence their interaction with web search results?

Understanding the influence of users' opinions on their search behavior together with their inherent biases in web search has garnered widespread interest in recent times. This is largely due to the implications of promoting critical thinking, explaining phenomena such as political polarization, or the manifestation of echo chambers. It is important to understand how personal opinions can bias users' interaction with search results. Moreover, there is a lack of understanding of the impact of user search intents, namely non-purposeful browsing versus searching with a pre-defined goal, on users' interactions with search results. We take a step towards bridging this knowledge gap through an empirical study in this paper. To do so, we select two controversial topics in abortion and gun control, and invite users to learn about them through ĝ€ Purposeless' and ĝ€ Purposeful' web searching. Our findings suggest that users with strong personal opinions exhibit biased interactions with the search results. However, the effect of users' opinions on their interactions with search results can differ depending on whether users search purposelessly or with a purpose. Our findings advance the current understanding of the effect of users' opinions in web search sessions, and show that users' search intents shape their interaction with search results. This work has broad design implications on dealing with bias in interactive information retrieval systems.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Web Information System

Mussel-Inspired Surface Functionalization of Porous Albumin Cryogels Supporting Synergistic Antibacterial/Antioxidant Activity and Bone-Like Apatite Formation

A crucial method for adding new functions to current biomaterials for biomedical applications has been surface functionalization via molecular design. Mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) has generated much attention as a facile method for the functionalization of biomaterials because of its substantial independence in deposition, beneficial cell interactions, and significant responsiveness aimed at secondary functionalization. Because of their porous structure, the bovine serum albumin methacryloyl (BSAMA)-BM cryogels were functionalized with PDA (BM-PDA), which may reproduce the architecture and biological purpose of the natural extracellular environment. Excellent antioxidative and antibacterial qualities, improved mineralization, and better cell responsiveness were all demonstrated by BM-PDA. BM-PDA scaffolds maintained their linked and uniform pores after functionalization, which can make it easier for nutrients to be transported during bone repair. As a result, hydroxyapatite (HA)-coated BM* and BM-PDA* cryogels were created through successive mineralization with the goal of mineralized bone tissue repair. The heterogeneous nucleation and surface roughness contributed to rod-like apatite production in BM-PDA* cryogels whereas BM* cryogels were made up of plate-like HA morphologies. Analysis results showed that after five cycles, the mineral contents were around 57% and the HA units remained equally dispersed on the surface of BM-PDA* with a Ca/P ratio of 1.63. Other natural polymer-based cryogels can be coated using this general, rapid, and simple PDA coating technique and utilized as implants for bone tissue engineering. Future clinical uses of albumin cryogels for bone tissue engineering will advance as a result of additional in-vivo testing of such PDA-coated cryogels

Heterogeneous Catalytic Composites from Palladium Nanoparticles in Montmorillonite Intercalated with Poly (Vinyl Pyrrolidone) Chains

In this study, poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) chains intercalated montmorillonite (MMT) matrices has been demonstrated as an excellent scaffolding material for the immobilization of palladium (Pd) nanoparticles to prepare efficient heterogeneous catalysts for Heck reactions. Multiple layers (up to four) of PVP chains can intercalate the interlayer space of the MMT, resulting in an increase therein from 1.25 to 3.22 nm. MMT/PVP with PVP loading (20%) was selected as the platform for the immobilization of Pd. The in-situ reduction of the chelated Pd2+ into Pd0 in the interlayer space of MMT/PVP composite could be easily achieved. For the prepared Pd@MMT/PVP catalytic composite, a unique maze-like microstructure of Pd nanoparticles tightly encaged by PVP chains and by lamellae of layered silica has been detected by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Furthermore, the microstructure is well elucidated in molecular level by positron annihilation lifetime analysis of the Pd@MMT/PVP catalytic composite. The prepared Pd@MMT/PVP catalysts were highly active for the Heck coupling reactions between aromatic halides and alkenes, and could be recycled 9 times without significant decreases in coupling yields. The excellent comprehensive catalytic performances of the Pd@MMT/PVP catalytic composites are mainly attributed to their unique maze-like microstructure

Modification of Montmorillonite with Polyethylene Oxide and Its Use as Support for Pd⁰ Nanoparticle Catalysts

In this study, montmorillonite (MMT) was modified by intercalating polyethylene oxide (PEO) macromolecules between the interlayer spaces in an MMT-water suspension system. X-ray diffraction results revealed that the galleries of MMT were expanded significantly after intercalation of different loading of PEO. MMT/PEO 80/20 composite was chosen as the support platform for immobilization of Pd species in preparing novel heterogeneous catalysts. After immobilization of Pd species, the interlayer spacing of MMT/PEO (80/20) (1.52 nm) was further increased to 1.72 nm (Pd2+@MMT/PEO) and 1.73 nm (Pd0@MMT/PEO), confirming the well-immobilization of the Pd species in the interlayer spaces of PEO-modified MMT. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) observation results confirmed that Pd nanoparticles were confined inside the interlayer space of MMT and/or dispersed well on the outer surface of MMT. The conversion of Pd2+ to Pd0 species was evidenced by binding energy characterization with X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS). The microstructure variation caused by the Pd immobilization was sensitively detected by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) studies. The prepared Pd0@MMT/PEO (0.2/80/20) catalytic composite exhibits good thermal stability up to around 200 °C, and it showed high activities for Heck reactions between aryl iodides and butyl acrylates and could be recycled for five times. The correlations between the microstructure and properties of the Pd@MMT/PEO catalytic composites were discussed

Response of endothelial cells to decellularized extracellular matrix deposited by bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the behavior and function of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) on decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) deposited by bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). METHODS: Prepared through chemical approach, decellularized ECM was characterized by use of immunofluorescence staining. The morphology, attachment, proliferation and migration of HUVECs cultured on six-well tissue culture plastic (TCP) and decellularized ECM were investigated. RESULTS: Decellularized ECM was successfully prepared without three-dimensional architecture disruption. This biological scaffold is similar to nature vascular ECM, preserved various matrix proteins such as type I collagen, type III collagen and fibronection. HUVECs on decellularized ECM showed well attachment and regular arrangement. Decellularized ECM could also significantly enhance the migration and proliferation potential of HUVECs in contrast to TCP. CONCLUSION: Deposited by BMSCs, ECM can affect the behavior of endothelial cell and could be used as a promising material in tissue engineering