Comparison of the Effects of Acarbose and TZQ-F, a New Kind of Traditional Chinese Medicine to Treat Diabetes, Chinese Healthy Volunteers

Ethnopharmacological Relevance. TZQ-F has been traditionally used in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a formula for the treatment of diabetes. Aim of the Study. This study aims to compare the pharmacologic effects and gastrointestinal adverse events between TZQ-F and acarbose. Methods. The double-blind randomized placebo-controlled fivefold crossover study was performed in 20 healthy male volunteers. Plasma glucose, plasma IRI, and plasma C-peptide were measured to assess the pharmacologic effects. Flatus and bowel activity were measured to assess the adverse event of gastrointestinal effect. Results. 3 and 4 tablets of TZQ decreased the Cmax of plasma glucose compared with that of the previous day and with placebo. 3 tablets also decreased Cmax of plasma C-peptide compared with placebo. 4 tablets increased Cmax of plasma insulin after breakfast and the AUC of plasma C-peptide after breakfast and dinner. 2 tablets did not decrease plasma glucose and elevated the Cmax and AUC of C-peptide after breakfast and dinner, respectively. Acarbose 50 mg decreased the Cmax of plasma insulin and C-peptide after breakfast and the Cmax of plasma glucose and C-peptide after dinner. The subjects who received TZQ did not report any abdominal adverse events. Conclusions. 3 tablets of TZQ have the same effects as the acarbose

Influence of diameter of empty hole on the fragmentation effect of parallel cut blasting under confining pressure

Cut blasting is the key technology for roadway blasting excavation. High confining pressure has obvious inhibition effect on cut blasting effect, while empty hole is of great significance to improve cut blasting efficiency, but the relevant research is not sufficient so far. To study the crushing effect of the cut blasting with different empty hole diameters under the confining pressure, cubic cement mortar test blocks whose side length was 600 mm were made with sand cement ratio of 2:1. The test blocks were subjected to equal bi-axial confining pressure through an electro-hydraulic servo loading system, and the parallel cut blasting cement mortar physical model test was carried out. After the blasting fragmentation was screened and statistically analyzed, the fragmentation distribution and average particle size of model fragments under different empty hole diameters were analyzed and investigated. With fractal features of fragments characterized by fractal dimension, the fragmentation degree was quantitatively analyzed. ANSYS/LS–DYNA software was used to establish numerical models based on the parameters of the test model, and the stress contour at different times with different hole diameters was analyzed. The research result shows that, when two empty holes are charged with different charge of 2 g and 3 g, respectively, the maximum fractal dimension of the model fragment can be attained with empty holes in diameter of 24 mm and 16 mm, respectively, with the particle size of the fragment mainly concentrated in the middle segment between 19 to 75 mm, and the largest total mass of the fragment is 3.128 kg and 3.615 kg, respectively; When the sizes of empty holes are different, the stress concentration effect and the reflected tensile wave produced near the empty hole are also different, which brings the difference of cut blasting fragmentation effect and can effectively benefit from the empty hole effect. The peak value and action range of stress wave near the empty hole are bigger, with a long action time, suggesting a better crushing effect; the diameter of the empty hole is too small, the stress around the empty hole is small. An oversized empty hole will lead to the overflow of the stress wave from the hole. The compressive stress is small after the superposition of stress concentration, and the action area of tensile stress is also small. The proportion of large rock pieces will be high with extremely large or small empty hole. When charged with 3 g, the fractal dimension difference between empty hole model fragments of 32 mm and 16 mm is greater than the difference of model fragments between 16 mm and without empty hole, indicating that the influence on the fragmentation of rock is greater when the empty hole diameter is too large. When the empty hole diameter is the same as 16 mm, the average particle size of the fragments in the model charged with 3 g is less than that in the model charged with 2 g, with the greater fractal dimension and total mass of the fragments than that in the test model charged with 2 g. This shows that an increased charge can contribute to rock fragmentation and the volume of the cut cavity with the same diameter of empty holes

Network pharmacology-based analysis of potential mechanisms of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury by total salvianolic acid injection

In this review, we investigated the potential mechanism of Total Salvianolic Acid Injection (TSI) in protecting against myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (MI/RI). To achieve this, we predicted the component targets of TSI using Pharmmapper and identified the disease targets of MI/RI through GeneCards, DisGenNET, and OMIM databases. We constructed protein-protein interaction networks by analyzing the overlapping targets and performed functional enrichment analyses using Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. Our analysis yielded 90 targets, which were implicated in the potential therapeutic effects of TSI on MI/RI. Seven critical signaling pathways significantly contributed to TSI’s protective effects, namely, PI3K signaling, JAK-STAT signaling, Calcium signaling, HIF-1 signaling, Nuclear receptor signaling, Cell Cycle, and Apoptosis. Subsequently, we conducted a comprehensive literature review of these seven key signaling pathways to gain further insights into their role in the TSI-mediated treatment of MI/RI. By establishing these connections, our study lays a solid foundation for future research endeavours to elucidate the molecular mechanisms through which TSI exerts its beneficial effects on MI/RI

An n-of-1 Trial Service in Clinical Practice: Testing the Effectiveness of Liuwei Dihuang Decoction for Kidney-Yin Deficiency Syndrome

Objective. To describe the clinical use of n-of-1 RCTs for kidney-Yin deficiency syndrome that is a traditional Chinese medicine syndrome in publicly clinical practice in China. Methods. Our study included patients with kidney-Yin deficiency syndrome, using a within-patient, randomized, double-blind, crossover comparison of Liuwei Dihuang decoction versus placebo. Outcome Measures. Primary outcome measures included number of individual completion rates, response rate, and post-n-of-1 RCTs decisions. Secondary measures were the whole group score of individual Likert scale, SF-36 questionnaire. Results. Fifty patients were recruited and 3 were not completed. Forty-seven patients completed 3 pairs of periods, 3 (6.38%) were responders, 28 (59.57%) were nonresponders, and 16 (34.05%) were possible responders. Doctors and patients used the trial results to making decision. Three responders stayed on the medication management, 28 nonresponders ceased the LDD, 7 patients of the 16 possible responders could not give clear decision, and the others kept the same medication station. Among the whole group, neither the individual Likert score nor the SF-36 showed any statistical differences between LDD and placebo. Discussion. More attention should be paid to choose experienced TCM doctor as investigator and keep the simulant same with test medication in n-of-1 RCTs of TCM and sufficiently biological half-life period of Chinese medicine compound

Study on the evaluation of the clinical effects of traditional chinese medicine in heart failure by complex intervention: protocol of SECETCM-HF

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Experts in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have studied the TCM subject of the pathogenesis of heart failure (HF) for several decades. As a result, the general idea is <it>ben </it>deficiency and <it>biao </it>excess. However, the clinical evaluation system which combined the TCM and western medicine in HF has not been developed yet. The objective is to establish the evaluation index system for the integration of TCM and western medicine. The evaluation indexes which include TCM items will specify the research design and methods.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Nine medical centers in different cities in China will participate in the trial. A population of 340 patients with HF will be enrolled through a central randomized system for different test groups. Group A will be treated with only western medicine, while group B with western and Chinese medicine together. The study will last for 12 months from the date of enrollment. The cardiovascular death will be the primary outcome.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>By putting the protocol into practice, the clinical effects of TCM for HF will be identified scientifically, objectively as well as rationally. The proper index system which built in the study will be helpful for the clinical effect expression of HF by integrated medicine in future.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ChiCTR-TRC-00000059</p

Electric field control of deterministic current-induced magnetization switching in a hybrid ferromagnetic/ferroelectric structure

All-electrical and programmable manipulations of ferromagnetic bits are highly pursued for the aim of high integration and low energy consumption in modern information technology1, 2, 3. Methods based on the spin–orbit torque switching4, 5, 6 in heavy metal/ferromagnet structures have been proposed with magnetic field7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and are heading toward deterministic switching without external magnetic field16, 17. Here we demonstrate that an in-plane effective magnetic field can be induced by an electric field without breaking the symmetry of the structure of the thin film, and realize the deterministic magnetization switching in a hybrid ferromagnetic/ferroelectric structure with Pt/Co/Ni/Co/Pt layers on PMN-PT substrate. The effective magnetic field can be reversed by changing the direction of the applied electric field on the PMN-PT substrate, which fully replaces the controllability function of the external magnetic field. The electric field is found to generate an additional spin–orbit torque on the CoNiCo magnets, which is confirmed by macrospin calculations and micromagnetic simulations

The characteristic parameters of initiating defects in HfO

The characteristic parameters of initiating defects in HfO2/SiO2 high-reflector film at wavelength of 1064 nm are investigated through the combined application of laser-conditioning process and the multispot damage threshold test. The laser damage tests before and after laser-conditioning are carried out within three different spot diameters. The damage threshold and the density are considered to characterize the initiating defects which are shown to be susceptible to laser damage. These characteristic parameters are obtained through fitting the damage data with the spot size effect. The influence of laser-conditioning effect on the initiating defects is analyzed. The initiating defects are specified by a Gaussian distribution after laser-conditioning. It is discussed the essential roles of the initiating defects to the damage threshold of the film. The investigation on characteristic parameters of initiating defects has potential to be applied in the mechanisms of laser induced damage and laser-conditioning, as well as in the direction the preparation of the films