Automatic grading evaluation of winter wheat lodging based on deep learning.

Lodging is a crucial factor that limits wheat yield and quality in wheat breeding. Therefore, accurate and timely determination of winter wheat lodging grading is of great practical importance for agricultural insurance companies to assess agricultural losses and good seed selection. However, using artificial fields to investigate the inclination angle and lodging area of winter wheat lodging in actual production is time-consuming, laborious, subjective, and unreliable in measuring results. This study addresses these issues by designing a classification-semantic segmentation multitasking neural network model MLP_U-Net, which can accurately estimate the inclination angle and lodging area of winter wheat lodging. This model can also comprehensively, qualitatively, and quantitatively evaluate the grading of winter wheat lodging. The model is based on U-Net architecture and improves the shift MLP module structure to achieve network refinement and segmentation for complex tasks. The model utilizes a common encoder to enhance its robustness, improve classification accuracy, and strengthen the segmentation network, considering the correlation between lodging degree and lodging area parameters. This study used 82 winter wheat varieties sourced from the regional experiment of national winter wheat in the Huang-Huai-Hai southern area of the water land group at the Henan Modern Agriculture Research and Development Base. The base is located in Xinxiang City, Henan Province. Winter wheat lodging images were collected using the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing platform. Based on these images, winter wheat lodging datasets were created using different time sequences and different UAV flight heights. These datasets aid in segmenting and classifying winter wheat lodging degrees and areas. The results show that MLP_U-Net has demonstrated superior detection performance in a small sample dataset. The accuracies of winter wheat lodging degree and lodging area grading were 96.1% and 92.2%, respectively, when the UAV flight height was 30 m. For a UAV flight height of 50 m, the accuracies of winter wheat lodging degree and lodging area grading were 84.1% and 84.7%, respectively. These findings indicate that MLP_U-Net is highly robust and efficient in accurately completing the winter wheat lodging-grading task. This valuable insight provides technical references for UAV remote sensing of winter wheat disaster severity and the assessment of losses.

Toward Robust Graph Semi-Supervised Learning Against Extreme Data Scarcity.

The success of graph neural networks (GNNs) in graph-based web mining highly relies on abundant human-annotated data, which is laborious to obtain in practice. When only a few labeled nodes are available, how to improve their robustness is key to achieving replicable and sustainable graph semi-supervised learning. Though self-training is powerful for semi-supervised learning, its application on graph-structured data may fail because 1) larger receptive fields are not leveraged to capture long-range node interactions, which exacerbates the difficulty of propagating feature-label patterns from labeled nodes to unlabeled nodes and 2) limited labeled data makes it challenging to learn well-separated decision boundaries for different node classes without explicitly capturing the underlying semantic structure. To address the challenges of capturing informative structural and semantic knowledge, we propose a new graph data augmentation framework, augmented graph self-training (AGST), which is built with two new (i.e., structural and semantic) augmentation modules on top of a decoupled GST backbone. In this work, we investigate whether this novel framework can learn a robust graph predictive model under the low-data context. We conduct comprehensive evaluations on semi-supervised node classification under different scenarios of limited labeled-node data. The experimental results demonstrate the unique contributions of the novel data augmentation framework for node classification with few labeled data.

Role of Crosstalk between Glial Cells and Immune Cells in Blood-Brain Barrier Damage and Protection after Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage is the main pathological basis for acute ischemic stroke (AIS)-induced cerebral vasogenic edema and hemorrhagic transformation (HT). Glial cells, including microglia, astrocytes, and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs)/oligodendrocytes (OLs) play critical roles in BBB damage and protection. Recent evidence indicates that immune cells also have an important role in BBB damage, vasogenic edema and HT. Therefore, regulating the crosstalk between glial cells and immune cells would hold the promise to alleviate AIS-induced BBB damage. In this review, we first introduce the roles of glia cells, pericytes, and crosstalk between glial cells in the damage and protection of BBB after AIS, emphasizing the polarization, inflammatory response and crosstalk between microglia, astrocytes, and other glia cells. We then describe the role of glial cell-derived exosomes in the damage and protection of BBB after AIS. Next, we specifically discuss the crosstalk between glial cells and immune cells after AIS. Finally, we propose that glial cells could be a potential target for alleviating BBB damage after AIS and we discuss some molecular targets and potential strategies to alleviate BBB damage by regulating glial cells after AIS.

Antiferromagnetic Spin Fluctuations and Unconventional Superconductivity in Topological Superconductor Candidate YPtBi Revealed by

We report ^{195}Pt nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on topological superconductor candidate YPtBi, which has broken inversion symmetry and topological nontrivial band structures due to the strong spin-orbit coupling. In the normal state, we find that Knight shift K is field- and temperature independent, suggesting that the contribution from the topological bands is very small at low temperatures. However, the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T_{1} divided by temperature (T), 1/T_{1}T, increases with decreasing T, implying the existence of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations. In the superconducting state, no Hebel-Slichter coherence peak is seen below T_{c} and 1/T_{1} follows T^{3} variation, indicating the unconventional superconductivity. The finite spin susceptibility at zero-temperature limit and the anomalous increase of the NMR linewidth below T_{c} point to a mixed state of spin-singlet and spin-triplet (or spin-septet) pairing.

Excitatory somatostatin interneurons in the dentate gyrus drive a widespread seizure network in cortical dysplasia.

Seizures due to cortical dysplasia are notorious for their poor prognosis even with medications and surgery, likely due to the widespread seizure network. Previous studies have primarily focused on the disruption of dysplastic lesions, rather than remote regions such as the hippocampus. Here, we first quantified the epileptogenicity of the hippocampus in patients with late-stage cortical dysplasia. We further investigated the cellular substrates leading to the epileptic hippocampus, using multiscale tools including calcium imaging, optogenetics, immunohistochemistry and electrophysiology. For the first time, we revealed the role of hippocampal somatostatin-positive interneurons in cortical dysplasia-related seizures. Somatostatin-positive were recruited during cortical dysplasia-related seizures. Interestingly, optogenetic studies suggested that somatostatin-positive interneurons paradoxically facilitated seizure generalization. By contrast, parvalbumin-positive interneurons retained an inhibitory role as in controls. Electrophysiological recordings and immunohistochemical studies revealed glutamate-mediated excitatory transmission from somatostatin-positive interneurons in the dentate gyrus. Taken together, our study reveals a novel role of excitatory somatostatin-positive neurons in the seizure network and brings new insights into the cellular basis of cortical dysplasia.

Adaptive CFAR Method for SAR Ship Detection Using Intensity and Texture Feature Fusion Attention Contrast Mechanism.

Due to the complexity of sea surface environments, such as speckles and side lobes of ships, ship wake, etc., the detection of ship targets in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is still confronted with enormous challenges, especially for small ship targets. Aiming at the key problem of ship target detection in the complex environments, the article proposes a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) algorithm for SAR ship target detection based on the attention contrast mechanism of intensity and texture feature fusion. First of all, the local feature attention contrast enhancement is performed based on the intensity dissimilarity and the texture feature difference described by local binary pattern (LBP) between ship targets and sea clutter, so as to realize the target enhancement and background suppression. Furthermore, the adaptive CFAR ship target detection method based on generalized Gamma distribution (GΓD) which can fit the clutter well by the goodness-of-fit analyses is carried out. Finally, the public datasets HRSID and LS-SSDD-v1.0 are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed detection method. A large number of experimental results show that the proposed method can suppress clutter background and speckle noise and improve the target-to-clutter rate (TCR) significantly, and has the relative high detection rate and low false alarm rate in the complex background and multi-target marine environments.

Detection method of wheat spike improved YOLOv5s based on the attention mechanism.

In wheat breeding, spike number is a key indicator for evaluating wheat yield, and the timely and accurate acquisition of wheat spike number is of great practical significance for yield prediction. In actual production; the method of using an artificial field survey to count wheat spikes is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, this paper proposes a method based on YOLOv5s with an improved attention mechanism, which can accurately detect the number of small-scale wheat spikes and better solve the problems of occlusion and cross-overlapping of the wheat spikes. This method introduces an efficient channel attention module (ECA) in the C3 module of the backbone structure of the YOLOv5s network model; at the same time, the global attention mechanism module (GAM) is inserted between the neck structure and the head structure; the attention mechanism can be more Effectively extract feature information and suppress useless information. The result shows that the accuracy of the improved YOLOv5s model reached 71.61% in the task of wheat spike number, which was 4.95% higher than that of the standard YOLOv5s model and had higher counting accuracy. The improved YOLOv5s and YOLOv5m have similar parameters, while RMSE and MEA are reduced by 7.62 and 6.47, respectively, and the performance is better than YOLOv5l. Therefore, the improved YOLOv5s method improves its applicability in complex field environments and provides a technical reference for the automatic identification of wheat spike numbers and yield estimation. Labeled images, source code, and trained models are available at: https://github.com/228384274/improved-yolov5.

[Treatment of femoral head replacement in elderly patients with femoral neck fracture complicated with uremia].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the treatment method and effect of artificial femoral head replacement for elderly patients with femoral neck fracture complicated with uremia. METHODS: From January 2016 to December 2020, 21 elderly patients with femoral neck fracture complicated with uremia were treated with artificial femoral head replacement. There were 3 males and 18 females, aged 65 to 83 years old with an average of (77.2±1.9) years. All patients were complicated with uremia and required long-term maintenance of hemodialysis. The age of dialysis was 2 to 11 years with an average of (6.3±1.6) years, 2 to 3 times per week. The time from injury to admission to operation was 3 to 7 days with an average of (4.0±2.1) days. The anemia and hypoproteinemia of the patients were corrected preoperatively, and the serum potassium and creatinine indexes of the patients were adjusted by hemodialysis. RESULTS: All the incisions were healed in the first stage, and there were no complications of wound infection, prosthesis loosening, dislocation and deep vein thrombosis. All patients resumed routine hemodialysis in time to maintain the stability of serum creatinine and potassium levels. All 21 patients were followed up for 5 to 23 months with an average of (16.8±2.6) months. Harris scores changed from (24.8±2.5) scores preoperatively to (87.2±3.1) scores postoperatively. CONCLUSION: Elderly patients with femoral neck fracture combined with uremia underwent artificial femoral head replacement surgery, as long as the perioperative treatment is appropriate, with active postoperative rehabilitation treatment, can obtain a good clinical effect.

Modulation of α7nAchR by Melatonin Alleviates Ischemia and Reperfusion-Compromised Integrity of Blood-Brain Barrier Through Inhibiting HMGB1-Mediated Microglia Activation and CRTC1-Mediated Neuronal Loss.

The only food and drug administration (FDA)-approved drug currently available for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke is tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), yet the therapeutic benefits of this drug are partially outweighed by the increased risk of hemorrhagic transformation (HT). Analysis of the NIH trial has shown that cigarette smoking protected tPA-treated patients from HT; however, the underlying mechanism is not clear. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) has shown anti-inflammatory effect and modulation nAChR could be a strategy to reduce ischemia/reperfusion-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage. Since melatonin could regulate the expression of α7nAchR and melatonin's neuroprotective effect against ischemic injury is mediated via α7nAChR modulation, here, we aim to test the hypothesis that melatonin reduces ischemia and reperfusion (I/R)-induced BBB damage through modulation of α7nACh receptor (α7nAChR). Mice were subjected to 1.5 h ischemia and 24 h reperfusion and at the onset of reperfusion, mice received intraperitoneal administration (i.p.) of either drug or saline. Mice were randomly assigned into five groups: Saline; α7nAChR agonist PNU282987; Melatonin; Melatonin+Methyllycaconitine (MLA, α7nAChR antagonist), and MLA group. BBB permeability was assessed by detecting the extravasation of Evan's blue and IgG. Our results showed that I/R significantly increased BBB permeability accompanied by occludin degradation, microglia activation, and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) release from the neuron. In addition, I/R significantly induced neuronal loss accompanied by the decrease of CREB-regulated transcriptional coactivator 1 (CRTC1) and p-CREB expression. Melatonin treatment significantly inhibited the above changes through modulating α7nAChR. Taken together, these results demonstrate that melatonin provides a protective effect on ischemia/reperfusion-induced BBB damage, at least in part, depending on the modulation of α7nAChR.

The quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials of HuatuoZaizao pill for stroke.

Background: HuatuoZaizao pill (HZP), a Chinese patent medicine, is often used in the treatment of stroke. However, there is still a lack of enough evidence to recommend the routine use of HZP for stroke. This study is aimed at evaluating the quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on HZP for stroke. Methods: RCTs on HuatuoZaizao pill for stroke were evaluated by using Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines and CONSORT extension criteria on reporting herbal interventions (CONSORT-CHM) guidelines. Microsoft Excel 2007 and SPSS20.0 was used for statistics analyses. Results: Seventeen studies involving 1801 stroke patients were identified. CONSORT-CHM has expanded 24.3% (9/37) items in CONSORT and added a small item. The average scores of CONSORT evaluation is 14.6, while the average scores of the CONSORT-CHM evaluation is 11.6. The central items in CONSORT as eligibility criterion, sample size calculation, primary outcome, method of randomization sequence generation, allocation concealment, implementation of randomization, description of blinding, and detailed statistical methods were reported in 77%, 6%, 100%, 47%, 6%, 6%, 6%, and 94% of trials, respectively. In terms of the CONSORT-CHM, none of the articles reported in detail the dosage form, origin, formula basis and so on of HZP, and only half of studies reported the outcome indicators related to Traditional Chinese Medicine syndromes. Conclusion: The overall report quality of RCT related to HZP is low. HZP still needs to report higher quality RCTs to prove its effectiveness and safety.

Buyang Huanwu Decoction Enhances Revascularization via Akt/GSK3ß/NRF2 Pathway in Diabetic Hindlimb Ischemia.

BACKGROUND: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a typical disease of atherosclerosis, most commonly influencing the lower extremities. In patients with PAD, revascularization remains a preferred treatment strategy. Buyang Huanwu decoction (BHD) is a popular Chinese herbal prescription which has showed effects of cardiovascular protection through conducting antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and anti-inflammatory effects. Here, we intend to study the effect of BHD on promoting revascularization via the Akt/GSK3ß/NRF2 pathway in diabetic hindlimb ischemia (HLI) model of mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All db/db mice (n = 60) were randomly divided into 6 groups by table of random number. (1) Sham group (N = 10): 7-0 suture thread passed through the underneath of the femoral artery and vein without occlusion. The remaining 5 groups were treated differently on the basis of the HLI (the femoral artery and vein from the inguinal ligament to the knee joint were transected and the vascular stump was ligated with 7-0 silk sutures) model: (2) HLI+NS group (N = 15): 0.2 ml NS was gavaged daily for 3 days before modeling and 14 days after occlusion; (3) HLI+BHD group (N = 15): 0.2 ml BHD (20 g/kg/day) was gavaged daily for 3 days before modeling and 14 days after occlusion; (4) HLI+BHD+sh-NC group (N = 8): local injection of adenovirus vector carrying the nonsense shRNA (Ad-GFP) in the hindlimbs of mice before treatment; (5) HLI+BHD+sh-NRF2 group (N = 8): knockdown of NRF2 in the hindlimbs of mice by local intramuscular injection of adenovirus vector carrying NRF2 shRNA (Ad-NRF2-shRNA) before treatment; and (6) HLI+BHD+LY294002 group (N = 4): intravenous injection of LY294002 (1.5 mg/kg) once a day for 14 days on the basis of the HLI+BHD group. Laser Doppler examination, vascular cast, and immunofluorescence staining were applied to detect the revascularization of lower limbs in mice. Western blot analysis was used to detect the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin-1beta (IL-1ß), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) α, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), NAD(P)H dehydrogenase quinone-1 (NQO-1), catalase (CAT), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), phosphorylated protein kinase B (p-AKT), and phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (p-GSK3ß). HE staining was used to assess the level of muscle tissue damage and inflammation in the lower extremities. Local multipoint injection of Ad-NRF2-shRNA was used to knock down NRF2, and qPCR was applied to detect the mRNA level of NRF2. The blood glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, MDA, and SOD levels of mice were tested using corresponding kits. The SPSS 20.0 software and GraphPad Prism 6.05 were used to do all statistics. Values of P < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Results and Conclusions. BHD could enhance the revascularization of lower limbs in HLI mice, while BHD has no effect on blood glucose and lipid level in db/db mice (P > 0.05). BHD could elevate the protein expression of VEGF, HO-1, NQO-1, and CAT (P < 0.05) and decrease the expression of IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α (P < 0.05) in HLI mice. Meanwhile, BHD could activate NRF2 and promote the phosphorylation of AKT/GSK3ß during revascularization (P < 0.05). In contrast, knockdown of NRF2 impaired the protective effects of BHD on HLI (P < 0.05). LY294002 inhibited the upregulation of NRF2 activated by BHD through inhibiting the phosphorylation of the AKT/GSK3ß pathway (P < 0.05). The present study demonstrated that BHD could promote revascularization on db/db mice with HLI through targeting antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and angiogenesis via the AKT/GSK3ß/NRF2 pathway.

Spin-triplet superconductivity in K2Cr3As3.

A spin-triplet superconductor can harbor Majorana bound states that can be used in topological quantum computing. Recently, K2Cr3As3 and its variants with critical temperature Tc as high as 8 kelvin have emerged as a new class of superconductors with ferromagnetic spin fluctuations. Here, we report a discovery in K2Cr3As3 single crystal that the spin susceptibility measured by 75As Knight shift below Tc is unchanged with the magnetic field H0 applied in the ab plane but vanishes toward zero temperature when H0 is along the c axis, which unambiguously establishes this compound as a spin-triplet superconductor described by a vector order parameter d→ parallel to the c axis. Combining with point nodal gap, we show that K2Cr3As3 is a new platform for the study of topological superconductivity and its possible technical application.

Stem Cell-Based Therapy for Experimental Ischemic Stroke: A Preclinical Systematic Review.

Stem cell transplantation offers promise in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Here we utilized systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression to study the biological effect of stem cell treatments in animal models of ischemic stroke. A total of 98 eligible publications were included by searching PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science from inception to August 1, 2020. There are about 141 comparisons, involving 5,200 animals, that examined the effect of stem cell transplantation on neurological function and infarct volume as primary outcome measures in animal models for stroke. Stem cell-based therapy can improve both neurological function (effect size, -3.37; 95% confidence interval, -3.83 to -2.90) and infarct volume (effect size, -11.37; 95% confidence interval, -12.89 to -9.85) compared with controls. These results suggest that stem cell therapy could improve neurological function deficits and infarct volume, exerting potential neuroprotective effect for experimental ischemic stroke, but further clinical studies are still needed.

Age-related trabecular bone loss is associated with a decline in serum Galectin-1 level.

BACKGROUND: Senile osteoporosis with age-related bone loss is diagnosed depending on radiographic changes of bone and bone mineral density (BMD) measurement. However, radiographic alterations are usually signs of medium-late stage osteoporosis. Therefore, biomarkers have been proposed as indicators of bone loss. In the current study, Galectin-1 (Gal-1) showed age-related decline in mice serum. The role of Gal-1 in osteoporosis has not been investigated so far. Hence, the current study illustrated the relationship of serum Gal-1 level with bone loss. METHODS: We employed 6- and 18-month-old mice to establish an animal model of age-related trabecular bone loss, whose bone density and microstructure were investigated by micro-CT. ELISA was used to measure the levels of Gal-1 in serum. The correlation analysis was performed to illustrate the relationship between serum Gal-1 levels and trabecular bone loss. In addition, immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the abundance of Gal-1 in bone marrow of mice. ELISA and western blot were performed to measure the secretion ability and protein expression of Gal-1 in bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC), hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and myeloid progenitor (MP) respectively. Flow cytometry was used to measure BMSC number in bone marrow. Finally, male volunteers with age-related BMD decrease were recruited and the relationship between serum Gal-1 and BMD was analyzed. RESULTS: Gal-1 showed age-related decline in mice serum. Serum Gal-1 was positively associated with BV/TV of femur, tibia and L1 vertebrae in mice. BMSC secreted more Gal-1 compared with HSC and MP. BMSC number in bone marrow was significantly lower in aged mice compared with young mice. Significant attenuation of Gal-1 protein expression was observed in BMSC and HSC from aged mice compared with young mice. Further, we found a decline in serum Gal-1 levels in men with age-related BMD decrease. There was positive correlation between BMD and serum Gal-1 levels in these men. CONCLUSIONS: Age-related trabecular bone loss is associated with a decline in serum Gal-1 level in mice and men. Our study suggested Gal-1 had great potential to be a biomarker for discovering BMSC senescence, diagnosing early osteoporosis and monitoring trabecular bone loss.

Neuroprotective Effect of Astragaloside IV on Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury Rats Through Sirt1/Mapt Pathway.

Background: Ischemic stroke is a common disease with poor prognosis, which has become one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is the main bioactive ingredient of Astragali Radix (which has been used for ischemic stroke for thousands of years) and has been found to have multiple bioactivities in the nervous system. In the present study, we aimed to explore the neuroprotective effects of AS-IV in rats with cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (CIR) injury targeting the Sirt1/Mapt pathway. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats (male, 250-280 g) were randomly divided into the Sham group, middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) group, AS-IV group, MCAO/R + EX527 (SIRT1-specific inhibitor) group, and AS-IV + EX527 group. Each group was further assigned into several subgroups according to ischemic time (6 h, 1 d, 3 d, and 7 days). The CIR injury was induced in MCAO/R group, AS-IV group, MCAO/R + EX527 group, and AS-IV + EX527 group by MCAO surgery in accordance with the modified Zea Longa criteria. Modified Neurological Severity Scores (mNSS) were used to evaluate the neurological deficits; TTC (2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride) staining was used to detect cerebral infarction area; Western Blot was used to assess the protein levels of SIRT1, acetylated MAPT (ac-MAPT), phosphorylated MAPT (p-MAPT), and total MAPT (t-MAPT); Real-time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) was used in the detection of Sirt1 and Mapt transcriptions. Results: Compared with the MCAO/R group, AS-IV can significantly improve the neurological dysfunction (p < 0.05), reduce the infarction area (p < 0.05), raise the expression of SIRT1 (p < 0.05), and alleviate the abnormal hyperacetylation and hyperphosphorylation of MAPT (p < 0.05). While compared with the AS-IV group, AS-IV + EX527 group showed higher mNSS scores (p < 0.05), more severe cerebral infarction (p < 0.05), lower SIRT1 expression (p < 0.01), and higher ac-MAPT and p-MAPT levels (p < 0.05). Conclusion: AS-IV can improve the neurological deficit after CIR injury in rats and reduce the cerebral infarction area, which exerts neuroprotective effects probably through the Sirt1/Mapt pathway.

Preclinical systematic review of ginsenoside Rg1 for cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease.

Ginseng has been used for the treatment of aging and memory impairment for thousands of years. Several studies have found that ginsenoside Rg1, as one of the main active components of ginseng, could potentially improve cognitive function in several different animal models. A preclinical systematic review to evaluate the efficacy and mechanisms of ginsenoside Rg1 for ameliorating cognitive impairments in Alzheimer's disease is reported here. We searched six databases from their inceptions to January 2019. Thirty-two studies were selected, which included a total of 1,643 animals. According to various cognitive behavioral tests, the results of the meta-analyses showed that ginsenoside Rg1 significantly improved cognitive behavioral impairments in most Alzheimer's disease models (P < 0.05), but there were no significant effects in animals with neuronal degeneration induced by chronic stress or in SAMP8 transgenic mice. The potential mechanisms included antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, amelioration of Alzheimer's disease-related pathology, synapse protection, and up-regulation of nerve cells via multiple signaling pathways.

History and Development of TCM Case Report in a Real-World Setting.

OBJECTIVE: The medical record of Chinese medicine is a miniature of the theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), with a time-honored history in a real-world setting and a firm place in medicine. In modern times, people have emphasized the value and standardization of TCM cases. The aim of this study was to explore the historical origins and developments of TCM case records. METHODS: A chronological narrative style was used to divide the development history of TCM case records into early (1600 BC-220 AD), middle (220-1911 AD), and modern periods (1912-till now). The historical context of the origin and development of TCM case records was analyzed through the evolution of the format and content of the case recording files with the specific documents and distinctive cases. RESULTS: From the early to middle period, the development of TCM case record had experienced four periods: the budding, blossoming, maturity, and heyday. In modern times, they presented the following characteristics: A, the establishment and development of the discipline of TCM medical records; B, the standardization of the writing format of TCM medical records; C, a large number of books concentrating on recording and studying TCM medical records, especially those of prestigious veteran TCM doctors; D, the proliferation of TCM case reports published in journals; E, the establishment of TCM medical records databases and application platforms integrating computer programs and artificial intelligence; F, many reporting guidelines have been developed in order to improve the reporting quality of case report in TCM. CONCLUSIONS: The study analyzed and illustrated the characteristics of TCM case records of different dynasties in terms of writing content and format. TCM case record is a relatively young discipline in spite of its ancient origins. TCM case records still have far-reaching significance for the inheritance and development of TCM theory and clinical experience. From the wisdom of history, its positive impact has just been revalued to be validated and it will continue to develop.

Clinical and Preclinical Systematic Review of Astragalus Membranaceus for Viral Myocarditis.

Astragalus membranaceus (AM) is a traditional Chinese medicine, which possesses a variety of biological activities in the cardiovascular systems. We conducted a clinical and preclinical systematic review of 28 randomized clinical control studies with 2522 participants and 16 animal studies with 634 animals to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and possible mechanisms of AM for viral myocarditis (VM). The search strategies were performed in 7 databases from inception to January 2020. Application of the Cochrane Collaboration's tool 7-item checklist, SYRCLE's tool 10-item checklist, and Rev-Man 5.3 software to analyze the risk of bias of studies and data. The results show the score of clinical study quality ranged from 3 to 7 points with an average of 3.32, and the score of animal study quality ranged from 2 to 5 points with an average of 3. In clinical study, AM significantly reduced serum myocardial enzymes and cardiac troponin I levels and improved the clinical treatment efficiency in VM patients compared with the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions (P > 0.05). Significant increase of the survival rate and decrease of the cardiac cardiology score, cardiac enzymes, and cardiac troponin I were compared with the placebo group in animal studies (P < 0.05). The possible mechanisms of AM are largely through antivirus and antivirus receptors, anti-inflammatory, antioxidation, antiapoptotic, antifibrosis, and reducing cardiac calcium load. In conclusion, the findings suggested that AM is a cardioprotection candidate drug for VM.

Extracts or Active Components from Acorus gramineus Aiton for Cognitive Function Impairment: Preclinical Evidence and Possible Mechanisms.

Extracts or active components from Acorus gramineus Aiton (EAAGA) have been clinically used for cognition impairment more than hundreds of years and are still used in modern times in China and elsewhere worldwide. Previous studies reported that EAAGA improves cognition impairment in animal models. Here, we conducted a preclinical systematic review to assess the current evidence of EAAGA for cognition impairment. We searched 7 databases up until June 2019. Methodological quality for each included studies was accessed according to the CAMARADES 10-item checklist. The primary outcome measures were neurobehavioral function scores evaluated by the Morris water maze test, electrical Y-maze test, step-down test, radial eight-arm maze test, and step-through test. The secondary outcome measures were mechanisms of EAAGA for cognition function. Finally, 34 studies involving 1431 animals were identified. The quality score of studies range from 1 to 6, and the median was 3.32. Compared with controls, the results of the meta-analysis indicated EAAGA exerted a significant effect in decreasing the escape latency and error times and in increasing the length of time spent in the platform quadrant and the number of platform crossings representing learning ability and memory function (all P < 0.01). The possible mechanisms of EAAGA are largely through anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiapoptosis activities, inhibition of neurotoxicity, regulating synaptic plasticity, protecting cerebrovascular, stimulating cholinergic system, and suppressing astrocyte activation. In conclusion, EAAGA exert potential neuroprotective effects in experimental cognition impairment, and EAAGA could be a candidate for cognition impairment treatment and further clinical trials.