[Expert knowledge-based strategies for ventilator parameter setting and stepless adaptive adjustment].

The setting and adjustment of ventilator parameters need to rely on a large amount of clinical data and rich experience. This paper explored the problem of difficult decision-making of ventilator parameters due to the time-varying and sudden changes of clinical patient's state, and proposed an expert knowledge-based strategies for ventilator parameter setting and stepless adaptive adjustment based on fuzzy control rule and neural network. Based on the method and the real-time physiological state of clinical patients, we generated a mechanical ventilation decision-making solution set with continuity and smoothness, and automatically provided explicit parameter adjustment suggestions to medical personnel. This method can solve the problems of low control precision and poor dynamic quality of the ventilator's stepwise adjustment, handle multi-input control decision problems more rationally, and improve ventilation comfort for patients.

Chemical composition analysis of pomegranate seeds based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Pomegranate fruit has shown a variety of pharmacological effects, however, the bioactive constituents in pomegranate seeds have not been fully identified. To this end, the chemical compositions of pomegranate seeds were analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled with quadrupole-Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (Q-Orbitrap HRMS). Prior to analysis, pomegranate seed samples were treated by ultrasonic/microwave-assisted extraction (UMAE). A total of 88 chemical compounds were tentatively identified based on accurate-mass measurements for precursor and fragment ions, including flavonoids, coumarins, phenolic acids, amino acids, and nucleosides. Their mass spectrometric fragmentation pathways were investigated. The study has revealed the nutritional value of pomegranate seeds, paving the way for future further applications of pomegranate seeds in nutrition and health care industry.

Determination of aucubin by supramolecular solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and UPLC-MS/MS: Application to a pharmacokinetic study in rats with type 1 diabetes.

A novel method was developed for the determination of aucubin in rat serum by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) with supramolecular solvent (SUPRAS)-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME). The SUPRAS was prepared with pentanol as extraction solvent and tetrahydrofuran as dispersing agent. Based on single factor test and response surface methodology, critical parameters were optimized as: 1 mL of pentanol as extraction solvent, 4 mL of tetrahydrofuran as dispersing agent, 200 µL of SUPRAS, and vortex duration of 2.5 min. The established method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recovery, stability, and applied to a pharmacokinetic study on type 1 diabetes model rats intraperitoneally administered with aucubin. The experimental results showed that the maximum concentration in serum (Cmax) and area under the serum concentration versus time curve (AUC) of aucubin in type 1 diabetic rats were higher than those in normal rats. Such pharmacokinetic alterations might presumably result from the pathological state of type 1 diabetes. The current study may provide scientific evidence and inspiring insights for clinical application of aucubin for the treatment of diabetes.

[Research progress in sample pretreatment and analytical techniques for cosmetics].

With the continuous economic development and improvement of living standards, cosmetic products are being widely used as daily consumer products, and there are increasing concerns about their safety. Consequently, there is a substantial increase in the number of cosmetic samples subjected to various analyses, and this in turn necessitates more stringent requirements for the related analytical techniques. However, traditional sample pretreatment and analytical techniques are time-consuming, require large amounts of organic solvents, and have low throughput, thus failing to meet the current demand for green analytical chemistry. To address this issue, researchers have developed numerous environmentally friendly pretreatment techniques as well as high-throughput and rapid on-site methods to ensure the quality and safety of cosmetics. This paper reviews the current progress in sample pretreatment and analytical techniques for cosmetics and discusses the trends and prospects, which may provide technical guidance for researchers and inspectors in the analysis of cosmetic products.

Nanomedicines for Near-Infrared Fluorescent Lifetime-Based Bioimaging.

Nanomedicines refer to the application of nanotechnology in disease diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. Bioimaging provides crucial biological information for disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Fluorescent bioimaging shows the advantages of good contrast and a vast variety of signal readouts and yet suffers from imaging depth due to the background noise from the autofluorescence of tissue and light scattering. Near-infrared fluorescent lifetime bioimaging (NIR- FLTB) suppresses such background noises and significantly improves signal-to-background ratio. This article gives an overview of recent advances in NIR- FLTB using organic compounds and nanomaterials as contrast agent (CA). The advantages and disadvantages of each CA are discussed in detail. We survey relevant reports about NIR-FLTB in recent years and summarize important findings or progresses. In addition, emerging hybrid bioimaging techniques are introduced, such as ultrasound-modulated FLTB. The challenges and an outlook for NIR- FLTB development are discussed at the end, aiming to provide references and inspire new ideas for future nanomedicine development.

[Determination of six allergenic coumarin compounds in children's toys using hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry].

A comprehensive analytical method was developed for the determination of six allergenic coumarin compounds (coumarin, 7-methyl coumarin, 7-methoxycoumarin, 7-ethoxy-4-methyl coumarin, 4,6-dimethyl-8-tert-butyl coumarin and hexahydrocoumarin) in children's toys based on hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). HF-LPME was employed in sample pretreatment with the following parameters:extraction solvent of n-octanol, stirring rate of 700 r/min, extraction time of 50 min and amount of sodium chloride of 0.7 g. After chromatographic separation on an ACQUITY UPLC BEH Phenyl column (150 mm×2.1 mm, 1.7 µm), the target compounds were analyzed under multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode in positive electrospray ionization mode. The limits of quantification (LOQs) of the six allergenic coumarin compounds were either 2 µg/kg (7-ethoxy-4-methyl coumarin and 4,6-dimethyl-8-tert-butyl coumarin) or 10 µg/kg (coumarin, hexahydrocoumarin, 7-methyl coumarin and 7-methoxycoumarin). The average recoveries at different spiked levels ranged from 70.8% to 118.9% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.19%-16.34% (n=6). The proposed method is accurate, sensitive, reliable, and can be applied for the inspection and quality control of toy products.