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This study examines the long-term effect of a pandemic on a crucial human capital decision, namely college major choice. Using China's 2008-2016 major-level National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) entry grades, we find that the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had a substantial deterrent effect on the choice of majoring in medicine among high school graduates who experienced the pandemic in their childhood. In provinces with larger intensities of SARS impact, medical majors become less popular as the average Gaokao grades of enrolled students decline. Further evidence from a nationally representative survey shows that the intensity of the SARS impact significantly decreases children's aspirations to pursue medical occupations, but does not affect their parents' expectations for their children to enter the medical profession. Our discussion on the effect mechanism suggests that the adverse influence of SARS on the popularity of medical majors likely originates from students' childhood experiences., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Inclusion has been increasingly recognised as a global common goal in education. In China, inclusive education for children with special educational needs and disabilities is currently practised as 'Learning in Regular Classrooms' (LRC). However, not only has the inclusion policy frequently been criticised as failing to provide clear, systematic, or consistent strategies, but also the actual practices of LRC have also been found to merely concern children's physical integration into the mainstream settings. This discussion paper explores key structural barriers to inclusive education through reviewing policies within the wider education ecosystem that are relevant to the theme of inclusion but outside the LRC policy itself. The analysis illustrates how the complex and interlocked structural barriers embedded within the wider context of current education policies pose persisting constraints for inclusion to progress in China, and how these structural barriers unique to the Chinese education system also reflect the common 'wicked problems' for practising inclusive education globally. The paper discusses five main education structures: neo-liberal education policies, national college entrance examination system, teacher evaluation system, staffing quota system and the 'combine medicine and education' policy. The conclusion illustrates the complexity and main issues facing future inclusion policy reforms and highlights key objectives for policy change. It indicates that, for inclusion reforms to be effective, broader changes are needed within the wider education ecosystem.

Introduction: The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) chat programs has opened two distinct paths, one enhancing interaction and another potentially replacing personal understanding. Ethical and legal concerns arise due to the rapid development of these programs. This paper investigates academic discussions on AI in medicine, analyzing the context, frequency, and reasons behind these conversations. Methods: The study collected data from the Web of Science database on articles containing the keyword "ChatGPT" published from January to September 2023, resulting in 786 medically related journal articles. The inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles in English related to medicine. Results: The United States led in publications (38.1%), followed by India (15.5%) and China (7.0%). Keywords such as "patient" (16.7%), "research" (12%), and "performance" (10.6%) were prevalent. The Cureus Journal of Medical Science (11.8%) had the most publications, followed by the Annals of Biomedical Engineering (8.3%). August 2023 had the highest number of publications (29.3%), with significant growth between February to March and April to May. Medical General Internal (21.0%) was the most common category, followed by Surgery (15.4%) and Radiology (7.9%). Discussion: The prominence of India in ChatGPT research, despite lower research funding, indicates the platform's popularity and highlights the importance of monitoring its use for potential medical misinformation. China's interest in ChatGPT research suggests a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP) AI applications, despite public bans on the platform. Cureus' success in publishing ChatGPT articles can be attributed to its open-access, rapid publication model. The study identifies research trends in plastic surgery, radiology, and obstetric gynecology, emphasizing the need for ethical considerations and reliability assessments in the application of ChatGPT in medical practice. Conclusion: ChatGPT's presence in medical literature is growing rapidly across various specialties, but concerns related to safety, privacy, and accuracy persist. More research is needed to assess its suitability for patient care and implications for non-medical use. Skepticism and thorough review of research are essential, as current studies may face retraction as more information emerges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Imperially Commissioned Golden Mirror of the Orthodox Lineage of Medicine (Yuzuan yizong jinjian 御纂醫宗金鑑), first printed in 1742, was one of the most important and widely circulating works on medicine in late imperial China. This paper analyzes a group of twenty-three medical manuscripts from the nineteenth and early twentieth century that include parts of the Golden Mirror. The findings suggest that most of the manuscripts should not be considered mere copies, but as deliberate selections. They served didactic as well as epistemic functions that differ from, or go beyond, those that could be fulfilled by the printed Golden Mirror (or a faithful manuscript copy alone). This is indicated not only by different content type selections (verse form for memorization or recitation; prose form for study or consultation) and the combination with medical knowledge from other sources, but also by the ways in which these contents were formatted, usually to facilitate reading and navigation. Adjustment, updating or supplementation of Golden Mirror contents likewise functioned epistemically, integrating previous medical knowledge into the medical discourse of the time. Hence, the findings of the present study help to clarify the lasting importance of manuscripts in the age of print, for which possibilities of adapting knowledge to personal interests and requirements seem to have been decisive factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumors have a huge impact on human life and are now the main cause of disease-related deaths. The main means of treatment are surgery and radiotherapy, but they are more damaging to the organism and have a poor postoperative prognosis. Therefore, we urgently need safe and effective drugs to treat tumors. In recent years, Chinese herbal medicines have been widely used in tumor therapy as complementary and alternative therapies. Medicinal and edible herbs are popular and have become a hot topic of research, which not only have excellent pharmacological effects and activities, but also have almost no side effects. Therefore, as a typical medicine and food homology, some components of Paeoniae Radix Alba (PRA, called Baishao in China) have been shown to have good efficacy and safety against cancer. Numerous studies have also shown that Paeoniae Radix Alba and its active ingredients treat cancer through various pathways and are also one of the important components of many antitumor herbal compound formulas. In this paper, we reviewed the literature on the intervention of Paeoniae Radix Alba in tumors and its mechanism of action in recent years and found that there is a large amount of literature on its effect on total glucosides of paeony (TGP) and paeoniflorin (PF), as well as an in-depth discussion of the mechanism of action of Paeoniae Radix Alba and its main constituents, with a view to promote the clinical development and application of Paeoniae Radix Alba in the field of antitumor management.

The pharmaceutical industry is an important industry for the national economy and the people's livelihood, which is not only beneficial to the people's livelihood, but also has huge commercial value. How to promote the development of Chinese pharmaceutical industry is an urgent problem to be solved. In this study, 47 listed pharmaceutical companies are taken as cases, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Fuzzy Sets (fsQCA) is used to analyze the influence of five antecedent conditions on the total factor productivity of pharmaceutical enterprises from the perspective of corporate governance, and to explore the composition to Total Factor Productivity (TFP) improvement. The results are as follows. First, single corporate governance factor does not constitute the necessary condition to improve the TFP of pharmaceutical enterprises. Second, there are three configurations of high TFP of pharmaceutical enterprises, among these, two configurations belong to regulatory constraints type and one configuration belongs to the active board type. There is only one configurations to low TFP of pharmaceutical enterprises: the passive board. Based on the perspective of configuration, this paper discusses how corporate governance drives TFP improvement in pharmaceutical enterprises, which can provide systematic thinking and practical guidance for each company to promote its TFP improvement according to its own corporate structure., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Zhu Zhenheng, the last generation and sole representative from Southern China among the four masters of Jin-Yuan medicine, synthesized the evolution of Chinese medicine from the Song to the Yuan dynasties, profoundly impacting East Asian medical history. Zhu, identified as a Neo-Confucian scholar, appears in the Scholarly Records of the Song-Yuan Dynasties and in 'the Biographies of Confucians' rather than 'the Biographies of Experts' in the Official History of the Yuan Dynasty. His close association with the Jinhua school of Daoxue is noteworthy. Zhu's career, as well as his medical theory and practice, exemplify the influence of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, which was a significant intellectual resource among the literati during the late Yuan period, on medicine. Zhu Zhenheng's model of a Confucian physician later became a paradigm in East Asia, as Neo-Confucianism gained mainstream acceptance among the literati. This paper offers a detailed exploration of the specific contexts of Zhu's social and intellectual networks as well as an examination of the characteristics of his medical theories and practices. It explores how Zhu's career and identity as a Neo-Confucian physician were shaped through the local and empire-wide networks of the Jinhua school of Neo-Confucianism within the broader context of the Mongol empire, a global power in the late Yuan period. The paper also examines in depth how Zhu's medical practices were influenced by Neo-Confucianism, and it investigates the real nature and significance of the integration of medicine and Neo-Confucianism, two distinctly different realms of knowledge. Zhu Zhenheng's medical theories were formed through concerns about jufang medicine and the active presentation of alternatives. A notable aspect of his integration of medicine and Confucianism was the adoption of Neo-Confucian terminologies, concepts, and philosophical and ethical theses, while ensuring that the unique and independent domain of medicine was not subordinated to abstract philosophical theories. This is especially evident through his active and effective use of medical cases. Unlike previous studies, this paper demonstrates that Zhu Zhenheng's integration of medicine and Neo-Confucianism was mostly a metalevel process, involving methodology and knowledge reproduction patterns, and was driven by a belief in the possibility of harmonizing with Daoxue's ultimate principle without undermining the autonomy of medical knowledge.

This paper examines dividend policy issues in the European pharmaceutical industry. This sector is of particular interest because of the high research and development expenditures and the associated risks characterizing the business models of many firms in this industry. In fact, from the perspective of corporate finance theory, this is a particular challenge for the managers of these corporations that may also have implications for the dividend policy implemented by the firms forming this sector. Moreover, the level of internal financing and litigation risks also seem to be high in the pharmaceutical industry. These facts could also affect the payout policy of the firms. Employing techniques of time series analysis, there is no evidence for dividend signaling and clear evidence for dividend smoothing in the European pharmaceutical industry. Given that dividend increases under certain assumptions can negatively affect the firms' ability to finance new investments in general and research and development projects in particular, these results of our empirical investigations could be described as highly plausible., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and China reported the first case to the World Health Organization in December 2019, there was no evidence-based treatment to combat it. With the catastrophic situation that followed, materialised by a considerable number of deaths, researchers, doctors, traditional healers, and governments of all nations committed themselves to find therapeutic solutions, including preventive and curative. There are effective treatments offered both by modern medicine and traditional medicine for COVID-19 today. However, other therapeutic proposals have not been approved due to the lack of effectiveness and scientific rigour during their development process. Proponents of modern medicine prefer biomedical therapies while in some countries, traditional treatments are used regularly because of their availability, affordability and satisfaction they bring to the population. In this paper, we propose a transactional medicine approach where the interaction between traditional and modern medicine produces a change. With this approach, the promoters of traditional medicine and those of modern medicine will be able to acquire knowledge through the experience produced by their encounters. Transactional medicine aims to be a model for decolonising medicine and recognising the value of both traditional and modern medicine in the fight against COVID-19 and other global emerging pathogens.

In recent years, China has actively promoted the construction of first-class universities and disciplines of the world ('Double First-Class'), and built a new model of university development to solve Chinese problems and support high-quality economic and social development. In the context of China's efforts to promote the construction of new engineering, new medicine, new agriculture, and new liberal arts (referred to as the 'four new' disciplines), these disciplines are developing rapidly. As a specialty dealing with major life issues, medical education has become increasingly prominent. To enhance the comprehensive strength of universities, corresponding to the 'four new' disciplines strategy, engineering universities are building and developing medical specialties one after another. At present, the greatest problem in the medical specialty of engineering universities is the tendency to blindly follow trends and integrate new concepts with traditional methods. However, to date, the integration of medical and nonmedical specialties has been superficial and thus has not been successful. To address this problem, this paper, guided by the policies aimed at developing the 'four new' disciplines, analyses the current situation of traditional medicine education and professional development in engineering universities and proposes measures to enhance the competitiveness of new medicine in engineering universities, thereby promoting the development of universities.KEY MESSAGESThe implementation of the 'four new' disciplines is a strategic choice for higher education.Engineering technology is an efficient path and hands-on approach to solving medical problems.Interdisciplinary and comprehensive educational approaches play an important role in the development of medical science.

Online healthcare platforms serve not just as a medical knowledge-sharing community but also bring about effective interactions between professional physicians and patients. However, it is unclear whether online technology adoption affects such interactions in the same way between traditional Chinese medicine and modern medical departments. By utilizing a large sample of online doctor-patient interaction information from 168,870 doctor-specific interactive webpages recorded in a famous Chinese online healthcare community, this paper studies the differences between 17,513 traditional medicine doctor homepages and 151,357 others from more than 100 different specialty areas. Our chosen platform is representative since it covers about 800,000 physicians working at over 10,000 hospitals across all major provincial regions in China. We document that online medical service users tend to accept and use online health care services. However, patients seeing Chinese medicine doctors exhibit the following unique characteristics. They still prefer choosing doctors according to third-party information and may be reluctant to pay for the current online service price level. This problem is hard to overcome by the platform in the short run. Patients need a long-term process to adapt to the upgraded medical environment gradually. Therefore, establishing a personalized doctor recommendation system has become the most urgent demand presently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why you should read this article?: • To familiarise yourself with the healthcare needs of overseas Chinese students • To understand the barriers experienced by overseas Chinese students when accessing UK student primary healthcare • To enhance your knowledge of strategies to increase access to healthcare services for this population Individuals from China comprise the largest cohort of international students in the UK, making up almost one quarter of those coming to the country to study. The large Chinese student population at UK universities means there are considerable numbers each year who require access to student primary healthcare. This article describes a literature and narrative review that aimed to critically review the evidence concerning whether the primary healthcare needs of overseas Chinese students studying at UK universities are being met. Three themes were identified: primary healthcare accessibility and potential barriers for overseas Chinese students; health-seeking behaviour and health needs; and cultural and spiritual foundations of health needs and trusted health-seeking frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliometric study analyzes the evolution of research in artificial intelligence (AI) applied to medicine from 2015 to September 2023. Using the Scopus database and keywords related to AI, machine learning, and deep learning in medicine, tools such as VOSviewer and Bibliometrix were used to explore publication trends, subject areas, co-authorship networks, and the most productive countries, among others. 2,064 articles were analyzed, and a significant increase in global academic production has been evident in the last five years. International collaboration was notable, with China and the United States leading in knowledge contribution. The keyword analysis highlights the breadth of topics and applications of AI in medicine, with particular emphasis on cancer detection, dengue diagnosis, and medical image analysis, among others. In conclusion, this study highlights the growing academic interest in the application of AI in medicine and the need for collaborative research. The findings underscore the relevance of these technologies in key areas of health care, contributing significantly to advances in medical diagnosis and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has witnessed rapid advances in the healthcare domain in recent years, especially in the emergency field, where AI is likely to radically reshape medical service delivery. Although AI has substantial potential to enhance diagnostic accuracy and operational efficiency in hospitals, research on its applications in Emergency Department building design remains relatively scarce. Therefore, this study aims to investigate Emergency Department facility design by identifying the challenges and opportunities of using AI. Two systematic literature reviews are combined, one in AI and the other in sensors, to explore their potential application to support decision-making, resource optimisation and patient monitoring. These reviews have then informed a discussion on integrating AI sensors in contemporary Emergency Department designs for use in China to support the evidence base on resuscitation units, emergency operating rooms and Emergency Department Intensive Care Unit (ED-ICU) design. We hope to inform the strategic implementation of AI sensors and how they might transform Emergency Department design to support medical staff and enhance the patient experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the medical industry. This paper first investigates the mechanism of patients' medical AI acceptance after experiencing AI service failure from the perspective of responsibility attribution. Using data from 249 patients in China, findings reveal that patients' self-responsibility attribution is positively related to human–computer trust (HCT) and sequentially enhances the acceptance of medical AI for independent diagnosis and treatment. This paper also investigates the moderating role of personality traits. Specifically, conscientiousness and openness strengthen the association between HCT and acceptance of AI for independent diagnosis and treatment; agreeableness and conscientiousness weaken the association between HCT and acceptance of AI for assistive diagnosis and treatment. • Medical AI diagnosis consisted of independent and assistive diagnosis. • This paper discusses the medical AI acceptance after experiencing AI service failure. • Attribution theory was considered as a theoretical framework. • Personality affects the association between human–computer trust and AI acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the popularity of modern medicine, medicinal plants remain a cornerstone of treatment for numerous diseases, particularly among ethnic groups and tribal communities around the globe. Ethnomedicine offers advantages such as ease of use, convenience, and economic benefits. Medicinal plant knowledge within Bulang ethnic community of southwest China is a valuable complement to Chinese ethnomedicine systems. Accumulated medical knowledge is due to the extensive length of occupation by Bulang People, considered the earliest inhabitants of Xishuangbanna; this has resulted in the development of various traditional treatment methods with local characteristics and unique curative effects. Therefore, there is exceeding value in exploring the medical knowledge of Bulang. Methods: A total of 175 local informants participated in the interviews and distribution of questionnaires in 10 Bulang villages in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. We documented the community of Bulang's use of medicinal herbs, and we used both the informant consensus factor (ICF) and use value (UV) methodologies to analyze the data. Furthermore, we conducted a comparative study to explore the potential of Bulang traditional medicine by comparing it to traditional Dai medicine. Results: The study recorded 60 medicinal plant species belonging to 41 families and 59 genera, including 22 species of herb, 22 species of shrub, nine species of trees, and seven species of liana. Araceae, Compositae, Lamiaceae and Leguminosae were found to have the highest number of species. The affordability and cultural heritage of Bulang medicine make it advantageous, Investigated Informants report that increased usage of Western medicine (88%), less availability of herbal medicine (95.43%), and the reduction in medicinal plant resources (80.57%) pose significant threats to Bulang medicine. All Bulang medicinal plants are naturally grown, with only 22 per cent being cultivated. Camellia sinensis (0.94) and Zingiber officinale (0.89) showed the highest UV values, while the function of Phyllanthus emblica L. and Houttuynia cordata Thunb. were also noted. The ICF revealed digestive system related diseases were the most commonly treated, with conditions of the motor system using the highest number of plant species. Finally, a comparison with traditional Dai medicine determined that 22 plants (36.67%) of the 60 surveyed had higher medicinal value in Bulang medicine. Conclusion: Bulang communities primarily source medicinal plants from the wild. Should environmental damage lead to the extinction of these medicinal plants, it could result in a shift toward modern Western medicine as a preferred medical treatment. Bulang ethnomedicine is a vital supplement to China's traditional medicine, particularly aspects of ethnic medicine relevant to daily life. Future research should emphasize inter-ethnic medical studies to reveal the untapped potential of medicinal plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As the direct providers of diabetes management care in primary health care facilities (PHFs) in China, health professionals' performance on management care of diabetes determines the quality of services and patients' outcomes. This study aims to analyze the key determinants of health professionals' performance on diabetes management care in PHFs in China. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 72 PHFs in 6 cities that piloted the contracted family doctor service (CFDS). Self-developed questionnaire was used to measure three kinds of factors (capacity, motivation and opportunity) potentially influencing the performance of health professionals. The performance of diabetes management care in the study was measured as whether health professionals delivered 7 service items required by the National Basic Public Health Service Guideline with a total of 7 points and was divided into three grades of good, medium and bad. The questionnaire is self-administered by all the health professionals involved in the study with the number of 434. The Chi-square tests were used to compare differences of performance on diabetes management care among health professionals with different characteristics. The ordinal logistic regression was used to analyze the determinants on the performance of diabetes management care. Results: Health professionals who got higher score on diabetes knowledge test had odds of better performance on diabetes management care (OR = 1.529, P < 0.001). health professionals with higher degree of self-reported satisfaction on training (OR = 1.224, P < 0.05) and perception of decreasing workload (OR = 3.336, P < 0.01) had odds of better performance on diabetes management care. While health professionals with negative feeling on information system support had odds of worse performance on diabetes management care (OR = 0.664, P < 0.01). Conclusions: Attention should be paid to the training of health professionals' knowledge on diabetes management capacity. Furthermore, measures to improve training for health professionals could satisfying their needs for self-growth and improve the motivation of health professionals. The information system supporting management care should be improved continuously to improve the health professionals' working opportunities and decrease the workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: More people with dementia live in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) than in high‐income countries, but best‐practice care recommendations are often based on studies from high‐income countries. We aimed to map the available evidence on dementia interventions in LMICs. Methods: We systematically mapped available evidence on interventions that aimed to improve the lives of people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and/or their carers in LMICs (registered on PROSPERO: CRD42018106206). We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2008 and 2018. We searched 11 electronic academic and grey literature databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus, Global Health, World Health Organization Global Index Medicus, Virtual Health Library, Cochrane CENTRAL, Social Care Online, BASE, MODEM Toolkit) and examined the number and characteristics of RCTs according to intervention type. We used the Cochrane risk of bias 2.0 tool to assess the risk of bias. Results: We included 340 RCTs with 29,882 (median, 68) participants, published 2008–2018. Over two‐thirds of the studies were conducted in China (n = 237, 69.7%). Ten LMICs accounted for 95.9% of included RCTs. The largest category of interventions was Traditional Chinese Medicine (n = 149, 43.8%), followed by Western medicine pharmaceuticals (n = 109, 32.1%), supplements (n = 43, 12.6%), and structured therapeutic psychosocial interventions (n = 37, 10.9%). Overall risk of bias was judged to be high for 201 RCTs (59.1%), moderate for 136 (40.0%), and low for 3 (0.9%). Conclusions: Evidence‐generation on interventions for people with dementia or MCI and/or their carers in LMICs is concentrated in just a few countries, with no RCTs reported in the vast majority of LMICs. The body of evidence is skewed towards selected interventions and overall subject to high risk of bias. There is a need for a more coordinated approach to robust evidence‐generation for LMICs. Key points: While the majority of people with dementia reside in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs), it is not known what types of interventions have been studied in these settings and how effective they are.We conducted the first comprehensive mapping study of interventions for people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and/or their carers in LMICs.This high‐level overview of dementia intervention research in LMICs identified the following gaps: dementia intervention research is highly concentrated in just a few LMICs, and skewed towards Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western pharmaceuticals, and supplements, with comparatively little evidence generated on interventions for carers.Lack of robust and locally relevant evidence on effective interventions presents a substantial challenge to designing evidence‐based treatment and care systems that help people with dementia or MCI and their carers to live better lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the factors related to renal impairment in patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) from the perspective of integrated Chinese and Western medicine. Methods: Totally 492 patients with DKD in 8 Chinese hospitals from October 2017 to July 2019 were included. According to Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) staging guidelines, patients were divided into a chronic kidney disease (CKD) 1–3 group and a CKD 4–5 group. Clinical data were collected, and logistic regression was used to analyze the factors related to different CKD stages in DKD patients. Results: Demographically, male was a factor related to increased CKD staging in patients with DKD (OR=3.100, P=0.002). In clinical characteristics, course of diabetes >60 months (OR=3.562, P=0.010), anemia (OR=4.176, P<0.001), hyperuricemia (OR=3.352, P<0.001), massive albuminuria (OR=4.058, P=0.002), atherosclerosis (OR=2.153, P=0.007) and blood deficiency syndrome (OR=1.945, P=0.020) were factors related to increased CKD staging in patients with DKD. Conclusions: Male, course of diabetes >60 months, anemia, hyperuricemia, massive proteinuria, atherosclerosis, and blood deficiency syndrome might indicate more severe degree of renal function damage in patients with DKD. (Registration No. NCT03865914) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standardized diagnosis and management of gastric precancerous conditions and lesions are important to prevent gastric cancer. This guideline, created by 5 traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine associations, based on the current morbidity and diagnosis and treatment of gastric precancerous conditions and lesions, provides specific key points and strategies for diagnosis and treatment in the following five aspects: definition and epidemiology, diagnosis and stage, surveillance, treatment and efficacy evaluation. It is hoped that these aspects, assessed by integrating Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine and involving multidisciplinary participation, will play a guiding role in clinical diagnosis and treatment and achieve effective secondary prevention of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to explore the relationship between serum netrin-1 expression levels and acute prognosis in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) within 24 hours after revascularization. Methods: A total of 121 revascularized patients admitted to the Jinshan Branch of the Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital, China, between July 2019 and July 2021 were selected as study subjects. The primary outcome was the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score three months after revascularization: patients with an mRS score >2 were classified into the unfavorable prognosis group and others into the favorable prognosis group. Those with serum netrin-1 expression levels greater than the median of all patients were classified into the elevated protein group and others into the decreased protein group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the independent risk factors for prognosis in patients with AIS after revascularization. Results: The differences between the unfavorable prognosis group and the favorable prognosis group in gender, age, coronary heart disease, and netrin-1 levels were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). However, the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores and number of patients with comorbid hypertension in the unfavorable prognosis group were significantly higher than in the favorable prognosis group (p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that NIHSS score before revascularization was an independent risk factor for unfavorable prognosis but that netrin-1 expression levels were not significantly associated with prognosis in patients after revascularization. Conclusions: Serum netrin-1 expression levels in the acute phase are not significantly associated with prognosis in patients with AIS after revascularization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alternative ways of thinking about health care delivery and medical training developed by health care activists of the 1960s and 1970s profoundly shaped American health policy. I explore three episodes that took place in this time period: a moment when medical student activists in Philadelphia demanded that the city's medical schools admit African Americans as one-third of every 1969 first-year class; tensions between feminists and gynecologists over who should have authority in women's health and whether the idea of a feminist physician was an oxymoron; and the extraordinary enthusiasm American physicians and other practitioners expressed about China's Maoist health system. These three intersectional examples highlight the words and deeds of activist insiders and underscore their reliance on activist outsiders for validation and empowerment of their demands. Finally, I argue that the history of health activism offers a powerful vehicle for examining health politics in ways that can illuminate not only the intricate bureaucratic maneuverings of politicians and administrators but also the passion, struggles, and dreams of providers and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of the factors underlying the willingness or lack thereof to respond to public health emergencies is paramount to informing more capable health services. The interest in this topic appears renewed with each surge of threat, either referring to natural disasters, man-made violence, or epidemic and pandemics. However, there is no systematic approach to the research patterns and related main findings concerning individual and contextual determinants. The present article contributes to this theme through a systematic literature review of a sample of 150 articles published in the last 30 years on the subject of willingness and preparedness of health professionals to deal with public health threats. Our findings show that the research is mainly phenomena and contextual driven, responding to whichever emergency threat is more salient in a given period. Geographically, research on this topic is led by USA and China, mostly solely, while European countries invest in collaborations that are more international. Universities, including health institutes and schools, and researchers at hospitals conduct most of the research on the topic. The main research areas are medicine, psychology, and psychiatry. Pandemics, including COVID-19, influenza, and natural disasters, are the phenomena gauging more attention as opposed to terrorism events and biological accidents. The specific role of health professionals within the institution, their belief in ethical duties, preparation training, and concerns regarding infection of self and family are the main variables influencing the willingness and ability to report to work in public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants have been utilized extensively in traditional medicine by a range of nations since ancient times, and more research into their safety, efficacy, and quality value is needed. One of the plants that have been widely used by society in traditional medicine is Annona squamosa L. A. squamosa is commonly cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions. Based on previous research, all parts of A. squamosa including bark, leaf, and roots have proven biological activities such as antioxidant, antifungal, and anticancer, especially on the leaves. Indian people have long history used young leaves of A. squamosa for antidiabetic, besides in South China, they use seeds to decrease the cancer effect in the human body. The pharmacological activities of A. squamosa leaves are antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiulcer, antidiabetic, antidiarrheals, antiplatelet, antioxidant, and hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, and cytoprotective. Phytochemicals in A. squamosa leaves include coumarins, tannins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, carbohydrates, and saponins. Meanwhile based on nutritional analysis shows that the A. squamosa leaves are water, protein, lipids, Fiber Ash and Calcium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines dietary advice-giving in regular consultations for patients with chronic conditions in two types of clinical practices: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine practiced in mainland China. Dietary habits are unanimously considered relevant to the patient's health, particularly in chronic conditions. This article reports the differences in where and how dietary advice is occasioned and co-constructed by participants in two settings. One significant finding of this paper is that while Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors take dietary talk to instruct patients and put it into the treatment recommendation, WM doctors may treat it as incidental and only valuable for diagnostic assessment, leaving its treatment opaque and not discussed with the patient. Data are in Mandarin Chinese. Using Conversation Analysis, the article describes the interactional organisation of dietary advice delivery in different medical practices and ascribes their differences to clinical pathology. • Diet as a treatment proposal or not. • Infrequent dietary advice-giving in WM encounters. • Frequent dietary advice-giving in TCM closings. • The organisation of advice reflects clinical understandings of diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to understand why so many medical writings produced in late imperial China have perished and what has prevented others from disappearing. To do so, it focuses on the life of medical writings produced in the southern fringes of the Qing empire. The aim, starting from an analytical framework limited in time and space, is to open up a more general discussion on the history of the medical book in late imperial China. To retrace this history, this article starts from the very act of writing a medical text and then examines the course of this writing's life, through its printing, and reading. The first part, an examination of a wide sample of medical texts produced in the region, highlights the social diversity of their authors as well as the plurality of objectives that these texts intend to achieve. The second part reconstructs the different steps that a manuscript must go through to be printed. This process, which requires the intervention of influential figures to correct and praise the text, and to finance its printing, is long and explains why most of the manuscripts did not survive, but it has another consequence. As the original text passes through the hands of many people, it collects comments and additions. The third part, which focuses on printed and handwritten annotations in the margins, underlines how printing a medical manuscript is a dynamic process which offers the possibility of integrating allographic elements and contributes to the very making of the text. Analysis of the handwritten annotations left by some readers reveals, in turn, the ability of readers to intervene in the life of medical books, after they have been printed and, in so doing, to update and enrich medical knowledge and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]