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This study compared the theory describing the "four pairs of blood vessels" in the Hippocratic Corpus with the description of vessels (Mai, 脉) in the Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm. The two theories are comparable because of the time period in which they were written, the similarities between the descriptions of the Mai and blood vessels, and the treatment methods for symptoms corresponding to their dysfunctions. We discovered that the Mai theory and the blood vessel theory in the Hippocratic Corpus were conceived with similar motivations. They had a lot of coinciding information with regard to the route of flow, but they proposed opposite cyclic directions. Interestingly, neither of them had established that a definitive relationship exists between the vessels and the heart, but other internal organs, such as the liver, were considered to have connections with the Mai and blood vessels in the two literatures. Furthermore, there were similarities among the descriptions of symptoms, and the ancient Western treatments for these symptoms were largely the same as those recorded in the ancient Chinese medical literature, especially the treatment for backache. The comparisons put forward in this study not only reflect the consistencies between the understanding of the human body and the way diseases were treated in Chinese and Western medicine in the early days, but also demonstrate that the two types of medicine had finally embarked on different developmental paths because of the differences in the philosophies and cultural backgrounds in their respective regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the accuracy of theoretical energy loss calculation in low voltage distribution area (LV-area), this paper proposes a new prediction method based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) least squares support vector machine (LSSVM). Firstly, the main influencing factors of energy loss calculation in LV-area are determined by the grey correlation method, which reflects the data-driven characteristic of the method and ensures the objectivity of the prediction results and the generalization of the calculation model. Secondly, the trend component and fluctuation component are obtained by VMD of daily energy loss series in the LV-area. The variable set of main influencing factors of energy losses is used as the input variable of LSSVM, and the VMD result of the energy loss sequence is used as the output. The theoretical energy loss training and calculation model of LV-area is established. Compared with the traditional calculation model, this model has more accurate calculation accuracy by taking into account the frequency characteristics of energy losses in different frequency bands. PSO is used to optimize the parameters of LSSVM for the purpose of improving the accuracy of LSSVM. Finally, an example of 252 LV-area in a city in northern China is given to verify the validity of the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method generates more accurate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]