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Lan Gao,1,&ast; Rui Yang,2,&ast; Hong-Zhen Fan,1 Lei-Lei Wang,1 Yan-Li Zhao,1 Shu-Ping Tan,1 Chun-Ling Xiao,1 Shuang-Jiang Zhou1 1Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Peking University HuiLongGuan Clinical Medical School, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chun-Ling Xiao; Shuang-Jiang Zhou, Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Peking University HuiLongGuan Clinical Medical School, Beijing, 10096, People’s Republic of China, Email xiaocl2002@163.com; zhoushuangjiang@126.comPurpose: To explore the correlation between aggressive behavior and impulsive and aggressive personality traits in inpatients with schizophrenia.Methods: In total, 367 inpatients with schizophrenia were divided into two groups: the aggressive group and the non-aggressive group. We assessed inpatients’ psychotic symptoms as well as their aggressive and impulsive personality traits using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire.Results: Compared with the scores of inpatients in the non-aggressive group, the total Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, subscale, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale behavioral factor scores in those in the aggressive group were higher (p < 0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis suggested that a high Positive and Negative Symptom Scale positive factor score (odds ratio = 1.07) and a high Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire physical aggression score (odds ratio = 1.02) were risk factors for aggressive behavior.Conclusion: Hospitalized patients with schizophrenia with more severe positive symptoms and aggressive traits may be more prone to aggressive behavior.Keywords: schizophrenia, aggressive behavior, impulsivity trait, aggressive trait, stable patients

We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of 240 pediatric SAA patients who underwent unmanipulated alternative HSCT between September 2012 and November 2020 at our center. The incidence of GF (PGF + SGF) was higher in the UCBD cohort compared to the MUD and HID cohorts [(13.5% ± 6.5%) vs (0%), and (1.6% ± 5.3%), respectively

Steroid-refractory (SR) acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is one of the leading causes of early mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). We investigated the efficacy, safety, prognostic factors, and optimal therapeutic protocol for SR-aGVHD patients treated with basiliximab in a real-world setting. Nine hundred and forty SR-aGVHD patients were recruited from 36 hospitals in China, and 3683 doses of basiliximab were administered. Basiliximab was used as monotherapy (n = 642) or in combination with other second-line treatments (n = 298). The cumulative incidence of overall response rate (ORR) at day 28 after basiliximab treatment was 79.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] 76.5%-82.3%). The probabilities of nonrelapse mortality and overall survival at 3 years after basiliximab treatment were 26.8% (95% CI 24.0%-29.6%) and 64.3% (95% CI 61.2%-67.4%), respectively. A 1:1 propensity score matching was performed to compare the efficacy and safety between the monotherapy and combined therapy groups. Combined therapy did not increase the ORR; conversely, it increased the infection rates compared with monotherapy. The multivariate analysis showed that combined therapy, grade III-IV aGVHD, and high-risk refined Minnesota aGVHD risk score before basiliximab treatment were independently associated with the therapeutic response. Hence, we created a prognostic scoring system that could predict the risk of having a decreased likelihood of response after basiliximab treatment. Machine learning was used to develop a protocol that maximized the efficacy of basiliximab while maintaining acceptable levels of infection risk. Thus, real-world data suggest that basiliximab is safe and effective for treating SR-aGVHD.

Background Three-dimensional computed tomography bronchography and angiography (3D-CTBA) provides detailed imaging information for pulmonary segmentectomy. This study was performed to verify the feasibility of 3D-CTBA-guided thoracoscopic segmentectomy for the treatment of pulmonary nodules. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on all patients who underwent 3D-CTBA-guided uniport thoracoscopic segmentectomies or subsegmentectomies for pulmonary nodules in the period from May 2019 to May 2020. All of the information related to perioperative management and surgical operations was retrieved from the medical records and operating notes for detailed analysis. Results A total of 104 eligible operations involving the resection of 110 nodules with diameters in the range of 5-20 mm were included. Under 3D-CTBA guidance, the pulmonary nodules were located with an accuracy of 100% (110/110) and the median resection margin was 24.3 mm (17-33 mm). Additionally, the segmental (subsegmental) bronchi, arteries, and veins were identified with accuracy rates of 100% (104/104), 96.2% (100/104), and 94.2% (98/104), respectively. The postoperative complications consisted of 3 cases of pulmonary infection (2.9%), 6 cases of arrhythmia (5.8%), 2 cases of hemoptysis (1.9%), 4 cases of air leak (3.8%), and 2 cases of subcutaneous emphysema (1.9%). No perioperative death occurred. Conclusion 3D-CTBA-guided thoracoscopic segmentectomy is an effective surgical approach for the management of pulmonary nodules.

Self-harm, which affects the whole family system, is an international public health concern. Empirical evidence supports the efficacy of interventions incorporating a family/parent training component for self-injurious thoughts and behaviours, and a quantitative synthesis of these empirical studies has been undertaken and updated. A qualitative synthesis of the experiences of parents whose child self-harms remains limited. This report aimed to systematically review qualitative research about the experiences, preferences, and expectations of parents whose children self-harmed. A comprehensive search was conducted across ten databases and four grey literature sources, along with the manual search of reference lists and relevant websites. Study screening, data extraction, and quality appraisal were all performed by two independent researchers. Twenty-four articles, two of which were mixed-methods studies, were included and analysed using a meta-aggregation approach. Five synthesized findings were identified: initial negative reactions to the discovery of their child's self-harm, the ongoing impact of self-harm on parents and the wider family, parents' various coping strategies, parents' negative experiences with mental health professionals expectations, and the lack of and need for psychoeducational resources. Our review finds that parents express keen interest in engaging with the treatment process, and our results support family-based therapy. However, with the overwhelming emotions most parents experience, clinicians should approach them with sensitivity, empathy and finesse. Psychoeducational self-help resources should also be made readily available to parents who are reluctant to seek help.

The aphid parasitoid, Aphelinus maculatus Yasnosh (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), first described as a new record in China in 2016, is one of the most important natural enemies of the Chinese wolf-berry aphids. In order to relate its larval development stages to morphological changes of both the parasitoid and its host aphid during the parasitoid development, and to explore the larval taxonomic significance, a laboratory dissection study was conducted under the light microscope. There are three larval instars during immature development of A. maculatus. Instars differ in body shape, mandibles and numbers of respiratory spiracles. The first instar larva of A. maculatus is elongate in shape, the second instar larva is thick spindle-shaped to spindle-shaped, and the third instar larva is spherical-shaped with a small tail. Mandibles of the first and second instar larvae of A. maculatus are almost invisible, and their pharynxes are well developed. Mandibles of the third instar larva are well developed and are made of a pair of dark yellow sharp pointed spines each projecting from a transparent broad triangular base. The third instar larva possesses seven pairs of respiratory spiracles with one pair on the mesothorax and other six pairs successively on the second to seventh abdominal segments. As the larval development proceeds, a brown patch (the midgut of parasitoid larva) in the center of host aphid abdomen becomes larger in size and darker in color. The host aphid turns entirely black as a mummy and dies at the prepupal stage of the parasitoid, pine-nut shaped meconium is excreted at this time. The life cycle of A. maculatus from eggs to adults lasts 11.5–14 days at the temperature of 26 ± 1 °C. Morphological features of mandibles, respiratory spiracles and meconium are useful in the larval taxonomy of aphelinids.

Objective: The outcomes of alternative donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with unmanipulated grafts for Inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) are discouraging. Our study...

We analyzed the outcomes of 32 patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) who underwent either a haploidentical donor (HID) or a matched unrelated donor (MUD) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Seventeen patients received an HSCT from an HID and 15 patients received an HSCT from an MUD. The median follow-up time of the surviving patients was 36 months (range: 12-96 months). No significant differences were observed in the 3-year overall survival (OS) between the HID and MUD cohorts (74.1%±11.4% vs. 93.3%±6.4%, respectively

IntroductionPrevious studies have shown that in addition to having impairments in facial emotion recognition, patients with schizophrenia also show a lack of facial expression. Although negative symptoms such as decreased facial activity are common symptoms of schizophrenia, the related factors remain inconclusive. Therefore, this study compared healthy controls to explore the characteristics of facial muscle activity intensity in patients with schizophrenia and its relationship with negative symptoms.MethodsThis observational and cross-sectional study conducted in a psychiatric hospital in China included a total of 135 patients with schizophrenia and 134 healthy controls. The negative symptoms of schizophrenia were evaluated using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale. The intensity of facial muscle activity under positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli conditions was automatically collected by a computer, including 17 values (F01-F17) that represent different facial muscle activities. Statistical tests were performed to analyze facial muscle activity indexes, to explore an objective and quantitative method to evaluate the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.ResultsThe facial muscle activity intensity of the schizophrenia group at F02 (outer eyebrow), F04 (upper eyelid), F07 (nose), F10 (dimple), F12 (lower jaw 1), F14 (lip 2), and F17 (blink) was lower than that of the healthy controls (p < 0.05). Under positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli conditions, the facial muscle activity intensity of F16 (lower jaw 2) was positively correlated with negative symptoms (p < 0.05).ConclusionOur study indicated that patients with schizophrenia show defects in facial muscle activity and that is associated with negative symptoms.

BackgroundAt present, there is no established biomarker for the diagnosis of depression. Meanwhile, studies show that acoustic features convey emotional information. Therefore, this study explored differences in acoustic characteristics between depressed patients and healthy individuals to investigate whether these characteristics can identify depression.MethodsParticipants included 71 patients diagnosed with depression from a regional hospital in Beijing, China, and 62 normal controls from within the greater community. We assessed the clinical symptoms of depression of all participants using the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and recorded the voice of each participant as they read positive, neutral, and negative texts. OpenSMILE was used to analyze their voice acoustics and extract acoustic characteristics from the recordings.ResultsThere were significant differences between the depression and control groups in all acoustic characteristics (p < 0.05). Several mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), including MFCC2, MFCC3, MFCC8, and MFCC9, differed significantly between different emotion tasks; MFCC4 and MFCC7 correlated positively with PHQ-9 scores, and correlations were stable in all emotion tasks. The zero-crossing rate in positive emotion correlated positively with HAMA total score and HAMA somatic anxiety score (r = 0.31, r = 0.34, respectively), and MFCC9 of neutral emotion correlated negatively with HAMD anxiety/somatization scores (r = −0.34). Linear regression showed that the MFCC7-negative was predictive on the PHQ-9 score (β = 0.90, p = 0.01) and MFCC9-neutral was predictive on HAMD anxiety/somatization score (β = −0.45, p = 0.049). Logistic regression showed a superior discriminant effect, with a discrimination accuracy of 89.66%.ConclusionThe acoustic expression of emotion among patients with depression differs from that of normal controls. Some acoustic characteristics are related to the severity of depressive symptoms and may be objective biomarkers of depression. A systematic method of assessing vocal acoustic characteristics could provide an accurate and discreet means of screening for depression; this method may be used instead of—or in conjunction with—traditional screening methods, as it is not subject to the limitations associated with self-reported assessments wherein subjects may be inclined to provide socially acceptable responses rather than being truthful.

Gentiana rigescens is a traditional Chinese medicine with efficacy in liver protection, as a cholagogic, anti-hyperglycemic, and anti-hypertension agent, and in relieving spasms and pain. The geographical environments of different locations are very complicated, with different soils, climates, sun exposure, etc.; this has a remarkable effect on the quality of medicinal herbs. To identify different geographic origins of G. rigescens, we analyzed the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) fingerprints of G. rigescens with the aid of chemometrics. Five variable selection methods, including competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), random frog (RF), subwindow permutation analysis (SPA), Monte Carlo uninformative variable elimination (MC-UVE) and genetic algorithms (GA), were used to screen the characteristic variables for both the HPLC and FTIR fingerprints. Then, the corresponding partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were built. The results showed that for both HPLC and FTIR, the GA-PLS-DA models were the most robust models for identification of the geographical origins of G. rigescens, which indicated that the recognition results of HPLC and FTIR are consistent. Through HPLC–FTIR two-dimensional (2D) hetero-correlation analysis, the results showed a substantial correlation between HPLC and FTIR, which suggests that spectral correlative chromatography for multicomponent comparison can be conducted. In terms of G. rigescens, qualitative identification using FTIR is more convenient, rapid, environment-friendly and inexpensive than that using HPLC.

A comparison between self-aligned process (using lift-off) and Ni-SALICIDE used in fabrication of ohmic contacts for SiC Power MOSFET is done. Both processes are demonstrated for 3.3 kV SiC VDMOS transistors fabricated on 100 mm substrates. It is shown that the Ni-SALICIDE process with first silicidation at 500 °C does not degrade the electrical properties of silicon dioxide; particularly, a degradation of the interlayer dielectric between source and gate is not evident. Additionally, this first silicidation is found to have a positive impact on the specific resistance of contacts formed on p-type SiC using NiAl2.6% as an ohmic metal.

Background: Paris polyphylla var. Yunnanensis (PPY) is used in the clinical treatment of tumors, hemorrhages, and anthelmintic. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine total flavonoids of PPY in the Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, China. Methods: In this study, total flavonoids were determined by UV spectrophotometry at first. Then, Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-IR) based on various pretreatments include standard normal variate (SNV), first derivative (FD), second derivative (SD), Savitzky-Golay (SG), and orthogonal signal correction (OSC) were investigated. In addition, several relevant variables were screened by competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS). The contentof total flavonoids and selected variables of FT-IRwere used to establish a partial least squares regression for PPY in different regions. Results: The results indicated that CARS was an effective method for decreasing the variable of thedatabase and improving the prediction of the model.FT-IR with pretreatment SNV + OSC + FD + SG had thebest performance, with R2 > 0.9 and residual predictive deviation = 3.3515, which could be used forthe predictive model of total flavonoids. Conclusions: Those results would provide a fast and robust strategy for the determination of total flavonoids of PPY in different geographical origin. Highlights: Various pretreatments, including SNV, FD, SD, SG, and OSC, were compared; several relevant variables were selected by CARS; and the content of total flavonoids and selected variable were used to establish a partial leastsquares regression for PPY in different regions.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Paris L. (Liliaceae) consisted of 33 species, of which the study focused on Paris polyphylla Smith, P. polyphylla var. chinensis (Franch.) Hara, and P. polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis (Franch.) Hand. -Mazz. Due of course to the good effects of analgesia and hemostasis, it was traditionally used to treat trauma by folk herbalists. Aim of this review This study summarized the traditional uses, distributions, phytochemical components, pharmacological properties, and toxicity evaluation of the genus Paris, and reviewed the economic value of cultivate P. polyphylla. This aim was that of providing a new and comprehensive recognition of these medicinal plants for the further utilization of Paris plants. Materials and methods The literature about traditional and folk uses of genus Paris was obtained from Duxiu Search, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The other literature about genus Paris was searched online on Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, Baidu Scholar, Scifinder database, and Springer research. The Scientific Database of China Plant Species (DCP) ( http://db.kib.ac.cn/Default.aspx ) databases were used to check the scientific names and provide species, varieties, and distribution of genus Paris. The botany studies information of genus Paris was available online from Plant Plus of China ( www.iplant.cn ). All the molecular structures of chemical compounds displayed in the text were produced by ChemBioDraw Ultra 14.0. Results The plants of genus Paris, containing about 33 species and 15 varieties, are mainly distributed in Southwest China (Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces). More than 320 chemical components have been isolated from genus Paris since 2020, including steroidal saponins, C-21 steroids, phytosterols, insect hormones, pentacyclic triterpenes, flavonoids, and other compounds. Arrays of pharmacological investigations revealed that compounds and extracts of Paris species possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological effects, such as antitumor, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antifungal, hemostatic, and anti-inflammatory activities. The studies about toxicity evaluation suggested that Rhizome Paridis had slight liver toxicity. Conclusions The dried rhizomes of P. polyphylla, P. polyphylla var. chinensis, and P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis were used to treat wound, bleeding, and stomachache, etc. in folk medicine. Phytochemistry researches showed that different species had pretty similarities especially in terms of chemical constituents. Pharmacological studies witnessed that Rhizome Paridis has various activities. Among these activities, steroidal saponins were the main active ingredients. Furthermore, an important aspect responsible for increasing interest in genus Paris is the use of antifertility-nonhormonal contraceptives by women. Also, the development of TCM (Traditional Chinese medicine) planting industry can improve the income of ethnic minorities and promote economic development.

There are a limited number of studies comparing outcomes of busulfan (BU)-based myeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using unmanipulated haploidentical donors (HIDs), HLA-matched unrelated donors (MUDs), and HLA-matched sibling related donors (MSDs) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with complete remission (CR) status. With this background, we compared outcomes among 377 cases of CR following consecutive HID-HSCT for AML (CR) to 86 MUD and 92 MSD-HSCT cases. All patients received BU-based myeloablative conditioning and an unmanipulated graft within the same period. The median patient age was 23 years (range 1.1 to 65 years), and 230 patients (41.4%) were under age18. Among the 555 patients, 432 (77.8%) were of intermediate cytogenetic risk and 123 (22.2%) were of adverse risk. A total of 113 patients (20.5%) had FLT3-ITD+ AML, 425 patients (76.6%) were in first complete remission (CR1) post-transplant, and 130 (23.4%) patients were in second CR (CR2). GVHD prophylaxis included mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), cyclosporine-A (CSA) with short-term methotrexate (MTX) for HID, and MUD-HSCT. MMF is not used for MSD-HSCT. The median survival follow-up time was 42 months (range 18-91 months). The 3-year leukemia-free survival (LFS) among the HID, MUD, and MSD cohorts was 73.8% ± 4.8%, 66.4% ± 8.5%, 74.5% ± 2.4%, respectively (P = 0.637). Three-year overall survival (OS) was 74.9% ± 2.4%, 81.8% ± 4.3%, and 77.5% ± 4.5% among the HID, MUD, and MSD cohorts, respectively (P = 0.322). There were no difference among the relapse rate among the HID, MUD, and MSD donor cohorts (14.3% ± 4.0% vs 20.3% ± 6.4% vs 14.5% ± 2.2, respectively; P = 0.851) or the non-relapse mortality (NRM) (12.3% ± 3.5% vs 9.5% ± 3.2% vs 14.0% ± 1.8%, respectively; P = 0.441). Multivariate analyses showed that MRD-positive pre-HSCT was the only risk factor associated with a lower OS and LFS and higher risk of relapse among all 555 patients. Compared with the use of a MUD or MSD, an HID for HSCT had similar outcomes among AML patients with CR states who underwent an allo-HSCT with BU-based myeloablative conditioning. MFC-MRD-positive pre-HSCT was an independent negative factor impact on outcomes for AML patients in CR. We conclude that for AML patients who do not have a MSD or if an urgent transplant is required, HSCT from an HID is a valid option.

Objectives Single-port thoracoscopic lobectomy is a new therapeutic technique for patients with lung cancer; however, insufficient data are available regarding its clinical outcomes. We therefore compared the clinical outcomes of single-port and two-port thoracoscopic lobectomies for lung cancer. Methods We retrospectively analyzed and compared the data of 204 and 368 patients with lung cancer who underwent single-port or two-port thoracoscopic lobectomy, respectively, between October 2014 and October 2017 at our institution. Patients in both groups underwent 1:1 propensity score matching, and 400 patients (200 patients in each group) were included. Perioperative clinical indicators were analyzed, including operation time, lymph node dissection stations and numbers, incidence of postoperative complications, and pain scores at 24 h, 72 h, and 1 week after surgery. Results No perioperative deaths occurred in either group. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, chest drainage duration, duration of postoperative hospital stay, lymph node dissection station and number, rate of conversion to open surgery, number of ruptured intraoperative pulmonary vessel, and incidence of postoperative complications were not significantly different between the groups (all P > 0.05). However, analysis of the 24-h (P = 0.005), 72-h (P = 0.011), and 1-week (P = 0.034) visual analog scale score after surgery revealed that the postoperative pain levels were significantly lower in the single-port than in the two-port group. Conclusions Single-port and two-port thoracoscopic lobectomies had similar perioperative outcomes, although the postoperative pain was lower after single-port than two-port thoracoscopic lobectomy. Hence, we concluded that single-port thoracoscopic lobectomy is an effective, minimally invasive, and promising surgical procedure.

Prior studies have suggested that for leukemia patients with high-risk features, haplo-identical-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HID-HSCT) has a stronger anti-leukemia effect compared with HSCT using an identical sibling donor (ISD-HSCT). However, it is unclear whether an HID-HSC transplant also augments the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect among refractory/relapsed (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients who are not in remission (NR). We conducted a retrospective analysis of 124 R/R AML patients with NR status who underwent HID-HSCT between April 2012 and December 2016 and compared these to 27 R/R AML patients who underwent an ISD-HSCT within the same timeframe. Among all of the patients, 68 (45.0%) had primary induction failure (PIF) and 83 (54.9%) were relapsed and had failed to respond to at least one cycle of salvage combination chemotherapy. Myeloablative conditioning regimens were administered to all patients. Here, we present a retrospective multivariate analysis of pre-transplantation risk factors and characteristics of all 151 patients and developed a predictive scoring system to predict patient survival. The median period of follow-up was 46 months for all patients. The HID cohort had a higher 5-year overall survival (OS) compared with the ISD cohort (48.6% ± 4.6% vs 25.9% ± 8.4, respectively; P = 0.017) and higher LFS (leukemia-free survival) (41.6% ± 7.5% vs 25.9% ± 8.4%, respectively; P = 0.019). There was no difference in the 5-year cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality (NRM) (18.0% ± 3.8% and 34.9% ± 12.6%, respectively; P = 0.212) between the two group. However, the 5-year cumulative incidence of relapse (CIRs) was lower in the HID group compared with the ISD group (55.4% ± 8.9% vs 67.3% ± 9.9%, respectively; P = 0.021). Multivariate analysis showed three risk factors associated with OS and LFS: (1) ISD-HSCT, (2) use of a standardized conditioning regimen, and (3) less than 50% proportional reduction of blast cells in the bone marrow (BM). Based on these three risk factors, we developed a predictive scoring system for R/R AML patients undergoing HSCT. Patients who had a predictive score of 0 and 1 had a 66.6% ± 4.5% and 44.1% ± 3.6% OS rate at 5 years, respectively. Patients with a score ≥ 2 had only a 4.4 ± 0.2% OS rate at 5 years. An HID-HSCT had a better anti-leukemia effect among R/R AML patients with an NR status compared with an ISD-HSCT. We also identified pre-transplantation risk factors to delineate subgroups that could derive maximal benefit from HSCT.

Secoiridoids could be used as a potential new drug for the treatment of hepatic disease. The content of secoiridoids of G. rigescens varied in different geographical origins and parts. In this study, a total of 783 samples collected from different parts of G. rigescens in Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou Provinces. The content of secoiridoids including gentiopicroside, swertiamarin, and sweroside were determined by using HPLC and analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. Two selected variables including direct selected and variable importance in projection combined with partial least squares regression have been used to establish a method for the determination of secoiridoids using FT-IR spectroscopy. In addition, different pretreatments including multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), standard normal variate (SNV), first derivative and second derivative (SD), and orthogonal signal correction (OSC) were compared. The results indicated that the sample (root, stem, and leaf) with total secoiridoids, gentiopicroside, swertiamarin, and sweroside from west Yunnan had higher content than samples from the other regions. The sample from Baoshan had more total secoiridoids than other samples for the whole medicinal plant. The best performance using FT-IR for the total secoiridoid was with the direct selected variable method involving pretreatment of MSC+OSC+SD in the root and stem, while in leaf, of the best method involved using original data with MSC+OSC+SD. This method could be used to determine the bioactive compounds quickly for herbal medicines.

Agroforestry system, as the most promising substitute plantation approach, has been widely regarded as a prominent strategy for mitigating the conflicts between rapid growing population and limited arable land resources. This paper aims to screen the optimal planting pattern for Gentiana rigescens base on the content of gentiopicroside, providing the scientific basis for sustainable supply and application of this plant. Generally, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is effective to integrally monitor and reflect the whole constituents of natural materials. FTIR combined with chemometrics was used for distinguishing the G. rigescens from different compound planting models in this research. The result of partial least square discriminant analysis implied that planting year of G. rigescens had a greater impact on the content of gentiopicroside than that of Camellia sinensis. The gentiopicroside content in 1.5- or 2-year-old G. rigescens was higher. Wavelet denoising was effective for the classification. Samples which had higher contents of gentiopicroside were clustered together relatively, while those with lower contents of gentiopicroside were classified into the other large category. Our investigation revealed that G. rigescens can be successfully cultivated with C. sinensis, which met the requirement of the gentiopicroside content recommended by Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China. That 2-year-old G. rigescens grown with 12-year-old C. sinensis was the optimal compound planting pattern, according this study. The present study provided the optimal compound planting pattern of G. rigescens, which is helpful for improving land-use efficiency and economic returns.

Dried sclerotium of Wolfiporia cocos (F.A. Wolf) Ryvarden & Gilb. is a traditional Chinese medicine. Its chemical components showed difference among geographical origins, which made it difficult to keep therapeutic potency consistent. The identification of the geographical origin of W. cocos is the fundamental prerequisite for its worldwide recognition and acceptance. Four variable selection methods were employed for near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) variable selection and the characteristic variables were screened for the establishment of Fisher function models in further identification of the origin of W. cocos from Yunnan, China. For the obvious differences between poriae cutis (fu-ling-pi in Chinese, or FLP) and the inner part (bai-fu-ling in Chinese, or BFL) of the sclerotia of W. cocos in the pattern space of principal component analysis (PCA), we established discriminant models for FLP and BFL separately. Through variable selection, the models were significant improved and also the models were simplified by using only a small part of the variables. The characteristic variables were screened (13 for BFL and 10 for FLP) to build Fisher discriminant function models and the validation results showed the models were reliable and effective. Additionally, the characteristic variables were interpreted.

Background: Air-leak syndrome (ALS) occurs when there is leakage of gas from the alveoli, which results in clinical symptoms including cough and sputum, dyspnea, and hypoxemia. ALS is rare but potentially life-threatening in patients who have received an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and is an independent prognosis factor of patients undergoing HSCT. However, the clinical features and risk factors for post-transplant ALS among pediatric patients have rarely been explored. Aims: This study analyzed the clinical characteristics, risk factors, clinical treatment options and prognosis to provide a scientific basis for ALS prevention and treatment for pediatric patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients who were diagnosed with ALS following allo-HSCT between January 2013 and December 2019 at the Hebei Yanda Lu Daopei Hospital, and analyzed the role of ALS in the prognosis of the HSCT. Results: A total of 2026 pediatric patients received an HSCT between January 2013 and December 2019. The ALS incidence rate was 1.4% (28 of 2,206 patients) with a survival rate of 64.3% (10 of 28 patients). The median overall survival (OS) time was 429 days (range: 55-1614 days). Sixteen patients were males and 12 were female. The median patients age was 12 years old (range: 1-16 years), and the median follow-up time was 871 days (range: 55-2973 days).We divided ALS into two categories: 15 cases of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) and 13 cases of idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS). There was a significant difference in OS between the twogroups (80% among BOS patients versus 46% among IPS patients; P=0.037). Logical regression analysis showed that gender, an unmatched transplant donor and recipients (P=0.049), time to first occurrence of graft-versus-host disease after transplantation (P=0.021), and dosage of methylprednisolone >0.5mg/kg at the onset of ALS (P=0.049), were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in ALS. In addition, we found fluticasone, azithromycin, and montelukast (FAM) could significantly improve the prognosis following ALS (P=0.005). Compared with IPS, our results showed that some patients with BOS may benefit from imatinib (P=0.055), ruxolitinib (P=0.009), or pirfenidone (P=0.044). Conclusion: ALS is a rare manifestation of pulmonary complications following HSCT among pediatric patients. Our analysis demonstrates that early diagnosis and FAM treatment may improve the survival rate of ALS following HSCT among pediatric patients. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Background Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is an important infectious complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) due to the immune-suppressive state of the transplant recipient. Patients are likely to be resistant to traditional antiviral drugs, such as ganciclovir and foscarnet, or have intolerable adverse reactions to these drugs, including bone marrow suppression and nephrotoxicity. CMV-specific CD8 + and CD4 + T-cell functional defects are the main reasons for the emergence of refractory CMV infection. Thus, it is possible to cure refractory CMV infection using CMV-specific TCR-T cell therapy via a direct antiviral effect and indirect T cell mediated immune reconstruction. Objectives and Methods We conducted a single-arm, open-label, phase I clinical trial (https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT04153279) at the Hebei Yanda Lu Daopei Hospital. This study was designed to assess the safety and feasibility of CMV-specific TCR-T cell therapy in allo-HSCT patients with refractory CMV viremia or viral disease. We screened multiple TCRs with specificity for CMV-PP65 or IE1 polypeptides restricted by HLA-A*11:01, 24:02 and 02:01, and constructed lentiviral vectors containing CMV-specific TCRs. Peripheral blood (PB) stem cells were obtained from healthy HSCT donors for the TCR-T cell preparation. After stimulation for 24 hours, T-cells were infected with lentivirus carrying HLA-matched CMV TCR, then cultured with medium containing IL-7/IL-15 for a total of 7-9 days before harvest. After infusion, CMV TCR-T cell proliferation and persistence in PB was detected by Q-PCR. Results From December 24, 2019 to January 1, 2021, 9 patients were enrolled and as a result 7 patients including 5 with refractory CMV viremia and 2 with CMV disease successfully received the TCR-T therapy. Among the 7 patients who received TCR-T, the median age was 11 years (5-45 years of age) and 5 were male (71.4%). The diagnosis included 5 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 1 case of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and 1 case of mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) . Patients underwent either haplo-identical transplantation (n=6) or unrelated donor transplantation (n=1). The median time for patients to CMV viremia diagnosis was 28 days (21-231 days). Patients received a median dose of 3 × 10 5 TCR-T cells/kg body weight (1-10 × 10 5 TCR-T cells/kg body weight). The mean proportion of CMV-specific TCR-T in the cultured cell products was 35.5% (18.0-68.9%). Among the 7 patients, successful follow up and data evaluation was available for 6 patients. One patient (P3) withdrew early due to uncontrolled lung infection. The median follow-up time for the entire cohort after HSCT was 199 days (144-479 days). Only 1 patient experienced Grade 1/2 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) with mild hypotension and fever. No immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) or TCR-T cell-related graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurred in any patient. A total of 6 patients achieved complete response (CMV DNA-negative plasma) after TCR-T cell infusion. The median time from CMV-specific TCR-T infusion to the first CMV clearance was 41 days (19-91 days). The median time for CMV TCR-T cells to reach their first peak was 21 days (10-28 days) with a median copy number of 3.85×10 4 copies/μg genomic DNA (range: 1.93×10 4-7.75×10 4 copies/μg DNA) (Figure 1). CMV TCR T-cells persisted up to 3 months with detectable copy number. The levels of cytokines IL-2, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8 and IFN-γ in PB were relatively low. Conclusion This study demonstrates the safety and feasibility of CMV-specific TCR-T cells for refractory CMV infection after HSCT. We show that adoptive transfer of CMV-specific TCR-T cells can lead to complete CMV clearance in patients who have undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and with good tolerability and safety. Longer-term observation of these patients and larger patient studies are warranted to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of CMV TCR-T cells. Given that immune defect-related CMV infections are common and life threatening for HSCT patients, we see a potential future for CMV-specific TCR-T cell therapy for the treatment and prevention of CMV infection following HSCT or other organ transplantation. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

DNTT encodes the most template-independent DNA polymerases TdT. The canonical function of TdT is to boost the diversity of immunoglobulin and T cell receptors by incorporating non-templated nucleotides (NTN) to their variable regions via RAG1/2 mediated DNA breaks and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) rearrangement process. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between aberrant DNTT expression and illegitimately TdT-aided microhomology-mediated replication-dependent recombination (MMRDR) with the mutagenesis of gene length mutations (LMs) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and their prognosis relevance. A cohort of 578 AML cases was enrolled. Fifty healthy donors for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), 393 B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) cases, 78 T-ALL cases, and 25 mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) cases were used as control. Next-generation sequencing was performed for mutation analysis of 86 leukemia driver genes. RNA-seq was used to analyze the expression of DNTT and other non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) associated genes. Prognostic was investigated in a subset of 239 AML cases who underwent anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) or anti-lymphocyte globulin (ALG) based regimen allo-HSCT. Based on sequence anatomy that considers the MMRDR mechanism and nucleotides characteristics of TdT mediated NTN incorporation, we formulate a classification algorithm for LMs and divide them into four subtypes (type I-IV). Type-I indicates pure duplicated/triplicated germline sequences with identifiable ≥2bp canonical triple microhomology (MH) sequences; type-II indicates pure duplicated/triplicated germline sequences without ≥2bp canonical MH sequences; type-III indicates any LMs with NTN insertions; type-IV indicates any other LMs, mainly deletions. FLT3-LMs has the highest overall incidence and occur across multiple lineage leukemias. We observed a significant FLT3-LMs subtypes distribution bias among acute leukemia subtypes (Figure 1A). Type-I FLT3 LMs are only observed in AML; there are mainly type-III FLT3 LMs in T-ALL and MPAL; type-II, III, IV FLT3 LMs are predominant in B-ALL. The overall DNTT expression was significantly lower in AML than in other leukemia subtypes and control groups (P < 0.001). This supports that FLT3-LMs subtypes distribution bias might be attributed to the difference in the overall DNTT expression among leukemia lineages. A total of 458 LMs events were observed in 295 cases (51.0%) within 25 genes (FLT3, NPM1, CEBPA, RUNX1, KIT, etc.) in our AML cohort. The incidence of type-II and type-III LMs, both of which the mutagenesis relies on TdT-aided MMRDR in theoretically speculate, were 31.2 % and 47.8 %, respectively. Type-I and type-II, which manifested as pure germline sequence duplications, account for 43.6% of the FLT3 LMs; type-III LMs, which with additional inserted NTN sequences, account for as high as 50.4% of the FLT3 LMs. We analyzed the G/C nucleotide contents adjacent to LMs junctions. A significantly high G/C bias was observed at +1 nucleotide position in type-II and type-III subsets (Figure 1B), suggesting that the TdT-aided MMRDR mechanism plays a role in the mutagenesis in these cases. We also observed a strong positive correlation between fragment length and G/C content of the inserted NTN sequences (P < 0.001) within the type-III subset of the 25 LMs genes (Figure 1C), suggesting a higher TdT activity mediates longer inserted sequences. DNTT expressions level of type-III LMs cases were significantly higher than that of type-I, II, IV LMs cases and cases without LMs in the total 25 LMs genes (Figure 1D) and the FLT3 LMs subset. Similar expression signatures of other NHEJ associated genes RAG2, XRCC4, and XRCC6 were also observed. For the survival analysis in the ATG/ALG based regimen allo-HSCT AML subset, we observed a significantly better overall survival (P = 0.024) in cases positive for type-III FLT3-LMs than that of type-I, II (Figure 1E). In this study, we proposed a subclassification algorithm for LMs (type I-IV) in AML. Both DNTT gene expression and sequence character suggesting that TdT-aided MMRDR plays a role in the mutagenesis of type-III and type-II LMs. We also observed AML cases with type-III FLT3 LMs benefit more from ATG/ALG based regimen allo-HSCT than cases with other FLT3 LMs types, which may be attributed to the aberrant lymphoid lineage antigen expression. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis, as perennial plants, its quality is closely related to growth period. Different harvest years determine the dry matter accumulation of its medicinal parts and the dynamic accumulation of active ingredients, as well as its economic value and medicinal value. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a systematic evaluation method for the identification and evaluation of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis with different growth years. Deep learning has a powerful ability in recognition. This study extends it to the identification analysis of medicinal plants from the perspective of spectrum. For the first time, two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) based on the attenuated total reflection Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) combined with residual neural network (Resnet) was used to identify growth years. 525 samples were collected, 4725 2DCOS images were drawn, and the dry matter accumulation in rhizomes of different growth years and different sampling sites were briefly analyzed. The results show that the eight-year-old P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis in Dali has higher economic value and medicinal value. The synchronous 2DCOS models based on ATR-FTIR can realize the identification of growth years with accuracy of 100%. Synchronous 2DCOS are more suitable for the identification of medicinal plants with complex systems. 2DCOS images with different colors and second derivative processing cannot optimize the modeling results. In summary, the method we established is innovative and feasible. It not only solved the identification of growth years, expanded the application field of deep learning, but could also be extended to further research on other medicinal plants.

Gentiana rigescens is a medicinal plant for treatment of rheumatism, convulsions, and jaundice. The present paper reports the potential for chemometric characterization of G. rigescens using ultrav...

A plant's morphology changes throughout its ontogeny. Investigating the allometric relationships between different morphological traits could provide useful information for cultivation of medicinal plants. Here we collected 698 individuals of Panax notoginseng for allometric analysis from seven populations cultivated in Yunnan, Southwest China. The slopes and intercepts of the allometric relationships were estimated by Standardized Major Axis regression. Significant differences (p

Introduction SIL-TAL1 rearrangement is relatively common among patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Pediatric patients with SIL-TL1 positive T-ALL generally have a poor response to early intensive treatment and a lower median relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates compared to pediatric T-ALL patients who do not harbor the SIL-TAL1 gene fusion. Therefore, we explored the clinical effect of haploid transplantation among pediatric SIL-TAL1-gene fusion positive T-ALL and aimed to identify potential patient prognostic factors. M ethods We performed a retrospective analysis of 21 children with SIL-TAL1 gene fusion positive T-ALL who underwent haploidentical transplantation at the Lu Daopei Hospital in Langfang, China between July 2014 and June 2020. The median patient age was 9 years (range: 1.6 to 18 years), the male to female ratio was 19:2, and the median white blood cell count at initial onset was 193.65×109/L (range: 3.6-582.17×109/L). Prior to transplantation, 18 patients were bone marrow minimal residual disease (MRD) negative, three patients were bone marrow MRD-positive and the overall median value for MRD positivity by flow cytometry was 0.05% (range: 0.03%-0.35%). Eighteen patients were SIL-TAL1 gene fusion negative and three patients were SIL-TAL1 gene fusion positive prior to transplantation. The quantitative median number is 0.04% (range: 0.033%-0.05%). 13 patients with CR1 and 8 patients with CR2. 11 of 21 patients harbored the SIL-TAL1 gene fusion along with at least one other gene mutation. All patients were given myeloablative pretreatment, of which 17 patients received cyclophosphamide/total body irradiation (TBI/Cy) and 4 patients received Busulfan/cyclophosphamide (Bu/Cy). The median follow-up time was 9.5 months (range: 2 to 51 months). Results The white blood cells (WBCs) of 21 patients were all completely engrafted , two patients did not have platelet engraftment . At one month after transplantation, all patients were bone marrow MRD negative and the quantification of SIL-TAL1 fusion gene was 0% among all the patients. For 20 of these 21 patients, the chimerism rate of peripheral blood CD3+ cells and bone marrow was 100% donor type. The 4-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rate were 56.5% and 55.1%, respectively (Figure 1). Causes of death were recurrence (5 patients all of whom had bone marrow recurrence), infection (3 patients) and alveolar hemorrhage after reinfusion (1 patient). Six patients relapsed after transplantation with a median time to relapse of 90 days (range: 54-180 days). The OS rate following transplantation in the CR1 group was higher than in the CR2 groups (69.2% vs 31.3%, respectively) but there was no statistical difference between the two groups (P=0.147) (Figure 2). The OS rate of MRD-negative patients and MRD-positive patients prior to transplantation was 58.4% and 33.4% respectively, (P=0.287) (Figure 3). Prior to transplantation, the OS rate of SIL-TAL1 gene fusion-negative patients was 64.3%, while the OS rate of SIL-TAL1 gene fusion-positive patients was 0.0%--the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0.001) (Figure 4). The OS rate of 11 patients that harbored the SIL-TAL1 gene fusion along with another gene mutation was 47.7% (Figure 5). Among these 11 patients, the OS rate of 9 patients who switched from SIL-TAL1 positive to SIL-TAL1 negative prior to transplantation was 58.3%. In contrast, two patients that remained SIL-TAL1 gene fusion positive had an OS rate of 0% (P=0.027) (Figure 6). Conclusion Pediatric T-ALL patients harboring the SIL-TAL1 gene fusion achieved a higher OS rate through haploid transplantation and were able to avoid extramedullary recurrence. We conclude that if patients with the SIL-TAL1 gene fusion do not switch to SIL-TAL1-negative prior to transplantation, we showed that even if the myeloablative pretreatment program is adopted, the survival rate cannot be improved, and the mortality rate is 100%. Harboring another gene mutation besides SIL-TAL1 at the initial onset of disease did not affect the prognosis in our cohort analysis. We conclude that for pediatric T-ALL patients, intensive chemotherapy should be adopted to make the bone marrow MRD negative and SIL-TAL1 gene fusion negative, and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation should be performed as soon as possible to improve OS. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Introduction Current available treatments are limited once patients with B-ALL relapse following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy offers a chance of remission, long-term outcomes for these patients remain poor. The benefit of bridging into a second transplant after CAR T-cell therapy remains inconclusive and available data are limited. Here, we report the long-term outcomes of 23 B-ALL patients who chose to undergo a second allo-HSCT after achieving complete remission (CR) from CAR T-cell therapy. Methods From April 2017 to April 2020, 23 R/R B-ALL patients (median age of 20 years, ranging from 3 to 58 years) who relapsed after first allo-HSCT received CAR T-cell therapy. The data were aggregated from seven different clinical trials (www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT03173417, NCT02546739 NCT03825718, NCT03825731, NCT03952923, NCT04100187 and www.chictr.org.cn ChiCTR1800016541). Patients' first transplant sources were HLA-identical sibling (n=5), matched-unrelated donor (MUD) (n=1), and haploidentical donors (haplo) (n=17). Eight of the 23 patients had disease relapse within 6 months following the first transplant. The median time from first transplant to CAR T-cell infusion was 261days (range: 117~2181 days). Before CAR T-cell infusion, patients' median bone marrow (BM) blasts by morphology were about 72.5% (1.5%-94.5%) including 12 patients with BM blasts >70% (5 with BM blasts >90%). Three of the 23 patients (13%) had received at least one prior donor lymphocyte infusion. No patients had active graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prior to CAR T-cell therapy. Second generation CAR T-cells were generated by using purified T-cells from transplant donors (n=15) or patients (n=8). Twenty-two patients received T-cells modified with CD19-targeting CAR T-cells containing either a 4-1BB (n=18) or a CD28 co-stimulatory domain (n=4), and one patient received CD19-CD22 dual specificity CAR T-cells. All patients received a conditioning regimen of IV fludarabine (30mg/m2/d) and cyclophosphamide (250mg/m2/d) for 3 days followed by a single CAR T-cell infusion with a median dose of 3×105 cells/kg (1×105-6×105 cells/kg) in 21 patients. Two patients received a second CAR T-cell infusion in 2-3 months (1/3×105 cells/kg dose). Post CAR-T therapy, all patients bridged into a consolidation second transplantation with conventional myeloablative pre-transplantation conditioning regimens including 15 patients who received total body irradiation-based and 7 patients that received a busulfan-based conditioning regimen. Cyclosporin A, short-term methotrexate, and mycophenolate mofetil were used for GVHD prophylaxis. Results Patients' characteristics are shown in Table 1. On Day 30 post CAR-T-cell infusion, 23/23 (100%) patients achieved minimal residual disease (MRD)-negative CR. A total of 16/23 (69.6%) patients developed cytokine release syndrome (CRS) of which 14/23 (60.9%) had Grade I-II and 2/23 (8.7%) had Grade III CRS. Two patients had Grade III neurotoxicity. All patients with MRD-negative status subsequently bridged into a second transplant (2 from MUD and 21 from haplo donors) with a median interval time of 67 days (39- 329 days) from CAR T-cell therapy to a second transplant. At a median follow-up time of 258 days (84-978 days), no patients relapsed, which was encouraging. Five of 23 patients (21.7%) died from transplant-related mortality (TRM) at a median time of 295 days (103-372 days) (1 from GVHD and 4 from infection). The 1-year overall survival (OS) was 68.0% and 2-year OS was 54.4% (Fig.1). While there was a trend towards a more efficacious OS for patients whose CAR T-cells were derived from donors rather than from patients themselves but the number are too small to reach statistical significance (1-year OS 83.9% vs. 64.3%, 2-year OS 83.9% vs. 42.9%, P=0.739. Fig.2). After the 2nd transplant, four patients developed GVHD. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that even for R/R B-ALL patients who have relapsed following a first allo-HSCT , an MRD-negative CR status can still be achieved through CAR T-cell cell therapy without increasing CRS or neurotoxicity, making consolidation second allo-HSCT feasible for these patients. CAR T-cell therapy combined with a consolidation second HSCT are effective for these heavily pre-treated patients with an encouraging prospect for long-term survival. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

A great amount of phenolic compounds are considered as carcinogens even at low concentrations and they are highly toxic and widely coexist in effluent discharges. It is a very meaningful work to respectively separate a few trace phenolic compounds from their aqueous solution by foam fractionation. The studies of surface activity and surface excess revealed that catechol had a stronger competitive adsorption on the bubble surface than phenol by using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a collector. A two-stage batch foam fractionation technology was developed for the respective separation of catechol and phenol from their diluted aqueous solution. In the first stage batch foam fractionation, catechol was effectively separated with a high enrichment ratio of 32.2 and a high removal percentage of 90.25% while the removal percentage of phenol was only 2.32% under the suitable operating conditions. A high selectivity coefficient of catechol over phenol could reach 35.25. Then, phenol existed in the residual solution, which was used as the feeding solution in the second stage. In the second stage batch foam fractionation, the small bubbles were used to enhance the adsorption of phenol. At the same time, the foam fractionation column of an inclined foam phase was used to enhance foam drainage and then phenol was effectively removed with a high enrichment ratio of 44.4 and a high removal percentage of 90.23% under the suitable operating conditions. The results indicated that it was practicable to successfully and respectively separate catechol and phenol from their aqueous solution by using the two-stage batch foam fractionation.

This study aimed to analyze the concentrations of 10 elements in 19 species of herbs related to medical and edible purpose in Yunnan, China. Microwave-assisted acid digestion was used for all of the dried herbs and element contents were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The accuracy of this method was validated by analyzing GBW07605 certified reference material. The results indicated that the distributions of element contents were varied over a wide range in the specimens tested. The decreasing sequence of average element content expressed as dry weight was presented as follows: calcium (1740–22,246 µg/g dry weight), magnesium (634–6367 µg/g dry weight), iron (52.8–5707 µg/g dry weight), barium (9.19–465 µg/g dry weight), zinc (10.7–82.1 µg/g dry weight), strontium (8.25–69.8 µg/g dry weight), copper (4.10–36.6 µg/g dry weight), chromium (0.26–13.3 µg/g dry weight), nickel (0.57–14.7 µg/g dry weight), and cadmium (0.11–2.66 µg/g dry weight). The element content...