Impact of a Clinical Pathway on Hospital Costs, Length of Stay and Early Outcomes after Hepatectomy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Zhu, Liang,Li, Jun,Li, Xiao-Kang,Feng, Jun-Qiang,Gao, Jian-Min Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.13

Background: A clinical pathway (CP) can standardize and improve perioperative care for a number of interventions. In hepatic surgery, however, pertinent evidence is very limited. This study was conducted to implement a CP for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients undergoing hepatectomy, and to evaluate its effects on hospital costs, length of hospital stay (LOHS) and early clinical outcomes. Materials and Methods: Medical records for HCC patients undergoing hepatectomy were retrospectively reviewed before implementation of a CP (the non-CP group) from March 2012 to August 2012. This information was compared with the data collected prospectively from patients after implementation of the CP (the CP group) between September 2012 and April 2013. Hospital costs, LOHS and early clinical outcomes were evaluated and compared between groups. Results: There were no significant differences in terms of patient clinical characteristics between the two groups. For clinical outcome measures, no significant differences were found in postoperative complications, mortality and readmission rate. The hospital costs were significantly reduced from 24,844 RMB in the non-CP group to 19,761 RMB in the CP group (p<0.01). In addition, patients of the CP group also had shorter LOHS compared with the non-CP group (8.3 versus 12.3 days, p<0.001). Conclusions: The CP proved to be an effective approach to minimize hospital costs and LOHS with hepatectomy for HCC without compromising patient care.

The Design of Fingerprint Identification System based on Improved Binarization Algorithm

Zhu Heng-jun,Guo Ying,Zhang nan-nan,Liang Hong 보안공학연구지원센터 2014 International Journal of Security and Its Applicat Vol.8 No.6

Effect of temperature on the development of Echinothrips americanus Morgan (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) with special reference to the number of generations

Liang Zhu,Ze-Hua Wang,Ya-Jun Gong,Li-Jun Cao,Shu-Jun Wei 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.4

The thrips Echinothrips americanus Morgan (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) was recently reported in China. The effect of temperature on its development was investigated and the potential area of further dispersal was predicted by estimation of its generations in China. First instar larvae developed to adults on green peppers Capsicum anuum at all constant temperatures (16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31 and 34 °C) except for 34 °C, at which they developed only as far as the second instar. The percentage surviving of immature stages were not significantly different at the other six temperatures (range 32.10%–52.72%). The developmental times from egg to adult ranged from 11.68 to 45.13 days and were negatively correlated with temperature. There were significant differences between male and female immature stages in their developmental time at 22 °C and 25 °C. Regression analysis indicated that both the Lactin and linear models could describe the relationship between developmental rate and temperature for immature stages but a slightly higher coefficient of determination was obtained with the Lactin model. The high-temperature threshold and the optimum temperature for development were 32.04 °C and 31.79 °C, respectively, estimated by the Lactin model. The low-temperature threshold for development was 11.35 °C and thermal constant was 229.76 degree-days for immature stages, estimated by the linear model. The models predicted that E. americanus could have produced 8–10 generations per year under field conditions in Beijing (N39°56′, E116°17′) and Yangling (N34°12′, E108°7′) from 2002 to 2012. The potential risk posed by E. americanus to crops in different regions of China was discussed.

Correlations of Fecal Bacterial Communities with Age and Living Region for the Elderly Living in Bama, Guangxi, China

Liang Zhao,Xuewei Qiao,Jun Zhu,Xiaoying Zhang,Jingli Jiang,Yanling Hao,Fazheng Ren 한국미생물학회 2011 The journal of microbiology Vol.49 No.2

Bama County (Guangxi, China) is famous for its longevous population. In this study, intestinal microflora of 17 healthy elderly subjects of different ages and from different regions (rural and urban) in Bama,were analyzed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Significant effects of age and living region on the whole intestinal bacterial communities were observed by redundancy analysis (RDA). A total of 11 bacterial strains that were correlated with age and living region were identified using a t-value biplot combined with band sequencing. Four bacterial strains were correlated with both age and living region of the elderly in Bama. Two Bacteroides strains and one Ruminococcaceae strain were abundant in the rural, younger elderly; conversely, one Desulfovibrio strain was high in the urban, older elderly. Another Bacteroidetes strain was only correlated with the participant’s age, and its abundance increased with the age of the elderly. The richness of one Clostridium sordellii strain, which was only correlated with the elderly living region, was high in the urban elderly. The study also found five other novel bacterial strains that were correlated with the age or living region of the elderly in Bama. These results expand our understanding of age- and region-effects on the intestinal microflora of the elderly and raise the possibility of developing probiotics originating from centenarians.

Reduction of the contact resistance in copper phthalocyanine thin film transistor with UV/ozone treated Au electrodes

Jun Li,Liang Zhang,Xiao-Wen Zhang,Hao Zhang,Xue-Yin Jiang,Dong-bin Yu,Wen-Qing Zhu,Zhi-Lin Zhang 한국물리학회 2010 Current Applied Physics Vol.10 No.5

Bottom-contact (BC) copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) thin film transistor with UV/ozone treated Au as a source/drain electrode was fabricated and the contact resistance was estimated from the transmission line method (TLM). Comparing the properties of OTFT with untreated Au electrode, the performance of the BC CuPc-TFT with the UV/ozone treated Au electrodes was significantly improved: saturation mobility increased from 4.69 × 10−3 to 2.37 × 10−2 ㎠/V s, threshold voltage reduced from −29.1 to −6.4 V, and threshold swing varied from 5.08 to 2.25 V/decade. The contact resistance of the device with UV/ozone treated Au electrodes was nearly 20 times smaller than that of the device with untreated Au electrodes at the gate voltage of −20 V. This result indicated that using the UV/ozone treated Au electrode is an effective method to reduce the contact resistance. The present BC configuration with UV/ozone treated Au electrodes could be a significant step towards the commercialization of OTFT technology.

A Novel Intermediate Estimator Based Secure Consensus Control for Multi-agent Systems with Application to Networked Multi-axis Motion Synchronization

Jun-Wei Zhu,Chao-Yang Liang,De-Feng He,Xin Wang 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2021 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.19 No.4

This paper studies the secure consensus control problem of multi-agent systems under DoS attacks onthe sensor, the actuator, and the communication topology. A resilient intermediate estimator based attack tolerantcontrol strategy is proposed. By fully exploiting the hardware redundancies, both of the estimators and the controlprotocols can be reconstructed online according to different DoS attack scenarios. Finally, the experiment results ofthe networked multi-axis motion control system are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Cryptotanshinone Induces Inhibition of Breast Tumor Growth by Cytotoxic CD4+ T Cells through the JAK2/STAT4/ Perforin Pathway

Zhou, Jun,Xu, Xiao-Zhen,Hu, Yao-Ren,Hu, Ai-Rong,Zhu, Cheng-Liang,Gao, Guo-Sheng Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.6

Cryptotanshinone (CPT), is a quinoid diterpene isolated from the root of the Asian medicinal plant, Salvia miotiorrhiza bunge. Numerous researchers have found that it could work as a potent antitumor agent to inhibit tumor growth in vitro, buith there has been much less emphasis on its in vivo role against breast tumors. Using a mouse tumor model of MCF7 cells, we showed that CPT strongly inhibited MCF7 cell growth in vivo with polarization of immune reactions toward Th1-type responses, stimulation of naive CD4+ T cell proliferation, and also increased IFN-${\gamma}$ and perforin production of CD4+ T cells in response to tumor-activated splenocytes. Furthermore, data revealed that the cytotoxic activity of CD4+ T cells induced by CPT was markedly abrogated by concanamycin A(CMA), a perforin inhibitor, but not IFN-${\gamma}$ Ab. On the other hand, after depletion of CD4+ T cells or blocked perforin with CMA in a tumor-bearing model, CPT could not effectively suppress tumor growth, but this phenomenon could be reversed by injecting naive CD4+ T cells. Thus, our results suggested that CPT mainly inhibited breast tumor growth through inducing cytotoxic CD4+ T cells to secrete perforin. We further found that CPT enhanced perforin production of CD4+ T cells by up-regulating JAK2 and STAT4 phosphorylation. These findings suggest a novel potential therapeutic role for CPT in tumor therapy, and demonstrate that CPT performs its antitumor functions through cytotoxic CD4+ T cells.

Cloning and differential expression of three heat shock protein genes associated with thermal stress from the wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata (Araneae: Lycosidae)

Sun Liang-Yu,Liu Jing,Li Qin,Fu Di,Zhu Jia-Yun,Guo Jian-Jun,Xiao Rong,Jin Dao-Chao 한국응용곤충학회 2021 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.24 No.1

Pardosa pseudoannulata is the main predatory natural enemy of crop pests in a paddy ecosystem. When P. pseudoannulata is exposed to unfavorable temperature conditions, the response of heat shock proteins could resist the damage, and is therefore, conducive to the organism’s rapid adaptation to the surrounding stress environ ment. In this study, we explored the roles of hsp70 and hsp90 genes in response to heat stress, using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends technique and cloned full-length cDNAs of Pphsp70, Pphsp83, and Pphsp90. The mRNA expression levels of the three genes under different temperature stresses (25, 28, 31, 34, 37, 40, and 43 ◦ C) and with different duration stresses (4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 h) were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The full-length cDNA of Pphsp70, Pphsp83, and Pphsp90 was 2331 base pair (bp), 2466 bp, and 2663 bp, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of amino acid sequences of Pphsp70, Pphsp83, and Pphsp90 showed that the sequences had high homology with that of other spiders. The mRNA expression of all three genes was extremely significantly up-regulated at 43 ◦ C. Moreover at 43 ◦ C, the expression of all three genes in both female and male spiders at the duration of 4 h was the highest compared to that of other stress duration groups. Therefore, it can be inferred that the three genes of P. pseudoannulata play a crucial protective role in resistance in a high-temperature environment.

Study on a Novel Thermal Error Compensation System for High-Precision Ball Screw Feed Drive (2nd Report: Experimental Verification)

Zhe-Zhu Xu,Chang Choi,Long-jun Liang,Dong-Yang Li,류성기 한국정밀공학회 2015 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.16 No.10

Real-time thermal error compensation of machine tool feed drive in general can be separated into three steps such as modeling, measurement and compensation. In the previous report, as the parts of the thermal error compensation system, component heat generation, compensation method, thermal model, mathematic model and calculation method were studied respectively. And a series of simulations was carried out in several kinds of working condition. And then, in order to discuss the correctness of the developed ball screw thermal error compensation system, a series of tests contains axial deformation, positioning accuracy, temperature variation and temperature distribution was carried out in the same working condition of prediction. As the results, the test data well confirmed the correctness of the developed ball screw thermal error compensation system.

Study on a Novel Thermal Error Compensation System for High-Precision Ball Screw Feed Drive (1st Report: Model, Calculation and Simulation)

Zhe-Zhu Xu,최창,Long-jun Liang,Dong-Yang Li,류성기 한국정밀공학회 2015 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.16 No.9

In general, in order to compensate the thermal error or the positioning error of a ball screw feed drive system, the actual temperature or positioning data feedback was needed. The traditional thermal error compensation system of ball screw feed drive is highly dependent on the feedback temperature or positioning data. Because of the overdependence to measuring technique, increasing of compensation system cost and decreasing of productivity level will be an inevitable trend in a machine tool. This paper presents a new approach in ball screw thermal error compensation system which can work without any temperature or positioning feedback. As the parts of the thermal error compensation system, component heat generation, compensation method, thermal model, mathematic model and calculation method were studied respectively. In order to verify correctness and generality of the developed thermal model and the thermal error compensation system, a series of simulations was carried out in several kinds of working condition. Through the series of simulations with the thermal model, calculation method and simulation conditions, deformation characteristics and thermal behavior of the prototype ball screw system have been obtained.