Comparison of domiciliary oxygen using liquid oxygen and concentrator in northern Taiwan

Background/PurposeLong-term oxygen therapy has become standard treatment for patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency. However, patterns of long-term home oxygen therapy have not been well studied in Taiwan. Oxygen concentrator systems are commonly used in Taiwan, but liquid oxygen delivery systems are portable and may provide advantages over the concentrator system. This study compared oxygen usage between patients from a liquid oxygen group (LOG) and an oxygen concentrator group (OCG). The authors also assessed the physiologic responses of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to ambulatory oxygen use at home.MethodsThe study used a retrospective, cross-sectional, observational survey design. The LOG comprised 42 patients, and the OCG comprised 102 patients. We recruited participants in northern Taiwan from July 2009 to April 2010. The questionnaire instruments that were used to collect data consisted of three parts: demographic characteristics, devices used in respiratory care, and activity status with portable oxygen. Two-minute walking tests were performed on COPD patients in their homes.ResultsCOPD was the most common diagnosis in our study, with more than 50% of patients who received oxygen long term in both groups having received this diagnosis. The LOG used oxygen for an average of 21.7 hours per day, whereas OCG averaged 15.2 hours per day (p<0.001). In the OCG, 92.2% of patients used a concentrator alone, whereas 23.8% of the LOG used liquid oxygen alone (p<0.001). The LOG patients were involved in significantly more outdoors activities (p=0.002) and reported traveling with oxygen more often (p<0.001) than the OCG patients. For patients with the same dyspnea level of COPD severity, those using liquid oxygen had a lower increase in pulse rate after the walking test, in comparison with the concentrator users.ConclusionPatients in the LOG used oxygen for longer hours, went on more outings, and were more likely to travel with oxygen than patients in the OCG. Being ambulatory with liquid oxygen might enable patients with COPD to walk more effectively

Design of FIR Fractional Delay Filter Based on Maximum Signal-to-Noise Ratio Criterion

Abstract-In this paper, a new approach to the design of digital FIR fractional delay filter with consideration of noise attenuation is presented. The design is based on the maximization of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the fractional delay filter under the constraint that actual frequency response and ideal response have several same derivatives at the prescribed frequency point. The optimal filter coefficients are obtained from the generalized eigenvector associate with maximum eigenvalue of a pair of matrices. Numerical examples are demonstrated to show the proposed method provides higher SNR than the conventional FIR fractional delay filter design methods without considering the noise attenuation

Correlation between Babesia species affecting dogs in Taiwan and the local distribution of the vector ticks

DATA AVAILABILITY : All data are included in the current paper.The objective of our study was to survey Babesia infection rates by PCR and tick species on stray dogs to correlate the distribution of Babesia with the distribution of ticks infesting dogs in Taiwan. Three hundred eighty-eight blood samples and 3037 ticks were collected from 388 roaming, and free-ranging owned dogs at residential sites in Taiwan between January 2015 and December 2017. The prevalence of B. gibsoni and B. vogeli was 15.7% (61/388) and 9.5% (37/388), respectively. Most positive B. gibsoni dogs were found in the northern part of the country 56/61 (91.8%), whereas a few were found in the middle 5/61 (8.2%). Babesia vogeli infection rates were 10%, 3.6%, and 18.2% in the northern, central, and southern regions, respectively. Five species of ticks were found: Rhipicephalus sanguineus (throughout Taiwan), Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides (in the north), Haemaphysalis hystricis (in the north and middle of Taiwan), and Amblyomma testidunarium and Ixodes ovatus (both in the north). None of the dogs in the south were infected with B gibsoni, which correlated with the absence of H. hystricis, a tick recently identified as the local vector for B gibsoni. Babesia vogeli was more equally distributed, coinciding with R. sanguineus, a tick that is present throughout Taiwan. Anaemia was detected in 86.9% of infected dogs; among these dogs, approximately 19.7% showed severe anaemia (HCT < 20). These findings provide useful advice for owners regarding outdoor activities with their dogs and local veterinarians with a regional differential diagnosis of babesiosis in Taiwan.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/vetsciVeterinary Tropical Disease

Fever Screening at Airports and Imported Dengue

Airport fever screening in Taiwan, July 2003–June 2004, identified 40 confirmed dengue cases. Results obtained by capture immunoglobulin (Ig) M and IgG enzyme-linked immunoassay, real time 1-step polymerase chain reaction, and virus isolation showed that 33 (82.5%) of 40 patients were viremic. Airport fever screening can thus quickly identify imported dengue cases

The Potential Utility of Curcumin in the Treatment of HER-2-Overexpressed Breast Cancer: An In Vitro and In Vivo Comparison Study with Herceptin

HER-2 is an important oncoprotein overexpressed in about 15–25% of breast cancers. We hypothesized that the ability of curcumin to downregulate HER-2 oncoprotein and inhibit the signal transduction pathway of PI3K/Akt, MAPK, and NF-κB activation may be important in the treatment of HER-2-overexpressed breast cancer. To examine the effect of curcumin on breast cancer cells, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, MCF-10A, BT-474, and SK-BR-3-hr (a herceptin resistant strain from SK-BR-3) cells were used for in vitro analysis. The in vivo effect of curcumin on HER-2-overexpressed breast cancer was investigated with the HER-2-overexpressed BT-474 xenograft model. Cell growth, cell cycle change, the antimobility effect, signal transduction, and xenograft volume analysis between groups treated with herceptin and/or curcumin were tested. Curcumin decreased the cell growth of various breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, MCF-10A, BT-474, and SK-BR-3-hr). In Western blot analysis, the phosphorylation of Akt, MAPK, and expression of NF-κB were reduced in BT-474 cells, but not in SK-BR-3-hr cells, after treatment with herceptin. When treated with curcumin, the HER-2 oncoprotein, phosphorylation of Akt, MAPK and expression of NF-κB were decreased in both BT-474 and SK-BR-3-hr cells. In the BT-474 xenograft model, though not as much as herceptin, curcumin did effectively decrease the tumor size. The combination of curcumin with herceptin was not better than herceptin alone; however, the combination of taxol and curcumin had an antitumor effect comparable with taxol and herceptin. The results suggested that curcumin has potential as a treatment for HER-2-overexpressed breast cancer

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Wounds: Pain Relief or Excessive Scar Formation?

The inflammatory process has direct effects on normal and abnormal wound healing. Hypertrophic scar formation is an aberrant form of wound healing and is an indication of an exaggerated function of fibroblasts and excess accumulation of extracellular matrix during wound healing. Two cytokines—transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)—are lipid mediators of inflammation involving wound healing. Overproduction of TGF-β and suppression of PGE2 are found in excessive wound scarring compared with normal wound healing. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or their selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors are frequently used as a pain-killer. However, both NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors inhibit PGE2 production, which might exacerbate excessive scar formation, especially when used during the later proliferative phase. Therefore, a balance between cytokines and medication in the pathogenesis of wound healing is needed. This report is a literature review pertaining to wound healing and is focused on TGF-β and PGE2

Exploiting finite size effects in a novel core/shell microstructure

Electrodeposition of Ni-Cu alloys at high Cu(II) concentration and large overpotentials results in phase separation with a unique microstructure characterized by features with a copper-rich core and a nickel-rich shell. By confining deposition to nanoporous channels with dimensions comparable to or smaller than the grain size results in the formation of solid Ni-Cu nanowires with a copper-rich core and a nickel-rich shell. Etching of the copper-rich core results in the formation of Ni-rich nanotubes. The magnetic properties of the Ni-Cu nanowires and the Ni nanotubes are investigated