Do VIP medical services damage efficiency? New evidence of medical institutions’ total factor productivity using Chinese panel data

This study examines the causal impact of very important person (VIP) medical services on hospital total factor productivity in Deyang, a prefectural-level city in western China, spanning the years 2015–2020. This aims to offer empirical evidence and policy recommendations for the implementation of VIP practices in the medical field. A secondary unbalanced panel dataset of 416 observations was collected from the annual reports of the Health Commission and 92 eligible medical institutions were included. This study utilized a two-stage strategy. First, the Global Malmquist index was used to calculate the total factor productivity and its decomposition terms for hospitals from 2015 to 2020. In the second stage, two-way fixed effects models and Tobit models were used to identify the relationship between VIP medical services and hospital efficiency; instrumental variables were used to solve potential endogeneity problems in the model. The results showed that VIP medical services had a significantly negative impact on medical institutions’ efficiency. The technological advances and pure technical efficiency related to VIP medical care may help explain these negative impacts, which were heterogeneous across groups divided by the nature of the hospital and the outside environment. It is imperative to prioritize the standardized provision of VIP medical services for medical institutions, optimize management and service process, enhance the training of clinical and scientific research capabilities of medical personnel, and scientifically allocate resources for both VIP and general medical services. This will help mitigate health inequality while improving the overall quality of medical services

Imaging of Formaldehyde in Live Cells and Daphnia magna via Aza-Cope Reaction Utilizing Fluorescence Probe With Large Stokes Shifts

Formaldehyde (FA), a highly reactive carbonyl species, plays significant role in physiological and pathological functions. However, elevated FA will lead to cognitive impairments, memory loss and various neurodegenerative diseases due to its potent DNA and protein cross-linking mechanisms. In this work, a fluorescence probe, BD-CHO, based on benz-2-oxa-1, 3- diazole (BD) skeleton, was designed and synthesized for detection of FA via Aza-Cope reaction with high selectivity and large Stokes shifts (about 118 nm). BD-CHO was successfully applied to monitor the changes FA level in living cells, and kidney tissues of mice. Importantly it was the first time that BD-CHO was used for visualizing exogenous FA changes in Daphnia magna through fluorescence microscopy, demonstrating its potential application for studies of biological processes associated with FA

Conservation implications of primate trade in China over 18 years based on web news reports of confiscations

Primate species have been increasingly threatened by legal and illegal trade in China, mainly for biomedical research or as pets and traditional medicine, yet most reports on trade from China regard international trade. To assess a proxy for amount of national primate trades, we quantified the number of reports of native primate species featuring in unique web news reports from 2000 to 2017, including accuracy of their identification, location where they were confiscated or rescued, and their condition upon rescue. To measure temporal trends across these categories, the time span was divided into three sections: 2000–2005, 2006–2011 and 2012–2017. A total of 735 individuals of 14 species were reported in 372 news reports, mostly rhesus macaques (n = 165, 22.5%, Macaca mulatta) and two species of slow lorises (n = 487, 66.3%, Nycticebus spp.). During the same period, live individuals of rhesus macaques were recorded 206 times (70,949 individuals) in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Trade Database, whereas slow lorises were only recorded four times (nine individuals), indicating that the species originated illegally from China or were illegally imported into China. Due to their rescued locations in residential areas (n = 211, 56.7%), most primates appeared to be housed privately as pets. A higher proportion of ‘market’ rescues during 2006–2011 (w2 = 8.485, df = 2, p = 0.014), could be partly attributed to an intensive management on wildlife markets since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. More than half (68.3%, 502 individuals) of the primate individuals were unhealthy, injured or dead when rescued. Thus, identification and welfare training and capacity-building should be provided to husbandry and veterinary professionals, as well as education to the public through awareness initiatives. The increase in presence of some species, especially slow lorises, with a declining population in restricted areas, also suggests the urgent need for public awareness about the illegal nature of keeping these taxa as pets

Conservation implications of primate trade in China over 18 years based on web news reports of confiscations

Primate species have been increasingly threatened by legal and illegal trade in China, mainly for biomedical research or as pets and traditional medicine, yet most reports on trade from China regard international trade. To assess a proxy for amount of national primate trades, we quantified the number of reports of native primate species featuring in unique web news reports from 2000 to 2017, including accuracy of their identification, location where they were confiscated or rescued, and their condition upon rescue. To measure temporal trends across these categories, the time span was divided into three sections: 2000–2005, 2006–2011 and 2012–2017. A total of 735 individuals of 14 species were reported in 372 news reports, mostly rhesus macaques (n = 165, 22.5%, Macaca mulatta) and two species of slow lorises (n = 487, 66.3%, Nycticebus spp.). During the same period, live individuals of rhesus macaques were recorded 206 times (70,949 individuals) in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Trade Database, whereas slow lorises were only recorded four times (nine individuals), indicating that the species originated illegally from China or were illegally imported into China. Due to their rescued locations in residential areas (n = 211, 56.7%), most primates appeared to be housed privately as pets. A higher proportion of ‘market’ rescues during 2006–2011 (χ2 = 8.485, df = 2, p = 0.014), could be partly attributed to an intensive management on wildlife markets since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. More than half (68.3%, 502 individuals) of the primate individuals were unhealthy, injured or dead when rescued. Thus, identification and welfare training and capacity-building should be provided to husbandry and veterinary professionals, as well as education to the public through awareness initiatives. The increase in presence of some species, especially slow lorises, with a declining population in restricted areas, also suggests the urgent need for public awareness about the illegal nature of keeping these taxa as pets

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analyses of 11 cohorts of captive rhesus macaques from Chinese zoos

Rhesus macaques are raised in almost every Chinese zoo due to their likeability and ease in feeding; however, little is yet known about the genetic diversity of rhesus macaques in captivity. In this study, a 475-base pair nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial DNA control region was obtained from the fecal DNA of 210 rhesus macaque individuals in captivity. A total of 69 haplotypes were defined, 51 of which (73.9%) were newly identified. Of all haplotypes, seven were shared between two zoos, and 62 haplotypes (89.8%) appeared only in a specific zoo, indicating a low rate of animal exchange between Chinese zoos. Moreover, there was a relatively high level of genetic diversity among the rhesus macaques (Hd = 0.0623 ± 0.0009, Pi = 0.979 ± 0.003, K = 28.974). Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that all haplotypes were clearly clustered into two major haplogroups—Clade A (southeastern China) and Clade B (southwestern China)—and each major clade contained several small sub-haplogroups. The haplotypes of rhesus macaques from the same zoo were not clustered together for the most part, but scattered among several subclades on the phylogenetic tree. This indicates that the rhesus macaques in most Chinese zoos may originat from a diverse collection of geographical areas. Our results demonstrate that zoos play an important role in the conservation of the genetic diversity of rhesus macaques, as well as provide useful information on the genetic management of captive rhesus macaques

Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE), Life and Health

Light has profoundly impacted modern medicine and healthcare, with numerous luminescent agents and imaging techniques currently being used to assess health and treat diseases. As an emerging concept in luminescence, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has shown great potential in biological applications due to its advantages in terms of brightness, biocompatibility, photostability, and positive correlation with concentration. This review provides a comprehensive summary of AIE luminogens applied in imaging of biological structure and dynamic physiological processes, disease diagnosis and treatment, and detection and monitoring of specific analytes, followed by representative works. Discussions on critical issues and perspectives on future directions are also included. This review aims to stimulate the interest of researchers from different fields, including chemistry, biology, materials science, medicine, etc., thus promoting the development of AIE in the fields of life and health

The complete mitogenome of the omei toothed toad, Oreolalax omeimontis (Anura: Megophryidae) with phylogenetic analysis

We sequenced and annotated the complete mitogenome sequence of Oreolalax omeimontis (17,675 bp long). The mitogenome encoded 13 protein-coding genes (PCG), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 23 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and a control region (GenBank accession number MN803321). The phylogenetic tree conforms the close relationship of O. omeimontis and O. multipunctatus, and a monophyletic clade of genus Oreolalax

The complete mitochondrial genome of the blue-crested lizard, Calotes mystaceus (Squamata, Agamidae) in China

A complete mitogenome sequence of the blue-crested lizard (Calotes mystaceus) was determined in this study. The 16,506 bp genome consists 13 protein-coding genes (PCG), two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and a control region. The phylogenetic tree reveals that the Calotes mystaceus is closely related to the C. versicolor. This report provides the basic data for further studies of Calotes species classification and phylogeny

State of Charge Estimation for Power Lithium-Ion Battery Using a Fuzzy Logic Sliding Mode Observer

State of charge (SOC) estimation is of vital importance for the battery management system in electric vehicles. This paper proposes a new fuzzy logic sliding mode observer for SOC estimation. The second-order resistor-capacitor equivalent circuit model is used to describe the discharging/charging behavior of the battery. The exponential fitting method is applied to determine the parameters of the model. The fuzzy logic controller is introduced to improve the performance of sliding mode observer forming the fuzzy logic sliding mode observer (FLSMO). The Federal Urban Driving Schedule (FUDS), the West Virginia Suburban Driving Schedule (WUBSUB), and the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) schedule test results show that the average SOC estimation error of FLSMO algorithm is less than 1%. When the initial SOC estimation error is 20%, the FLSMO algorithm can converge to 3% error boundary within 2400 s. Comparison test results show that the FLSMO algorithm has better performance than the sliding mode observer and the extended Kalman filter in terms of robustness against measurement noise and parameter disturbances

State of Charge Estimation of Lithium-Ion Batteries Using an Adaptive Cubature Kalman Filter

Accurate state of charge (SOC) estimation is of great significance for a lithium-ion battery to ensure its safe operation and to prevent it from over-charging or over-discharging. However, it is difficult to get an accurate value of SOC since it is an inner sate of a battery cell, which cannot be directly measured. This paper presents an Adaptive Cubature Kalman filter (ACKF)-based SOC estimation algorithm for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. Firstly, the lithium-ion battery is modeled using the second-order resistor-capacitor (RC) equivalent circuit and parameters of the battery model are determined by the forgetting factor least-squares method. Then, the Adaptive Cubature Kalman filter for battery SOC estimation is introduced and the estimated process is presented. Finally, two typical driving cycles, including the Dynamic Stress Test (DST) and New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) are applied to evaluate the performance of the proposed method by comparing with the traditional extended Kalman filter (EKF) and cubature Kalman filter (CKF) algorithms. Experimental results show that the ACKF algorithm has better performance in terms of SOC estimation accuracy, convergence to different initial SOC errors and robustness against voltage measurement noise as compared with the traditional EKF and CKF algorithms