Allying BPR with Strategy: A New Perspective for BPR

Since early 1990’s, Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has become a buzzword around the world. Of the BPR methods and models suggested, the majority has put much attention on redesigning processes at operational levels. Those who stress the importance of strategic process reengineering tend to emphasize that redesigning should be embarked and implemented at a broader scope (crossfunctional) in order to obtain greater pay offs, whereas the impact of BPR on strategies is less studied. In this paper, we propose that BPR ally with strategies and, consequently, emphasize the importance of BPR relevant to strategies and the significant role of strategic directions in light of BPR. Thus, we develop a conceptual BPR model that links a firm’s strategy, with a real world example. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the inter-relationship between BPR and strategy and to help provide guidelines for better BPR implementation to enterprises

Geometric bionics: Lotus effect helps polystyrene nanotube films get good blood compatibility

Various biomaterials have been widely used for manufacturing biomedical applications including artificial organs, medical devices and disposable clinical apparatus, such as vascular prostheses, blood pumps, artificial kidney, artificial hearts, dialyzers and plasma separators, which could be used in contact with blood^1^. However, the research tasks of improving hemocompatibility of biomaterials have been carrying out with the development of biomedical requirements^2^. Since the interactions that lead to surface-induced thrombosis occurring at the blood-biomaterial interface become a reason of familiar current complications with grafts therapy, improvement of the blood compatibility of artificial polymer surfaces is, therefore a major issue in biomaterials science^3^. After decades of focused research, various approaches of modifying biomaterial surfaces through chemical or biochemical methods to improve their hemocompatibility were obtained^1^. In this article, we report that polystyrene nanotube films with morphology similar to the papilla on lotus leaf can be used as blood-contacted biomaterials by virtue of Lotus effect^4^. Clearly, this idea, resulting from geometric bionics that mimicking the structure design of lotus leaf, is very novel technique for preparation of hemocompatible biomaterials

Protective effect of fasudil hydrochloride against acute renal injury in septicopyemia rats

AbstractObjectiveTo observe the protective effect of fasudil hydrochloride against acute renal injury in septicopyemia rats.MethodsA total of 60 Wister rats were included in the study and divided into control group (n = 10), model group (n = 25) and treatment group (n = 25). Model group and treatment group received intraperitoneal injection of endotoxin (ET) to establish acute renal injury models while the control group only received daily intraperitoneal injection of normal saline 1 mL. Five rats were taken out of model group and treatment group respectively at 1 h (T1), 6 h (T2), 12 h (T3), 24 h (T4) and 48 h (T5), for intraperitoneal injection of ET 30 mg/kg. Treatment group received intraperitoneal injection of fasudil hydrochloride 30 mg/kg 1 h before injection of ET. For three groups, 5 mL blood samples were collected from postcava for determination of serum creatinine and urea nitrogen levels at different time points. Concentrations of serum tumor necrosis factor α and ET-1 were determined by using ELISA. The renal pathologic changes were observed under the microscope.ResultsSerum creatinine levels in both model group and treatment group were significantly higher than control group at T2–T5 (P < 0.05) while the levels in treatment group were significantly lower than control group at T3–T5 (P < 0.05). At T2–T5, blood urea nitrogen levels in model group and treatment group were significantly higher than control group (P < 0.05) while the levels in treatment group were significantly lower than model group at T3–T5 (P < 0.05). Concentrations of serum tumor necrosis factor α in model group and treatment group were significantly higher than control group at T1–T5 (P < 0.05) while the levels in treatment group were significantly lower than model group at T1–T5 (P < 0.05). Serum ET-1 concentrations in model group and treatment group were significantly higher than control group at T1–T5 (P < 0.05) while the levels in treatment group at T1–T4 were significantly lower than model group (P < 0.05). Rats in control group showed no swelling or hyperemia in kidney cells but normal structure and normally arranged renal tubular epithelial cells. Obvious injury was observed in model group at T3 and renal tubular epithelial cells in disorder and at swelling condition, hyperemia and angiectasis in glomerulus, degenerative opacities and vacuolar degeneration, and maximized injury were observed at T4. Injury in renal tissue in treatment group was significantly milder than model group.ConclusionsFasudil hydrochloride has the significantly protective effect against acute renal injury in septicopyemia rats

Combination of capecitabine and ludartin inhibits colon cancer growth in mice

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of capecitabine and ludartin in the treatment of colon cancer in mice.Methods: Mice model of colon cancer was used in this study. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (Qrt-PCR) was used to quantify the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA. Micro-vessel density was assessed using immunohistochemical analysis.Results: When administered separately, capecitabine and ludartin treatments significantly suppressed tumor growth in the mice model of colon cancer for 4 weeks, compared to control group. Coadministration of capecitabine and ludartin significantly inhibited tumor growth for 6 weeks (p &lt; 0.05). Symptoms of colon cancer such as weight loss, skin discoloration and leukopenia were observed in untreated control group. However, these symptoms were completely absent in the group treated with combination of capecitabine and ludartin. The combined treatment also prevented colon cancer-induced increase in white blood cell (WBC) count, and increased median survival time of colon cancer mice from 38 to 55 days. Expression of VEGF in combination (capecitabine + ludartin) treatment group was significantly lower than in the control, i.e., untreated group (p ˂ 0.05). The combination treatment group also had significantly lower micro-vessel density in the tumor tissues, compared to the  ntreated control mice (p &lt; 0.05).Conclusion: These results show that a combination treatment of capecitabine and ludartin effectively inhibits colon tumor growth and angiogenesis in mice via a mechanism involving suppression of VEGF expression. Thus, capecitabine and ludartin combination is a potentially  uitable treatment for colon cancer.Keywords: Colon cancer, Mice, Ludartin, Leukopenia, VEGF expression, Angiogenesi

Identification and pharmacokinetics of saponins in Rhizoma Anemarrhenae after oral administration to rats by HPLC-Q-TOF/MS and HPLC-MS/MS

Rhizoma Anemarrhenae is a well-known herbal medicine with saponins as its commonly regarded major bioactive components. It is essential to classify the properties of saponins which are associated with their toxicity and efficacy. In this study, 25 compounds were identified by HPLC-Q-TOF/MS in the extract of Rhizoma Anemarrhenae and 8 saponins were detected in rat plasma by HPLC-MS/MS after oral administration of this extract. These were neomangiferin, mangiferin, timosaponin E1, timosaponin E, timosaponin B-II, timosaponin B-III, timosaponin A-III and timosaponin A-I. A sensitive and accurate HPLC-MS/MS method was developed and successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of the abovementioned eight saponins after oral administration of the Rhizoma Anemarrhenae extract to rats. The method validation, including specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, matrix effect and robustness, met the requirements of the intended use. The pharmacokinetic parameter, Tmax value, ranged from 2 to 8 h for these eight saponins whereas their elimination half-life (t1/2) ranged from 4.06 to 9.77 h, indicating slow excretion. The plasma concentrations of these eight saponins were all very low, indicating a relatively low oral bioavailability. All these results provide support for further clinical studies

An adaptive working state iterative calculation method of the power battery by using the improved Kalman filtering algorithm and considering the relaxation effect.

The battery modeling and iterative state calculation in the battery management system is very important for the high-power lithium-ion battery packs, the accuracy of which affects its working performance and safety. An adaptive improved unscented Kalman filtering algorithm is developed to realize the iterative calculation process, aiming to overcome the rounding error in the numerical calculation treatment when it is used to estimate the nonlinear state value of the battery pack. As the sigma point is sampled in the unscented transform round from the unscented Kalman filter algorithm, an imaginary number appears that results in the working state estimation failure. In order to solve this problem, the decomposition is combined with the calculation process. Meanwhile, an adaptive noise covariance matching method is implied. Experiments show that the proposed method can guarantee the semi-positive and numerical stability of the state covariance, and the estimation accuracy can reach the third-order precision. The estimation error remains 1.60% under the drastic voltage and current change conditions, which can reduce the estimation error by 1.00% compared with the traditional method. It can provide a theoretical safety protection basis of the energy management for the lithium-ion battery pack