104 research outputs found

    Understanding customer satisfaction based on the way they evaluate service delivery

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    With the development of society, the service industry has become the pillar of the world economy. People's demand for service products is getting higher and higher because people are becoming increasing lazy. Through this research, an immigration organisation showed most customers are not satisfied with the price of service, so the aim of the research is to understand customer satisfaction through their interaction with the service provider. This paper used qualitative method and unstructured interviews. Six interviewees obtained through email were used. The results showed that most customers are satisfied with member engagement in service delivery and credibility of the business, and that the organisation should improve staff response to customers’ questions. There are some recommendations. Firstly, that the company needs to have a strategy for training staff to improve customer satisfaction. Secondly, the organisation needs to think about how they can improve credibility because it is essential to customer satisfaction. Finally, the company needs to improve communication quality to reduce customer waiting time by increasing staff numbers for customer satisfaction

    Immunophenotyping in BK Virus Allograft Nephropathy Distinct from Acute Rejection

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    Differentiating BK virus nephropathy (BKVN) from acute rejection (AR) is crucial in clinical practice, as both of them have interstitial inflammation in the grafts. The purpose of the study is to describe the inflammatory cellular constituents of BKVN and to determine the clinical utility of immunophenotyping findings in distinguishing BKVN from AR. In addition, the expression of the HLA-DR was investigated. Sixty-five renal allograft recipients were included in this study, including 22 cases of BKVN, 31 cases of AR, and 12 cases of stable allograft. Immunostaining for infiltrating lymphocytes showed that the number of CD20 cells (P<0.001) and the percentages of CD3 (P<0.001), CD4 (P=0.004), CD8 (P=0.005), and CD20 (P=0.002) cells were all significantly different between BKVN and AR. Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences in tubule cell HLA-DR expression (P=0.156). This observation suggests that the number of CD20 cells and the percentages of CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD20 cells in renal biopsies would aid the distinction between BKVN and AR. On the other hand, the presence of HLA-DR upregulation may not only be specific for acute rejection but also be a response to BKVN

    Distinguish bipolar and major depressive disorder in adolescents based on multimodal neuroimaging:Results from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study<sup>®</sup>

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    Background: Major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder in adolescents are prevalent and are associated with cognitive impairment, executive dysfunction, and increased mortality. Early intervention in the initial stages of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder can significantly improve personal health. Methods: We collected 309 samples from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, including 116 adolescents with bipolar disorder, 64 adolescents with major depressive disorder, and 129 healthy adolescents, and employed a support vector machine to develop classification models for identification. We developed a multimodal model, which combined functional connectivity of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and four anatomical measures of structural magnetic resonance imaging (cortical thickness, area, volume, and sulcal depth). We measured the performances of both multimodal and single modality classifiers. Results: The multimodal classifiers showed outstanding performance compared with all five single modalities, and they are 100% for major depressive disorder versus healthy controls, 100% for bipolar disorder versus healthy control, 98.5% (95% CI: 95.4–100%) for major depressive disorder versus bipolar disorder, 100% for major depressive disorder versus depressed bipolar disorder and the leave-one-site-out analysis results are 77.4%, 63.3%, 79.4%, and 81.7%, separately. Conclusions: The study shows that multimodal classifiers show high classification performances. Moreover, cuneus may be a potential biomarker to differentiate major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and healthy adolescents. Overall, this study can form multimodal diagnostic prediction workflows for clinically feasible to make more precise diagnose at the early stage and potentially reduce loss of personal pain and public society

    A Morphogenetic Description of Thigmokeronopsis stoecki Shao et al., 2008 (Ciliophora, Hypotricha) and a Comparison with Members of the Family Pseudokeronopsidae

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    The urostylid family Pseudokeronopsidae Borror and Wicklow, 1983 was considered to be a well-outlined taxon. Nevertheless, recent evidence, including morphological, ontogenetic, and molecular information, has consistently revealed the polyphyly of this family. In the present work, a new population of Thigmokeronopsis stoecki Shao et al., 2008 was found and its binary divisional process was described for the first time. In addition, the morphogenetic features of Thigmokeronopsis species and all the other pseudokeronopsids, for which detailed ontogenetic data are available, were rechecked and compared. This reveals that: (1) the ontogenetic process of T. stoecki corresponds well with its congeners T. jahodai and T. rubra except for the macronuclear behavior; (2) Apokeronopsis and Thigmokeronopsis share a similar ontogenetic mode despite of the differences in the number and origin of their buccal cirri; (3) most pseudokeronopsids share the same pattern in the origins of their oral primordia and fronto-ventral-transverse cirral anlagen, except for Pseudokeronopsis similis, which may not be a valid member of the family Pseudokeronopsidae

    Proteinuria, Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate and Urinary Retinol-Binding Protein as Clinical Predictors of Long-Term Allograft Outcomes in Transplant Glomerulopathy

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    Background/Aims: We aimed to explore the associations between clinical parameters and long-term allograft outcomes in transplant glomerulopathy (TG) in a large retrospective cohort with long follow-up. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data at biopsy from 180 cases of TG with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)&#x3e; 15ml/min/1.73m2 from January 2004 to December 2016 at our center were retrospectively analyzed. The main outcome of this study was initiation of replacement therapy or an eGFR declined to &#x3c; 15 ml/min/1.73m2. Results: During a median follow-up of 5 years (interquartile range 2.6-8.2 years), 117 cases (65.0%) achieved the combined event. Kaplan-Meier method yielded the 1-year and 5-year cumulative renal allograft survival rates after a histopathologic diagnosis of TG were 84% (95% confidence interval [CI] 81-87%) and 33% (95% CI 27–39%) respectively. In univariate analysis, allograft outcome differed significantly by eGFR, proteinuria, blood hemoglobin level, urinary retinol-binding protein (urRBP) and urinary N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (urNAG) level at the time of biopsy. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that a higher level of eGFR was the most powerful predictor of allograft survival. Compared with those with eGFR≥60, the hazard ratio (HR) increased from 4.50 (95% CI: 1.03-19.71, p=0.0462) for patients with eGFR between 30 and 59 ml/min/1.73m2 to 9.14 (95% CI 1.97-42.45, P=0.0047) when eGFR decreased to 15 to 29 ml/min/1.73m2. Additionally, proteinuria and higher urRBP values (≥2.85mg/dl) were found to confer much worse survival rates for TG patients in multivariate Cox analysis. Male sex (HR 0.48, P=0.02) and HCV infection (HR 1.78, P=0.0499) were also found to be independent risk factors for worse allograft survival. Conclusion: Five clinical features—impaired renal function, higher proteinuria, higher urRBP level, male sex and HCV infection—are independent predictors of an unfavorable renal allograft outcome. urRBP is a simple and useful parameter that can add invaluable information for the clinical follow-up of patients with TG

    Morphology of Two Novel Species of Chaenea (Ciliophora, Litostomatea): Chaenea paucistriata spec. nov. and C. sinica spec. nov.

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    During faunistic studies of ciliates in coastal waters of Daya Bay and Bohai Bay, China, two previously unknown ciliates were discovered and investigated using standard taxonomic methods. Morphological comparative analyses revealed that they represent two novel species in the genus Chaenea. Chaenea paucistriata spec. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by the following traits: body length in vivo about 180–250 µm; eight somatic kineties; dorsal brush rows 1–4 consisting of three, five, seven, and two dikinetids, respectively; rod-like extrusomes, 8 µm long; 63–94 macronuclei; cortical granules minute and colourless. Chaenea sinica spec. nov. differs from its congeners in having: body length in vivo about 140–240 µm; 17–21 somatic kineties; dorsal brush rows 1–4 consisting of 3–7, 10 or 11, 11–13, and 3–6 dikinetids, respectively; rod-like extrusomes about 6–8 µm long; 71–164 macronuclei. A key is presented to assist the identification of all Chaenea species

    Three Generic Nevirapine-Based Antiretroviral Treatments in Chinese HIV/AIDS Patients: Multicentric Observation Cohort

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    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of three nevirapine-based antiretroviral treatments for adult antiretroviral-naïve Chinese patients with HIV-1 infection.This was a prospective, multicenter study. 198 antiretroviral-naïve HIV-1 positive subjects with CD4 lymphocyte counts between 100/ul and 350/ul and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels more than 500 copies/ml were randomized to start three NVP-based antiretroviral treatments: group A, NVP+AZT+ddI; group B, NVP+3TC+d4T; group C, NVP+AZT+3TC. Viral responses, immunologic responses, adverse events and drug resistance were monitored at baseline and the end of week 4, 12, 24, 36, 52. Viralogical response and immunological response were also compared in different strata of baseline CD4 T lymphocyte counts and plasma HIV-1 RNA concentrations. At baseline, the plasma HIV-1 RNA was 4.44+/-0.68, 4.52+/-0.71 and 4.41+/-0.63 lg copies/ml in group A, B and C respectively (p = 0.628). At the end of the study, the plasma viral load reached 2.54+/-1.11, 1.89+/-0.46 and 1.92+/-0.58 lg copies/ml in group A, B and C respectively (p<0.001). At week 52, suppression of plasma HIV-1 RNA to less than 50 copies/ml was achieved in more patients in group B and C than in group A (68.2%, 69% vs. 39.7%; p<0.001). In planned subgroup analyses, the decrease of viral response rate was seen in group A when CD4 cell count >200/ul (subgroup H). But in subgroup L, viral response rate of three groups has no significant statistic difference. There were no statistically significant differences among three groups in immunological response within any of the CD4 or pVL strata. 3 out of 193 patients with available genotype at baseline showed primary drug resistant. Of 26 patients with virologic failure, 17 patients showed secondary drug resistant, 16 subjects in group A and 1 subject in group B. Logistic regression analysis indicated that presence of hepatotoxicity was associated with HCV-Ab positive (OR = 2.096, 95%CI: 1.106-3.973, P = 0.023) and higher CD4 baseline (CD4 count >250/ul) (OR = 2.096, 95%CI: 1.07-4.107, P = 0.031).Our findings strongly support the use of 3TC+d4T and 3TC+AZT as the nucleoside analogue combination in NVP-based antiretroviral therapy. The regimen of AZT+ddI+NVP produced poor virological response especially in the stratum of CD4 count more than 200/ul. More patients showed secondary drug resistant in this arm too. Patients with HCV-Ab+ and CD4 count >250/ul appear to have significantly high risk of hepatoxicity.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00618176

    The Prevalence of Immunologic Injury in Renal Allograft Recipients with De Novo Proteinuria

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    Post-transplant proteinuria is a common complication after renal transplantation; it is associated with reduced graft and recipient survival. However, the prevalence of histological causes has been reported with considerable variation. A clinico-pathological re-evaluation of post-transplant proteinuria is necessary, especially after dismissal of the term “chronic allograft nephropathy,” which had been considered to be an important cause of proteinuria. Moreover, urinary protein can promote interstitial inflammation in native kidney, whether this occurs in renal allograft remains unknown. Factors that affect the graft outcome in patients with proteinuria also remain unclear. Here we collected 98 cases of renal allograft recipients who developed proteinuria after transplant, histological features were characterized using Banff scoring system. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used for graft survival predictors. We found that transplant glomerulopathy was the leading (40.8%) cause of post-transplant proteinuria. Immunological causes, including transplant glomerulopathy, acute rejection, and chronic rejection accounted for the majority of all pathological causes of proteinuria. Nevertheless, almost all patients that developed proteinuria had immunological lesions in the graft, especially for interstitial inflammation. Intraglomerular C3 deposition was unexpectedly correlated with the severity of proteinuria. Moreover, the severity of interstitial inflammation was an independent risk factor for graft loss, while high level of hemoglobin was a protective factor for graft survival. This study revealed a predominance of immunological parameters in renal allografts with post-transplant proteinuria. These parameters not only correlate with the severity of proteinuria, but also with the outcome of the graft
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