Investment guidance for the Chinese medical device market

The medical device market is one of the most attractive and profitable areas in the global economy. Since China opened its doors to the world it has attracted increasing amounts of foreign investment. The Chinese medical device market is currently one of the most promising and fastest growing markets, which is the second largest market in the world with 200 billion yuan (RMB) total sales in 2013. This paper illustrates the geographical distribution of the Chinese medical device industry, combined with the location quotient (LQ) assessment, to reveal the medical device industry’s professional level and degree of concentration in each province, providing guidance for investors who are interested in medical device investment in China. The LQ and market share (MS) matrix reveals that the best investment regions in China are: Bohai Economic Rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta Economic Zones

Study of whirling instability

We study the behavior of a Kirchhoff rod with intrinsic bend and twist immersed in a viscous, incompressible fluid at zero Reynolds number. A model developed by Sookkyung Lim on open free elastic rod was first analyzed and then extended to study the instability of a tethered elastic rod with a straight and helical configuration in various conditions. Then we explore the behavior of the rod in a loaded and unloaded condition prescribed with a time and spatially dependent curvature and twist. Numerical simulations are presented to show the results and insights gained into the instability of a Kirchhoff rod in Stokes flow. Results are discussed in connection with motion of filamentous structures in biological contexts

On the stability of a laminated beam with structural damping and Gurt–Pipkin thermal law

In this paper, we investigate the stabilization of a one-dimensional thermoelastic laminated beam with structural damping coupled with a heat equation modeling an expectedly dissipative effect through heat conduction governed by Gurtin–Pipkin thermal law. Under some assumptions on the relaxation function g, we establish the well-posedness of the problem by using Lumer–Phillips theorem. Furthermore, we prove the exponential stability and lack of exponential stability depending on a stability number by using the perturbed energy method and Gearhart–Herbst–Prüss–Huang theorem, respectively

Reducing Ambulance Dispatch Time

An important measure of the quality of emergency medical care is the ambulance dispatch time. The goal of our project is to understand and identify the critical time delays in the EMS dispatch process and to propose a feasible solution that monitors and optimizes these delays. Mathematical models are constructed to predict and evaluate the response time of ambulances and computer simulations are performed. Two emergency texting apps are developed, featuring texting 911, GPS, scripted questions, and user medical history

On (d,1)-total numbers of graphs

AbstractA (d,1)-total labelling of a graph G assigns integers to the vertices and edges of G such that adjacent vertices receive distinct labels, adjacent edges receive distinct labels, and a vertex and its incident edges receive labels that differ in absolute value by at least d. The span of a (d,1)-total labelling is the maximum difference between two labels. The (d,1)-total number, denoted λdT(G), is defined to be the least span among all (d,1)-total labellings of G. We prove new upper bounds for λdT(G), compute some λdT(Km,n) for complete bipartite graphs Km,n, and completely determine all λdT(Km,n) for d=1,2,3. We also propose a conjecture on an upper bound for λdT(G) in terms of the chromatic number and the chromatic index of G

Optimal Design of Bacterial Carpets for Fluid Pumping

In this work, we outline a methodology for determining optimal helical flagella placement and phase shift that maximize fluid pumping through a rectangular flow meter above a simulated bacterial carpet. This method uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA) combined with a gradient-based method, the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm, to solve the optimization problem and the Method of Regularized Stokeslets (MRS) to simulate the fluid flow. This method is able to produce placements and phase shifts for small carpets and could be adapted for implementation in larger carpets and various fluid tasks. Our results show that given identical helices, optimal pumping configurations are influenced by the size of the flow meter. We also show that intuitive designs, such as uniform placement, do not always lead to a high-performance carpet

Inhalation of Hydrogen Attenuates Progression of Chronic Heart Failure via Suppression of Oxidative Stress and P53 Related to Apoptosis Pathway in Rats

Background: Continuous damage from oxidative stress and apoptosis are the important mechanisms that facilitate chronic heart failure (CHF). Molecular hydrogen (H2) has potentiality in the aspects of anti-oxidation. The objectives of this study were to investigate the possible mechanism of H2 inhalation in delaying the progress of CHF.Methods and Results: A total of 60 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into four groups: Sham, Sham treated with H2, CHF and CHF treated with H2. Rats from CHF and CHF treated with H2 groups were injected isoprenaline subcutaneously to establish the rat CHF model. One month later, the rat with CHF was identified by the echocardiography. After inhalation of H2, cardiac function was improved vs. CHF (p < 0.05), whereas oxidative stress damage and apoptosis were significantly attenuated (p < 0.05). In this study, the mild oxidative stress was induced in primary cardiomyocytes of rats, and H2 treatments significantly reduced oxidative stress damage and apoptosis in cardiomyocytes (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). Finally, as a pivotal transcription factor in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-apoptosis signaling pathway, the expression and phosphorylation of p53 were significantly reduced by H2 treatment in this rat model and H9c2 cells (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01).Conclusion: As a safe antioxidant, molecular hydrogen mitigates the progression of CHF via inhibiting apoptosis modulated by p53. Therefore, from the translational point of view and speculation, H2 is equipped with potential therapeutic application as a novel antioxidant in protecting CHF in the future