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Yin-Deficiency (YD), representing a status of the human body under lack of nutrition and fluid in traditional Chinese medicine, is commonly seen in late stage of cancer patients. It is not known whether the severity of YD related symptoms/signs can predict the survival rate of cancer patients. This study evaluated the distribution of Yin-deficiency symptoms/signs (YDS) in cancer patients with YD, and investigated whether the severity of YDS can predict the survival rate of cancer patients with YD. From 5 January 2007 to 5 May 2007, we selected 43 cancer patients with diagnosis of YD from hospitalized patients and outpatients. The severity of YD was evaluated by a questionnaire. We further estimated the cumulative probabilities of the survival rates over 4 months since the start of study by the Kaplan-Meier product-limit method, and compared the differences among groups with various severities in each symptom/sign with the use of the log-rank test. The results revealed that, the 3 most common YDS were sleeplessness with annoyance, less or non-coated tongue with or without redness and dry mouth. In the survival rate analysis, only 2 parameters, rapidly small pulse (p = 0.002) and less-or non-coated tongue with paleness (p = 0.017), were found to be related to the decrease of cancer patients with YD. This suggests that, both rapidly small pulse and less-or non-coated tongue without redness may be used as predictors for the estimation of survival rate in cancer patients with YD.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been commonly used in treating many diseases, such as cancer and infectious diseases. We investigated the different effects of PDT on three main pathogenic bacteria of periodontitis — Prevotella melaninogenica (P.m.), Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.g.) and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (A.a.). The portable red light-emitting diode (LED) phototherapy device was used to assess the exogenous PDT effects with different light doses and photosensitizer concentrations (Toluidine blue O, TBO). The portable blue LED phototherapy device was used to assess the endogenous PDT effects with the use of endogenous photosensitizers (porphyrin) under different light doses. We found out that both exogenous and endogenous PDT were able to restrict the growth of all the three bacteria significantly. Moreover, the optimal PDT conditions for these bacteria were obtained through this in vitro screening and could guide the clinical PDT on periodontitis.

The healthcare system is no stranger to resource challenges in the face of unlimited demand to fulfill healthcare objectives of satisfying patients, maintaining service quality, and maximizing profit. An emergency medical services (EMSs) system plays a crucial role in stabilizing and transporting seriously injured patients to hospitals within healthcare systems. The EMS function is influenced by several criteria, such as call rate, traffic condition, setup, and operating costs. Therefore, the optimal design of EMS systems, including determining the location of emergency medical bases and allocating ambulances, helps improve service performance. This chapter explains the methodology and empirical results of a mathematical modeling and simulation-based optimization approach aimed at identifying the optimal location of emergency medical centers and assigning ambulances to the selected centers to maximize survival rates and minimize the total cost of the EMS system. A case study of the city of Isfahan in Iran is presented to demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed approach. The simulation-based optimization model was implemented in four selected municipal regions of Isfahan to obtain an appropriate design for emergency center locations and ambulances allocation with three types of patients (classified by the urgency of help required) and two types of ambulances. Six scenarios were defined to simulate the model in a dynamic environment and measure the survival rate and total cost of each scenario. In view of the survival rate and costs, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was then used to rank scenarios and select the best ones. The patient type was found to have a significant effect on the DEA rankings of the different input scenarios. An analysis across scenarios showed that adding portable stations in the regions that have the highest percentage of urgent patient calls can help increase the survival rate at a lower cost.

This paper presents an experimental study on preparation of gram-negative bacteria microcapsules by spray drying. Effects of operating conditions on the bacteria survival rate were examined by single factor analysis. Through orthogonal experiment, appropriate conditions were determined as 160°C of the inlet air temperature, 12.5 ml/min of the feed flow rate, 1:9 of the ratio of gum arabic to maltodextrin and 50 ml for fluid nutrient medium with the bacteria. The bacteria survival rate reaches 84.57 %. Examination of storage performance shows that quantity of the viable gram-negative bacteria was increased by 148 % after preserving in plastic film bag for 6 months under ambient temperature from 18°C to 30°C, viability of the bacteria were improved compared to those inoculated from laboratory.