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Renal replacement therapy is an important therapy for prolonging life in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) populations, and, in Taiwan, hemodialysis (HD) is the choice for most patients with ESRD. Although HD is effective for prolonging life, it is sometimes associated with complications that patients and doctors have to cope with every day, such as intradialytic hypotension, dialysis disequilibrium syndrome, and muscle cramps. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a complementary and alternative therapy that has been recognized for its efficacy in treating a variety of diseases by the World Health Organization. Nowadays, the clinical practice of TCM for HD-related complications has received attention for its effectiveness and safety. In this article, we summarize the TCM viewpoint and different TCM interventions for HD-related complications, such as Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, herbal acupoint therapy, auricular acupoints, and moxibustion. In the ESRD population, TCM is able to balance Yin and Yang, prevent cardiovascular accidents, control blood pressure, and relieve pain. More importantly, TCM may also improve common HD-related complications such as uremic symptoms, imbalance of electrolyte and fluid status, insomnia, and malnutrition. The mechanism of TCM is considered related to the regulation of autonomous functions and the activation of biologically active chemical substances. According to the studies noted in this review article, TCM has been proven effective for HD-related complications. However, more well-designed and rigorous research will be necessary to reveal the underlying mechanisms in the future.

Objective To determine the effectiveness and safety of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in patients with advanced gastric cancer and peritoneal metastases. Methods PubMed®, CNKI, Web of Science, VIP and WANFANG databases were searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the effect of HIPEC on survival, clinical response and adverse events. Patients with advanced gastric cancer and peritoneal metastases were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The statistical results are presented as relative ratio (RR), mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Twenty-one RCTs met the inclusion criteria ( n = 1674 patients). Meta-analysis showed that the 3-year survival rate was significantly higher in the HIPEC group than in the control group (RR 1.61; 95% CI 1.43, 1.82) and the complete response rate was significantly higher in the HIPEC group than in the control group (RR 2.35; 95% CI 1.67, 3.31). HIPEC was also beneficial in terms of decreased CEA (MD −1.79; 95% CI −2.22, −1.35). There was no significant difference in the rate of adverse reactions (RR 1.00; 95% CI 0.87, 1.14). Conclusions HIPEC had a beneficial effect on 3-year survival rate and complete response in patients with advanced gastric cancer and peritoneal metastases.

Depression is a severe and recurrent mental disease and contributes to the global disease burden. However, there are limited effective treatments for depression. This study evaluated the effect of a compound Gaoziban tablet (CGZBT) on depression and explored its potential mechanisms that underlie its action in rats.

To evaluate the effect of Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf hydroethanolic extract (PHE) against nephrotic syndrome (NS) in rats and to identify the potential active components from PHE.The high content compounds were isolated and purified by using column chromatography followed by preparative highperformance liquid chromatography (p-HPLC). Forty male Wistar rats with adriamycin (ADR)-induced NS were randomly divided into 5 groups, 8 in each group: model control group, positive control group (with prednisone treatment), PHE low-dose group, PHE middle-dose group and PHE high-dose group. Another 8 rats were recruited as vehicle control group. All rats received the intragastric administration of corresponding drugs or saline for 30 days. During the experimental period, rats' behavior and appearance were observed and recorded daily, and their body weights were recorded weekly. After treatment, 24-h urine samples were collected to evaluate the urine protein and urine creatinine (Ucr); then the rats were sacrificed to collect carotid blood and to determine the levels of serum total protein (TP), albumin (Alb), globulin (Glo), total cholesterol (TC) and cytokine interlukin-4 (IL-4).Six acidic components were isolated and identified from the PHE section: pachymic acid, 15α-hydroxydehydrotumulosic acid, trametenolic acid, dehydropachymic acid, 3β-hydroxy-lanosta-7,9(11), 24-trien-21-oic-acid and dehydroeburicoic acid. Compared with the model control group, the urine protein content were significantly decreased in the PHE treatment groups and positive control group (P0.05), especially PHE middle-dose group (P0.01). The Ucr values and serum levels of TP, Glo, TC and IL-4 in PHE low- and middle-dose groups were also presented obvious recover tendency as compared with the model control group (P0.05 or P0.01). However, positive control group and all PHE groups indicated no significant therapeutic effect on raising Alb value, although PHE low- and middle-dose treatment groups showed better outcomes than positive control group (P0.05).PHE showed an encouraging therapeutic effect against ADR-induced NS in a rat model. PHE might be a group of effective substances for the treatment of NS.

Aiming to dealing with the problems of power factor compensation and the limitations of the conventional PI controller in the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM), a new control strategy based on multi-model and neural network PI controller is proposed. This control scheme applied the multi-model and neural network technology to the PI controller to meet the accuracy and speed of the power factor compensation under different impact loads. Meanwhile, the neural network technology is used to tune the PI controller parameters values according to an optimal control law, which can meet the requirements of full range working conditions and optimality. Simulation experiments show that compared to the traditional PI controller, PI controller based on multi-model and neural network is proved to be better capable of adapting to the changes of impact loads with a higher compensating precision, which makes the power factor maintained at about 1 after compensation.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern worldwide, and spreads more easily in densely populated areas such as school campuses. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of positive TB skin tests among freshmen, i.e. newly-enrolled college students, in Zhengzhou City, China. Methods: We reviewed the data of purified protein derivative (PPD) skin tests in 656,212 freshmen in 2004-2013. Results: A positive test showed a diameter of swelling ≥ 5 mm. The PPD positive rate was 40.69 %, with a prevalence of 146.29 per 100,000. During the 10-year study period, the rate of students with positive PPD test increased from 34.19 % in 2004 to 40.69 % in 2013. The positive PPD rate was significantly higher in males than in females (41.68 % vs 39.61 %, P

Reactive power optimization is very important to power systems economic operation and nowadays, the research about it gets more and more popular. The paper presents a reactive power optimization algorithm of particle swarm optimization combined with sensitivity analysis. The paper first builds the mathematic model of reactive power optimization and introduces particle swarm optimization. Then, presents the sensitivity method in detail and talks about the process of computing the sensitivity. Finally, take the algorithm into practical application and the results proves that sensitivity analysis could improve the particle swarm optimization algorithm.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between thymidylate synthase (TS), methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and reduced folate carrier (SLC19A1) gene polymorphisms and the treatment efficacy of pemetrexed-based chemotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Advanced NSCLC patients received pemetrexed and cisplatin every three weeks. Polymorphisms in the TS, MTHFR and SLC19A1 genes were detected in peripheral blood samples using DNA sequencing and Taqman PCR. An analysis of gene polymorphisms was performed with respect to the progression-free survival (PFS), response rate (RR) and overall survival (OS) of patients treated with pemetrexed. The median PFS times for patients with the TS 2R/2R, 2R/3C or 3C/3C genotypes were significantly longer than those of patients with the 2R/3G, 3C/3G or 3G/3G genotypes (P=0.036). Patients with the SLC19A1 CC genotype had a significantly longer median OS compared with individuals with the homozygous and heterozygous genotypes (12.2 vs. 8.9 and 7.3 months, respectively; P=0.022). The PFS and OS did not differ for the three genotypes of MTHFR assessed. The RR was higher in patients with the TS 2R/2R, 2R/3C or 3C/3C genotypes than in the other groups (P=0.044). The polymorphisms of the 5'-UTR of the TS gene and exon 6 (2522) C/T of the SLC19A1 gene predict the survival of advanced NSCLC patients treated with pemetrexed. However, a large scale clinical trial is required to validate these findings.

Household finance is an important emerging area of financial studies. According to asset and liability management, this article uses multi-objective optimization theory to build the model, the author also wants to use statistical and random programming method to deal with the stray parameter, and finally transfer the model to ascertained decision problem and determines the optimal decision strategy of household financial. Decision making analysis method of qualitative and quantitative composition is applied in selecting the model parameter. The results show that family can simultaneously achieve assets income maximization and predetermined solvency target configuration of assets and liabilities. And by comparing with the actual data, we found that household assets returns after the model optimization are higher than the actual value, and household debt paying ability is lower than the actual value, which shows that the improved model have played an important role in optimizing family assets and liabilities management decisions.

This paper examines the relationship between the pyramidal structure types and capital structure by using the panel date of 303 listed family companies from 2007 to 2009 in China. We find that the family controlling shareholders using different types of pyramidal structure affect the capital structure distinctly. Relative to the nonseparated pyramidal structures, the listed family businesses using the separated pyramidal structures tend to choose higher capital structure. Relative to the single-line pyramidal structures, the listed family businesses using the multiline pyramidal structures tend to finance from the inside of the enterprise groups. The result also shows that the debt leverage effect of pyramidal structure can increase the rate of bank loan, and financing substitution effect of the internal capital market can increase the rate of non-bank loan.

The appraisal and forecasting on the risk of investment projects is the key problem in the investment decision-making process. Aiming at overcome the defect of the previous research, this paper analyzes and forecasts investment risk of high-tech small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and illuminates the fuzzy character of risk factors. In terms of multi-dimension characteristic of the risk, the paper adopts the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to evaluate and forecast the risk of investment projects of high-tech SMEs. To test the proposed methodology, an application is described at a high-tech small company.