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This article investigates the effect of N-type buried layer (NBL) on the holding voltage and failure current of conventional low voltage triggered silicon-controlled rectifier (LVTSCR) and conventional dual directional silicon-controlled rectifier (DDSCR) devices. LVTSCR and DDSCR with N-type buried layer are fabricated on a 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ Bipolar CMOS DMOS (BCD) technology. In order to verify and predict the effect of N-type buried layer on the characteristics of ESD protection devices, a transmission line pulse (TLP) testing system and a 2-dimension device simulation platform have been used in this work. According to the measurement results, the holding voltage ( ${\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ h}}$ ) and failure current ( ${\mathrm{ I}}_{\mathrm{ t2}}$ ) of the LVTSCR and DDSCR can be drastically improved by adding N-type buried layer.

Jing Zhang,1,2,* Chengchen Yin,1,3,4,* Hongfang Li,1,3,4 Weipeng Wei,1,3,4 Yuansha Gong,5 Fushan Tang1,3,4 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, Central Hospital in Jinchang City (Worker’s Hospital of Jinchuan Group), Jinchang 737102, People’s Republic of China; 3The Key Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacy in Zunyi City, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 4Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education and Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Nursing, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fushan TangDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy School of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 851 2864 2337Fax +86 851 2864 2334Email fushantang@qq.comPurpose: Poor medication adherence can negatively affect health outcomes of patients with asthma from medication and significantly increase the healthcare costs. Management of adherence to inhalers remains a challenging topic in the long-term management of patients with asthma. We aim to evaluate the role of asthma control test (ACT) in the management of adherence to inhalers in outpatients with asthma.Patients and Methods: Six hundred twenty-seven outpatients with asthma admitted to the clinic of respiratory medicine in a tertiary hospital in northwestern China during 2016 to 2019 were randomly divided into observation group (n= 315) and control (n= 312) and received standard inhalant therapy for 6 months and lung function test before and after treatment. The patients in the observation group took ACT questionnaires at the end of each month, while the patients in control only took an ACT at the end of the last month. The ‘Test of Adherence to Inhalers’ (TAI) questionnaire was used to evaluate the patients’ adherence to inhalant therapy.Results: All patients completed the study. The ACT scores in the observation group showed a gradual increase month by month. The TAI results indicated that adherence to inhalers of patients in the observation group was significantly better than that in control and the patients’ non-adherence pattern in the observation group, with significantly lower erratic non-adherence, was also different from that in control. After 6 months of treatment, the lung function indexes and their relative improvement and the ACT scores in the observation group were significantly better or higher than those in control.Conclusion: The once-monthly self-reported ACT can effectively improve the adherence to inhalers of outpatients with asthma mainly by addressing erratic non-adherence and improve the treatment effects, and thus deserves widespread use in the treatment adherence management in patients with asthma.Keywords: asthma control test, ACT, medication adherence, Test of Adherence to Inhalers, TAI, self-management, China

Xingrui Mu,1– 3 Chengchen Yin,1– 3 Xing He,1– 3 Hongfang Li,1– 3 Yuansha Gong,4 Weipeng Wei,1– 3 Yan Zhang,1– 3 Fushan Tang1– 3 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 2The Key Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacy in Zunyi City, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 3Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education and Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Nursing, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Fushan TangSchool of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 851 2864 2337Fax +86 851 2864 2334Email fstang@vip.163.comObjective: To investigate the correlation between patients’ medication adherence and their psychological contract with hospital pharmacists under the background of the pharmacist–patient relationship, providing a reference for improving the pharmacist–patient relationship and the patients’ medication adherence based on the patients’ psychological contract with the hospital pharmacists.Materials and Methods: Some of the patients who received medication dispensing service at the outpatient pharmacies at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University were included and investigated as follows: 320 patients were included through the convenient sampling method for psychological contract and medication adherence questionnaire survey with the self-designed scales for patients’ psychological contract with the hospital pharmacists and their medication adherence. SPSS 17.0 was used for reliability and validity testing, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis.Results: The average score of the psychological contract was 3.80± 0.59. The average score of the patients’ medication adherence was 2.93± 0.70. The patients’ psychological contract with the pharmacists and its dimensions (the responsibility of competence, the responsibility of service, and the responsibility of humanistic care) were positively correlated with medication adherence (P< 0.05). The results of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that the effect of patients’ psychological contract with the pharmacists on medication adherence was statistically significant (P< 0.05).Conclusion: Outpatients’ psychological contract with the pharmacists is positively correlated with their medication adherence. Maintaining the patients’ psychological contract with the pharmacists may be an effective way to improve medication adherence.Keywords: psychological contract, medication adherence, the relationship between pharmacists and patients

Hongfang Li,1– 3,* Yunyan Tang,1,4,* Yang Wang,1– 3 Weipeng Wei,1– 3 Chengchen Yin,1– 3 Fushang Tang1– 3 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Guizhou Province and School of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education and Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, People’s Republic of China; 3Key Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacy of Zunyi City, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pharmacy, Meitan People’s Hospital, Zunyi 564100, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fushang TangDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Guizhou Province and School of Pharmacy, Zunyi 563000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 851 2864 2337Fax +86 851 2864 2334Email fstang@vip.163.comBackground: Bupleurum is one of the most important traditional Chinese medicines and an ingredient in many compound preparations. It is widely used together with other drugs in clinical practice, and thus there is great potential for drug–drug interactions. Saikosaponin D (SsD) is a major bioactive triterpenoid saponin extracted from Bupleurum with anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidative, and antihepatic fibrosis effects. Effects of the main components of Bupleurum on cytochromes P450 (CYPs) need to be clarified in the clinical application of combination therapies of formulations containing SsD or Bupleurum.Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effects of SsD on the CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 mRNAs, protein expression, and relative enzyme activities in HepaRG cells.Methods: HepaRG cells were cultured with SsD at concentrations of 0.5, 1, 5 and 10 μM for 72 hours. mRNA and protein expression of CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 were analyzed with real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. Relative enzyme activities were analyzed with HPLC based on consumption of the specific probe substrate.Results: SsD significantly induced expression of mRNA and increased relative activity of CYP1A2 in HepaRG cells after the cells had been treated with SsD at concentrations of 1, 5 and 10 μM. SsD also induced protein expression of CYP1A2 at concentrations of 5 and 10 μM. SsD exhibited an inductive effect on CYP2D6 mRNA and protein expression, while increasing the relative activity of CYP2D6 at concentrations of 5 and 10 μM.Conclusion: This study is the first to investigate the effect of SsD on CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 in HepaRG cells, and the results may provide some useful information on potential drug–drug interactions related to clinical preparations containing SsD or Bupleurum.Keywords: saikosaponin D, HepaRG cells, drug–drug interactions

Cui Meng,1–3* Weipeng Wei,1,2* Yuhe Wang,1,3 Kunqin Zhang,1,2 Ting Zhang,1,2 Yunyan Tang,1,2 Fushan Tang1,2 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 2The Key Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacy in Zunyi City, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pharmacy, The First Hospital Affiliated to Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563003, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fushan TangSchool of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +8685128642337Email fstang@vip.163.comObjective: This study aimed to investigate the interaction between the ion-complementary self-assembling peptide RADA16-I and the hydrophobic drug mangiferin (MA), and the potential of the self-assembling peptide to be exploited as a drug carrier of MA.Methods: The RADA16-I–MA suspension was prepared by magnetic stirring, followed by fluorescence spectrophotometry, particle size determination, rheological properties analysis, and in vitro release assay to characterize the interaction between RADA16-I and MA. Then, the effects of in situ MA-loaded hydrogel on the proliferation of KYSE 30 and DLD-1 tumor cells and the toxic effect of the hydrogel on 293T renal epithelial cells were studied by the Cell Counting Kit 8 method.Results: The RADA16-I–MA suspension was formed in water under magnetic stirring; the in situ hydrogel was formed when the suspension was added to PBS. The particle size in the RADA16-I–MA suspension was around 300–600 nm with an average size of 492 nm. Within 24 h, the cumulative release of MA from the RADA16-I–MA hydrogel was about 80%. The release rate of MA from the hydrogel was dependent on the concentration of RADA16-I and the release can be fitted with a first-order kinetic equation. The results suggested that the self-assembling peptide can stabilize MA in water to form a relatively stable suspension; the results also indicated that controlled release of MA from the RADA16-I–MA in situ hydrogel formed from the RADA16-I–MA suspension can be achieved by adjusting the concentration of the peptide in suspension. The cell viability studies showed that the RADA16-I–MA in situ hydrogel not only can maintain or enhance the intrinsic proliferation inhibition effects of MA on tumor cells, but also can reduce the toxicity of MA to normal cells.Conclusion: The self-assembling peptide RADA16-I can be a potential candidate for constructing a delivery system of the hydrophobic drug MA.Keywords: RADA16-I, hydrophobic drug, delivery system, antitumor

A new dual directional silicon-controlled rectifier based electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device suitable for 12-V applications is proposed in this paper. The proposed device (NPEMDDSCR) is based on the embedded DDSCR (EMDDSCR) structure, in which the P+ electrode and P+ injection are removed from the inner finger. Compared with the conventional modified DDSCR (MDDSCR), its high holding voltage meets the requirements for applications. Compared with the embedded DDSCR (EMDDSCR), it has good conduction uniformity. The MDDSCR, EMDDSCR, and NPEMDDSCR are fabricated with an identical width in a 0.5-μm CDMOS process. In order to verify and predict the characteristics of the proposed ESD protection device, a transmission line pulse (TLP) testing system and a two-dimensional device simulation platform are used in this work. The measurements demonstrate that the NPEMDDSCR provides improved reliability and higher area efficiency for 12 V or similar applications. The measurement results also show that the NPEMDDSCR provides higher robustness and better latch-up immunity capability.