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Background In 2009, China launched a new healthcare system, with reform of the primary healthcare system as its foundation and focus, to enable residents to access primary healthcare for simple health problems instead of seeking help at hospitals. Community pharmacies and pharmacists were to have increased responsibility in primary healthcare by delivering pharmaceutical care services in China in addition to their traditional roles of dispensing prescriptions and selling medicines. Aim of the Review To describe the current status of Chinese community pharmacy education and practice, and discuss future directions. Method A literature search was conducted using MEDLINE and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts. Additional articles were identified through the cross-referencing of articles and books. Additional data were found from relevant websites. Results From the 313 publications identified, 98 were included. China currently has 388,000 retail pharmacies, corresponding to one pharmacy per 3,532 population. All pharmacies provide prescription and over-the-counter products, as well as prescription dispensing and patient counselling. However, the lack of reimbursement mechanisms reduces the willingness of pharmacists to offer high-quality dispensing and counselling services. There is a shortage of qualified pharmacists to meet increasing patient needs. This, coupled with a shortage of pharmacist training, has resulted in pharmaceutical care being a low priority for delivery in routine pharmacy practice. To meet the increasing demand for pharmacists, 25 universities have been allowed to offer BS, MS and PhD degrees (3–7 years in length) in clinical pharmacy since 2008. The adoption of Good Pharmacy Practice as a recommended standard for community pharmacy practice provides pharmacists with a framework to aid them in service delivery. Conclusion A number of undertakings still require development, including the enactment of the Chinese Pharmacist Law, development of a standard for pharmaceutical care activities, development of the pharmacy workforce, increasing public awareness of pharmacists, and proper reimbursement for care provision. Although pharmaceutical care services are underdeveloped in China, they will become an integral part of the professional work of all pharmacists in the future, particularly in community pharmacy settings.

Environmental stresses such as drought, salinity, and cold are major adverse factors that significantly affect agricultural productivity. Protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation is a major signalling event induced by osmotic stress in higher plants. Sucrose non-fermenting 1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) family members play essential roles in the response to hyperosmotic stresses in plants. In this study, the TaSnRK2.3 gene, a novel SnRK2 member was cloned, and three copies located on chromosomes 1A, 1B, and 1D were identified in common wheat. TaSnRK2.3 was strongly expressed in leaves, and responded to polyethylene glycol, NaCl, abscisic acid, and cold stresses. To characterize its function, transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing TaSnRK2.3-GFP controlled by the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter was generated and subjected to severe abiotic stresses. Overexpression of TaSnRK2.3 resulted in an improved root system and significantly enhanced tolerance to drought, salt, and freezing stresses, simultaneously demonstrated by enhanced expression of abiotic stress-responsive genes and ameliorative physiological indices, including a decreased rate of water loss, enhanced cell membrane stability, improved photosynthetic potential, and significantly increased osmotic potential and free proline content under normal and/or stressed conditions. These results demonstrate that TaSnRK2.3 is a multifunctional regulator, with potential for utilization in transgenic breeding for improved abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants.

Background In 2009, Chinese government launched a new healthcare reform, one of the key points of which is to establish National Essential Medicine System (NEMS). Hospital pharmacists are directly related to the implementation of NEMS. This study is to examine knowledge of and attitudes towards the implementation of the NEMS among hospital pharmacists in western China. Methods We conducted a questionnaire survey of pharmacists from different types of medical institutions in Shaanxi Province in November 2014. We gathered demographic information about the participants, collected the data about their knowledge of and attitudes towards the implementation of NEMS, and identified the influencing factors of cognitive level. We analyzed the data and compared public secondary/tertiary hospitals and primary healthcare institutions. Results Of the 704 participants (response rate = 70.2 %), the majority had positive and moderate knowledge (39.2 and 53.3 %) and attitudes (35.8 and 62.9 %) towards NEMS. The most participants were aware of the implementation time of NEMS (89.8 %) and zero mark-up policy (85.5 %) while the least learned of the adjustment time of National Essential Medicines List (NEML). Pharmacists from public secondary/tertiary hospitals tended to know more and have more positive attitudes. There was no statistical correlation between knowledge and attitude scores. The education level (p = 0.022) and number of training sessions attended (p = 0.028) were the only demographic variables linked to knowledge scores. Conclusions Hospital pharmacists in Shaanxi Province had moderate knowledge of and attitudes towards the implementation of NEMS. Pharmacists from public secondary/tertiary hospitals showed better understanding. The government should therefore focus on improving the understanding of pharmacists in primary healthcare institutions and also address existing problems, especially the supply and distribution systems.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been used in clinical trials for severe diabetes, a chronic disease with high morbidity and mortality. Bone marrow is the traditional source of human MSC, but human term placenta appears to be an alternative and more readily available source. Here, the therapeutic effect of human placenta-derived MSC (PD-MSC) was studied in type 2 diabetes patients with longer duration, islet cell dysfunction, high insulin doses as well as poor glycemic control in order to evaluate the safety, efficacy and feasibility of PDMSC treatment in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Ten patients with T2D received three intravenous infusions of PDSC, with one month interval of infusion. The total number of PDSC for each patient was (1.22-1.51) × 10(6)/kg, with an average of 1.35 × 10(6)/kg. All of the patients were followed up after therapy for at least 3 months. A daily mean dose of insulin used in 10 patients was decreased from 63.7±18.7 to 34.7±13.4 IU (P0.01), and the C-peptide level was increased from 4.1 ±3.7 ng/mL to 5.6 ±3.8 ng/mL (P0.05) respectively after therapy. In 4 of 10 responders their insulin doses reduced more than 50% after infusion. The mean levels of insulin and C-peptide at each time point in a total of 10 patients was higher after treatment (P0.05). No fever, chills, liver damage and other side effects were reported. The renal function and cardiac function were improved after infusion. The results obtained from this pilot clinical trial indicate that transplantation of PD-MSC represents a simple, safe and effective therapeutic approach for T2D patients with islet cell dysfunction. Further large-scale, randomized and well-controlled clinical studies will be required to substantiate these observations.

In this work, several bio-based main-chain type benzoxazine oligomers (MCBO) were synthesized from eugenol derivatives via polycondensation reaction with paraformaldehyde and different diamine. Afterwards, their chemical structures were confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-NMR). The curing reaction was monitored by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and FT-IR. The polybenzoxazine films were prepared via thermal ring-opening reaction of benzoxazine groups without solvent, and their thermodynamic properties, thermal stability, and coating properties were investigated in detail. Results indicated that the cured films exhibited good thermal stability and mechanical properties, showing 10% thermal weight loss (Td10%) temperature as high as 408 °C and modulus at a room temperature of 2100 MPa as well as the glass transition temperature of 123 °C. In addition, the related coatings exhibited high hardness, excellent adhesion, good flexibility, low moisture absorption, and outstanding solvent resistance.

We analyze the consequences of Lorentz violation (LV) to three-generation neutrino oscillation in the massless neutrino sector. We present a general formalism of three-family neutrino oscillation with neutrino flavor states being mixing states of energy eigenstates. It is also found that the mixing parts could strongly depend on neutrino energy by special choices of Lorentz violation parameters. By confronting with the existing experimental data on neutrino oscillation, the upper bounds on LV parameters are derived. Because the oscillation amplitude could vary with the neutrino energy, neutrino experiments with energy dependence may test and constrain the Lorentz violation scenario for neutrino oscillation., Comment: 15 latex pages, 5 figures, final version for journal publication

Personal charm is a kind of force which can generate strong attraction. Hosts’ personality charm is a decisive factor of audience rating of TV programmes and also the soul of a programme. This paper starts from the composition of personality charm of TV programmes, analyzes development direction of each component in detail and studies the cultivation approaches, in the hope of really giving play to advantage of hosts’ personality charm, promoting further development of TV programmes and forming correct guidance of social consciousness.

Classified mean daily traffic (MDT) is an important input for modern highway and pavement design methods. Using Bayesian decision theory, an algorithm for computing the probability of a match between a short count site, and each of a set of permanent counting stations showing distinct trends, was developed. Using vehicle classification data collected at long term pavement performance project (LTPPP) sites in Minnesota, this algorithm was tested, and a very reliable assignment was found using a 12 day sample, consisting of a one-day classification count from each month of the year, while ambiguous assignment was seen for simple two-day samples. In order to reduce estimation error arising from uncertainty concerning the correct adjustment parameters, a Bayes estimator of classified MDT was developed as a weighted average of the expected MDT given the sample and a set of adjustment parameters, with the posterior classification probabilities providing the weights. The effects of sample size, age of adjustment factors, and the sampling time on the accuracy of the estimates were studied. An evaluation of two-day classification count samples indicated that for estimating MDT by vehicle class, these samples should be taken between May and October, and between Tuesday and Thursday. In this case, the estimation error of Bayes estimates of classified MDT are about 10–12% on average and within 26%, 95% of time.

There is an extremely long contact history between China and the Philippines. Although Philippine people are more and more interested in learning Chinese and the quality of Chinese education in the Philippines remains to be improved, the friction between Chinese and Philippine government, "Philippine" education system of Philippine government, and complicated multi-language environment are all reasons which results in not optimistic status of Chinese education. Those problems have seriously hindered the further development of Chinese education in the Philippines. Based on above problems, this paper proposes corresponding countermeasures for the purpose of promoting Chinese education to realize reasonable, rich, and occupational development. I. Introduction The non-governmental exchange between Chinese and Philippine people has a long history. In 1899, the 1st school for overseas Chinese - Da Qing Zhong Xi Xue Tang was established, which marked the beginning of Chinese education in the Philippines. After 1990s, with China's overall rapid rising and Chinese government's great support for popularizing overseas Chinese, the wave of learning Chinese sweeps across the global. This also causes great influence on Philippine Chinese education and also causes many new changes compared with previous Chinese education. Meanwhile, some new problems which hinder the development of Chinese education also appear.

Hierarchical Bayes methods are combined with an induced exposure model in order to identify intersections where the crash risk for a given driver subgroup is relatively higher than that for some other group. The necessary computations are carried out using Gibbs sampling, producing point and interval estimates of relative crash risk for the specified driver group at each site in a sample. The method is applied to data from 102 signalized intersections, and 10 were identified as showing high risk for older drivers. Left-turn crashes tended to predominate at these 10, whereas rear-end crashes were most common at geographically similar intersections not identified as showing high risk to older drivers.

A method for measuring the diameter of a small hole by a coordinate measuring machine is presented. A probe with a thin mechanical stylus is constructed and, on the basis of an elastic displacement transfer principle, the deflection of the stylus during measurement is automatically adjusted. Using this method, holes of diameter 0.3 mm were measured with an accuracy of the order of .

In this paper, the convergence of Internet of Things (IoT) and 3GPP LTE-A network is discussed. With the cooperation of enormous smart devices, various kinds of information would be gathered and transmitted to the central control and processing entity, 3GPP LTE-A network provides the ideal access network for the IoT. Meanwhile, there exist several potential issues for the convergence of IoT and 3GPP LTE-A network, such as the convergence architecture of the two networks. We propose an enhanced IMS QoS architecture to support the convergence of IoT and 3GPP LTE-A network, and the architecture would provide flexible services with dynamic requirements to both IoT and LTE-A network. In addition, the signaling to support the session establish/release is discussed.

Loading system is the core system of multi-functional engineering machinery as load vehicle to test traction performance of construction vehicle. For secondary regulation technology in loading system of multifunctional test platform, the mathematical models of electro-hydraulic servo valve, variable fuel tanks, secondary component were established by modeling method for the secondarily regulated loading system. By using the PID controller to adjust the parameters, mainly from step loading model and sine wave loading model to analysis the simulation. Studying on dynamic characteristics and reliability of the secondary regulation technology system for loading control system of test-platform. The results show that the construction machinery multi-function test-platform uses the secondary regulation technology system is feasible, the secondary regulation technology can meet the performance requirements of the loading system.

The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of community pharmacists towards the concept of pharmaceutical care, implementing frequencies of pharmaceutical care, and barriers to implementation of pharmaceutical care in China. A 38-item self-completion pre-tested questionnaire was administered to a quota sample of 130 pharmacists in community pharmacies in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, northwest China in April 2008. Main outcome measures included understanding of pharmaceutical care; perceived frequency of pharmaceutical care activities; attitude towards pharmaceutical care; barriers to implementation of pharmaceutical care. A response rate of 77.7% (101/130) was achieved. The data were analysed descriptively. Factor analysis was used to explore potential barriers to the provision of pharmaceutical care. Respondents' understanding of the definition of pharmaceutical care was not entirely satisfactory: it was widely but incorrectly seen as a medication counselling service and many pharmacists appeared to misunderstand their role in the process. Respondents spent most of their work time performing prescription checks and providing patients with directions for drug administration, dosage, and precautions, but they tended to ignore health promotion within and outside of pharmacy settings. Factor analysis suggested four factors influencing the implementation of pharmaceutical care in the surveyed community pharmacies: lack of external conditions for developing or providing pharmaceutical care, lack of time and skills, absence of information and economic incentive, and lack of full support from other health professionals, with a cumulative variance of 64.7%. Cronbach's alpha for the four factors was 0.71, 0.72, 0.69 and 0.74, respectively. Although the respondent pharmacists had a certain degree of understanding of the definition, aim, function and use of pharmaceutical care, and carried out some activities currently, a range of barriers need to be overcome before comprehensive pharmaceutical care becomes a reality in China. These barriers could be overcome through participation in effective continuing educational programmes, availability of more resources, effective collaboration with other health professionals.

The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of community pharmacists towards the concept of pharmaceutical care, implementing frequencies of pharmaceutical care, and barriers to implementation of pharmaceutical care in China. A 38-item self-completion pre-tested questionnaire was administered to a quota sample of 130 pharmacists in community pharmacies in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, northwest China in April 2008. Main outcome measures included understanding of pharmaceutical care; perceived frequency of pharmaceutical care activities; attitude towards pharmaceutical care; barriers to implementation of pharmaceutical care. A response rate of 77.7% (101 ⁄130) was achieved. The data were analysed descriptively. Factor analysis was used to explore potential barriers to the provision of pharmaceutical care. Respondents’ understanding of the definition of pharmaceutical care was not entirely satisfactory: it was widely but incorrectly seen as a medication counselling service and many pharmacists appeared to misunderstand their role in the process. Respondents spent most of their work time performing prescription checks and providing patients with directions for drug administration, dosage, and precautions, but they tended to ignore health promotion within and outside of pharmacy settings. Factor analysis suggested four factors influencing the implementation of pharmaceutical care in the surveyed community pharmacies: lack of external conditions for developing or providing pharmaceutical care, lack of time and skills, absence of information and economic incentive, and lack of full support from other health professionals, with a cumulative variance of 64.7%. Cronbach’s alpha for the four factors was 0.71, 0.72, 0.69 and 0.74, respectively. Although the respondent pharmacists had a certain degree of understanding of the definition, aim, function and use of pharmaceutical care, and carried out some activities currently, a range of barriers need to be overcome before comprehensive pharmaceutical care becomes a reality in China. These barriers could be overcome through participation in effective continuing educational programmes, availability of more resources, effective collaboration with other health professionals.

Objective To evaluate the prices and availability of paediatric essential medicines in Shaanxi Province, China. Methods Price and availability data for 28 paediatric essential medicines were collected from 60 public hospitals and 60 retail pharmacies in six areas of Shaanxi Province using a standardised methodology developed by the World Health Organization and Health Action International, during November to December 2012. Affordability was measured as the number of days’ wages required for the lowest-paid unskilled government worker to purchase standard treatments for common conditions. Data on medicine price components were collected from hospitals, wholesalers and distributors to obtain price mark-ups. Findings The mean availabilities of originator brands (OBs) and lowest-priced generics (LPGs) were 10.8% and 27.3% in the public hospitals and 11.9% and 20.6% in the private pharmacies. The public procurement and retail prices were 2.25 and 2.59 times the international reference prices (IRPs) for three OBs, and 0.52 and 0.93 times for 20 LPGs. In the private sector, the final prices for OBs and LPGs were 3.89 and 1.25 times their IRPs. The final price in the private sector was 2.7% lower than in the public sector for OBs, and 14.1% higher for LPGs. Generally, standard treatments cost less than 1 day’s wages in both sectors. Distribution mark-ups applied to brand salbutamol in Xi'an was 65.5%, and up to 185.3% for generic. Cumulative mark-ups for LPGs in Ankang were also high, from 33% to 50%. The manufacturer’s selling price is the largest contributor to the final price in both areas. Conclusions The government should approve a list of national paediatric essential medicines. The availability, price and affordability of these should be improved in both public hospitals and private pharmacies to enable children to obtain effective treatment. Measures should be taken to improve the efficiency of the centralised medicine purchasing system.