Implementation and Effectiveness of a Bar Code-Based Transfusion Management System for Transfusion Safety in a Tertiary Hospital: Retrospective Quality Improvement Study.

Background: Large-scale and long-term studies are not sufficient to determine the efficiency that IT solutions can bring to transfusion safety.

Objective: This quality-improvement report describes our continuous efforts to implement and upgrade a bar code-based transfusion management (BCTM) system since 2011 and examines its effectiveness and sustainability in reducing blood transfusion errors, in a 3000-bed tertiary hospital, where more than 60,000 prescriptions of blood transfusion are covered by 2500 nurses each year.

Methods: The BCTM system uses barcodes for patient identification, onsite labeling, and blood product verification, through wireless connection to the hospital information systems.

Reversal of ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity by cinnamic and syringic acids in mice.

Ethanol was used to induce acute hepatotoxicity in mice. Effects of cinnamic acid (CA) and syringic acid (SA) post-intake for hepatic recovery from alcoholic injury was investigated. Ethanol treated mice were supplied by CA or SA at 40 or 80 mg/kg BW/day for 5 days.

In vitro anti-diabetic effect and chemical component analysis of 29 essential oils products.

Twenty-nine commercial essential oil (EO) products that were purchased from the Taiwan market, including three different company-made Melissa officinalis essential oils, were assayed on their glucose consumption activity and lipid accumulation activity on 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The EOs of M. officinalis were significantly active in both model assays.

17,20β,21-Trihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one biosynthesis and 20β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase expression during final oocyte maturation in the protandrous yellowfin porgy, Acanthopagrus latus.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the physiological maturation-inducing steroid (MIS) in the marine protandrous yellowfin porgy (Acanthopagrus latus). Female fish were injected with 2 doses of LHRH analog (10 and 40 μg per kg). Ovarian tissue was obtained at 6 h intervals for in vitro analysis of oocyte maturation.

Effectiveness of informational and emotional consultation on the psychological impact on women with breast cancer who underwent modified radical mastectomy.

Background: Female breast cancer has been ranked as the leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. Women who undergo a mastectomy are at risk of suffering emotional disturbance because of deteriorating body image. A nursing intervention designed to restore body image perceptions and to reduce anxiety and emotional distress in this vulnerable group should be developed and administered.

Five cysteine-containing compounds delay diabetic deterioration in Balb/cA mice.

The effects of n-acetyl cysteine (NAC), s-allyl cysteine (SAC), s-ethyl cysteine, s-methyl cysteine and s-propyl cysteine (SPC) activity on Balb/cA mice against diabetic complications were examined. These complications included hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, oxidation stress, blood coagulation, and cytokine imbalance. To induce diabetes, mice were treated with streptozotocin i.