Coping With a Mass Casualty: Insights into a Hospital's Emergency Response and Adaptations After the Formosa Fun Coast Dust Explosion.

Objective: The study provides a comprehensive insight into how an initial receiving hospital without adequate capacity adapted to coping with a mass casualty incident after the Formosa Fun Coast Dust Explosion (FFCDE).

Methods: Data collection was via in-depth interviews with 11 key participants. This was combined with information from medical records of FFCDE patients and admission logs from the emergency department (ED) to build a detailed timeline of patients flow and ED workload changes.

Inhaled corticosteroids may prevent lung cancer in asthma patients.

Background: It is unclear whether inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) have chemopreventive effect on lung cancer (LC) development in humans. We investigated the association between the ICS use in asthma patients and the risk of LC.

Methods: We conducted a nationwide, population-based retrospective cohort study using the National Health Insurance database.

2-Naphthol Levels and Allergic Disorders in Children.

Background: The measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in ambient air is quite difficult to perform. Using urine biomarkers of PAH such as 2-naphthol is one approach to this problem. This study explored the association between urine 2-naphthol levels and allergic diseases.

Interactions Between Bisphenol A Exposure and GSTP1 Polymorphisms in Childhood Asthma.

Purpose: Bisphenol A (BPA) exposure may increase the risk of asthma. Genetic polymorphisms of oxidative stress-related genes, glutathione S-transferases (GSTM1, GSTP1), manganese superoxide dismutase, catalase, myeloperoxidase, and microsomal epoxide hydrolase may be related to BPA exposure. The aim is to evaluate whether oxidative stress genes modulates associations of BPA exposure with asthma.

Ubiquitous Emergency Medical Service System Based on Wireless Biosensors, Traffic Information, and Wireless Communication Technologies: Development and Evaluation.

This study presents a new ubiquitous emergency medical service system (UEMS) that consists of a ubiquitous tele-diagnosis interface and a traffic guiding subsystem. The UEMS addresses unresolved issues of emergency medical services by managing the sensor wires for eliminating inconvenience for both patients and paramedics in an ambulance, providing ubiquitous accessibility of patients' biosignals in remote areas where the ambulance cannot arrive directly, and offering availability of real-time traffic information which can make the ambulance reach the destination within the shortest time. In the proposed system, patient's biosignals and real-time video, acquired by wireless biosensors and a webcam, can be simultaneously transmitted to an emergency room for pre-hospital treatment via WiMax/3.

Validation of overnight oximetry to diagnose patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Polysomnography (PSG) is treated as the gold standard for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, it is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive. This study evaluates validity of overnight pulse oximetry as a diagnostic tool for moderate to severe OSA patients.

Clinical verification of a clinical decision support system for ventilator weaning.

Background: Weaning is typically regarded as a process of discontinuing mechanical ventilation in the daily practice of an intensive care unit (ICU). Among the ICU patients, 39%-40% need mechanical ventilator for sustaining their lives. The predictive rate of successful weaning achieved only 35-60% for decisions made by physicians.

Disulfide connectivity prediction based on structural information without a prior knowledge of the bonding state of cysteines.

Previous studies predicted the disulfide bonding patterns of cysteines using a prior knowledge of their bonding states. In this study, we propose a method that is based on the ensemble support vector machine (SVM), with the structural features of cysteines extracted without any prior knowledge of their bonding states. This method is useful for improving the predictive performance of disulfide bonding patterns.

Epidemiological study of orthopedic injuries in hemodialysis patients in Taiwan: a fixed cohort survey, 2004-2008.

Background: The burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing concern worldwide. The prevalence of hemodialysis in Taiwan is the highest in the world, and this may increase the prevalence of orthopedic fractures. The aim of this study was to explore the incidences of various orthopedic injuries and the related risk factors.

Grape seed extract ameliorates tumor necrosis factor-α-induced inflammatory status of human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Background: Inflammation has played a key role in the causation of atherosclerosis. However, the effects of grape seed extract (GSE) on the pro-inflammatory intracellular signaling, enzyme activity, and inflammatory mediators of endothelial cells have not been sufficiently studied, and less information exists on the comparison between GSE and vitamin C, a well-known antioxidant compound, on their anti-inflammatory properties.

Purpose: We investigated the effects of GSE and vitamin C on the cell viability, oxidative stress, monocyte adhesion, the expression of nuclear factor-κB inhibitor (IκB), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and the production of prostaglandin E(2) (PG E(2)) in TNF-α-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs).