Power mapping-based stability analysis and order adjustment control for fractional-order multiple delayed systems.

This article investigates the asymptotic stability of a general class of fractional-order multiple delayed systems to evaluate the delay robustness. We establish a one-to-one spectral connection between the original fractional-order system and the transformed one under the power mapping. The applicability of the Cluster Treatment of Characteristic Roots paradigm to the transformed dynamics is proved by this connection.

Experimental Investigation and Control of a Hot-Air Tunnel with Improved Performance and Energy Saving.

The paper is focused on the identification, control design, and experimental verification of a two-input two-output hot-air laboratory apparatus representing a small-scale version of appliances widely used in the industry. A decentralized multivariable controller design is proposed, satisfying control-loop decoupling and measurable disturbance rejection. The proposed inverted or equivalent noninverted decoupling controllers serve for the rejection of cross-interactions in controlled loops, whereas open-loop antidisturbance members satisfy the absolute invariance to the disturbances.

Reporting patterns of adverse drug reactions over recent years in China: analysis from publications.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to clarify the reporting patterns of self-reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in China.

Methods: A variety of sources were searched, including the official website of China FDA, the national center for ADR monitoring center, publications from PubMed, and so on. We retrieved the relevant information and made descriptive and comparative analysis from the year 2009 to 2013.

Classifying G-protein-coupled receptors to the finest subtype level.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute a remarkable protein family of receptors that are involved in a broad range of biological processes. A large number of clinically used drugs elicit their biological effect via a GPCR. Thus, developing a reliable computational method for predicting the functional roles of GPCRs would be very useful in the pharmaceutical industry.

Prediction of pattern recognition receptor family using pseudo-amino acid composition.

Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) play a key role in the innate immune response by recognizing pathogen associated molecular patterns derived from a diverse collection of microbial pathogens. PRRs form a superfamily of proteins related to host health and disease. Thus, prediction of PRR family might supply biologically significant information for functional annotation of PRRs and development of novel drugs.

Misuse of statistical methods in 10 leading Chinese medical journals in 1998 and 2008.

Statistical methods are vital to biomedical research. Our aim was to find out whether progress has been made in the last decade in the use of statistical methods in Chinese medical research. We reviewed 10 leading Chinese medical journals published in 1998 and in 2008.

Body mass index and health-related quality of life in adults: a population based study in five cities of China.

Background: To investigate the relationship between obesity and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in a randomly selected Chinese sample.

Methods: A total of 3600 residents aged 18-80 years were sampled in five cities of China using a randomized stratified multiple-stage sampling method to receive the interview, with a self-completed questionnaire to collect demographic information, and the Mandarin version of Short Form 36 Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36) to assess HRQL, followed by height and weight measurements for calculating body mass index (BMI). Cross-sectional association between BMI and HRQL was analysed.

Proton pump inhibitors therapy and risk of hip fracture: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background And Aims: Previous studies have reported inconsistent findings that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) therapy might increase the risk of hip fracture. We investigated the association between PPIs therapy and hip fracture by a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library.

Steroids in the treatment of IgA nephropathy to the improvement of renal survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Studies have shown that steroids can improve kidney survival and decrease the risk of proteinuria in patients with Immunoglobulin A nephropathy, but the overall benefit of steroids in the treatment of Immunoglobulin A nephropathy remains controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits and risks of steroids for renal survival in adults with Immunoglobulin A nephropathy.

Methodology And Principal Findings: We searched the Cochrane Renal Group Specialized Register, Cochrane Controlled Trial Registry, MEDLINE and EMBASE databases.

A retrospective survey of research design and statistical analyses in selected Chinese medical journals in 1998 and 2008.

Background: High quality clinical research not only requires advanced professional knowledge, but also needs sound study design and correct statistical analyses. The number of clinical research articles published in Chinese medical journals has increased immensely in the past decade, but study design quality and statistical analyses have remained suboptimal. The aim of this investigation was to gather evidence on the quality of study design and statistical analyses in clinical researches conducted in China for the first decade of the new millennium.

A computerized system for detecting signals due to drug-drug interactions in spontaneous reporting systems.

Unlabelled: WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THE SUBJECT: * Concomitant use of different drugs may yield excessive risk for adverse drug reactions and it is a challenging task to do surveillance on the safety profile of the interaction between different drugs. * Currently, several methods are used by pharmacoepidemiologists and statisticians to detect possible drug-drug interactions in spontaneous reporting systems. * However, with the increasing number of reports in the system, there is a growing need for a computerized system that could facilitate the process of data arrangement and detection of drug interaction.

Improving discrimination of outer membrane proteins by fusing different forms of pseudo amino acid composition.

Integral membrane proteins are central to many cellular processes and constitute approximately 50% of potential targets for novel drugs. However, the number of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) present in the public structure database is very limited due to the difficulties in determining structure with experimental methods. Therefore, discriminating OMPs from non-OMPs with computational methods is of medical importance as well as genome sequencing necessity.

Improving the classification of nuclear receptors with feature selection.

Nuclear receptors are involved in multiple cellular signaling pathways that affect and regulate processes. Because of their physiology and pathophysiology significance, classification of nuclear receptors is essential for the proper understanding of their functions. Bhasin and Raghava have shown that the subfamilies of nuclear receptors are closely correlated with their amino acid composition and dipeptide composition [29].

Prediction of nuclear receptors with optimal pseudo amino acid composition.

Nuclear receptors are involved in multiple cellular signaling pathways that affect and regulate processes such as organ development and maintenance, ion transport, homeostasis, and apoptosis. In this article, an optimal pseudo amino acid composition based on physicochemical characters of amino acids is suggested to represent proteins for predicting the subfamilies of nuclear receptors. Six physicochemical characters of amino acids were adopted to generate the protein sequence features via web server PseAAC.

Pharmacovigilance in Traditional Chinese Medicine safety surveillance.

Purpose: To give an overview of the current status including problems and efforts about pharmacovigilance in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) safety surveillance.

Methods: It is based on literature review and publicly available data in China.

Results: TCM led to several adverse drug reactions (ADRs) during the past few years and pharmacovigilance about TCM remained as a problem though great effort had been made to improve it.

A computerized system for signal detection in spontaneous reporting system of Shanghai China.

Purpose: We developed a computerized system for signal detection in spontaneous reporting system (SRS) of Shanghai. Data acquisition, data mining could be carried out automatically and the process of data preprocessing and cleaning could be facilitated. This system was expected to detect signals from SRS after drug licensing with minimum patient exposure.

Classification of amine type G-protein coupled receptors with feature selection.

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are involved in various physiological processes. Therefore, classification of amine type GPCRs is important for proper understanding of their functions. Though some effective methods have been developed, it still remains unknown how many and which features are essential for this task.

EZ-Entry: a clinical data management system.

In this paper, a new data management system named EZ-Entry is introduced. Five major functions are enclosed in this system: (1) user authentication; (2) database construction; (3) double data entry with instant alignment; (4) revision tracking; (5) query management. The practical application performed on two clinical trials indicates that EZ-Entry meets the requirements of clinical data management with high efficiency and security.

Classification of G-protein coupled receptors at four levels.

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are transmembrane proteins which via G-proteins initiate some of the important signaling pathways in a cell and are involved in various physiological processes. Thus, computational prediction and classification of GPCRs can supply significant information for the development of novel drugs in pharmaceutical industry. In this paper, a nearest neighbor method has been introduced to discriminate GPCRs from non-GPCRs and subsequently classify GPCRs at four levels on the basis of amino acid composition and dipeptide composition of proteins.

Using Nearest Feature Line and Tunable Nearest Neighbor methods for prediction of protein subcellular locations.

The subcellular location of a protein is closely correlated with it biological function. In this paper, two new pattern classification methods termed as Nearest Feature Line (NFL) and Tunable Nearest Neighbor (TNN) have been introduced to predict the subcellular location of proteins based on their amino acid composition alone. The simulation experiments were performed with the jackknife test on a previously constructed data set, which consists of 2,427 eukaryotic and 997 prokaryotic proteins.

Prediction of protein subcellular location using a combined feature of sequence.

To understand the structure and function of a protein, an important task is to know where it occurs in the cell. Thus, a computational method for properly predicting the subcellular location of proteins would be significant in interpreting the original data produced by the large-scale genome sequencing projects. The present work tries to explore an effective method for extracting features from protein primary sequence and find a novel measurement of similarity among proteins for classifying a protein to its proper subcellular location.