Serum hepatic enzyme manifestations in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome:Retrospective analysis

AIM: To evaluate the hepatic function in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and possible causes of hepatic disorder in these patients. METHODS: One hundred and eighty-two patients with SARS were employed in a retrospective study that investigated hepatic dysfunction. Liver alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were analyzed in these patients. Patients with different hospital treatments were further investigated. RESULTS: Of the 182 patients, 128(70.3%) had abnormal ALT activity, 57(31.3%) had abnormal AST activity and 87(47.8%) had abnormal LDH activity. The peak of elevated hepatic enzyme activities occurred between the sixth day and the tenth day after the first day of reported fever. Of the 182 patients, 160(87.9%) had been treated with antibiotics, 137(75.2%) with Ribavirin, and 115(63.2%) with methylpredisolone. There was no statistically significant correlation between the duration of Ribavirin treatement and hepatic dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Abnormal liver functions were common in patients with SARS and could be associated with virus replication in the liver.

Predictive functional control of integrating process based on impulse response

The predictive model is built according to the characteristics of the impulse response of integrating process. In order to eliminate the permanent offset between the setpoint and the process output in the presence of the load disturbance, a novel error compensation method is proposed. Then predictive functional control of integrating process is designed. The method given generates a simple control structure, which can significandy reduce online computation. Furthermore, the tuning of the controller is fairly straightforward. Simulation results indicate that the designed control system is relatively robust to the parameters variation of the process.

Scheduling and control of failure prone systems with demand uncertainty and job overlaps

Given that the overlapping of jobs is permitted, the paper studies the scheduling and control of failure prone production systems, i.e. so-called settings with demand uncertainty and job overlaps. Because a variable demand resource is involved in the production and corrective maintenance control problems of the system, which switched randomly between zero and a maximum level, it is difficult to obtain the analytical solutions of the optimal single hedging point policy. An asymptotic optimal scheduling policy is presented and a double hedging point policy is offered to control simultaneously the production rate and the corrective maintenance rate of the system. The corresponding analytical solutions and approximate solutions are obtained. Considering the relationship of production, corrective maintenance and demand variable, an approximate optimal single hedging point control policy is proposed. Numerical results are presented.

XYLANASE PREBLEACHING ON NaOH-AQ WHEAT STRAW PULP

Before calcium hypochlorite bleaching (H) and chlorination,alkaline extraction, calcium hypochlorite three-stage-bleaching (CEH),we used a kind of hemicellulase, xylanase, to treat wheat straw pulp from Gaoyou Papermill. Xylanase pretreatment contained tow stages, the first stage was xylanase treatment, which was followed by alkaline extraction, the second stage. The xylanase could act on partial lignin and carbohydrate, chiefly xylan. The following alkaline extraction could dissolve something that could not be removed during the first stage. The result of pretreatment was to facilitate penetration of bleaching chemicals, to reduce effective chlorine consumption and to lower pollution loading of bleaching effluent. In the case of these two bleaching processes, the enzymatic pretreatment substantially enhanced the optical properties of the pulps. To calcium hypochlorite bleaching, strength properties of pulps were improved.