Thalassemia is a common genetic disorder among the South Chinese. To see if thalassemia would adversely affect the erythrocyte response to recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO, Epogen) in ...dialysis patients, the response to rHuEPO in 4 dialysis patients with thalassemic traits (thal-t) was compared with that of 4 control patients who were matched for age, sex, mode of dialysis and baseline hemoglobin levels over a 6-month period. Patients with thal-t showed a reduced erythrocyte response to rHuEPO compared to control dialysis patients as reflected by a reduced reticulocyte index, a slower rise in hemoglobin or hematocrit levels, requirement of a higher cumulated dose of rHuEPO to achieve a target hemoglobin of 10 g/dl and a higher maintenance dose of rHuEPO. A dialysis patient with hemoglobin H disease (HbHD) was also studied. He failed to respond to rHuEPO despite that the dose was increased to 250 U/kg/week. In contrast, his matched control dialysis patient, despite a lower baseline hemoglobin level (6.1 versus 8.8 g/dl), was able to reach a target hemoglobin level of 10 g/dl by 6 weeks and could be maintained at this level with 50 U/kg/week. The patient with HbHD had splenomegaly and a higher baseline serum erythropoietin level, reticulocyte count, serum bilirubin, serum ferritin and serum iron saturation than control patients and patients with thal-t. It was concluded that thal-t reduces the erythrocyte response to rHuEPO in dialysis patients and that in the presence of active hemolysis and enhanced endogenous erythropoietin secretion, dialysis patients with HbHD are resistant to treatment with rHuEPO.
This paper reports a project-problem based learning approach for motivating technically skilled students to learn and appreciate cultural heritage, a discipline which is unrelated to their own ...majors. A group of undergraduate students participated in this pilot project. They were placed in an interdisciplinary environment, instructed to apply 3D design and 3D printing technologies to realize ancient drawings of buildings found in the Dunhuang Mural from the Tang Dynasty, China (618-907 AD). Self-learning and peer-learning pedagogies were adopted in the project, they guided students to overcome the challenges and attain the project outcomes. All participants had successfully completed the assigned tasks and their achievements were recognized in a public exhibition. From the qualitative and quantitative feedbacks, participants reported statistically significant improvement in their perceptions of learning and appreciating cultural heritage through the project. It also revealed that peer-learning was essential for them to complete the 3D designs, while self-learning was adopted in learning cultural heritage knowledge.
A new MIMO channel model based on angular-domain, double-directional channel model is proposed. Angular domain is a more appropriate coordinate to describe the MIMO channel, since the incoming rays ...and outgoing rays appear in clusters in the real world. This model is developed based on linear space and sampling theory and is applicable to any practical antenna geometry and includes the actual radiation pattern of the antenna array. It is compared with other existing models, including i.i.d., Kronecker, virtual channel representation and eigenbeam model, using channel estimation based model validation. Both simulation and experimental results show that it outperforms other angular-domain based models in terms of channel estimation error. A more accurate channel model not only facilitates better performance analysis, but also channel estimation in practical communication system.
