EPIdemiology of Surgery-Associated Acute Kidney Injury (EPIS-AKI) : Study protocol for a multicentre, observational trial

More than 300 million surgical procedures are performed each year. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication after major surgery and is associated with adverse short-term and long-term outcomes. However, there is a large variation in the incidence of reported AKI rates. The establishment of an accurate epidemiology of surgery-associated AKI is important for healthcare policy, quality initiatives, clinical trials, as well as for improving guidelines. The objective of the Epidemiology of Surgery-associated Acute Kidney Injury (EPIS-AKI) trial is to prospectively evaluate the epidemiology of AKI after major surgery using the latest Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) consensus definition of AKI. EPIS-AKI is an international prospective, observational, multicentre cohort study including 10 000 patients undergoing major surgery who are subsequently admitted to the ICU or a similar high dependency unit. The primary endpoint is the incidence of AKI within 72 hours after surgery according to the KDIGO criteria. Secondary endpoints include use of renal replacement therapy (RRT), mortality during ICU and hospital stay, length of ICU and hospital stay and major adverse kidney events (combined endpoint consisting of persistent renal dysfunction, RRT and mortality) at day 90. Further, we will evaluate preoperative and intraoperative risk factors affecting the incidence of postoperative AKI. In an add-on analysis, we will assess urinary biomarkers for early detection of AKI. EPIS-AKI has been approved by the leading Ethics Committee of the Medical Council North Rhine-Westphalia, of the Westphalian Wilhelms-University Münster and the corresponding Ethics Committee at each participating site. Results will be disseminated widely and published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at conferences and used to design further AKI-related trials. Trial registration number NCT04165369

Quantifying the valuation of animal welfare among Americans

There is public support in the United States and Europe for accounting for animal welfare in national policies on food and agriculture. Although an emerging body of research has measured animals' capacity to suffer, there has been no specific attempt to analyze how this information is interpreted by the public or how exactly it should be reflected in policy. The aim of this study was to quantify Americans' preferences about farming methods and the suffering they impose on different species to generate a metric for weighing the trade-offs between different approaches of promoting animal welfare. A survey of 502 residents of the United States was implemented using the online platform Mechanical Turk. Using respondent data, we developed the species-adjusted measure of suffering-years (SAMYs), an analogue of the disability-adjusted life year, to calculate the suffering endured under different farming conditions by cattle, pigs, and chickens, the three most commonly consumed animals. Nearly one-third (30%) of respondents reported that they believed animal suffering should be taken into account to a degree equal to or above human suffering. The 2016 suffering burden in the United States according to two tested conditions (poor genetics and cramped confinement) was approximately 66 million SAMYs for pigs, 156 million SAMYs for cattle, and 1.3 billion SAMYs for chickens. This calculation lends early guidance for efforts to reduce animal suffering, demonstrating that to address the highest burden policymakers should focus first on improving conditions for chickens.Industrial Ecolog

Larkspur Poisoning of Cattle: Plant and Animal Factors that Influence Plant Toxicity

Toxic larkspurs (Delphinium species) cause large economic losses from cattle deaths, increased management costs, and reduced utilization of pastures and rangelands. Larkspur toxicity to cattle can vary by geographic location due to toxic alkaloid content. Larkspur alkaloid chemistry can be used to predict plant toxicity. Cattle breeds differ in their susceptibility to larkspur poisoning. As cattle age from yearlings to two-year olds, they become less susceptible to larkspur. Heifers are three times more likely to be poisoned at the same dose of larkspur alkaloids than either bulls or steers, suggesting that they must be managed differently on rangelands where larkspur is present. © 2020The Rangelands archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information

Simultaneous monitoring of PCB profiles in the urban air of Dalian, China with active and passive samplings.

The concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the urban air of Dalian, China was monitored from November 2009 to October 2010 with active high-volume sampler and semipermeable membrane device (SPMD) passive sampler. The concentration of PCBs (particle + gas) (Sigma PCBs) ranged from 18.6 to 91.0 pg/m(3), with an average of 50.9 pg/m(3), and the most abundant dioxin-like PCB (DL-PCBs) was PCB 118. The WHO-TEQ values of DL-PCBs were 3.6-22.1 fg/m(3), with an average of 8.5 fg/m(3), and PCB 126 was the maximum contributor to Sigma TEQ. There was a much larger amount of PCBs in the gas phase than in the particulate phase. The dominant PCB components were lower and middle molecular weight PCBs. With increasing chlorination level, the concentration of the PCB congeners in the air decreased. The gas-particulate partitioning of PCBs was different for the four seasons. The gas-particulate partitioning coefficients (logK(p)) vs. subcooled liquid vapor pressures (logP(L)(0)) of PCBs had reasonable correlations for different sampling sites and seasons. The absorption mechanism contributed more to the gas-particulate partitioning process than adsorption. Correlation analysis of meteorological parameters with the concentration of PCBs was conducted using SPSS packages. The ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure were important factors influencing the concentration of PCBs in the air. The distribution pattern of the congeners of PCBs and the dominant contributors to DL-PCBs and TEQ in active samples and SPMDs passive samples were similar. SPMD mainly sequestrated gas phase PCBs

Functional ecological genomics to demonstrate general and specific responses to abiotic stress.

1. Stress is a major component of natural selection in soil ecosystems. The most prominent abiotic stress factors in the field are temperature extremes (heat, cold), dehydration (drought), high salinity and specific toxic compounds such as heavy metals. Organisms are able to deal with these stresses to a certain extent, which determines the limits of their ecological amplitudes. Functional genomic tools are now becoming available to study stress in ecologically relevant soil organisms. 2. Here we give an overview of transcriptomic studies aiming to elucidate how plants and soil invertebrates respond and adapt to a stressful environment. The picture emerging from signalling pathways and transcription factors identified in transcription profiling studies suggests that there is a large overlap of genomic responses to drought, salinity and cold; however, heat and heavy metals trigger different stress response pathways. 3. The heat shock response and the oxidative stress response seem to represent universal components of the environmental stress response (ESR). Furthermore, the commonality across plants and animals seems to be higher in effector genes than in transcriptional regulators. 4. Finally, adaptation to stress factors in soil seems to evolve through enhanced constitutive transcription of otherwise stress responsive genes both in plants and animal