Applications for Drowning Identification by Planktonic Diatom Test on Rats in Forensic Medicine

AbstractWe established a model of drowning, and by investigating diatoms in lung, liver, kidney, and long bone marrow of rats at different time to discuss the cause of death. The organs of 35 rats were extracted 0.5h, 1h, 6h, 12h, 24h and 48h after drowning and the organs of sham-drowning group killed by mechanical asphyxia were extracted 1h after body immersed in water. The organs were digested by acid, and the diatoms were analyzed by statistics. Results shown the detection rate was 100% in lung, and the positive rate of all the extracted organs was 100% 6hours after drowning except the sham-drowning group. No diatoms were detected in the liver, kidney and bone marrow of the sham-drowning group, just only one case was positive in the lung. So it is concluded that the detection rate of diatoms could be considered as important evidence in drowning determination

Unveiling the influence of transparency in risk communication : Shifting from information disclosure to uncertainty reduction

While the importance of government transparency is extensively discussed in risk communication literature, its practical application in risk contexts presents intricate challenges. This study introduces a redefined concept of transparency in the context of risk, covering two dimensions: information disclosure and uncertainty reduction. To investigate the impact of transparency, ranging from mere information disclosure to significant uncertainty reduction, a hierarchical multiple regression model is employed. Specifically, trust in government serves as a benchmark for information disclosure, while indicators for information disclosure strategies and public vulnerability are incorporated into the model as proxies for uncertainty reduction. The proposed model undergoes validation in a city lockdown scenario in China using self-report data from 435 college students, with anxiety serving as a benchmark for transparency outcomes. The findings suggest that indicators of uncertainty reduction (information disclosure strategies, individual vulnerability) exert much larger effects on anxiety than mere information disclosure (indicated by government trust). This implies that government transparency should prioritize uncertainty reduction, involving diverse strategies and addressing public vulnerabilities

Association between acute kidney injury and prognoses of cardiac surgery patients: Analysis of the MIMIC-III database

BackgroundAcute kidney injury (AKI) is the most common major complication of cardiac surgery field. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between acute kidney injury and the prognoses of cardiac surgery patients in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database.MethodsClinical data were extracted from the MIMIC-III database. Adult (≥18 years) cardiac surgery patients in the database were enrolled. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were employed to assess the associations between acute kidney injury (AKI) comorbidity and 30-day mortality, 90-day mortality and hospital mortality. Different adjusting models were used to adjust for potential confounders.ResultsA total of 6,002 patients were involved, among which 485 patients (8.08%) had comorbid AKI. Patients with AKI were at higher risks of prolonged ICU stay, hospital mortality, 90-day mortality (all P < 0.001), and 30-day mortality (P = 0.008). AKI was a risk factor for hospital mortality [Model 1, OR (95% CI) = 2.50 (1.45–4.33); Model 2, OR (95% CI) = 2.44 (1.48–4.02)], 30-day mortality [Model 1, OR (95% CI) = 1.84 (1.05–3.24); Model 2, OR (95% CI) = 1.96 (1.13–3.22)] and 90-day mortality [Model 1, OR (95% CI) = 2.05 (1.37–3.01); Model 2, OR (95% CI) = 2.76 (1.93–3.94)]. Higher hospital mortality, 30-day mortality and 90-day mortality was observed in higher KDIGO grade for cardiac surgery patients with AKI (all P < 0.05).ConclusionComorbid AKI increased the risk of hospital mortality, 30-day mortality, and 90-day mortality of cardiac surgery patients in the MIMIC-III database

Mir-382 Promotes Differentiation of Rat Liver Progenitor Cell WB-F344 by Targeting Ezh2

Background/Aims: Liver progenitor cells (LPCs) were considered as a promising hepatocyte source of cell therapy for liver disease due to their self-renewal and differentiation capacities, while little is known about the mechanism of LPC differentiate into hepatocytes. This study aims to explore the effect of miR-382, a member of Dlk1-Dio3 microRNA cluster, during hepatic differentiation from LPCs. Methods: In this study, we used rat liver progenitor cell WB-F344 as LPC cell model and HGF as inducer to simulate the process of LPCs hepatic differentiation, then microRNAs were quantified by qPCR. Next, WB-F344 cell was transfected with miR-382 mimics, then hepatocyte cell trait was characterized by multiple experiments, including that periodic acid schiff staining and cellular uptake and excretion of indocyanine green to evaluate the hepatocellular function, qPCR and Western Blotting analysis to detect the hepatocyte-specific markers (ALB, Ttr, Apo E and AFP) and transmission electron microscopy to observe the hepatocellular morphology. Moreover, Luciferase reporter assay was used to determine whether Ezh2 is the direct target of miR-382. Results: We found that miR-382 increased gradually and was inversely correlated with the potential target, Ezh2, during WB-F344 hepatic differentiation. In addition, functional studies indicated that miR-382 increased the level of hepatocyte-specific genes. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that miR-382 may be a novel regulator of LPCs differentiation by targeting Ezh2

Integrated Profiling of MicroRNAs and mRNAs: MicroRNAs Located on Xq27.3 Associate with Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: With the advent of second-generation sequencing, the expression of gene transcripts can be digitally measured with high accuracy. The purpose of this study was to systematically profile the expression of both mRNA and miRNA genes in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) using massively parallel sequencing technology. Methodology: The expression of mRNAs and miRNAs were analyzed in tumor tissues and matched normal adjacent tissues obtained from 10 ccRCC patients without distant metastases. In a prevalence screen, some of the most interesting results were validated in a large cohort of ccRCC patients. Principal Findings: A total of 404 miRNAs and 9,799 mRNAs were detected to be differentially expressed in the 10 ccRCC patients. We also identified 56 novel miRNA candidates in at least two samples. In addition to confirming that canonical cancer genes and miRNAs (including VEGFA, DUSP9 and ERBB4; miR-210, miR-184 and miR-206) play pivotal roles in ccRCC development, promising novel candidates (such as PNCK and miR-122) without previous annotation in ccRCC carcinogenesis were also discovered in this study. Pathways controlling cell fates (e. g., cell cycle and apoptosis pathways) and cell communication (e. g., focal adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction) were found to be significantly more likely to be disrupted in ccRCC. Additionally, the results of the prevalence screen revealed that the expression of a miRNA gene cluster located on Xq27.3 was consistently downregulated in at least 76.7% of similar to 50 ccRCC patients. Conclusions: Our study provided a two-dimensional map of the mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of ccRCC using deep sequencing technology. Our results indicate that the phenotypic status of ccRCC is characterized by a loss of normal renal function, downregulation of metabolic genes, and upregulation of many signal transduction genes in key pathways. Furthermore, it can be concluded that downregulation of miRNA genes clustered on Xq27.3 is associated with ccRCC

Similarity Function-Assisted Dynamic Fuzzy Rule Interpolation:An Improved Approach

Fuzzy rule interpolation (FRI) enables fuzzy inference systems to derive consequences when the observations are not covered by a system's sparse rule base. However, in conventional FRI systems, interpolated fuzzy rules are discarded once outcomes are obtained, despite they may contain valuable information about the problem space. Recent work has revealed the potential to improve the knowledge scope covered by a sparse rule base by reusing the interpolated rules. Particularly, dynamic fuzzy interpolation based on rule assessment (RAD-FRI) can reinforce the sparse rule base by adding high-quality interpolated rules into the rule base. It works via exploiting the similarity between interpolated rules and those given in the spare rule base. This paper further develops such research by improving the similarity function employed within RAD-FRI, through considering the location of the rules in a sparse rule base while filtering the interpolated rules that are not used in the subsequent inference processes. Comparative experimental outcomes on benchmark datasets demonstrate that the performance of the resulting FRI systems can be dynamically strengthened, with improved inference accuracy over that attainable by the popular existing FRI systems.</p

Effect of processing on the contents of amino acids and fatty acids, and glucose release from the starch of quinoa

The effects of processing on the content of amino acids and fatty acids and the release of glucose from quinoa grains were evaluated in this paper. The processes included dehulling, boiling, extrusion, heating under pressure, and baking (infrared heating). The retention rate (AR) of essential amino acids and fatty acids of dehulled and boiled quinoa was 100%. The oil content of the extruded quinoa samples of two varieties was 47.71% and 39.75% lower than the corresponding raw quinoa samples. Baking and heating under pressure had different effects on the essential amino acid content, fatty acid content, and hydrolysis rate of quinoa starch. The results indicated the different cooking methods affect the essential amino acid content, fatty acid composition, release of glucose, and nutritional quality of quinoa, and moderate processing should be adopted to fully utilize the essential amino acids, fatty acids, and starch in quinoa

Supplement of EDDA 2.0: integrated simulation of debris flow initiation and dynamics, considering two initiation mechanisms

EDDA 2.0 is written in FORTRAN, which can be compiled by Intel FORTRAN Compilers. The source code is enclosed as supplement files. The main subroutine is “dfs.F90”, which contains the numerical solution algorithm for debris flow initiation from erosion and slope failures, and for solving the governing equations of the flowing mixture. An input file is needed (“edda_in.txt”) for inputting material properties, hydrological and rheological paramters and setting controlling options. As an in integrated program, EDDA 2.0 can be used to analyse regional slope failures, so the “edda_in.txt” file also includes the material properties and controlling options for slope stability analysis. Another input file (“outflow.txt”) is also required to define the outflow cell. Digital terrain data (e.g. surface elevation, slope gradient, erodible layer thickness) are included in separate ASCII grid files and enclosed in the data folder. Output files are stored in the results folder. Investigated variables at selected points are stored in “EDDALog.txt”