A logistic regression model for microalbuminuria prediction in overweight male population

Background: Obesity promotes progression to microalbuminuria and increases the risk of chronic kidney disease. Current protocols of screening microalbuminuria are not recommended for the overweight or obese.

Design and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. The relationship between metabolic risk factors and microalbuminuria was investigated. A regression model based on metabolic risk factors was developed and evaluated for predicting microalbuminuria in the overweight or obese.

Results: The prevalence of MA reached up to 17.6% in Chinese overweight men. Obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia and hyperuricemia were the important risk factors for microalbuminuria in the overweight. The area under ROC curves of the regression model based on the risk factors was 0.82 in predicting microalbuminuria, meanwhile, a decision threshold of 0.2 was found for predicting microalbuminuria with a sensitivity of 67.4% and specificity of 79.0%, and a global predictive value of 75.7%. A decision threshold of 0.1 was chosen for screening microalbuminuria with a sensitivity of 90.0% and specificity of 56.5%, and a global predictive value of 61.7%.

Conclusions: The prediction model was an effective tool for screening microalbuminuria by using routine data among overweight populations

Development and Utility of an Internal Threshold Control (ITC) Real-Time PCR Assay for Exogenous DNA Detection

Sensitive and specific tests for detecting exogenous DNA molecules are useful for infectious disease diagnosis, gene therapy clinical trial safety, and gene doping surveillance. Taqman real-time PCR using specific sequence probes provides an effective approach to accurately and quantitatively detect exogenous DNA. However, one of the major challenges in these analyses is to eliminate false positive signals caused by either non-targeted exogenous or endogenous DNA sequences, or false negative signals caused by impurities that inhibit PCR. Although multiplex Taqman PCR assays have been applied to address these problems by adding extra primer-probe sets targeted to endogenous DNA sequences, the differences between targets can lead to different detection efficiencies. To avoid these complications, a Taqman PCR-based approach that incorporates an internal threshold control (ITC) has been developed. In this single reaction format, the target sequence and ITC template are co-amplified by the same primers, but are detected by different probes each with a unique fluorescent dye. Sample DNA, a prescribed number of ITC template molecules set near the limit of sensitivity, a single pair of primers, target probe and ITC probe are added to one reaction. Fluorescence emission signals are obtained simultaneously to determine the cycle thresholds (Ct) for amplification of the target and ITC sequences. The comparison of the target Ct with the ITC Ct indicates if a sample is a true positive for the target (i.e. Ct less than or equal to the ITC Ct) or negative (i.e. Ct greater than the ITC Ct). The utility of this approach was demonstrated in a nonhuman primate model of rAAV vector mediated gene doping in vivo and in human genomic DNA spiked with plasmid DNA

Flat band magnetism and helical magnetic order in Ni-doped SrCo2_2As2_2

A series of Sr(Co$_{1-x}$Ni$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ single crystals was synthesized allowing a comprehensive phase diagram with respect to field, temperature, and chemical substitution to be established. Our neutron diffraction experiments revealed a helimagnetic order with magnetic moments ferromagnetically (FM) aligned in the $ab$ plane and a helimagnetic wavevector of $q=(0,0,0.56)$ for $x$ = 0.1. The combination of neutron diffraction and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements show that the tuning of a flat band with $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital character drives the helimagnetism and indicates the possibility of a quantum order-by-disorder mechanism.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, Supplementary Material available upon request, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Wheat bran valorisation: Towards photocatalytic nanomaterials for benzyl alcohol photo-oxidation

In this work, we have successfully synthesized a set of titania photocatalytic nanocomposites by the incorporation of different TiO2 content on wheat bran residues. The obtained catalysts were characterized by different techniques including UVeVis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) while their photocatalytic activity was investigated in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol under UV light irradiation. Benzaldehyde yields were ca. 20%, with conversion in the systems of ca. 33% of benzyl alcohol by using 10%Ti-Bran catalyst, as compared to 33% yield to the target product (quantitative conversion of benzyl alcohol) using commercial pure TiO2 (P-25). The photocatalytic activity results indicate that designed waste-derived nanomaterials with low TiO2 content can efficiently photocatalyze the conversion of benzyl alcohol with relative high selectivity towards benzaldehyde

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Analysis of the mechanism of renewable energy on energy-saving and environmental protection industry: Empirical evidence from four countries

The “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality” strategy of China has accelerated the process of industrial structure transformation of global energy-saving and environmental protection. With the international efforts to cope with climate change and the growing consensus on low-carbon energy, many countries have introduced policy measures to promote the development of the renewable energy industry. This paper constructs an empirical model to analyze the mechanism of four kinds of renewable energy power generation technologies on energy consumption in four countries, and further discusses the impact of main renewable energy power generation technologies on the development of the smart environmental protection industry of China under the “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality” goal. The results show that there is a huge gap in renewable energy technologies among different countries. There is technical heterogeneity in the effects of four kinds of renewable energy technologies on energy consumption, which can effectively reduce energy consumption on the whole. Renewable energy technologies have an impact on the development of the smart environmental protection industry in China from different aspects, which is generally conducive to promoting the development of energy-saving and environmental protection emerging industry. Finally, combined with the empirical conclusions, this paper puts forward suggestions on how to effectively optimize the construction of energy-saving and environmental protection emerging industry in the development of renewable energy technologies

Lifetime quality of life and cost consequences of delays in endovascular treatment for acute ischaemic stroke: a cost-effectiveness analysis from a Singapore healthcare perspective

Objectives Endovascular therapy (EVT) significantly improves clinical outcomes in patients with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS), while the time of EVT initiation after stroke onset influences both patient clinical outcomes and healthcare costs. This study determined the impact of EVT treatment delay on cost effectiveness of EVT in the Singapore healthcare setting.Design A short-term decision tree and long-term Markov health state transition model was constructed. For each time window of symptom onset to EVT, the probability of receiving EVT or non-EVT treatment was varied, thereby varying clinical outcomes (modified Rankin Scale scores), short-term costs and long-term modelled (lifetime) costs; all of which were used in calculating an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of EVT vs non-EVT treatment. Clinical outcomes and cost data were derived from clinical trials, literature, expert opinion, electronic medical records and community-based surveys from Singapore. Deterministic one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the uncertainty of the model. The willingness to pay for per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) was set to Singapore $50 000 (US$36 500).Setting Singapore healthcare perspective.Participants The model included patients with AIS in Singapore.Interventions EVT performed within 6 hours of stroke onset.Outcome measures The model estimated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) and net monetary benefits (NMB) for EVT versus non-EVT treatment, varied by time from symptom onset to time of treatment.Results EVT performed between 61 min and 120 min after the stroke onset was most cost-effective time window to perform EVT in the Singapore population, with an ICER of Singapore $7197 per QALY (US$5254) for performing EVT at 61–120 min versus 121–180 min. The resulting incremental NMB associated with receipt of EVT at the earlier time point is Singapore $39 827 (US$29 074) per patient at the willingness-to-pay threshold of Singapore $50 000. Each hour delay in EVT resulted in an average loss of 0.54 QALYs and 195.35 healthy days, with an average net monetary loss of Singapore$26 255 (US$19 166).Conclusions From the Singapore healthcare perspective, although EVT is more expensive than alternative treatments in the short term, the lifetime ICER is below the willingness-to-pay threshold. Thus, healthcare policies and procedures should aim to improve efficiency of pre-hospital and in-hospital workflow processes to reduce the onset-to-puncture duration

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Four Common Diagnostic Methods for Clostridioides difficile Infection

BackgroundNo studies have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of single and two-step different diagnostic test strategies for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), including direct and indirect costs.ObjectiveTo evaluate the cost-effectiveness of commonly available diagnostic tests for CDI including nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) alone, glutamate dehydrogenase followed by enzyme immunoassay for toxin (GDH/EIA), GDH then NAAT (GDH/NAAT), and NAAT then EIA (NAAT/EIA).DesignDecision tree model from the US societal perspective with inputs derived from the literature. Willingness-to-pay threshold was set at $150,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. To assess the impact of uncertainty in model inputs on the findings, we performed one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.ParticipantsWe conducted the analysis to represent a population aged 65 years old with diarrhea who received a CDI diagnostic test.Main measuresIncremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) and incremental net monetary benefits (INMB).Key resultsNAAT alone was the most cost-effective approach overall; GDH/NAAT was the most cost-effective two-step option. NAAT alone led to the highest QALYs gained, at an incremental cost of$54,547 (vs. GDH/NAAT), $55,410 (vs. GDH/EIA), and$50,231 (vs. NAAT/EIA) per QALY gained. NAAT/EIA was not cost-effective compared to any other strategy. GDH/NAAT resulted in a higher QALY compared to GDH/EIA, at an incremental cost of $96,841 per QALY gained. Variability in the likelihood of comorbidities, CDI probability, and age at disease onset did not substantially change the results. One-way sensitivity analyses showed that results were most sensitive to likelihood of recurrence, followed by CDI mortality rate and probability of severe CDI. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses explored known uncertainties in the base case and confirmed the robustness of the results.ConclusionsNAAT alone and GDH/NAAT (among the two-step options) were the most cost-effective diagnostic test approaches for CDI