Microarray-based analysis of cadmium-responsive microRNAs in rice (Oryza sativa)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate specific target mRNAs at the post-transcriptional level. Plant miRNAs have been implicated in developmental processes and adaptations to environmental stresses. Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential heavy metal that is highly toxic to plants. To investigate the responsive functions of miRNAs under Cd stress, miRNA expression in Cd-stressed rice (Oryza sativa) was profiled using a microarray assay. A total of 19 Cd-responsive miRNAs were identified, of which six were further validated experimentally. Target genes were also predicted for these Cd-responsive miRNAs, which encoded transcription factors, and proteins associated with metabolic processes or stress responses. In addition, the mRNA levels of several targets were negatively correlated with the corresponding miRNAs under Cd stress. Promoter analysis showed that metal stress-responsive cis-elements tended to occur more frequently in the promoter regions of Cd-responsive miRNAs. These findings suggested that miRNAs played an important role in Cd tolerance in rice, and highlighted a novel molecular mechanism of heavy metal tolerance in plants

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Prevalence and risk factors associated with musculoskeletal complaints among users of mobile handheld devices: a systematic review

This systematic review aimed at evaluating the prevalence and risk factors for musculoskeletal complaints associated with mobile handheld device use. Pubmed, Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL and Embase were searched. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed. Strength of evidence for risk factors was determined based on study designs, methodological quality and consistency of results. Five high-quality, eight acceptable-quality and two low-quality peer-reviewed articles were included. This review demonstrates that the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints among mobile device users ranges from 1.0% to 67.8% and neck complaints have the highest prevalence rates ranging from 17.3% to 67.8%. This study also finds some evidence for neck flexion, frequency of phone calls, texting and gaming in relation to musculoskeletal complaints among mobile device users. Inconclusive evidence is shown for other risk factors such as duration of use and human-device interaction techniques due to inconsistent results or a limited number of studies.Department of Rehabilitation Science

Experimental Study on Flexible Fiber Assisted Shear Thickening Polishing for Cutting Edge Preparation of Core Drill

To improve the cutting performance of the core drill, the flexible fiber assisted shear-thickening polishing (FF-STP) for cutting edge preparation was proposed to eliminate the microscopic defect and obtain proper radius of the cutting edge of the core drill. The flexible fiber was introduced into the shear-thickening polishing process to break the thickened agglomerates and improve the efficiency of cutting edge preparation. The influence of the polishing speed, abrasive concentration and the flexible fiber contact length with the core drill on the cutting edge radius r and surface morphology of the core drill edge was analyzed, and the drilling experiments were carried out after preparation, the cutting heat and drilled holes’ roughness were employed as evaluation indexes to evaluate the performance of the core drill. The results show that the cutting edge radius increases with the increase of polishing speed, abrasive concentration and contact length. However, too high a polishing speed and contact length reduce the abrasive particles involved in the polishing process, and then lead to a decline in preparation efficiency. Under the selected processing conditions, the cutting edge radius increases from the initial 5 μm to 14 μm and 27 μm with 4 min of treatment and 6 min of treatment preparation, respectively. The sharp cutting edge becomes rounded, the burrs and chipping on the cutting edge are eliminated, and the average roughness (Ra) of the flank face decreases from 110.4 ± 10 nm to 8.0 ± 3 nm. Nine holes were drilled consecutively by core drills after cutting edge preparation, and the cutting temperature and drilled holes’ roughness were recorded. The maximum cutting temperature (122.4 °C) in the process with the prepared core drill (radius r = 14 μm) is about 20 °C lower than that with untreated one, and the roughness of the drilled hole (Ra 510.5 nm) about 189.9 nm lower. The results indicates that FF-STP is a promising method for high consistency preparation of the core drill cutting edge

On a Stochastic SEIS Model with Treatment Rate of Latent Population

The asymptotic dynamics of a stochastic SEIS epidemic model with treatment rate of latent population is investigated. First, we show that the system provides a unique positive global solution starting from the positive initial value. Then, the long-term asymptotic behavior of the model is studied: if R0, which is called the basic reproduction number of the corresponding deterministic model, is not more than unity, the solution of the model is oscillating around the disease-free equilibrium of the corresponding deterministic system, whereas if R0 is larger than unity, we show how the solution spirals around the endemic equilibrium of deterministic system under certain parametric restrictions. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to support our theoretical findings

Experimental Study on Flexible Fiber Assisted Shear Thickening Polishing for Cutting Edge Preparation of Core Drill

To improve the cutting performance of the core drill, the flexible fiber assisted shear-thickening polishing (FF-STP) for cutting edge preparation was proposed to eliminate the microscopic defect and obtain proper radius of the cutting edge of the core drill. The flexible fiber was introduced into the shear-thickening polishing process to break the thickened agglomerates and improve the efficiency of cutting edge preparation. The influence of the polishing speed, abrasive concentration and the flexible fiber contact length with the core drill on the cutting edge radius r and surface morphology of the core drill edge was analyzed, and the drilling experiments were carried out after preparation, the cutting heat and drilled holes’ roughness were employed as evaluation indexes to evaluate the performance of the core drill. The results show that the cutting edge radius increases with the increase of polishing speed, abrasive concentration and contact length. However, too high a polishing speed and contact length reduce the abrasive particles involved in the polishing process, and then lead to a decline in preparation efficiency. Under the selected processing conditions, the cutting edge radius increases from the initial 5 μm to 14 μm and 27 μm with 4 min of treatment and 6 min of treatment preparation, respectively. The sharp cutting edge becomes rounded, the burrs and chipping on the cutting edge are eliminated, and the average roughness (Ra) of the flank face decreases from 110.4 ± 10 nm to 8.0 ± 3 nm. Nine holes were drilled consecutively by core drills after cutting edge preparation, and the cutting temperature and drilled holes’ roughness were recorded. The maximum cutting temperature (122.4 °C) in the process with the prepared core drill (radius r = 14 μm) is about 20 °C lower than that with untreated one, and the roughness of the drilled hole (Ra 510.5 nm) about 189.9 nm lower. The results indicates that FF-STP is a promising method for high consistency preparation of the core drill cutting edge