Chemiluminescence Immunoassay Method of Urinary Liver Fatty-acid-binding Protein as a Promising Candidate for Kidney Disease.

Liver fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP) is an intercellular lipid chaperone protein that selectively combines with unsaturated free fatty acids and transports them to mitochondria or peroxisomes. L-FABP is a promising biomarker for the early detection of renal diseases in humans. Herein a chemiluminescence method (CLIA) was demonstrated to measure the level of urinary L-FABP in the urinary samples. An anti-(L-FABP)-magnetic beads complex was prepared to capture the analyte target. Sensitivity, precision, accuracy, interference effect, high-dose hook effect of the developed assay were evaluated. Under the suitable experimental parameters, the established method have a wide linear range (0.01-10 ng/mL) and also showed a sufficiently low limit of detection of 0.0060 ng/mL. Besides, the satisfactory recoveries of the method in the urinary were ranged from 97.74%-112.32%, which was well within the requirement of clinical analysis. Furthermore, this proposed method has been successfully applied to the clinical determination of L-FABP in patients who have been diagnosed with kidney disease. The results showed that CLIA could accurately and rapidly determine the urinary level of L-FABP with high-throughput, which could be useful as a new tool to predict complications in patients with kidney disease. The clinical trial was approved by Shuyang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Ethics Committee: 20,210,202-001 at February 2, 2021.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the environment: Updates on pretreatment and determination methods.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used in human and animal health care to reduce persistent inflammation, pain and fever because of their anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic effects. However, the improper discharge and disposal make it becomes a major contaminant in the environment, which poses a big threat to the ecosystem. For this reason, accurate, sensitive, effective, green, and economic techniques are urgently required and have been rapidly developed in recent years. This review summarizes the advancement of sample preparation technologies for NSAIDs involving solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, liquid-phase microextraction, QuEChERS, and matrix solid-phase dispersion. Meanwhile, we overview and compare analytical technologies for NSAIDs, including liquid chromatography-based methods, gas chromatography-based methods, capillary electrophoresis, and sensors, particularly the development of liquid chromatography-based methods. Furthermore, we focus on their progress and conduct a comparison between their advantages and disadvantages.

A PAD-Based Unmanned Aerial Vehichle Route Planning Scheme for Remote Sensing in Huge Regions.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been employed extensively for remote-sensing missions. However, due to their energy limitations, UAVs have a restricted flight operating time and spatial coverage, which makes remote sensing over huge regions that are out of UAV flight endurance and range challenging. PAD is an autonomous wireless charging station that might significantly increase the flying time of UAVs by recharging them in the air. In this work, we introduce PADs to simplify UAV-based remote sensing over a huge region, and then we explore the UAV route planning problem once PADs have been predeployed throughout a huge remote sensing region. A route planning scheme, named PAD-based remote sensing (PBRS), is proposed to solve the problem. The PBRS scheme first plans the UAV's round-trip routes based on the location of the PADs and divides the whole target region into multiple PAD-based subregions. Between adjacent subregions, the UAV flight subroute is planned by determining piggyback points to minimize the total time for remote sensing. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme by conducting several sets of simulation experiments based on the digital orthophoto model of Hutou Village in Beibei District, Chongqing, China. The results show that the PBRS scheme can achieve excellent performance in three metrics of remote sensing duration, the number of trips to charging stations, and the data-storage rate in UAV remote-sensing missions over huge regions with predeployed PADs through effective planning of UAVs.

Modeling the Relationships between the Height and Spectrum of Submerged Tufa Barrage Using UAV-Derived Geometric Bathymetry and Digital Orthoimages.

Tufa barrages play an important role in fluviatile tufa ecosystems and sedimentary records. Quantifying the height of tufa barrage is significant for understanding the evolution and development of the Holocene tufa barrage systems. However, for submerged tufa barrages, there is no low-cost non-contact method to retrieve barrage height. Generally, it is difficult to recognize small tufa barrages by means of remotely sensed satellite data, but the combination of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry makes it possible. In this study, we used a fixed-wing UAV and a consumer-grade camera to acquire images of the submerged tufa barrage in Lying Dragon Lake, Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve, China, and estimated the height of the tufa barrage through UAV-based photogrammetric bathymetry. On this foundation, the relationship between barrage height and its spectrum was established through band ratio analysis using UAV-derived geometric bathymetry and digital orthoimages, which provided an alternative strategy to characterize the height of submerged tufa barrages. However, the spectral characteristics of submerged tufa barrages will oscillate with changes in the environmental conditions. In future research, we will consider using a dedicated aquatic multispectral camera to improve the experimentation.

'Environmental standard limit concentration' arsenic exposure is associated with anxiety, depression, and autism-like changes in early-life stage zebrafish.

Arsenic is a worldwide environmental pollutant that can impair human health. Previous studies have identified mental disorders induced by arsenic, but the environmental exposure concentrations in the early life stages associated with these disorders are poorly understood. In the present study, early-life stage zebrafish were used to explore the effects on mental disorders under 'environmental standard limit concentrations' arsenic exposures of 5, 10, 50, 150, and 500 µg/L. The results showed that arsenic exposure at these concentrations changed the locomotor behavior in larval zebrafish and was further associated with anxiety, depression, and autism-like behavior in both larval and juvenile zebrafish. Changes were noted at benchmark dose limit (BMDL) concentrations as low as 0.81 µg/L. Transcriptomics showed that immediate early genes (IEGs) fosab, egr1, egr2a, ier2b, egr3, and jund were decreased after arsenic exposure in larval and juvenile zebrafish. Nervous system impairment and anxiety, depression, and autism-like behaviors in early-life stage zebrafish at 'environmental standard limit concentrations' may be attributed to the downregulation of IEGs. These findings in zebrafish provided new experimental support for an arsenic toxicity threshold for mental disorders, and they suggest that low levels of environmental chemicals may be causative developmental factors for mental disorders.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the environment: Recent updates on the occurrence, fate, hazards and removal technologies.

Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are extensively utilized pharmaceuticals worldwide. However, owing to the improper discharge and disposal practices, they have emerged as significant contaminants that are widely distributed in water, soils, and sewage sediments. This ubiquity poses a substantial threat to the ecosystem and human health. Consequently, it is imperative to develop rapid, cost-effective, efficient and reliable approaches for containing these substance in order to mitigate the deleterious impact of NSAIDs. This research provides a comprehensive review of the occurrence, fate, and hazards associated with NSAIDs in the general environment. Additionally, various removal technologies, including advanced oxidation processes, biodegradation, and adsorption, were systematically summarized. The study also presents a comparative analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of different removal technologies while interpreting challenges related to NSAIDs' removal and proposing strategies for future development.

Systematic evaluation of line probe assays for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Line probe assays (LPAs) are PCR-based assays used for the rapid diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). But studies on its performance are insufficient. Thus, in this study, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of LPAs in the detection of MTB and drug-resistant TB in comparison with the traditional culture and DST methods. METHODS: A systemic literature search was conducted on the Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, and OVID databases. All the included studies were classified according to different detecting objects. Sensitivity, specificity, Positive Likely Ratio (PLR), Negative Likely Ratio (NLR), Diagnostic Odds Ratio (DOR), corresponding 95% confidence interval, Area Under Curve (AUC), Deeks' funnel plot, and Bivariate Boxplot was used to do the evaluation. RESULTS: 147 studies included 491 datasets, with 182,448 samples, were incorporated into our analysis. The sensitivity (95% CI), specificity (95% CI), PLR, NLR, DOR and AUC for MTB were 0.89 (0.86 to 0.92), 0.94 (0.90 to 0.97), 15.70, 0.11, 139 and 0.96, respectively; for rifampicin-resistant TB were 0.96 (0.95 to 0.97), 0.99 (0.98 to 0.99), 82.9, 0.04, 1994 and 1.00, respectively; for isoniazid-resistant TB were 0.91 (0.89 to 0.93), 0.99 (0.98 to 0.99), 83.4, 0.09, (0.99 to 1.00), 195.7, 0.07, 2783 and 1.00, respectively; for Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) were 0.93 (0.90 to 0.95), 1.00 (0.99 to 1.00), 195.7, 0.07, 2783 and 1.00, respectively; for extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) were 0.60 (0.33 to 0.82), 1.00 (0.95 to 1.00), 291.3, 0.4, 726 and 0.95, respectively; for (second-line drug-resistant TB) SLID-TB were 0.83 (0.78 to 0.87), 0.98 (0.97 to 0.99), 44.6, 0.17, 262 and 0.98, respectively. Sensitivity in pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (Pre-XDR-TB) was 0.67, specificity was 0.91. No publication bias existed according to Deeks' funnel plot. CONCLUSION: High diagnosis performance was confirmed in LPAs for the diagnosis of MTB and drug-resistant TB. LPAs might be a good alternative to culture and DST in detecting MTB, RR-TB, INH-TB, XDR-TB, SLID-TB, and MDR-TB. While more studies were still needed to explore the diagnosis performance of LPAs for Pre-XDR TB.

Quantitative Analysis of a Spatial Distribution and Driving Factors of the Urban Heat Island Effect: A Case Study of Fuzhou Central Area, China.

Land surface temperature (LST) is a joint product of physical geography and socio-economics. It is important to clarify the spatial heterogeneity and binding factors of the LST for mitigating the surface heat island effect (SUHI). In this study, the spatial pattern of UHI in Fuzhou central area, China, was elucidated by Moran's I and hot-spot analysis. In addition, the study divided the drivers into two categories, including physical geographic factors (soil wetness, soil brightness, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), water density, and vegetation density) and socio-economic factors (normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), population density, road density, nighttime light, park density). The influence analysis of single factor on LST and the factor interaction analysis were conducted via Geodetector software. The results indicated that the LST presented a gradient layer structure with high temperature in the southeast and low temperature in the northwest, which had a significant spatial association with industry zones. Especially, LST was spatially repulsive to urban green space and water body. Furthermore, the four factors with the greatest influence (q-Value) on LST were soil moisture (influence = 0.792) > NDBI (influence = 0.732) > MNDWI (influence = 0.618) > NDVI (influence = 0.604). The superposition explanation degree (influence (Xi ∩ Xj)) is stronger than the independent explanation degree (influence (Xi)). The highest and the lowest interaction existed in "soil wetness ∩ MNDWI" (influence = 0.864) and "nighttime light ∩ population density" (influence = 0.273), respectively. The spatial distribution of SUHI and its driving mechanism were also demonstrated, providing theoretical guidance for urban planners to build thermal environment friendly cities.

Influence of orifice geometry on atomization characteristics of pressure swirl atomizer.

The spray characteristics of the pressure swirl nozzle are experimentally studied using particle dynamics analysis (PDA) and high-speed photography system in this paper, specifically focusing on the dependence of geometrical dimensions of orifice on the spray SMD, velocity magnitude and droplet distribution, and the spray cone angle. It is indicated that the increase of orifice diameter makes the initial swirling velocity lower and the spray liquid film thicker. When the spray cone is fully expanded, the flow rate of 900 µm orifice diameter nozzle increases by 30-40% and the SMD of 900 µm orifice diameter nozzle increases by 8.5% compared with that of 700 µm orifice diameter nozzle. According to the experimental conditions, the relationship between Re and spray angle was calculated as θ = 29.97*Re0.087, ignoring the factors that had little influence on spray angle. The decrease of the orifice length makes the distance of gas-medium shearing action shorten so that thinner oil film near wall cannot be formed by the extrusion of air core, leading to the swirling intensity reducing and the suction effect weakened. The spray cone angle of the 450 µm orifice length atomizer is about 5° smaller than the nozzle of 500 µm orifice length, and more small SMD droplets are not sucked, resulting in the distribution range of spray SMD declining.

Medication adherence among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treated in a primary general hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate medication adherence and the associated influencing factors in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who were treated in a primary general hospital in Shanghai China during the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: From March to April 2020, all of the COPD patients treated in our department in the last 7 years were interviewed by telephone. The basic patient data and each questionnaire item were collected, and influencing factors were analyzed by the Chi-square test, U test, and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: A total of 191 patients with COPD were queried, and 84 (44.0%) valid questionnaires were obtained. Among them, individuals with group B symptoms were most represented (45.2%); 53.6% had Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea levels of 2 or above. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test (CAT) had an average of 9 [3, 13], and 52.4% of patients used two-drug combination therapy. Medication adherence was both good in ordinary times and over the past 2 months of the pandemic, and 88.8% of patients had no acute exacerbation during the pandemic. The CAT scores of male patients <70 years old, and patients with general outpatient follow-up and regular gargling were reduced (P<0.05). Drug combination and doctor's supervision were favorable factors affecting medication adherence during the 2 months of the pandemic, while possible depression was an unfavorable factor (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: During the pandemic, medication adherence in patients with COPD was similar to that in regular times, and was significantly related to drug combination, doctor's supervision, and accompanying mood disorders. An effective way to improve patient adherence and disease control could be strengthening follow-up education and diagnosing and treating depression and other complications.

Simultaneous determination of bilirubin and its glucuronides in liver microsomes and recombinant UGT1A1 enzyme incubation systems by HPLC method and its application to bilirubin glucuronidation studies.

Bilirubin, an important endogenous substances and liver function index in humans, is primarily eliminated via UGT1A1-catalyzed glucuronidation. Instability of bilirubin and its glucuronides brings substantial technical challenges to conduct in vitro bilirubin glucuronidation assay. In the present study, we developed a simple and robust HPLC method for simultaneous determination of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) and its multiple glucuronides, i.e. bilirubin monoglucuronides (BMGs, including BMG1 and BMG2 isomers) and diglucuronide (BDG) in rat liver microsomes (RLM), human liver microsomes (HLM) and recombinant human UGT1A1 enzyme (UGT1A1) incubation systems, and applied it to study in vitro bilirubin glucuronidation. UCB, BMG1, BMG2, BDG and their isomers in the incubation mixtures were successfully separated using a C18 column with UV detection at 450nm and mobile phase consisted of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile by a linear gradient elution program. Assay linearities of bilirubin were confirmed in the range 0.01-2µM. Precision of UCB, BMG1, BMG2 and BDG (n=5) at low, medium and high concentration was within the range of RSD 0.4-3.7%, accuracy expressed in the mean assay recoveries of them (n=5) ranged from 92.8±1.5% to 104.3±2.2% for intra- and inter-day assays and the mean extraction recoveries of them (n=5) were above 91.5±1.0%. Stability of bilirubin and its glucuronides was satisfactory at 37°C in the incubation solutions during the reaction (30min), 25°C for 24h and -70°C for 7d in the processed incubation samples with methanol. Furthermore, we established stable, reliable in vitro incubation systems and optimized the incubation conditions to characterize the kinetics of bilirubin glucuronidation by RLM, HLM and UGT1A1, respectively. The kinetic parameters of formation of total bilirubin glucuronides (TBG, the sum of BMG1, BMG2 and BDG) were as follows: Km of 0.45±0.016, 0.40±0.022, 0.44±0.018µM, Vmax of 2.65±0.057, 1.86±0.029, 2.95±0.036nmol/mg/min, CLint of 5.92±0.22, 4.70±0.079, 6.72±0.27mL/mg/min by RLM, HLM and UGT1A1, respectively. Bilirubin glucuronidation obeyed the Hill equation by RLM and the Michaelis-Menten equation by HLM and UGT1A1 in the range of substrate concentration selected, respectively. In addition, the relative proportions between BDG and BMGs were in connection with enzyme sources (e.g. RLM, HLM and UGT1A1) and bilirubin concentration.

Partly PEGylated polyamidoamine dendrimer for tumor-selective targeting of doxorubicin: the effects of PEGylation degree and drug conjugation style.

Partly PEGylated polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers were used as the carrier for tumor-selective targeting of the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX). Acid-sensitive cis-aconityl linkage or acid-insensitive succinic linkage was introduced between DOX and polymeric carriers to produce PPCD or PPSD conjugates, respectively. DOX release from PPCD conjugates followed an acid-triggered manner and increased with increasing PEGylation degree. In vitro cytotoxicity of PPCD conjugates against murine B16 melanoma cells increased with, while cellular uptake decreased with increasing PEGylation degree. PPSD conjugates released negligible drug at any tested pH condition and were less cytotoxic. Confocal laser scanning microscopy confirmed the acid-sensitive release of DOX from PPCD conjugates in the lysosomes and the entrance into nuclei. Pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies demonstrated that increasing PEGylation degree resulted in reduced liver and splenic accumulation, longer circulation time and more tumor accumulation of the conjugates. Although PPSD conjugates showed more tumor accumulation than PPCD conjugates at the same PEGylation degree, the acid-sensitive DOX release from PPCD conjugates ensured higher concentration of free DOX in tumor and more pronounced antitumor activity. Besides, the antitumor activity of PPCD conjugates increased with increasing PEGylation degree. Overall, PPCD conjugate with the highest PEGylation would be a promising candidate for solid tumor therapy.