Effect of Virus Inactivation by Heating on Routine Clinical Laboratory Indicators in Serum.

BACKGROUND: Highly infectious viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and Ebola virus represent a threat to clinical laboratory workers. We aimed to investigate how virus inactivation by heating at 60°C for 1 hour affects routine clinical laboratory indicators. METHODS: Each collected serum sample was separated into two aliquots, and various indicators were measured in first aliquot after inactivation by heating at 60°C for 1 hour and in the second after room-temperature incubation for 1 hour. RESULTS: Serological test results for 36 indicators remained mostly unaffected by heat inactivation, with a mean estimated bias of < 10%. By contrast, the results for alanine transaminase, pseudocholinesterase, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, cardiac troponin I, and myoglobin were affected by heat inactivation, with the mean esti-mated bias here being > 20%, which was further increased in the case of the results for alkaline phosphatase, lipase, and creatine kinase isoenzyme MB. Immunological serological measurements showed good agreement according to Kappa consistency checks after heat inactivation of serum. The results for alanine transaminase, pseudocholinesterase, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, cardiac troponin I, and myoglobin were significantly correlated (r > 0.95) after heat inactivation, and after correction by using a regression equation, the results for the indicators still retained a clinical reference value. CONCLUSIONS: Inactivation by heating at 60°C for 1 hour exerts no marked effect on numerous routine biochemical and immunological indicators in serum, but the detection values for certain items are significantly decreased. Our method could serve as reference strategy for routine serological diagnostics in patients with suspected or confirmed infection with highly pathogenic viruses.

Fusion of detected multi-channel maternal electrocardiogram (ECG) R-wave peak locations.

BACKGROUND: Almost all promising non-invasive foetal ECG extraction methods involve accurately determining maternal ECG R-wave peaks. However, it is not easy to robustly detect accurate R-wave peaks of the maternal ECG component in an acquired abdominal ECG since it often has a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), sometimes containing a large foetal ECG component or other noises and interferences. This paper discusses, under the condition of acquiring multi-channel abdominal ECG signals, how to improve the robustness of maternal ECG R-wave peak detection. METHODS: On the basis of summarising the current single channel ECG R-wave peak detection methods, the paper proposed a specific fusion algorithm of detected multi-channel maternal ECG R-wave peak locations. The proposed entire algorithm was then tested using two databases; one database, created by us, was composed of 343 groups of 8-channel data collected from 78 pregnant women, and the other one, called the challenge database, was from the Physionet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2013, including 175 groups of 4-channel data. When using these databases, each group of data was classified into two parts, called the training part and the validation test part respectively; the training part was the first 8.192 s of each group of data and the validation test part was the next 8.192 s. RESULTS: To show the results, three evaluation parameters-sensitivity (Se), positive predictive value (PPV) and F1-are used. The validation test results for the database we collected are Se = 99.93 %, PPV = 99.98 %, and F1 = 99.95 %, while the results for the challenge database are Se = 99.91 %, PPV = 99.86 %, and F1 = 99.88 %. CONCLUSION: The results of the test show that the robustness of our proposed whole fusion algorithm was superior to that of other outstanding algorithms for maternal R-wave detection, and is much better than that of single channel maternal R-wave detection algorithms.

Study of the rapid detection of γ-aminobutyric acid in rice wine based on chemometrics using near infrared spectroscopy.

Rice wine, in which γ-aminobutyric acid is present, is beneficial to human health and is one of the three most well-known fermented wines in the world, and is very popular in China. The rapid detection of γ-aminobutyric acid was studied in rice wine using near infrared spectroscopy with an optical fibre probe. Through the selection of detection conditions, including a waveband range of 12500-4000 cm(-1), a scanning duration of 16 scans and a resolution of 8 cm(-1), the near infrared spectrum of rice wine was acquired three times, for every wine sample, with an optical fibre probe. The resulting average value of the spectrum was obtained and the corresponding data were analysed via normalization. By adopting a multivariate calibration partial least squares method (PLS) and establishing a calibration model, the highest precision for γ-aminobutyric acid in rice wine was predicted when the factor coefficient was 17. The overall results demonstrating the content of γ-aminobutyric acid in rice wine was predicted to be between 157.6696-317.5813 mg/L, with a relative standard deviation of prediction between 0.01-5 %, as well as the fact that the single sample measuring time was less than 20 s, prove that near infrared spectroscopy is a rapid, accurate and effective method to adopt for detecting the content of γ-aminobutyric acid in rice wine.

Invariant heart beat span versus variant heart beat intervals and its application to fetal ECG extraction.

BACKGROUND: The fundamental assumptions for various kinds of fetal electrocardiogram (fECG) extraction methods are not consistent with each other, which is a very important problem needed to be ascertained. METHODS: Based on two public databases, the regularity on ECG wave durations for normal sinus rhythm is investigated statistically. Taking the ascertained regularity as an assumption, a new fECG extraction algorithm is proposed, called Partial R-R interval Resampling (PRR). RESULTS: Both synthetic and real abdominal ECG signals are used to test the algorithm. The results indicate that the PRR algorithm has better performance over the whole R-R interval resampling based comb filtering method (RR) and linear template method (LP), which takes advantages of both LP and RR. CONCLUSIONS: The final drawn conclusion is: (1) the proposition should be true that the individual's heart beat span is invariable for normal sinus rhythm; (2) the proposed PRR fetal ECG extraction algorithm can estimate the maternal ECG (mECG) more accurately and stably even in the condition of large HRV, finally resulting in better fetal ECG extraction.

Urine biomarkers in type 2 diabetes mellitus with or without microvascular complications.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the distribution of nine (9) urine biomarkers in people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with or without microvascular complications. METHODS: In total, 407 people with T2DM were enrolled from 2021 to 2022. According to diabetic retinopathy (DR) and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), the 407 people were divided into four (4) groups, DR(-)UACR(-), DR(+)UACR(-), DR(-)UACR(+), and DR( + )UACR(+). In addition, 112 healthy volunteers were enrolled during the same period. The nine (9) urine markers included α1-microglobulin (u-α1MG), immunoglobulin G (u-IgG), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipid carrier protein (u-NGAL), cystatin C (u-CysC), retinol-binding protein (u-RBP), ß2-microglobulin (u-ß2MG), N-acetyl-ß-D-glucosaminidase (u-NAG), transferrin (u-Trf), and collagen type IV (u-Col). For each marker, the respective level of 97.5 percentile in healthy volunteers was taken as an upper reference limit. RESULTS: Among the 407 people, 248 individuals (61%) were DR(-)UACR(-), 100 (25%) were DR(-)UACR(+), 37 (9%) were DR(+)UACR(-), and 22 (5%) were DR(+)UACR(+). The u-NAG/Cr biomarker level showed a significant difference between healthy participants and people with T2DM. In the DR(-)UACR(-)group, u-Trf/Cr showed the highest positive rate (21.37%), followed by u-IgG/Cr (14.52%); u-NAG/Cr (10.48%); u-ß2MG/Cr (4.44%); u-CysC/Cr (4.03%); u-NGAL/Cr (4.03%); u-RBP/Cr (2.82%); u-α1MG/Cr (2.42%); 17.34% of people with T2DM showed multiple biomarkers positive (≥2 biomarkers). The positive rates of one biomarker (21.33%) and two biomarkers (18.67%) in people who have less than five (5) years of T2DM were almost close to those of the DR(-)UACR(-) group (21.37%, and 12.10%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Renal tubule biomarkers may be used as an indicator in the early detection and monitoring of renal injury in diabetes mellitus. The u-NAG biomarker should be measured for the people with T2DM of the first-time diagnosis.

Loading behavior of gatifloxacin in urine and lake water on a novel magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer used as extraction sorbent with spectrophotometric analysis.

The loading behavior of gatifloxacin (GTFX) in human urine and lake water on a novel magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer used as extraction sorbent with UV-Visible spectrometric analysis has been studied. The magnetic polymers had been prepared using GTFX as template molecule and Fe3O4 as magnetic component. The polymer had been characterized by SEM, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, and appropriate magnet separator. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were evaluated in order to achieve optimal loading and reduce nonspecific interactions. Good linearity of the method had been obtained in the range between 0.25 and 15 µg mL(-1) by UV-Vis spectrophotometry at 286 nm with spectral analysis from 240 to 400 nm. The method detection and quantification limits of GTFX in water were 0.075 and 0.25 µg mL(-1), respectively. This study showed good selectivity and loading efficiency (α > 2) of the polymers. The loading behavior of GTFX in the samples spiked on polymers had been obtained and each other with recovery higher than 91% with RSD% between 2.5 and 3.3. No pretreatment of samples were needed and no interference of compounds in urine and lake water were observed during adsorption.

Adsorption behavior of pazufloxacin mesilate on amino-functionalized carbon nanotubes.

In this study, the interaction between amino-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (e-MWNTs) and antibacterial agents was investigated and the drug-loading ability of e-MWNTs was evaluated. The e-MWNTs were prepared and characterized, then were used as adsorbents for loading an antibacterial agent, pazufloxacin mesilate (PZFX). The adsorption behavior of PZFX on e-MWNTs in water was investigated. The results showed that e-MWNTs were able to form supramolecular complexes with PZFX and could be used as drug carriers with high drug-loading efficiency. Compared with pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), the adsorption efficiency of e-MWNTs was better. In kinetic studies, the pseudo-second-order model showed satisfactory fitting and good adsorption process. Langmuir model was successfully employed to describe the adsorption isotherms of PZFX on e-MWNTs and higher drug-loading ability were observed from e-MWNTs with smaller diameter. The adsorption process of e-MWNTs was sensitive to the pH and it was observed that the neutral pH gave the best adsorption. Low temperatures facilitated the adsorption process. In addition, the release process of PZFX from e-MWNTs occurred in two stages: a rapid release, then followed by a slow release, in which acidic solution favored the release process. In summary, our technique developed for the adsorption of PZFX on e-MWNTs is satisfactory.

[Investigation of the enrichment and separation of lead and lead isotopes in simulated blood matrix].

The enrichment and separation method was used in the present paper to overcome the influence of matrix effect on the determination of lead concentration and isotope ratios. The patented method was used to enrich and separate the lead in simulated blood matrix; the lead concentrations and isotope ratios were determined by ICP-MS before and after enrichment and separation. The recovery rate of Pb is more than 99% through this method while the removal rate of major impurity ions such as Na, K is about 80%. The concentrations of each lead isotope decrease with the matrix concentration increasing (p < 0.001), and lead isotope ratios show no significant differences in the matrix of different concentrations. When the matrix concentration is more than 62.5 microg x mL(-1), the strength will decrease with the determination times increasing. It was concluded that the characteristics of this method are of high recovery rate (> 99%), fast, simple and convenient, and it can raise the accuracy and precision of the concentration determination of lead isotopes and has no significant influence on the accuracy of lead isotope ratios determination.

[Studies on the interaction of gatifloxacin with bovine serum albumin in the presence of carbon nanotubes by fluorescence spectroscopy].

Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to investigate the influences of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the fluorescence of bovine serum albumin (BSA), the influences of CNTs on that of gatifloxacin (GFLX), and the influences of GFLX on that of BSA with or without coexisting CNTs under imitated physiological condition. The experimental results demonstrate that both gatifloxacin and carbon nanotubes could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA, and the quenching mechanism is mainly static quenching. The fluorescence quenching action of GFLX on BSA was weakened in the presence of CNTs. The fluorescence quenching data were analyzed according to Stern-Volmer equation and double-reciprocal Lineweaver-Burk equation. It was shown that the quenching constant (K(sv)) and the binding constant (K) are decreased with the concentration of carbon nanotubes increasing. The effects of coexisting CNTs on GFLX-BSA interactions were discussed to offer a reference for the studies on the action mechanism of CNTs or GFLX with albumins in vivo.

Health-related quality of life in pilots of a Chinese commercial airline.

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is currently an important issue in the medical industry. However, data on HRQOL in commercial airline pilots are lacking. This study aimed to investigate HRQOL and its related factors in a sample of commercial pilots. A purposive sample of 373 participants was recruited from a Chinese Commercial Airline. The median (IQR) score for physical health, psychological health and social relationship were 64.3 (75-53.6), 62.5 (70.8-54.2) and 75 (75-58.3), respectively. The mean (SD) score for Environment was 62.2 (16). After controlling for demographics, the multiple linear regression analyses showed that physical activity, fruit intake and vegetable intake were positively correlated with HRQOL score (p < .05), while time-zone flights, smoking, alcohol drinking and being dyslipidemic showed a negative correlation with HRQOL score (p < .05). Healthcare providers should consider time-zone flights, behavioral factors and dyslipidemia when planning related health promotion and disease prevention programs for commercial pilots in the future.

[The design and configuration of integrated multifunctional first-aid apparatus box].

With clinical first-aid needs, it is necessary to develop and produce combined first-aid equipment box to meet needs of the battlefield and emergency treatment. The choice of medical devices should also be followed to change, so as to well realize the scene first aid and portable purpose, whose internal configuration of medical devices can also be set according to actual requirements and have met a case of multiple uses, to suit different applications require medical treatment.

[Design and manufacture of medical shipping refrigerated box].

OBJECTIVE: To develop a set of low temperature medical shipping refrigerated box for storage and shipping for biologicals in field environment. METHODS: Semiconductor cooling device (SCD) and phase change energy storage materials (PCESM) were adopted as the means for refrigeration and coolness storage, coolness was produced by SCD and stored by PCESM while power source present, and low temperature state for biologicals was keep by PCESM. RESULTS: The problem for biologicals storage and shipping in low temperature state for medical experiment and clinic was resolved. CONCLUSION: Medical shipping refrigerated box can be used not only in medical, but also in other field such as food storage and shipping, etc.

Source specific PM2.5 associated with heart rate variability in the elderly with coronary heart disease: A community-based panel study.

There is increasingly concern that PM2.5 constituents play a significant role in PM2.5-related cardiovascular outcomes. However, little is known about the associations between specific constituents of PM2.5 and risk for cardiovascular health. To evaluate the exposure to specific chemicals of PM2.5 from various sources and their cardiac effects, a longitudinal investigation was conducted with four repeated measurements of elderly participants' HRV and PM2.5 species in urban Beijing. Multiple chemicals in PM2.5 (metals, ions and PAHs) were characterized for PM2.5 source apportionment and personalized exposure assessment. Five sources were finally identified with specific chemicals as the indicators: oil combustion (1.1%, V & PAHs), secondary particle (11.3%, SO42- & NO3-), vehicle emission (1.2%, Pd), construction dust (28.7%, Mg & Ca), and coal combustion (57.7%, Se & As). As observed, each IQR increase in exposure to oil combustion (V), vehicle emission (Pd), and coal combustion (Se) significantly decreased rMSSD by 13.1% (95% CI: -25.3%, -1.0%), 27.4% (95% CI: -42.9%, -7.6%) and 24.7% (95% CI: -39.2%, -6.9%), respectively, while those of PM2.5 mass with decreases of rMSSD by 11.1% (95% CI: -19.6%, -1.9%) at lag 0. Elevated exposures to specific sources/constituents of PM2.5 disrupt cardiac autonomic function in elderly and have more adverse effects than PM2.5 mass. In the stratified analysis, medication and gender modify the associations of specific chemicals from variable sources with HRV. The findings of this study provide evidence on the roles of influential constituents of ambient air PM2.5 and their sources in terms of their adverse cardiovascular health effects.

[The design of no-power combination manual/foot control suction apparatus].

In this paper, one kind of suction apparatus is introduced, which could use manual, foot control and control combination. The design mentality, realization method, installation constitution and application method are also described. It is suitable to the nonmotile source condition and transportation situation, adapting easily to environment, and getting into favour with the medical staff and field first-aid personnel.

[The research of the foamy fracture fixation splint].

A new production method of fracture fixation splint is introduced in the paper. The basic raw materials are multi-isocyanic acid, mixed with surfactants, catalysts, fillers, and so on. The splint, with light weight, high strength, and good injured anastomosis site, could be able to shape easily. It is dry and comfortable, avoiding a gas-tight uncomfortable feeling, easy to remove, remodel, nurse, clean and disinfect after fixed. Patients also could film review directly with fixed splint.

ECG R-wave peaks marking with simultaneously recorded continuous blood pressure.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: ECG signal is relatively weak and vulnerable to various noise interferences, such as electromyography. There will be robustness problems when detecting the instantaneous heart rate independently. In some cases, multiple human physiologic parameters are monitored to help in heart rate detection. METHODS: In this paper, an algorithm that marks the R-wave peaks with the help of simultaneously recorded continuous blood pressure is proposed and tested on two databases. One database, called the challenge database, is provided by the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2014, and the other is the MGH/MF waveform database. RESULTS: The final scores of the proposed algorithm are 97.3% for the challenge database and 96.6% for the MGH/MF waveform database. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results show that this algorithm has high detection accuracy and a relatively strong robustness.

Enrichment and separation of steroidal saponins from the fibrous roots of Ophiopogon japonicus using macroporous adsorption resins.

In this study, a simple and effective strategy for the enrichment of total steroidal saponins (TSS) from the fibrous roots of Ophiopogon japonicus (L. f.) Ker-Gawl. (FROJ) using macroporous adsorption resin was systematically developed. XAD-7HP resin was selected from six macroporous resins for further study because of the highest static adsorption and desorption capacities. The static adsorption of TSS on XAD-7HP resin fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo second-order kinetic model; the thermodynamics test showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. The dynamic tests on XAD-7HP resin columns demonstrated that the breakthrough volume was 16 bed volume (BV), and 6 BV of 80% ethanol was suitable for dynamic desorption. In a lab scale-up separation under optimal dynamic conditions, the content of TSS in the resin-enrichment fraction increased from 1.83% in the crude extracts to 13.86% by 7.59-fold with a recovery yield of 82.68%. Three steroidal saponins were obtained from the resin-enrichment fraction, and showed protective effects against oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) induced human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) injury. Overall, these results suggested that XAD-7HP resin chromatography was an effective strategy for the large scale enrichment of TSS from FROJ, which showed the potential for functional food and pharmaceutical application.

Preparation of TiO2 nanowire gas nanosensor by AFM anode oxidation.

Applications of atomic force microscopy (AFM) to the fabrication of chemical nanosensors are presented in this paper. Using AFM cantilever as cathode, the surface of Ti thin film is oxidized to form a few tens of nanometers wide oxidized metal semiconductor wire, which works as a nanowire-based hydrogen sensor. The reaction mechanism is proposed. The AFM observations of fabrication of a TiO2 nanowire are carried out. The sensitive characteristic of such TiO2 nanowires to hydrogen is investigated.

[Study on an epilepsy EEG processing system based on independent component analysis (ICA)].

An epilepsy EEG processing system designed based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is introduced in the paper, in order to meet the requirements of epileptic screening in clinical medicine. The system adopts module structure and virtual instrument technology, its hardware is mainly configured in the signal-detecting box, data are exchanged between the box and the notebook computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) through certain digital interface, and ICA is executed in the notebook computer or PDA. The virtual EEG processing system based on ICA is able not only to perform ICA algorithms easily, but also to improve the developing efficiency greatly, and it is suitable for disease screening on a large scale.

Comparative study on serum levels of macro and trace elements in schizophrenia based on supervised learning methods.

The etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SCZ) remain obscure. This study explored the associations between SCZ risk and serum levels of 39 macro and trace elements (MTE). A 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted among 114 schizophrenia patients and 114 healthy controls matched by age, sex and region. Blood samples were collected to determine the concentrations of 39 MTE by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. Both supervised learning methods and classical statistical testing were used to uncover the difference of MTE levels between cases and controls. The best prediction accuracies were 99.21% achieved by support vector machines in the original feature space (without dimensionality reduction), and 98.82% achieved by Naive Bayes with dimensionality reduction. More than half of MTE were found to be significantly different between SCZ patients and the controls. The presented investigation showed that there existed remarkable differences in concentrations of MTE between SCZ patients and healthy controls. The results of this study might be useful to diagnosis and prognosis of SCZ; they also indicated other promising applications in pharmacy and nutrition. However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to limited sample size and the lack of potential confounding factors, such as alcohol, smoking, body mass index (BMI), use of antipsychotics and dietary intakes. In the future the application of the analyses will be useful in designs that have larger sample sizes.