Rapid quality test for drinking water by vertical-channel organic semiconductor gas sensor.

In this work, we proposed a rapid and easy check of the drinking water pollution level due to bacteria growth by semiconductor gas sensor. Highly sensitive vertical channel organic ammonia gas sensor was used to detect the gases emitted from the polluted water, and then determined effective ammonia concentration according to its response. Residues from meat of fish, shrimp, and fruits were mashed and added to the clean water. The water samples were stored at 35 °C for natural decay. Initially the bacteria concentration was below 100 colony forming unit per ml (cfu/ml), then it increased to103 cfu/ml in 2 h and 105 cfu/ml in 4 h, which was beyond the drinking safety standard, 500 cfu/ml. At this gas level no bad odor can be sensed by human yet, however, the effective ammonia concentration of those samples rises to 300-500 ppb in 2 h. The amine gas sensor can therefore be used as a rapid check if the bacteria level inside the water is far over the safety standard.

Predicting Long-Term Mortality with Biomarkers Level for Homecare Patients.

Electronic health record (EHR) systems have been used widely in research. However, most of the EHRs are highly dimensional and it is challenging to analyze such large data set. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary science with a focus on data management and interpretation for complex biological phenomena. We investigated biomarkers of nutrition from 3001 patients. Multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were calculated according to both albumin and sodium levels. We explore the association of aging predicted by all-cause mortality in future.

Evaluation of the Accuracy of ECG Captured by CardioChip through Comparison of Lead I Recording to a Standard 12-Lead ECG Recording Device.

BACKGROUND: Remote cardiac rhythm monitoring and recording, using hand-carried electrocardiogram (ECG) device had been widely used in telemedicine. The feasibility and accuracy analysis on the data recorded by a new miniature ECG system-on-chip (SoC) system has not been explored before. METHODS: This study evaluated the accuracy of the ECG recordings captured by CardioChip - a single-channeled, low-powered, miniature ECG SoC designed for mobile applications; comparing against Philips Pagewriter Trim III - a Food and Drug Administration certified, widely-used standard 12-lead ECG recording device, within Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taiwan. RESULTS: Total of 111 participants, age ranging from 39 to 87years old [mean age: 61.2 ± 13.4, 57 male (51.3%)] were enrolled. Two experienced cardiologists rated and scored the ECG morphology to be the same between the two devices, while CardioChip ECG was more sensitive to baseline noise. R-peak amplitudes measured both devices using single lead information (CardioChip ECG vs. Lead 1 in standard 12-lead ECG) showed statistical consistency. Offline analysis of signal correlation coefficients and coherence showed good correlation with both over 0.94 in average (0.94 ± 0.04 and 0.95 ± 0.04, respectively), high agreement between raters (94% agreement) for detecting abnormal cardiac rhythm with excellent R-peak amplitude (r = 0.98, p < 0.001) and PR interval (r = 0.91, p < 0.001) correlations, indicating excellent correlation between ECG recordings derived from two different modalities. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that CardioChip ECG is comparable to medical industry standard ECG. The future implementation of wearable ECG device embedded with miniature ECG system-on-chip (SoC) system is ready for clinical use, which will potentially enhance efficacy on identifying subjects with suspected cardiac arrhythmias.

Androgen receptor facilitates the recruitment of macrophages in tumor microenvironment to promote upper urinary tract urothelial cell carcinoma progression.

Interactions between infiltrating macrophages in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and tumor cells contribute to tumor progression. The potential impacts of recruited macrophages to the upper urinary tract urothelial cell carcinomas (UUTUCs) progression remain unclear. Here we found human UUTUCs might recruit more macrophages than surrounding normal urothelial cells in human clinical specimens and in in vitro co-culture experiments with UUTUC cells and macrophages. The consequences of recruiting more macrophages to UUTUCs might then enhance UUTUC cell growth, migration and invasion. Further investigation found that the androgen receptor (AR) not only enhanced UUTUC cells capacity to recruit more macrophages, it could also promote the macrophages-enhanced UUTUC cells growth, migration and invasion. Downstream AR target cytokine search found AR might function through modulating CCL5 expression to influence UTTUC progression. Interruption of CCL5 partially reversed the AR-regulated macrophage-enhanced UUTUC progression. AR in UUTUC cells also increased tumor formation in vivo. Taken together, these results suggest that macrophages recruitment may enhance UUTUC progression, modulated by AR-CCL5 signal through alterations in chromatin state to establish a tumor microenvironment with recruited macrophages and cytokines to facilitate cell growth, migration and invasion.

Antityrosinase and antioxidant effects of ent-kaurane diterpenes from leaves of Broussonetia papyrifera.

Three new ent-kaurane type diterpenes, broussonetones A-C (1-3), were isolated from leaves of Broussonetia papyrifera, together with seven known compounds, and their structures determined by 1D and 2D NMR and MS methods. Compounds 1-3 were marginal inhibitors of tyrosinase. Antioxidant assays showed them also to be inhibitors of xanthine oxidase. The mild inhibition of tyrosinase and significant inhibition of xanthine oxidase suggests that 1-3 could be useful ingredients in the development of skin-protecting cosmetics.

Management of pulseless and apneic trauma patients: are aggressive measures justified?

This study prospectively examined the care of trauma patients in extremis on presentation to a tertiary medical center between January 2000 and August 31, 2002. There were 144 patients who presented without a pulse or spontaneous respiration and required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (mean age, 41.5+/-2.3 years; male-to-female ratio, 105:39). Successfully resuscitated patients, who were either admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) or who were taken to the operating room for surgical exploration, had significantly shorter duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (14.55+/-1.64 minutes vs. 33.32+/-1.23 minutes; P < 0.001) and received less amounts of epinephrine than those who died in the emergency room (P < 0.05). One hundred sixteen patients died in the emergency room. Nineteen admitted patients died within 24 hours of presentation. Nine patients survived beyond 24 hours and all of them were admitted directly to the SICU for the management of brain injury. Six patients were taken to the operating room for surgical exploration to control the bleeding; all of them died in the operating room or shortly thereafter in the SICU. No patient in this study survived to be discharged. The financial cost of successfully resuscitated patients was significantly higher than that of patients who died in the emergency room (P < 0.001). Instead of insisting on aggressive measures to resuscitate trauma patients in extremis on presentation, the authors suggest we should redirect that fervor toward efforts made to promote trauma awareness and injury prevention programs.