Enhancing bioretention efficiency for pollutant mitigation in stormwater runoff: Exploring ecosystem cycling dynamics amidst temporal variability.

In this study, three distinct bioretention setups incorporating fillers, plants, and earthworms were established to evaluate the operational efficiency under an ecosystem concept across varying time scales. The results revealed that under short-term operating conditions, extending the drying period led to a notable increase in the removal of NO3--N, total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) by 5 %-7%, 4 %-12 %, and 5 %-10 %, respectively. Conversely, under long-time operating conditions, the introduction of plants resulted in a significant boost in COD removal by 10 %-20 %, while the inclusion of earthworms improved NH4+-N and NO3--N removal, especially TP removal by 9 %-16 %. Microbial community analysis further indicated the favorable impact of the bioretention system on biological nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism, particularly with the incorporation of plants and earthworms. This study provides a reference for the operational performance of bioretention systems on different time scales.

Design and spatial pattern optimization for a sponge city using factor analysis and geographical statistics to restore urban resilience: A case study in a coastal area of China.

The sponge city is a new concept of stormwater management for ecological city construction, which aims to restore water-cycle processes and reduce runoff. Cities in coastal districts are suffering from serious instability due to high population density, urbanization, and land-use changes. However, previous research contains few evaluations of balancing urban ecological indicators of sponge city performance, including geographical, environmental, economic, and social factors, and their effect on resilience at a macro level to develop low-impact development schemes. In this study, we developed an integrated framework using factor analysis, geographical statistics, multi-objective analysis, and remote sensing methods to extract the factors influencing sponge city resilience and to establish spatial pattern schemes. The results indicated that the urbanization degree and plant adaptability had the greatest impact on sponge city performance, with weights of 45 and 27%, respectively. Sponge city spatial pattern schemes performed the best in the combination scenario of 14.8-46.8% green roofs (by area ratio) supported by grooves and rain barrels +10% herbaceous basins divided into units by ecological tree pools +10% permeable pavements and sidewalks. This scenario balanced facilities and cost to optimize the spatial pattern, which improved sponge city adaptability and urban ecological conditions.

SEG - A Software Program for Finding Somatic Copy Number Alterations in Whole Genome Sequencing Data of Cancer.

As next-generation sequencing technology advances and the cost decreases, whole genome sequencing (WGS) has become the preferred platform for the identification of somatic copy number alteration (CNA) events in cancer genomes. To more effectively decipher these massive sequencing data, we developed a software program named SEG, shortened from the word "segment". SEG utilizes mapped read or fragment density for CNA discovery. To reduce CNA artifacts arisen from sequencing and mapping biases, SEG first normalizes the data by taking the log2-ratio of each tumor density against its matching normal density. SEG then uses dynamic programming to find change-points among a contiguous log2-ratio data series along a chromosome, dividing the chromosome into different segments. SEG finally identifies those segments having CNA. Our analyses with both simulated and real sequencing data indicate that SEG finds more small CNAs than other published software tools.

[Investigation regarding the correlation between hydroxyethyl starch administration and acute kidney injury in critically ill patients].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the risk factors of the occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill patients, and to investigate the effect of hydroxyethyl starch (HES) on renal function in these patients. METHODS: A prospective investigation was conducted. Critically ill patients admitted to Department of Critical Care Medicine of People's Hospital of Huangshan, Wannan Medical College from March 2012 to October 2013 were enrolled. For all the patients under observation, the following data were collected: demography, comorbidities, clinical presentation, severity of illness, and the use of blood product and drugs. All patients were divided into AKI group and non-AKI group by means of Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) criteria, then the risk factors of AKI were investigated by means of univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The effect of HES 130/0.4 administration on renal function in critically ill patients was evaluated. RESULTS: 314 patients were enrolled for study out of 1 152 patients admitted. Among these patients enrolled, 89 of them were found to suffer from AKI. AKI was classified as stage 1 in 59 patients, stage 2 in 19 patients, and stage 3 in 11 patients. It was shown by the univariate analysis that 12 variables were the risk factors of AKI, including age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHEII) score, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, coagulation SOFA score, neurological SOFA score, cardiovascular SOFA score, blood pH on intensive care unit (ICU) admission, blood glucose on ICU admission, accumulating dose of HES, and presence of shock (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). However, HES administration and daily maximum dose of HES were not the risk factors of AKI in critically ill patients (both P > 0.05). Using the multivariate logistic regression analysis, it was shown that total SOFA score [ odds ratio (OR) = 1.20, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.09-1.32, P < 0.001 ], hypertension (OR = 2.44, 95%CI = 1.22-4.89, P = 0.012), blood glucose level on ICU admission (OR = 1.85, 95%CI = 1.32-2.59, P < 0.001), and presence of shock (OR = 3.81, 95%CI = 1.93-7.53, P < 0.001) were independent predictors of AKI in critically ill patients, however, the cumulative dose of HES was not independent risk factor for AKI (OR = 0.77, 95%CI = 0.68-0.87, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Total SOFA score, hypertension, blood glucose level on ICU admission, and presence of shock were independent risk factors for AKI in critically ill patients. HES administration may not be a causative factor of an increased risk of AKI in the ICU.

[The study on the value of using the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma physiology score to assess the severity of acute exacerbation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease complicated by type II respiratory failure].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma physiology score (CAPS) in evaluating the severity and prognosis of patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) complicated by type II respiratory failure. METHODS: Eighty-two cases with AECOPD complicated by type II respiratory failure between January 2005 and March 2009 were retrospectively analyzed. The severity in survivors and non-survivors was evaluated by CAPS and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation system (APACHE II score, APACHE III score), and retrospective and statistical analyses of all data were performed. RESULTS: CAPS, APACHE II score, APACHE III score, duration of invasive positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) and days in intensive care unit of 19 cases in the death group were 34.21+/-9.89, 22.53+/-7.49, 75.11+/-18.07, (25.06+/-24.64) days, (32.42+/-25.49) days , respectively, while 63 cases of the survival group were 27.41+/-8.15, 18.65+/-5.34, 64.11+/-15.92, (5.23+/-5.50) days, (12.51+/-20.70) days, respectively, and there were significant differences between two groups (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of CAPS, APACHE II score and APACHE III score were 0.712 (P=0.005), 0.654 (P=0.043) and 0.655 (P=0.042), respectively. When CAPS score was 30.5, Youden index was the highest (0.435). The mortality rate had a positive correlation with CAPS. When the CAPS score was over 30, there was a tendency of increase in mortality rate. CONCLUSION: CAPS is very useful to evaluate the severity and prognosis of patients with AECOPD complicated by type II respiratory failure. It is easy to perform, and better than APACHE II and APACHE III.

Copy number abnormalities in sporadic canine colorectal cancers.

Human colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the better-understood systems for studying the genetics of cancer initiation and progression. To develop a cross-species comparison strategy for identifying CRC causative gene or genomic alterations, we performed array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to investigate copy number abnormalities (CNAs), one of the most prominent lesion types reported for human CRCs, in 10 spontaneously occurring canine CRCs. The results revealed for the first time a strong degree of genetic homology between sporadic canine and human CRCs. First, we saw that between 5% and 22% of the canine genome was amplified/deleted in these tumors, and that, reminiscent of human CRCs, the total altered sequences directly correlated to the tumor's progression stage, origin, and likely microsatellite instability status. Second, when mapping the identified CNAs onto syntenic regions of the human genome, we noted that the canine orthologs of genes participating in known human CRC pathways were recurrently disrupted, indicating that these pathways might be altered in the canine CRCs as well. Last, we observed a significant overlapping of CNAs between human and canine tumors, and tumors from the two species were clustered according to the tumor subtypes but not the species. Significantly, compared with the shared CNAs, we found that species-specific (especially human-specific) CNAs localize to evolutionarily unstable regions that harbor more segmental duplications and interspecies genomic rearrangement breakpoints. These findings indicate that CNAs recurrent between human and dog CRCs may have a higher probability of being cancer-causative, compared with CNAs found in one species only.