Short-term particulate matter contamination severely compromises insect antennal olfactory perception.

The consequences of sub-lethal levels of ambient air pollution are underestimated for insects, for example, the accumulation of particulate matter on sensory receptors located on their antennae may have detrimental effects to their function. Here we show that the density of particulate matter on the antennae of houseflies (Musca domestica) collected from an urban environment increases with the severity of air pollution. A combination of behavioural assays, electroantennograms and transcriptomic analysis provide consistent evidence that a brief exposure to particulate matter pollution compromises olfactory perception of reproductive and food odours in both male and female houseflies. Since particulate matter can be transported thousands of kilometres from its origin, these effects may represent an additional factor responsible for global declines in insect numbers, even in pristine and remote areas.

Improving the Detection of Urine Sediment with a Modified Urinalysis Review Procedure.

BACKGROUND: Currently, numerous review procedures are applied to perform the urine sediment examination. Clinical technologists and nephrologists use different procedures for the determination of specimen concentration and for particle counting. These techniques may underestimate the formed elements such as pathological casts (CASTs) and renal tubular epithelial (RTE) cells and might interfere with clinical diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate a modified review procedure for urinary analysis and to narrow the gap between nephrologists and technologists by increasing the detection positivity rate for pathological formed elements. METHODS: We implemented a modified urinalysis procedure between October 2016 and January 2017 based on strict manual microscopic criteria and the currently available equipment. We confirmed the agreement between methods using a review procedure and Sysmex UF-1000i urinary flow cytometer (Pairwise Agreement > 0.88 for WBCs, RBCs, CASTs, and SRCs). Then we derived the review procedure that was based on the optimal sensitivity and specificity as follows: RBC > 26.1/µL, WBC > 37.0/µL, CAST > 1.0/µL, SRC > 8.2/µL, XTAL > 1.5/µL, YLC > 10.0/µL, BACT > 287.5/µL. RESULTS: Of the 317 specimens investigated, 17.4% (26/149) and 31.5% (39/124) of the specimens for RTEs and Path. CASTs, respectively, were correctly detected using the proposed review procedure. Sensitivity and specificity for this procedure was 96.9% and 46.2%, respectively. In addition, we verified the ability of the procedure to detect the pathological elements with technologists and nephrologists and the agreement was satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: This modified review procedure can significantly improve the quality of urinalysis and reduce the risk of underestimating the detection of pathological particles.

Spectral analysis of layered sites using shaking table tests.

The dynamic response analysis of horizontal and inclined layered sites using large-scale shaking table tests in various directions, including the dip direction, strike, vertical direction, slope direction and direction perpendicular to the interface of layered sites is conducted in this study. The Fourier spectrum and response spectrum characteristics in the horizontal site are first investigated in this study, and the dynamic responses of the inclined layered sites are then studied and compared to the corresponding responses of the horizontal layered site. The influence of dip angle on the response spectrum is also studied.

Rapidly discriminating culture-negative urine specimens from patients with suspected urinary tract infections by UF-5000.

Aim: A rapid and reliable method of discriminating such specimens would be very useful. Materials & methods: We analyzed 566 urine specimens from patients with suspected urinary tract infections using a fully automated urine particle analyzer (UF-5000) and evaluated its performance for culture-negative urine specimens. Results: Using the algorithm cutoff values of bacteria less than 30/µl and/or white blood cell less than 200/µl, we obtained a sensitivity of 97.8%, a specificity of 74.6%, a positive predictive value of 46.9%, a negative predictive value of 99.3%, an agreement of 78.9% with the culture method and reduced 61% unnecessary urine culture. Regarding the discrimination of bacterial Gram groups, 67.7% (63/93) of cases were correctly analyzed using the UF-5000 bacteria information, with a Cohen's kappa concordance coefficient of 0.775 (χ2 = 31.65, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The performance of UF-5000 for rapidly discriminating culture-negative specimens was quite acceptable for clinical use.

Prognostic Significance of Pre-Operative Monocyte-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Lung Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory response is known to play a vital role in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. The prognostic relevance of monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), as a biomarker of inflammatory response has been demonstrated in patients with hematologic cancers. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we assessed the prognostic relevance of MLR in patients with resectable lung carcinoma. METHODS: Clinical records of 705 lung cancer patients who underwent radical resection at our hospital between October 2006 and January 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. The optimal cutoff value of MLR as a prognostic indicator was determined on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: On multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression model, MLR was an independent predictor of both overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1.494, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.158-1.927, P = .002) and disease-free survival (HR 1.547, 95% CI 1.172-2.043, P = .002). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative MLR may be a simple, reliable prognostic marker for risk stratification and be used to guide treatment decision-making in lung cancer patients.

Mechanism study of chitosan on lipid metabolism in hyperlipidemic rats.

It has been reported that plasma and liver cholesterol concentrations decrease when animals are fed with chitosan, but the mechanism is unclear. Four wk old male SD (Sprague-Dawley) rats were fed a commercial rat diet (cholesterol-free diet, negative control, NC), cholesterol-enriched diet containing 5% of chitosan (CH) or cholesterol-enriched diet containing 5% of cellulose (CE) and 5% of lard for 12 weeks. We would investigated the effects of chitosan on plasma and liver cholesterol levels, liver weight, bile acids concentrations of fecal and hepatic LDL receptor mRNA expression. The results showed that chitosan could decrease levels of total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in plasma (p<0.05), and TC, total triglyceride (TG) in liver (p<0.05), and increase fecal bile acids excretion (p<0.05), but the levels of TG and HDL-C in plasma was unchanged (p>0.05). In addition, the result of RT-PCR test showed that saturated fat and cholesterol fed could significantly induce the reduction of LDL receptor mRNA levels, while chitosan could increase hepatic LDL receptor mRNA levels. This study suggested that chitosan improve lipid metabolism by regulating TC and LDL-C by upregulating of hepatic LDL receptor mRNA expression, increasing the excretion of fecal bile acids.