ObjectiveIn the realm of forensic science, dust is a valuable type of trace evidence with immense potential for intricate investigations. With the development of DNA sequencing technologies, there is a heightened interest among researchers in unraveling the complex tapestry of microbial communities found within dust samples. Furthermore, striking disparities in the microbial community composition have been noted among dust samples from diverse geographical regions, heralding new possibilities for geographical inference based on microbial DNA analysis. The pivotal role of microbial community data from dust in geographical inference is significant, underscoring its critical importance within the field of forensic science. This study aims to delve deeply into the nuances of fungal community composition across the urban landscapes of Beijing, Fuzhou, Kunming, and Urumqi in China. It evaluates the accuracy of biogeographic inference facilitated by the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) fungal sequencing while concurrently laying a robust foundation for the operational integration of environmental DNA into geographical inference mechanisms. MethodsITS2 region of the fungal genomes was amplified using universal primers known as 5.8S-Fun/ITS4-Fun, and the resulting DNA fragments were sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq FGx platform. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) was employed to visually represent the differences between samples, while analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) were utilized to statistically evaluate the dissimilarities in community composition across samples. Furthermore, using Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) analysis to identify and filter out species that exhibit significant differences between various cities. In addition, we leveraged SourceTracker to predict the geographic origins of the dust samples. ResultsAmong the four cities of Beijing, Fuzhou, Kunming and Urumqi, Beijing has the highest species richness. The results of species annotation showed that there were significant differences in the species composition and relative abundance of fungal communities in the four cities. NMDS analysis revealed distinct clustering patterns of samples based on their biogeographic origins in multidimensional space. Samples from the same city exhibited clear clustering, while samples from different cities showed separation along the first axis. The results from ANOSIM and PERMANOVA confirmed the significant differences in fungal community composition between the four cities, with the most pronounced distinctions observed between Fuzhou and Urumqi. Notably, the biogeographic origins of all known dust samples were successfully predicted. ConclusionSignificant differences are observed in the fungal species composition and relative abundance among the cities of Beijing, Fuzhou, Kunming, and Urumqi. Employing fungal ITS2 sequencing on dust samples from these urban areas enables accurate inference of biogeographical locations. The high feasibility of utilizing fungal community data in dust for biogeographical inferences holds particular promise in the field of forensic science.

Aim To investigate the protective effect of Jujing formula on retina of mice with dry age-related macular degeneration(AMD).Methods The mouse model of dry AMD was induced by intraperitoneal in-jection of sodium iodate,and the prognosis was given to the Jujing formula.Retinal thickness was detected by optical coherence tomography(OCT),the retinal morphological changes were observed by hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining,and the apoptosis of retinal cells was detected by in situ terminal transferase labeling(TUNEL)staining.Combination of tumor necrosis fac-tor-α(TNF-α),interleukin-6(IL-6)and interleukin-1β(IL-1 β)in eyeballs and serum,superoxide dis-mutase(SOD),glutathione(GSH)and malondialde-hyde(MDA)were evaluated to assess the protective effects of Jujing formula on retinal injury in mice with dry AMD.Results The results of OCT,HE and TUNEL staining showed that Jujing formula significant-ly improved the retinal injury induced by sodium iodate in mice with dry AMD,increased the retinal thickness(P＜0.05),reduced the apoptosis of retinal cells(P＜0.01),and increased the levels of GSH,IL-6 and SOD activity in eyeballs and serum(P＜0.01).The levels of TNF-α,IL-6,IL-1β and MDA were reduced(P＜0.01).Conclusions Jujing formula has certain therapeutic effects on retinal injury in dry AMD,which may be related to inhibiting inflammatory response and enhancing antioxidant capacity.

ObjectiveTo explore the preventive effects of chest compression， abdominal compression and combined thoracoabdominal compression on propofol-induced respiratory depression during gastroscopy. MethodsA total of 544 patients underwent propofol sedation during gastroscopy in our hospital were randomly divided into 4 groups （n=136 each）： Group C （control group）， Group T （chest compression group）， Group A （abdominal compression group） and T&A （combined thoracoabdominal compression group）. Altogether 20 chest， abdominal and combined thoracoabdominal compressions were started respectively on patients in Group T， A and T&A before performing gastroscopy and after unconsciousness at a rate of 30 compressions per minute with a compression depth of 2~3 cm. The incidence of oxygen desaturation （SpO₂2<95%） and hypoxemia （SpO₂<90%） were compared among the groups. Incidence of gastroscope withdrawal and B-mode ultrasound assessment of diaphragm activity were observed. ResultsThere were statistical differences in the incidence of oxygen desaturation and hypoxemia among the four groups （P<0.05）. The incidence of oxygen desaturation in Group T and A were significantly lower than that in Group C （P<0.017）. B-ultrasonography revealed that the diaphragm activity in Group T and T&A were significantly higher than that in Group C （P＜0.01） and the patients in Group T had the highest diaphragm activity. ConclusionBoth chest compression and abdominal compression can reduce the incidence of respiratory depression induced by propofol in patients during gastroscopy， and chest compression is more effective.

Background::Ophthalmic ambulatory surgery is preferred to be performed under general anesthesia either by total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) or by inhalational anesthesia to increase the patient comfort. However, anesthesia-controlled time (ACT) can cause increased non-operative operating room (OR) time which may adversely affect the ORs efficiency. This study was aimed to compare the ACT of desflurane with that of propofol-remifentanil in strabismus ambulatory surgery.Methods::From November 2016 to December 2017, a total of 200 strabismus patients (aged 18-60 years old, and scheduled for elective ambulatory surgery at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center) were randomly assigned to receive either propofol-based TIVA (group TIVA) or desflurane anesthesia (group DES) for maintenance of anesthesia. The primary outcome was the extubation time. Secondary outcomes included surgical time, anesthetic time, OR exit time, and Phase I and II recovery time. The intraoperative incidences of hypotension, bradycardia and oculocardiac reflex (OCR), and the incidences of any post-operative complications were recorded. Mann-Whitney U test and Chi-square or Fisher exact tests were used to compare the two groups. Results::We found that the extubation time (5.5 [3.9-7.0] vs. 9.7 [8.5-11.4] min, P < 0.001) and the incidence of prolonged time to extubation (0 vs. 6%, P = 0.029) in the DES group were significantly decreased compared with those in the TIVA group. The patients in the DES group displayed shorter OR exit time as compared with that in the TIVA group (7.3 [5.5-8.7] vs. 10.8 [9.3-12.3] min, P < 0.001). The patients using desflurane exhibited more stable hemodynamics during surgery than the patients using propofol-based TIVA, as demonstrated by lower incidences of hypotension (1% vs. 22%, P < 0.001), bradycardia (2% vs. 13%, P = 0.002), and OCR (17% vs. 44%, P < 0.001). Conclusion::DES enhanced the ophthalmic OR efficiency by reducing the extubation time and OR exit time, and provided more stable hemodynamics intra-operatively than TIVA in patients undergoing strabismus ambulatory surgery.Trial registration::ClinicalTrials.gov, No. NCT02922660; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02922660?id=NCT02922660&draw=2&rank=1

Invasive fungal disease (IFD) is a major infectious complication in patients with hematological malignancies. In this study, we examined 4889 courses of chemotherapy in patients with hematological diseases to establish a training dataset (n = 3500) by simple random sampling to develop a weighted risk score for proven or probable IFD through multivariate regression, which included the following variables: male patients, induction chemotherapy for newly diagnosed or relapsed disease, neutropenia, neutropenia longer than 10 days, hypoalbuminemia, central-venous catheter, and history of IFD. The patients were classified into three groups, which had low (0-10, ~1.2%), intermediate (11-15, 6.4%), and high risk ( > 15, 17.5%) of IFD. In the validation set (n = 1389), the IFD incidences of the groups were ~1.4%, 5.0%, and 21.4%. In addition, we demonstrated that antifungal prophylaxis offered no benefits in low-risk patients, whereas benefits were documented in intermediate (2.1% vs. 6.6%, P = 0.007) and high-risk patients (8.4% vs. 23.3%, P = 0.007). To make the risk score applicable for clinical settings, a pre-chemo risk score that deleted all unpredictable factors before chemotherapy was established, and it confirmed that anti-fungal prophylaxis was beneficial in patients with intermediate and high risk of IFD. In conclusion, an objective, weighted risk score for IFD was developed, and it may be useful in guiding antifungal prophylaxis.

Adult ; Cholesterol ; Dilatation ; Ear Canal ; Ear Neoplasms ; surgery ; Ear, Middle ; pathology ; Eustachian Tube ; Female ; Granuloma ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Mastoidectomy ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome

To dynamically investigate the distribution and antimicrobial resistance profiles of bacteremia pathogens isolated from different regions in China in 2011, 2013 and 2016. Non-repetitive isolates from nosocomial bloodstream infections were retrospectively collected and detected for antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST) by agar dilution or microbroth dilution methods. Whonet 5.6 was used to analyze the AST data. Among 2 248 isolates, 1 657 (73.7%) were Gram-negative bacilli and 591 (26.3%) were Gram-positive cocci. The top five bacteremia pathogens were as follows, Escherichia coli (32.6%, 733/2 248), Klebsiella pneumoniae (14.5%, 327/2 248), Staphylococcus aureus (10.0%, 225/2 248), Acinetobacter baumannii (8.7%, 196/2 248) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.2%, 140/2 248). Colistin (96.5%, 1 525/1 581, excluding innate resistant organisms), tigecycline (95.6%, 1 375/1 438, excluding innate resistant organisms), ceftazidine/clavulanate acid (89.2%, 1 112 /1 246), amikacin (86.4%, 1 382/1 599) and meropenem (85.7%, 1 376/1 605) showed relatively high susceptibility against Gram-negative bacilli. While tigecycline, teicoplanin and daptomycin (the susceptibility rates were 100.0%), vancomycin and linezolid (the susceptibility rates were 99.7%) demonstrated high susceptibility against Gram-positive cocci. The prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs)-producing Enterobacteriaceae were 50.6% (206/407), 49.8% (136/273) and 38.9% (167/429) in 2011, 2013 and 2016 respectively; carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae were 2.2% (9/408), 4.0% (16/402) and 3.9% (17/439) in 2011, 2013 and 2016 respectively; The prevalence of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii (MDRA) was 76.4% (55/72) in 2011, 82.7% (43/52) in 2013 and 87.5% (63/72) in 2016, respectively. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa (MDRP) was 9.8% (5/51) in 2011, 20.0% (7/35) in 2013 and 13.0% (7/54) in 2016, respectively. The prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was 51.9% (41/79) in 2011, 29.7% (19/64) in 2013 and 31.7% (26/82) in 2016, respectively. The prevalence of high level gentamicin resistance (HLGR) of Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis were 43.2% (48/111) and 40.9% (27/66), respectively. The predominant organism of carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae was K. pneumoniae with its proportion of 57.1% (24/42). Among 30 tigecycline-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae, K. pneumoniae was the most popular organism with 76.7% (23/30). Among 39 colistin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, E. coli, Enterobacter cloacae and K. pneumoniae were constituted with the percent of 43.6 (17/39), 35.9 (14/39) and 15.4 (6/39), respectively. The Gram-negative bacilli (E. coli and K. pneumoniae were the major organisms) were the major pathogens of nosocomial bacteremia, to which tigecycline, colistin and carbapenems kept with highly in vitro susceptibility. Whereas, among the Gram-positive cocci, S. aureus was the top 1 isolated organism, followed by E. faecium, to which tigecycline, daptomycin, linezolid, vancomycin and teicoplanin kept with highly in vitro susceptibility. Isolation of colistin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, tigecycline-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae, linezolid- or vancomycin-non-susceptible Gram-positive cocci suggests more attention should be paid to these resistant organisms and dynamic surveillance was essential.

OBJECTIVE: To noninvasively assess the neurodegenerative changes in the brain of patients with Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease by measuring the lesion tissue with the iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least square estimation-iron quantification (IDEAL-IQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Routine brain MRI, IDEAL-IQ and 1H-proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS, served as control) were performed on 12 patients with type C Niemann-Pick disease (4 males and 8 females; age range, 15–61 years; mean age, 36 years) and 20 healthy subjects (10 males and 10 females; age range, 20–65 years; mean age, 38 years). The regions with lesion and the normal appearing regions (NARs) of patients were measured and analyzed based on the fat/water signal intensity on IDEAL-IQ and the lipid peak on 1H-MRS. RESULTS: Niemann-Pick type C patients showed a higher fat/water signal intensity ratio with IDEAL-IQ on T2 hyperintensity lesions and NARs (3.7–4.9%, p < 0.05 and 1.8–3.0%, p < 0.05, respectively), as compared to healthy controls (HCs) (1.2–2.3%). After treatment, the fat/water signal intensity ratio decreased (2.2–3.4%), but remained higher than in the HCs (p < 0.05). The results of the 1H-MRS measurements showed increased lipid peaks in the same lesion regions, and the micro-lipid storage disorder of NARs in NPC patients was detectable by IDEAL-IQ instead of 1H-MRS. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggested that IDEAL-IQ may be useful as a noninvasive and objective method in the evaluation of patients with NPC; additionally, IDEAL-IQ can be used to quantitatively measure the brain parenchymal adipose content and monitor patient follow-up after treatment of NPC.
Brain ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Male ; Methods ; Niemann-Pick Diseases ; Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Water

Exosomes are membrane vesicles secreted by various cells containing unique proteins and miRNA from secretory cells.They can reflect the physiological and pathological state of secretory cells,and play an important role in cell-to-cell communica?tion.In recent years,the exosomes have become the focus of research,which brings hope for diseases that can not be treated effective?ly.This review aims to summarize the extraction methods,biological markers of diabetic nephropathy(DN)and the potential of exo?somes as drug carriers,hoping to bring new ideas for future studies on the occurrence and development mechanisms as well as the treat?ment of DN.

Objective To study the therapeutic effect of sea buckthorn oil on allergic contact dermatitis(ACD) in mice. Methods A total of 60 ICR mice were randomly divided into 6 groups: blank control group, model control group,three groups of high-dose, medium-dose and low-dose sea buckthorn oil(100%, 50%, 25%, ad us. ext.), respectively,and positive control group(compound dexamethasone acetate cream), with 10 mice in each group. The mouse model of ACD was established by sensitization and stimulation with 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene(DNCB),and injuries in the ear skin of the mice were scored and used as the indicator of successful establishment of the model. The degree of ear swelling and the spleen index of the mice in each group were measured at 48 h after stimulation. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to observe the pathological changes in the mouse ear skin. Results Measurement of the degrees of ear swelling showed that the high-dose sea buckthorn oil group(9 mL/kg,ad us. ext.)obviously inhibited the DNCB-induced ear swelling in the mice, with a significant difference compared with the model group(P < 0.01)and non-significant difference compared with the positive control group(P> 0.05). The result of the spleen index assessment showed that sea buckthorn oil at each dose may play an immune-regulatory role by promoting the development of immune organs. The pathological examination showed that epidermis thickening of the ear tissue,epidermal and dermal edema and infiltration of lymphocytes were reduced, dermal vasodilatation and congestion were alleviated, and inflammatory cell infiltration was inhibited in the three groups of different doses of sea buckthorn oil compared with the model control group. Conclusions Sea buckthorn oil has an obvious inhibitory effect on the DNCB-induced allergic contact dermatitis in mice. However, its related mechanisms remain to be further investigated.