Identification Of Substances Research Articles

Clinico-pathological changes and performance indices in Eimeria tenella-infected broiler chickens following the prophylactic administration of Ganoderma lucidum, Vernonia amygdalina, and Vitellaria paradoxa methanolic extract

This study assessed the clinico-pathological changes and performance indices in Eimeria tenella-infected broiler chickens following the prophylactic administration of methanol extracts of Ganoderma lucidum, Vernonia amygdalina and Vitellaria paradoxa. One hundred one-day-old Abor acre broiler chicks were randomly divided into 10 groups (A1, B1, C1, D1, A2, B2, C2, D2, E, and F) of 10 birds each. From 14-20 days of age (doa), groups A1 and A2 were administered G. lucidum; B1 and B2 V. amygdalina; C1 and C2 V. paradoxa methanol extracts; D1 and D2 Amprolium; while groups E and F were not administered any extract/medication. At 21 doa, groups A2, B2, C2, D2 and E were challenged with 104 E. tenella sporulated oocysts orally. Clinical signs, morbidity and mortality rates, caecal lesion scores and performance indices were determined. Outcomes revealed mild clinical signs in groups A2, B2, and C2, moderate in D2 but severe in E; 100% morbidity and 0.0% mortality in all groups of chickens. Caecal lesions were mild in groups A2, B2, C2 and D. There was non-significantly (P > 0.05) higher weight gain and lower feed conversion ratio in groups A2, B2, C2 and D2 compared to E. The oocyst decrease ratio and anticoccidial index were higher in A2, B2, C2 and D2 than E. The prophylactic administration of G. lucidum, V. amygdalina leaf and V. paradoxa stem bark methanol extracts decreased the clinical signs, caecal lesions, and histopathological changes, and improved performance in the E. tenella-challenged broiler chickens. The identification of the bioactive substances in these extracts responsible for their prophylactic anticoccidial activities and their possible mechanisms is therefore recommended.

Исследование примесного состава тетрафторида германия методом хромато-масс-спектрометрии

For the first time, the impurity composition of GeF4 with a natural content of isotopes and isotopically enriched was studied by chromato-mass spectrometry using adsorption capillary columns. For the identification and determination of impurity substances, their preliminary cryogenic concentration is proposed. Information on the impurity composition of germanium tetrafluoride of various isotopic composition has been expanded. The presence of permanent gases, limiting and unsaturated C3–C9 hydrocarbons, freons, alkylfluorosilanes, fluorochlorogermanes, silicon tetrafluoride, germanium tetrachloride. A total of 32 impurity substances were identified, 29 of which were discovered for the first time.

Estimation of uncertainty of measurements of linear retention indices with increasing temperature of the capillary chromatographic column

A brief overview of analysis methods and analytical identification parameters of components of complex mixtures is given. The parameters of identification of substances in the chromatographic analysis of complex multicomponent mixtures – linear retention indices – are considered, and it is shown that to ensure the necessary level of reliability of the analysis results, it is necessary to assess the uncertainty of measuring these indices. A general equation for determining the variance of the result of indirect measurements of linear retention indices is obtained. For the case of the analysis of mixtures containing both assays and n-alkanes, and mixtures with a separate content of these components, its particular formulations are derived from this general equation. A formula for determining the effective number of degrees of freedom of standard uncertainty is presented, taking into account the correlation of input variables in the measurement equation. Mathematical expressions are obtained for calculating the extended uncertainties of estimating linear retention indices, which take into account correlations of retention times of neighboring chromatographic peaks. By methods of interval mathematics, an upper estimate of the standard uncertainty of linear retention indices in the case of the joint presence of analytes and n-alkanes in the analyzed mixture was obtained and its significant decrease in comparison with the specified uncertainty in the analysis of mixtures with a separate content of these components was shown. The correspondence of theoretical and experimental results has been established. The results obtained can be used to identify the components of the analyzed mixture when standardizing chromatographic analysis techniques.

“Electronic nose”-type chemosensory systems for detection of gaseous poisonous substances

The work is devoted to a study of the detection sensitivity and selectivity of a series of simulants of gaseous poisonous substances (PS). Two different sensor types were used, namely: 1) a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), exhibiting a shift of the resonant frequency of quartz plates coated with calixarene thin layers, and 2) chemoresistive electrodes coated with layers of nanocomposites of intrinsically conducting polymers (ICP) changing their conductance under the influence of adsorbed gas molecules. The concentration of the analyzed volatile compounds varied within the range of 10 to 1000 ppm. The detection threshold ranged from 10 to 100 ppm depending on the analyzed substance for both transducer types. The response time was from 10 to 20 s for the QCM sensors and up to 1 minute for the ICP based sensors. The possibility of qualitative identification of poisonous substances in a wide concentration range by means of statistical analysis of the sensor array data is demonstrated.

Non-Specific Responsive Nanogels and Plasmonics to Design MathMaterial Sensing Interfaces: The Case of a Solvent Sensor.

The combination of non-specific deformable nanogels and plasmonic optical probes provides an innovative solution for specific sensing using a generalistic recognition layer. Soft polyacrylamide nanogels that lack specific selectivity but are characterized by responsive behavior, i.e., shrinking and swelling dependent on the surrounding environment, were grafted to a gold plasmonic D-shaped plastic optical fiber (POF) probe. The nanogel-POF cyclically challenged with water or alcoholic solutions optically reported the reversible solvent-to-phase transitions of the nanomaterial, embodying a primary optical switch. Additionally, the non-specific nanogel-POF interface exhibited more degrees of freedom through which specific sensing was enabled. The real-time monitoring of the refractive index variations due to the time-related volume-to-phase transition effects of the nanogels enabled us to determine the environment's characteristics and broadly classify solvents. Hence the nanogel-POF interface was a descriptor of mathematical functions for substance identification and classification processes. These results epitomize the concept of responsive non-specific nanomaterials to perform a multiparametric description of the environment, offering a specific set of features for the processing stage and particularly suitable for machine and deep learning. Thus, soft MathMaterial interfaces provide the ground to devise devices suitable for the next generation of smart intelligent sensing processes.

Systematic analysis of the material basis and mechanism of total saponins of mountain cultivated ginseng against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity based on integrating network pharmacology and in vivo substance profiling.

Doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity (DIC) is a serious obstacle to oncologic treatment. Mountain cultivated ginseng (MCG) exhibits stronger pharmacological effects than cultivated ginseng (CG) mainly due to the differences in ginsenosides. However, the material basis and the underlying mechanism of the protective effects of total saponins of MCG (TSMCG) against DIC are unclear. We aimed to elucidate the material basis and the pharmacodynamic effects of TSMCG on DIC as well as the underlying mechanisms. To comprehensively analyze the effective substances, the chemical components of TSMCG and their prototypes or metabolites in vivo were characterized through UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS. Then, an absorbed component-target-disease network was established to explore the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of TSMCG against DIC. H9c2 cells were employed for pharmacodynamic assays. The mechanism was verified by Western blot and molecular docking simulations. A total of 56 main ginsenosides were identified in TSMCG, including 27 ginsenosides of PPD type, 15 ginsenosides of PPT type, two ginsenosides of OA types, and 12 ginsenosides of other types. Moreover, 55 ginsenoside prototypes or metabolites in vivo were tentatively characterized. Ginsenoside Ra1 , a differential compound between MCG and CG, could be metabolized by oxidation and deglycosylation. Network pharmacology showed that AKT1, p53, and STAT3 are core targets of 62 intersecting genes. Molecular docking results indicated that most of the ginsenosides have favorable affinity with these core targets. After doxorubicin exposure, TSMCG could increase cell viability and inhibit apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Our work reveals a novel comprehensive strategy to study the material basis of the protective effects of TSMCG against DIC and the underlying mechanisms through integrating in vivo substance identification, metabolic profiling, network pharmacology, pharmacodynamic evaluation, and mechanism verification.

Synchronized Reverse Scan Collision Induced Dissociation in Digital Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer for Improving Fragment Ion Detection

Development of fragment ion detection methods is of great importance for mass spectrometer advancement or substance identification. To date, collision induced dissociation (CID) remains the most commonly used ion activation method in MS/MS experiments, and the effectiveness of CID in an ion trap mass spectrometer is limited by low mass cutoff and weak fragmentation yields. Theoretically, controlling the q value is the key to maintain the fragment efficiency and trapping efficiency of MS/MS, thus improving the detection of fragment ion, while currently reported techniques usually require complex circuitry and often produce different CID patterns. In this paper, with the developed synchronized reversed scanning-collision induced dissociation (SRS-CID) technique, we demonstrate its effective improvement in fragment ion detection. The SRS-CID is implemented on a digital ion trap mass spectrometer (DITMS) by reverse scanning the q values during CID process, or specifically, the frequency is increased during the CID process. With the SRS-CID technique, the fragmentation efficiency of precursor ions can be slightly improved. For reserpine analyte, the trapping efficiency for low-mass fragment ions is improved at least 3 times, and for YGGFL, the trapping efficiency for low-mass fragment ions is improved at least 9 times. These experimental results can also be validated by simulations, and the kinetic energy variation plot suggests consecutive fragmentation occurs. In any case, the SRS-CID provides a solution to the low efficiency of fragment ion detection during tandem MS analysis, which will certainly be useful in the future.

NLM-Chem-BC7: manually annotated full-text resources for chemical entity annotation and indexing in biomedical articles.

The automatic recognition of chemical names and their corresponding database identifiers in biomedical text is an important first step for many downstream text-mining applications. The task is even more challenging when considering the identification of these entities in the article's full text and, furthermore, the identification of candidate substances for that article's metadata [Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) article indexing]. The National Library of Medicine (NLM)-Chem track at BioCreative VII aimed to foster the development of algorithms that can predict with high quality the chemical entities in the biomedical literature and further identify the chemical substances that are candidates for article indexing. As a result of this challenge, the NLM-Chem track produced two comprehensive, manually curated corpora annotated with chemical entities and indexed with chemical substances: the chemical identification corpus and the chemical indexing corpus. The NLM-Chem BioCreative VII (NLM-Chem-BC7) Chemical Identification corpus consists of 204 full-text PubMed Central (PMC) articles, fully annotated for chemical entities by 12 NLM indexers for both span (i.e.named entity recognition) and normalization (i.e.entity linking) using MeSH. This resource was used for the training and testing of the Chemical Identification task to evaluate the accuracy of algorithms in predicting chemicals mentioned in recently published full-text articles. The NLM-Chem-BC7 Chemical Indexing corpus consists of 1333 recently published PMC articles, equipped with chemical substance indexing by manual experts at the NLM. This resource was used for the evaluation of the Chemical Indexing task, which evaluated the accuracy of algorithms in predicting the chemicals that should be indexed, i.e.appear in the listing of MeSH terms for the document. This set was further enriched after the challenge in two ways: (i) 11 NLM indexers manually verified each of the candidate terms appearing in the prediction results of the challenge participants, but not in the MeSH indexing, and the chemical indexing terms appearing in the MeSH indexing list, but not in the prediction results, and (ii) the challenge organizers algorithmically merged the chemical entity annotations in the full text for all predicted chemical entities and used a statistical approach to keep those with the highest degree of confidence. As a result, the NLM-Chem-BC7 Chemical Indexing corpus is a gold-standard corpus for chemical indexing of journal articles and a silver-standard corpus for chemical entity identification in full-text journal articles. Together, these resources are currently the most comprehensive resources for chemical entity recognition, and we demonstrate improvements in the chemical entity recognition algorithms. We detail the characteristics of these novel resources and make them available for the community. Database URL: https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/lu/NLM-Chem-BC7-corpus/.

Production and Identification of Secondary Metabolite Gliotoxin-Like Substance Using Clinical Isolates of Candida spp.

Production and Identification of Secondary Metabolite Gliotoxin-Like Substance Using Clinical Isolates of <i>Candida</i> spp.

Enhancing terahertz circular dichroism spectrum of amino acid chiral enantiomers by all-dielectric metasurface

The detection and identification of chiral substances have a wide range of applications, recently, using THz chiral spectroscopy to identify chiral biomolecules has attracted much attention. However, since the weak response, the difference between chiral enantiomers is not obvious only by THz chiral spectroscopy. To solve this problem, we combined THz time-domain polarization spectroscopy and all-dielectric metasurface to enhance the chiral spectroscopy of amino acids. The circular dichroism (CD) spectra of three pairs of amino acid chiral enantiomers were detected and compared by this method. Our results show that CD spectra of the amino acids are enhanced by the metasurface. L-Arg achieves a maximum chirality enhancement factor of 97.15 around 1 THz. For the recognition between L- and D- enantiomers, Cysteine has a maximum CD difference degree of 34.22°, which is 11.4 times higher than that without metasurface. Moreover, we also investigated the effect of amino acid concentration on chirality, founding that THz chirality was suppressed by high concentrations. Therefore, this metasurface sensor with the chiral sensing method has great potential in improving the THz chirality response of amino acids and distinguishing their chiral enantiomers with high sensitivity, which will provide new understanding and development in THz biophysics and biochemistry.

Large-Scale Screening of the Plant Extracts for Antifungal Activity against the Plant Pathogenic Fungi.

Plants produce chemicals of immense diversity that provide great opportunities for development of new antifungal compounds. In search for environment-friendly alternatives to the fungicide of current use, we screened plant extracts obtained from more than eight hundred plant materials collected in Korea for their antifungal activity against the model plant pathogenic fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. This initial screening identified antifungal activities from the eleven plant extract samples, among which nine showed reproducibility in the follow-up screening. These nine samples were able to suppress not only M. oryzae but also other fungal pathogens. Interestingly, the plant extracts obtained from Actinostemma lobatum comprised five out of eight samples, and were the most effective in their antifungal activity. We found that butanol fraction of the A. lobatum extract is the most potent. Identification and characterization of antifungal substances in the A. lobatum extracts would provide the promising lead compounds for new fungicide.

Diagnostic capabilities of self-reported psychoactive substance use among patients admitted to psychiatric consultations in Benin, West Africa

BackgroundThere is a high prevalence of psychoactive substance use among patients with mental health disorders. The optimal treatment of patients with mental health disorders requires an awareness of their history pertaining substance use. Several methods are used to assess the use of substance. Each of them embodies its limitations. This study aimed at assessing the diagnostic capability of a self-report psychoactive substance use among patients at the National Psychiatric University Hospital of Cotonou, Benin.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted from August 1, 2021 to November 24, 2021. A total of 157 consenting patients admitted to psychiatric consultations were successively enrolled in the ongoing study. They were screened for the use of psychoactive substance with Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), followed by urine test using the NarcoCheck® kit for qualitative detection of substances or its metabolites. To assess the diagnostic capability, the participants’ self-responses were compared with their urine test results. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and kappa coefficient were also calculated.ResultsThe frequency of lifetime psychoactive substance use according to self-report was 81.5% (95% CI: 0.746–0.873), while over the past three months (recent use) was 52.2% (95% CI: 0.441–0.603) and 58.6% based on the urine test. Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis were the most prevalent psychoactive substance used. The overall concordance between self-reported psychoactive substance use and the urine test (gold standard) was moderate (sensitivity = 66%; kappa = 0.46). Self-report cocaine use compared with urine test showed the highest concordance (sensitivity = 100%; kappa = 79%), followed by tobacco (sensitivity = 58%, kappa = 41%). On an average 70% of urine test results were consistent with self-report (VPP). Participants’ were more accurate when they were reporting no psychoactive substance use as suggested by the high negative predictive value (NPV).ConclusionDiagnostic capability of self-reporting of psychoactive substance use among patients admitted to psychiatric consultations was moderate. Therefore self-reporting may not estimate the exact prevalence of psychoactive substance use. Optimal identification of psychoactive substances use in psychiatric patients requires both history and urine testing. The integration of these two approaches is an excellent method to find out the level, frequency and nature of drug used.

Crystalline Hydrate Dehydration Sensing Based on Integrated Terahertz Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators

Water molecules play a very important role in the hydration and dehydration process of hydrates, which may lead to distinct physical and chemical properties, affecting their availability in practical applications. However, miniaturized, integrated sensors capable of the rapid, sensitive sensing of water molecules in the hydrate are still lacking, limiting their proliferation. Here, we realize the high-sensitivity sensing of water molecules in copper sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4·5H2O), based on an on-chip terahertz whispering gallery mode resonator (THz-WGMR) fabricated on silicon material via CMOS-compatible technologies. An integrated THz-WGMR with a high-Q factor of 3305 and a resonance frequency of 410.497 GHz was proposed and fabricated. Then, the sensor was employed to distinguish the CuSO4·xH2O (x = 5, 3, 1). The static characterization from the CuSO4·5H2O to the copper sulfate trihydrate (CuSO4·3H2O) experienced blueshifts of 0.55 GHz/μmol, whereas the dehydration process of CuSO4·3H2O to copper sulfate monohydrate (CuSO4·H2O) exhibited blueshifts of 0.21 GHz/μmol. Finally, the dynamic dehydration processes of CuSO4·5H2O to CuSO4·3H2O at different temperatures were monitored. We believe that our proposed THz-WGMR sensors with highly sensitive substance identification capabilities can provide a versatile and integrated platform for studying the transformation between substances, contributing to hydrated/crystal water-assisted biochemical applications.

A comparison between mobile and stationary gas chromatography–mass spectrometry devices for analysis of complex volatile profiles

On-site analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with miniaturized gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) systems is a very rapidly developing field of application. While, on the one hand, major technological advances are improving the availability of these systems on the market, on the other hand, systematic studies to assess the performance of such instruments are still lacking. To fill this gap, we compared three portable GC–MS devices to a state-of-the-art benchtop (stationary) system for analysis of a standard mixture of 18 VOCs. We systematically compared analytical parameters such as the sensitivity and similarity of the signal response pattern and the quality of the obtained mass spectra. We found that the investigated mobile instruments (i) showed different response profiles with a generally lower number of identified analytes. Also, (ii) mass spectral reproducibility (% relative standard deviation (RSD) of the relative abundance of selective fragments) was generally worse in the mobile devices (mean RSD for all targeted fragments ~9.7% vs. ~3.5% in the stationary system). Furthermore, mobile devices (iii) showed a poorer mass spectral similarity to commercial reference library spectra (>20% deviation of fragment ion relative intensity vs. ~10% in the stationary GC–MS), suggesting a less reliable identification of analytes by library search. Indeed, (iv) the performance was better with higher-mass and/or more abundant fragments, which should be considered to improve the results of library searches for substance identification. Finally, (v) the estimation of the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in mobile instruments as a measure of sensitivity revealed a significantly lower performance compared to the benchtop lab equipment (with a ratio among medians of ~8 times lower). Overall, our study reveals not only a poor signal-to-noise ratio and poor reproducibility of the data obtained from mobile instruments, but also unfavorable results with respect to a reliable identification of substances when they are applied for complex mixtures of volatiles.Graphical

Epitaphic Readings

The structural formula of a chemical compound is a shorthand, diagrammatic representation of a molecular structure, showing how atoms can be arranged in two dimensions of space. Often named Kekulé structures after August Kekulé, an early architect of structural arrangements in organic chemistry, these diagrams put forward a geometry of relations, enumerated through lines, symbols, vertices, and patterns (Rocke 1981). While suggestive of something substantial, the diagram often functions in the planular, and is therefore skeletal. For scientists, skeletal structures are not altogether representative of chemical constitutions, but of chemical arrangements (Hepler-Smith 2015). That is, they are analogous with formulas; not respective forms themselves. From this perspective, there is a severance of contextual placement, but not of performative function. As a presupposition to this construct, it seems that skeletal structures can be read as compositions and translations, but not as epitaphs or reincarnations. Following Deleuze’s and Guattari’s premise that the diagram constructs something ‘yet to come’ (2013:164), Victoria Sharples’ ‘Epitaphic Readings: Diagrams as (Re)incarnations’ presents skeletal structures as epitaphic readings; as accounts of something passed, and further to this as matter re-incarnate. Skeletal structures provide a genesis for this paper and are the seeming conclusion to Ash (2018–2020), an interdisciplinary study on which this article builds. For Ash, three pieces of Nepalese Lokta paper were placed on the surface of the sacred and contaminated Bagmati River downstream from Pashupatinath Temple: an open-pyre cremation site in Kathmandu. Once dried, the substrates were analysed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS); an analytical approach for forensic substance identification. Through the intersection of science and spirituality, this paper meditates on the potential ‘afterlives’ of Ash. Functioning in a space between active-passive and organic-machinic, the GC-MS diagrams function as epitaphic readings making that which has passed present, marking an arrival and re-incarnation of matter.

Quantitative Identification of Nonpolar Perfluoroalkyl Substances by Mass Spectrometry.

Identifying and quantifying mixtures of compounds with very similar fragmentation patterns in their mass spectra presents a unique and challenging problem. In particular, the mass spectra of most per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) lack a molecular ion. This complicates their identification, especially when using the absence of chromatographic separation. Here, we focus on linear, nonpolar, short-chain PFAS, which have received less attention than amphipathic PFAS despite their longer environmental lifetimes and greater global warming potentials. We identify and quantify n-C5F12 and n-C6F14 in binary mixtures by analyzing small changes in abundances of the main fragment ions following femtosecond tunnel laser ionization, without the need of chromatographic separation. Time-resolved femtosecond ionization mass spectrometry reveals that the metastable cation of both compounds undergoes predissociation within 1-2 ps of ion formation, with yields of C3F7+ showing evidence of coherent vibrational dynamics. These coherent oscillations are compared to low-level ion-state calculations and supported the idea that the oscillations in the C3F7+ ion yield are due to vibrations in the C5F12+• and C6F14+• radical cations and are associated with the predissociation dynamics of the metastable molecular ion. Surprisingly, we find that the fragment ions used for quantifying the mixtures have similar fragmentation dynamics. Conversely, the odd-electron C2F4+• fragment shows different time dependence between the two compounds, yet has negligible difference in the relative ion yield between the two compounds. Our findings indicate that femtosecond laser ionization may be a useful tool for identifying and quantifying mixtures of PFAS without the need of chromatography or high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Isolation and Identification of Volatile Substances with Attractive Effects on Wohlfahrtia magnifica from Vagina of Bactrian Camel.

Vaginal myiasis is one of the most serious parasitic diseases in Bactrian camels. At present, there are no reports on biological control measures of the disease. In this paper, the metabolomic analysis of vaginal secretions from susceptible and non-susceptible camels was performed by ACQUITY UPLC H-Class Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatograph. The results matched in 140 vaginal compounds. Methylheptenone, 1-octen-3-ol, and propyl butyrate and their mixtures were selected for gas chromatography-electroantennography (GC-EAD), electroantennography (EAG), behavioral experiments and trapping experiments of Wohlfahrtia magnifica (W. magnifica). Results showed that the W. magnifica had EAG responses to the three compounds, respectively. The EAG responses of female flies to different concentrations of methylheptenone were significantly different, but to the others had no significant difference, and there was no significant difference in the same compounds between the different sexes. Behavioral and trapping experiments showed that methylheptenone and 1-octen-3-ol have significant attraction to W. magnifica, but there was no significant difference to propyl butyrate. When methylheptenone and 1-octen-3-ol were mixed in different proportions, it was found that a mixture at the ratio of 1:1 and 0.5:1 had extremely significant and significant attraction, respectively, to both male and female W. magnifica. The study showed that, except for propyl butyrate, the higher the concentrations of the other two compounds, the stronger the attractivity to the W. magnifica, and a mixture at the ratio of 1:1 could enhance the attractivity to the W. magnifica.

SE‐ResNet‐based classifier for highly similar mixtures based on Raman spectrum: Classification for alcohol systems as an example

AbstractRaman spectroscopy is widely used in the identification of substances. Raman spectra contain molecular information from various components and interference from noise and instruments. Therefore, using Raman spectroscopy to identify components is still challenging, especially for substances with high similarity. In this study, a class of highly similar products (methanol and ethanol) and a multicomponent mixture of propanol and water were tested using a portable Raman spectrometer. They are divided into 11 categories according to the volume fraction ratio. A total of 5,060 groups of Raman spectrum data were obtained, constituting the data set of this study. The deep neural network structure adopted in this study is based on ResNet architecture, on which the SE module in the attention mechanism is added, which increases the weight of some spectral features and achieves significant performance improvement. Finally, SE‐ResNet achieves a recall of 0.95, a precision rate of 0.95, a Micro‐F1 of 0.95, and an accuracy rate of 99.20%.

Unintentional cannabis intoxication in infants and toddlers presenting with neurological impairment in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

Recent data show that the rising consumption of cannabis has increased the rate of acute intoxication in pediatric age. Common patterns of pediatric poisoning consist of exploratory ingestions in younger children. A history of poisoning is often not provided; therefore, it could be advisable to use an objective biological marker. The clinical presentation of occult ingestion can range from asymptomatic to critically ill. Neurological involvement is one of the most described presentations. The goal of our study was to examine the presentation of acute cannabis intoxication in a sample of 13 pediatric patients under 3 years. A retrospective epidemiological investigation on acute cannabinoid intoxication was conducted on children under 3 years, recruited between 2016 and 2020. All patients were tested for urine drug screening suspecting poisoning as reason for Emergency Department (ED) admission. Thirteen of forty-eight patients tested (27%) were positive for Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Ingestion was the route of intoxication in all of them. Only in five cases the possible accidental intake of cannabinoids was promptly declared. Twelve children accessed on ED due to a neurological symptomatology not attributable to known causes in the medical history. Differential diagnosis for abuse drugs exposure in young children is broad: the urine drug screening plays a central role for confirmation of the diagnostic suspicion and identification of the specific substance. A positive result combined with a history of potential access to cannabis could prevent unnecessary, invasive, expensive procedures. When identified, the management is predominantly supportive. In this article, we want to emphasize the importance of always considering drug intoxication in children with acute neurological symptoms especially in cases of ambiguous familiar or social context. Further studies will be needed to better characterize the alarm bells for intoxication and to identify a strategy for the prevention of unintentional cannabinoid intoxication.

A multiple-metabolites model to predict preliminary renal injury induced by iodixanol based on UHPLC/Q-Orbitrap-MS and 1H-NMR.

There are some problems, such as unclear pathological mechanism, delayed diagnosis, and inaccurate therapeutic target of Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). It is significantly important to find biomarkers and therapeutic targets that can indicate renal injury in the early stage of CI-AKI. This study aims to establish a multiple-metabolites model to predict preliminary renal injury induced by iodixanol and explore its pathogenesis. Both UHPLC/Q-Orbitrap-MS and 1H-NMR methods were applied for urine metabolomics studies on two independent cohorts who suffered from a preliminary renal injury caused by iodixanol, and the multivariate statistical analysis and random forest (RF) algorithm were used to process the related date. In the discovery cohort (n = 169), 6 metabolic markers (leucine, indole, 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, N-acetylvaline, hydroxyhexanoycarnine, and kynurenic acid) were obtained by the cross-validation between the RF and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Secondly, the 6 differential metabolites were confirmed by comparison of standard substance and structural identification of 1H-NMR. Subsequently, the multiple-metabolites model composed of the 6 biomarkers was validated in a validation cohort (n = 165). The concentrations of leucine, indole, N-acetylvaline, 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, hydroxyhexanoycarnitine and kynurenic acid in urine were proven to be positively correlated with the degree of renal injury induced by iodixanol. The multiple-metabolites model based on these 6 biomarkers has a good predictive ability to predict early renal injury caused by iodixanol, provides treatment direction for injury intervention and a reference for reducing the incidence of clinical CI-AKI further.