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Novel insights into wound age estimation: combined with “up, no change, or down” system and cosine similarity in python environment

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Abstract

Wound age estimation is a complex, multifactorial issue. It is considered to have great practical significance that combining multi-biomarkers and multi-methods for injury time estimation. We optimized our earlier “up, no change, or down” model by adding data on the expression levels of mRNAs encoding ABHD2, MAD2L2, and ARID5A, and we converted the relative quantitative expression levels of seven genes into a vector rather than a color model. We used Python to derive the cosine similarity (CS) between a test set and the vector matrix; the highest similarity most accurately reflected the injury time. For the optimized model, the internal and external verifications were approximately 0.71 and 0.66, respectively. The good double-blinded results indicated that the model was stable and reliable. In summary, we used a vector matrix and cosine similarities derived by Python to mine the levels of genes expressed in contused skeletal muscle. We are the first to combine several biomarkers and methods for wound age estimation.

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Funding

The project was supported by grants from Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (no. 2017YFC0803502-4) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 81571852).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forensic Medicine, Shanxi Medical University, 98 University Street, Yuci District, Jinzhong, 030604, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Li-hong Dang, Na Feng, Guo-shuai An, Jie Cao, Qiu-xiang Du, Qian-qian Jin & Jun-hong Sun

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine (Academy of Forensic Science), Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, PRC, Shanghai, 200063, People’s Republic of China

    Ping Huang

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  1. Li-hong Dang
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  2. Na Feng
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Correspondence to Ping Huang or Jun-hong Sun.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. The principles of the Guide for the Care and Use of laboratory Animals protocol, published by the Ministry of the People’s Republic of China, were followed.

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Dang, Lh., Feng, N., An, Gs. et al. Novel insights into wound age estimation: combined with “up, no change, or down” system and cosine similarity in python environment. Int J Legal Med 134, 2177–2186 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02411-z

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