About the Authors

Chuanfu Li

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Fang Hua

Affiliation Department of Emergency Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Tuanzhu Ha

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Krishna Singh

Affiliation Department of Biomedical Sciences, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Chen Lu

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

John Kalbfleisch

Affiliation Department of Biometry and Medical Computing, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Kevin F. Breuel

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Tiffany Ford

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Race L. Kao

Affiliations Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Emergency Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Ming Gao

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Tammy R. Ozment

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

David L. Williams

williamd@etsu.edu

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: C. Li FH KS DLW. Performed the experiments: FH TH C. Lu KB TF RK MG TRO. Analyzed the data: C. Li TH JK KS DLW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: C. Li KS KB RK DLW. Wrote the paper: C. Li FH JK DLW.