Efficacy and Safety of Laser Balloon Versus Irrigated Radiofrequency Ablation as Initial Therapies for Atrial Fibrillation: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Catheter ablation (CA) is an effective therapy for atrial fibrillation (AF) and, although radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is the standard treatment for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), it is complex and time-consuming. Laser balloon ablation (LBA) has been introduced to simplify the conventional RFA; however, results of studies comparing LBA and RFA remain controversial. As such, this investigation aimed to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy and safety of LBA versus RFA. Methods: The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases were searched for relevant studies. The primary endpoints were the freedom from atrial tachyarrhythmia (ATA) and procedure-related complications. Results: Twelve studies including 1274 subjects were included. LBA and RFA yielded similar rates of freedom from ATA (72.5% vs. 68.7%, odds ratio [OR] = 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0-1.7, p = 0.11) and procedure-related complications (7.7% vs. 6.5%, OR = 1.17, 95% CI 0.72-1.90, p = 0.536). LBA with the second- and third-generation laser balloons (LB2/3) yielded remarkably higher rates of freedom from ATA than RFA using contact-force technology (RFA-CF) (OR = 1.91, p = 0.013). Significantly lower pulmonary vein (PV) reconnection rates (OR = 0.51, p = 0.021), but higher phrenic nerve palsy (PNP) rates (OR = 3.42, p = 0.023) were observed in the LBA group. LBA had comparable procedure (weighted mean difference [WMD] = 8.43 min, p = 0.337) and fluoroscopy times (WMD = 3.09 min, p = 0.174), but a longer ablation time (WMD = 12.57 min, p = 0.00) than those for RFA. Conclusions: LBA and RFA treatments were comparable in terms of freedom from ATA and postprocedural complications in patients with AF. Compared with RFA, LBA was associated with significantly lower PV reconnection rates, but a higher incidence of PNP and longer ablation time.

Optimization strategy of community planning for environmental health and public health in smart city under multi-objectives.

As population density increases, environmental hygiene and public health become increasingly severe. As the space where residents stay for the longest time and have the most profound impact on their physical and mental health, the quality of the environment in urban communities largely determines the degree to which residents engage in physical activity, bear the risk of pollution exposure, and obtain healthy food. Therefore, in order to ensure the physical and mental health of residents, this study proposes community planning guided by environmental hygiene and public health, and establishes an environmental health assessment system for this purpose. This system evaluates the community environment from four aspects: land use, service facilities, site convenience, and environmental quality. Established the diversity, density, road network connectivity and facilities accessibility nine criteria, as well as the land function of mix, plot ratio, food environment, network ring α and connected ß index, pavement risk level, green configuration and neighborhood material environment disorder degree of 27 indicators of community built environmental evaluation index system. The data is collected through field survey, questionnaire distribution, resident interview and data mapping, and the established evaluation index system is used to evaluate the construction environment of the community. The experimental research data included population data, CAD plan, land use data, street data, POI point data, building data and bus station data, etc. 273 questionnaires were distributed, 264 were recovered, 8 invalid questionnaires were removed, and 256 valid questionnaires were obtained. These experiments confirm that land use, service facilities, site convenience, and environmental quality have a significant impact on the built environment of communities, with impact weights of 0.513, 0.227, 0.135, and 0.125, respectively. The above weights are calculated based on the index judgment matrix and the eigenvectors. The scores of land use, service facilities, site convenience, and environmental quality for the study subjects were 3.44, 1.46, 0.94, and 0.51, respectively, among them, the land use score is less than 3.85, the 1 service facility score is less than 1.71, the site convenience score is less than 1.01, and the environmental quality score is less than 0.94; indicating that the community has serious problems such as single land use types, pollution exposure, and difficulty in obtaining healthy food. Therefore, community planning and transformation based on land use, service facilities, venue convenience, and environmental quality can effectively improve the physical and mental health of residents. In the specific community transformation plan, artificial intelligence and data-driven methods can be used to optimize the land use plan, service facility configuration, site convenience transformation and environmental quality improvement, so as to formulate the optimal community transformation plan and improve the comfort and happiness of community residents. In the future, on the basis of the existing research, the selection of community types will be further enriched and the research cases will be expanded. And through the in-depth practical study of the case, the constructed evaluation index system is optimized and improved to make it more scientific. At the same time, as urban renewal and design have entered the era of stock planning, based on the more perfect evaluation index system, more specific and detailed system discussion of the built communities with public health problems, in order to provide more detailed services for the construction of a better and healthy living environment in the future.

Selection of initial microbial community for the alcoholic fermentation of sesame flavor-type baijiu.

The initial microbial community is critical for the production of volatile metabolites during traditional food fermentations. Selection of the initial community plays an important role in improving the quality of fermented foods. Here, we used high-throughput amplicon sequencing combined with multivariate statistical methods to explore the microbial succession in stacking and alcoholic fermentation stages in sesame flavor-type baijiu making. We proposed a selection strategy for the initial microbial community in the alcoholic fermentation stage, which determined the quality of baijiu. Results suggested that the microbial composition statistically differed between stacking and alcoholic fermentation stages (ANOSIM, Bacteria: R = 0.60, P = 0.001; Fungi: R = 0.53, P = 0.001). Microbial succession drove metabolic succession (Bacteria: r = 0.87, P < 0.05; Fungi: r = 0.56, P < 0.05) in alcoholic fermentation. The fermentation time of stacking fermentation determined the initial community for alcoholic fermentation, and it can be used as a criterion for selection of the initial microbial community for alcoholic fermentation. The succession distance of the microbial community was varied and reached the highest (Bacteria: 0.048, Fungi: 0.064) at 30 h in stacking fermentation. When we selected 30 h as stacking fermentation time, the concentration (4.58 mg/kg) and diversity (0.61) of volatile metabolites were highest at the end of alcoholic fermentation. This work developed a succession distance-guided approach to select the initial microbial community for the alcoholic fermentation of sesame flavor-type baijiu. This approach can be used to improve the quality of baijiu.

Acidity drives volatile metabolites in the spontaneous fermentation of sesame flavor-type baijiu.

Environmental factors play an important role in contributing to intricate compositional dynamics and volatile metabolites in food fermentation. However, our understanding of which and how environmental factors affect volatile metabolites during sesame flavor-type baijiu fermentation is poor. Here, we examined the effects of environmental factors on the bacterial and fungal community to determine how changes in representative factors impact the microbial structure, diversity, and volatile metabolites in three fermentations. Results showed that bacterial community (ANOSIM: R = 0.79, P = 0.001), fungal community (ANOSIM: R = 0.65, P = 0.001), and volatile metabolites (ANOSIM: R = 0.84, P = 0.001) were significantly different in three fermentations. Acidity, ethanol, and moisture negatively impacted bacterial composition and diversity (P < 0.05). The fungal diversity and structure were positively and significantly affected by acidity (path coefficient, b = 0.54 for diversity, b = 0.35 for structure, P < 0.05). The fungal community rather than the bacterial community was the strongest driver of volatile metabolites. Fungal structure and diversity were equally important for the composition and content of volatile metabolites (structure: b = 0.50, diversity: b = 0.56, P < 0.05). 66 % of variations in volatile metabolites could be explained. Altogether these results indicated that acidity strongly drove volatile metabolites by modulating fungal structure and diversity. This work provides insights into managing volatile metabolites by regulating initial acidity in sesame flavor-type baijiu fermentation.

Comprehensive Evaluation and Optimization Model of Regional Fire Protection Planning of Major Hazard Sources Based on Multiobjective Fuzzy Theory.

The regional fire protection plan is an important part of the city's overall plan, which represents the deepening of the regional fire protection plan and the specific content of the city's economic regional fire protection plan. Fire protection is an important part of national economic and social development, and it is also one of the indicators to measure the level of modern culture. Effective and practical fire protection planning can effectively prevent and reduce fire risks and protect the lives and property of the people, which is very important for social development. In order to optimize the regional fire model, this study uses a very objective fuzzy theory to analyze and discuss the research objects. In view of the large amount of fuzzy information in fuzzy optimization, fuzzy criterion recognition, and fuzzy grouping, based on the generalized fuzzy distance and fuzzy number, this paper proposes a multiobjective fuzzy theory-based comprehensive evaluation and optimization model of fire planning for major hazard sources. The results show that hotel fire risks tend to be higher, which is the focus of people's attention. Among the fire hazards, wholesale, retail, and catering industries are the hardest hit areas, accounting for 66.3%, and some other industries are also disaster areas that need to be dealt with.

Tablet-effervescence-assisted dissolved carbon flotation for the extraction of four triazole fungicides in water by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry.

A pretreatment method named tablet-effervescence-assisted dissolved carbon flotation was introduced for the determination of four triazole fungicides in environmental water. In this method, the use of effervescent tablet composed of nontoxic sodium carbonate and sodium dihydrogen phosphate could generate CO2 in situ to assist the dispersion of extraction solvent and to accelerate mass transfer of target analytes. In addition, the simple phase separation simply based on the rising of low-density organic solvent from the aqueous phase was applied rather than the application of apparatus, which demonstrated the potential for on-site extraction in the field. The experimental variables, including the composition of effervescent tablets, amount of effervescent tablets, types and volume of extraction solvent, were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the method showed good linearity for myclobutanil, tebuconazole, epoxiconazole, and difenoconazole in the range of 1-100 µg/L. The limits of detection and the limits of quantification were within the range of 0.15-0.26 and 0.49-0.86 µg/L, respectively. The obtained correlation coefficients varied from 0.997 to 0.999, and suitable enrichment factors were 422-589. The recoveries were 82.5-112.9% with relative standard deviations of 4.7-13.5%.

Large volume of water samples introduced in dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for the determination of 15 triazole fungicides by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

A novel method of large volume of water samples directly introduced in dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction was developed, which is based on ultrasound/manual shaking-synergy-assisted emulsification and self-generating carbon dioxide gas (CO2) breaking down the emulsion for the determination of 15 triazole fungicides by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. This technique makes low-density extraction solvent toluene (180 µL) dissolve in 200 mL of samples containing 0.05 mol L(-1) of HCl and 5 % of NaCl (w/v) to form a well emulsion by synergy of ultrasound and manual shaking, and injects NaHCO3 solution (1.0 mol L(-1)) to generate CO2 achieving phase separation with the assistance of ultrasound. The entire process is accomplished within 8 min. The injection of NaHCO3 to generate CO2 achieves phase separation that breaks through the centrifugation limited large volume aqueous samples. In addition, the device could be easily cleaned, and this kind of vessel could be reconfigured for any volume of samples. Under optimal conditions, the low limits of detection ranging from 0.7 to 51.7 ng L(-1), wide linearity, and enrichment factors obtained were in the range 924-3669 for different triazole fungicides. Southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal water (Hangzhou, China) was used to verify the applicability of the developed method. Graphical Abstract Flow chart of ultrasound/manual shaking-synergy-assisted emulsification and self-generating carbon dioxide gas breaking down the emulsion.

[Effect of acetyl-CoA synthase gene overexpression on physiological function of Saccharomyces cerevisiae].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our work is to investigate the effects of overexpression of two acetyl-CoA synthase genes, ACS1 and ACS2, on the physiological functions of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. METHODS: We overexpressed ACS1 and ACS2 in S. cerevisiae CEN. PK2 with shuttle vector pY26-TEF-GPD. We determined and compared the physiological parameters of the parent strain to the ACS1/2 overexpressed strains, including the intracellular acetyl-CoA content, ATP content, mevalonate pathway, and the tolerance to ethanol stress. RESULTS: Compared to the parent strain, the overexpression of ACS1 and ACS2 led to: (1) The intracellular acetyl-CoA content increased by 2. 19-fold (ACS1) and 5.02-fold (ACS2), respectively; (2) The intracellular ATP content increased by 3.92-fold (ACS1) and 2.05-fold (ACS2), respectively; (3) The transcription levels of the seven key genes in mevalonate pathway were upregulated, therefore, more carbon flux was channeled into the mevalonate pathway, which could provide precursor for terpenes synthesis; (4) The tolerance to high content of ethanol was enhanced, especially for the ACS1 overexpression strain. CONCLUSION: The results presented here demonstrated that the overexpression of acetyl-CoA synthase can enhance the carbon flux into mevalonate pathway and improve the tolerance of S. cerevisiae to high content of ethanol, which is the main byproduct of the fermentation process with the yeast.

[Biological characteristics of human peripheric CD4+ CD25- T cells isolated and cultured in vitro].

AIM: To isolate peripheric CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells in vitro, and study their biological characteristics. METHODS: Human peripheric blood CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells were isolated by discontinuous density gradient centrfugal and dynal immunomagnetic beads, and then divided into three groups: control group(A), LPS group (B) and LPS+TGF-beta1 mAb group (D), After they were prepared 4 h, 3 d and 5 d, the percentage of CD4(+) CD25(+) T cells were tested by FCM, the levels of TGF-beta1 in cultured supernatants were detected by ELISA, and the expression of FOXP3 mRNA was examined by RT-PCR. RESULTS: (1)LM showed CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells were of spherical cell nucleus, After CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells were cultured by anti-CD3/CD28 in vitro, their cellular volume increased and cytoplasm contained more particles. TEM showed CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells were of oval or kidney-shaped caryon. (2)FCM showed the purity of CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells was 91.5%-96%. The trypan blue experiment showed the energometry before and after detachment had no obvious difference(P>0.05). (3)FCM showed the percentage of CD4(+) CD25(+) T cells in B5d group(55.99+/-1.42)% increased markedly compared with that in A5d group(1.29+/-0.04)%. (4)ELISA showed the levels of TGF-beta1 in B3d(1.60+/-0.09) microg/L, in B5d(1.83+/-0.14) microg/L were significantly increased compared with those in A3d (0.35+/-0.04) microg/L and A5d(0.33+/-0.08) microg/L(P<0.01); but the levels in group D and group A had no significant difference; (5)RT-PCR showed FOXP3 mRNA in B3d group(0.84+/-0.07) and B5d group(1.85+/-0.24) increased strikingly compared with those in A3d(0.05+/-0.02) and A5d(0.04+/-0.02)(P<0.01), but those in group A and group D had no significant difference. (6)There was significantly positive correlation between the expression of TGF-beta1 and FOXP3 mRNA in the induced CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells (r=0.812, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Human peripheric blood CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells can be isolated in vitro by discontinuous density gradient centrfugal and dynal immunomagnetic beads. The expression of FOXP3 mRNA in E.coli LPS-induced human CD4(+) CD25(-) T cells may correlate with the expression of TGF-beta1.