[Effects of Leptin and Leptin-associated Signaling Pathways on the Occurrence and Progression of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms].

Abdominal aortic aneurysm(AAA) is a chronic dilated artery disease induced by atherosclerosis,infection,trauma and other related causes.The available studies about AAA mainly focus on the inflammatory response,senility,and microenvironmental changes,while the research on the metabolic changes such as glucose metabolism and lipid metabolism remains to be conducted.As a critical regulatory factor in endocrine,glucose,and lipid metabolisms,leptin is associated with a variety of signaling pathways such as adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase,Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription,and cytokine-cytokine receptor,as demonstrated by the KEGG pathway enrichment analysis.Moreover,these signaling pathways are generally involved in regulating the occurrence of AAA.In addition,leptin affects the occurrence of a variety of diseases such as obesity,diabetes,and hyperlipidemia,which contribute to the formation of AAA.Diabetes might be a protective factor for the formation of AAA,while the relationship of hyperlipidemia and obesity with the formation of AAA remains unclear.Therefore,leptin might play an essential role in the formation of AAA.Further studies about the effect of leptin on AAA may provide the potential research direction and facilitate the discovery of therapeutic targets.

Survey of psychiatric impairment among residents exposed to environmental pollution from a petrochemical complex.

PURPOSE: This study first assessed the occurrence of major depressive disorder (MDD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), symptoms of poor sleep quality and high levels of distress among residents, caused by reported long-term stress from environmental pollution emitted from the biggest petroleum chemistry factory (PCF) in the world. METHODS: A total of 328 long-term residents (Mean age = 57.5, SD = 16.5 years, ranging from 22 to 95) were recruited randomly from a total population of 26,632 in Mailiao township in Taiwan next to the PCF. Trained assistants used the Disaster-Related Psychological Screening test, the Perception of Life Threats Caused by the SCNP questionnaire and the Sleep Quality Scale to interview the participants. RESULTS: The results support our hypotheses that most of the residents (71%) would report life threats caused by the PCF. The residents displayed higher rates of major depressive episodes (24.1%), PTSD (24.5%) and symptoms of poor sleep quality. The more they felt threat from the PCF, the stronger the connection with MDD and PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSION: The results indicate an increased prevalence of MDD, PTSD and symptoms of poor sleep quality in those exposed to environmental pollution from the PCF, highlighting the need for prompt prevention, diagnostic and therapeutic attention.

Transarterial Embolization versus Translumber Embolization for Type â ¡ Endoleak after Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair: A Meta-Analysis.

Objective Type Ⅱ endoleak is the most common subtype of endoleak as a complication after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). The efficacy of transarterial (TA) embolization and translumber (TL) embolization in the management of type Ⅱ endoleak remains equipoise. The aim of this study is to compare the technical and clinical success between TA embolization and TL embolization for type Ⅱ endoleak after EVAR.Methods The protocol was registered (CRD 42018114453) and the electronic databases (Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane) were systematically searched till March 2019. The search terms included EVAR, type Ⅱ endoleak, and embolization. The articles were read and extracted by two authors independently to include randomized control trails and retrospective studies that compared TA embolization and TL embolization in patients who developed type Ⅱ endoleak after EVAR. The technical and clinical success rates were meta-analyzed with random effect model.Results A total of 6 articles with 268 patients and 290 type Ⅱ endoleaks were included. The pooled odds ratio (OR) of technical success rate for TA vs. TL was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.10-3.18; P=0.51) and the pooled OR of clinical success rate for TA vs. TL was 0.31(95% CI, 0.07-1.29; P=0.11). As a limitation, 6 articles were all retrospective studies which may lead to bias.Conclusion Both TA and TL could be effective procedure of embolizations to resolve the type Ⅱ endoleak. The meta-analysis result indicated that TA embolization was not inferior to TL embolization in technical success and clinical success.

Effect of a low-voltage electrical stimulation on yak meat tenderness during postmortem aging.

This study evaluates the effect of a low-voltage electrical stimulation (ES) on the tenderness of yak longissimus muscle (LM). Samples from 16 yak bulls were divided into four treatment groups: normal chilling (NC), ES and chilling (ES & C) for 72 s (ES &C 72 s), ES & C for 90 s (ES & C 90 s), and ES & C for 108 s (ES & C 108 s). The temperature, the pH, the glycogen content, the Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), the myofibril fragmentation index (MFI), and the muscle ultrastructure were determined during the course of postmortem aging. ES caused a rapid decrease in the pH to form a high-temperature and low-pH environment. The glycogen content gradually decreased with aging. The WBSF value of the ES & C groups was significantly lower than for the NC group (p < .05). The MFI values of ES & C groups after 24 hr postmortem aging were significantly higher than for the NC group. We concluded that ES improved yak meat tenderness during postmortem aging and that the different duration time by ES indicated different effects, and its affect was remarkable in the ES & C 90 s.

Intermittent Demand Forecasting in a Tertiary Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Forecasts of the demand for medical supplies both directly and indirectly affect the operating costs and the quality of the care provided by health care institutions. Specifically, overestimating demand induces an inventory surplus, whereas underestimating demand possibly compromises patient safety. Uncertainty in forecasting the consumption of medical supplies generates intermittent demand events. The intermittent demand patterns for medical supplies are generally classified as lumpy, erratic, smooth, and slow-moving demand. This study was conducted with the purpose of advancing a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit's efforts to achieve a high level of accuracy in its forecasting of the demand for medical supplies. On this point, several demand forecasting methods were compared in terms of the forecast accuracy of each. The results confirm that applying Croston's method combined with a single exponential smoothing method yields the most accurate results for forecasting lumpy, erratic, and slow-moving demand, whereas the Simple Moving Average (SMA) method is the most suitable for forecasting smooth demand. In addition, when the classification of demand consumption patterns were combined with the demand forecasting models, the forecasting errors were minimized, indicating that this classification framework can play a role in improving patient safety and reducing inventory management costs in health care institutions.