Weight status changes from childhood to adulthood were associated with cardiometabolic outcomes in adulthood.

AIM: Few studies have assessed the association between weight changes from childhood to adulthood and cardiometabolic factors in adulthood. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between weight changes from childhood to adulthood and cardiometabolic factors in adulthood using national Chinese data. METHODS: We included 649 participants from the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1989 to 2009 and divided them into four groups by their body mass index from 6 to 37 years of age. They were selected using multistage random cluster sampling from 15 areas with large variations in economic and social development. Poisson regression models assessed associations between weight status changes and cardiometabolic outcomes in adulthood. RESULTS: The risk of multiple abnormal cardiometabolic outcomes in adulthood was increased in the 126 subjects with normal weight in childhood but overweight or obesity in adulthood and the 28 with obesity at both ages, compared to the 462 with normal weight at both ages. There was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the 33 who had weight issues as children, but not as adults, had an increased risk. CONCLUSION: Being overweight or obese in both childhood and adulthood or during adulthood only increased the risk of abnormal cardiometabolic outcomes in adulthood. Larger studies need to investigate whether weight problems in childhood, but not adulthood, increase the risk.

Magnetometry based on the effect of laser-induced plasmas in a sodium-containing environment.

The magneto-optical resonance response of sodium atoms generated by a high-energy solid-state pulse Nd:YAG laser is studied in different external magnetic fields. We investigate the resonance fluorescence signal of sodium atoms in a simulated sea fog environment based on the laser-induced plasma (LIP) effect. By ionizing an NaCl solution spray to generate sodium atoms in an atmospheric environment, we build a Bell-Bloom magneto-optical resonance system under laboratory conditions. With the help of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and extinction spectrum, we obtain sodium atoms with a lifetime of 250 µs. A narrowband tunable continuous wave (CW) 589-nm laser tuned at the D2 line with a modulation frequency around the Larmor frequency is used as the pump beam to polarize sodium atoms in the test magnetic field. We find that the magneto-optical resonance signals vary with different external magnetic fields and the positions of the resonance signal are consistent with the theoretical values. An intrinsic magnetometric sensitivity of 620.4 pT in a 1-Hz bandwidth is achieved.

Differential Structure of Inductive Proximity Sensor.

The inductive proximity sensor (IPS) is applicable to displacement measurements in the aviation field due to its non-mechanical contact, safety, and durability. IPS can increase reliability of position detection and decrease maintenance cost of the system effectively in aircraft applications. Nevertheless, the specialty in the aviation field proposes many restrictions and requirements on the application of IPS, including the temperature drift effect of the resistance component of the IPS sensing coil. Moreover, reliability requirements of aircrafts restrict the use of computational-intensive algorithms and avoid the use of process control components. Furthermore, the environment of airborne electronic equipment restricts measurements driven by large current and proposes strict requirements on emission tests of radio frequency (RF) energy. For these reasons, a differential structured IPS measurement method is proposed in this paper. This measurement method inherits the numerical separation of the resistance and inductance components of the IPS sensing coil to improve the temperature adaptation of the IPS. The computational complexity is decreased by combining the dimension-reduced look-up table method to prevent the use of process control components. The proposed differential structured IPS is equipped with a differential structure of distant and nearby sensing coils to increase the detection accuracy. The small electric current pulse excitation decreases the RF energy emission. Verification results demonstrate that the differential structured IPS realizes the numerical decoupling calculation of the vector impedance of the sensing coil by using 61 look-up table units. The measuring sensitivity increased from 135.5 least significant bits (LSB)/0.10 mm of a single-sensing-coil structured IPS to 1201.4 LSB/0.10 mm, and the linear approximation distance error decreased from 99.376 µm to -3.240 µm. The proposed differential structured IPS method has evident comparative advantages compared with similar measuring techniques.

Dimension-Reduced Analog-Digital Mixed Measurement Method of Inductive Proximity Sensor.

Inductive proximity sensors (IPSs) present a unique no-contact advantage. They are widely preferred for displacement measurement in various industrial fields (e.g., aviation and aerospace), and they are improved continuously. When the inductance and resistance components of the IPS sensing core are separated, the influence of temperature drift on measurement can be eliminated. The complexity of online computation of component separation can be reduced using a two-dimensional look-up table method. However, this method exhibits disadvantages, such as large capacity of the look-up table, dependency on precision measurement of sensing core parameter, and nonlinear distribution of measurement resolution. This study aims to overcome these disadvantages by examining the nonlinear relationship between the response of the sensing core and the ambient temperature, and proposes a dimension-reduced measurement method. The proposed method extracts the characteristics of the response curves at two temperatures and calculates the characteristics of the response curves at any temperature using a linear approximation. The look-up table capacity is less than 0.37% of the two-dimensional look-up table capacity (condensed) under the same condition; dimension reduction enables the construction of a complete look-up table directly by calibration procedures and avoids precise measurement on sensing core parameters; the calibration procedures establish uniform mapping of the distribution of measurement resolution. The experiment shows that, when the measurement ranges are 0-6, 0-5, and 0-4 mm, the maximum measurement errors are 0.140, 0.065, and 0.040 mm, respectively, under temperature ranging from 20 ∘ C to 110 ∘ C. This study extends the measurement range from 0-5 mm to 0-7 mm and improves the measurement accuracy over 0.1 mm (50% at 5 mm) compared with the two-dimensional look-up table method. Therefore, the proposed method not only inherits the advantages of the original method but also achieves the above-mentioned expected capacity improvements effectively.

An Analog-Digital Mixed Measurement Method of Inductive Proximity Sensor.

Inductive proximity sensors (IPSs) are widely used in position detection given their unique advantages. To address the problem of temperature drift, this paper presents an analog-digital mixed measurement method based on the two-dimensional look-up table. The inductance and resistance components can be separated by processing the measurement data, thus reducing temperature drift and generating quantitative outputs. This study establishes and implements a two-dimensional look-up table that reduces the online computational complexity through structural modeling and by conducting an IPS operating principle analysis. This table is effectively compressed by considering the distribution characteristics of the sample data, thus simplifying the processing circuit. Moreover, power consumption is reduced. A real-time, built-in self-test (BIST) function is also designed and achieved by analyzing abnormal sample data. Experiment results show that the proposed method obtains the advantages of both analog and digital measurements, which are stable, reliable, and taken in real time, without the use of floating-point arithmetic and process-control-based components. The quantitative output of displacement measurement accelerates and stabilizes the system control and detection process. The method is particularly suitable for meeting the high-performance requirements of the aviation and aerospace fields.

Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid upregulates reticulophagy receptor expression and promotes cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common clinical condition with a poor prognosis and few effective treatment options. Potent anticancer agents for treating HCC must be identified. Epigenetics plays an essential role in HCC tumorigenesis. Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), the most common histone deacetylase inhibitor agent, triggers many forms of cell death in HCC. However, the underlying mechanism of action remains unclear. Family with sequence similarity 134 member B (FAM134B)-induced reticulophagy, a selective autophagic pathway, participates in the decision of cell fate and exhibits anticancer activity. This study focused on the relationship between FAM134B-induced reticulophagy and SAHA-mediated cell death. AIM: To elucidate potential roles and underlying molecular mechanisms of reticulophagy in SAHA-induced HCC cell death. METHODS: The viability, apoptosis, cell cycle, migration, and invasion of SAHA-treated Huh7 and MHCC97L cells were measured. Proteins related to the reticulophagy pathway, mitochondria-endoplasmic reticulum (ER) contact sites, intrinsic mitochondrial apoptosis, and histone acetylation were quantified using western blotting. ER and lysosome colocalization, and mitochondrial Ca2+ levels were characterized via confocal microscopy. The level of cell death was evaluated through Hoechst 33342 staining and propidium iodide colocalization. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to verify histone H4 lysine-16 acetylation in the FAM134B promoter region. RESULTS: After SAHA treatment, the proliferation of Huh7 and MHCC97L cells was significantly inhibited, and the migration and invasion abilities were greatly blocked in vitro. This promoted apoptosis and caused G1 phase cells to increase in a concentration-dependent manner. Following treatment with SAHA, ER-phagy was activated, thereby triggering autophagy-mediated cell death of HCC cells in vitro. Western blotting and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays confirmed that SAHA regulated FAM134B expression by enhancing the histone H4 lysine-16 acetylation in the FAM134B promoter region. Further, SAHA disturbed the Ca2+ homeostasis and upregulated the level of autocrine motility factor receptor and proteins related to mitochondria-endoplasmic reticulum contact sites in HCC cells. Additionally, SAHA decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential levels, thereby accelerating the activation of the reticulophagy-mediated mitochondrial apoptosis pathway and promoting HCC cell death in vitro. CONCLUSION: SAHA stimulates FAM134B-mediated ER-phagy to synergistically enhance the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, thereby enhancing HCC cell death.

Family with sequence similarity 134 member B-mediated reticulophagy ameliorates hepatocyte apoptosis induced by dithiothreitol.

BACKGROUND: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related hepatocyte apoptosis is responsible for multiple hepatic diseases. Previous studies have revealed that endoplasmic reticulophagy (ER-phagy) promotes the selective clearance of damaged ER fragments during ER stress, playing a crucial role in maintaining ER homeostasis and inhibiting apoptosis. Family with sequence similarity 134 member B (FAM134B) is a receptor involved in ER-phagy that can form a complex with calnexin (CNX) and microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3). The complex can mediate the selective isolation of ER fragments to attenuate hepatocyte apoptosis. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. AIM: To elucidate the effect of FAM134B-mediated ER-phagy on ER stress-induced apoptosis in buffalo rat liver 3A (BRL-3A) rat hepatocytes and the potential regulatory mechanisms. METHODS: ER stress-related hepatocyte apoptosis was induced using dithiothreitol (DTT). Proteins related to ER stress and autophagy were measured with western blotting. Protein complex interactions with FAM134B were isolated by co-immunoprecipitation. ER-phagy was evaluated in immunofluorescence experiments. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry. Mitochondrial Ca2+ levels were evaluated by the co-localization of intracellular Ca2+-tracker and Mito-tracker. The small interfering RNA against FAM134B was used to knockdown FAM134B in BRL-3A cells. RESULTS: ER stress-related and autophagy-related proteins in BRL-3A cells were elevated by both short and long-term DTT treatment. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation confirmed an interaction between FAM134B, CNX, FAM134B, and LC3 in BRL-3A cells. Immunofluorescence assays revealed that autolysosomes significantly decreased following short-term DTT treatment, but increased after long-term treatment. Mitochondrial Ca2+ levels and apoptotic rates were dramatically elevated, and more cells were arrested in the G1 stage after short-term DTT treatment; however, these decreased 48 h later. Moreover, FAM134B downregulation accelerated mitochondrial apoptotic pathway activation and aggravated hepatocyte apoptosis under ER stress. CONCLUSION: FAM134B-mediated ER-phagy attenuates hepatocyte apoptosis by suppressing the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Our findings provide new evidence highlighting the importance of FAM134B-mediated ER-phagy in attenuating hepatocyte apoptosis.

An instantaneous spatiotemporal model for predicting traffic-related ultrafine particle concentration through mobile noise measurements.

People living near roadways are exposed to high concentrations of ultrafine particles (UFP, diameter < 100 nm). This can result in adverse health effects such as respiratory illness and cardiovascular diseases. However, accurately characterizing the UFP number concentration requires expensive sets of instruments. The development of an UFP surrogate with cheap and convenient measures is needed. In this study, we used a mobile measurement platform with a Fast Mobility Particle Sizer (FMPS) and sound level meter to investigate the spatiotemporal relations of noise and UFP and identify the hotspots of UFP. UFP concentration levels were significantly influenced by temporal and spatial variations (p < 0.001). We proposed a Generalized Additive Models to predict UFP number concentration in the study area. The model uses noise and meteorological covariates to predict the UFP number concentrations at an industrial site in Taichung, Taiwan. During the one year sampling campaign from fall 2013 to summer 2014, mobile measurements were performed at least one week for each season, both on weekdays and weekends. The proposed model can explain 80% of deviance and has coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.77. Moreover, the developed UFP model was able to adequately predict UFP concentrations, and can provide people with a convenient way to determine UFP levels. Finally, the results from this study could help facilitate the future development of noise mobile measurement.