Effect and Safety of Saccharomyces boulardii for Neonatal Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Pre-term Infants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the most common and urgent neonatal emergencies in the neonatal intensive care unit. This disease leads to considerable morbidity and mortality; it also imposes a huge financial burden on patient family and society. Thus, Treatment and prevention of NEC are crucial. This meta-analysis aims to investigate the effect and safety of Saccharomyces boulardii for NEC in pre-term infants. METHODS: A comprehensive search was retrieved in six major databases. The search included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting the incidence of NEC (stage ≥ II), sepsis, mortality, feeding intolerance, full feeding days, time to regain birth weight, days of hospitalization and adverse effects. The random model was used to calculate risk ratio (RR), the standard mean difference (SMD) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI) between the S. boulardii group and control group. Statistical analyses were conducted using Cochrane systematic review software, Rev Man (version 5.3). RESULTS: In total, 10 RCTs involving 1264 participants met the inclusion criteria. There were significant reductions in the incidence of NEC [RR = 0.56, 95% CI (0.36-0.89)], feeding intolerance [RR = 0.52, 95% CI (0.39-0.68)], full feeding days [SMD = -1.25, 95% CI (-2.06 to -0.45)] and hospitalization days [SMD = -1.33, 95% CI (-2.64 to -0.02)] in the study group compared with the control group. However, there were no significant differences in sepsis [RR = 0.84, 95% CI (0.61-1.17)], death [RR = 1.12, 95% CI (0.46-2.70)] and the time to regain birth weight [SMD = -0.93, 95% CI (-1.88 to 0.03)] between the two groups. The adverse effect of S. boulardii was not reported. The overall methodological quality was evaluated as moderate by the Cochrane Bias Risk Assessment Tool. CONCLUSION: According to this evidence we recommend S. boulardii to prevent NEC, reduce the feeding intolerance, shorten the full feeding days and hospitalization days. However, S. boulardii might be invalid on the incidence of sepsis, mortality and the time to regain birth weight. REGISTRATION: This review has been registered to the PROSPERO (International prospective register of systematic reviews) on 5 December 2019 (ID: CRD42019147896).

Alteration of Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4 Levels in Serum or Urine Correlate with Different Biochemical Markers in Hyperlipidemia-Related Proteinuria.

Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) is widely known as a key regulator of lipid metabolism. We investigated the relationship between ANGPTL4 expression in serum or urine and blood lipid or urine protein levels of patients with hyperlipidemia- (HL-) related proteinuria. Sixty-eight patients with HL-related proteinuria (HL-Pro group), 68 patients with HL without proteinuria (HL-NPro group), 46 patients with non-HL-related proteinuria (NHL-Pro group), and 50 healthy control (Con) subjects were selected. There were no significant differences in serum ANGPTL4 levels between the Con group (36.82 ± 17.03 ng/ml) and the HL-Pro group (27.94 (18.90, 53.72) ng/ml). Additionally, the serum ANGPTL4 levels in the HL-Pro group were significantly lower than those in the HL-NPro group (53.32 ± 24.01 ng/ml) (P < 0.001). The urine ANGPTL4/Cr levels in the HL-Pro group (52.01 (45.25, 79.79) µg/g) were significantly higher than those in the HL-NPro group (9.96 (8.35, 12.43) ng/ml) (P < 0.05). A significant alteration in urine ANGPTL4/Cr levels was observed in the NHL-Pro group (69.41 ± 55.36 µg/g) and the Con group (10.08 ± 2.38 µg/g) as well. There was no correlation between serum and urine ANGPTL4 levels of the four groups (P > 0.05). Serum ANGPTL4 levels (HL-Pro/HL-NPro group) were positively correlated with total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) levels in hyperlipidemia patients. However, there was no correlation between urinary ANGPTL4 levels and TC or TG (P > 0.05). Urine ANGPTL4 levels were positively correlated with 24hUPro in patients with renal impairment (HL-Pro/NHL-Pro group). To summarize, ANGPTL4 may be considered an accurate predictor of proteinuria with HL. Notably, serum or urine ANGPTL4 levels indicated the degree of proteinuria or hyperlipidemia, respectively, in HL patients.

Reducing the bioavailability and leaching potential of lead in contaminated water hyacinth biomass by phosphate-assisted pyrolysis.

For the purpose of safe disposal of biomass contaminated by biosorption of heavy metals, phosphate-assisted pyrolysis of water hyacinth biomass contaminated by lead (Pb) was tried to reduce the bioavailability and leaching potential of Pb, using direct pyrolysis without additive as a control method. Direct pyrolysis of the contaminated biomass at low temperatures (300 and 400°C) could reduce the bioavailability of Pb, but the leaching potential of Pb was increased with the rising pyrolysis temperature. While phosphate-assisted pyrolysis significantly enhanced the recovery and stability of Pb in the char. Specifically, the percentages of bioavailable Pb and leachable Pb in the chars obtained by phosphate-assisted pyrolysis at low temperatures were reduced to less than 5% and 7%, respectively. The sequential extraction test indicated the transformation of Pb into more stable fractions after phosphate-assisted pyrolysis, which was related to the formation of Pb phosphate minerals including pyromorphite and lead-substituted hydroxyapatite.

Efficient removal of lead from solution by celery-derived biochars rich in alkaline minerals.

Biochars were produced from celery biomass by slow pyrolysis at 350 and 500°C, and featured by high content of alkaline minerals namely salts of alkali and alkaline earth metals. The biochars' efficiency on removing Pb2+ from solution was investigated, and two biochars derived from celery stalk (StC350 and StC500) showed higher Pb2+ sorption capacity (288 and 304mg/g) than most biochars reported previously. The sorption mechanisms involving precipitation, cation exchange and surface complexation are related to three biochar fractions namely water-soluble matter, acid-soluble substances and insoluble organic carbon. The relative contributions of water-soluble matter and acid-soluble substances to the total Pb2+ removal were 59.8% and 36.6% for the StC350 biochar, and 62.8% and 34.9% for the StC500 biochar, respectively. The results indicate that biochars derived from vegetable wastes are potential candidates for efficient sorption of heavy metals.

Stabilization of Pb(II) accumulated in biomass through phosphate-pretreated pyrolysis at low temperatures.

The remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil and water using plant biomass is considered to be a green technological approach, although the harmless disposal of biomass accumulated with heavy metals remains a challenge. A potential solution to this problem explored in this work involves combining phosphate pretreatment with pyrolysis. Pb(II) was accumulated in celery biomass with superior sorption capacity and also in ordinary wood biomass through biosorption. The Pb(II)-impregnated biomass was then pretreated with phosphoric acid or calcium dihydrogen phosphate (CaP) and pyrolyzed at 350 or 450°C. Pb(II) from biomass was in turn almost totally retained in chars, and the percentage of DTPA-extractable Pb(II) was reduced to less than 5% of total Pb(II) in chars through CaP pretreatment. Pb(II) stabilization was further confirmed through a sequential extraction test, which showed that more than 95% of Pb(II) was converted into stable species composed mainly of lead phosphates according to X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) analyses. Overall, phosphate-pretreated pyrolysis can stabilize both Pb(II) and degradable biomass, so as to control efficiently the hazards of heavy metal-contaminated biomass.

[Experiments of micro-distance measurement for GMLM with spectrum analysis method].

Projection display devices are undergoing a period of multi-development, and with the maturation of MEMS technology, which leads to MEMS-based light modulators for display applications, have become one of the research focuses. The structure of MEMS-based grating moving light modulator (GMLM) is composed of the reflection plate, address electrode and four cantilevers, and movable grating plate, which is supported by four crab-cantilevers placed around, and is actuated like a piston by electrostatic force. The piston-type motion of grating can be used to modulate the phase of incident light. The micro-distance between the upper surface of movable grating and underlying reflector is a key parameter and is important to GMLM performance. Traditional measurement method such as step-machine would destroy the device; while a high accuracy and non-contact measurement machine called KYKO White Light Interferometer is expensive. In the present paper, the GMLM optical principle using scalar diffraction theory was in details analyzed. A novel non-contact wavelength scanning spectrum analysis method was put forward to measure the distance between the upper surface of movable grating and underlying reflector. The U-4100 spectrophotometer was adopted to gain spectrum information; while the spectrum analysis method using peak wavelength position was introduced to calculate the micro distance. The measurement result is consistent to theoretical result. The micro-distance is 1.131 3 microm using such non-contact wavelength scanning spectrum analysis method, while it is 1.240 0 microm with WYKO White Light Interferometer. The relative error was lower than 1%, compared with the results measured by WYKO White Light Interferometer, and the method has good repetition ability and is cheap with RMB50 Yuan each time. Furthermore, measuring pull-in voltage, resonance frequency and micro distance in MEMS-based diffraction and interference devices was proposed completely based on such non-contact wavelength scanning spectrum analysis method.