Remnant Cholesterol as an Independent Predictor of Periodontitis: A Population-Based Study.

Objective: Numerus studies present that remnant cholesterol (RC) as a risk factor participates in the progression of multiple diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between cholesterol and periodontitis in the US population to find a reliable lipid predictor for periodontitis. Materials and Methods: Clinical data was retrieved from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database between 2009 and 2014. The logistic regression was conducted to examine the corelationship between RC and various clinical features. Meanwhile, the dose-response relationship was measured through restricted cubic spline analysis. And the propensity score matching (PSM) was established to further investigate the potential relationship between RC and periodontitis. Results: A number of 4,829 eligible participants were included in this study. It was found that the increased RC is associated with the higher risk of periodontitis after adjusting the potential confounding factors with the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of 1.403 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.171-1.681, P < 0.001, univariate analysis) and 1.341 (95% CI: 1.105-1.629, P = 0.003, multivariate analysis) in the highest grade. There were significant differences in the relationship between RC and various clinical features including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), race, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus (all P < 0.001). Besides, the calculated thresholds for predicting periodontitis were 19.99 (before propensity score matching (PSM)) and 20.91 (after PSM) mg/dL. Conclusions: In this study, RC was identified to be positively associated with the occurrence of periodontitis, which suggests that RC can be considered as a predictor for periodontitis.

Thermodiffusion of ions in nanoconfined aqueous electrolytes.

Understanding of thermal effects on ion transport in porous media is very important for environmental applications. The movement of ions along a temperature gradient is named thermophoresis or thermodiffusion. In nanoporous media, where the interaction of ions with solid-liquid interfaces has a significant influence on their migration, the theoretical understanding of thermodiffusion is still incomplete. Herein, we present experimental results for the thermodiffusion of cations in saturated nanoporous silica by the through-diffusion method. Both the experimental data and theoretical analysis indicate that the temperature-induced polarization of surface charges strongly influences ionic transport. Stated simply, the electric field in a liquid electrolyte confined in nanopores changes when the applied temperature gradients are altered, thereby affecting the motion of the nanoconfined ionic species. By applying an external temperature field, the gradient of the surface charge density leads to the charged aqueous species exhibiting strong temperature gradient-dependent electrophoretic mobility. When the thickness of the electrical double layer is comparable to the size of the nanopores, the theory used herein indicates that this kind of nonisothermal ionic mobility is up to one order of magnitude larger than classical thermophoretic mobility. This study improves the understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern the transport of ions in nanoporous media, which could set the stage for diffusional metamaterials induced by specific thermal fields.

[Drought-resistance evaluation of marigold cultivars based on multiple statistics analysis].

By the methods of principal component analysis, subordinate function, and cluster analysis, a comprehensive evaluation was conducted on the drought-resistance of 16 physiological indices of nine marigold cultivars. Under drought stress, the 16 physiological indices had different responses, among which, free proline (Pro), H2O2, and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) showed the greatest sensitivity. There existed significant correlations in the drought-resistance coefficients of parts of the physiological indices. Four principal factors presented 88.6% of the information of the 16 indices, and the cultivars 'Janie' and 'Gate gold', 'Bonanzn', 'Janie', and 'Chokdee' had the strongest drought-resistance for the 4 principal factors, respectively. The comprehensive evaluation value of the drought-resistance of the 9 cultivars was in the order of 'Janie' > 'Gate gold' > 'Bonanza' > 'Chokdee' > 'Giant' > 'Great hero' > 'Little hero' > 'Durango' > 'Discovery'. The 9 cultivars could be clustered into 3 groups, and 'Gate gold', 'Janie', 'Bonanza' and 'Chokdee' belonged to the drought-resistance group.