Global and national burden of atherosclerosis from 1990 to 2019: trend analysis based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis-related diseases represent significant health issues among adults globally. Despite their widespread impact, comprehensive data concerning the global and national burden and trends of these diseases remain sparse. Our objective is to examine the trends in the burden of atherosclerosis among adults from 1990 to 2019 at both global and national levels. METHODS: We reported the average annual percentage changes (AAPCs) in prevalence, incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of atherosclerosis-related diseases (ischemic heart disease [IHD], ischemic stroke, and peripheral arterial disease [PAD]) at the global and national levels among individuals based on a trend analysis of the Global Burden of Diseases Study (GBD) 2019. We further analyzed these global trends as a function of age, gender, and the social development index. We also used joinpoint regression analysis to identify the year with the most substantial changes in global trends. RESULTS: Globally, the AAPC of IHD incidence rose from 1990 to 2019 (0.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.12-0.28), with substantial surges in 1995, 2001, 2005, 2010, and 2017. Conversely, AAPC of IHD mortality rates exhibited a different trend until a rise in 2014. The AAPC of incidence rates of ischemic stroke and PAD also escalated during the same period, with respective 0.43 (95% CI, 0.39-0.48) and 0.13 (95% CI, 0.06-0.21). For ischemic stroke, both incidence and mortality soared in 2014, while PAD incidence declined in 1994 and 1998, then sharply climbed in 2016. Nationally, the Northern Mariana Islands experienced the steepest increase in IHD and PAD incidence and mortality between 1990 and 2019. China saw a significant rise in ischemic stroke incidence, whereas the highest mortality rate increase occurred in Timor-Leste. By sociodemographic index (SDI) quintile, low-middle-, middle-, and high-middle-SDI countries all showed upward trends in IHD, ischemic stroke, and PAD incidence. Simultaneously, IHD and ischemic stroke mortality rates, as well as DALYs, dropped in the low-, high-middle-, and high-SDI nations. However, PAD mortality rates and DALYs saw an uptick across all SDI quintiles. Regarding age demographics, a global decrease in the AAPC IHD incidence as noted in individuals above 55 years old, in contrast to an increase in the 20-55 age group during this period. AAPC of mortality rates for IHD, ischemic stroke, and PAD decreased across all ages. The AAPC showed an increase in IHD incidence in both genders. Conversely, IHD's DALYs saw a reduction in both males and females. Ischemic stroke patterns mirrored these trends, whereas all measures for PAD exhibited growth for both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: From 1990 to 2019, there was an overall increasing trend in the global incidence of all three clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis. Between 1990 and 2019, both the mortality rate and DALYs for IHD and ischemic stroke declined across all age groups. Overall, the burden of atherosclerosis-related diseases has not significantly decreased and even shows signs of trending upward. These findings strongly suggest that despite some progress made, efforts to control atherosclerosis diseases globally need to be intensified.

Revealing the structural chemistry in Na6-2xFex(SO4)3 (1.5 ≤ x ≤ 2.0) for low-cost and high-performance sodium-ion batteries.

Fe-based polyanionic sulfate materials are one of the most promising candidates for large-scale applications in sodium-ion batteries due to their low cost and excellent electrochemical performance. Although great achievements have been gained on a series of Na6-2xFex(SO4)3 (NFSO-x, 1.5 ≤ x ≤ 2.0) materials such as Na2Fe2(SO4)3, Na2Fe1.5(SO4)3, and Na2.4Fe1.8(SO4)3 for sodium storage, the phase and structure characteristics on these NFSO-x are still controversial, making it difficult to achieve phase-pure materials with optimal electrochemical properties. Herein, six NFSO-x samples with varied x are investigated via both experimental methods and density functional theory calculations to analyze the phase and structure properties. It reveals that a pure phase exists in the 1.6 ≤ x ≤ 1.7 region of the NFSO-x, and part of Na ions tend to occupy Fe sites to form more stable frameworks. The NFSO-1.7 exhibits the best electrochemical performance among the NFSO-x samples, delivering a high discharge capacity (104.5 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C, close to its theoretical capacity of 105 mAh g-1), excellent rate performance (81.5 mAh g-1 at 30 C), and remarkable cycle stability over 10,000 cycles with high-capacity retention of 72.4%. We believe that the results are useful to clarify the phase and structure characteristics of polyanionic materials to promote their application for large-scale energy storage.

Evaluation of the neonatal sequential organ failure assessment and mortality risk in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is one of the leading causes of neonatal death in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Previous studies have suggested that the development of neonatal RDS may be associated with inflammation and lead to organ dysfunction. The neonatal sequential organ failure assessment (nSOFA) scoring system is an operational definition of organ dysfunction, but whether it can be used to predict mortality in neonates RDS is unknown. The aim of this study was to clarify the performance of the nSOFA score in predicting mortality in patients with neonatal RDS, with the aim of broadening the clinical application of the nSOFA score. Methods: Neonates with RDS were identified from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-III database. Cox proportional hazards model were used to assess the association between nSOFA score and mortality. Propensity score matched analysis were used to assess the robustness of the analytical results. Results: In this study of 1,281 patients with RDS of which 57.2% were male, death occurred in 40 cases (3.1%). Patients with high nSOFA scores had a higher mortality rate of 10.7% compared with low nSOFA scores at 0.3%. After adjusting for confounding, multivariate Cox proportional risk analysis showed that an increase in nSOFA score was significantly associated with increased mortality in patients with RDS [adjusted Hazards Ratio (aHR): 1.48, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.32-1.67; p < 0.001]. Similarly, the High nSOFA group was significantly associated with higher mortality in RDS patients (aHR: 19.35, 95% CI: 4.41-84.95; p < 0.001) compared with the low nSOFA group. Conclusion: The nSOFA score was positively associated with the risk of mortality in cases of neonatal RDS in the NICU, where its use may help clinicians to quickly and accurately identify high risk neonates and implement more aggressive intervention.

Assessment of background ozone concentrations in China and implications for using region-specific volatile organic compounds emission abatement to mitigate air pollution.

Mitigation of ambient ozone (O3) pollution is a great challenge because it depends heavily on the background O3 which has been poorly evaluated in many regions, including in China. By establishing the relationship between O3 and air temperature near the surface, the mean background O3 mixing ratios in the clean and polluted seasons were determined to be 35-40 and 50-55 ppbv in China during 2013-2019, respectively. Simulations using the chemical transport model (i.e., the Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry model, WRF/Chem) suggested that biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions were the primary contributor to the increase in the background O3 in the polluted season (BOP) compared to the background O3 in the clean season (BOC), ranging from 8 ppbv to 16 ppbv. More importantly, the BOP continuously increased at a rate of 0.6-8.0 ppbv yr-1 during 2013-2019, while the non-BOP stopped increasing after 2017. Consequently, an additional 2%-16% reduction in anthropogenic VOC emissions is required to reverse the current O3 back to that measured in the period from 2013 to 2017. The results of this study emphasize the importance of the relative contribution of the background O3 to the observed total O3 concentration in the design of anthropogenic precursor emission control strategies for the attainment of O3 standards.

Wearable and Biodegradable Sensors for Human Health Monitoring.

Wearable sensor industry is on the rise, because it can achieve real-time monitoring, intervention and prediction functions in the field of personal health management. To date, although remarkable progress has been made and laboratory-based theoretical researches have also been confirmed, there are still only a handful of sensors that have been commercialized or clinically available due to the immaturity of technologies. Here, we make an up-to-date Review of wearable and biodegradable sensors. First, we introduce the basic concepts and transduction mechanisms of four physical sensors based on piezoresistive, capacitive, piezoelectric and triboelectric effects. Then, we survey the latest research advances in terms of wearable and biodegradable sensors, focusing our attention on material option, structure design and application exploration. In particular, the implantable sensors made from biocompatible and biodegradable materials are emphasized, which may become the mainstream research direction of green electronic products. Finally, we debate the current challenges and future trends of wearable and biodegradable sensors.

NASICON-type air-stable and all-climate cathode for sodium-ion batteries with low cost and high-power density.

The development of low-cost and long-lasting all-climate cathode materials for the sodium ion battery has been one of the key issues for the success of large-scale energy storage. One option is the utilization of earth-abundant elements such as iron. Here, we synthesize a NASICON-type tuneable Na4Fe3(PO4)2(P2O7)/C nanocomposite which shows both excellent rate performance and outstanding cycling stability over more than 4400 cycles. Its air stability and all-climate properties are investigated, and its potential as the sodium host in full cells has been studied. A remarkably low volume change of 4.0% is observed. Its high sodium diffusion coefficient has been measured and analysed via first-principles calculations, and its three-dimensional sodium ion diffusion pathways are identified. Our results indicate that this low-cost and environmentally friendly Na4Fe3(PO4)2(P2O7)/C nanocomposite could be a competitive candidate material for sodium ion batteries.

DRDB: An Online Date Palm Genomic Resource Database.

Background: Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a cultivated woody plant with agricultural and economic importance in many countries around the world. With the advantages of next generation sequencing technologies, genome sequences for many date palm cultivars have been released recently. Short sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) can be identified from these genomic data, and have been proven to be very useful biomarkers in plant genome analysis and breeding. Results: Here, we first improved the date palm genome assembly using 130X of HiSeq data generated in our lab. Then 246,445 SSRs (214,901 SSRs and 31,544 compound SSRs) were annotated in this genome assembly; among the SSRs, mononucleotide SSRs (58.92%) were the most abundant, followed by di- (29.92%), tri- (8.14%), tetra- (2.47%), penta- (0.36%), and hexa-nucleotide SSRs (0.19%). The high-quality PCR primer pairs were designed for most (174,497; 70.81% out of total) SSRs. We also annotated 6,375,806 SNPs with raw read depth≥3 in 90% cultivars. To further reduce false positive SNPs, we only kept 5,572,650 (87.40% out of total) SNPs with at least 20% cultivars support for downstream analyses. The high-quality PCR primer pairs were also obtained for 4,177,778 (65.53%) SNPs. We reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships among the 62 cultivars using these variants and found that they can be divided into three clusters, namely North Africa, Egypt - Sudan, and Middle East - South Asian, with Egypt - Sudan being the admixture of North Africa and Middle East - South Asian cultivars; we further confirmed these clusters using principal component analysis. Moreover, 34,346 SSRs and 4,177,778 SNPs with PCR primers were assigned to shared cultivars for cultivar classification and diversity analysis. All these SSRs, SNPs and their classification are available in our database, and can be used for cultivar identification, comparison, and molecular breeding. Conclusion:DRDB is a comprehensive genomic resource database of date palm. It can serve as a bioinformatics platform for date palm genomics, genetics, and molecular breeding. DRDB is freely available at http://drdb.big.ac.cn/home.

How to synthesize pure Li2-xFeSi1-xPxO4/C (x = 0.03-0.15) easily from low-cost Fe(3+) as cathode materials for Li-ion batteries.

Li2FeSiO4 is a low-cost, environmentally friendly electrode material with high theoretical capacity. However, obtaining pure-phase Li2FeSiO4 on a large scale is difficult. In this study, pure Li2-xFeSi1-xPxO4/C is prepared easily by using the low cost compound Fe(NO3)3·9H2O, with the help of citric acid and appropriate ratios of NH4H2PO4 (x = 0.03-0.15). The possible mechanism of the system with NH4H2PO4 to synthesize Li2-xFeSi1-xPxO4/C is that there is a catalysis process in the system, which helps to produce H2, providing a reducing environment in every particle of the reactants guaranteeing a complete change from Fe(3+) to Fe(2+). The produced H2 is verified by the gas chromatography of the collected gas produced in the calcination process. The ratios of NH4H2PO4 in this system could adjust the valence of element Fe in the products. Without NH4H2PO4, an Fe2O3 impurity is formed accompanying the Li2FeSiO4. With the addition of 1 at% NH4H2PO4, the Li4SiO4 impurity accords with the objective Li2-xFeSi1-xPxO4/C. Also, Fe with zero-valence could be found as an impurity with the addition of 20 at% NH4H2PO4 due to overreduction in the system. The synthesized pure Li2-xFeSi1-xPxO4/C (x = 0.03) displayed the highest discharge capacity of 179 mA h g(-1) in the first cycle, the best discharge capacity retention and the most reliable redox reversibility of the coulombic efficiency (approximately 100%), compared with the synthesized materials with Fe2O3 or Li4SiO4 impurities.

Orthology prediction methods: a quality assessment using curated protein families.

The increasing number of sequenced genomes has prompted the development of several automated orthology prediction methods. Tests to evaluate the accuracy of predictions and to explore biases caused by biological and technical factors are therefore required. We used 70 manually curated families to analyze the performance of five public methods in Metazoa. We analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the methods and quantified the impact of biological and technical challenges. From the latter part of the analysis, genome annotation emerged as the largest single influencer, affecting up to 30% of the performance. Generally, most methods did well in assigning orthologous group but they failed to assign the exact number of genes for half of the groups. The publicly available benchmark set (http://eggnog.embl.de/orthobench/) should facilitate the improvement of current orthology assignment protocols, which is of utmost importance for many fields of biology and should be tackled by a broad scientific community.

[An analysis on the cost of hypertensive outpatient in the community hospital in Shanghai].

OBJECTIVE: To study the cost of the hypertensive outpatients. METHODS: The study randomly selected 460 insured patients with hypertension and investigated their cost on each case in the out-patient department through 2002, based on the electronic system of medical insurance. RESULTS: As a whole, the distribution of hypertensive outpatient expenditure takes on the positively skewed, with the median of 1 567.9 Yuan RMB. With the increase of age, the average expenses in each age group increased accordingly. In the study, the average number of outpatient attendances per patient was 19.5, the average expenses per visit was 115.4 Yuan RMB. In age groups 40 - 49 and 50 - 59, expenses of outpatient in male and female groups are obviously different in 2002 (Wilcoxon W(40 - 49) = 36, P(40 - 49) = 0.037; Wilcoxon W(50 - 59) = 374, P(50 - 59) = 0.023), as well as the number of out-patients (Wilcoxon W(40 - 49) = 52.5, P(40 - 49) = 0.007; Wilcoxon W(50 - 59) = 379, P(50 - 59) = 0.028). When considering the factors of gender and age at one time, the outpatient expenditures in the male group were significantly different between the different age groups (chi(2) = 22.3, P < 0.001), as well as the number of outpatients (chi(2) = 25.4, P < 0.001). In addition, the expenditure of drugs, which took a large proportion of the total expenditure of hypertensive outpatients (about 83.6 percent), was divided into three parts according to the degree of correlation with hypertension: direct expenses related to the with disease, the indirect expenses and the irrespective. The proportions of each part were 19.9 percent, 32.3 percent and 47.8 percent respectively. CONCLUSION: When economic evaluation of community prevention is carried out, the cost and cost-benefit analysis based on the analysis of outpatient expenditure and the proportion of expenses on hypertension should be taken into account. Additionally, to provide appropriate mode of medicare, to impact the behaviors and expenditure of patients, and to provide low-cost but good effective drug are also essential and important factors.