Causal relationship between nutritional assessment phenotypes and heart failure: A Mendelian randomization study.

Introduction: Malnutrition is strongly associated with heart failure (HF); however, the causal link remains unclear. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to infer causal associations between different nutritional assessment phenotypes and HF and to analyze whether these associations were mediated by common HF risk factors. Methods: Two-sample bidirectional MR was used to infer causal associations between nutritional assessment phenotypes and HF. Mutual influences between different nutritional assessment phenotypes and potential correlations were estimated using multivariate MR methods. Two-step MR was used to quantify the mediating effects of common HF risk factors on the causal associations. Results: Three phenotypes were positively associated with the development of HF: waist circumference (WC) (odds ratio [OR] = 1.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.60-1.90; P = 3.95 × 10-39), body mass index (BMI) (OR = 1.70; 95%CI, 1.60-1.80; P = 1.35 × 10-73), and whole body fat mass (WBFM) (OR = 1.54; 95%CI, 1.44-1.65; P = 4.82 × 10-37). Multivariate MR indicated that WBFM remained positively associated with HF after conditioning on BMI and WC (OR = 2.05; 95%CI, 1.27-3.31; P = 0.003). Three phenotypes were negatively correlated with the development of HF: usual walking pace (UWP) (OR = 0.40; 95%CI, 0.27-0.60; P = 8.41 × 10-6), educational attainment (EA) (OR = 0.73; 95%CI, 0.67-0.79; P = 2.27 × 10-13), and total cholesterol (TC) (OR = 0.90; 95%CI, 0.84-0.96; P = 4.22 × 10-3). There was a bidirectional causality between HF and UWP (Effect estimate = -0.03; 95%CI, -0.05 to -0.01; P = 1.95 × 10-3). Mediation analysis showed that common risk factors for HF (hypertension, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, and valvular heart disease) mediated these causal associations (all P < 0.05). Conclusions: BMI, WC, and WBFM are potential risk factors for HF, and the correlation between WBFM and HF was significantly stronger than that between BMI and WC, and HF. EA, UWP, and TC are potential protective factors against HF. Common risk factors for HF mediate these causal pathways. Early identification of potential risk or protective factors for HF patients from the dimension of nutritional status is expected to further improve patient outcomes.

Risk assessment for the long-term stability of fly ash-based cementitious material containing arsenic: Dynamic and semidynamic leaching.

Fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWIFA) contains leachable heavy metals (HMs), and the environmental risk of contained HMs is an important concern for its safe treatment and disposal. This paper presents a dynamic leaching test of fly ash-based cementitious materials containing arsenic (FCAC) in three particle sizes based on an innovative simulation of two acid rainfall conditions to investigate the long-term stability of FCAC under acid rain conditions. As well as semi-dynamic leaching test by simulating FCAC in three scenarios. Furthermore, the long-term stability risk of FCAC is evaluated using a sequential extraction procedure (SEP) and the potential risk assessment index. Results showed that the Al3+ in the FCAC dissolved and reacted with the OH- in solution to form Al(OH)3 colloids as the leaching time increased. Moreover, the oxidation of sulfide minerals in the slag produced oxidants, such as H2SO4 and Fe2(SO4)3, which further aggravated the oxidative dissolution of sulfides, thereby resulting in an overall decreasing pH value of the leachate. In addition, due to the varying particle sizes of the FCAC, surface area size, and adsorption site changes, the arsenic leaching process showed three stages of leaching characteristics, namely, initial, rapid, and slow release, with a maximum leaching concentration of 2.42 mg/L, the cumulative release of 133.78 mg/kg, and the cumulative release rate of 2.32%. The SEP test revealed that the reduced state of HMs in the raw slag was lowered substantially, and the acid extractable state and residual state of HMs were increased, which was conducive to lessening the risk of FCAC. Overall, the geological polymerization reaction of MSWIFA is a viable and promising solution to stabilize mining and industrial wastes and repurpose the wastes into construction materials.

Developing an ecofriendly UCST-type enzymatic cascade system for efficient and cost-effective starch solid wastes treatment.

Enzymatic utilization of starch solid wastes is promising but hindered by its high cost. Enzymes immobilization is one solution; however, the key challenge remains the low mass transfer rate between the solid immobilization system and the solid wastes. Herein, an enzymatic modification strategy was applied instead of the traditional immobilization method. A novel system composed of poly(methacrylic acid), polyacrylic acid, and gelatin was firstly prepared and then used to modify α-amylase and glucoamylase to endow them with upper critical solution temperature (UCST) characteristic. As a result, we found that the wastes can be hydrolyzed efficiently with the modified co-enzymes above UCST and can be easily recovered and separated below UCST, thus the cost of starch wastes treatment can be largely reduced. Besides, the proposed method exhibited excellent environmental-friendly and bio-safety properties. Therefore, this method laid a solid foundation for efficient and cost-effective enzymatic conversion of starch solid wastes.

Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management of Cerebral Toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasma gondii is known to infect a considerable number of mammalian and avian species and a substantial proportion of the world's human population. The parasite has an impressive ability to disseminate within the host's body and employs various tactics to overcome the highly regulatory blood-brain barrier and reside in the brain. In healthy individuals, T. gondii infection is largely tolerated without any obvious ill effects. However, primary infection in immunosuppressed patients can result in acute cerebral or systemic disease, and reactivation of latent tissue cysts can lead to a deadly outcome. It is imperative that treatment of life-threatening toxoplasmic encephalitis is timely and effective. Several therapeutic and prophylactic regimens have been used in clinical practice. Current approaches can control infection caused by the invasive and highly proliferative tachyzoites but cannot eliminate the dormant tissue cysts. Adverse events and other limitations are associated with the standard pyrimethamine-based therapy, and effective vaccines are unavailable. In this review, the epidemiology, economic impact, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of cerebral toxoplasmosis are discussed, and critical areas for future research are highlighted.

Prevalence, risk factors and genotype distribution of Toxoplasma gondii DNA in soil in China.

In the present study, we performed a cross-sectional survey to determine the occurrence and genotype distribution of T. gondii DNA in soil samples collected from different sources from six geographic regions in China. Between March 2015 and June 2017, 2100 soil samples were collected from schools, parks, farms and coastal beaches, and examined for T. gondii DNA using three PCR assays targeting 529-bp repeat element (RE) sequence, B1 gene and ITS-1 gene sequences. Also, we investigated whether geographic region, soil source and type, and sampling season can influence the prevalence of T. gondii DNA in the soil. Soil samples collected from farms and parks had the highest prevalence, whereas samples collected from school playgrounds and coastal beaches had the lowest prevalence. PCR assays targeting 529-bp RE and ITS-1 gene sequences were more sensitive than the B1 gene-based assay. Positive PCR products were genotyped using multi-locus PCR-RFLP, and ToxoDB #9 was the predominant genotype found in the contaminated soil samples. Multiple logistic regression identified factors correlated significantly with the presence of T. gondii DNA in the soil to be the source of the soil, including farms (odds ratio 3.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52 to 6.29; p = 0.002) and parks (2.59; 95% CI 1.28 to 5.27; p = 0.009). These results show that Chinese soil hosts T. gondii of the most prevalent genotype in China (ToxoDB#9) and that the soil type influences infection patterns.

Veterinary parasitology teaching in China in the 21st century - Challenges, opportunities and perspectives.

China has made significant achievements in social-economic development in the last three decades, and the numbers of livestock and companion animals are rapidly increasing. Some advances have been made in the control and prevention of animal parasitic diseases, but there are still some significant challenges, particularly in relation to foodborne parasitic zoonoses and vector-borne diseases. In addition, new molecular (e.g., genomic and transcriptomic) technologies have been developed and are gradually being introduced into the veterinary parasitology field. Therefore, teaching of veterinary parasitology in Chinese universities has undergone significant changes over the years, in terms of topics, depth and breadth, and also in the ways in which courses are delivered. In this article, we describe the current status of veterinary parasitology teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Chinese universities, summarise changes and improvement in veterinary parasitology teaching, and discuss the challenges and opportunities for veterinary parasitology teaching in the 21st century, including the use of new teaching technologies and the integration of the "One Health" concept into veterinary parasitology courses.

Prevalence and burden of Toxoplasma gondii infection in HIV-infected people: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, 30% of the world's population have antibodies to the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii and about 36·7 million people are infected with HIV, but little is known about the prevalence of co-infection with T gondii and HIV. We aimed to characterise the epidemiology and burden of T gondii co-infection in people with HIV infection. METHODS: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Chinese Web of Knowledge, Wanfang, and Chongqing VIP databases for studies reporting T gondii infection in HIV-infected people from inception to Feb 29, 2016. Studies were included if they investigated people with HIV infection and presented data that allowed us to establish the prevalence of T gondii infection. We excluded reviews, repeated studies, or animal studies, as well as studies that provided the final results without raw data, had a sample size less than 30 people, had unclear diagnostic methods of T gondii infection, or that included populations with increased risk of T gondii infection. We extracted the numbers of patients with HIV infection and T gondii co-infection from the identified studies. We estimated pooled prevalence of T gondii infection in HIV-infected people by a random-effects model, and evaluated its overall infection burden worldwide. FINDINGS: Our search identified 7843 records and after removal of duplicates and initial screening, we reviewed 312 studies in full. Of these articles, 238 were excluded, leaving 74 studies that included 25 989 HIV-infected people from 34 countries. Of these people, 7326 had T gondii co-infection and we estimated the pooled worldwide prevalence of T gondii infection to be 35·8% (95% CI 30·8-40·7). 2353 of 8837 of people in Asia and the Pacific had co-infection with T gondii and HIV (prevalence 25·1%, 95% CI 19·0-31·2), and prevalence was low in this region compared with that in sub-Saharan Africa (44·9%, 32·3-57·5, 2129/5686; odds ratio [OR] 0·61), Latin America and the Caribbean (49·1%, 27·9-70·4, 510/980; OR 0·33), and North Africa and the Middle East (60·7%, 24·1-97·3, 245/439; OR 0·29). 1561 of 3780 people in low-income countries had co-infection (54·7%, 95% CI 35·8-73·5), which was higher than in middle-income countries (34·2%, 27·4-40·9, 3632/11 540; OR 1·53) and high-income countries (26·3%, 20·4-32·2, 2133/10 669; OR 2·82). Worldwide, we calculated that there were roughly 13 138 600 (95% CI 11 303 600-14 936 900) cases of T gondii co-infection in HIV-infected people, with 87·1% in sub-Saharan Africa (11 449 500 cases, 95% CI 8 236 500-14 662 500). INTERPRETATION: Our findings suggest that people with HIV infection have a very high burden of T gondii infection, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and emphasise the importance of routine surveillance for T gondii infection in all HIV-infected people. FUNDING: National Natural Science Foundation and the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest in China.

Net-Immobilization of ß-glucosidase on Nonwoven Fabrics to Lower the Cost of "Cellulosic Ethanol" and Increase Cellulose Conversions.

The main limitation preventing the use of enzymatic cellulosic ethanol in industrial production is its higher cost which is mainly due to the elevated price of ß-glucosidase (BG). Herein, we report on a simple strategy for the in-situ encapsulation of BG for repeated cellulosic ethanol production. In this strategy, BG was net-immobilized into a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) net-cloth layer on a PP nonwoven fabric by way of the visible light-induced surface controlled/living graft cross-linking polymerization. The visible light and mild reaction conditions could ensure the activity retention of BG during immobilization, while the non-swelling uniform net-mesh formed by living cross-linking polymerization could prevent the leakage of BG effectively (at the immobilization rate of more than 98.6% and the leakage rate of only 0.4%). When the BG-loaded fabric was used in combination with free cellulase (CEL), the results of the catalytic reaction demonstrated that these BG-loaded fabrics could not only give a 40% increase in cellulose conversions but also be reused for more than fifteen batches without losing the activity. These BG-loaded fabrics with characteristics including easy separation, excellent operation stability, a low cost of the polymeric matrix and a simple fabrication process are particularly interesting for a future bio-fuel production strategy.

Magnetic resonance imaging assessment of temporomandibular joint soft tissue injuries of intracapsular condylar fracture.

We evaluated the soft tissue of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after intracapsular condylar fracture. Eighteen consecutive patients (19 TMJ) were diagnosed between 1 January 2010 and 30 October 2011. They were examined using bilateral sagittal and coronal MRI, which were obtained immediately after injury to assess the displacement of the disc, whether there was a tear in capsule or the retrodiscal tissue, and whether there was an effusion in the joint. On the affected side MRI showed disc displacement in 15 of 19, tears in the capsule in 9, and tears in the retrodiscal tissue in 16. All 19 had joint effusions. It also showed 2 joints with abnormalities on the unaffected side. We conclude that MRI is useful for diagnosis and for estimating the amount of damage to the TMJ, and is helpful in planning treatment.