Evaluating the influence of ultra-processed food intake on associations between dietary indices with systemic inflammation in adulthood and old ages.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Low-grade systemic inflammation (LGSI) is critical to developing many chronic diseases. In turn, it has been shown that the diet can modulate favorably or unfavorably the inflammatory status. Thus, evaluating the diet from appropriate approaches is fundamental; to do so, there are different proposals for dietary indexes. We aimed to: (i) investigate the association between three well-known dietary indexes and LGSI biomarkers; (ii) test these associations individually or in combination with an indicator of ultra-processed foods (UFPs) intake. (iii) as an additional aim, hypothesizing that all the indexes should be capable of identifying the inflammatory potential of diet, we tested the hypothesis that these indexes agree and correlate with each other. METHODS: Cross-sectional population-based data of adults and older persons (n = 583). Dietary data were obtained through two non-consecutive 24-h dietary recalls (24HDR) and calculated for Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), Mediterranean-Style Dietary Pattern Score (MSDPS); Brazilian Healthy Eating Index - Revised (BHEI-R) and energy ingested from UPFs (UPFs ratio). An LGSI score was created from some plasma inflammatory biomarkers [C-Reactive Protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and adiponectin]. Logistic and linear regression models tested the associations between dietary indexes and LGSI score. RESULTS: The MSDPS and DII were significantly associated with our inflammatory score, but the BHEI-R did not. Including UPFs in regression models did not increase the strength of these associations. CONCLUSIONS: From the three scores, the dietary inflammatory index and the Mediterranean-style dietary pattern score (MSDPS) were the ones that showed significant association with the inflammatory biomarker. The combination of the indexes with a ratio of UPF intake did not increase the significance of our analyses. The best agreement between the indexes was found between MSDPS and UPFs ratio; the only pair of indexes considered concordant and correlated was the BHEI-R and DII.

Covid-19 Social Distancing, Lifestyle and Health Outcomes Among Persons Living with HIV (PLWH): A Web-based Survey.

We investigated changes in lifestyle, depressive symptoms, self-perception of health, and body weight changes of persons living with HIV (PLWH) during the COVID-19 social distancing (SD). In a Web-based cross-sectional survey, participants (n = 406) were questioned about lifestyle and health status before and during SD. Most responders were men, 50 + years old, high education level; 49.8% had their income reduced during SD. About 9% were diagnosed with COVID-19, of whom 13.5% required hospitalization. During SD: - most participants did not change their food intake, although 25% replaced healthy foods with unhealthy ones; -more than half mentioned poor sleep quality; -about 50% increased their sedentary behavior. Depressive symptoms (reported by 70.9%) were associated with sedentary behavior, poor sleep quality, and reduced income. About one-third had a negative perception of their health status, which was inversely associated with practicing physical exercises and positively associated with sedentarism and poor sleep quality. More than half increased their body weight, which was associated with a lower intake of vegetables. The older age reduced the odds of the three outcomes. Carefully monitoring PLWH regarding SD will enable early interventions toward health.

RESUMEN: En este trabajo investigamos los cambios en el estilo de vida, síntomas depresivos, autopercepción de salud y cambios en el peso corporal de las personas que viven con el VIH (PVCV) durante el distanciamiento social (DS) de COVID-19. En una encuesta transversal en línea, se preguntó a los participantes (n = 406) sobre el estilo de vida y el estado de salud antes y durante el DS. La mayoría de los encuestados eran hombres, mayores de 50 años, con alto nivel educativo. El 49,8% tuvo una disminución en sus ingresos durante el DS. El 9,1% fue diagnosticados con COVID-19, de los cuales 13,5% requirió hospitalización. Durante el DS: - la mayoría de los participantes no cambió su ingesta de alimentos, aunque el 25% reemplazó los alimentos saludables por los no saludables; más de la mitad mencionó mala calidad del sueño; cerca del 50% aumentó su comportamiento sedentario. Los síntomas depresivos (referidos por el 70,9%), fueron incrementados por el sedentarismo, la mala calidad del sueño y reducción de la renta. Cerca de un tercio tenía una percepción negativa de su estado de salud, que se redujo con la práctica de ejercicio físico y aumentó con el sedentarismo y la mala calidad del sueño. Más de la mitad aumentó su peso corporal, lo que se asoció con una menor ingesta de vegetales. Una edad más avanzada redujo las probabilidades de los tres desenlaces. El monitoreo cuidadoso de las PVCV con respecto al DS permitirá intervenciones tempranas para la salud.

Synthesis of Hydrogel Nanocomposites Based on Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide, Polyethyleneimine, and Modified Clay.

Polymeric gels have been an important category for material scientists due its versatile structural features. Hence, hydrogels are being used to reduce excess production water in oil reservoirs. In this work, cross-linked partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) composite hydrogels impregnated with bentonite clay (Bent) and bentonite clay modified (Orgbentent) with the surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide were synthesized and characterized as a sealing agent in high water producing permeable zones in the petroleum industry. The concept of utilizing hydrophobically modified clay as an inorganic additive in the hydrogel matrix emanates from the fact that this additive exhibit greater interaction with the polymer chains. These interactions can promote the inherent properties of the hydrogel. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was chosen as the cross-linking agent. HPAM/PEI conventional hydrogels and HPAM/PEI/Bent and HPAM/PEI/Orgbent at 100 mg·L-1 clay were synthesized. The developed hydrogels were characterized by a hybrid rheometer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) instruments. Rheological results reveal that the (HPAM/PEI/Bent-3 and HPAM/PEI/Orgbent-3) composite hydrogels showed higher elastic modulus (G') and durability in the studied conditions (stable at 30 days) than conventional ones (HPAM/PEI), indicating the dispersion and reinforcing effect of clay. The functional groups of these hydrogels were confirmed by FTIR, and TGA demonstrated the structural reinforcement due to the presence of the clays, which had lower weight loss than the conventional hydrogel. The hydrogel morphologies were analyzed by SEM, and the results corroborated with those obtained by TGA, indicating better structural reinforcement when using organophilic clay.