Dietary and serum vitamin D and preeclampsia risk in Chinese pregnant women: a matched case-control study.

The effect of vitamin D (VD) on the risk of preeclampsia (PE) is uncertain. Few of previous studies focused on the relationship between dietary VD intake and PE risk. Therefore, we conducted this 1:1 matched case-control study to explore the association of dietary VD intake and serum VD concentrations with PE risk in Chinese pregnant women. A total of 440 pairs of participants were recruited during March 2016 to June 2019. Dietary information was obtained using a seventy-eight-item semi-quantitative FFQ. Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D2 and 25(OH)D3 were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem MS. Multivariate conditional logistic regression was used to estimate OR and 95 % CI. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) were plotted to evaluate the dose-response relationship of dietary VD intake and serum VD concentrations with PE risk. Compared with the lowest quartile, the OR of the highest quartile were 0·45 (95 % CI 0·29, 0·71, Ptrend = 0·001) for VD dietary intake and 0·26 (95 % CI 0·11, 0·60, Ptrend = 0·003) for serum levels after adjusting for confounders. In addition, the RCS analysis suggested a reverse J-shaped relationship between dietary VD intake and PE risk (P-nonlinearity = 0·02). A similar association was also found between serum concentrations of total 25(OH)D and PE risk (P-nonlinearity = 0·02). In conclusion, this study provides evidence that higher dietary intake and serum levels of VD are associated with the lower risk of PE in Chinese pregnant women.

Halomonas litopenaei sp. nov., a moderately halophilic, exopolysaccharide-producing bacterium isolated from a shrimp hatchery.

Two Gram-stain negative, moderately halophilic, exopolysaccharide-producing bacteria, designated strains SYSU ZJ2214T and SYSU XM8, were isolated from rearing water and larvae from shrimp hatcheries, respectively. Cells of the strains were aerobic, motile and short-rod-shaped. They grew at NaCl concentrations of 0.5-22 % (w/v), at 4-45 °C and at pH 6-9. Pairwise comparison of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strains SYSU ZJ2214T and SYSU XM8 were most closely related to Halomonas denitrificans M29T (98.3 and 98.2 % similarity, respectively). Strains SYSU ZJ2214T and SYSU XM8 shared an average nucleotide identity of 99.9 % between them. The DNA G+C contents were calculated at 64.1 % for both strains from the draft genome information. The major cellular fatty acids (>5 %) were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), C16 : 0 and C12 : 0 3-OH, and the predominant respiratory quinone was ubiquinone Q-9. Their main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, four unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified lipids. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic data, strains SYSU ZJ2214T and SYSU XM8 merit recognition as representatives of a novel species of the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas litopenaei sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SYSU ZJ2214T (=NBRC 111829T=KCTC 42974T).

[Preliminary study on chemical constituents seperated from Cayratia japonica].

OBJECTIVE: To study effective active constituents of Cayratia japonica,a genuine herbal medicine from Fujian. METHOD: Such chromatographic methods as Macroporous, Sephadex LH-20, ODS and normal phase silica gel column chromatography were adopted to separate the chemical components of C. japonica. RESULT: Thirteen compounds were obtained, and their structures were identified by analyzing multiple spectral data as luteolin(1), apigenin(2), triethyl citrate-(3), 3-formylindole(4), esculetin(5), bis(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate(6), calendin(7), ethyl-trans-3,4-dihydr-oxycinnamate(8), luteolin7-O-D-glucoside(9),5-hydroxy-3,4-dimethyl-5-pentyl-2(5H-furanone(10),ethyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzoate(11), eriodictyol(12) and daucosterol(13). CONCLUSION: Among them, compounds 3-8 and 10-12 were separated from the plant for the first time.

Effect of Qufengtongluo Decoction on PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway in the Kidney of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Rat (GK Rat) with Diabetic Nephropathy.

Qufengtongluo (QFTL) decoction is an effective treatment for diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear. In this study, we try to investigate whether QFTL decoction acts via inhibiting PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Twenty-four GK rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: blank group, sham-operated group, and QFTL group. After model establishment, rats in QFTL group were given QFTL decoction by gavage, while the rest were given pure water. During the 8-week intervention, 24 hr urinal protein was measured every 2-3 weeks. After intervention, kidneys were removed for pathological smear, quantitative real-time PCR, and western blotting to detect expression levels of p-PI3K, p-Akt, PTEN, TGF-ß, PI3K mRNA, Akt mRNA, PTEN mRNA, and TGF-ß mRNA. QFTL group showed a slighter degree of renal fibrosis in Masson and PASM staining and a greater reduction of 24 hr urinal protein than blank group. Compared to blank group, expression levels of p-PI3K, p-Akt, PI3K mRNA, and Akt mRNA were lower in QFTL group, while expression levels of PTEN and PTEN mRNA were higher. Besides, TGF-ß was downregulated by QFTL decoction. In conclusion, this study suggests that QFTL decoction might inhibit PI3K/Akt signaling pathway via activating PTEN and inhibiting TGF-ß.

[Inventory and Characteristics of Anthropogenic Ammonia Emission in Xi'an].

Based on the activity data of diverse ammonia sources, the rational estimation method and emission factors were employed, and an anthropogenic ammonia emission inventory was further established to describe the situation of Xi'an in 2013.The results showed that the total anthropogenic ammonia emission reached 47.17×103 t in 2013 with an emission intensity of 4.57 t·km-2; The livestock breeding and nitrogen fertilizers were the major sources of anthropogenic ammonia emission, which were 20.55×103 t and 17.51×103 t, respectively, accounting for 80.68% in total; Cow and hog were the major sources, and occupied 75.03% in livestock breeding emission; Lintong District was the heaviest emission area, the total emission was 10.73×103 t, which accounted for 23.22%; The emission intensity of Yanliang District reached 14.75 t·km-2 which was considered as the most severe area.

[Soil Heavy Metal Spatial Distribution and Source Analysis Around an Aluminum Plant in Baotou].

The soil with 500 m distance from an aluminum plant in Baotou was studied. A total of 64 soil samples were taken from the 0-5 cm, 5-20 cm, 20-40 cm and 40-60 cm layers, and the contents of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Ni and Mn were tested, respectively. The correlation analysis and principal component analysis were used to identify the sources of these heavy metals in soils. The results suggested that the contents of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Ni and Mn in study area were 32.9, 50.35, 69.92, 43.78, 0.54, 554.42 and 36.65 mg · kg⁻¹ respectively. All seven heavy metals tested were overweight compared with the background values of soil in Inner Mongolia. The spatial distribution of heavy metals showed that the horizontal distribution of heavy metals was obviously enriched in the southwest, while in vertical distribution, the heavy metal content (0 to 5 cm) was highest in the surface soil, and the heavy metal content decreased with increasing depth and tended to be stabilized when the depth was over 20 cm. Source analysis showed that the source of Cu, Zn, Cr and Mn might be influenced by the aluminum plant and the surrounding industrial activity. The source of Pb and Cd might be mainly related to road transportation. The source of Ni may be affected by agricultural activities and soil parent material together.

[Combination process of microwave desorption-catalytic combustion for toluene treatment].

Using activated carbon as adsorbent, toluene waste gas was treated by adsorption process. After the adsorption process was completed, the adsorbent was desorbed by microwave irradiation; then Cu-Mn oxide composite catalysts were prepared by impregnation and the desorbed toluene gas was treated by catalytic combustion so as to completely purify the pollutant. The concentration of toluene was measured by gas chromatography (GC). The results indicated that it is feasible to add air to provide oxygen to the desorbed gas after the completion of the desorption process, in order to achieve the catalytic combustion; the ratio of desorbed gas and air was 1 : 1 (volume ratio), and the corresponding catalytic space velocity was 2.67 s(-1). Desorption temperature could affect the concentration of toluene in the desorption gas thereby affecting the catalytic combustion efficiency; the results indicated that 400 degrees C was an appropriate temperature for desorbing the activated carbon. When the catalytic combustion was kept at 300 degrees C, the final toluene treatment efficiency was higher than 90%, which was higher than 95% during the most time of the treatment process.

[Comparison of toluene adsorption with two kinds of modified activated carbon].

Granular activated carbon (GAC) was modified by microwave irradiation and electrical heating. The characters and toluene adsorption capacity of modified GAC were studied. The results showed that for microwave heating, with the temperature increasing, the activated carbon's ability of toluene adsorption and content of the surface basic functional group were increased, specific surface area was decreased. After heated at 850 degrees C, GAC had the highest ability for toluene adsorption, at 650 degrees C and 450 degrees C, the ability for toluene adsorption of GAC were similar. For the electrical heating, the same results were obtained. But the GAC modified with electrical heating had lower capacity of toluene adsorption than microwave modified GAC. The SEM photos showed that thermal modification made the porous structure of modified GAC smoother than original GAC, but the structure of GAC shrink at high temperature. Finally, all the experimental data and SEM photos were analyzed; it indicated that due to the difference of heating mechanism and heat transmission direction, the modified GAC have different characters.

[Influence factors of treating waste gas containing benzene and toluene with fungi-biofilter].

Used a two-stage bench-scale temperature adjustable biofilter, biological treatment of medium and high concentration waste benzene and toluene vapor was investigated. The inlet vapor concentration (c(i)) was 0.9 - 5.0 g/m3. The results show that the biofilter can obtained good performance at 30 - 40 degrees C, and at 32.8 degrees C for benzene and toluene, the maximum elimination capacity (EC) of 136 g/(m3 x h) and 150 g/(m3 x h) is obtained at an inlet loading of 673.5 g/(m3 x h) and 665.0 g/(m3 x h), respectively. High media moisture is adverse to the biofilter performance. The optimum moisture for the biofilter is about 45% and the biofilter can obtain good performance at the moisture ranging from 40% to 50%. With the biofilter operation, pressure drop is increasing from 18 Pa to 39 Pa and leachate is changing from colorless to yellow, and these phenomena show that bioaccumulation is existent.