Dietary inflammatory index and elevated serum C-reactive protein: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Diet can affect the inflammatory state of the body. Accordingly, the dietary inflammatory index (DII) has been developed to quantify the inflammatory properties of food items. This study sought to investigate the association between dietary inflammation index (DII) and the odds ratio of elevated CRP (E-CRP) through a systematic review and meta-analysis study. The International electronic databases of PubMed, Web of Science (ISI), and Scopus were searched until May 2023 to find related articles. From 719 studies found in the initial search, 14 studies, with a total sample size of 59,941 individuals, were included in the meta-analysis. The calculated pooled odds ratio (OR) of E-CRP in the highest DII category was 1.39 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.14, test for heterogeneity: p =.63, and I2 =.0%) in comparison with the lowest DII category. Also, the results of this study showed that each unit increase in DII as a continuous variable generally elicited a 10% increase in the odds of E-CRP (OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.06, 1.14, test for heterogeneity: p =.63, and I2 =.0%). Subgroup meta-analyses showed that there is a higher E-CRP odds ratio for the articles that reported energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) instead of DII, the studies that measured CRP instead of hs-CRP, and the studies that used 24-h recall instead of FFQ as the instrument of dietary intake data collection. Individuals with a higher DII were estimated to have higher chances of developing elevated serum CRP. This value was influenced by factors such as the participants' nationality, instruments of data collection, methods used to measure inflammatory biomarkers, study design, and data adjustments. However, future well-designed studies can help provide a more comprehensive understanding of the inflammatory properties of diet and inflammatory serum biomarkers

Assembly and Cleaning of CSPs for High, Low, and UltraLow Volume Applications

ABSTRACT A JPL-led CSP Consortium of enterprises, composed of representing government agencies and private companies, recently joined together to pool in-kind resources for developing the quality and reliability of chip scale packages (CSPs) for a variety of projects. Since last year, more than 150 test vehicles, single-and double-sided multilayer PWBs, have been assembled and are presently being subjected to various environmental tests. Recent reliability data, specifically the impact of assembly underfill on reliability, is being presented in another paper in this conference. This paper presents lessons learned on assemblies at three facilities with high, low, and ultralow volume production

Synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanostructures using palm olein as biotemplate

Background: A green approach to synthesize nanomaterials using biotemplates has been subjected to intense research due to several advantages. Palm olein as a biotemplate offers the benefits of eco-friendliness, low-cost and scale-up for large scale production. Therefore, the effect of palm olein on morphology and surface properties of ZnO nanostructures were investigated. Results: The results indicate that palm olein as a biotemplate can be used to modify the shape and size of ZnO particles synthesized by hydrothermal method. Different morphology including flake-, flower- and three dimensional star-like structures were obtained. FTIR study indicated the reaction between carboxyl group of palm olein and zinc species had taken place. Specific surface area enhanced while no considerable change were observed in optical properties. Conclusion: Phase-pure ZnO particles were successfully synthesized using palm olein as soft biotemplating agent by hydrothermal method. The physico-chemical properties of the resulting ZnO particles can be tuned using the ratio of palm olein to Zn cation

Transient mass transfer modeling and simulation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers combustion in incinerators

In this paper, modeling and simulation of combustion process for polybrominated diphenyl ethers in rotary kilns has been investigated. Proper formula is found for the solid wastes which contain polybrominated diphenyl ethers and then combustion process is simulated by considering possible reactions, appropriate dimensions and operating conditions for rotary kiln and necessary relations for reaction rates. The software of MATLAB is used for the simulation. The mass variations for solid waste, outlet gas and its components are calculated during 20 h. The results show that the reaction rate is high for the first 2 h, thus the value of solid waste and oxygen decrease quickly while value of produced gases increases. The mass increase of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans during the whole time of the process is linear with mild slope but for the other compounds, including steam, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen bromine, the slope of variations becomes mild after 3 h. The process becomes steady state almost after 9 h

Survival Rate and its Related Factors in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

ABSTRACT: Introduction & Objective: It has been noted that the myocardial infarction is an increasing episode in Islamic Republic of Iran and there are many procedures and methods which can help to reduce the number of death from this ongoing event. The aim of this study was to determine the survival rate in those patients who have had acute myocardial infarction and its association with different variables. Materials & Methods: This descriptive analytic study evaluates 111 cases of acute myocardial infarction admitted in Yasuj Imam Sajjad hospital during the year 2004 and 2005. Data were collected using a questionnaire which was completed through direct interviewing by trained personnel. The data were analyzed by standard statistical tests using SPSS software. Results: The mean age of patients was 57± 12 years. The mean time of having access to physician after MI was 4 ± 2.2 hours. The mean time of reaching hospital after physician order was 5 ± 4.9 hours. The mean time of hospitalization was 4 ± 1.67 days. Considering the past history of these patients revealed that 31 percent were smokers, 16 percent had the history of previous ischemic heart disease, 63 percent had hypertension, 8 percent had diabetes mellitus, 95 percent had clip I, 95 percent had no previous block, 82 percent had MI with Q wave. The survival rate in our study was found to be 0.91 in the first 10 hours, 0.847 in the first day, 0.829 in the first 28 days, 0.820 in the first third months, 0.792 in the first six months and 0.771 in the first 10 months of disease. Conclusion: The mortality rate during the first month among the patients with heart failure turned out to be higher than that of the other similar studies performed in other parts of the country however, the annual survival rate proved to be less. The most important causes of survival after the stroke are being single, smoking, fatness and angina pai

STEMI in a Young Female? Consider Spontaneous Peripartum Coronary Artery Dissection

Spontaneous peripartum coronary artery dissection is a rare but potentially devastating event in premenopausal young women that is not discussed in core emergency medicine textbooks. It often presents as a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. It is a critical diagnosis which requires immediate interventions including medical therapy, percutaneous intervention, and even coronary artery bypass grafting. However, thrombolytics should be avoided. These 2 cases highlight some of the presenting features, electrocardiogram, and treatments of this rare but clinically important disease

Mechanical stretch influence on lifetime of dielectric elastomer films

Film pre-stretching is a widely adopted solution to improve dielectric strength of the DEA systems. However, to date, long term reliability of this solution has not been investigated. In this work it is explored how the dielectric elastomer lifetime is affected by film pre-stretching. The dielectric loss of soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films is studied for different stretch ratios by measuring tanδ. Additionally, time-to-breakdown was measured at DC electric stress for different stretch ratios. For this purpose, accelerated life test (ALT) were performed. The results obtained are compared with non-pre-stretched samples. This study suggests that no additional dielectric losses are caused by film stretching up to 80% of original dimensions.DC systems, Energy conversion & Storag

Electrode interface polarization formation in dielectric elastomer actuators

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are a class of electrostatic actuators that have promising applications in fields like sensors, soft-robotics, microfluidics, and energy harvesting. The crucial points in the working principle of DEA are the application of high electric field and the use of compliant electrodes. These electrodes are typically composed of a mixture of a soft polymer base filled with highly conductive particles. In this work, we show that the charged impurities, possibly present in the electrodes composite, in combination with a high electric field can cause the formation of polarization interface layers between the electrodes and the inner dielectric. These layers can, in the long term, diminish the actuation performance of the DEA.</p

Removal of hydrogen sulfide by zinc oxide nanoparticles in drilling fluid

Hydrogen sulfide is a very dangerous, toxic and corrosive gas. It can diffuse into drilling fluid from formations during drilling of gas and oil wells. Hydrogen sulfide should be removed from this fluid to reduce the environmental pollution, protect the health of drilling workers and prevent corrosion of pipelines and equipments. In this research nano zinc oxide with 14-25 nm particle size and 44-56 m2/g specific surface area was synthesized by spray pyrolysis method. The synthesized nanoparticles were used to remove hydrogen sulfide from water based drilling fluid. The efficiency of these nanoparticles in the removal of hydrogen sulfide from drilling mud were evaluated and compared with that of bulk zinc oxide. The obtained results show that synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles are completely able to remove hydrogen sulfide from water based drilling mud in just 15 min., whereas bulk zinc oxide is able to remove 2.5% of hydrogen sulfide in as long as 90 min. under the same operating conditions