Serum sex hormone binding globulin profile and its association with insulin resistance in Chinese peri-menopausal women

Wstęp: Celem badania było oznaczenie profilu stężeń globuliny wiążącej hormony płciowe (SHBG) w surowicy u Chinek będących w okresie okołomenopauzalnym oraz ocena korelacji tego profilu z parametrem insulinooporności HOMA-IR w tej szczególnej populacji. Materiał i metody: Przeprowadzono badanie przekrojowe metodą doboru grupowego z udziałem 1827 kobiet przebywających w szpitalu na rutynowych badaniach kontrolnych. Oznaczono profil stężeń SHBG i parametry statusu hormonalnego, parametry otyłości i parametry metaboliczne. Uczestniczki badania podzielono ze względu na wiek i status menstruacyjny na trzy grupy: grupę w okresie przedmenopauzalnym, grupę w okresie okołomenopauzalnym i grupę w okresie pomenopauzalnym. Wyniki: Stwierdzono, że stężenie SHBG w surowicy wykazuje ujemną korelację z BMI we wszystkich grupach i wzrasta z wiekiem kobiet w wieku reprodukcyjnym. Stężenie SHBG ulegało też, niezależnie od wieku, znamiennemu wzrostowi od początku zmian menopauzalnych, a następnie, po menopauzie, ulegało nieznacznemu zmniejszeniu. Po wzięciu poprawek na wiek i BMI, stwierdzono, że HOMA-IR u kobiet w okresie okołomenopauzalnym wykazuje ścisły związek wyłącznie z SHBG. Stwierdzono, że stężenie SHBG jest jedynym niezależnym istotnym determinantem HOMA-IR. Na podstawie analizy krzywej ROC dla predykcji insulinooporności na podstawie wartości HOMA-IR stwierdzono, że AUC dla SHBG osiąga wartość 0,816 (95% przedział ufności: 0,636–0,996). W przypadku kobiet w okresie okołomenopauzalnym najlepszą wartość odcięcia odróżniającą kobiety z insulinoopornością od kobiet bez insulinooporności jest 41,73 nmol/l przy czułości wynoszącej 81,4% i swoistości wynoszącej 87,5%. Wnioski: U Chinek w okresie okołomenopauzalnym niskie stężenie SHBG może stanowić niezależny czynnik ryzyka insulinooporności. (Endokrynol Pol 2013; 64 (3): 197–202)Introduction: The aim of this study was to measure serum sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) profile in Chinese peri-menopausal women, and assess its correlation with insulin resistance (IR)-related parameter, namely HOMA-IR, in this special population. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study by the method of cluster sampling was performed in 1,827 women, who were in hospital for routine check-up. Serum SHBG profile and anthropometric indices of hormonal, adiposity, and metabolic variables were measured. According to their age and menstruation status, the subjects were divided into three groups: pre-menopause group, peri-menopause group, and post-menopause group. Results: Serum SHBG level was found to be negatively correlated with BMI in all groups and to increase in parallel with age in women of reproductive age. However, independently of age, it significantly increased from the onset of menopause transition, and slightly declined after menopause. After adjustment for age and BMI, HOMA-IR in peri-menopausal women was closely related only to SHBG. SHBG level was found to be the only independent significant determinant of HOMA-IR. On the basis of ROC curve analysis for the prediction of insulin resistance using HOMA-IR value, AUC for SHBG reached a value of 0.816 (0.636–0.996, 95% confidence interval). The best cutoff value that discriminates peri-menopausal women with or without insulin resistance is 41.73 nmol/L, with a sensitivity of 81.4% and a specificity of 87.5%. Conclusions: Low SHBG level may be an independent risk factor of insulin resistance in Chinese peri-menopausal women. (Endokrynol Pol 2013; 64 (3): 197–202

Current development and future challenges in microplastic detection techniques: a bibliometrics-based analysis and review.

Microplastics have been considered a new type of pollutant in the marine environment and have attracted widespread attention worldwide in recent years. Plastic particles with particle size less than 5 mm are usually defined as microplastics. Because of their similar size to plankton, marine organisms easily ingest microplastics and can threaten higher organisms and even human health through the food chain. Most of the current studies have focused on the investigation of the abundance of microplastics in the environment. However, due to the limitations of analytical methods and instruments, the number of microplastics in the environment can easily lead to overestimation or underestimation. Microplastics in each environment have different detection techniques. To investigate the current status, hot spots, and research trends of microplastics detection techniques, this review analyzed the papers related to microplastics detection using bibliometric software CiteSpace and COOC. A total of 696 articles were analyzed, spanning 2012 to 2021. The contributions and cooperation of different countries and institutions in this field have been analyzed in detail. This topic has formed two main important networks of cooperation. International cooperation has been a common pattern in this topic. The various analytical methods of this topic were discussed through keyword and clustering analysis. Among them, fluorescent, FTIR and micro-Raman spectroscopy are commonly used optical techniques for the detection of microplastics. The identification of microplastics can also be achieved by the combination of other techniques such as mass spectrometry/thermal cracking gas chromatography. However, these techniques still have limitations and cannot be applied to all environmental samples. We provide a detailed analysis of the detection of microplastics in different environmental samples and list the challenges that need to be addressed in the future

A few recent developments in fluidized bed technology applications for fuel conversion

In recent years, the process concepts based on two-stage and dual bed have been widely adopted in developing fuel conversion technologies including pyrolysis, combustion, gasification and catalytic cracking. These provide indeed advantages of, for example, easy operation and control, poly-generation of products, and high efficiency in elimination of undesirable product or pollutants. The so-called micro fluidized bed analyzer (MFBRA) has been newly developed to measure reaction rates at arbitrary temperatures, giving a great support to fundamental research and technology developments for fuel conversion. This report intends to summarize the involved new concepts, major fundamental understandings, pilot test and/or industrial demonstrations of a few newly developed fuel conversion technologies. Concretely, it will report fluidized bed two-stage gasification (FBTSG), dual fluidized bed pyrolysis combustion (DBPC), fluidized bed cracking gasification (FBCG) and MFBRA. The FBTSG technology separates fuel pyrolysis in a FB pyrolyzer and char gasification in a transport bed gasifier. The latter enables high-temperature tar cracking under catalysis of char to enable remarkably low tar content in the produced gas [1]. For fuel with high contents of water and nitrogen, the DBPC technology first removes fuel water and most fuel volatile in a pyrolyzer. This, on the one hand, ensures stable combustion of the fuel, and on the other hand facilitates NOx reduction by char and pyrolysis gas [2]. The FBCG technology separates the catalytic cracking of heavy feedstock for liquid and the gasification of char, the cokes formed on the catalyst surface, to produce syngas and also to regenerate the catalyst. By using micro fluidized bed, the MFBRA is newly developed to enable the on-line pulse feeding and rapid heating of particle reactant. It effectively suppresses the interfacial diffusion limitation and minimizes the intra-particle diffusion [3]. Thus, MFBRA provides isothermal reaction analysis in comparison with that in TGA based on programmed heating. REFERENCES 1. X. Zeng, et al. Pilot verification of a low-tar two-stage coal gasification process with a FB pyrolyzer and fixed bed gasifier. Applied Energy, 115, 9–16, 2014. 2. P. Dagaut, et al. Experiments and kinetic modeling study of NO-reburning by gases from biomass pyrolysis in a JSR. Energy & Fuels, 17(3), 608-613, 2003. 3. J. Yu, et al. Kinetics and mechanism of solid reactions in a micro fluidized bed reactor. AIChE Journal, 56, 2905-2912, 2010

The SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rate and hesitation in Shanghai older adults with dementia

BackgroundOlder adults, particularly those with dementia, are at the greatest risk for being affected by SARS-CoV-2. Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to encourage older adults to receive SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, the vaccination rate, especially among older adults with dementia, remains low.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the willingness and attitudes towards vaccination among guardians of older adults with dementia and to uncover the factors that may have influenced attitudes towards vaccination during the 2022 Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Shanghai, China.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study using self-administered anonymous questionnaires to guardians of dementia patients in three settings: psychogeriatric inpatient wards, long-term care facilities, and home settings from April to May 2022. The primary outcome was participants’ willingness to allow dementia patients to receive SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with vaccination willingness.ResultsA total of 327 valid questionnaires were collected. The vaccination rate among participants from long-term care facilities (12.9%) was lower than those in the psychiatric ward (19.3%) or community-dwelling settings (27.1%) (p < 0.05). The guardians’ primary concern was that vaccination would aggravate the health conditions of dementia patients [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 5.11; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.86–14.05]. Additionally, negative reports about the vaccination [OR = 3.94; 95% CI: 1.68–9.24], and adverse reactions [OR = 2.50; 95% CI: 1.13–5.52] were related to higher odds of vaccine hesitancy.ConclusionOur results showed that low vaccination rates in older adults with dementia were mainly due to their guardians’ concerns about vaccine safety. Our findings first uncovered the actual SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rates among older adults with dementia and may provide potential interventions to reduce unjustified worries towards vaccination

characterization of pm1 bound metallic elements in the ambient air at a high mountain site in northern china

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Apatinib combined with camrelizumab in the treatment of recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a prospective multicenter phase II study

BackgroundPreclinical studies demonstrated that immune checkpoint inhibitors combined with antiangiogenic drugs have a synergistic anti-tumor effect. This present phase II trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apatinib combined with camrelizumab in patients with recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (RM-NPC).MethodsPatients with RM-NPC were administered with apatinib at 250 mg orally once every day and with camrelizumab at 200 mg via intravenous infusion every 2 weeks until the disease progressed or toxicity became unacceptable. The objective response rate (ORR) was the primary endpoint, assessed using RECIST version 1.1. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR) and safety were the key secondary endpoints. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04350190.ResultsThis study enrolled 26 patients with RM-NPC between January 14, 2021 and September 15, 2021. At data cutoff (March 31, 2023), the median duration of follow-up was 16 months (ranging from 1 to 26 months). The ORR was 38.5% (10/26), the disease control rate (DCR) was 61.5% (16/26), and the median PFS was 6 months (IQR 3.0-20.0). The median OS was 14 months (IQR 6.0-21.25). Treatment-related grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in seven (26.9%) patients, and comprised anemia (7.7%), stomatitis (3.8%), headache (3.8%), pneumonia (7.7%), and myocarditis (3.8%). There were no serious treatment-related adverse events or treatment-related deaths.ConclusionIn patients with RM-NPC, apatinib plus camrelizumab showed promising antitumor activity and manageable toxicities

Real-Time Estimation for Cutting Tool Wear Based on Modal Analysis of Monitored Signals

There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of product safety and the quality problems during processing. The working status of cutting tools may lead to project delay and cost overrun if broken down accidentally, and tool wear is crucial to processing precision in mechanical manufacturing, therefore, this study contributes to this growing area of research by monitoring condition and estimating wear. In this research, an effective method for tool wear estimation was constructed, in which, the signal features of machining process were extracted by ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and were used to estimate the tool wear. Based on signal analysis, vibration signals that had better linear relationship with tool wearing process were decomposed, then the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), frequency spectrums of IMFs and the features relating to amplitude changes of frequency spectrum were obtained. The trend that tool wear changes with the features was fitted by Gaussian fitting function to estimate the tool wear. Experimental investigation was used to verify the effectiveness of this method and the results illustrated the correlation between tool wear and the modal features of monitored signals

Research on Reliability Assessment of Mechanical Equipment Based on the Performance–Feature Model

There is a growing body of literature which recognizes the importance of mechanical equipment reliability during processing, and reliability assessment is important in guaranteeing the precision, function, and use life span of mechanical equipment. For products with a long lifetime and high reliability, it is difficult to assess lifetime and reliability using traditional statistical inference based on a large sample of data from the lifetime test. Therefore, this study contributed to this growing area of research, through a reliability evaluation method based on degradation path distribution related to signal characteristics. In this research, an effective method for reliability assessment was constructed, in which the signal features of the machining process were used to replace traditional time data and fit equipment degradation model. The pseudo failure characteristic (PFC) was obtained according to the failure threshold and the reliability curve was plotted by a PFC distribution model. Experimental investigation on tool reliability assessment was used to verify the effectiveness of this method, in which the trend that tool wear changes with the features was fitted by a Gaussian distribution function and Logarithmic distribution function, to obtain a better tool degradation model. The results illustrated the model could evaluate reliability of mechanical equipment effectively

Catalytic deactivation mechanism research over Cu/SAPO-34 catalysts for NH3-SCR (II): The impact of copper loading

Four Cu/SAPO-34 samples by one-pot method are utilized to examine their durability after 950 degrees C hydrothermal treatment and its relation with copper loading, The SCR results show fresh Cu/SAP0-34 with 3.91% copper loading (F-Cu-3.91) performs the superior NO conversion, wide temperature window and excellent nitrogen selectivity among fresh samples, and NO conversion is mainly determined by isolated Cu2+ contents at low temperature. After 950 degrees C aging treatment, Cu/SAPO-34 catalysts with copper loading under 1.70% present good stability, while the ones with copper loading above 3.91% show activity and crystallinity decline. Ex-situ DRIFTs, XRD and NH3-TPD results reveal the 950 degrees C aging process leads to Si-OH-Al bonds breakage and phase transition of chabazite support over Cu/SAPO-34 samples with high copper loading, meanwhile, the EPR and TPR outcomes prove the copper oxides' further dispersion and coordination variation due to skeleton collapse. Finally, this work is trying to manifest the appropriate copper loading for a stable Cu/SAPO-34 catalyst and its deactivation mechanism during extreme working situation. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved