Intergenerational differences in cardiovascular risk factor levels in Switzerland

Background: There is little information regarding cardiovascular risk factor (CV RF) trends in Switzerland. We aimed at assessing generation differences in CV RFs by comparing CV RFs levels within selected age groups separated by a 20 year time lag. Design: Two population-based surveys. Methods: Data from the Monica (1984-1986) and Colaus (2004-2006) surveys were used. Analyses were stratified by sex and age groups (35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65-75 years). Results: No changes were found for BMI levels and status between surveys: in men, 26}3, 26}3, 27}4 and 27}4 kg/m2 for age groups 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65-74, respectively, in MONICA, vs. 26}4, 26}4, 27}4 and 28}4 kg/m2 in COLAUS, p=NS, in women: 24}4, 26}4, 26}4 and 26}5 kg/m2 in MONICA, vs. 24}5, 25}5, 26}5 and 26}5 kg/m2 in COLAUS, p=NS. Similar results were found after adjusting for education. Smoking prevalence increased in men: 28, 30, 22 and 15% for age groups 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65-74, respectively, in MONICA, vs. 35, 29, 28 and 21% in COLAUS. In women, changes differed according to age: 39, 26, 16 and 18%, in MONICA vs. 28, 30, 22 and 15% in COLAUS. Blood pressure decreased in the younger age groups and remained constant in the older ones: in men, systolic blood pressure was 129}15, 133}16, 138}18 and 143}21 mm Hg in MONICA, vs. 125}12, 129}15, 137}16 and 144}19 mm Hg in COLAUS, p<0.01. Similar findings were obtained after adjusting for education. Prevalence of hypertension increased, due to an increase in the prevalence of treated subjects, in men : 4, 8, 16 and 19% for age groups 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65-74, respectively, in MONICA, vs. 5, 14, 31 and 46% in COLAUS, p<0.05; in women: 2, 10, 16, and 24% in MONICA, vs. 4, 12, 24, and 34% in COLAUS, p<0.05. This increase was stronger in men: 14, 17, 23 and 31% for age groups 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65-74, respectively, in MONICA vs. 10, 21, 41 and 55% in COLAUS, p<0.01 and smaller in women: 6, 15, 24 and 44% in MONICA vs. 6, 16, 30 and 42% in COLAUS, p=NS. Similar findings were obtained after adjusting for education. Conclusion: With the exception of BMI, the newer Swiss generations appear to have a worse CV profile than the older generations. This is especially true regarding smoking and hypertension

Letter to the Editor: 1H, 15N, and 13C chemical shift assignments of the resuscitation promoting factor domain of Rv1009 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

International audienceNo abstract availabl

Determination of enhancement ratios of HCOOH relative to CO in biomass burning plumes by the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)

Formic acid (HCOOH) concentrations are often underestimated by models, and its chemistry is highly uncertain. HCOOH is, however, among the most abundant atmospheric volatile organic compounds, and it is potentially responsible for rain acidity in remote areas. HCOOH data from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) are analyzed from 2008 to 2014 to estimate enhancement ratios from biomass burning emissions over seven regions. Fire-affected HCOOH and CO total columns are defined by combining total columns from IASI, geographic location of the fires from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the surface wind speed field from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Robust correlations are found between these fire-affected HCOOH and CO total columns over the selected biomass burning regions, allowing the calculation of enhancement ratios equal to 7.30  ×  10−3 ± 0.08  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over Amazonia (AMA), 11.10  ×  10−3 ± 1.37  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over Australia (AUS), 6.80  ×  10−3 ± 0.44  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over India (IND), 5.80  ×  10−3 ± 0.15  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over Southeast Asia (SEA), 4.00  ×  10−3 ± 0.19  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over northern Africa (NAF), 5.00  ×  10−3 ± 0.13  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over southern Africa (SAF), and 4.40  ×  10−3 ± 0.09  ×  10−3 mol mol−1 over Siberia (SIB), in a fair agreement with previous studies. In comparison with referenced emission ratios, it is also shown that the selected agricultural burning plumes captured by IASI over India and Southeast Asia correspond to recent plumes where the chemistry or the sink does not occur. An additional classification of the enhancement ratios by type of fuel burned is also provided, showing a diverse origin of the plumes sampled by IASI, especially over Amazonia and Siberia. The variability in the enhancement ratios by biome over the different regions show that the levels of HCOOH and CO do not only depend on the fuel types

Exploring DNA Topoisomerase I Ligand Space in Search of Novel Anticancer Agents

DNA topoisomerase I (Top1) is over-expressed in tumour cells and is an important target in cancer chemotherapy. It relaxes DNA torsional strain generated during DNA processing by introducing transient single-strand breaks and allowing the broken strand to rotate around the intermediate Top1 – DNA covalent complex. This complex can be trapped by a group of anticancer agents interacting with the DNA bases and the enzyme at the cleavage site, preventing further topoisomerase activity. Here we have identified novel Top1 inhibitors as potential anticancer agents by using a combination of structure- and ligand-based molecular modelling methods. Pharmacophore models have been developed based on the molecular characteristics of derivatives of the alkaloid camptothecin (CPT), which represent potent antitumour agents and the main group of Top1 inhibitors. The models generated were used for in silico screening of the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA) compound database, leading to the identification of a set of structurally diverse molecules. The strategy is validated by the observation that amongst these molecules are several known Top1 inhibitors and agents cytotoxic against human tumour cell lines. The potential of the untested hits to inhibit Top1 activity was further evaluated by docking into the binding site of a Top1 – DNA complex, resulting in a selection of 10 compounds for biological testing. Limited by the compound availability, 7 compounds have been tested in vitro for their Top1 inhibitory activity, 5 of which display mild to moderate Top1 inhibition. A further compound, found by similarity search to the active compounds, also shows mild activity. Although the tested compounds display only low in vitro antitumour activity, our approach has been successful in the identification of structurally novel Top1 inhibitors worthy of further investigation as potential anticancer agents

Hand-held lactate analyzer as a tool for the real-time measurement of blood lactate during slaughter and pork quality prediction

A total of 600 pigs was randomly chosen on arrival at a commercial slaughter plant and sampled for lactate analysis from the ear vein using a Lactate Scout Analyzer (LSA) at unloading (UN), after lairage (LA), in the restrainer (RE; before stunning), and from the ear vein (EX1) and the bleeding incision (EX2) at exsanguination. Pigs were distributedinto two pen groups, one kept in lairage overnight (G1) and the other kept between 2 and 3 h before slaughter (G2).Meat quality was assessed in the Longissimus dorsi(LD), Semimembranosus (SM) and Adductor(AD) muscles. Data were analyzed using Spearman correlations and the MIXED procedure of SAS. Greater (P=0.009) levels of blood lactate were found in pigs laired longer, which resulted in LD and SM muscles with greater pHu (P=0.03 and P=0.001, respectively), as well as lower L* (P=0.005and P=0.008, respectively)and drip loss (P=0.01 and P=0.02, respectively). The greatest correlation with lactate levels was observed at LA with pHu value of the SM and AD muscles (r=0.40; P<0.001). LSA lactate levels reliably reflect the physiological response of pigs to preslaughter procedures and may help explain the variation in pork quality as measured in the ham muscles

Stationary Properties of a Randomly Driven Ising Ferromagnet

We consider the behavior of an Ising ferromagnet obeying the Glauber dynamics under the influence of a fast switching, random external field. Analytic results for the stationary state are presented in mean-field approximation, exhibiting a novel type of first order phase transition related to dynamic freezing. Monte Carlo simulations performed on a quadratic lattice indicate that many features of the mean field theory may survive the presence of fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages in RevTex format, 7 eps/ps figures, send comments to "mailto:[email protected]", submitted to PR

Heterogeneous Batch Distillation Processes: Real System Optimisation

In this paper, optimisation of batch distillation processes is considered. It deals with real systems with rigorous simulation of the processes through the resolution full MESH differential algebraic equations. Specific software architecture is developed, based on the BatchColumn® simulator and on both SQP and GA numerical algorithms, and is able to optimise sequential batch columns as long as the column transitions are set. The efficiency of the proposed optimisation tool is illustrated by two case studies. The first one concerns heterogeneous batch solvent recovery in a single distillation column and shows that significant economical gains are obtained along with improved process conditions. Case two concerns the optimisation of two sequential homogeneous batch distillation columns and demonstrates the capacity to optimize several sequential dynamic different processes. For such multiobjective complex problems, GA is preferred to SQP that is able to improve specific GA solutions

Detecting nitrogen oxide emissions in Qatar and quantifying emission factors of gas-fired power plants : a 4-year study

Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2), produced in urban areas and industrial facilities (particularly in fossil-fuel-fired power plants), are major sources of air pollutants, with implications for human health, leading local and national authorities to estimate their emissions using inventories. In Qatar, these inventories are not regularly updated, while the country is experiencing fast economic growth. Here, we use spaceborne retrievals of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns at high spatial resolution from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to estimate NOx emissions in Qatar from 2019 to 2022 with a flux-divergence scheme, according to which emissions are calculated as the sum of a transport term and a sink term representing the three-body reaction comprising NO2 and hydroxyl radical (OH). Our results highlight emissions from gas power plants in the northeast of the country and from the urban area of the capital, Doha. The emissions from cement plants in the west and different industrial facilities in the southeast are underestimated due to frequent low-quality measurements of NO2 columns in these areas. Our top-down model estimates a weekly cycle, with lower emissions on Fridays compared to the rest of the week, which is consistent with social norms in the country, and an annual cycle, with mean emissions of 9.56 kt per month for the 4-year period. These monthly emissions differ from the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service global anthropogenic emissions (CAMS-GLOB-ANT_v5.3) and the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGARv6.1) global inventories, for which the annual cycle is less marked and the average emissions are respectively 1.67 and 1.68 times higher. Our emission estimates are correlated with local electricity generation and allow us to infer a mean NOx emission factor of 0.557 t NOx GWh−1 for the three gas power plants in the Ras Laffan area

The FFAG R&D and medical application project RACCAM

JACoW web site http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/AccelConf/e06/Pre-Press/WEPCH161.pdf WEPCH161International audienceThe RACCAM project (Recherche en ACCelerateurs et Applications Medicales) has recently obtained fundings, extending over three years (2006-2008), from the French National Research Agency (ANR). RACCAM is a tripartite collaboration, involving (i) the CNRS Laboratory IN2P3/LPSC, (ii) the French magnet industrial SIGMAPHI, and (iii) the nuclear medecine Departement of Grenoble Hospital. The project concerns fixed field alternating gradient accelerator (FFAG) research on the one hand, and on the other hand their application as hadrontherapy and biology research machines. RACCAM's goal is three-fold, (i) participate to the on-going international collaborations in the field of FFAGs and recent concepts of "non-scaling" FFAGs, with frames for instance, the Neutrino Factory (NuFact) and the EMMA project of an electron model of a muon FFAG accelerator, (ii) design, build and experiment a prototype of an FFAG magnet proper to fulfil the requirements of rapid cycling acceleration, (iii) develop the concepts, and show the feasibility, of the application of such FFAG beams to hadrontherapy and to biology research