Association Between Depression and Urinary Heavy Metal Levels

Introduction: Growing concerns about heavy metal pollution due to urbanization and industrialization have highlighted potential links between heavy metal levels and neurological disorders, including depression. This project aims to investigate the relationship between urinary heavy metal levels and depression status. Methods: The US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2018 data were used. Depression was assessed using a nine-item version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), with a cut-off point of 10 for depression cases. 13 urinary heavy metals were included. Both univariate analyses, the weighted Wilcoxon test and weighted logistic regression with heavy metal variables transformed into quintiles, and multivariate analyses, Classification and Regression Tree (CART) and random forest, were conducted to investigate the association. Results: The weighted Wilcoxon test found higher levels of cadmium (Cd), antimony (Sb), tin (Sn) and tungsten (Tu) and lower levels of mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) in the depression group. Weighted logistic regression revealed higher depression risks in the fifth quintile of Cd, the third, fourth and fifth quintiles of Sb, and the third and fifth quintiles of Tu levels. Lower risk was detected in the fifth quintile of As levels. Multivariate analysis identified Sn, Cd, As, cesium (Cs), and thallium (Tl) as crucial metals for classifying depression. Conclusion: In conclusion, this project reveals the complex relationship between urinary heavy metals and depression. Depression was associated with different sets of metals depending on the testing method used, and additional investigation is required to explore the potential interactions

Accurate Rigid Body Localization Using DoA Measurements from a Single Base Station

Rigid body localization (RBL) is to simultaneously estimate the position and attitude of a rigid target. In this paper, we focus on the RBL problem using a single base station (BS) and direction of arrival (DoA) measurements. Several wireless sensors are mounted on the rigid body of interest, and their topology information is known a priori. The single BS measures the DoAs of wireless sensor signals and fuses them with the sensor topology information to estimate the position and orientation of the rigid body and achieve RBL. We propose two RBL methods, namely, the observation matching (OM) algorithm and topology matching (TM) algorithm with refinement. The emerging participatory searching algorithm (PSA) is adopted in both methods to solve the nonlinear matching problems. Simulations show that, compared with the existing approach, the OM method can achieve better RBL accuracy under high DoA noise levels, while the performance of the TM algorithm with refinement is closer to the constrained Cramér–Rao bound (CCRB) under low DoA noise levels

A <i>Salmonella</i> Microfluidic Chip Combining Non-Contact Eddy Heater and 3D Fan-Shaped Mixer with Recombinase Aided Amplification

Foodborne pathogenic bacteria have become a worldwide threat to human health, and rapid and sensitive bacterial detection methods are urgently needed. In this study, a facile microfluidic chip was developed and combined with recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) for rapid and sensitive detection of Salmonella typhimurium using a non-contact eddy heater for dynamic lysis of bacterial cells and a 3D-printed fan-shaped active mixer for continuous-flow mixing. First, the bacterial sample was injected into the chip to flow through the spiral channel coiling around an iron rod under an alternating electromagnetic field, resulting in the dynamic lysis of bacterial cells by this non-contact eddy heater to release their nucleic acids. After cooling to ~75 °C, these nucleic acids were continuous-flow mixed with magnetic silica beads using the fan-shaped mixer and captured in the separation chamber using a magnet. Finally, the captured nucleic acids were eluted by the eluent from the beads to flow into the detection chamber, followed by RAA detection of nucleic acids to determine the bacterial amount. Under the optimal conditions, this microfluidic chip was able to quantitatively detect Salmonella typhimurium from 1.1 × 102 to 1.1 × 105 CFU/mL in 40 min with a detection limit of 89 CFU/mL and might be prospective to offer a simple, low-cost, fast and specific bacterial detection technique for ensuring food safety

The Role of Individual Disulfide Bonds of μ-Conotoxin GIIIA in the Inhibition of NaV1.4

μ-Conotoxin GIIIA, a peptide toxin isolated from Conus geographus, preferentially blocks the skeletal muscle sodium channel NaV1.4. GIIIA folds compactly to a pyramidal structure stabilized by three disulfide bonds. To assess the contributions of individual disulfide bonds of GIIIA to the blockade of NaV1.4, seven disulfide-deficient analogues were prepared and characterized, each with one, two, or three pairs of disulfide-bonded Cys residues replaced with Ala. The inhibitory potency of the analogues against NaV1.4 was assayed by whole cell patch-clamp on rNaV1.4, heterologously expressed in HEK293 cells. The corresponding IC50 values were 0.069 ± 0.005 μM for GIIIA, 2.1 ± 0.3 μM for GIIIA-1, 3.3 ± 0.2 μM for GIIIA-2, and 15.8 ± 0.8 μM for GIIIA-3 (-1, -2 and -3 represent the removal of disulfide bridges Cys3–Cys15, Cys4–Cys20 and Cys10–Cys21, respectively). Other analogues were not active enough for IC50 measurement. Our results indicate that all three disulfide bonds of GIIIA are required to produce effective inhibition of NaV1.4, and the removal of any one significantly lowers its sodium channel binding affinity. Cys10–Cys21 is the most important for the NaV1.4 potency

The Beneficial Effects of Edible Kynurenic Acid from Marine Horseshoe Crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) on Obesity, Hyperlipidemia, and Gut Microbiota in High-Fat Diet-Fed Mice

The marine horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) has been considered as food and traditional medicine for many years. Kynurenic acid (KA) was isolated from horseshoe crab in this study for the first time in the world. A previous study in 2018 reported that intraperitoneal administration of KA prevented high-fat diet- (HFD-) induced body weight gain. Now, we investigated the effects of intragastric gavage of KA on HFD mice and found that KA (5 mg/kg/day) inhibited both the body weight gain and the increase of average daily energy intake. KA reduced serum triglyceride and increased serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. KA inhibited HFD-induced the increases of serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, coronary artery risk index, and atherosclerosis index. KA also suppressed HFD-induced the increase of the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes (two dominant gut microbial phyla). KA partially reversed HFD-induced the changes in the composition of gut microbial genera. These overall effects of KA on HFD mice were similar to that of simvastatin (positive control). But the effects of 1.25 mg/kg/day KA on HFD-caused hyperlipidemia were similar to the effects of 5 mg/kg/day simvastatin. The pattern of relative abundance in 40 key genera of gut microbiota from KA group was closer to that from the normal group than that from the simvastatin group. In addition, our in vitro results showed the potential antioxidant activity of KA, which suggests that the improvement effects of KA on HFD mice may be partially associated with antioxidant activity of KA. Our findings demonstrate the potential role of KA as a functional food ingredient for the treatment of obesity and hyperlipidemia as well as the modulation of gut microbiota

Table1_The buffering of a riverine carbonate system under the input of acid mine drainage: Example from a small karst watershed, southwest China.DOCX

In a karstic area affected by acid mine drainage (AMD), hydrochemical conditions, such as temperature, salinity, alkalinity, DIC, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients, may affect the buffering capacity of carbonate systems in freshwater systems. The resulting pH fluctuation is larger than that of a marine system. Therefore, this study focuses on the buffering of a riverine carbonate system under the input of AMD and discusses the variations in a series of buffering factors, including the Revelle factor, γDIC, γAlk βDIC, βAlk, ωDIC, and ωAlk. The results revealed that the Revelle factor could reflect the buffering process effectively; in addition, the maximum value of the Revelle factor appeared at pH = 8.5. The data points for pH greater than this value indicated that the Huatan River had the ability to absorb atmospheric CO2 in spring. Conversely, the data for pH less than this value reflected the buffering of H+ during CO2 degassing in summer and autumn. In winter, the data were around the maximum value, indicating the weakest buffering capacity. As a result, the dynamics of the carbonate system caused the most sensitive response to pH. In addition, the maximum Revelle factor value did not always indicate the carbonate system had reached equilibrium; the presence of strong CO2 degassing was still a possibility. Under acidic conditions, as CO2(aq) increased, the absolute values of γDIC, βDIC, ωDIC, and γAlk increased correspondingly, indicating the enhanced buffering capacity of H+ during CO2 degassing. Under the four Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios (RCPs) included in the IPCC’s fifth assessment report, the degassing rate of the Huatan River would decrease by 5%, 15%, 26%, or 48%, depending on the scenario. Even though the Huatan River revealed CO2 degassing characteristics in winter and spring under current conditions, it will eventually become a sink for atmospheric CO2 as atmospheric CO2 concentration increases. In this light, the carbon sink effect in karst areas will become increasingly important.</p

Image2_The buffering of a riverine carbonate system under the input of acid mine drainage: Example from a small karst watershed, southwest China.JPEG

In a karstic area affected by acid mine drainage (AMD), hydrochemical conditions, such as temperature, salinity, alkalinity, DIC, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients, may affect the buffering capacity of carbonate systems in freshwater systems. The resulting pH fluctuation is larger than that of a marine system. Therefore, this study focuses on the buffering of a riverine carbonate system under the input of AMD and discusses the variations in a series of buffering factors, including the Revelle factor, γDIC, γAlk βDIC, βAlk, ωDIC, and ωAlk. The results revealed that the Revelle factor could reflect the buffering process effectively; in addition, the maximum value of the Revelle factor appeared at pH = 8.5. The data points for pH greater than this value indicated that the Huatan River had the ability to absorb atmospheric CO2 in spring. Conversely, the data for pH less than this value reflected the buffering of H+ during CO2 degassing in summer and autumn. In winter, the data were around the maximum value, indicating the weakest buffering capacity. As a result, the dynamics of the carbonate system caused the most sensitive response to pH. In addition, the maximum Revelle factor value did not always indicate the carbonate system had reached equilibrium; the presence of strong CO2 degassing was still a possibility. Under acidic conditions, as CO2(aq) increased, the absolute values of γDIC, βDIC, ωDIC, and γAlk increased correspondingly, indicating the enhanced buffering capacity of H+ during CO2 degassing. Under the four Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios (RCPs) included in the IPCC’s fifth assessment report, the degassing rate of the Huatan River would decrease by 5%, 15%, 26%, or 48%, depending on the scenario. Even though the Huatan River revealed CO2 degassing characteristics in winter and spring under current conditions, it will eventually become a sink for atmospheric CO2 as atmospheric CO2 concentration increases. In this light, the carbon sink effect in karst areas will become increasingly important.</p

Additional file 3: Table S1. of Chinese Registry of rheumatoid arthritis (CREDIT): II. prevalence and risk factors of major comorbidities in Chinese patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Prevalence of malignancies in CREDIT at baseline. (DOC 39 kb