Longitudinal Association between Selenium Levels and Hypertension in a Rural Elderly Chinese Cohort

Objectives Results from previous studies have been inconsistent on the association between selenium and hypertension, and very few studies on this subject have focused on the elderly population. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between selenium level and hypertension in a rural elderly Chinese cohort. Design A longitudinal study was implemented and data were analyzed using logistic regression models and Cox proportional hazards regression model adjusting for potential confounders. The associations between selenium level and prevalent hypertension at baseline and between selenium and incident hypertension were examined. Setting Community-based setting in four rural areas in China. Subjects A total of 2000 elderly aged 65 years and over (mean 71.9±5.6 years) participated in this study. Measurements Nail selenium levels were measured in all subjects at baseline. Blood pressure measures and self-reported hypertension history were collected at baseline, 2.5 years and 7 years later. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure 140 mmHg or higher, diastolic blood pressure 90 mmHg or higher, or reported use of anti-hypertensive medication. Results The rate of baseline hypertension was 63.50% in this cohort and the mean nail selenium level is 0.413±0.183µg/g. Multi-covariate adjusted cross-sectional analyses indicated that higher selenium level was associated with higher blood pressure measures at baseline and higher rates of hypertension. For the 635 participants with normal blood pressure at baseline, 360 had developed hypertension during follow-up. The incidence rate for hypertension was 45.83%, 52.27%, 62.50%, 70.48%, and 62.79% from the first selenium quintile to the fifth quintile respectively. Comparing to the lowest quintile group, the hazard ratios were 1.41 (95%CI: 1.03 to1.94), 1.93 (95%CI: 1.40 to 2.67), 2.35 (95%CI: 1.69 to 3.26) and 1.94 (95%CI: 1.36 to 22.77) for the second selenium quintile to the fifth quintile respectively. Conclusions Our findings suggest that high selenium may play a harmful role in the development of hypertension. Future studies are needed to confirm our findings and to elucidate a plausible biological mechanism

An avian influenza A (H7N9) virus vaccine candidate based on the fusion protein of hemagglutinin globular head and Salmonella typhimurium flagellin

BACKGROUND: A novel influenza virus, subtype H7N9, circulated through China in 2013–2014. Its higher rates of human infection in a wide range of locations within China and the associated increased likelihood of human-to-human transmission have caused global concern. Recombinant subunit vaccines provide safe and targeted protection against viral infections. However, the protective efficacy of recombinant subunit vaccines tends to be less potent than vaccines made from whole viruses. Studies have shown that bacterial flagellin has strong adjuvant activity and induces protective immune responses. RESULTS: In this study, we used overlap-PCR to generate an H7N9 influenza recombinant subunit vaccine that fused the globular head domain (HA1-2, aa 62–284) of the protective hemagglutinin (HA) antigen with the potent TLR5 ligand, Salmonella typhimurium flagellin (fliC). The resulting fusion protein, HA1-2-fliC, was efficiently expressed in an Escherichia coli prokaryotic expression system, and Western blotting and TLR5-stimulating activity analysis confirmed that the HA1-2-fliC moiety could be faithfully refolded to take on the native HA and fliC conformations. In a C3H/HeJ mouse model of intraperitoneal vaccination, the fusion protein elicited significant and robust HA1-2-specific serum IgG titers, maintaining high levels for at least 3 months in the vaccinated animals, and induced similar levels of HA1-2-specific IgG1 and IgG2a that were detectable 12 days after the third immunization. HA1-2-fliC was also found to be capable of triggering the production of neutralizing antibodies, as assessed by measuring hemagglutination inhibition titers. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that immunization with HA1-2-fliC induces potent HA1-2-specific responses, offering significant promise for the development of a successful recombinant subunit vaccine for avian influenza A (H7N9)

Measurement of small rotation angle of flange joints by a novel flexure magnifying mechanism

Bolted flange joints are indispensable components in process industries due to the good sealing, assemble and disassemble capacities. Generally, the flange rigidity characterized by the rotation angle is a key index to evaluate the sealing tightness of flange joints. However, the rotation angle of flange is usually too small (less than 1º) to monitor during the assemble and operation stages. Accordingly, a novel flexure magnifying mechanism is designed to measure the small rotation angle of flange joints under internal pressure and external bending moment. The magnification factor and calculation approach of the flexure amplification mechanism are deduced and verified by experimental data and finite element simulation. Results indicate that the proposed measuring apparatus has good performance to monitor the maximum rotation angle. It is of great interest that the measured location of the maximum rotation angle is in good agreement with that in the experiment, and the average error is 7.3%, which is acceptable for practical application. Additionally, the leakage rate at the top of flange joints slowly and almost linearly increases with the increment of external bending moment ascribing to the decrease the gasket stress near the top of flange joints

Quantum asymmetric cryptography with symmetric keys

Based on quantum encryption, we present a new idea for quantum public-key cryptography (QPKC) and construct a whole theoretical framework of a QPKC system. We show that the quantum-mechanical nature renders it feasible and reasonable to use symmetric keys in such a scheme, which is quite different from that in conventional public-key cryptography. The security of our scheme is analyzed and some features are discussed. Furthermore, the state-estimation attack to a prior QPKC scheme is demonstrated.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, Revtex

Analysis and Construction of Efficient RFID Authentication Protocol with Backward Privacy

Privacy of RFID systems is receiving increasing attentions in the RFID community and an important issue required as to the security of RFID system. Backward privacy means the adversary can not trace the tag later even if he reveals the internal states of the tag sometimes before. In this paper, we analyze two recently proposed RFID authentication schemes: Randomized GPS and Randomized Hashed GPS scheme. We show both of them can not provide backward privacy in Juels and Weis privacy model, which allows the adversary to know whether the reader authenticates the tag successfully or not. In addition, we present a new protocol, called Challenge-Hiding GPS, based on the Schnorr identification scheme. The challenge is hidden from the eavesdropping through the technique of Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol. The new protocol can satisfy backward privacy, and it has less communication overheads and almost the same computation, compared with the two schemes analyzed

Adaptive Kalman Estimation in Target Tracking Mixed with Random One-Step Delays, Stochastic-Bias Measurements, and Missing Measurements

The objective of this paper is concerned with the estimation problem for linear discrete-time stochastic systems with mixed uncertainties involving random one-step sensor delay, stochastic-bias measurements, and missing measurements. Three Bernoulli distributed random variables are employed to describe the uncertainties. All the three uncertainties in the measurement have certain probability of occurrence in the target tracking system. And then, an adaptive Kalman estimation is proposed to deal with this problem. The adaptive filter gains can be obtained in terms of solutions to a set of recursive discrete-time Riccati equations. Examples in three scenarios of target tracking are exploited to show the effectiveness of the proposed design approach

Intensive glycemic control and kidney disease risk: insights on hierarchical composite endpoint from a randomized clinical trial.

Background: Clinical trials of intensive glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and high cardiovascular risk have reported inconsistent findings regarding chronic kidney disease (CKD) outcomes, partly due to heterogeneity in event definitions and reliance on conventional time-to-first-event analysis. This study aimed to evaluate the renal effects of intensive glycemic control using a hierarchical composite endpoint (HCE) ranked by clinical severity and analyzed via the Win Odds (WO) method. Method: This post-hoc analysis included patients from the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) glycemia trial. We employed the win ratio statistical method to estimate the treatment effects on HCE, defined as a ranked composite of all-cause mortality, kidney failure, sustained estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) declines of 57, 50, and 40% from baseline, persistent eGFR &lt; 15 mL/min/1.73 m2, and eGFR slope. The effects of intensive glycemic control on individual HCE components and various composite kidney endpoints was assessed by Cox regression models. Results: Among the 9,848 participants, sustained 40% eGFR decline was the most frequent renal event in the hierarchical composite. Intensive glucose control was not associated with a significant difference in the HCE compared to standard therapy (WO = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.99–1.07). This finding was consistent with results from Cox regression (HR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.97–1.13) and across individual components of the composite endpoint. Conclusion: In individuals with T2DM at high risk for cardiovascular disease, intensive glycemic control does not demonstrate a significantly detrimental effect on hierarchical composite kidney outcomes.</p

Type-I collagen produced by distinct fibroblast lineages reveals specific function during embryogenesis and Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Type I collagen (Col1) is the most abundant protein in mammals. Col1 contributes to 90% of the total organic component of bone matrix. However, the precise cellular origin and functional contribution of Col1 in embryogenesis and bone formation remain unknown. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis identifies Fap+ cells and Fsp1+ cells as the major contributors of Col1 in the bone. We generate transgenic mouse models to genetically delete Col1 in various cell lineages. Complete, whole-body Col1 deletion leads to failed gastrulation and early embryonic lethality. Specific Col1 deletion in Fap+ cells causes severe skeletal defects, with hemorrhage, edema, and prenatal lethality. Specific Col1 deletion in Fsp1+ cells results in Osteogenesis Imperfecta-like phenotypes in adult mice, with spontaneous fractures and compromised bone healing. This study demonstrates specific contributions of mesenchymal cell lineages to Col1 production in organogenesis, skeletal development, and bone formation/repair, with potential insights into cell-based therapy for patients with Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Evolutionary and regulatory pattern analysis of soybean Ca2+ ATPases for abiotic stress tolerance

P2-type Ca2+ ATPases are responsible for cellular Ca2+ transport, which plays an important role in plant development and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the role of P2-type Ca2+ ATPases in stress response and stomatal regulation is still elusive in soybean. In this study, a total of 12 P2-type Ca2+ ATPases genes (GmACAs and GmECAs) were identified from the genome of Glycine max. We analyzed the evolutionary relationship, conserved motif, functional domain, gene structure and location, and promoter elements of the family. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging analysis showed that vegetable soybean leaves are damaged to different extents under salt, drought, cold, and shade stresses. Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis demonstrated that most of the GmACAs and GmECAs are up-regulated after drought, cold, and NaCl treatment, but are down-regulated after shading stress. Microscopic observation showed that different stresses caused significant stomatal closure. Spatial location and temporal expression analysis suggested that GmACA8, GmACA9, GmACA10, GmACA12, GmACA13, and GmACA11 might promote stomatal closure under drought, cold, and salt stress. GmECA1 might regulate stomatal closure in shading stress. GmACA1 and GmECA3 might have a negative function on cold stress. The results laid an important foundation for further study on the function of P2-type Ca2+ ATPase genes GmACAs and GmECAs for breeding abiotic stress-tolerant vegetable soybean