Increased serum lysyl oxidase-like 2 levels correlate with the degree of left atrial fibrosis in patients with atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) progression is generally accompanied by increased atrial fibrosis and atrial structural remodeling. Lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2) is known to play an important role in many fibrotic conditions, including cardiac fibrosis. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between serum LOXL2 levels and AF. Fifty-four AF patients and 32 control subjects were enrolled in the study. High-density three-dimensional electroanatomic mapping was performed, and mean bipolar voltage was assessed in AF patients. LOXL2 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All patients underwent echocardiography to assess left atrium size and left ventricle function. Serum LOXL2 levels were significantly elevated in AF patients compared with the control group (526.81 ± 316.82 vs 240.94 ± 92.51 pg/ml, P<0.01). In addition, serum LOXL2 level was significantly correlated with the size of the left atrium (LAD) (r2 = 0.38, P<0.01). Furthermore, the serum LOXL2 levels were significantly higher in AF patients with LAD ≥ 40 mm compared with those with LAD < 40 mm (664.34 ± 346.50 vs 354.90 ± 156.23 pg/ml, P<0.01). And the Spearman’s correlation analysis further revealed that the mean bipolar left atrial voltage was inversely correlated with the LOXL2 (r2 = −0.49, P<0.01) in AF patients. Multivariate regression analysis further demonstrated that serum LOXL2 [odds ratio (OR) 1.013, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.002–1.024, P<0.05] and LAD (OR 1.704, 95% CI 1.131–2.568, P<0.01) were independent predictors of AF. In conclusion, serum LOXL2 levels were significantly elevated and were correlated with the degree of left atrial fibrosis in AF patients

Pyrolysis treatment of nonmetal fraction of waste printed circuit boards : Focusing on the fate of bromine

Advanced thermal treatment of electronic waste offers advantages of volume reduction and energy recovery. In this work, the pyrolysis behaviour of nonmetallic fractions of waste printed circuit boards was studied. The fate of a bromine and thermal decomposition pathway of nonmetallic fractions of waste printed circuit boards were further probed. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the temperatures of maximum mass loss were located at 319°C and 361°C, with mass loss of 29.6% and 50.6%, respectively. The Fourier transform infrared Spectroscopy analysis revealed that the spectra at temperatures of 300°C–400°C were complicated with larger absorbance intensity. The nonmetallic fractions of waste printed circuit boards decomposed drastically and more evolved products were detected in the temperature range of 600°C–1000°C. The gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis indicated that various brominated derivates were generated in addition to small molecules, such as CH4, H2O and CO. The release intensity of CH4 and H2O increased with temperature increasing and reached maximum at 600°C–800°C and 400°C–600°C. More bromoethane (C2H5Br) was formed as compared with HBr and methyl bromide (CH3Br). The release intensity of bromopropane (C3H7Br) and bromoacetone (C3H5BrO) were comparable, although smaller than that of bromopropene (C3H5Br). More dibromophenol (C6H4Br2O) was released than that of bromophenol (C6H5BrO) in the thermal treatment. During the thermal process, part of the ether bonds first ruptured forming bisphenol A, propyl alcohol and tetrabromobisphenol A. Then, the tetrabromobisphenol A decomposed into C6H5BrO and HBr, which further reacted with small molecules forming brominated derivates. It implied debromination of raw nonmetallic fractions of waste printed circuit boards or pyrolysis products should be applied for its environmentally sound treating.© 2020 Sage. The article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Surface free energy and mechanical performance of LDPE/CBF composites containing toxic-metal free filler

Heavy-metal contamination in children's toys is a widespread problem, and the international community has issued a series of safety standards to restrict and control the use of toxic metals in toys. In this work, a colored filler (CBF) was prepared using pearl oyster shell (POS) as the green raw material and azo dye as the colorant. Its surface properties were subsequently studied in comparison to those of POS powder using the inverse gas chromatography method. The dispersion surface free energy profiles for both CBF and POS showed that this component contributed the major part (> 70%) to the total surface free energy. The CBF possessed lower polar surface free energy and was relatively more hydrophobic. It also showed a lower thermodynamic work of cohesion, allowing its better dispersion in a low density polyethylene (LDPE) matrix. Mechanical performance studies showed that adding CBF could significantly increase the tensile strength, elastic modulus, flexural strength and flexural modulus of LDPE composites. The absence of toxic metals coupled with excellent mechanical performance makes the CBF an ideal candidate as a filler for children's toys fabrication.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 51606055 and 41373121) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. LY14D010009).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Advances on mechanisms of regulated cell death in neurotoxicity of aluminum

Aluminum is a light metal which is rich in the earth's crust and widely used. Recently, the adverse health effects of environmental and occupational aluminum exposure on human have attracted more and more attention. Aluminum exposure has toxic effects on the central nervous system and is believed to be closely related to the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease. The neurotoxic mechanism of aluminum is complex, especially the role of regulated cell death (RCD) in aluminum-induced neuronal death remains to be further studied. RCD refers to all modes of cell death regulated by multiple intracellular signal transduction pathways under physiological and pathological conditions, including apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis. This review summarized the morphological characteristics and mechanisms of each RCD mode in the process of aluminum-induced neuronal death, and discussed the relationship and transformation between different RCD modes, providing a new scientific basis for future studies on the treatment and intervention of neurotoxicity induced by aluminum exposure

A Dielectric Metasurface Optical Chip for the Generation of Cold Atoms

Compact and robust cold atom sources are increasingly important for quantum research, especially for transferring cutting-edge quantum science into practical applications. In this letter, we report on a novel scheme that utilizes a metasurface optical chip to replace the conventional bulky optical elements used to produce a cold atomic ensemble with a single incident laser beam, which is split by the metasurface into multiple beams of the desired polarization states. Atom numbers $~10^7$ and temperatures (about 35 ${\mu}$K) of relevance to quantum sensing are achieved in a compact and robust fashion. Our work highlights the substantial progress towards fully integrated cold atom quantum devices by exploiting metasurface optical chips, which may have great potential in quantum sensing, quantum computing and other areas

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Gypsum scaling during forward osmosis process : a direct microscopic observation study

This study investigated the effect of supersaturation index (SI), ionic strength, membrane orientation, and antiscalant (AS) addition on gypsum scaling during forward osmosis (FO) desalination. Scaling tests were performed in a cross-flow FO system, and the development of gypsum scalants on FO membrane was directly observed using an optical microscope integrated with the FO filtration cell. Greater surface coverage by gypsum crystals and larger crystal sizes occurred on the scaled FO membranes for feed solutions (FS) with higher SI values accompanying with more severe flux reduction. At fixed Ca2+ and SO_4^(2-) concentrations, reducing the ionic strength of the FS from 0.55 to 0.15 M resulted in longer induction time. Nevertheless, more flux loss and surface coverage by scalants occurred at longer filtration duration for 0.15 M FS due to its greater ion activities and thus higher SI. The active layer facing (AL)-draw solution membrane orientation was found to be prone to internal scaling, which is likely as a result of unfavorable internal concentration polarization of scaling precursors inside the FO membrane support layer. On contrary, the AL-FS orientation had much more stable flux behavior. The current study also demonstrated the effectiveness of AS addition and rinsing under cross-flow conditions for FO scaling control.Published versio