In recent years, microplastics (MPs) have become one of the most severe threats to the natural environment and aquatic life. The identification of urban wastewater treatment plants as one of the main ...pathways for these pollutants to enter the environment have led them to be the focus of several studies. The main interests are focused on the amount of MPs that are emitted into the environment, the efficiency of removal in wastewater treatment plants in addition to how their operation and design can be improved to reduce the presence of these pollutants in the effluent. One possible solution is the application of advanced treatment technologies that allow a more thorough water treatment, such as intermittent sand filters. In this study, the efficiency in removing MPs from the effluent of an urban wastewater treatment plant of three filters with different substrates (silica sand, sand/coke and coke) was analysed by comparing the performance on the three different substrates and working at different feed water flow rates. This provided useful information of retention mechanisms that affect MPs according to their morphology and how the operating parameters can influence the filtration systems performance. Several samples were collected from wastewater, before and after the filtration treatment, to analyse the presence of MPs. The results exposed a MP removal efficiency of up to 98.3%, with values in the treated water from 0.3 to 2.4 MP L−1. Among the most abundant polymers identified in the samples were polyethylene (PE), polyester (PES), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP). Statistical analysis of the results verified that there are no significant differences between the different substrates or water flow rates object of study. Results obtained, in addition to the cost-benefit ratio, showed the filter filled with a top layer of sand and a bottom layer of coke as the best option among those studied. Experiments with laboratory-scale filters carried out without possible interferences of external and uncontrolled factors showed similar performance and MP removal efficiency to that obtained working in a real plant conditions.
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•Intermittent filters showed a microplastic removal efficiency of up to 98.3% in WWTP effluent under real conditions.•The amount of microplastics in the wastewater after treatment was of 0.3–2.4 MP L−1.•Fibers were the most abundant microparticle shape. 35.5% of them were non-plastic materials.•The most abundant polymers identified after treatment were PE, PES, PET and PP.•Experiments with laboratory-scale filters showed similar microplastic removal efficiencies and behaviour.
Background
Phosphoglucomutase‐3 (PGM3) deficiency is a congenital disorder of glycosylation (CDG) with hyperimmunoglobulin IgE, atopy, and a variable immunological phenotype; most reported patients ...display dysmorphic features.
The aim of the study was to characterize the genotype and phenotype of individuals with newly identified compound heterozygous variants in the phosphate‐binding domain of PGM3 in order to better understand phenotypic differences between these patients and published cases.
Methods
We analyzed PGM3 protein expression, PGM3 enzymatic activity, the presence of other gene variants within the N‐glycosylation pathway, and the clinical and immunological manifestations of two affected siblings.
Results
Patients belonged to a non‐consanguineous family, presenting with atopic dermatitis, elevated levels of IgE, and CD4+ lymphopenia (a more severe phenotype was observed in Patient 2), but lacked dysmorphic features or neurocognitive impairment. Compound heterozygous PGM3 variants were identified, located in the phosphate‐binding domain of the enzyme. PGM3 expression was comparable to healthy donors, but L‐PHA binding in naïve‐CD4+ cells was decreased. Examination of exome sequence identified the presence of one additional candidate variant of unknown significance (VUS) in the N‐glycosylation pathway in Patient 2: a variant predicted to have moderate‐to‐high impact in ALG12.
Conclusions
Our analysis revealed that L‐PHA binding is reduced in naïve‐CD4+ cells, which is consistent with decreased residual PGM3 enzymatic activity. Other gene variants in the N‐glycosylation pathway may modify patient phenotypes in PGM3 deficiency. This study expands the clinical criteria for when PGM3 deficiency should be considered among individuals with hyper‐IgE.
Fiber and fiber-rich foods have been inversely associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the evidence is scarce in young and Mediterranean cohorts. We used Cox regression models to assess the ...association between quintiles of total fiber and fiber from different sources, and the risk of CVD adjusted for the principal confounding factors in a Mediterranean cohort of young adults, the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra, Follow-up) cohort. After a median follow-up of 10.3 years, we observed 112 cases of CVD among 17,007 participants (61% female, mean age 38 years). We observed an inverse association between fiber intake and CVD events (
for trend = 0.024) and also between the highest quintile of fruit consumption (hazard ratio (HR) 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.27-0.95) or whole grains consumption (HR 0.43 95% CI 0.20-0.93) and CVD compared to the lowest quintile, and also a HR of 0.58 (95% CI 0.37-0.90) for the participants who ate at least 175 g/day of fruit. Only the participants in the highest quintile of fruit-derived fiber intake had a significantly lower risk of CVD (HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.28-0.97). The participants who ate at least one serving per week of cruciferous vegetables had a lower risk than those who did not (HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.30-0.89). In conclusion, high fruit consumption, whole grain consumption, or consumption of at least one serving/week of cruciferous vegetables may be protective against CVD in young Mediterranean populations.
Independently of total caloric intake, a better quality of the diet (for example, conformity to the Mediterranean diet) is associated with lower obesity risk. It is unclear whether a brief dietary ...assessment tool, instead of full-length comprehensive methods, can also capture this association. In addition to reduced costs, a brief tool has the interesting advantage of allowing immediate feedback to participants in interventional studies. Another relevant question is which individual items of such a brief tool are responsible for this association. We examined these associations using a 14-item tool of adherence to the Mediterranean diet as exposure and body mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) as outcomes.
Cross-sectional assessment of all participants in the "PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea" (PREDIMED) trial.
7,447 participants (55-80 years, 57% women) free of cardiovascular disease, but with either type 2 diabetes or ≥ 3 cardiovascular risk factors. Trained dietitians used both a validated 14-item questionnaire and a full-length validated 137-item food frequency questionnaire to assess dietary habits. Trained nurses measured weight, height and waist circumference.
Strong inverse linear associations between the 14-item tool and all adiposity indexes were found. For a two-point increment in the 14-item score, the multivariable-adjusted differences in WHtR were -0.0066 (95% confidence interval, -0.0088 to -0.0049) for women and -0.0059 (-0.0079 to -0.0038) for men. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio for a WHtR>0.6 in participants scoring ≥ 10 points versus ≤ 7 points was 0.68 (0.57 to 0.80) for women and 0.66 (0.54 to 0.80) for men. High consumption of nuts and low consumption of sweetened/carbonated beverages presented the strongest inverse associations with abdominal obesity.
A brief 14-item tool was able to capture a strong monotonic inverse association between adherence to a good quality dietary pattern (Mediterranean diet) and obesity indexes in a population of adults at high cardiovascular risk.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Scope
Excessive visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with higher secretion of pro‐inflammatory molecules, contributing to systemic inflammation and obesity‐related metabolic disturbances.
...Methods and results
This prospective analysis includes 117 overweight/obese adults (55–75 years) from the PREDIMED‐Plus study. Fourteen inflammatory markers and adipokines are measured using a Bio‐Plex assay with multiplex technology: insulin, glucagon, IL‐6, visfatin, ghrelin, GLP‐1, TNF‐α, MCP‐1, PAI‐1, resistin, C‐peptide, leptin, adipsin, and adiponectin. Participants are categorized into tertiles according to changes in VAT after 1‐year of follow‐up, determined by dual‐energy X‐Ray absorptiometry. Participants allocate in tertile 3, which represent an increase of VAT content after 1‐year of follow‐up compared to tertile 1, show significant differences in insulin (T3 vs T1, fully adjusted model: p = 0.037, p for trend 0.042), PAI‐1 (fully adjusted model: p = 0.05, p for trend 0.06), c‐peptide (fully adjusted model: p = 0.037, p for trend 0.042), and TNF‐α (fully adjusted model p = 0.037, p for trend 0.042).
Conclusion
The results evidence that a reduction in VAT is associated with clinical improvements in several inflammatory and adiposity markers, mainly in insulin, c‐peptide, and PAI‐1 levels, and these improvements may contribute to a reduction in cardiometabolic disturbances observe in obesity.
Excessive visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with inflammation. Our results evidence that a reduction in VAT is associated with improvements in inflammatory and adiposity markers in participants with metabolic syndrome.
Diet is known to play a key role in atherogenesis and in the development of cardiovascular events. Dietary factors may mediate these processes acting as potential modulators of inflammation. ...Potential Links between inflammatory properties of diet and the occurrence of cardiovascular events have not been tested previously.
We aimed to assess the association between the dietary inflammatory index (DII), a method to assess the inflammatory potential of the diet, and incident cardiovascular disease.
In the prospective, dynamic SUN cohort, 18,794 middle-aged, Spanish university graduates were followed up for 8.9 years (median). A validated 136-item food-frequency questionnaire was used to calculate the DII. The DII is based on scientific evidence about the relationship between diet and inflammatory biomarkers (C-reactive protein, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α). Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between the DII and incident cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction, stroke or cardiovascular death).
The risk for cardiovascular events progressively increased with each increasing quartile of DII (ptrend = 0.017). The multivariable-adjusted HR for participants in the highest (most pro-inflammatory) vs. the lowest quartile of the DII was 2.03 (95% CI 1.06-3.88).
A pro-inflammatory diet was associated with a significantly higher risk for developing cardiovascular events.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The increasing use of plastics and the growing concern about their impact on the environment and living beings makes it necessary to study how microplastics (MP) affect aquaculture systems. In order ...to gain an in-depth understanding of these systems, this study covers the water intake, the purification treatment at the inlet, the water in the culture tanks, as well as the feed used in the feeding and the organism itself. For this purpose, five samples were taken, both in the water line, feed and sea bass during the weeks of the experiment. It is shown that the available purification systems reduce the amount of MP entering from the receiving environment. However, new MP are observed in the sea bass tank, which may be due mainly to those added through the feed and found in the feed, as well as in the piping and other materials used in current aquaculture systems (PTFE, PA, among others). If focusing on the feed that can reach the consumer, in the case of this study, carried out with sea bass, some types of MP (PE, PTFE, PS and PA) were found in 4 head samples and 4 skin/muscle samples. Although inlet water purification systems manage to reduce a high percentage of MPs in the system, it is observed that there are other access routes that should be considered and reduced in aquaculture facilities to prevent them from reaching the human consumer.
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•More MPs were found in the receiving environment than in aquaculture tanks.•Purification and disinfection system treatments in aquaculture are effective.•Feed can be a route of entry of MPs in aquaculture.•MPs have been detected in the skin/muscle and heads of sea bass.
179-P Arguello, Rafael; Arellano, Daniel; Garcia, Ana Y
Human immunology,
11/2013, Letnik:
74
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Aim The aim of this work was to test in a blind study the application of RSCA for HLA-A typing in a panel of 244 DNA samples of known HLA type from different ethnic groups and evaluate the power of ...resolving alleles that differ by a single nucleotide in a DNA fragment of almost 1000bp. We also test the capacity of RSCA in resolving ambiguous combinations of HLA-A alleles. Methods DNA was extracted using the salting-out method from a panel of 244 cell lines and from cells available locally. The samples were coded and the HLA type unknown to all involved in the study. On completion of the study, the code was broken and the HLA type of the samples were revealed and compared with that obtained by RSCA. RSCA was performed using two fluorescent labeled references generated by PCR from the cell lines STEINLIN (IHW9087) and from the cell line AMALA (IHW9064). They were labeled with Cy5 at the 5’ end. Results We found 99% concordance between RSCA results and those obtained by conventional methods such as serology, sequencing, SSOP or SSP typing. Nine samples did not match the original type. Retyping of these nine samples by either SSP or SBT demonstrated that seven gave typing in agreement with the RSCA results and two matched the original typing. In this study two new HLA-A alleles differing from other alleles by a single nucleotide were discovered and six know alleles not previously tested by RSCA were identified. Conclusions We demonstrate that RSCA is capable of resolving ambiguous combinations without the necessity of extra PCR amplifications or DNA manipulations and without previous knowledge of broad HLA type. RSCA for HLA typing is reliable, accurate and simple to perform, and should prove valuable for donor selection and patient matching, for population genetics and disease susceptibility studies.
IntroductionPrevious reports in European populations demonstrated the existence of five data-driven adult-onset diabetes subgroups. Here, we use self-normalizing neural networks (SNNN) to improve ...reproducibility of these data-driven diabetes subgroups in Mexican cohorts to extend its application to more diverse settings.Research design and methodsWe trained SNNN and compared it with k-means clustering to classify diabetes subgroups in a multiethnic and representative population-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) datasets with all available measures (training sample: NHANES-III, n=1132; validation sample: NHANES 1999–2006, n=626). SNNN models were then applied to four Mexican cohorts (SIGMA-UIEM, n=1521; Metabolic Syndrome cohort, n=6144; ENSANUT 2016, n=614 and CAIPaDi, n=1608) to characterize diabetes subgroups in Mexicans according to treatment response, risk for chronic complications and risk factors for the incidence of each subgroup.ResultsSNNN yielded four reproducible clinical profiles (obesity related, insulin deficient, insulin resistant, age related) in NHANES and Mexican cohorts even without C-peptide measurements. We observed in a population-based survey a high prevalence of the insulin-deficient form (41.25%, 95% CI 41.02% to 41.48%), followed by obesity-related (33.60%, 95% CI 33.40% to 33.79%), age-related (14.72%, 95% CI 14.63% to 14.82%) and severe insulin-resistant groups. A significant association was found between the SLC16A11 diabetes risk variant and the obesity-related subgroup (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.83, p=0.008). Among incident cases, we observed a greater incidence of mild obesity-related diabetes (n=149, 45.0%). In a diabetes outpatient clinic cohort, we observed increased 1-year risk (HR 1.59, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.51) and 2-year risk (HR 1.94, 95% CI 1.13 to 3.31) for incident retinopathy in the insulin-deficient group and decreased 2-year diabetic retinopathy risk for the obesity-related subgroup (HR 0.49, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.89).ConclusionsDiabetes subgroup phenotypes are reproducible using SNNN; our algorithm is available as web-based tool. Application of these models allowed for better characterization of diabetes subgroups and risk factors in Mexicans that could have clinical applications.
El género Isonychia agrupa efímeras con ninfas de gran tamaño presentes en ecosistemas lóticos. Este género tiene una distribución muy amplia, a pesar de ello, en México los registros son muy escasos ...y éstas no refieren las características ambientales de los sitios donde fueron encontradas. El objetivo de este trabajo es reportar por primera vez el género Isonychia en el estado de Durango, así como caracterizar algunos parámetros fisicoquímicos del agua asociados a su distribución. Se registraron 19 ninfas de Isonychia, que probablemente corresponden a la especie I. sicca, en siete sitios dentro de la cuenca del río Nazas. Esto amplía el rango de distribución del género Isonychia para México. Los ejemplares se registraron en ambientes con velocidad de corriente moderada y una calidad del agua aceptable en comparación con otros sistemas riparios, en términos de oxígeno disuelto, conductividad eléctrica, sólidos disueltos totales, pH, temperatura y amonio.
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