Search

Aim: The association of overweight/obesity and metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in young adulthood with subclinical atherosclerosis [coronary artery calcification (CAC) and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC)] by middle age is unknown. Method: In total, 2274 participants aged 28‐39 years from the coronary artery risk development in young adults study at year 10 (1995‐1996) who were re‐examined 15 years later were included. CAC and AAC were measured at year 25 using computed tomography. We examined the utility of three young adult phenotypes (lean group; overweight/obese group; overweight/obese MASLD group) at year 10 in predicting CAC or AAC by middle age. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between groups and CAC, and AAC. Independent determinates of CAC and AAC were determined with linear regression models. Results: Compared with individuals categorized as lean in young adulthood, the relative risk for CAC by middle age was 1.09 (95% confidence interval: 0.93‐1.28) for those with overweight/obesity and 1.32 (95% confidence interval: 1.08‐1.61) for those with overweight/obesity‐related MASLD. For AAC, no difference was observed between these three groups. Group, systolic blood pressure and group × systolic blood pressure interaction were all the independent determinates for CAC. Conclusion: In this study, young adults with overweight/obesity‐related MASLD have a higher risk of developing CAC by middle age. These abnormalities are only partially explained by traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and overweight/obesity‐related MASLD has an independent impact on CAC. Our study provides evidence for identifying young adults at higher risk of developing subclinical atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and existing evidence indicates that MASLD affects the cardiovascular system through systemic inflammation. Our aim was to assess the association of hematological biomarkers of inflammation with the 10-year risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality in MASLD patients. Methods: A total of 1858 MASLD participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities cohort study at visit 2 (1990– 1992) were included. A total of 1338 non-MASLD participants were also included in the comparison. At baseline, hematological biomarkers of inflammation such as leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. Participants were followed up for MACE and all-cause mortality for a period of 10 years. Multivariate adjusted Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR). Results: The 10-year MACE was higher in MASLD participants than in non-MASLD participants (20.8% vs 9.3%). Monocytes (HR 1.114, [95% CI, 1.022– 1.216] per 1-SD, P=0.015) and CRP (HR 1.109 [95% CI, 1.032– 1.190] per 1-SD, P=0.005) were associated with an increased 10-year risk of MACE, independent of other cardiovascular risk factors. This association was specific to the MASLD population. None of these hematological biomarkers demonstrated a significant association with 10-year all-cause mortality. Conclusion: Increased levels of monocytes and CRP were associated with an increased 10-year risk of MACE in the MASLD population. Hematological biomarkers of inflammation may help identify MASLD populations at higher risk for cardiovascular events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postexercise blood pressure (BP) may be a better predictor of cardiovascular risk than office BP, but there is a lack of data supporting this claim. We hypothesized that postexercise BP may be an important prognostic marker. Our aim was to evaluate the association of postexercise BP with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all‐cause mortality. A total of 2581 participants (median age, 46 years; 55.9% women) from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study at year 20 (2005–2006) who underwent a graded exercise treadmill test using a modified Balke graded protocol were included. Postexercise BP was measured at baseline. Cox models were used to estimate the associations of postexercise BP with MACE and all‐cause mortality. Participants were followed up until December 31, 2021. In the entire population, postexercise systolic BP showed no significant association with MACE or all‐cause mortality, while postexercise diastolic BP was associated with MACE (hazard ratios [HR], 1.27 [95% CI, 1.06–1.52], per 10 mmHg increase) and all‐cause mortality (HR, 1.26 [95% CI, 1.05–1.51], per 10 mmHg increase). In the normal BP group, postexercise systolic BP was not significantly associated with MACE or all‐cause mortality, and postexercise diastolic BP was strongly associated with MACE (HR, 1.57 [95% CI, 1.18–2.09], per 10 mmHg increase). In this population‐based cohort study, postexercise diastolic BP was significantly associated with the risk of MACE and all‐cause mortality. Among individuals with normal BP, postexercise diastolic BP could identify those at a higher risk of cardiovascular events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of night soil/horse manure with leaf co-composting using aerobic static composting method. Two influencing factors, including composting materials and aeration pattern, were investigated by determining the change in the principal physicochemical properties, i.e. temperature, volatile solid, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, heavy metals, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, and germination index (GI). The mixture of horse manure and leaf can achieve high composting temperature, long retention time of high temperature (55 °C), fast organic matter degradation, and high GI under the same aeration pattern. Under the same composting materials, the intermittent aeration pattern during composting was superior to the continuous aeration pattern because the former promoted the composting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple obesity is a worldwide epidemic associated with rapidly growing morbidity and mortality which imposes an enormous burden on individual and public health. As a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), acupuncture has shown the positive efficacy in the management of simple obesity. In this article, we comprehensively review the clinical and animal studies that demonstrated the potential mechanisms of acupuncture treatment for simple obesity. Clinical studies suggested that acupuncture regulates endocrine system, promotes digestion, attenuates oxidative stress, and modulates relevant molecules of metabolism in patients of simple obesity. Evidence from laboratory indicated that acupuncture regulates lipid metabolism, modulates inflammatory responses, and promotes white adipose tissue browning. Acupuncture also suppresses appetite through regulating appetite regulatory hormones and the downstream signaling pathway. The evidence from clinical and animal studies indicates that acupuncture induces multifaceted regulation through complex mechanisms and moreover a single factor may not be enough to explain the beneficial effects against simple obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new cyclohexene derivatives, nigrosporanenes C and D (1 and 2), together with three known compounds (3-5), were isolated from the culture of an endophyte Nigrospora oryzae S4. Their structures were characterized by a combination of detailed spectroscopic analysis and comparison of their NMR data with those reported in the literature. All compounds were tested for anti-phytopathogenic activity, however, none of them showed activity at a concentration of 20 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we consider the two-factor unbalanced nested design model without the assumption of equal error variance. For the problem of testing ‘main effects’ of both factors, we propose a parametric bootstrap (PB) approach and compare it with the existing generalizedF(GF) test. The Type I error rates of the tests are evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation. Our studies show that the PB test performs better than the GF test. The PB test performs very satisfactorily even for small samples while the GF test exhibit poor Type I error properties when the number of factorial combinations or treatments goes up. It is also noted that the same tests can be used to test the significance of the random effect variance component in a two-factor mixed effects nested model under unequal error variances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]