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BackgroundElevated remnant cholesterol (RC) is associated with a higher risk of various cardiac diseases. Heart failure (HF) usually occurs at the end stage of various cardiac diseases. However, there is limited research on the association between RC and the risk of HF. Therefore, we aimed to provide relevant evidence by determining whether a high RC level also influences the risk of HF.Materials and methodsIn this secondary analysis of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, we included 12,595 participants without coronary heart disease. We determined the association of the RC level as a continuous or categorical variable with the risk of HF using the multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models and restricted cubic spline curve.ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 22.5 years, 2,029 (16.1%) cases of HF occurred in all included participants. Compared with participants in the RC < 0.50 mmol/L group, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for HF increased progressively in participants with the RC level of 0.50 to 0.99 mmol/L, 1.00 to 1.49 mmol/L, and ≥1.50 mmol/L, from 1.17 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05–1.30) to 1.27(95% CI: 1.08–1.49) and to 1.50 (95% CI: 1.14–1.97) (P for trend < 0.001). Cubic spline curves also revealed that the risk of HF increased with the RC level.ConclusionIn the general population without coronary heart disease, a higher level of RC was significantly associated with a higher risk of HF, indicating that a higher RC level might be a potential risk factor for HF. Therefore, the management of blood cholesterol to reduce the risks of HF should focus not only on the traditional blood lipid parameters but also on the RC level.

Due to environmental factors such as water transparency, subtidal seaweed beds are often challenging to observe directly via satellite. However, the presence of seaweed beds can lead to variations in the concentrations of total suspended matter (TSM), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in the surrounding waters. This study focuses on the seaweed beds around Gouqi Island, Zhejiang, integrating several months of in-situ water quality sampling data with PlanetScope satellite imagery to develop inversion models for water quality parameters using Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT), and Support Vector Regression (SVR) algorithms. By analyzing the differences in water quality parameters between areas with seaweed beds and those without, we explored the underlying causes of these variations and proposed an indirect method for estimating the distribution range of underwater seaweed. This research not only provides a new perspective and technical approach for marine resource management but also contributes significant foundational data and scientific evidence for the conservation of coastal zone ecosystems.

Ethylene-chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE) was first commercialized by DuPont in 1974. Its unique chemical structure gives it high heat resistance, mechanical strength, and corrosion resistance. But also due to these properties, it is difficult to prepare a membrane from it by the nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) method. However, it can be prepared as a microfiltration membrane using the thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method at certain temperatures and with the selection of suitable solvents, and the use of green solvents is receiving increasing attention from researchers. The surface wettability of ECTFE membranes usually needs to be modified before use to strengthen its performance to meet the application requirements, usually by graft modification and surface oxidation techniques. This paper provides an overview of the structure of ECTFE and its preparation and modification methods, as well as recent advances in its application areas and prospects for the future methods of preparing high-performance ECTFE membranes.

Starvation is a natural process in the life cycle of wild fish, and also a means of body composition regulation for farmed fish. This study with tiger puffer was aimed at investigating the effects of starvation on lipid and fatty acid compositions in fish with different levels of lipid accumulation. Different lipid accumulation levels in tiger puffer were obtained by manipulating the dietary lipid content (8%, 12%, and 16%) in a previous feeding period for 9 weeks. Each diet was fed to sextuplicate net cages in this feeding trial. At the end of the feeding trial, fish with an average initial body weight of 68.26 g were then subjected to starvation for 31 days. Tissue samples were collected at the end of the feeding trial and at 1, 4, 9, 16, and 31 days after starvation. The results showed that the muscle lipid content decreased linearly with starvation time, but the liver lipid content increased firstly (1–16 days of starvation), and thereafter sharply declined. However, no interaction between starvation time and dietary lipid level was observed in the effects on liver and muscle lipid composition. Starvation had slight effects on muscle and liver fatty acid compositions, except that it largely increased the C22:5n-3 content in the muscle. Starvation primarily mobilized C14:0, C16:1n-7, C20:1n-9 and C22:1n-9 in the muscle, and C18:0, C18:1n-9, and EPA in the liver. Interactive effects between starvation time and dietary lipid level were observed for many fatty acids. Short-term (1–4 days) starvation increased the muscle texture parameters, but longer-term starvation decreased them. In conclusion, starvation exerts significant effects on lipid and fatty acid composition in farmed tiger puffer. Customed lipid and fatty acid composition, and possibly customed fillet quality could be obtained through manipulation of starvation time and dietary lipid level in the previous feeding period.

The fish oil finishing (FOF) strategy, that is, re-feeding fish with fish oil (FO)-based diet after a certain period of feeding with alternative lipid source-based diets. On tiger puffer, the present study investigated the response of intestinal microbiota to FOF. Fish were fed four diets based on FO, soybean oil, palm oil and beef tallow as lipid sources, respectively, firstly for 50 days (growing-out period), and then fed the FO-based diet for 30 more days (FOF period). The results showed that dietary terrestrially sourced oils impaired the intestinal function in the growing-out period. However, the activities of amylase, trypsin and anti-oxidative enzymes (SOD, CAT, T-AOC), as well as gene expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α, TGF-β) and tight junction protein (Claudin4, Claudin7, Claudin18, JAM, ZO-1) in the intestine were significantly recovered by FOF. The 16S rDNA sequencing analysis showed that FOF improved the similarity of bacterial community among the groups. The MetaStat analysis confirmed that FOF regulated the abundance of butyric acid-producing bacteria (Lachnospiraceae, Eubacterium, Butyricicoccus, Clostridium and Roseburia) and bacteria related to digestion and absorption (Sphingomonas, Romboutsia and Brevibacillus). In conclusion, FOF can recover the intestine function. The intestinal microbiota probably participated in and played a key role in the recovery process.

Mid1ip1 plays important roles in lipogenesis and microtubule stabilization, but little relevant information has been reported in fish. In the present study, mid1ip1 cDNA of tiger puffer was cloned and characterized, and its expression in response to dietary bile acid and lipid levels was investigated following a feeding trial. Experimental diets with suitable (8.5 %) or high lipid level (12.5 %), with or without bile acid supplementation (0.02 % and 0.10 % in the suitable-lipid diet; 0.02 % in the high-lipid diet) were used in the feeding trial. The tiger puffer Mid1ip1, which is putative Mid1ip1 subtype B, shared moderate identity to its known orthologs of other teleost and much lower identity to human Mid1ip1. Mid1ip1 had high transcription in the muscle, skin, eye, and brain, but low expression levels in the liver, intestine, and spleen. The high dietary bile acid level (0.1 %) significantly (P 0.05) affect the gene expression. Significantly positive correlation (R2 = 0.812, P = 0.000) was observed between hepatic mRNA expression of mid1ip1 and tubulin-α, but not between the gene expression of mid1ip1 and acetyl-CoA carboxylase β (R2 = -0.434, P = 0.106), in response to dietary treatments, indicating the potential roles of this Mid1ip1 subtype in microtubule stabilization rather than in lipogenesis. To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the regulation of fish mid1ip1 expression by dietary nutrients.

Our previous studies have shown that ARA regulated the gonadal steroidogenesis and the synthesis of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in the brain in a gender-dependent manner in Chinese tongue sole, a marine teleost with typical sex dimorphism. As a following up-study, the current study aimed to clone and characterize a gene responding to dietary ARA differently between males and females, cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (ch25h), which has important roles in cholesterol and lipid metabolism of mammals, but is rarely investigated in fish. The full-length cDNA of Chinese tongue sole ch25h was cloned and characterized, and its transcription in the gonads, brain and liver of both males and females in response to dietary ARA levels (0.34, 2.53, and 9.63% of TFA) was investigated. The Chinese tongue sole Ch25h, which putatively is Ch25h subtype B, shared moderate identity to its known orthologs of other teleost and lower identity to human Ch25h. It has high transcription levels in the gonads, followed by skin and muscle, but low levels in the intestine, spleen, and kidney. High ARA levels significantly increased the ch25h transcription in the gonads and brain of male fish, but did not affect the transcription in the females. However, the effect of dietary ARA on ch25h transcription in the liver showed an opposite gender-difference pattern to those in the gonads and brain. To our knowledge, this is the first study in marine teleost investigating the nutritional regulation of ch25h expression.