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Bulgaria has a very high incidence of cardiometabolic diseases and air pollution-related mortality rate. This study investigated the relationship between daily air pollution levels and hospital admissions for ischaemic heart diseases (IHD), cerebral infarction (CI), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Sofia, Bulgaria. We obtained daily data on hospitals admissions and daily average air pollution levels from 2009 to 2018. Pollutants of interest were particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO). Negative binomial regressions were fitted to study the effects of air pollution on hospital admission over the course of seven days prior to that event, accounting for autocorrelations and time trend in the data, day of the week, temperature, and relative humidity. Our findings confirm that higher air pollution levels generally increase the risk of hospital admissions for IHD and CI. For T2DM the association is less clear. Admissions often lagged several days behind and were more common in specific demographic subgroups or when pollution crossed a particular threshold. However, we did not expect to find the risk of hospital admissions increased in warmer rather than colder months of the year. Our findings are to be taken with reservation but do provide an idea about how air pollution could trigger acute episodes of related cardiovascular diseases, and our model may serve to investigate similar associations across the country.

During the last few decades, the main focus of numerous studies has been on the human breast milk microbiota and its influence on the infant intestinal microbiota and overall health. The presence of lactic acid bacteria in breast milk affects both the quantitative and qualitative composition of the infant gut microbiota. The aim of this study was to assess the most frequently detected cultivable rod-shaped lactobacilli, specific for breast milk of healthy Bulgarian women and fecal samples of their infants over the first month of life, in 14 mother–infant tandem pairs. Additionally, we evaluated the strain diversity among the most common isolated species. A total of 68 Gram-positive and catalase-negative strains were subjected to identification using the MALDI-TOF technique. Predominant cultivable populations belonging to the rod-shaped lactic acid bacteria have been identified as Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, Limosilactobacillus fermentum, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, and Limosilactobacillus reuteri. Also, we confirmed the presence of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus gasseri. Up to 26 isolates were selected as representatives and analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing for strain identity confirmation and a phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequence was constructed. Comparative analysis by four RAPD primers revealed genetic differences between newly isolated predominant L. rhamnosus strains. This pilot study provides data for the current first report concerning the investigation of the characteristic cultivable lactobacilli isolated from human breast milk and infant feces in Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rigorous peer-reviews are the basis of high-quality academic publishing. Thanks to the great efforts of our reviewers, I Earth i was able to maintain its standards for the high quality of its published papers. Thanks to the contribution of our reviewers, in 2021, the median time to first decision was 18 days, and the median time to publication was 45 days. [Extracted from the article]