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Since coal will remain a major source of fuel for power generation for the foreseeable future, it is important for users to maximise their efficiency from the currently available markets. Russia is a dominant supplier to the UK at present, and burnout is known to vary considerably, depending on the source. In this study, eight Russian coals in pulverised size (75% less than 75 μm) were characterised using standard techniques, non-traditional image analysis techniques and with a combustion modelling approach (ChB), in order to predict burnout characteristics. These coals were then pyrolysed in a drop tube furnace, at 1300°C, 150 ms and 1% oxygen, and the subsequent chars characterised for reactivity and morphology. The chars were then refired in order to assess burnout propensity at 1300°C, 5 vol.-% oxygen and 600 ms. The results show that the ChB modelling technique can accurately predict burnout performance of unknown coals and may provide a cost effective approach to assess coal combustion performance in pulverised coal fired furnaces, without the need for pilot scale trials, or drop tube furnace tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & aims : Although previous observational studies have suggested an association between whole grain consumption (including breakfast cereals) and a reduced risk of death, no study has explored in detail the association between consumption of cereal with or without added sweeteners and death. We therefore aimed to evaluate the association between unsweetened, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened cereals and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Methods : We conducted a prospective cohort study of 186 419 UK Biobank participants who met the inclusion criteria for this study. Participants with baseline demographic, lifestyle, dietary, and clinical data were recruited from 2006 to 2010 and followed up until 2023. The intake of unsweetened, sugar-sweetened, or artificially sweetened cereals was estimated through repeated 24 hour dietary recalls. The non-linear relationships between daily dosage of cereal and all-cause, cancer-specific, and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-specific mortality were calculated using a restricted cubic spline curve. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality were calculated using Cox regression models. Results : During a median follow-up of 13.6 years, 11 351 all-cause deaths were recorded, including 6176 cancer deaths and 2126 CVD deaths. Cox regression models with restricted cubic splines showed a non-linear association between unsweetened cereals and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. Compared with non-consumers, consumers of different amounts of unsweetened cereals (0 to 0.5, 0.5 to 1.5, and >1.5 bowls per day) had lower risks of all-cause mortality in the multivariate Cox models, with respective HRs of 0.89 (95%CI: 0.84-0.95), 0.90 (95%CI: 0.86-0.94), and 0.89 (95%CI: 0.82-0.97). However, no association was observed between consumption of sugar or artificially sweetened cereals and the risk of mortality. When cereals were divided into those with or without dried fruit, the findings were consistent with our primary results. Conclusions : Moderate consumption of unsweetened cereals was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality, suggesting caution in consuming cereals with added sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Objective: Dementia is an important disease burden among the elderly, and its occurrence may be profoundly affected by environmental factors. Evidence of the relationship between air pollution and dementia is emerging, but the extent to which this can be offset by lifestyle factors remains ambiguous., Methods: This study comprised 155,828 elder adults aged 60 years and above in the UK Biobank who were dementia-free at baseline. Cox proportional hazard models were conducted to examine the associations of annual average levels of air pollutants in 2010, including nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), nitrogen oxides (NO X ), particulate matter (PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and PM coarse ) and lifestyle factors recorded at baseline [physical activity (PA), sleep patterns, or smoking status] with incident risk of dementia, and their interactions on both multiplicative and additive scales., Results: During a 12-year period of follow-up, 4,389 incidents of all-cause dementia were identified. For each standarddeviationincrease in ambient NO 2 , NO X or PM 2.5 , all-cause dementia risk increases by 1.07-fold [hazard ratio (HR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1.07 (1.04, 1.10)], 1.05-fold (95 % CI: 1.02, 1.08) and 1.07-fold (95 % CI: 1.04, 1.10), whereas low levels of PA, poor sleep patterns, and smoking are associated with an elevated risk of dementia [HR (95 % CI) = 1.17 (1.09, 1.26), 1.13 (1.00, 1.27), and 1.14 (1.07, 1.21), respectively]. Furthermore, these air pollutants show joint effects with low PA, poor sleep patterns, and smoking on the onset of dementia. The moderate to high levels of PA could significantly or marginally significantly modify the associations between NO 2 , NO X or PM 2.5 (P-int = 0.067, 0.036, and 0.067, respectively) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), but no significant modification effects are found for sleep patterns or smoking status., Conclusion: The increased exposures of NO 2 , NO X , or PM 2.5 are associated with elevated risk of dementia among elderly UK Biobank population. These air pollutants take joint effects with low PA, poor sleep patterns, and smoking on the development of dementia. In addition, moderate to high levels of PA could attenuate the incident risk of AD caused by air pollution. Further prospective researches among other cohort populations are warranted to validate these findings., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine the association between depression and the risk of incident irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)., Methods: We included 98,564 participants free of IBS in the UK biobank. Depression was defined by self-report and Hospital Episode Statistics. The main outcome was incident IBS. Cox proportional hazards regression models and two-sample mendelian randomization were performed to estimate the risk of incident IBS., Results: Among 98,564 participants, 8770 (8.9 %) participants had a depression diagnosis at baseline. During a median of 12.9-year follow-up, 224 cases of incident IBS were identified in patients with depression (2.0 per 1000 person-years), compared with 1625 cases in reference individuals (1.5 per 1000 person-years). After adjustment, the hazard ratio of incident IBS associated with depression was 1.26 (95 % CI: 1.01-1.41). Sensitivity analysis indicated similar results. The two-sample mendelian randomization based on the inverse variance weighted method provided evidence for the harmful role of depression in an increased risk of IBS with an OR of 1.57 (95 % CI: 1.24-1.99)., Limitations: Depression was mainly measured by self-report online CIDI-SF in the current study, rather than the gold diagnostic criteria including clinical structured interview, which might lead to potential measurement error. Lifestyle behaviors might change during the long-term follow-up, and time-varying covariates (i.e., smoking and alcohol status) may bias the estimate., Conclusions: Depression is associated with an increased risk of incident IBS. Further studies are warranted to confirm the role of depression on incident IBS and elucidate the underlying mechanisms., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The association of tea or coffee consumption with gout is inconsistently reported. Few prospective studies have explored their dose-response relationship. Therefore, we aimed to quantitatively investigate the association between tea, coffee and the risk of developing gout., Methods: The study included 447 658 participants in the UK Biobank who were initially free of gout. Tea and coffee consumption were assessed at baseline. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the associations between tea/coffee consumption and incident gout, with restricted cubic spline added to the Cox models to evaluate the dose-response relationships., Results: During a median follow-up period of 13.42 years, we recorded 3,053 gout cases. The associations between tea, coffee and gout were nonlinear, with a significant reduction in the risk by ∼ six cups/day of tea and three cups/day of coffee. Compared with those who were not tea and coffee drinkers, those who consumed >6 cups/day of tea or coffee were associated with 23% (HR 0.77, 95% CI, 0.66, 0.91) and 40% (HR 0.60, 95% CI, 0.47, 0.77) lower risks of gout, respectively, and both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption were associated with a decreased risk. Moreover, hyperuricaemia may modify the association between coffee and gout. Compared with non-coffee consumers with hyperuricaemia, those with ≥4 cups/day coffee intake without hyperuricaemia had the lowest risk (HR 0.34, 95% CI, 0.28, 0.41)., Conclusion: Consumption of tea or coffee had a strong nonlinear association in gout risk reduction. Hyperuricaemia status had a potential effect modification on the association of coffee intake with gout., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Introduction: We examined whether the United Kingdom (UK) or the United States (US) screening criteria are more appropriate for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening in Hong Kong, in terms of sensitivity for detecting type 1 ROP and the number of infants requiring screening., Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we reviewed the medical records of all infants who underwent ROP screening from 2009 to 2018 at a tertiary hospital in Hong Kong. During this period, all infants born at gestational age (GA) ≤31 weeks and 6 days or birth weight (BW) <1501 g (ie, the UK screening criteria) underwent ROP screening. We determined the number of infants requiring screening and the number of type 1 ROP cases that would have been missed if the US screening criteria (GA ≤30 weeks & 0 days or BW ≤1500 g) had been used., Results: Overall, 796 infants were screened using the UK screening criteria. If the US screening criteria had been used, the number of infants requiring screening would have decreased by 21.1%; all type 1 ROP cases would have been detected (38/38, 100% sensitivity). Of the 168 infants who would not have been screened using the US screening criteria, only four of them (2.4%) had developed ROP (all maximum stage 1 only)., Conclusion: In our population, the use of the US screening criteria could reduce the number of infants screened without compromising sensitivity for the detection of type 1 ROP requiring treatment. We suggest narrowing the GA criterion for consistency with the US screening criteria during ROP screening in Hong Kong., Competing Interests: All authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.

Background: Evidence is limited regarding the association between lifestyles and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the extent to which healthy lifestyles could offset the genetic risk of CVD in females with breast cancer (BC)., Methods: Females diagnosed as BC, who were free of CVD at baseline, from UK Biobank were included. Five modifiable lifestyle factors were considered to calculate the healthy lifestyle score, namely body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol drinking, dietary habits, and physical activity. The polygenetic risk score (PRS) was derived for coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic stroke (IS), and heart failure (HF)., Results: In 13,348 female BC survivors, there were 986 CVD events (736 CHD, 165 IS, and 353 HF) over a median of 8.01 years of follow-up. Participants with 4-5 healthy lifestyle components were associated with a decreased risk of incident CVD (HR: 0.50; 95%CI: 0.37, 0.66), CHD (HR: 0.49; 95%CI: 0.35, 0.69), IS (HR: 0.35; 95%CI: 0.19, 0.65), and HF (HR: 0.59; 95%CI: 0.36, 0.97), compared with those with 0-1 lifestyle components. Evidence for the genetic-lifestyle interaction was observed for CHD ( p = 0.034) and HF ( p = 0.044). Among participants at high genetic risk, a healthy lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of CHD (HR: 0.37; 95%CI: 0.24, 0.56), IS (HR: 0.37; 95%CI: 0.15, 0.93) and HF (HR: 0.39; 95%CI: 0.21, 0.73)., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that BC survivors with a high genetic risk could benefit more from adherence to a healthy lifestyle in reducing CVD risk.

Aims/hypothesis: Cancer has contributed to an increasing proportion of diabetes-related deaths, while lifestyle management is the cornerstone of both diabetes care and cancer prevention. We aimed to evaluate the associations of combined healthy lifestyles with total and site-specific cancer risks among individuals with diabetes., Methods: We included 92,239 individuals with diabetes but without cancer at baseline from five population-based cohorts in the USA (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and National Institutes of Health [NIH]-AARP Diet and Health Study), the UK (UK Biobank study) and China (Dongfeng-Tongji cohort and Kailuan study). Healthy lifestyle scores (range 0-5) were constructed based on current nonsmoking, low-to-moderate alcohol drinking, adequate physical activity, healthy diet and optimal bodyweight. Cox regressions were used to calculate HRs for cancer morbidity and mortality, adjusting for sociodemographic, medical and diabetes-related factors., Results: During 376,354 person-years of follow-up from UK Biobank and the two Chinese cohorts, 3229 incident cancer cases were documented, and 6682 cancer deaths were documented during 1,089,987 person-years of follow-up in the five cohorts. The pooled multivariable-adjusted HRs (95% CIs) comparing participants with 4-5 vs 0-1 healthy lifestyle factors were 0.73 (0.61, 0.88) for incident cancer and 0.55 (0.46, 0.67) for cancer mortality, and ranged between 0.41 and 0.63 for oesophagus, lung, liver, colorectum, breast and kidney cancers. Findings remained consistent across different cohorts and subgroups., Conclusions/interpretation: This international cohort study found that adherence to combined healthy lifestyles was associated with lower risks of total cancer morbidity and mortality as well as several subtypes (oesophagus, lung, liver, colorectum, breast and kidney cancers) among individuals with diabetes., (© 2022. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

Objectives: To estimate the hospital costs among persons with obesity undergoing bariatric surgery compared with those without bariatric surgery., Methods: We analysed the UK Biobank Cohort study linked to Hospital Episode Statistics, for all adults with obesity undergoing bariatric surgery at National Health Service hospitals in England, Scotland, or Wales from 2006 to 2017. Surgery patients were matched with controls who did not have bariatric surgery using propensity scores approach with a ratio of up to 1-to-5 by year. Inverse probability of censoring weighting was used to correct for potential informative censoring. Annual and cumulative hospital costs were assessed for the surgery and control groups., Results: We identified 348 surgical patients (198 gastric bypass, 73 sleeve gastrectomy, 77 gastric banding) during the study period. In total, 324 surgical patients and 1506 matched control participants were included after propensity score matching. Mean 5-year cumulative hospital costs were €11,659 for 348 surgical patients. Compared with controls, surgical patients (n = 324) had significantly higher inpatient expenditures in the surgery year (€7289 vs. €2635, P < 0.001), but lower costs in the subsequent 4 years. The 5-year cumulative costs were €11,176 for surgical patients and €8759 for controls (P = 0.001)., Conclusions: Bariatric surgery significantly increased the inpatient costs in the surgery year, but was associated with decreased costs in the subsequent 4 years. However, any cost savings made up to 4 years were not enough to compensate for the initial surgical expenditure., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)