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Background: Nutritional deficiencies remain serious medical and public health issues worldwide, especially in children. This study aims to analyze cross-country inequality in four common nutritional deficiencies (protein-energy malnutrition, dietary iron deficiency, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency) among children from 1990 to 2019 based on Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 data. Methods: Prevalence and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) data as measures of four nutritional deficiency burdens in people aged 0 to 14 years were extracted from the GBD Results Tool. We analyzed temporal trends in prevalence by calculating the average annual percent change (AAPC) and quantified cross-country inequalities in disease burden using the slope index. Results: Globally, the age-standardized prevalence rates of dietary iron deficiency, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency decreased, with AAPCs of -0.14 (-0.15 to -0.12), -2.77 (-2.96 to -2.58), and -2.17 (-2.3 to -2.03) from 1999 to 2019, respectively. Significant reductions in socio-demographic index (SDI)-related inequality occurred in protein-energy malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency, while the health inequality for dietary iron deficiency and iodine deficiency remained basically unchanged. The age-standardized prevalence and DALY rates of the four nutritional deficiencies decreased as the SDI and healthcare access and quality index increased. Conclusions: The global burden of nutritional deficiency has decreased since 1990, but cross-country health inequalities still exist. More efficient public health measures are needed to reduce disease burdens, particularly in low-SDI countries/territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gel injection for shrimp is a commonly adulterated way to obtain illegal profits by unscrupulous traders. In this study, a method based on low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging was developed to investigate the gel-injected adulteration in a fast and non-destructive manner. Shrimp samples injected with carrageenan in the range of 0.2-1.2 mL at 0.2 mL increments were measured and analyzed. The Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) decay curves of LF-NMR indicated that the adulterated shrimp decayed slower as the injected gel increased. Differences of relaxation times were observed from spin-spin relaxation curve (T2) for different amount of gel adulteration. Besides, the areas of expelled bulk water (A24) and the areas of all populations (ATotal) vary with the quantity of injected gel regularly. Partial least square model was applied using CPMG decay signals, A24, and ATotal for the prediction of gel injection in shrimps. Different dimension processed methods were used for modeling, in which multi-exponential fitting method exhibited the best model stability and a better accuracy (R2 of prediction sets = 0.9156). The characteristics of MR images from the adulterated shrimps were extracted using image processing techniques. The MR image processing results revealed that adulterated shrimp samples can be identified based on the gray level and area of injection sites from the MR images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mung bean sprouts are a kind of favorite healthy food across the world. As a forbidden plant hormone cytokinins, the use of 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP) in promoting the growth of bean sprouts is forbidden due to its safety concerns. Rapid analysis of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts is required to assess their growth changes and discriminate them from the normal sample. In this study, the water dynamics of growth for 6-BAP treated bean sprouts was monitored by the low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging. A simplified cartoon model of the water dynamics was proposed to explain the LF-NMR analysis result. Principal component analysis of the NMR relaxation data clearly showed the different water distribution of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts from the control sample. The juice of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts showed significant difference in the ultraviolet absorption and fluorescence spectra. Therefore, combining the spectrometry, the LF-NMR may have potential for rapid discrimination of the 6-BAP treated bean sprouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • We synthesized the catalyst with the anchoring of zirconium(IV) Schiff base moiety on the surface of mesoporous silica, MCM-41. Particularly, the structures (such as phenate and aniline group) of the catalyst could be favorable to the CTH reaction because of the high basicity. • This is the first application of the prepared catalysts in the conversion of EL. • The results indicated the immobilized complexes were exhibited much higher catalytic performance than corresponding homogeneous complexes. • The catalyst exhibit efficient activity for the hydrogenation of EL into GVL. It also can be easily separated and efficiently recycled at least five times without significant loss of activity. Zr(IV)-salphen-MCM-41 was prepared by immobilizing a zirconium(IV) Schiff base complex onto the surface of MCM-41. The structural properties of the heterogeneous catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, UV, TG, XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, EDX, CO 2 -TPD, NH 3 -TPD and ICP-OES. Studies on the catalytic properties of the immobilized Zr(IV)-Schiff base complexes were performed using the reduction and cyclization of ethyl levulinate (EL) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) with isopropanol as the hydrogen source. Various reaction parameters, such as temperature, reaction time, solvent and catalyst loading were carefully investigated. The optimal conditions (GVL yield up to 90%) involved the utilization of Zr(Salphen)-MCM-41 as the catalyst in isopropanol. The key to heightened reaction performance was the incorporation of the phenolate and aniline groups in the ligands of bound to Zr. This increased the basicity of the catalyst, which subsequently enhances the efficiency of the transfer hydrogenation reported herein. Meanwhile, the immobilized catalyst can be easily separated and efficiently recycled at least five times without significant loss of activity. Finally, we proposed a plausible reaction mechanism based on experimental and characterization data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endometriosis is a hormone-dependent disease associated with impaired immunoregulation. In our recent study, we have characterized the trascriptomic transformation of eutopic endometrium from patients with minimal/mild endometriosis and controls across the menstrual cycle. However, the regulatory mechanism of altered immune microenvironment in eutopic endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) remains unclear. Here, we want to explore the regulation of immune cell to progesterone resistance and endometrial receptivity in the eutopic ESCs by cytokine (TGF-β1), and to understand the effect of TGF-β1 on the decidualization of the eutopic ESCs. Primary culture of eutopic ESCs was performed to explore the effects of TGF-β1 on the expression of Smad and progesterone receptor (PR) and the in vitro decidualization. Additionally, co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) was used to explore the direct interaction between Smad and PR. We found an attenuate expression of PRB protein (p=0.026) after using TGF-β1 in eutopic ESCs, although the difference of PRA before and after treatment was not significant (p=0.678). Similarly, the results of qRT-PCR showed that the mRNA level of PR (p<0.001), PRB (p=0.003) and HOXA10 (p<0.001) decreased significantly after TGF-β1 treatment, but that increased (p<0.023, for all) after SB431542 treatment in the eutopic ESCs. Moreover, TGF-β1 has a negative effect on the in vitro decidualization of eutopic ESCs (p=0.003). And the group with treatment of both TGF-β1 and SB435142 in eutopic ESCs showed significant decidual-like changes with increased prolactin level (p=0.01). We did not observe any physical interaction between the PR and p-Smad3/Smad3 proteins by using Co-IP. By activating TGF-β/Smad signaling in eutopic ESCs, elevated TGF-β1 from CD45+ immune cells could attenuate expression of PR, and further decrease endometrial receptivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia (NH3) synthesis is one of the most important catalytic reactions in energy and chemical fertilizer production, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of society and the economy. The electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR), especially when driven by renewable energy, is generally regarded as an energy-efficient and sustainable process to synthesize NH3 in ambient conditions. However, the performance of the electrocatalyst is far below expectations, with the lack of a high-efficiency catalyst being the main obstacle. Herein, by means of comprehensive spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) computations, the catalytic performance of MoTM/C2N (TM = 3d transition metal) for use in eNRR was systematically evaluated. Among the results, MoFe/C2N can be considered the most promising catalyst due to its having the lowest limiting potential (−0.26 V) and high selectivity in the context of eNRR. Compared with its homonuclear counterparts, MoMo/C2N and FeFe/C2N, MoFe/C2N can balance the first protonation step and the sixth protonation step synergistically, showing outstanding activity regarding eNRR. Our work not only opens a new door to advancing sustainable NH3 production by tailoring the active sites of heteronuclear diatom catalysts but also promotes the design and production of novel low-cost and efficient nanocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]