Association between magnesium, copper, and potassium intakes with risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

BACKGROUND: The relationship between Mg (magnesium), Cu (copper), and K (potassium) intakes and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains limited. The aim of present study was to examine the associations between Mg, Cu and K intakes with RA. METHODS: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2018, we examined the association between Mg, Cu and K intakes and the risk of RA among US adults. After adjustment for age, sex, race, BMI, educational level, smoking history, alcohol consumption, family Poverty Income Ratio (PIR), diabetes and total daily energy intake, logistic regression models and smooth curve fitting were applied to examine the associations of Mg, Cu and K intakes with RA. RESULTS: A total of 18,338 participants were included (1,008 participants with RA). The multivariate adjusted ORs (95% CI) of RA were [0.66 (0.51, 0.84)], [0.76 (0.60, 0.97)], and [0.75 (0.58, 0.97)] in the highest versus lowest quartile of magnesium intakes, respectively. A nonlinear association between Cu intakes and RA was found. When Cu intake (ln) was between 0.6-2.2 mg, the risk of RA reduced by 26% for every 1 mg increase of intake in Cu [0.74 (0.58, 0.96)]. CONCLUSIONS: Higher Mg, Cu and K intakes may be inversely associated with the risk of RA among US adults, and an inverse L-shaped association between dietary Cu and RA was found.

Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds in Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen and Its Inhibition by Using Montmorillonite Nanoclay.

Bitumen emits a large amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the production and construction of asphalt mixture, which can cause both environmental hazards and health risks. In this study, a setup was designed to collect the VOCs released by base and crumb rubber-modified bitumen (CRMB) binders and their composition was characterized by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Next, organic montmorillonite (Mt) nanoclay was added into CRMB binder and its inhibiting effect on the VOCs emission of the binder was investigated. Finally, the VOCs emission models for the CRMB and Mt-modified CRMB (Mt-CRMB) binders were established according to reasonable assumptions. The results indicated that the VOCs emission of CRMB binder was 3.2 times larger than that of the base binder. Due to its intercalated structure, the nanoclay can reduce the VOCs emission of CRMB binder by 30.6%. Especially, its inhibition effects on alkanes, olefins, and aromatic hydrocarbons were more significant. After finite element verification, the established model based on the Fick's second law can describe the emission behavior of CRMB and Mt-CRMB binders well. Overall, the Mt nanoclay can be used as an effective modifier to inhibit the VOCs emission of CRMB binder.

Aptamer-modified Zr-MOFs to construct nanocatalysts with engineered specificity toward paraoxon.

Aptamer-modified Zr-MOFs (UiO-66-APT) were constructed as nanocatalysts for achieving specific hydrolysis of paraoxon. The conjunction mode of the aptamer on the Zr-MOFs affected the binding of the substrates with the catalytic sites, thus leading to different catalytic activities. This study provides a solution for achieving specific catalysis of nanocatalysts, just like that in natural enzymes.

Rheological and Chemical Evolution of HMA and WMA Binders Based on Ageing Kinetics.

It is fundamental to predict or estimate the rheological behavioural evolutions of binders and mixture to ensure a durability service life of the whole infrastructure. This study compared the long-term ageing kinetics of hot mix asphalt (HMA) and warm mix asphalt (WMA) produced with the same base bitumen. The difference in the component was that the WMA contained 1% of Cecabase warm agent and 5.5% of water by the weight of bitumen, to obtain a large expansion ratio (47 times). Rolling thin-film oven test (RTFOT) and pressure ageing vessel (PAV) laboratory ageing were carried out on the binder with or without the warm agent. The oven ageing procedure was conducted on the loose HMA and WMA mixtures for 0, 3, 6, and 9 days. Research results indicated that the dual effect of the studied warm agent and the foaming water sharply decreased the viscosity of the binder at a high temperature. Compared with the HMA, the warm agent improved the ageing resistance of the asphalt binder. However, higher content, such as 5.5 wt.%, of foaming water deteriorated viscosity due to a thinner bitumen film, which was more susceptible to oxidation. Therefore, less than 2 wt.% of warm agent and foaming water was recommended in the foamed WMA preparation.

A label-free ratiometric fluorescence nanoprobe for ascorbic acid based on redox-modulated dual-emission signals.

In this paper, we constructed a label-free ratiometric fluorescence nanoprobe for ascorbic acid (AA) on the basis of the change in dual-emission signals by the specific reaction between cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) and AA. CoOOH nanoflakes were used as the recognition unit while polymer dots (PFO dots) and gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) served as luminescent units of the nanoprobe. After electrostatic assembly of PFO dots and AuNCs on the surface of CoOOH nanoflakes, the energy transfer between the PFO dots and CoOOH could occur and thereby quench the fluorescence of the PFO dots. When AA was present, CoOOH nanoflakes were reduced to Co2+, resulting in a recovery of the fluorescence of the PFO dots. In the meantime, the generated Co2+ could combine with the surface ligands of AuNCs, accompanied by a reduction in the luminescence intensity of the AuNCs. Therefore, the fluorescence intensity ratio of PFO dots to AuNCs would be related to the concentration of AA. The nanoprobe enabled highly sensitive analysis of AA with a detection limit of 1.9 µM and showed great performance in human serum samples and living cells. This report may not only endow a CoOOH-based nanoprobe with improved ability but also offer a novel strategy for the construction of ratiometric nanoprobes for AA and have potential applications in research into and clinical diagnosis of AA-related diseases.

An aptamer-based hook-effect-recognizable three-line lateral flow biosensor for rapid detection of thrombin.

In this paper, a three-line LFB was successfully developed by adding a thrombin line to a conventional two-line LFB for the detection of thrombin in a wide range of human serum. We introduced a thrombin line between the test line and the control line. The concentration of thrombin in the sample was quantitatively related to the signal formation on the three lines of the LFB. We can make use of signal on three lines to quantitative determinate the thrombin by data processing. The detection range of thrombin concentrations measured in 10 min was 1 nM to 100 µM and the LOD was 0.85 nM. Our approach paves way for rapid and sensitive thrombin detection and a superior device for testing in a wide range of physiological concentrations, which also can be used in other hook-effect-limited aptamers or antibodies based sandwich LFBs, and has a high accuracy even within the range of the hook-effect.

Ferulic acid promotes osteogenesis of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells by inhibiting microRNA-340 to induce ß-catenin expression through hypoxia.

Osteogenic differentiation is regulated through multiple signaling networks that may include responses to hypoxia. Antioxidant ferulic acid (FA) can promote hypoxia signaling by inducing hypoxic-induced factor (HIF). However, whether FA could affect osteogenesis has not been explored. We examined human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) following FA treatment. The expression of ß-catenin was measured, and candidate microRNAs that target ß-catenin were studied. The involvement of hypoxia was investigated in miR-340-5p that contains hypoxia response elements (HRE) in the promoter region. Further, the osteogenic potential of FA-treated MSC was assessed by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and alizarin red staining assays. Osteoblast marker gene expressions were also compared between controls and FA-treated cells. FA induced ß-catenin expression in MSC. This effect is likely mediated through a derepression of ß-catenin 3'-UTR inhibition by miR-340-5p. HIF-1α, which suppressed miR-340-5p promoter activation through HRE motifs, was induced by FA. The induction of ß-catenin signaling by FA was consistent with an enhancement in osteogenesis of FA-treated MSC, which could be attenuated by miR-340-5p overexpression. Analysis of the signaling networks induced by FA reveals that hypoxia may promote the osteogenic program in mesenchymal stem cells via a novel microRNA pathway.