Synthesis of P-(NiCo)CO3 /TiO2 /Ti Self-Supported Electrode with High Catalytic Activity and Stability for Hydrogen Evolution.

Hydrogen is considered an ideal clean energy due to its high mass-energy density, and only water is generated after combustion. Water electrolysis is a sustainable method of obtaining a usable amount of pure hydrogen among the various hydrogen production methods. However, its development is still limited by applying expensive noble metal catalysts. Here, the dissolution-recrystallization process of TiO2 nanotube arrays in water with the hydrothermal reaction of a typical nickel-cobalt hydroxide synthesis process followed by phosphating to prepare a self-supported electrode with (NiCo)CO3 /TiO2 heterostructure named P-(NiCo)CO3 /TiO2 /Ti electrode is combined. The electrode exhibits an ultra-low overpotential of 31 mV at 10 mA  cm-2 with a Tafel slope of 46.2 mV dec-1 in 1 m KOH and maintained its stability after running for 500 h in 1 m KOH. The excellent catalytic activity can be attributed to the structure of nanotube arrays with high specific surface area, superhydrophilicity, and super aerophobicity on the electrode surface. In addition, the uniform (NiCo)CO3 /TiO2 heterostructure also accelerates the electron transfer on the electrode surface. Finally, DFT calculations demonstrate that phosphating also improves the ΔGH* and ΔGH2O of the electrode. The synthesis strategy also promotes the exploration of catalysts for other necessary electrocatalytic fields.

Comparative Analysis of Three Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk Prediction Models in Individuals Aged 75 and Older.

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of the Framingham cardiovascular risk score (FRS)/pooled cohort equations (PCE)/China prediction for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk (China-PAR model) in a prospective cohort of Chinese older adults. Patients and Methods: We assessed 717 older adults aged 75-85 years without ASCVD at the baseline from the Sichuan province of China. The participants were followed annually from 2011 to 2021. We obtained the participants' information through the medical records of physical examination and evaluated their 10-year ASCVD risk using FRS, PCE, and China-PAR. We further evaluated the predictive abilities of three assessment models. Results: During the 10-year follow-up, 206 participants developed ASCVD, with an incidence rate of 28.73%. The FRS and China-PAR moderately underestimated the risk of ASCVD (22.1% and 12.4%, respectively), but while PCE overestimated the risk (36.1%). FRS and China-PAR were found to underestimate the risk of ASCVD (26% and 63%, respectively) for men, while PCE overestimated the risk by 8%; For women, FRS and China-PAR were found to underestimate the risk of ASCVD (14% and 35%, respectively), while PCE overestimated the risk by 88%. Conclusion: The 10-year ASCVD risk was found to be overestimated by PCE. China-PAR had the most accurate predictions in women, while FRS was particularly well-calibrated in males. All three risk models have good discrimination, with FRS and PCE being well-calibrated in men and all three being well-calibrated in women. Therefore, accurate risk models are warranted to facilitate the prevention of ASCVD at the baseline among Chinese older adults.

Improving anammox activity and reactor start-up speed by using CO2/NaHCO3 buffer.

Anammox bacteria grow slowly and can be affected by large pH fluctuations. Using suitable buffers could make the start-up of anammox reactors easy and rapid. In this study, the effects of three kinds of buffers on the nitrogen removal and growth characteristics of anammox sludge were investigated. Reactors with CO2/NaHCO3 buffer solution (CCBS) performed the best in nitrogen removal, while 4-(2-hydroxyerhyl)piperazine-1-ethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) and phosphate buffer solution (PBS) inhibited the anammox activity. Reactors with 50 mmol/L CCBS could start up in 20 days, showing the specific anammox activity and anammox activity of 1.01±0.10 gN/(gVSS·day) and 0.83±0.06 kgN/(m3·day), respectively. Candidatus Kuenenia was the dominant anammox bacteria, with a relative abundance of 71.8%. Notably, anammox reactors could also start quickly by using 50 mmol/L CCBS under non-strict anaerobic conditions. These findings are meaningful for the quick start-up of engineered anammox reactors and prompt enrichment of anammox bacteria.

A prospective cohort study of the impact of chronic disease on fall injuries in middle-aged and older adults.

This cohort study investigated the impact of chronic diseases on fall risk in middle-aged and older individuals, offering insights for fall prevention strategies. Analysing data from 4,670 participants aged 40+ years, we used a Cox proportional risk model to assess chronic disease types, numbers, and interactions with other factors on fall injury risk across age groups. Results showed that middle-aged adults with respiratory diseases had a 26% increased fall risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-1.48), and a linear dose-response relationship was observed between chronic disease number and fall risk (p < 0.001). The study also examined interaction effects of chronic diseases with gender, disability, and fall injury history. Female middle-aged and older adults with chronic diseases had a 67% higher fall risk than their male counterparts without chronic diseases (HR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.36-1.88). In conclusion, chronically ill middle-aged and older adults have a higher fall risk, with high-risk groups including women, those with chronic diseases, and individuals with fall injury history. Fall prevention efforts should target middle-aged adults as well.

Contrastive Adversarial Domain Adaptation Networks for Speaker Recognition.

Domain adaptation aims to reduce the mismatch between the source and target domains. A domain adversarial network (DAN) has been recently proposed to incorporate adversarial learning into deep neural networks to create a domain-invariant space. However, DAN's major drawback is that it is difficult to find the domain-invariant space by using a single feature extractor. In this article, we propose to split the feature extractor into two contrastive branches, with one branch delegating for the class-dependence in the latent space and another branch focusing on domain-invariance. The feature extractor achieves these contrastive goals by sharing the first and last hidden layers but possessing decoupled branches in the middle hidden layers. For encouraging the feature extractor to produce class-discriminative embedded features, the label predictor is adversarially trained to produce equal posterior probabilities across all of the outputs instead of producing one-hot outputs. We refer to the resulting domain adaptation network as "contrastive adversarial domain adaptation network (CADAN)." We evaluated the embedded features' domain-invariance via a series of speaker identification experiments under both clean and noisy conditions. Results demonstrate that the embedded features produced by CADAN lead to a 33% improvement in speaker identification accuracy compared with the conventional DAN.

A novel, rapidly preparable and easily maintainable biocathode electrochemical biosensor for the continuous and stable detection of nitrite in water.

Nitrite is a highly toxic and pathogenic pollutant that is widely distributed in various nitrogenous wastewaters. Therefore, there is an urgent need for fast and stable nitrite detection to avoid water pollution and protect human health. In this study, we developed a novel rapidly preparable and easily maintainable biocathode electrochemical biosensor (BEB) using nitrite-reducing bacteria as the detectors to realize continuous nitrite monitoring in wastewater. The preparation of the biocathode was shortened by the polarity inversion method to less than 6 d. The BEB could detect nitrite solution samples in the range of 0.1- 16.0 mg NO2--N L-1 within 1.7 min. The BEB was also successfully used to detect nitrite in real wastewater with a relative error < 4.0% and a relative standard deviation < 5.8%. In addition, the BEB could be easily maintained by an operation mode of microbial fuel cells and stably detected nitrite for at least 150 tests. Our study provided a feasible and convenient way to develop electrochemical biosensors based on the biocathode for continuous and stable monitoring of pollutants in wastewater.

Enhancing stability and resilience of electromethanogenesis system by acclimating biocathode with intermittent step-up voltage.

Electromethanogenesis (EMG) system could efficiently convert CO2 to CH4 by using excess renewable electricity. However, the fluctuation and interruption of renewable electricity will adversely affect the biocathode and therefore the CH4 production of the EMG system. In this work, a novel biocathode acclimation strategy with intermittent step-up voltage (ISUV) was proposed to improve the stability and resilience of the EMG system against the unstable input of renewable power. Compared with the intermittent application of constant voltage (IACV), the ISUV increased the rate of CH4 production by 11.7 times with the improvement of the stability and resilience by 56% and 500%, respectively. Morphology and microflora structure analysis revealed that the biofilm enriched with ISUV exhibited a compact microflora structure with high-density cells and nanowires interconnected. This study provided a novel effective strategy to regulate the biofilm structure and enhance the performance of the EMG system.

Facile sealing treatment with stannous citrate complex to enhance performance of electrodeposited Ti/SnO2-Sb electrode.

Ti/SnO2-Sb is a promising anode for electrochemical advanced oxidation process with advantages of low cost and no secondary pollution, while suffers from low work economy due to the short service life. In this study, a facile strategy was proposed to fabricate Ti/SnO2-Sb electrode with high oxidation ability and long service life based on novelly sealing electrodeposited Sn-Sb coating with stannous citrate complex. The treated Ti/SnO2-Sb electrode exhibited an accelerated service life of 41.5 h (100 mA cm-2; 0.5 M H2SO4) and a degradation rate constant for methylene blue dye of 1.02 h-1 which were respectively 11.9 and 2.5 times as that of the untreated electrode. It was found out that the complex could well repair the coating defects inside or outside and form a covering film to tighten the coating, and was then mineralized during the following calcination process to achieve a uniform, rough and highly active SnO2-Sb catalytic layer. The distinctive structure was confirmed by XRD, SEM, XPS and FT-IR. The sealing treatment could be achieved by in situ electrodepositing Sn-Sb coating from or ex situ dipping Sn-Sb coating in solution containing stannous citrate complex followed by drying in air. This study provided a novel, facile and effective strategy to enhance performance of Ti/SnO2-Sb electrode that could be easily achieved in both laboratory and industrial scales and combined with other strategies.

Defective S/N co-doped carbon cloth via a one-step process for effective electroreduction of nitrogen to ammonia.

The electroreduction of nitrogen (N2) has gained increasing attention as a promising route to achieve green and sustainable ammonia (NH3) production. However, the construction of an active and durable electrocatalyst for N2 reduction reaction (NRR) remains a significant challenge. Herein, we, for the first time, report that S/N co-doped carbon cloth (CC) with abundant defects can serve as an efficient NRR electrocatalyst at ambient conditions. The S/N co-doped CC was prepared through a novel one-step method by using ammonium persulfate (APS) as the source of nitrogen and sulfur. The catalyst prepared at 800 °C (CC-APS 800) showed abundant defects and heteroatoms as the active and stable electrocatalytic sites for NH3 electrosynthesis. Based on this, a sizeable NH3 yield of 9.87 × 10-10 mol s-1 cm-2 and high faradaic efficiency of 8.11% were obtained in 0.05 M H2SO4 at -0.3 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE), respectively. Furthermore, the electrocatalytic mechanism on CC-APS 800 was elucidated using the electrochemical in situ Fourier transform infrared technique, and follows an associative reaction pathway. Our work would provide a new guideline for designing metal-free self-standing electrocatalysts for the NRR and other applications.

Highly Efficient Solar Vapor Generator Enabled by a 3D Hierarchical Structure Constructed with Hydrophilic Carbon Felt for Desalination and Wastewater Treatment.

Solar vapor generation holds great potential for seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. Although various efficient solar absorbers have been developed to enhance the performance of solar vapor generators in recent years, their efficiency is still limited by unnecessary heat loss. In this article, a novel 3D hierarchical solar vapor generator (3DHG) was constructed with hydrophilic carbon felt. Different from interfacial solar vapor generators reported before, the porous and hydrophilic channels of 3DHG were exposed to the air directly, which probably resulted in a lower saturated vapor pressure of 3DHG. Therefore, this structure was beneficial for vapor escaping and led to lower average temperature of 3DHG than that of the surroundings at the same time owing to negligible convection loss and radiation loss of 3DHG. The highest evaporation rate (ER) of 1.56 kg m-2 h-1 and efficiency of 98.1% were obtained under 1 sun. In addition, 3DHG was also used for industry dyeing wastewater treatment and exhibited a minimum ER of 1.45 kg m-2 h-1 even after 7 days. This study presents a novel approach not only to design a solar vapor generator with high efficiency but also widens its potential application in seawater desalination and practical wastewater treatment.

Broadening the pore size of coal-based activated carbon via a washing-free chem-physical activation method for high-capacity dye adsorption.

Aiming to overcome the limitations of the narrow pore size distributions of traditional activated carbon materials and to achieve wide adaptabilities towards large molecules adsorption, we herein demonstrate a new type of activated carbon with a broadened pore size distribution for high-rate and high-capacity aqueous dye molecule (Rhodamine B) adsorption. The preparation of CP-AC is achieved by a facile and one-step mineral-assisted chem-physical activation strategy from Chinese large-reserve Zhundong coal with ZnCl2 and CO2 as the activation agents. The method yields the activated carbon (CP-AC) that has a pore-size broadened hierarchical pore configuration with a high surface area and a large pore volume, favorably enabling a high-capacity Rhodamine B adsorption up to 881 mg g-1, which is among the highest levels of the reported activated carbons. A sonication-assisted adsorption test further demonstrates the high-rate adsorption capability of CP-AC with Rhodamine B adsorption capacity up to 842 mg g-1 within 30 min (96% of the saturation capacity) while microporous activated carbon obtained by solely ZnCl2 activation could just achieve a capacity of 374 mg g-1 within 30 min. In virtue of the low-cost resource materials and washing-free craft, this work offers a simple and green preparation strategy towards high-performance coal based activated carbons, holding great potentials for the industrial production and applications.

Factors influencing the relationship between atrial fibrillation and artery stiffness in elderly Chinese patients with hypertension.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is often accompanied by vascular dysfunction in the elderly. The influencing factors in the development of AF are unclear. The aim of this study was to identify links between arterial stiffness and AF to provide new directions for the prevention of AF. METHODS: We recruited 132 patients with both hypertension and AF (78 with paroxysmal AF and 84 with persistent AF) and 136 hypertensive patients. Questionnaires, physical examinations, and laboratory tests were conducted using standard protocols. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify correlations between arterial stiffness and the presence of AF. RESULTS: The brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (BaPWV) in hypertensive patients with AF was higher than those without AF (p < 0.001). Compared with paroxysmal AF patients, persistent AF patients had higher BaPWV values, serum homocysteine (Hcy) and uric acid (UA) concentrations, and left atrial diameters (LAD) (p < 0.05). In a multivariate model, the presence of AF was significantly associated with increased BaPWV (ß = 0.104; p < 0.001). However, after further adjustment for UA, Hcy, and UA + Hcy, this association disappeared. Besides, multivariate analysis determined that Hcy, UA, and LAD were independently correlated to BaPWV. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with hypertension, the presence of AF was associated with arterial stiffness. Serum UA and Hcy levels may reflect mechanisms behind this association.

[Effects of new body shape index on prevalence of diabetes mellitus and fasting blood glucose].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of a new body shape index (ABSI) on the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and Fasting blood-glucose (FBG) in elders in Chengdu. METHODS: In May 2007, a total of 685 subjects were recruited by random sampling, with an average age of (63.3±10.2) years. All subjects received standardized questionnaires, physical examinations and laboratory tests for analyzing the relationship between ABSI with the prevalence of FBG and DM. RESULTS: The overall trend of FBG increased with rising ABSI (P<0.001). But the impact of ABSI on the prevalence trend of DM was not obvious (P=0.334). According to logistic regression analysis adjusting for confounders, ABSI was not a risk factor of DM. Relative to the lowest quartile of ABSI, the odds ratio of DM prevalence was 1.093 (95% CI: 0.617-1.937, P=0.761), 0.844 (95% CI: 0.469-1.517, P=0.570) and 0.684 (95% CI: 0.373-1.256, P=0.221) at the second, third and fourth quartiles respectively. CONCLUSION: ABSI is not associated with the prevalence of DM in middle-aged and elderly people in Chengdu. Further cohort study are required for clarifying the ethnic difference of ABSI.

[Expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha and beta in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of non-vavular hypertensive atrial fibrillation patients].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the mRNA expressions of PPARalpha and PPARbeta in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of non-vavular hypertensive atrial fibrillation (AF) patients and elucidate its possible role in the pathogenesis of AF. METHODS: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 103 patients with hypertensive AF (persistent AF: 55, paroxysmal AF: 48) and 50 age-adjusted hypertension patients without AF. The mRNA expressions of PPARalpha, PPARbeta, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in monocytes were detected by using a Real time polymerase chain reaction. The concentrations of high sensitive C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) were measured by immunoenzymetric method. RESULTS: The PPARalpha mRNA expression level was persistently decreased in hypertensive non-AF group, paroxysmal AF group, and persistent AF group (1.34 +/- 0.17, 1.09 +/- 0.23, 0.85 +/- 0.22), while the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001; respectively). TNF-alpha mRNA, IL-6 mRNA,CRP and IL-1 persistently increased in hypertensive non-AF group, paroxysmal AF group, persistent AF group, also the difference was statistically significant (P < 0. 001; respectively). The difference of PPARbeta mRNA was not statistically significant between non-AF group, paroxysmal AF group and persistent AF group. Left atrial diameter (LAD) was in positive correlation with CRP, IL-1, IL-6 mRNA and TNF-alpha mRNA (P < 0.05). PPARalpha mRNA level was in negative correlation with CRP, IL-1, IL-6 mRNA and TNF-alpha mRNA, the correlation coefficient was -0.519, -0.532, -0.491 and -0.528, respectively (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In hypertensive patients with AF, increased inflammatory cytokines were associated with atrial remodeling and lead to the development of atrial fibrillation; PPARalpha was negatively correlated with these inflammatory cytokines and may play a vital role in the process of atrial fibrillation development.

Higher ratio of triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol may predispose to diabetes mellitus: 15-year prospective study in a general population.

The aims of the study were to examine whether the triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C) could predict future diabetes mellitus (DM) in a general population during a 15-year follow-up. The data were collected in 1992 and then again in 2007 from the same group of 711 individuals. Because 24 of them were found to be diabetic in 1992, our analysis was eventually based on the usable data collected from the remaining 687 individuals (male, 58.1%). During the period 1992-2007, 74 individuals were found to have developed DM (10.8%). After adjusting the associated variables, it was found that TG and TG/HDL-C were independent DM risk factors, with the odds ratios being 1.292 (P = .047) and 1.341 (P = .010), respectively, although they were poor in their DM discriminatory power (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.662 and 0.672, respectively). Combined with other risk factors (fasting plasma glucose, waist circumference, and family history of DM), the DM discriminatory power of TG and TG/HDL-C was improved (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.764 and 0.767, respectively). The DM incidence increased with ascending risk score. Single HDL-C seems unable to predict future DM. Triglycerides and TG/HDL-C were independent DM risk factors; and of the two, TG/HDL-C was a stronger risk factor. The DM discriminatory power of TG and TG/HDL-C was poor; therefore, it is recommended that they be used in combination with other risk factors. Diabetes mellitus incidence increased with ascending risk score.

The relationship between visfatin and HOMA-IR in hypertensive patients, and the effect of antihypertensive drugs on visfatin and HOMA-IR in hypertensive patients with insulin resistance.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between serum visfatin and insulin resistance (IR) in non-diabetic essential hypertensive (EH) patients with and without IR, and to evaluate the effect of antihypertensive treatment on serum visfatin and IR in these patients. METHODS: A total of 81 non-diabetic EH patients, including 54 with IR and 27 without IR, were enrolled. After two weeks wash-out, patients with IR were randomly assigned to telmisartan (group T) or amlodipine (group A) for 6 months. Blood samples were taken before and after treatment for measurement of routine biochemical parameters, visfatin and insulin resistance (measured by HOMA-IR). RESULTS: Visfatin was independently correlated with HOMA-IR (r=0.845, P=0.000). After 6 months of treatment, both drugs lowered HOMA-IR, more significantly so in group T than group A (P=0.010). Serum visfatin levels increased in group T but decreased in group A. CONCLUSION: Serum visfatin levels were higher in non-diabetic EH patients with IR compared with those without IR. Visfatin is independently correlated with HOMA-IR. Telmisartan lowers HOMA-IR to a greater extent than amlodipine. Interestingly, serum visfatin increased with telmisartan yet decreased with amlodipine treatment.

[Predictive value of serum uric acid on type 2 diabetes mellitus].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the predictive value of uric acid (UA) on type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). METHODS: 711 subjects aged 45 - 60 years old with normal fasting blood glucose (FBG) were studied in 1992. The subjects were divided into 2 groups according to their 1992 UA data in the normal UA group and in the hyperuricemia (HUA) group. We analyzed the prevalence of DM-2 in 2007 according to data on UA in 1992. Relative risk (RR) of the cohort was calculated under χ(2) test and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: FBG and the prevalence rate of DM in 2007 in the HUA group were statistically higher than those in the normal group. The relative risk (RR) of HUA to DM was 3.749 (P = 0.000), with 95% Confidence interval (CI) as 2.387 - 5.890. Data from the logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for other risk factors, the RR of UA to DM was 1.426 (P = 0.003), with 95%CI as 1.173 - 1.705. CONCLUSION: The abnormal UA was closely related to glucose metabolism disorder while hyperuricemia appeared to be associated with increased risk of type 2 DM.

[Changes of prevalence of hypertension and blood pressure levels in 1061 adults in Chengdu from 1992 to 2007].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes of blood pressure (BP) levels of a general population in Chengdu, China from 1992 to 2007. METHODS: A baseline survey on CVD risk factors was carried out in a general population of Chengdu in 1992. A total of 1365 adults aged 35-64 years were recruited randomly. In 2007, 1061 of the participants completed a follow up survey. RESULTS: 1) The systolic blood pressure (SBP) levels increased with age in both men and women, and larger increase was found in older people. The diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels also increased with age, however, the smallest increase was found in the age group of 45 to 54 years. 2) People of 50-64 years old in 2007 had higher SBP than those of the same age in 1992. Similar changes were also found for DBP in men, but not in women. 3) From 1992 to 2007, the prevalence of hypertension increased in all of the age groups. The greater increase occurred in the younger population. 4) During the 15 years, the prevalence of hypertension increased from 13.2% to 51.2% in men, and from 14.0% to 45.1% in women. People of 50-64 years old had higher prevalence of hypertension in 2007 than those of the same age in 1992. CONCLUSION: SBP and DBP increase with age, and younger people have larger increase than older people. The prevalence of hypertension increases with age, and the greater increase also occurred in younger people. In people with the same age of 50-64 years, the prevalence of hypertension and SBP and DBP levels are higher in 2007 than in 1992, except for DBP in women.

[Association of PPARgamma2 Pro12Ala polymorphism and cognitive dysfunction in hypertension patients].

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between PPARgamma2 Pro12Ala polymorphism and cognitive function in patients with primary hypertension. METHODS: This study enrolled 502 hypertensive patients of Chinese Han population from Jan 2008 to Feb 2009 in West China Hospital of Sichuan University. We collected the general data and applied the mini mental state examination (MMSE) to test the cognitive function and computed score. Total cholesterol (TC), triglyeride (TG), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and postprandial blood sugar (PPBS), fasting insulin (FINS) and postprandial plasma insulin (PINS) were measured. PCR-RELP method was used to analysis the PPARgamma2 Pro12Ala gene polymorphism. RESULTS: Pro12Pro genotype was present in 88.6% of the patients and Prol2Ala genotype was present in 11.4% of the population. Allele frequencies were 94.3% for Pro allele and 5.7% for Ala allele. In cognitive normal group, the frequencies of PP and PA genotype were 328 (87.2%) and 48 (12.8%), while the frequencies of PP and PA genotypes in the cognitive dysfunction group were 126 (92.9%), 9 (7.1%) respectively. Analyzed by chi2 test, both the genotype frequency and the allele frequency of PPARy2 Pro12Ala polymorphism did not display statistical variability between the cognitive normal group and the cognitive dysfunction group, even eliminating the influence of age and sexuality. CONCLUSION: Pro12Ala polymorphism in PPARgamma2 with primary hypertension may not associate with cognitive impairment.