Association of short-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and ozone with outpatient visits for anxiety disorders: A hospital-based case-crossover study in South China.

Background: The short-term adverse effects of ambient fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O) on anxiety disorders (ADs) remained inconclusive.

Methods: We applied an individual-level time-stratified case-crossover study, which including 126,112 outpatient visits for ADs during 2019-2021 in Guangdong province, China, to investigate the association of short-term exposure to PM and O with outpatient visits for ADs, and estimate excess outpatient visits in South China. Daily residential air pollutant exposure assessments were performed by extracting grid data (spatial resolution: 1 km × 1 km) from validated datasets.

Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and cancer mortality: A difference-in-differences approach.

The association of ambient fine particulate matter (PM) exposure with cancer mortality was controversial, which may ascribe to the difference in PM constituents. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are carcinogenic constituents in PM, which are suspected to account for PM-induced cancer mortality but are yet to be investigated. We aimed to assess the association between long-term exposure to PM-bound PAHs and cancer mortality and estimate the attributable mortality.

Association between central obesity and semen quality: A cross-sectional study in 4513 Chinese sperm donation volunteers.

Background: General obesity classified by body mass index has been linked to a reduction in semen quality; however, evidence on the adverse effect of central obesity on semen quality remains limited.

Objectives: To investigate the association between central obesity and semen quality.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 4513 sperm donation volunteers in Guangdong Provincial Human Sperm Bank during 2018-2021.

Differential roles of the fish chitinous membrane in gut barrier immunity and digestive compartments.

The chitin-based peritrophic matrix (PM) is a structure critical for both gut immunity and digestion in invertebrates. PM was traditionally considered lost in all vertebrates, but a PM-like chitinous membrane (CM) has recently been discovered in fishes, which may increase the knowledge on vertebrate gut physiology and structural evolution. Here, we show that in zebrafish, the CM affects ingestion behavior, microbial homeostasis, epithelial renewal, digestion, growth, and longevity.

Association between ambient temperature and semen quality among sperm donation volunteers in South China.

Background: Potential adverse effects of non-optimum temperatures on human semen quality have drawn much concern worldwide; however, the exposure-response relationship remains less understood.

Objectives: To quantitatively assess the association between exposure to ambient temperature and semen quality in South China, and to identify potential critical exposure windows.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate 11,050 volunteers who lived in Guangdong province, China and intended to donate sperm in the Guangdong provincial human sperm bank during 2016-2021.

Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter and site-specific cancer mortality: A difference-in-differences analysis in Jiangsu province, China.

Background: Accumulating studies have reported that chronic exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM) can lead to adverse effects on lung cancer mortality; however, such chronic effects are less clear for mortality from other site-specific cancers.

Objective: To explore the causal effect of long-term PM exposure on mortality from all-site and a variety of site-specific cancers in Jiangsu province, China during 2015-2020 using a difference-in-differences analysis.

Methods: For each of 53 county-based spatial units in Jiangsu province, we calculated annual death counts for all-site cancer and 23 site-specific cancers.

Asthma mortality attributable to ambient temperatures: A case-crossover study in China.

Background: Whether ambient temperature exposure contributes to death from asthma remains unknown to date. We therefore conducted a case-crossover study in China to quantitatively evaluate the association and burden of ambient temperature exposure on asthma mortality.

Methods: Using data from the National Mortality Surveillance System in China, we conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study of 15 888 individuals who lived in Hubei and Jiangsu province, China and died from asthma as the underlying cause in 2015-2019.

Association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and dementia mortality in Chinese adults.

Background: Short-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of mortality from a variety of causes, but its effects on mortality from dementia remain largely unknown.

Objectives: To investigate the association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and dementia mortality, and quantitatively assess the excess mortality.

Methods: In this time-stratified case-crossover study, 47,108 dementia deaths were identified in Jiangsu province, China during 2015-2019.

Association of short-term exposure to ambient air pollution with mortality from ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.

Background: Short-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked to increased risk of stroke mortality, but its adverse effects on mortality from specific types of stroke including ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke remain poorly understood.

Methods: Using the China National Mortality Surveillance System, we conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study among 412,567 stroke deaths in Jiangsu province, China during 2015-2019. Residential daily PM , PM , SO , NO , CO, and O exposure concentrations were extracted from the ChinaHighAirPollutants dataset for each subject.

Association of short-term exposure to air pollution with recurrent ischemic cerebrovascular events in older adults.

The acute effects of ambient air pollution on recurrence of ischemic cerebrovascular events (ICEs) remains largely unknown. We therefore conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study of 43,896 patients who were 60 years or older and were admitted to hospital for recurrent ICEs including ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack in Guangzhou, China during 2016-2019. Based on each patient's home address and pollutant data from its neighboring air quality monitoring stations, we used an inverse distance weighting method to assess exposures to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.

Ambient air pollution and hospitalization for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Benefits from Three-Year Action Plan.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalization has been linked with ambient air pollution. However, the evidence on respiratory health benefits from air pollution control policy in China is limited.

Objective: To investigate benefits from the Three-Year Action Plan to Win the Battle for a Blue Sky (TYAP) for tackling COPD hospitalization due to ambient air pollution.

Two Amphioxus ApeC-Containing Proteins Bind to Microbes and Inhibit the TRAF6 Pathway.

The apextrin C-terminal (ApeC) domain is a class of newly discovered protein domains with an origin dating back to prokaryotes. ApeC-containing proteins (ACPs) have been found in various marine and aquatic invertebrates, but their functions and the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Early studies suggested that amphioxus ACP1 and ACP2 bind to bacterial cell walls and have a role in immunity.

Association of malignant neoplasms with semen quality in Guangdong province, China: A propensity score matching analysis.

Background: Previous studies have reported lower semen quality in malignant neoplasm patients before antineoplastic treatments, but the adverse effects of malignant neoplasms on semen quality have rarely been quantitatively evaluated. In addition, due to the lack of a comparable control group and limited types of studied malignant neoplasms, the results remain inconsistent and inconclusive.

Objectives: To quantitatively evaluate the potential adverse effects of specific malignant neoplasms on semen quality.

Association of exposure to residential greenness with semen quality: A retrospective longitudinal study of sperm donation volunteers in Guangdong province, China.

Background: Exposure to residential greenness has been associated with benefits on certain reproductive health outcomes. However, its potential benefits on semen quality remain unknown.

Objectives: To quantitatively explore the association between exposure to residential greenness and semen quality.

The family of amphioxus chitin synthases offers insight into the evolution of chitin formation in chordates.

Chitin is a very important and widely-used biopolymer in fungi and lower metazoans, but mysteriously disappears in mammals. Recent studies reveal that at least lower vertebrates have chitin synthases (CS) and use them to synthesize endogenous chitin. Amphioxus, a basal chordate, therefore becomes critical to understand the evolution of CS, as it occupies the transitional position from invertebrates to vertebrates, and is considered as a good proxy to the chordate ancestor.

Aquivion Perfluorosulfonic Superacid as an Efficient Pickering Interfacial Catalyst for the Hydrolysis of Triglycerides.

Rational design of the surface properties of heterogeneous catalysts can boost the interfacial activity in biphasic reactions through the generation of Pickering emulsions. This concept, termed Pickering interfacial catalysis (PIC), has shown promising credentials in acid-catalyzed transesterification, ester hydrolysis, acetalization, etherification, and alkylation reactions. PIC has now been applied to the efficient, solvent-free hydrolysis of the triglyceride glyceryl trilaurate to lauric acid, catalyzed by Aquivion perfluorosulfonic superacid at mild conditions (100 °C and ambient pressure).

Dynamics of Pickering Emulsions in the Presence of an Interfacial Reaction: A Simulation Study.

Pickering emulsions combining surface-active and catalytic properties offer a promising platform for conducting interfacial reactions between immiscible reagents. Despite the significant progress in the design of Pickering interfacial catalysts for a broad panel of reactions, the dynamics of Pickering emulsions under reaction conditions is still poorly understood. Herein, using benzene hydroxylation with aqueous HO as a model system, we explored the dynamics of benzene/water Pickering emulsions during reaction by dissipative particle dynamics.

Tunable catalysts for solvent-free biphasic systems: pickering interfacial catalysts over amphiphilic silica nanoparticles.

Stabilization of oil/oil Pickering emulsions using robust and recyclable catalytic amphiphilic silica nanoparticles bearing alkyl and propylsulfonic acid groups allows fast and efficient solvent-free acetalization of immiscible long-chain fatty aldehydes with ethylene glycol.

Pickering Interfacial Catalysts for solvent-free biomass transformation: physicochemical behavior of non-aqueous emulsions.

A key challenge in biomass conversion is how to achieve valuable molecules with optimal reactivity in the presence of immiscible reactants. This issue is usually tackled using either organic solvents or surfactants to promote emulsification, making industrial processes expensive and not environmentally friendly. As an alternative, Pickering emulsions using solid particles with tailored designed surface properties can promote phase contact within intrinsically biphasic systems.