Excess Content Research Articles

Methanol Fueled Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with Pt-SDC Anodes

A low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (LT-SOFC) is a next-generation energy conversion device and has advantages of high energy efficiency, fast start up and shut down and eco-friendliness. In addition, since it has the advantage of being able to use various fuels such as hydrogen, alcohol, and methane gas, research is being actively conducted in recent years. However, LT-SOFC using hydrogen as a fuel has difficulties in storing and transporting fuel, making it difficult to apply as a portable device. On the other hand, methanol fuel is an attractive alternative fuel because it is easier to transport and store than hydrogen fuel and has a high volumetric energy density. However, when methanol is applied to LT-SOFC, there is a disadvantage in performance due to the complicated oxidation process and CO poisoning. Complex methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and CO poisoning reduce the performance and durability of fuel cells. Therefore, it is important to use a catalyst that can prevent CO poisoning and improve the oxidation reaction of methanol. Pt is an effective catalyst for methanol decomposition and is one of the materials widely used in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). However, there is a problem in that it is vulnerable to CO generated during the methanol oxidation process. It is known that CO is adsorbed on the Pt surface, blocks the active site, and reduces catalytic activity. Therefore, alloying Pt with samaria-doped ceria (SDC) with high oxygen storage capacity (OSC) and good OH generation capacity can be effective to reduce CO poisoning and coking.In this study, we prepared the cells with Pt-SDC cermet anodes with the Pt volume percent of 69 (Pt 0.69), 83 (Pt 0.83), 92 (Pt 0.92), and 95 (Pt 0.95) volume% by varying Pt and SDC powers in the co-sputtering process. In the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), ohmic resistance was similar between all samples; on the other hand, activation resistance was measured to be 24.0, 19.5, 31.8, 30.8, and 53.0 Ω∙cm2 at Pt 0.69, Pt 0.83, Pt 0.92, Pt 0.95, and Pt 1 samples, respectively, confirming the lowest activation resistance at Pt 0.83. We speculate that the MOR is improved by the increase of triple phase boundary (TPB) sites and the facilitation of bifunctional CO oxidation mechanisms with higher content of SDC up to 17 mol% (Pt 0.83). However, in the anode with excessive SDC content (31 mol%, Pt 0.69), the Pt is oxidized to form PtO2, lowering the catalytic activity.

On the interaction between Mn, Sb and O during the annealing and selective oxidation of Fe-Mn-Sb alloys

The effect of Mn on the interfacial segregation of Sb for a series of cold-rolled Fe- (2–10) Mn-0.03Sb (at. pct) alloys was determined. Using Atom Probe Tomography (APT), it was found that increasing the substrate Mn content increased Sb segregation at both internal and external Mn-oxide/substrate interfaces, which in turn decreased the excess oxygen content at these interfaces. This is attributed to the reduction of Sb solubility in α-Fe with increasing Mn concentration and positive interactions between Sb and Mn. APT analysis revealed that the excess interfacial oxygen content decreased with increasing Sb segregated to the interfaces due to site competition between O and Sb.

Health-related cues on the packages of processed and ultra-processed products: prevalence and policy implications.

The information included on food packages has a crucial role in influencing consumer product associations and purchase decisions. In particular, visual and textual cues on processed and ultra-processed products can convey health-related associations that influence consumer healthiness perception and purchase decisions. In this context, the present work aimed to explore the use of health-related cues on the packages of processed and ultra-processed products sold in Uruguay to provide insights for policy making. A total of 3813 products from thirty-four different food categories found in four of the most important supermarket chains in Uruguay were surveyed. The textual and visual information included on the packages as well as the nutritional composition of the products were analysed. Results showed that 67 % of the products included at least one health-related cue. Pictures of culinary ingredients, natural and minimally processed foods were the most frequent health-related cue, followed by references to naturalness and claims related to critical nutrients. The prevalence of health-related cues largely differed across product categories, ranging from 100 to 17 %. The relationship between the presence of health-related cues on the packages and the excessive content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases was assessed using a gradient boosting model, which showed limited predictive ability. This suggests that the inclusion of health-related cues on food packages was not strongly related to the nutritional composition of products and therefore cannot be regarded as a healthiness indicator. These results stress the need to develop stricter labelling regulations to protect consumers from misleading information.

Evaluating the potential implications of canadian front-of-pack labelling regulations in generic and branded food composition databases

BackgroundCanada proposed the implementation of mandatory front-of-pack (FOP) labelling regulations, whereby foods meeting or exceeding thresholds for nutrients-of-concern (i.e., total sugars, saturated fat, sodium) must display a ‘high-in’ FOP symbol (FOP). The objective of the study was to evaluate the potential implications of the proposed regulations using Canadian generic and branded food composition databases.MethodsA generic food composition database of products consumed by Canadians, Canadian Nutrient File (CNF) 2015 (n = 3,677), and a branded food composition database of packaged foods and beverages, Food Label Information Program (FLIP) 2017 (n = 17,521), were used to evaluate the number and proportion of foods that would display a FOP symbol based on the details of the proposed FOP labelling regulations published in 2018.ResultsOverall, 35.5% (n = 1,306) of products in CNF 2015 and 63.9% (n = 11,193) of products in FLIP 2017 would display a FOP symbol for at least one nutrient-of-concern exceeding proposed thresholds. Soups, Combination Dishes, and Desserts categories in CNF 2015 and Combination dishes, Soups, and Meats categories in FLIP 2017 would have the highest proportion of products that would display a FOP symbol. Although displaying a FOP symbol for one nutrient was most common in both CNF 2015 (n = 992; 27.0%) and FLIP 2017 (n = 7,296, 41.6%), the number (i.e., 0–3) and type (i.e., saturated fat, sodium, total sugar) of nutrients displayed varied by food category.ConclusionWhile the generic database, containing both packaged and unpackaged foods, revealed a low prevalence of foods that would display a FOP symbol, the branded database showed that the proposed FOP labelling regulations would identify over 60% of packaged foods with excess contents of nutrients-of-concern. Considering the high prevalence of packaged foods in Canada that would meet or exceed the thresholds of nutrients-of-concern, the proposed FOP labelling regulations should be implemented in a timely manner to help consumers easily identify foods high in nutrients-of-concern and encourage manufacturer-driven product reformulations.

Enteric methane mitigation through Asparagopsis taxiformis supplementation and potential algal alternatives

Research is increasingly directed towards decreasing the greenhouse gases contribution, specifically methane, from the livestock agriculture sector. Macroalgae supplementation has emerged as a promising tool to mitigate enteric methane emission in ruminants. The mode of action responsible for the mitigation effect centers around the content of volatile halogenated compounds, primarily bromoform. The sub-tropical red seaweed, Asparagopsis taxiformis, is the most well researched bromoform containing species. While several studies, both in vitro and in vivo, have demonstrated the effectiveness of A. taxiformis at reducing enteric methane emission (> 80% reduction), questions surrounding sustainability, animal productivity, animal product quality, and commercial practicality remain. These questions by no means disqualify the practice of feeding macroalgae to cattle to reduce methane emission, but they must be answered before implementing macroalgae as a feed additive commercially. Also, limiting scientific inquiry to a few species reduces the potential of discovering other compounds and modes of action that could produce the desired mitigation effect without the inherit drawbacks of the current options. Work conducted in both ruminant nutrition and human health fields have identified numerous bioactive compounds within plants that exhibit anti-microbial functions that could modify the rumen microbiome for beneficial outcomes. These compounds are also found in macroalgae. Phlorotannins, saponins, sulfonated glycans, other halocarbons and bacteriocins found within macroalgae have demonstrated antimicrobial activity in vitro. However, it is unclear what effect these compounds may have when used in vivo. Once identified, extracting these compounds for supplementation in lieu of feeding the entire plant may be a more practical solution. Dietary inclusion levels of macroalgae in ruminant diets can be limited by variation in active ingredient concentration, palatability to cattle, and excessive dietary mineral content. There are multiple in vitro studies that have demonstrated a methane reduction potential of non-bromoform containing species, but inclusion levels are often well above the effective levels of A. taxiformis (< 0.5% of dietary dry matter). In some animal studies, A. taxiformis supplementation has led to decreased dry matter intake and productivity and elevated mineral accumulation, such as iodine, in animal products. Therefore, methane mitigation by macroalgae will likely have to occur at low dietary concentrations to be practical. This review aims to highlight potential benefits and challenges that feeding macroalgae as a tool for methane reduction may have on animal production, the environment, animal and consumer health.

Nondestructive circadian profiling of starch content in fresh intact Arabidopsis leaf with two-photon fluorescence and second-harmonic generation imaging

Plant chloroplasts conduct photosynthesis to convert solar energy into sugars for the carbon source essential for cell living and growth during the day. One fraction of photosynthetic products is stored in chloroplasts by forming starch granules to continue the provision of carbon energy during the night. Currently, profiling the starch temporal pattern requires either: (i) sacrificing the leaves, or (ii) generating transgenic plants at the risk of changing the metabolisms by incorporating a genetically modified granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS). In this paper, we demonstrated a nondestructive method using two-photon fluorescence (TPF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging to quantify starch granules within chloroplasts of fresh intact leaves across a day-night cycle. We did so using two Arabidopsis lines having normal and excess starch contents: wild-type (Columbia-0) and starch excess 1 (sex1). The starch granules were visualized by SHG imaging, while the chloroplasts in mesophyll cells were visualized by TPF imaging. Our results provided micron scale spatial resolution of starch distribution within leaves and showed starch circadian patterns consistent with those profiled by enzymatic assays in previous studies. We demonstrated that TPF-SHG imaging is a potential tool for revealing the real-time heterogeneity of starch circadian rhythm in leaf cells, without the need for destructive sample preparation.

The Uptake of Essential Mineral Elements by Endemic Salvia absconditiflora (Greuter & Burdet) Growing in Natural Habitats

This study was conducted to determine the uptake of essential mineral elements by endemic Salvia absconditiflora species growing in the natural habitats of Kırşehir province and its dependence on some physical and chemical properties of soil. The plant and soil samples were collected from 10 different locations. It was found that in the collected plants, K concentration was inadequate (0.344%), Fe had an excessive amount (541.853 mg kg-1), while Cu, Zn, Mn, Mg and Ca concentrations were adequate (6.154 mg kg-1, 32.610 mg kg-1, 43.395 mg kg-1, 0.507% and 3.650%). The soils had sandy clay loam texture, slight alkaline reaction (pH=7.92), an average amount of organic matter (3.06%), high amount of calcareous (35.61%) and low amount of soluble salts. It was also determined that soils had adequate K, Ca and Mg concentrations and 80% of the soil samples had inadequate level of P. Since Cu concentration was adequate in terms of microelement stock, concentrations of Zn were inadequate (0.292 mg kg-1). It was found that Salvia absconditiflora plant had the ability to grow in the soil with inadequate Zn and Mn.

Hygienic assessment of manganese content in household and drinking water supply sources of the Vladimir region

Introduction. One of the most important tasks to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population of the Vladimir region is to provide it with high-quality drinking water. Due to the territory of the region to be partially associated with known hydrogeochemical anomalies of excess manganese content in groundwater, a hygienic assessment of the water of economic and drinking sources was carried out according to the content of this element. Materials and methods. The paper presents the data of own research of the Department of Biology and Ecology of the Vladimir State University named after A.G. and N.G. Stoletov for 2021. During this period, the authors of the work examined about 110 samples of water from the household and drinking centralized and non-centralized water supply of the Vladimir region. Water samples were taken in the largest settlements (these are district centers, regional cities and large district settlements) and from drinking water sources of individual farms located in the territory of the region in various districts. The manganese content in water was determined on the analyzer “Fluorat-02-5M” according to HDPE F 14.1:2:4.188-02. Results. The drinking water of the centralized water supply of the Vladimir region in terms of manganese content was established to meet regulatory requirements and be safe for the health of the resident population. In all samples of drinking water, the concentration of manganese is below 0.1 mg/dm3. At the same time, water from underground sources of non-centralized water supply has in some cases an excess of manganese (from 2 to 7 MPC), which is primarily due to the specifics of the geochemical composition of the water-bearing rocks of these territories. Conclusion in order to provide the population of territories using underground water with a high content of manganese, it is necessary to build local modular water treatment plants using modern methods of non-reactive de-ironing and demanganation and using effective modern equipment and filtering materials.

Fusion Separation of Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite and Enrichment Test of Ti Element in Slag.

In view of the problem that the enrichment and migration law of the Ti element in the slag of vanadium-titanium magnetite during the melting process is not clear, the phase transformation is not clear and the enrichment effect is not obvious, the single factor experiment and orthogonal experiment are used to optimize the melting conditions of Ti enrichment. Through XRD, SEM and EDS analysis, the effects of melting temperature, alkalinity and carbon content on the Ti phase in the slag are studied, and the occurrence form and migration law of the Ti element in the slag system under different melting conditions are clarified. The results demonstrate that increasing the basicity and melting temperature is beneficial to the enrichment of Ti, but it is too high it will lead to the formation of pyroxene, diopside and magnesia-alumina spinel, affecting the enrichment of Ti. The increase in carbon content can make Ti occur in slag in the form of titanium oxides such as TiO, TiO2, Ti2O3 and Ti3O5, but excessive carbon content leads to the excessive reduction of Ti compounds to TiCN and TiC. After optimization, under the melting conditions of alkalinity 1.2, the melting temperature 1500 °C and carbon content 15%, the content of Ti in slag can reach 18.84%, and the recovery rate is 93.54%. By detecting the content of Fe and V in molten iron, the recovery rates are 99.86% and 95.64%, respectively.

Pyrolysis characteristics of anaerobic digestate from kitchen waste and availability of Phosphorus in pyrochar

Pyrolysis of digestate from anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste yielded combustible gas and liquid with biochar as solid product. In this study, the pyrolysis characterization of the digestate and the P availability of the obtained pyrochar were discussed. Thermogravimetry (TG) analysis showed that 15.56 % of the weight loss occurred from 600 °C to 750 °C due to CaCO3 decomposition. When the final temperature increased from 500 °C to 700 °C, the HHV of pyrogas was slightly affected elevated from 17.20 MJ/Nm3 to 18.12 MJ/Nm3, while the relative content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the liquid raised from 1.36 % to 6.28 %. SMT analysis showed that phosphorus in the pyrochar was fully converted to apatite phosphorus (AP) due to an excessive Ca content. Neutral ammonia citrate (NAC) extraction indicated that the availability of P in pyrochar was significantly decreased from 7.97 mg/g at 500 °C to 2.29 mg/g at 700 °C. Overall, the results showed that pyrolysis at 500 °C was suitable to obtain high-quality fuel and pyrochar with high P availability.

Overexpression of Zostera japonica 14-3-3 gene ZjGRF1 enhances the resistance of transgenic Arabidopsis to copper stress.

Copper is both a nutrient essential for plant growth and a pollutant. In recent decades, with the rapid development of industrial and agricultural production, copper has been used more and more widely, and its consumption has also increased rapidly. Excessive soil copper contents induce phytotoxicity, affecting plant growth, development and yields. Moreover, copper can accumulate in crops and enter the food chain through enrichment, harming human health. In this study, Arabidopsis wild-type (WT) and Zostera japonica 14-3-3 gene ZjGRF1 overexpression lines were used to explore the physiological function and molecular mechanism of ZjGRF1 in Arabidopsis in the copper stress response. Under copper stress, compared with WT plants, transgenic ZjGRF1 Arabidopsis plants exhibited less inhibition of root growth and development and had higher fresh weights. Under copper stress, the soluble sugar and soluble protein contents in transgenic ZjGRF1 Arabidopsis plants were significantly higher than those in WT plants, while the superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase and catalase (CAT) activities were significantly higher than those in WT plants. Additionally, the malonaldehyde content of transgenic plants was significantly lower than that of WT plants. Furthermore, qRT-PCR results showed that under copper stress, the SOD, CAT1 and HMA5 expression levels in transgenic ZjGRF1 Arabidopsis plants were significantly higher than those in WT plants, while COPT1 expression was significantly lower than that in WT plants. ZjGRF1 enhanced the copper stress resistance of Arabidopsis by maintaining high antioxidant enzyme activity, increasing copper efflux and reducing copper uptake under copper stress.

Autophagy in the Lifetime of Plants: From Seed to Seed.

Autophagy is a highly conserved self-degradation mechanism in eukaryotes. Excess or harmful intracellular content can be encapsulated by double-membrane autophagic vacuoles and transferred to vacuoles for degradation in plants. Current research shows three types of autophagy in plants, with macroautophagy being the most important autophagic degradation pathway. Until now, more than 40 autophagy-related (ATG) proteins have been identified in plants that are involved in macroautophagy, and these proteins play an important role in plant growth regulation and stress responses. In this review, we mainly introduce the research progress of autophagy in plant vegetative growth (roots and leaves), reproductive growth (pollen), and resistance to biotic (viruses, bacteria, and fungi) and abiotic stresses (nutrients, drought, salt, cold, and heat stress), and we discuss the application direction of plant autophagy in the future.

A Comparison of the Mediterranean Diet and Current Food Patterns in Italy: A Life Cycle Thinking Approach for a Sustainable Consumption.

The transition toward more sustainable food systems, which already represents a central element of the European Farm to Fork and Green Deal strategies, could be an effective measure to contribute to global decarbonization and greenhouse gas (GHGs) reduction goals; concurrently, it could improve the health status and nutrition of the global population. In this context, the Mediterranean diet (MD) could play a considerable role, as it is generally recognized as a more balanced, healthy, and sustainable eating pattern than Western consumption patterns, which are characterized by excess food and high energy content, thus causing undesirable effects on both human health and the environment. Although traditionally linked to MD, Italy sees relatively moderate adherence by its citizens, as they consume about +75% of the daily caloric intake recommended by MD. Therefore, this study aims to quantitatively assess the potential environmental, economic, and health impacts of this lower adherence to MD by Italians. Current Italian Food Patterns (CIFP) in 2019 were analyzed and compared to the MD recommended amounts through a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach (LCA) and carbon footprint (CF) analysis. The results show that CIFP, compared to MD, has +133% greater impacts on the environmental macro-area, +100% greater impacts on the human health macro-area, and +59% greater impacts on the economic macro-area (with annual fossil and mineral resource savings of $53.35 per person, $3.2 billion per year). The analysis also shows that CIFP has a CF of 6.54 × 101 kg CO2 eq, +142% over MD (2.7 × 101 kg CO2 eq), resulting in a lower environmental impact of the Mediterranean diet.

A Path Load-Aware Based Caching Strategy for Information-Centric Networking

Ubiquitous in-network caching plays an important role in improving the efficiency of content access and distribution in Information-Centric Networks (ICN). Content placement strategies, which determine the location distribution of content replicas in the network, have a decisive impact on the performance of the cache system. Existing strategies primarily focus on pushing popular content to the network edge, aiming to improve the overall cache hit ratio while neglecting to effectively balance the traffic load between network links; this leads to insufficient utilization of network bandwidth resources and further excessive content delivery time and user QoE degradation. In this paper, a Path Load-Aware Based Caching strategy (PLABC) is proposed, in which content-related information and dynamic network-related information are comprehensively considered to make cache decisions. Specifically, the utility of caching the content at each on-path node is calculated according to the bandwidth consumption savings and the load level of the transmission path, and the node with the greatest utility value is selected as the caching node. Extensive simulations are conducted to compare the performance of PLABC with other state-of-the-art schemes by quantitative analysis. Simulation results validate the PLABC strategy’s effectiveness, especially in balancing link load and reducing content delivery time.

STUDY OF QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE COMPOSITION OF RUMINAL MICROBIOTA WHEN USING HIGH-FIBER DIETS

Fiber is necessary for ruminants to stimulate the activity of the rumen, keep healthy and maintain a certain level of milk fat content. Its deficiency or, on the contrary, its excess content has a negative effect on ruminants, therefore, when organizing feeding it is necessary to consider not only the level of nutrition of the animal itself, but also the microflora of its proventriculi. The article presents the results of studies on the qualitative and quantitative composition of the ruminal microbiota when using
 high-fiber diets in the winter. It was found that the average daily milk yield was lower when high-fiber diets (23.0-26.11%) were used compared to that of the preliminary period. There is also some quantitative increase in bacteria of such genera as Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Escherichia and a decrease in the number of bacteria of the genera Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Streptococcus, which are important enough to maintain an optimal level of feeding.

Electrochemical formic acid oxidation catalyzed by graphene supported bimetallic Pd-Ni clusters: The role of Ni content and the hydrogen coverage effect

By means of periodic density functional theory calculations, we have investigated the electrocatalytic formic acid oxidation (FAO) on graphene supported Pd-Ni catalysts and elucidate the detail about the role of Ni content in different Pd-Ni atomic ratio and the hydrogen coverage effect. The FAO reaction often onsets at low oxidation potential range, where deposition of hydrogen is alive and affect the catalytic performance of Pd-Ni clusters, accordingly, the FAO reaction on varied H* ratio Pd-Ni clusters accompanying with enhanced external potential is also considered. In our calculation, the H* saturated situation would suppress the formation of COOH* much more than that of HCOO*, even controlling the reaction energy of HCOO* from HCOOH become moderate in FAO reaction. In addition, the potential requirements to proceed the FAO reaction on Pd10-gra and Pd8Ni2-graphene are similar but Ni content could also suppress formation of COOH* and enhance the interaction between Pd8Ni2-graphene and HCOO* species. Pd6Ni4-grahene model is another choice for FAO reaction, in which the HCOO* species on clean Pd6Ni4-graphene model has lowest onset potential of 0.18 V for HCOO* deprotonation to CO2 in all of our models. However, excess Ni content would cause Ni exposed on Pd2Ni8-grahene, where the HCOO* is downhill in energy with a larger onset potential of 0.59 V for the deprotonation of HCOO*, but the hydride formation of 8H* and 9H* Pd2Ni8-graphene could overcome the question.

Molecular Dynamics and Experimental Investigation on the Interfacial Binding Mechanism in the Fe/Cu1-x-Nix Bimetallic Interface.

To systematically investigate the diffusion behavior of Fe/Cu bimetallic materials and the influence of the Ni element on the diffusion and mechanical properties of the Fe/Cu bimetallic interface, the diffusion distance, diffusion coefficient, and strain–stress process based on molecular dynamics (MD) calculations and experimental testing were analyzed. All simulation results indicated that the liquid Cu matrix had a higher diffusion coefficient but hardly diffused into the Fe matrix, and the solid Fe matrix had a smaller diffusion coefficient but diffused deep into the Cu matrix at the same temperature. Compared with the initial state, the addition of nickel atoms to the Cu matrix favored the improvement of the diffusion coefficient and the diffusion distance of Fe/Cu bimetallic materials. Moreover, we found that the diffusion distance and the yield strength simultaneously increased and then decreased with the increase in Ni atoms, which is in agreement with the experimental test results. These improvements in the diffusion and mechanical properties were attributed to the enrichment of Ni atoms at the interface, but excessive Ni content resulted in deteriorated properties. Finally, our research described the enhancement mechanism of the addition of nickel atoms to the Fe/Cu bimetallic diffusion system. An analysis of the contributions of the diffusion distance, the diffusion coefficient, and the yield strength revealed that the diffusion properties of nickel atoms play an important role in Fe/Cu bimetallic materials.

Untangling the effect of solids content on thermal-alkali pre-treatment and anaerobic digestion of sludge

Total solids (TS) content is critical for thermal hydrolysis and anaerobic digestion (AD) performance, but its role in thermal-alkaline pre-treatment (TAP) is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the key role of TS content in TAP and AD of waste activated sludge. The results showed that the optimum TS content of TAP (at 90 °C for 1 h, pH = 10) was 8 %. Sludge disintegration and methane production increased from 19.7 ± 2.2 % to 34.3 ± 2.9 % and from 167.4 ± 4.2 to 246.0 ± 6.2 mL/g volatile solids, respectively, when TS content were increased from 2 % to 8 %. A high TS content will likely promote sludge disintegration since it will reduce heat loss and improve heating efficiency. Additionally, increasing TS content from 2 % to 10 % minimized the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species by 30.4 ± 0.7 % and increased cell viability by 11.5 ± 2.6 %. In contrast, excessive TS content (i.e., ≥10 %) deteriorated the fluidity of sludge, which prevents it from disintegration. Once TS reached 10 %, the accumulation of ammonia nitrogen and volatile fatty acids reached 812.7 ± 27.4 and 1932.0 ± 5.3 mg/L, respectively, which reduced the activity of acidulase and coenzyme F420 and shifted the archaeal community from acetylotrophic to hydrogenotrophic methanogens. This article provides new insights into the TS content in TAP and AD technology.

Association between Mediterranean Diet and Fatty Liver in Women with Overweight and Obesity.

Obesity is a risk factor for NAFLD. However, not all people with obesity have an excessive intrahepatic fat content. Adherence to a high-quality dietary pattern may also promote liver health in obesity. A cross-sectional study of 2967 women with overweight and obesity was carried out to assess the association between a Mediterranean diet and fatty liver. All women underwent clinical examination, anthropometric measurements, blood sampling, ultrasound measurements of abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat, and assessment of adherence to the Mediterranean diet using the 14-item MEDAS questionnaire. Fatty liver index (FLI), NAFLD fatty liver steatosis (NAFLD-FLS) and hepatic steatosis index (HSI) were calculated. In women with obesity, the MEDAS score was inversely associated with FLI (β = −0.60, 95% CI: −1.04, −0.16, p = 0.008), NAFLD-FLS (β = −0.092, 95% CI: −0.134, −0.049, p < 0.001) and HSI (β = −0.17, 95% CI: −0.30, −0.04, p = 0.011). Stronger associations were observed in premenopausal women with obesity. Mediterranean diet was inversely associated with NAFLD-FLS in women with overweight, independently of menopausal status. In conclusion, Mediterranean diet is associated with a better liver status in women with overweight and obesity. This may have a public health impact and be useful in drafting nutritional guidelines for NAFLD.

Estradiol and follicle-stimulating hormone imbalance associated with mineral-bone metabolism disturbances and cardiovascular complications in women on hemodialysis

BACKGROUND. The influence of female sex hormones on the regulation of the processes of formation and resorption of bone tissue, as well as the effect of excess or deficiency of sex hormones on renal function is associated with the development of cardiovascular complications in patients at different stages of chronic kidney disease. THE AIM : to study the relationship between estradiol deficiency and excess FSH content with disorders of mineral and bone metabolism and cardiovascular complications in postmenopausal women on hemodialysis. PATIENTS AND METHODS. 119 women from 34 to 57 years old on hemodialysis were examined. The concentration of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and estradiol2, sclerostin, and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) was determined using a sandwich-variant solid-phase ELISA on a «Multiscan EX analyzer» («ThermoFisher Scientific Inc.», Finland) with kits of «Alkor-Bio Company» (Russian Federation) and sets of "sandwich" type manufactured by Cloud-Clone Corp., USA. Echocardiography was performed using an «ALOKA 4000 Aplio» (Toshiba, Japan) in Doppler mode. Determined the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), peak systolic velocity in the aortic arch (Vps – peak systolic velocity); LV myocardial mass index (LVMI). Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was defined with LVMI greater than 95 g /m 2 in women. RESULTS. There was a direct correlation between high levels of FSH and high levels of sclerostin, FSH, and FGF23, an inverse correlation between low levels of estradiol2 and sclerostin, estradiol2 and FGF23, expressed in groups of patients with more severe changes in LVMI and Vps. CONCLUSION. In women on hemodialysis, bone mineral and cardiovascular abnormalities are associated with both renal failure proper and changes in the system of female sex hormones. A decrease in estradiol levels causes an increase in the nephrotoxic FSH and contributes to the excessive synthesis of sclerostin, a key factor in bone-mineral and cardiovascular complications in CKD.