A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Pharmacogenetic Studies in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important global public health problem due to its high prevalence and morbidity. Although the treatment of nephrology patients has changed considerably, ineffectiveness and side effects of medications represent a major issue. In an effort to elucidate the contribution of genetic variants located in several genes in the response to treatment of patients with CKD, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of all available pharmacogenetics studies. The association between genotype distribution and response to medication was examined using the dominant, recessive, and additive inheritance models. Subgroup analysis based on ethnicity was also performed. In total, 29 studies were included in the meta-analysis, which examined the association of 11 genes (16 polymorphisms) with the response to treatment regarding CKD. Among the 29 studies, 18 studies included patients with renal transplantation, 8 involved patients with nephrotic syndrome, and 3 studies included patients with lupus nephritis. The present meta-analysis provides strong evidence for the contribution of variants harbored in the ABCB1, IL-10, ITPA, MIF, and TNF genes that creates some genetic predisposition that reduces effectiveness or is associated with adverse events of medications used in CKD.     

纳米纤维素的疏水改性及应用研究进展

纳米纤维素作为一种性能优越的可再生纳米材料，应用前景极为广阔。然而，由于纳米纤维素结构上富含羟基，使其具有极强的亲水性，严重影响了纳米纤维素的疏水性能，并且在一定程度上限制了其在复合材料领域的应用。综述了纳米纤维素疏水改性的研究进展，从物理吸附、表面化学修饰（甲硅烷化、烷酰化、酯化等）、聚合物接枝共聚3个方面简述了目前应用较为广泛的疏水化改性方法，并对疏水纳米纤维素在包装材料、造纸、水净化等方面的应用现状进行了总结。最后对疏水改性纳米纤维素的未来发展进行了展望，旨在为疏水纳米纤维素的研究和应用提供参考。     

木粉疏水改性对HDPE基木塑复合材料性能的影响

采用一种操作简便且易于工业推广的方法对木粉进行疏水改性，具体过程为：将3种可热聚合的单体，即甲基丙烯酸甲酯（MMA）、甲基丙烯酸丁酯（BMA）和苯乙烯（St）均匀喷洒在木粉上，经过预热处理后，与配方中其他组分，如高密度聚乙烯（HDPE）和马来酸酐接枝聚乙烯（MAPE）等通过高速混合机混合均匀，采用双螺杆挤出机造粒后，注射制备木塑复合材料（WPC）样条，测试其力学性能。另外，考察了疏水改性对WPC接触角、维卡软化温度、洛氏硬度、吸水性能、热性能的影响规律。结果表明：疏水改性后WPC的接触角增大，木粉和HDPE的界面相容性改善，力学性能得到明显提高。其中，当MMA、BMA和St的添加量为3%时，WPC的力学性能最好，与疏水改性前相比，弯曲强度分别提高了17.3%、26.3%和27.5%，弯曲模量分别提高了24.4%、24.4%和26.0%，冲击强度分别提高了54.7%、57.7%和60.5%。 此外，疏水改性后WPC的维卡软化温度、洛氏硬度、耐水性和耐热性也得到改善。     

Examining the role of regional culture and geographical distances on the representation of unfamiliar foods in a continental-size country

This study provides an experimental-exploratory investigation about the role of regional culture and Euclidean distances on the consumers’ representation of edible insects in Brazil, a country with an extensive geographical surface. Seven hundred and eighty participants were recruited on the streets of eight cities from different Brazilian states: Manaus in Amazonas; Porto Velho in Rondônia; Macapá in Amapá; Cuiabá in Mato Grosso; Aracaju in Sergipe; Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro; Campinas in São Paulo; and Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul. These participating cities were considered from their cultural identity differences and geographical distances. Through a continual restricted word association task, participants were instructed to promptly verbalize the first five terms that came to their minds when stimulated with the expression “food made with edible insects”. Following, they had to score the valence of each term they produced. The dictionaries produced in each city were compared and classified into groups using the Ellegård’s index. Each group presented distinct ways of expression and attitude with respect to the inductive expression. Basically, Brazil was divided into two main groups according to their representation of edible insects: one consisted by the cities situated near the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, which present a cultural formation influenced by the European immigrants; and the other comprised the cities from the continental region that have strong cultural influence from the Amerindians. Thus, the cultural formation was more decisive to explain the similar representations among the cities than their geographical proximity. Given that, to effectively introduce a novel food in a country with varied regional culture, the marketing strategy should be focused on the values and beliefs of their culture subgroups instead of a single strategy for the whole country.     

Dual pH‐ and thermal‐responsive nanocomposite hydrogels for controllable delivery of hydrophobic drug baicalein

Hydrogels have been widely used as mild biomaterials due to their bio‐affinity, high drug loading capability and controllable release profiles. However, hydrogel‐based carriers are greatly limited for the delivery of hydrophobic payloads due to the lack of hydrophobic binding sites. Herein, nano‐liposome micelles were embedded in semi‐interpenetrating poly[(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐co‐chitosan] (PNIPAAm‐co‐CS) and poly[(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐co‐(sodium alginate)] (PNIPAAm‐co‐SA) hydrogels which were responsive to both temperature and pH, thereby establishing tunable nanocomposite hydrogel delivery systems. Nano‐micelles formed via the self‐assembly of phospholipid could serve as the link between hydrophobic drug and hydrophilic hydrogel due to their special amphiphilic structure. The results of transmission and scanning electron microscopies and infrared spectroscopy showed that the porous hydrogels were successfully fabricated and the liposomes encapsulated with baicalein could be well contained in the network. In addition, the experimental results of response release in vitro revealed that the smart hydrogels showed different degree of sensitiveness under different pH and temperature stimuli. The results of the study demonstrate that combining PNIPAAm‐co‐SA and PNIPAAm‐co‐CS hydrogels with liposomes encapsulated with hydrophobic drugs is a feasible method for hydrophobic drug delivery and have potential application prospects in the medical field. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and post-GWAS analyses for technological traits in Assaf and Churra dairy breeds

This study aimed to perform a GWAS to identify genomic regions associated with milk and cheese-making traits in Assaf and Churra dairy sheep breeds; second, it aimed to identify possible positional and functional candidate genes and their interactions through post-GWAS studies. For 2,020 dairy ewes from 2 breeds (1,039 Spanish Assaf and 981 Churra), milk samples were collected and analyzed to determine 6 milk production and composition traits and 6 traits related to milk coagulation properties and cheese yield. The genetic profiles of the ewes were obtained using a genotyping chip array that included 50,934 SNP markers. For both milk and cheese-making traits, separate single-breed GWAS were performed using GCTA software. The set of positional candidate genes identified via GWAS was subjected to guilt-by-association-based prioritization analysis with ToppGene software. Totals of 84 and 139 chromosome-wise significant associations for the 6 milk traits and the 6 cheese-making traits were identified in this study. No significant SNPs were found in common between the 2 studied breeds, possibly due to their genetic heterogeneity of the phenotypes under study. Additionally, 63 and 176 positional candidate genes were located in the genomic intervals defined as confidence regions in relation to the significant SNPs identified for the analyzed traits for Assaf and Churra breeds. After the functional prioritization analysis, 71 genes were identified as promising positional and functional candidate genes and proposed as targets of future research to identify putative causative variants in relation to the traits under examination. In addition, this multitrait study allowed us to identify variants that have a pleiotropic effect on both milk production and cheese-related traits. The incorporation of variants among the proposed functional and positional candidate genes into genomic selection strategies represent an interesting approach for achieving rapid genetic gains, specifically for those traits difficult to measure, such as cheese-making traits.     

Improved rheological properties and stability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes/polymer in harsh environment

This work aims to improve the rheological properties and stability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)/acrylamide (AA) base skeleton polymer blends at harsh environment of high salinity-high temperature (HS-HT) or various pH. Different co/terpolymers have been accomplished to modify the structure of AA polymer by free-radical copolymerization of AA-based monomers. Anionic, cationic, and hydrophobic functional groups were used for the synthesis of polyelectrolyte, polyampholytic, and partially hydrophobic AA polymer types. The conversion, molecular weight, and poly dispersity of co/terpolymers have been evaluated by nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR), gel permeation chromatography, and differential scanning calorimetry analysis. The effects of sonication power, concentration of polymer, and concentration of MWCNTs were also investigated on rheological behavior of co/terpolymers. The results show that negative polyelectrolyte and polyampholytic polymers are the best candidates for the improvement of MWCNTs/polymer stability and viscosity at HS-HT and alkali environment, respectively. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47205.     

Investigation of Copper Recovery from a New Copper Deposit (Nussir) in Northern Norway

ABSTRACT

Norway has seen an upsurge of interest in exploiting its mineral deposits during the last decade. One of the major areas of interest is a huge copper deposit, operated by Nussir ASA located in the Repparfjord tectonic window in the Caledonides of west Finnmark. Nussir ASA is evaluating the Nussir and Ulveryggen mineral resources that contain copper sulfides with a small amount of gold and silver bearing minerals. The performance of flotation operations is generally evaluated on the basis of degree of liberation of minerals or the surface interactions between the collector and mineral. Firstly, size-by-size mineralogical characterization of the flotation feed and cumulative final product using Zeiss automated mineralogy techniques (Mineralogic) revealed that mineral liberation heavily influenced the flotation behavior of the ore. Furthermore, in order to assess the role of pH, collector concentration and flotation time, bench scale flotation experiments were performed. The metallurgical results were maximum between pH 6 and 8 and at collector concentration 6 × 10^?5 M. A correlation is established using the zeta potential and Hallimond flotation tests to assess the role of operating parameters in flotation. The distinctive role of process mineralogy and flotation chemical influence for copper mineral flotation of Nussir ore is presented in this article.