Activity

Today, the possibility exists to measure a number of different vitamin D metabolites with accurate and precise methods. The most abundant vitamin D metabolite, 25(OH)D, is considered the best marker for estimating vitamin D status and is therefore the most commonly measured in clinical practice. There is no consensus on the added value of measuring other metabolites beyond 25-hydroxyvitamin D, although, in some special clinical scenarios and complicated cases, these metabolites may provide just the information needed for an accurate diagnosis. The problem this review addresses is which metabolite to measure and when and how to measure it.PURPOSE Oxidative stress is closely related to type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), playing a key role in the pathogenesis of the disease and progression of complications. It is characterized by loss of equilibrium between oxidative factors and antioxidant protective mechanisms. Several markers have been used to assess both components of oxidative status; two of which are malondialdehyde (MDA) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Nutlin-3a manufacturer METHODS We investigated glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profile, MDA, and FRAP in 35 patients with T1DM, aged 2-23 years, at the end of two 4-month observational periods period A standard insulin dosing per meal, and period B proper prandial insulin dosing based on the amount of carbohydrates contained in each meal. RESULTS At the end of period B, (i) glucose control (HbA1c) was improved; (ii) oxidative stress, estimated by MDA, showed a tendency to decrease; and (iii) antioxidant capacity, estimated by FRAP, was significantly increased compared with that of period A. No significant differences were observed in the lipid profile of the patients between the two periods. CONCLUSION Proper insulin dosing based on carbohydrate counting (CC) may have an impact on the antioxidant defensive mechanisms of patients with T1DM through the attainment of a better glycemic profile. There are also indications that it may reduce MDA, an important biomarker of oxidative stress and a significant mediator of complications in T1DM. Therefore, prompt dietetic intervention using CC as early as possible after the diagnosis of T1DM is important for achieving optimal glycemic control and improved oxidative status.An evaluation indexing system based on the theory of coordination was constructed to estimate the urban carrying capacity (UCC) of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region with four subsystems social, economic, environmental, and transportation. This indexing system revealed the interactions between “supply” and “demand.” The improved entropy method was adopted to calculate the weight of 17 indicators and evaluate the comprehensive UCC of 13 cities in the BTH region using data covering the period 1990-2018. The results showed that two cities, Tangshan (UCC of - 0.0021) and Handan (UCC of - 0.0009), were “overloaded” in 2018, while the other 11 cities were “loadable.” The social and transportation subsystems played the most crucial roles in the evaluation. Based on the results, Baoding achieved the highest UCC, while that of Tangshan was the lowest. The results could play a significant role in decision-making relating to the sustainable development of the BTH region. Three policy implications are proposed based on these findings (i) the efficiency of resource utilization and scientific allocation should be enhanced and industrial optimization and upgrading should be promoted, (ii) the coordinated development of urbanization and environment in the region should be improved, and (iii) the integration of traffic decongestion measures should be faster, and industrial docking systems should be enhanced.Transportation policy and planning decisions, including decisions on new infrastructure and public transport improvements, affect local and global environmental conditions. This work studies the effect of increased road capacity on traffic-related emissions in Bogotá using a tool that couples a transportation model with emission factors from COPERT IV. We followed a parametric approach varying transport supply and demand, comparing three scenarios a baseline scenario that represents the transportation system in Bogota in 2015; scenario 1 incorporates five highway capacity-enhancement projects in Bogotá and assumes insensitive travel demand; scenario 2 incorporates the new highway projects but assumes a demand increase of 13% in vehicle trips with private cars. Results include daily and annual values of traffic-related emissions of five air pollutant criteria CO, NOx, PM10, SO2, and VOC for the baseline scenario, scenario 1, and scenario 2. We found a reduction in emissions after adding highway capacity and assuming inelastic demand (scenario 1). Scenario 1 results in a 15% reduction in PM10 emissions and a 10% reduction in NOx emissions. In contrast, results for scenario 2 suggest increased emissions for all air pollutant criteria (e.g., VOC and CO emissions increase by 21% and 22% compared with the baseline scenario). Therefore, new traffic demand would eliminate the emission savings observed in scenario 1 and could potentially further degrade air quality in Bogotá. While an exact estimate of induced demand that may result from highway expansion in Bogotá is not available, this analysis highlights that such projects could lead to an increase in emissions unless there is a combined effort to managing demand of private vehicle trips.A large percentage of flunixin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug widely used for treating livestock, is excreted in intact form and thus potentially available for environmental transport. As the fate of flunixin in the environment is unknown, our objective was to quantify sorption, desorption, and transformation in five agricultural soils and manure using batch equilibrium methods. Concentrations of flunixin and degradation products were determined by high performance liquid chromatography time of flight mass spectrometry. For all studied soils, sorption of flunixin exhibited linear character, with both linear and Freundlich models providing adequate fit. Linear sorption coefficients varied from 8 to 112 L kg-1. The strongest Pearson correlations with sorption coefficients were for clay content (r = 0.8693), total nitrogen (r = 0.7998), and organic carbon (r = 0.6291). Desorption of the reversibly bound fraction (3-10% of total sorbed flunixin) from all five studied soils exhibited non-hysteretic character suggesting low affinity of this fraction of flunixin to soil.