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Environment International Apr 2022Exposure to some conventional trace elements has been found to be associated with miscarriage; however, evidence for combined exposure is inconclusive. Therefore, it is...
BACKGROUND
Exposure to some conventional trace elements has been found to be associated with miscarriage; however, evidence for combined exposure is inconclusive. Therefore, it is important to explore the joint associations between toxic and essential trace elements and miscarriage.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study measured a wide range of element levels in the whole blood of pregnant women by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The associations between individual elements and miscarriage were appraised using logistic regression model. Multi-exposure models, including Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and weighted quantile sum regression (WQS), were used to explore the mixed exposure to elements. Furthermore, grouped weighted quantile sum (GWQS) considered multiple elements with different magnitudes and directions of associations.
RESULTS
In logistic regression, the odds ratios (ORs) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) in the highest quartiles were 5.45 (2.00, 15.91) for barium, 0.28 (0.09, 0.76) for copper, and 0.32 (0.12, 0.83) for rubidium. These exposure-outcome associations were confirmed and supplemented by BKMR, which indicated a positive association for barium and negative associations for copper and rubidium. In WQS, a positive association was found between mixed elements and miscarriage (OR: 1.71; 95% CI: 1.07, 2.78), in which barium (75.7%) was the highest weighted element. The results of GWQS showed that the toxic trace element group dominated by barium was significantly associated with increased ORs (OR: 2.71; 95% CI: 1.74, 4.38). Additionally, a negative association was observed between the essential trace element group and miscarriage (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.18, 0.54), with rubidium contributing the most to the result.
CONCLUSIONS
As a toxic trace element, barium was positively associated with miscarriage both by individual and multiple evaluations, while essential trace elements, particularly rubidium and copper, exhibited negative associations. Our findings provide significant evidence for exploring the effects of trace elements on miscarriage.
Topics: Abortion, Spontaneous; Barium; Bayes Theorem; Copper; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Pregnancy; Rubidium; Trace Elements
PubMed: 35219936
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107161 -
American Journal of Physiology. Cell... May 2021With no lysine (K) (WNK) kinases regulate epithelial ion transport in the kidney to maintain homeostasis of electrolyte concentrations and blood pressure. Chloride ion...
With no lysine (K) (WNK) kinases regulate epithelial ion transport in the kidney to maintain homeostasis of electrolyte concentrations and blood pressure. Chloride ion directly binds WNK kinases to inhibit autophosphorylation and activation. Changes in extracellular potassium are thought to regulate WNKs through changes in intracellular chloride. Prior studies demonstrate that in some distal nephron epithelial cells, intracellular potassium changes with chronic low- or high-potassium diet. We, therefore, investigated whether potassium regulates WNK activity independent of chloride. We found decreased activity of WNK and mammalian WNK3 and WNK4 in fly Malpighian (renal) tubules bathed in high extracellular potassium, even when intracellular chloride was kept constant at either ∼13 mM or 26 mM. High extracellular potassium also inhibited chloride-insensitive mutants of WNK3 and WNK4. High extracellular rubidium was also inhibitory and increased tubule rubidium. The Na/K-ATPase inhibitor, ouabain, which is expected to lower intracellular potassium, increased tubule WNK activity. In vitro, potassium increased the melting temperature of WNK, WNK1, and WNK3 kinase domains, indicating ion binding to the kinase. Potassium inhibited in vitro autophosphorylation of WNK and WNK3, and also inhibited WNK3 and WNK4 phosphorylation of their substrate, Ste20-related proline/alanine-rich kinase (SPAK). The greatest sensitivity of WNK4 to potassium occurred in the range of 80-180 mM, encompassing physiological intracellular potassium concentrations. Together, these data indicate chloride-independent potassium inhibition of and mammalian WNK kinases through direct effects of potassium ion on the kinase.
Topics: Animals; Animals, Genetically Modified; Binding Sites; Cell Line; Chlorides; Drosophila Proteins; Drosophila melanogaster; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Malpighian Tubules; Mutation; Phosphorylation; Potassium; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; Protein Stability; Substrate Specificity
PubMed: 33439774
DOI: 10.1152/ajpcell.00456.2020 -
Nature Communications May 2021Inertial sensors based on cold atoms have great potential for navigation, geodesy, or fundamental physics. Similar to the Sagnac effect, their sensitivity increases with...
Inertial sensors based on cold atoms have great potential for navigation, geodesy, or fundamental physics. Similar to the Sagnac effect, their sensitivity increases with the space-time area enclosed by the interferometer. Here, we introduce twin-lattice atom interferometry exploiting Bose-Einstein condensates of rubidium-87. Our method provides symmetric momentum transfer and large areas offering a perspective for future palm-sized sensor heads with sensitivities on par with present meter-scale Sagnac devices. Our theoretical model of the impact of beam splitters on the spatial coherence is highly instrumental for designing future sensors.
PubMed: 33953188
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22823-8 -
Chemical Science Jun 2019UV/Vis absorption and NMR spectroscopy titrations have been used to investigate the formation of complexes between cations and neutral H-bond acceptors in organic...
UV/Vis absorption and NMR spectroscopy titrations have been used to investigate the formation of complexes between cations and neutral H-bond acceptors in organic solvents. Complexes formed by two different H-bond acceptors with fifteen different cations were studied in acetone and in acetonitrile. The effects of water and ion pairing with the counter-anion were found to be negligible in the two polar solvents employed for this study. The data were used to determine self-consistent H-bond donor parameters () for a series of organic and inorganic cations; guanidinium, primary, tertiary and quaternary ammonium, imidazolium, methylpyridinium, lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium and caesium. The results demonstrate the transferability of parameters for cations between different solvents and different H-bond acceptor partners, allowing reliable prediction of cation recognition properties in different environments. Lithium and protonated nitrogen cations form the most stable complexes, but the parameter is only 5.0, which is similar to the neutral H-bond donor 3-trifluoromethyl,4-nitrophenol ( = 5.1). Quaternary ammonium is the weakest H-bond donor investigated with an value of 2.7, which is comparable to an alcohol. The parameters for alkali metal cations decrease down the group from 5.0 (Li) to 3.5 (Cs).
PubMed: 31360400
DOI: 10.1039/c9sc00721k -
Radiology Case Reports Nov 2021A 56-year-old man presented to the emergency department with shortness of breath during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chest computed tomography angiography (CTa) showed...
A 56-year-old man presented to the emergency department with shortness of breath during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chest computed tomography angiography (CTa) showed bilateral peripheral ground-glass opacifications classified as CO-RADS 5, but no pulmonary embolism. To analyze the possibility of CTa-undetectable pulmonary microthrombi and to rule out cardiac perfusion abnormalities, we decided to perform a rubidium-82 (Rb) PET/CT. Rb PET/CT imaging in this patient yielded uptake in the pulmonary areas of ground-glass opacification and showed corresponding findings between Rb PET/CT and CTa imaging without any signs of microthrombi despite the elevated d-dimer. Even in the areas of profound groundglass opacifications, the increased Rb uptake indicates that perfusion is adequate to acquire Rb uptake in the pulmonary cells. Rb PET/CT is a promising imaging technique and might extend the diagnostic potential of conventional nuclear and radiological imaging in detecting pulmonary microthrombi or other minor perfusion defects.
PubMed: 34422149
DOI: 10.1016/j.radcr.2021.08.027 -
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology :... Oct 2020
Topics: Humans; Perfusion; Positron-Emission Tomography; Rubidium; Rubidium Radioisotopes
PubMed: 32895860
DOI: 10.1007/s12350-020-02287-x -
IEEE Antennas & Propagation Magazine May 2021We describe a mathematical framework for evaluating timing offset and timing noise in channel sounders based on a second-order deterministic model and a stochastic...
We describe a mathematical framework for evaluating timing offset and timing noise in channel sounders based on a second-order deterministic model and a stochastic metric based on the Allan Deviation. Using this framework, we analyze the timing offset and noise for a 1-6 GHz correlation-based channel sounder that uses rubidium clocks to provide a common timebase between the transmitter and receiver. We study timing behavior in three clock-distribution configurations. In the "untethered" configuration, the transmitter and receiver each have a rubidium clock, and no physical timing cable is connected between the clocks. In the "tethered" configuration, a coaxial cable synchronizes timing between the two separate clocks. Finally, a benchmark "single-clock" configuration is used where a single rubidium clock drives the transmitter and receiver.
PubMed: 36575739
DOI: 10.1109/TIM.2021.3082257 -
Chemical Communications (Cambridge,... Jan 2022Expanding knowledge of low valent aluminium chemistry, rubidium and caesium aluminyls are reported to complete the group 1 (Li-Cs) set of metal aluminyls. Both compounds...
Expanding knowledge of low valent aluminium chemistry, rubidium and caesium aluminyls are reported to complete the group 1 (Li-Cs) set of metal aluminyls. Both compounds crystallize as a contacted dimeric pair supported by M⋯π(arene) interactions with a pronounced twist between aluminyl units. Density functional theory calculations show symmetrical bonding between the M and Al atoms, with an Al centred lone-pair donating into vacant Rb and Cs orbitals. Interestingly, despite their structural similarity the Cs aluminyl enables C-H bond activation of benzene, but not the Rb aluminyl reflecting the importance of the alkali metal in these heterobimetallic systems.
PubMed: 34994367
DOI: 10.1039/d1cc05379e