Decreased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) orexin levels are one of the diagnostic and classification criteria for narcolepsy. Because of the difficulty in obtaining CSF, its clinical application is limited. Here, we aimed to confirm the significance of determining plasma orexin levels in the diagnosis and treatment of narcolepsy by comparing the differences in these levels between narcolepsy patients and healthy controls and analyzing related factors.
 
  Twenty-four patients with type I narcolepsy who visited our hospital from October 2017 to January 2020 and who met the relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected. Simultaneously, healthy controls with matched basic characteristics were selected at a 11 proportion. Patient basic information was collected, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale was recorded, the nocturnal polysomnogram and multiple sleep latency test were performed, and the patients' electrophysiological characteristics were analyzed. The blood samples of the patient and control groups were collected and stored at-80°Caftercentrifugation. Plasma orexin levels were determined by ELISA, following which the results of the two groups were compared, and the relevant factors were analyzed.
 
  Our results revealed significantly lower plasma orexin levels in the narcolepsy patients compared to in healthy subjects. There were no correlations between plasma orexin levels and sex, age, body mass index, disease duration, and the severity of sleepiness, and between plasma orexin levels and electrophysiological indicators, including mean sleep latency and sleep-onset rapid eye movement periods.
 
  Determining plasma orexin levels has the potential to replace the detection of CSF orexin levels.
 Determining plasma orexin levels has the potential to replace the detection of CSF orexin levels.Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is one of the most common sleep disorders, and invokes numerous negative health-related outcomes and physiopathological processes. Understanding the mechanisms by which OSA potentiates cardiometabolic risk of patients remains a current challenge. Sleep disruption is highly prevalent among shift workers and shift work (SW) is an important modulator of circadian rhythms, with health consequences intimately related to cardiometabolic health. Since the circadian timing system (CTS) interacts with the normal functioning of the ANS, CTS impact on OSA patients should be closely assessed. This review raises the question of whether SW-induced circadian misalignment potentiates the cardiometabolic risk of OSA patients, providing a novel perspective on the role of autonomic modulation as a key downstream mechanism linking cardiometabolic risk with both OSA and CTS misalignment.The traditional synthesis of iron nanoparticles has the problems of high cost and secondary pollution. There is an urgent need for an economic, effective and environment-friendly method to solve this key issue. Here, the iron nanoparticles were prepared by a novel biosynthesis based on extracted tea polyphenols. Five kinds of tea were tested by microwave method, and the optimum extraction conditions were determined by orthogonal experiment L9 (34). The obtained materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR, XPS, Zeta potential and UV-Vis. The iron nanoparticle has a regular spherical or ellipsoidal shape with a particle size of about 75-100 nm. It was noted that it shows good selective removal for cationic dyes (malachite green (MG), rhodamine B (RB) and methylene blue (MB)). Kinetic experiment of iron nanoparticle on cationic dyes was in accordance with the pseudo first order kinetic model. Further, the possible removal mechanism was proposed, which mainly involves the process of adsorption and reduction. Mostly, its removal capacity of Malachite green reaches as high as 190.3 mg/g.The Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APCP) is an important pollution control policy formulated by the Chinese government to promote green development. However, there are few studies of its impact. Based on a province-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2017, we use a three-hierarchy meta-frontier slack-based data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model and the global Malmquist (GM) index to estimate the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of China's chemical sub-industries.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ici-118551-ici-118-551.html  Next, we use the difference-in-differences (DID) method to explore the effect of the implementation of the APCP in 2013 on the GTFP of China's chemical industry. We find an increasing trend in the GTFP of China's chemical industry between 2007 and 2017. A decomposition of the change in GTFP shows that technical progress was the main driving factor and management inefficiency was the main inhibitory factor. The APCP had a significant positive effect on GTFP. Overall, in the post-implementation period, the increase in the GTFP of the treatment group was approximately 7.9% greater than in the control group. The APCP also significantly improved the technical efficiency change index. A dynamic effect analysis shows that the positive effect of the APCP on GTFP had an inverted U-shaped trend. A series of robustness tests, including counterfactual, re-grouping, and quasi-DID tests, suggest that our findings are reliable. In addition, changes in exports, capital deepening, and energy prices all significantly improved the GTFP of China's chemical industry.Lignocellulosic materials can be used as slow release electron donor (SRED) for biological sulfate reduction, potentially enhancing the subsequent metal sulfide precipitation. Lignocellulosic materials require a pre-treatment step in other biotechnological applications, but pre-treatment strategies for its use as a SRED for biological sulfate reduction have not yet been tested. Three pre-treatments strategies (mechanical, acid, and mechanical followed by acid pre-treatment) were tested to enhance electron donor release from brewery spent grain (BSG), and compared to a non-pre-treated control. Mechanical pre-treatment provided the highest sulfate removal rate (82.8 ± 8.8 mg SO42-.(g TVS.day)-1), as well as the highest final sulfide concentration (441.0 ± 34.4 mg.L-1) at mesophilic conditions. BSG submitted to mechanical pre-treatment was also assessed under psychrophilic and thermophilic conditions. Under mesophilic and psychrophilic conditions, both sulfate reduction and methane production occurred. Under psychrophilic conditions, the sulfate reduction rate was lower (25 ± 2.