Relationship between Adiposity, Low-Density Lipoprotein Particles Size and Cardiovascular Risk among Adult Obese Cameroonians

Background: Despite the evidence about the increasing prevalence of dyslipidemia among adult obese Cameroonians, little is known about the Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) particles which influence lipid metabolism and affect cardiovascular status. The present study aims to assess the relationship between adiposity, LDL particles size and cardiovascular risk (CVR) among adult obese Cameroonians. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2015 to March 2016 on apparently healthy adults (n = 1006), aged 20 - 70 years and living in the West and North-West regions of Cameroon. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose (FBG) and lipid profile markers were analyzed and LDL particle phenotypes (LDL phenotype A;LDL phenotype I;LDL phenotype B) were characterized using small, dense LDL-cholesterol (sdLDL-c) levels. Abdominal fat accumulation (AFA) was defined as waist circumference (WC) ≥ 88 cm (men) and ≥90 cm (women) and the CVR was assessed using Framingham score method. Results: In the overall population, 36.6% were overweight, 33.1% were obese and 69.1% were overweight/obese with AFA. The prevalence of LDL phenotype B was 19.8%, 37.5% and 42.8% respectively in normal-weight, overweight and obese. Among the obese, sdLDL and triglycerides levels correlated significantly with WC (r = 0.768;p Conclusion: Among obese Cameroonians, anthropometric markers of adiposity (BMI and WC) were strongly correlated to LDL phenotype B which was associated with high CVR dependently of AFA. SdLDL particles could exacerbate the CVR in obese Cameroonians subjects.

Extended wet sieving method for determination of complete particle size distribution of general soils

The traditional standard wet sieving method uses steel sieves with aperture?0.063 mm and can only determine the particle size distribution(PSD)of gravel and sand in general soil.This paper extends the traditional method and presents an extended wet sieving method.The extended method uses both the steel sieves and the nylon filter cloth sieves.The apertures of the cloth sieves are smaller than 0.063 mm and equal 0.048 mm,0.038 mm,0.014 mm,0.012 mm,0.0063 mm,0.004 mm,0.003 mm,0.002 mm,and 0.001 mm,respectively.The extended method uses five steps to separate the general soil into many material sub-groups of gravel,sand,silt and clay with known particle size ranges.The complete PSD of the general soil is then calculated from the dry masses of the individual material sub-groups.The extended method is demonstrated with a general soil of completely decomposed granite(CDG)in Hong Kong,China.The silt and clay materials with different particle size ranges are further examined,checked and verified using stereomicroscopic observation,physical and chemical property tests.The results further confirm the correctness of the extended wet sieving method.

High-Volume Mineral Admixtures Cement: The Effects of Particle Size Distribution

The effects of high-volume slag-fly ash cement with different particle sizes on hydration degree,microstructure and mechanical properties were systematically studied,by means of laser particle size(DLS),X-ray diffraction (XRD),comprehensive thermal analysis (TG-DTA),scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and mechanical properties tests.The results show that suitable particle size distribution of cementitious material has significantly promoting effects on hydration reaction rate and mechanical properties.Compared with slag without further grinding,the slag after ball milling for 4 h has an obvious improvement in reactivity,which also provides a faster hydration rate and higher compressive strength for the cementitious material.When the slag milled for 1 and 4 h is mixed at a mass ratio of 2:1 (i e,slag with D_(50) of 7.4μm and average size of 9.9μm,and slag with D_(50) value of 2.6μm and average size of 5.3μm),and a certain amount of fly ash is added in,the most obvious improvement of compressive strength of cement is achieved.

Preparation and particle size characterization of Cu nanoparticles prepared by anodic arc plasma

Copper nanoparticles were successfully prepared in large scale by means of anodic arc discharging plasma method in inert atmosphere. The particle size, specific surface area, crystal structure, and morphology of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, BET equation, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, and the corresponding selected area electron diffraction （SAED）. The experimental results indicate that the crystal structure of the samples is fcc structure the same as that of the bulk materials. The specific surface area is 11 m^2/g, the particle size distribution is 30 to 90 nm, and the average particle size is about 67 nm obtained from TEM and confirmed from XRD and BET results. The nanoparticles with uniform size, high purity, narrow size distribution and spherical shape can be prepared by this convenient and effective method.

Influence of particle size and temperature on the dielectric properties of CoFe_2O_4 nanoparticles

The objective of this study was to establish the dielectric properties of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with particle sizes that varied from 28.6 to 5.8 nm. CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized using a chemical coprecipitation method. The particle sizes were calculated accord-ing to the Scherrer formula using X-ray diffraction （XRD） peaks, and the particle size distribution curves were constructed by using field-emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM） images. The dielectric permittivity and loss tangents of the samples were determined in the frequency range of 1 kHz to 1 MHz and in the temperature range of 300 to 10 K. Both the dielectric permittivity and the loss tangent were found to decrease with increasing frequency and decreasing temperature. For the smallest CoFe2O4 nanoparticle size, the dielectric per-mittivity and loss tangent exhibited their highest and lowest values, respectively. This behavior is very useful for materials used in devices that operate in the microwave or radio frequency ranges.

Seasonal Variations of Number Size Distributions and Mass Concentrations of Atmospheric Particles in Beijing

Particle number and mass concentrations were measured in Beijing during the winter and summer periods in 2003, together with some other parameters including black carbon (BC) and meteorological conditions. Particle mass concentrations exhibited low seasonality, and the ratio of PM2.5/PM10 in winter was higher than that in summer. Particle number size distribution (PSD) was characterized by four modes and exhibited low seasonality. BC was well correlated with the number and mass concentrations of accumulation and coarse particles, indicating these size particles are related to anthropogenic activities. Particle mass and number concentrations (except ultra-fine and nucleation particles) followed well the trends of BC concentration for the majority of the day, indicating that most particles were associated with primary emissions. The diurnal number distributions of accumulation and coarse mode particles were characterized by two peaks.

Stability of the Dividing Distribution Function Method for ParticleSize Distribution Analysis in Small Angle X－Ray Scattering

The Dividing Distribution Function (DDF) method is one of the methods by which the particle size distribution of ultrafine powder can be evaluated from its small angle X-ray scattering data. In this paper, the stability of the solution obtained from DDF method has been investigated through optimizing the coefficient matrix, introducing a damping factor and a least square treatment. All calculations were accomplished with a microcomputer. It was shown that the average deviations of the size distribution obtained are not larger than the assigned random errors to the scattering intensities as long as the corresponding requirements are satisfied.

The Significant Contribution of Small-Sized and Spherical Aerosol Particles to the Decreasing Trend in Total Aerosol Optical Depth over Land from 2003 to 2018

The optical and microphysical properties of aerosols remain one of the greatest uncertainties associated with evaluating the climate forcing attributed to aerosols.Although the trends in aerosol optical depth(AOD)at global and regional scales have been widely examined,little attention has been paid to the trends in type-dependent AODs related to aerosol particle properties.Here,using the aerosol optical component dataset from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer(MISR)instrument,we investigate decadal-scale trends in total aerosol loading as well as AODs for five aerosol components by particle size and morphology during 2003–2018 over land.Relationships between the total AOD(TAOD)trends and type-dependent AOD changes were examined,and the relative contribution of each type-dependent AOD to the overall TAOD trends was quantified.By dividing the TAOD values into four different aerosol pollution levels(APLs)with splits at 0.15,0.40,and 0.80,we further explored the relationships between TAOD changes and interannual variations in the frequency-of-occurrences(FoOs)of these APLs.Long-term trends in FoOs in the different APLs show that there was a significant improvement in air quality between 2003 and 2018 in most land areas,except South Asia,corresponding to a shift from lightly polluted to clean conditions.However,the effects of different APLs on TAOD changes are regionally dependent and their extent of correlation varied spatially.Moreover,we observed that the annual mean TAOD has decreased by 0.47%.a^(-1)over land since 2003(P<0.05).This significant reduction was mainly attributed to the continued reduction in small-sized(<0.7 mm diameter)AOD(SAOD)(-0.74%.a^(-1))and spherical AOD(SPAOD)(-0.46%.a^(-1)).Statistical analysis shows that SAOD and SPAOD respectively accounted for 57.5%and 89.6%of the TAOD,but contributed 82.6%and 90.4%of the trend in TAOD.Our study suggests that small-sized and spherical aerosols composed of sulfate,organic matter,and black carbon play a dominant role in determining interannual variability in land TAOD.

Solvothermal Preparation of Mn_3O_4 Nanoparticles and Effect of Temperature on Particle Size

Hausmannite Mn3O4 nanoparticles were successfully prepared via a facile one-step solvothermal route with Mn（CH3COO）2·4H2O as manganese source in the mixed solvent of acetone and water.Powder X-ray diffraction（XRD）,Fourier transform infrared（FTIR） spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy（TEM） were used to characterize Mn3O4 nanoparticles.It was found that the particle size could be tailored by varying the synthesis temperature.On the whole,the particle size becomes larger with the rising of solvothermal reaction temperature.But there is no linear relation between them.According to the different temperatures（60―140 °C）,the average particle size is from about 9 nm to 15 nm.Magnetic properties of Mn3O4 samples prepared at 60,100 and 140 °C were studied via a superconducting quantum interference device（SQUID）,respectively.

Continuous Separation of Multiple Size Microparticles using Alternating Current Dielectrophoresis in Microfluidic Device with Acupuncture Needle Electrodes

The need to continuously separate multiple microparticles is required for the recent development of lab-on-chip technology. Dielectrophoresis（DEP）-based separation device is extensively used in kinds of microfluidic applications. However, such conventional DEP-based device is relatively complicated and difficult for fabrication. A concise microfluidic device is presented for effective continuous separation of multiple size particle mixtures. A pair of acupuncture needle electrodes are creatively employed and embedded in a PDMS（poly-dimethylsiloxane） hurdle for generating non-uniform electric field thereby achieving a continuous DEP separation. The separation mechanism is that the incoming particle samples with different sizes experience different negative DEP（n DEP） forces and then they can be transported into different downstream outlets. The DEP characterizations of particles are calculated, and their trajectories are numerically predicted by considering the combined action of the incoming laminar flow and the n DEP force field for guiding the separation experiments. The device performance is verified by successfully separating a three-sized particle mixture, including polystyrene microspheres with diameters of 3 μm, 10 μm and 25 μm. The separation purity is below 70% when the flow rate ratio is less than 3.5 or more than 5.1, while the separation purity can be up to more than 90% when the flow rate ratio is between 3.5 and 5.1 and meanwhile ensure the voltage output falls in between 120 V and 150 V. Such simple DEP-based separation device has extensive applications in future microfluidic systems.

On the critical particle size of soil with clogging potential in shield tunneling

Shield tunneling is easily obstructed by clogging in clayey strata with small soil particles.However,soil clogging rarely occurs in strata with coarse-grained soils.Theoretically,a critical particle size of soils should exist,below which there is a high risk of soil clogging in shield tunneling.To determine the critical particle size,a series of laboratory tests was carried out with a large-scale rotary shear apparatus to measure the tangential adhesion strength of soils with different particle sizes and water contents.It was found that the tangential adhesion strength at the soilesteel interface gradually increased linearly with applied normal pressure.When the particle size of the soil specimen was less than 0.15 mm,the interfacial adhesion force first increased and then decreased as the water content gradually increased;otherwise,the soil specimens did not manifest any interfacial adhesion force.The amount of soil mass adhering to the steel disc was positively correlated with the interfacial adhesion force,thus the interfacial adhesion force was adopted to characterize the soil clogging risk in shield tunneling.The critical particle size of soils causing clogging was determined to be 0.15 mm.Finally,the generation mechanism of interfacial adhesion force was explored for soils with different particle sizes to explain the critical particle size of soil with clogging risk in shield tunneling.

Creating burdock polysaccharide-oleanolic acid-ursolic acid nanoparticles to deliver enhanced anti-inflammatory effects:fabrication,structural characterization and property evaluation

This study explored the potential of polysaccharides from Actium lappa(ALPs)as natural wall materials for producing ALP-based nanoparticles to deliver poorly water-soluble oleanolic acid(OA)and ursolic acid(UA).Encapsulating OA+UA with ALPs(ALP:OA+UA,50:1;OA:UA,1:1)changed the crystalline nature to a more amorphous state through hydrogen bonding and involving O-H/C-O/O-C-O groups.ALP-OA/UA nanoparticles had a particle size and zeta potential(in water)of 199.1 nm/-7.15 mV,with a narrow unimodal size distribution,and excellent pH,salt solution,temperature and storage stability.Compared with ALPs,ALPOA/UA nanoparticles showed enhanced anti-inflammatory activity(especially at a dose of 100μg/mL)in a CuSO-induced zebrafish inflammation model via down-regulating the NF-κB signalling pathway and gene expression of associated transcription factors and cytokines(TNF-α,IL-1βand IL-8).Therefore,ALP-based nanoparticles are natural and anti-inflammatory carriers for hydrophobic bioactive molecules.

Glutenin Macropolymer Particles Size Distribution of Six Wheat Varieties in Eastern China

Size distribution of glutenin macropolymer （GMP） particles significantly affects the quality of final products in wheat. Six wheat varieties in eastern China were used for investigating the GMP content, particle size distribution and their relation. The results showed that the particle diameter of GMP changed from 0.38 μm to 269 μm. A typical bimodal curve of volume distribution of particles with peak values ranged from 4.44 μm to 5.36 μm and from 45.76 μm to 116.30 μm, respectively. Number distribution of particles showed the typical population with peak values in the range of 0.57-1.00 p.m. Proportions of granules 〈12μm, 12-80 μm and 〉80 μm were in the range of 17.1%-47.8%, 32.1%-50.3% and 10.2%-38.1% of total volume, respectively. The content of GMP was negatively correlated with the volume of GMP particles 〈12μm, but positively correlated with the volume of particles 〉80μm. The results suggested that the greater percentage of larger GMP particles is, the more GMP content there is in wheat grain.

Determination of Size Distribution of Nano-particles by Capillary Zone Electrophoresis

A new method was developed for the determination of the size distribution of nano-particles by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). Scattering effect of nanoparticles was studied . This method for the determination of size distribution was statistical.

Sensitization of Microporous Nanocrystalline TiO_2 Electrode with Quantum Sized RuS2 Particles

The microporous nanocry'sta1line TiO2 electrode with large surface roughness factor hasbeen prepared on a conducting glass support. Modification of the TiO2 electrode by in situ preparingquantum sized RuS2 particles on the surface of TiO2 electrode extends the optical absorptionspectrum and photocurrent action specmim into visible region. In addition, compared with RuS2 bulknlaterials- a blue shifi in both absorption spectrum and photocurrent action speCtrum of RuS2rriO2elcctrode is obserived and explained in terms of quantum sized effect.

Gold/Mg-Al mixed oxides catalysts for oxidative esterification of methacrolein:Effects of support size and composition on gold loading

Gold catalysts supported on Mg-Al mixed oxides for oxidative esterification of methacrolein are prepared by impregnation.Effects of the support particle size,concentration of HAuCl4 solution and Mg/Al ratio on gold loading and catalytic properties are investigated.The catalysts are characterized by CO_(2)-TPD,EDS,XPS,STEM and XRD techniques.Catalysts with smaller support particle size show more uniform gold distribution and higher gold dispersion,resulting in a higher catalytic performance,and the uniformity of gold and the activity of the catalysts with larger support particle size can be improved by decreasing the concentration of HAuCl4 solution.The Mg/Al molar ratio has significant effect on the uniformity of gold and the activity of the catalyst,and the optimum Mg/Al molar ratio is 0.1–0.2.This study underlines the importance of engineering support particle size,concentration of HAuCl4 solution and density of adsorption sites for efficient gold loading on support by impregnation.

Effect of particle size of single-crystalline hierarchical ZSM-5 on its surface mass transfer in n-heptane catalytic cracking

Single-crystalline hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites with different particle sizes(namely 100,140,and 200 nm)were successfully prepared by adjusting the amount of tetrapropylammonium hydroxide(TPAOH),and investigated in n-heptane catalytic cracking reaction.Diffusional measurements by zero-length column(ZLC)method showed that the apparent diffusivities of n-heptane decreased with the reduction of particle size,indicating the existence of surface barriers.Moreover,with the decrease of particle size,the additional diffusion path length increased,which meant the influence of surface barriers became more apparent.Despite the change of surface barriers,the intracrystalline diffusion still dominated the overall diffusion.Catalytic performance showed that the zeolite with smaller particle size had better stability.

An image segmentation method of pulverized coal for particle size analysis

An important index to evaluate the process efficiency of coal preparation is the mineral liberation degree of pulverized coal,which is greatly influenced by the particle size and shape distribution acquired by image segmentation.However,the agglomeration effect of fine powders and the edge effect of granular images caused by scanning electron microscopy greatly affect the precision of particle image segmentation.In this study,we propose a novel image segmentation method derived from mask regional convolutional neural network based on deep learning for recognizing fine coal powders.Firstly,an atrous convolution is introduced into our network to learn the image feature of multi-sized powders,which can reduce the missing segmentation of small-sized agglomerated particles.Then,a new mask loss function combing focal loss and dice coefficient is used to overcome the false segmentation caused by the edge effect.The final comparative experimental results show that our method achieves the best results of 94.43%and 91.44%on AP50 and AP75 respectively among the comparison algorithms.In addition,in order to provide an effective method for particle size analysis of coal particles,we study the particle size distribution of coal powders based on the proposed image segmentation method and obtain a good curve relationship between cumulative mass fraction and particle size.

The type of lipid supplement has crucial implications for forage particle size in calf starter diets

Background Forage inclusion in starters of young dairy calves has become an acceptable strategy in the last decade.To compensate for the lower energy provided by forage,concurrent lipid supplementation can be proposed.How-ever,ruminal microbial activity and forage digestibility may be decreased by lipid supplementation.We hypothesized that the composite effect of forage and lipid supplements may be dependent on forage particle size and the type of lipid supplement.Therefore,we evaluated the effect of long(LP;geometric mean,4.97 mm)vs.short alfalfa hay particle sizes(SP;geometric mean,1.26 mm)with either soybean oil(SBO)or palm fatty acids(PLF)as lipid source in a 2×2 factorial design with treatments SP-SBO,SP-PLF,LP-SBO,and LP-PLF.Treatments(n=13 with 6 males and 7 females each)were offered to Holstein calves(3 days old)with equal amounts of lipid(25 g/kg DM)through-out the experimental period.The milk offering scheme(d 1 to 53)was equal for all groups.Data collection continued until 20 d post-weaning.Results Interaction between forage particle size and lipid supplement was significant for the following readouts:the highest and lowest starter intakes during the pre-weaning period occurred in LP-PLF and LP-SBO,respectively.This was associated with similarly contrasting changes in average daily gain(ADG)during the post-weaning period,body weight at the end of experiment,withers height,digestibility of organic matter and neutral detergent fiber,and blood serum concentrations of glucose,beta-hydroxybutyrate,and insulin during the pre-weaning period.Dur-ing both pre-and post-weaning periods,the highest and lowest urinary excretion of allantoin and total purine deriva-tives,representing microbial protein synthesis,were observed in LP-PLF and LP-SBO,respectively,indicating that those diets were most and least favorable for rumen development.Irrespective of forage particle size,supplemental SBO vs.PLF increased serum malondialdehyde as an oxidative stress indicator across periods,increased blood urea nitrogen and feed efficiency in the pre-weaning period,and reduced hip height during the post-weaning period.Conclusions It can be concluded that feeding a rumen-inert,mostly saturated fatty acid source with alfalfa hay as long particle size is recommended with view on performance,whereas a combination soybean oil rich in unsatu-rated fatty acids should not be provided to milk-fed Holstein calves together with long particle forage.Feeding soybean oil and alfalfa hay as long particles is not advisable mainly due to lower starter consumption and impaired development of ruminal function.If dietary supplementation of soybean oil is applied,incorporation of forage as small particles should be preferred to support rumen development.

Analysis of a landfill cover without geomembrane using varied particle sizes of recycled concrete

Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel three-layer landfill cover system constructed with recycled concrete aggregates(RCAs)without geomembrane in both laboratory and field.However,no systematic investigation has been carried out to optimize the combination of the particle sizes for fine-grained RCAs(FRC)and coarse-grained RCAs(CRC)that can be used for the three-layer landfill cover system.The aim of this paper is to assist engineers in designing the three-layer landfill cover system under a rainfall of 100-year return period in humid climate conditions using an easily controlled soil parameter D10 of RCAs.The numerical study reveals that when D10 of FRC increases from 0.05 mm to 0.16 mm,its saturated permeability increases by 10 times.As a result,a larger amount of rainwater infiltrates into the cover system,causing a higher lateral diversion in both the top FRC and middle CRC layers.No further changes in the lateral diversion are observed when the D10 value of FRC is larger than 0.16 mm.Both the particle sizes of FRC and CRC layers are shown to have a minor influence on the percolation under the extreme rainfall event.This implies that the selection of particle sizes for the FRC and CRC layers can be based on the availability of materials.Although it is well known that the bottom layer of the cover system should be constructed with very fine-grained soils if possible,this study provides an upper limit to the particle size that can be used in the bottom layer(D10 not larger than 0.02 mm).With this limit,the three-layer system can still minimize the water percolation to meet the design criterion(30 mm/yr)even under a 100-year return period of rainfall in humid climates.