AIM To evaluate the pathogenic role of toll-like receptor (TLR) gene polymorphisms in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). METHODS Two hundred and fifty subjects (NAFLD = 200, healthy volunteers = 50) underwent polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism to assess one polymorphism in the toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene (A753G), two polymorphisms...

Inland glacier and lake dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surroundings over recent decades are good indicators of climate change and have a significant impact on the local water supply and ecosystem. The glacier and lake changes in Karakoram are quite different from those of the Himalayas. The mechanisms of the complex and regionally heterogeneous behavior of the glacier and lake cha...

Ohio's oral rabies vaccination (ORV) program was established to prevent the westward spread of the raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies virus (Lyssavirus, Rhabdoviridae) in Ohio, USA. The program, which targets raccoons, distributes vaccine-bait units (VBU) at a target density of 75 units/km2. Few studies have examined the relationship of VBU density and target population density to the prevalence of...

Flooding is Pakistan's most common natural hazard, and it exacerbated by increased rainfall urbanization. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan flood-prone zones were determined superimposing six flood parameters in an ArcGIS environment: elevation, slope, accumulation, land cover, soil geometry, gap/buffer from water channel. Cellular automata based on artificial neural network (CA-ANN) along QGI...

Two pairs of small stagnant ice bodies on the Hazen Plateau of northeastern Ellesmere Island, the St. Patrick Bay ice caps and the Murray and Simmons ice caps, are rapidly shrinking, and the remnants of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps are likely to disappear entirely within the next 5 years. Vertical aerial photographs of these Little Ice Age relics taken during August of 1959 show that the larger...

BACKGROUND White matter lesions (WMLs) are a common finding in patients with dementia. This study investigates the relationship between WMLs, hyperphosphorylated tau (P-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype in prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS Baseline levels of tau, P-tau and β-amyloid 1-42 in CSF, the presence of WMLs in the brain, and the APOE ...

Populations of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) may serve as an environmental reservoir of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts and Giardia sp. cysts for source water. We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of and associated demographic and environmental risk factors for the shedding of C. parvum oocysts and Giardia sp. cysts. Feral pigs were either live-trapped or dispatched from 10...

Exploring the landscape ecological security pattern and its driving mechanisms in key economic zones is of great significance for preventing resolving risks promoting regional sustainable development. This study quantitatively analyzed land use change characteristics Huaihe River Eco-economic Belt from 1980 to 2020 using transfer matrix intensity index. Further, evolution their were investigate...

INTRODUCTION Located in the central Pacific between 4° and 14°north latitude and 160° and 173° east longitude, the Marshall Islands consist of two nearly parallel groups (the Ratak or Sunrise and the Ralik or Sunset Chains) of twenty-nine atolls and five table reefs, totalling 181 km2 of land and 10,455 km2 of lagoon area. Together these two chains extend about 1,130 km north to south and appro...