The study provided new insights into the role of miRNAs and their target genes in the pathogenesis of fetal alcohol syndrome.

No abstract

Sarcopenia a recognised geriatric syndrome. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of possible sarcopenia, sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia among older Chinese adults and to identify any associated factors for possible sarcopenia according to the updated diagnostic criteria of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 (AWGS 2019). We used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The main outcome of this study was possible sarcopenia. Handgrip strength was measured via a dynamometer. The muscle mass was estimated by anthropometric measures. Physical performance was measured by 5-time chair stand test and gait speed test. A multivariate logistic regression model with stepwise method was employed to identify factors associated with possible sarcopenia. A total of 6172 participants aged 60–94 years were included. The prevalence of possible sarcopenia, sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia was 38.5%, 18.6%, and 8.0%, respectively. Age, rural area, falls, higher C-reactive protein (CRP), and chronic diseases (including hypertension, chronic lung diseases, heart disease, psychiatric disease and arthritis) were associated with a higher risk of possible sarcopenia. Conversely, alcohol consumption, higher gait speed and high levels of hemoglobin were associated with decreased risk of possible sarcopenia. However, the associations between possible sarcopenia with alcohol consumption, heart disease, psychiatric disease and hemoglobin were not significant after Bonferroni correction. Our study reported a relatively high prevalence of sarcopenia among older Chinese population, and identified a range of factors associated with sarcopenia. We also found rural elders are more vulnerable to sarcopenia than urban elders. Additionally, we discovered systemic inflammation might be one of the contributing factors between sarcopenia and related comorbidities. We believe the findings of this study would help to identify individuals at high risk of sarcopenia early and therefore implement the prevention and treatment strategies to reduce the disease burden in China.

This study presents a high‐precision Cd isotope measurement method for soil and rock reference materials using MC‐ICP‐MS with double spike correction. The effects of molecular interferences (e.g., 109Ag1H+, 94Zr16O+, 94Mo16O+ and 70Zn40Ar+) and isobaric interferences (e.g., Pd, In and Sn) to Cd isotope measurements were quantitatively evaluated. When the measured solution has Ag/Cd ≤ 5, Zn/Cd ≤ 0.02, Mo/Cd ≤ 0.4, Zr/Cd ≤ 0.001, Pd/Cd ≤ 5 × 10−5 and In/Cd ≤ 10−3, the measured Cd isotope data were not significantly affected. The intermediate measurement precision of pure Cd solutions (BAM I012 Cd, Münster Cd and AAS Cd) was better than ± 0.05‰ (2s) for δ114/110Cd. The δ114/110Cd values of soil reference materials (NIST SRM 2709, 2709a, 2710, 2710a, 2711, 2711a and GSS‐1) relative to NIST SRM 3108 were in the range of −0.251 to 0.632‰, the δ114/110Cd values of rock reference materials (BCR‐2, BIR‐1, BHVO‐2, W‐2, AGV‐2, GSP‐2 and COQ‐1) varied from −0.196‰ to 0.098‰, and that of the manganese nodule (NOD‐P‐1) was 0.163 ± 0.040‰ (2s, n = 8). The large variation in Cd isotopes in soils and igneous rocks indicates that they can be more widely used to study magmatic and supergene processes.