Atherosclerosis is one of leading phenotypes of cardiovascular diseases, featured with increased vascular intima-media thickness (IMT) and unstable plaques. The interaction between gastrointestinal system and cardiovascular homeostasis is emerging as a hot topic. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the role of an intestinal protein, intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP/FABP2) in the atherosclerotic progress. In western diet-fed ApoE-/- mice, FABP2 was highly expressed in intestine. Silence of intestinal Fabp2 attenuated western diet-induced atherosclerotic phenotypes, including decreasing toxic lipid accumulation, vascular fibrosis and inflammatory response. Mechanistically, intestinal Fabp2 knockdown improved intestinal permeability through increasing the expression of tight junction proteins. Meanwhile, intestinal Fabp2 knockdown mice exhibited down-regulation of intestinal inflammation in western diet-fed ApoE-/- mice. In clinical patients, the circulating level of FABP2 was obviously increased in patients with cardiovascular disease and positively correlated with the value of carotid intima-media thickness, total cholesterol and triglyceride. In conclusion, FABP2-induced intestinal permeability could address a potential role of gastrointestinal system in the development of atherosclerosis, and targeting on intestinal FABP2 might provide a therapeutic approach to protect against atherosclerosis. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.In recent years, many vaccines have been developed for the prevention of a variety of diseases. Although the primary objective of vaccination is to prevent disease, vaccination can also reduce the severity of disease in those individuals who develop breakthrough disease. Observations of apparent mitigation of breakthrough disease in vaccine recipients have been reported for a number of vaccine-preventable diseases such as Herpes Zoster, Influenza, Rotavirus, and Pertussis. The burden-of-illness (BOI) score was developed to incorporate the incidence of disease as well as the severity and duration of disease. A severity-of-illness score S > 0 is assigned to individuals who develop disease and a score of 0 is assigned to uninfected individuals. In this article, we derive the vaccine efficacy statistic (which is the standard statistic for presenting efficacy outcomes in vaccine clinical trials) based on BOI scores, and we extend the method to adjust for baseline covariates. Also, we illustrate it with data from a clinical trial in which the efficacy of a Herpes Zoster vaccine was evaluated. © 2020 The Authors. Pharmaceutical Statistics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Weight-loss maintenance and lifestyle behaviour necessary to manage weight are undisputedly challenging. We evaluated a secondary prevention weight-loss maintenance programme for participants (n = 490) with weight-related chronic disease in the Australian private health insurance setting. This study investigated the impact of the maintenance programme on anthropometric and lifestyle risk behaviour changes after 6 and 12 months, and trends in weight-loss maintenance after 1 year. Using a pre- and post-test design, data were analysed with generalized linear mixed models for repeated measures to determine the effect of the programme on weight loss and lifestyle behaviour outcomes. After initially losing a clinically significant amount of weight (mean 9.1 kg), maintenance-programme participants maintained clinically significant weight loss (mean 7.6 kg) at 12 months. Rates of discontinuation in the programme were high (47% at 6 months and 73% at 12 months). Ralimetinib Weight-loss maintenance was achieved by 76% of participants at 3 months and 62% at 6 months, stabilizing at 55% and 56% at 9 and 12 months, respectively. Greater initial weight loss was associated with weight-loss maintenance at 12 months. Participants less then 55 years demonstrated consistent weight-loss maintenance over this time but the odds for successful weight-loss maintenance for those ≥55 years continued to decrease over time. At maintenance-baseline, 68.3% of participants had sufficient physical activity for health; 61.4% and 19.8% met recommended fruit and vegetable consumption, respectively. All lifestyle risk behaviours were maintained at 12 months. A programme extending support strategies for maintaining weight-related behaviour shows promise to successfully support these changes over 12 months. There is a potentially important opportunity for targeted intervention at 6 to 9 months. © 2020 World Obesity Federation.An assessment on the sediment flux caused by the tailing dam failure at Mariana, Minas Gerais Estate, Brazil, is presented. Field data of water level, water flow and suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) were obtained during the period from Nov 21st to Dec 5th , 2015, when the muddy waters reached the coast. A rating curve of the coastal tidal signal was built allowing a robust estimate of the flow at the mouth of the Doce River. Together with SSC data, early sediment delivered to the coastal sea was of 15 × 104 ton, what may account for only 0.5% of the total material remobilized at the accident site. This accounted for >25,000 tons of Fe and between 1-4 tons of other heavy trace metals, such as Co, Ni, and Zn. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.BACKGROUND The frequency and prognosis of resected deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remain unclear. We designed this study to assess the frequency of dMMR and its clinicopathological relevance in Japanese patients with PDAC treated with surgical resection. METHODS We enrolled 400 consecutive patients with PDAC who underwent surgical resection at Hiroshima University. We used immunohistochemical staining with four antibodies including MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 to determine the presence of dMMR in PDAC specimens. We applied statistical analyses to evaluate the frequency and clinical outcomes of these patients. RESULTS Of these 400 patients, five (1.3%) had dMMR (2 had MLH1 deficiency, 2 had PMS2 deficiency, and 1 had MSH2 deficiency). We found a significantly different histological differentiation pattern between patients with dMMR and those with proficient mismatch repair (pMMR) (p=0.03). Univariate survival analysis revealed no significant differences between dMMR and pMMR in recurrence free survival (p=0.