2- Methods

3- Results

4- Discussion

5- Conclusions

References

Introduction

Heart failure (HF) is becoming a tremendous burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Functional capacity is a crucial parameter correlated with outcomes [1–4]. Currently, the gold standard for assessing the functional state is the cardiopulmonary gas exchange exercise test (CPET) [5, 6]. Because it requires instruments and is inconvenient to administer because it is time-consuming, the New York Heart Association functional classification (NYHA Fc) is widely used instead [7]. However, previous studies found that interobserver reproducibility of NYHA Fc when assessing class II and class III was only 56%, a result little better than chance [4]. A more precise assessment tool is needed. Functional assessment estimates the severity of imbalance between cardiac supply and whole body demand, which can represent the entire body’s metabolic status. Previously, we and others demonstrated that patients’ plasma-based metabolic profile provided valuable information about HFrelated metabolic disturbance [8–10], diagnosis [11–13], and prognosis [11, 14, 15]. We subsequently simplified the metabolomics assessment into an amino acid-based profile that includes histidine, ornithine, and phenylalanine (HOP score) [16, 17]. We found that the HOP score was wellcorrelated with functional capacity, as estimated by a sixminute walking distance. Although NYHA functional classes III and IV suggest poor outcomes, the largest group of outpatients is usually in the NYHA class II category, which is often overlooked by clinicians. However, results of recent clinical trials strongly recommend active intervention for all patients from classes II to IV [1, 2]. In this study, we would like to use CPET to investigate whether HOP scores could be an objective substitute for identifying HF outpatients in the functional class ≥ II. We also would like to see whether the HOPdefined worse functional classification represents higher risk of HF-related rehospitalization/death in 12 months among HF patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), mid-range EF (HFmrEF), and preserved EF (HFpEF) [18].

Humans have used snails as food since prehistoric time. Tools to extract the soft parts of land snails through deliberately punched holes in the shells have been identified from human habitation 12,000 years ago in North Africa (Hill et al., 2015) and archaeological evidence from a site in northern Alabama suggested that 2500 BC, the hunter-gatherer population of the New World also consumed gastropods (Schoeninger and Peebles, 1981). Indeed to this day mollusks, including fresh water and terrestrial species of snails, have been acceptable as food in many parts of the world, including New Caledonia Jamaica, Mexico, Taiwan, Formosa, the Philippines (Baby et al., 2010), Thailand and, of course, the Mediterranean countries with in particular, France where “escargots à la bourguignonne” are still regarded a world famous culinary delicacy (Peterson, 2002). Land snails despite their long history as a human food item, are nevertheless considered a non-conventional wildlife protein source and their consumption, as in the Ishan, Afemai, and Isoko regions of Africa, is often restricted to a certain section of the population and governed by food taboos (Meyer-Rochow, 2009). However, snails are now in the process of becoming a highly relished delicacy, often marketed as ‘Congo meat’, at least in Nigeria (Fagbuaro et al., 2006). If the global population growth rate with an anticipated projection of 9 billion by 2050 is any guide (Bongaarts, 2009; Roberts, 2011), there will be huge pressure on the existing sources of animal protein and a shift to greater use of protein-containing plants can be anticipated. However, from a nutritional point of view, animal proteins possess a higher nutritional value than those of plants, because animal proteins contain larger quantities of essential amino acids (Yen, 2009).

Corrosion is more than just an inevitable natural phenomenon; its impact is felt in three areas of concern, namely economics, safety, and environmental damage. Metallic corrosion, seemingly innocuous, affects many sectors (Sastri, 2011). Fig. 1 shown the elements of the costs of corrosion included capital, design, and control, as well as associated costs. The high costs of corrosion have a significant effect on the national economy, in general, corrosion costs amount to about 2–4% of gross national product. Therefore, it is necessary that corrosion personnel adopt corrosion control measures in order to avoid corrosion losses, which are about 25% of the costs are avoidable when these measures are adopted. Furthermore, corrosion prevention arrests the degradation of metals, and hence contributes in a significant way to the preservation of resources with minimum damage to the environment. In another hand, one of the most important impacts of corrosion is safety. While safety should be uppermost in the mind of industrial personnel, accidents do occur, in spite of great precautions. So, corrosion is not only expensive but also poses risks to human life and safety. For these reasons research on this phenomenon and its prevention have been highly interesting from the number of published scientific papers in the literature from 1907 to 2003 that increase from 35 to 10,655 papers, respectively (Sastri et al., 2007). According to the corrosion aspect, its mechanism or the conditions where it is developed, Fontana defined eight forms of corrosion, as general corrosion, pitting corrosion, intergranular corrosion, parting, galvanic corrosion, crevice corrosion, stress-corrosion cracking, and erosion corrosion (Fontana, 1975). In 1957, Vernon presented an outline scheme of ‘‘Methods of Preventing Corrosion” which are defined in four categories: modification of procedure, modification of environment, modification of metal, and protective coatings (Sheir et al., 1994). In our case, we will focus on the second method of combating corrosion, in particular by using the corrosion inhibitor. The last is a chemical substance that, upon addition to a corrosive environment, results in reduction of corrosion rate to an acceptable level. It can function in two ways: first, situations where the added inhibitors can alter the corrosive environment into a noncorrosive or less corrosive environment through its interaction with the corrosive species. Secondly, the corrosion inhibitor interacts with the metal leading to the formation of protective film on surface.