Simple Non-laboratory- and Laboratory-based Risk Assessment Algorithms and Nomogram for Detecting Undiagnosed Diabetes Mellitus

Background: To develop a simple nomogram which can be used to predict the risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) in asymptomatic non-diabetic general population based on non-laboratory-based and laboratory-based risk algorithms. Methods: Anthropometric data, plasma fasting glucose, full lipid profile, exercise habit and family history of DM were collected from Chinese non-diabetic subjects aged 18-70. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the data of a random sample of 2518 subjects to construct non-laboratory-based and laboratory-based risk assessment algorithms for the detection of undiagnosed DM; both algorithms were validated on the data of the remaining sample (n=839). Hosmer-Lemeshow χ2 statistic and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) were employed to assess the calibration and discrimination of the different DM risk algorithms. Results: Of 3357 subjects recruited, 271 (8.1%) had undiagnosed DM defined by fasting glucose≥7.0mmol/L or 2-hour post-load plasma glucose≥11.1mmol/L after oral glucose tolerance test. The non-laboratory-based risk algorithm, with score ranging from 0 to 33, included age, body mass index, family history of DM, regular exercise and uncontrolled blood pressure; the laboratory-based risk algorithm, with score ranging from 0 to 37, added triglyceride level to the risk factors. Both algorithms demonstrated acceptable calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow test: P=0.229 and P=0.483, respectively) and discrimination (AUC: 0.709 and 0.711, respectively) for the detection of undiagnosed DM. The optimal cutoff point on the receiver-operating characteristic curve was 18 for the detection of undiagnosed DM in both algorithms. Conclusions: Simple-to-use nomogram for detecting undiagnosed DM has been developed using the validated non-laboratory-based and laboratory-based risk algorithms.postprin

運用動態相量法對電力電子裝置建模與仿真初探

In order to present accurate and simple models for the power system components including electronic converters, such as FACTS devices, a new method based on dynamic phasors is proposed. Dynamic phasors are based on time-varying Fourier coefficient series. By truncating the unimportant higher order Fourier coefficients and keeping only those significant series, the dynamic phasors model can catch the dynamic behavior of the original detailed model. Dynamic phasors present a new point of view for FACTS devices modeling. In particular, two typical examples and their simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of this method. 隨著靈活交流輸電系統 ( FACTS)元件在電力系統中的廣泛應用 ,為適應針對包含電力電子器件的設備建立簡單而又較準確的數學模型的需要 ,文中提出一種基于時變傅里葉級數的動態相量建模方法 ,可以適用于包含電力電子器件的元件建模。該方法通過忽略系統狀態變量對應的傅里葉級數中那些不重要的項而對原系統進行簡化 ,建模過程中保留可以反映模型本身特性的主要級數項 ,然后由這些保留項構成動態相量模型的狀態變量。經過和詳細時域模型仿真計算結果的比較 ,證明動態相量模型是準確的 ,并且可以大量節省計算時間link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Anti-fouling graphene-based membranes for effective water desalination

© 2018 The Author(s). The inability of membranes to handle a wide spectrum of pollutants is an important unsolved problem for water treatment. Here we demonstrate water desalination via a membrane distillation process using a graphene membrane where water permeation is enabled by nanochannels of multilayer, mismatched, partially overlapping graphene grains. Graphene films derived from renewable oil exhibit significantly superior retention of water vapour flux and salt rejection rates, and a superior antifouling capability under a mixture of saline water containing contaminants such as oils and surfactants, compared to commercial distillation membranes. Moreover, real-world applicability of our membrane is demonstrated by processing sea water from Sydney Harbour over 72 h with macroscale membrane size of 4 cm 2 , processing ~0.5 L per day. Numerical simulations show that the channels between the mismatched grains serve as an effective water permeation route. Our research will pave the way for large-scale graphene-based antifouling membranes for diverse water treatment applications

Recent changes of water discharge and sediment load in the Yellow River basin, China

The Yellow River basin contributes approximately 6% of the sediment load from all river systems globally, and the annual runoff directly supports 12% of the Chinese population. As a result, describing and understanding recent variations of water discharge and sediment load under global change scenarios are of considerable importance. The present study considers the annual hydrologic series of the water discharge and sediment load of the Yellow River basin obtained from 15 gauging stations (10 mainstream, 5 tributaries). The Mann-Kendall test method was adopted to detect both gradual and abrupt change of hydrological series since the 1950s. With the exception of the area draining to the Upper Tangnaihai station, results indicate that both water discharge and sediment load have decreased significantly (p<0.05). The declining trend is greater with distance downstream, and drainage area has a significant positive effect on the rate of decline. It is suggested that the abrupt change of the water discharge from the late 1980s to the early 1990s arose from human extraction, and that the abrupt change in sediment load was linked to disturbance from reservoir construction.Geography, PhysicalGeosciences, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)43ARTICLE4541-5613

Siderite micro-modification for enhanced corrosion protection

Production of oil and gas results in the creation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) which when wet is extremely corrosive owing to the speciation of carbonic acid. Severe production losses and safety incidents occur when carbon steel (CS) is used as a pipeline material if corrosion is not properly managed. Currently corrosion inhibitor (CI) chemicals are used to ensure that the material degradation rates are properly controlled; this imposes operational constraints, costs of deployment and environmental issues. In specific conditions, a naturally growing corrosion product known as siderite or iron carbonate (FeCO₃) precipitates onto the internal pipe wall providing protection from electrochemical degradation. Many parameters influence the thermodynamics of FeCO₃ precipitation which is generally favoured at high values of temperatures, pressure and pH. In this paper, a new approach for corrosion management is presented; micro-modifying the corrosion product. This novel mitigation approach relies on enhancing the crystallisation of FeCO₃ and improving its density, protectiveness and mechanical properties. The addition of a silicon-rich nanofiller is shown to augment the growth of FeCO₃ at lower pH and temperature without affecting the bulk pH. The hybrid FeCO₃ exhibits superior general and localised corrosion properties. The findings herein indicate that it is possible to locally alter the environment in the vicinity of the corroding steel in order to grow a dense and therefore protective FeCO₃ film via the incorporation of hybrid organic-inorganic silsesquioxane moieties. The durability and mechanical integrity of the film is also significantly improved

Synthesis, Magnetic Anisotropy and Optical Properties of Preferred Oriented Zinc Ferrite Nanowire Arrays

Preferred oriented ZnFe2O4 nanowire arrays with an average diameter of 16 nm were fabricated by post-annealing of ZnFe2 nanowires within anodic aluminum oxide templates in atmosphere. Selected area electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction exhibit that the nanowires are in cubic spinel-type structure with a [110] preferred crystallite orientation. Magnetic measurement indicates that the as-prepared ZnFe2O4 nanowire arrays reveal uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, and the easy magnetization direction is parallel to the axis of nanowire. The optical properties show the ZnFe2O4 nanowire arrays give out 370–520 nm blue-violet light, and their UV absorption edge is around 700 nm. The estimated values of direct and indirect band gaps for the nanowires are 2.23 and 1.73 eV, respectively

Atomically dispersed nickel-nitrogen-sulfur species anchored on porous carbon nanosheets for efficient water oxidation

Developing low-cost electrocatalysts to replace precious Ir-based materials is key for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, we report atomically dispersed nickel coordinated with nitrogen and sulfur species in porous carbon nanosheets as an electrocatalyst exhibiting excellent activity and durability for OER with a low overpotential of 1.51 V at 10 mA cm(-2) and a small Tafel slope of 45 mV dec(-1) in alkaline media. Such electrocatalyst represents the best among all reported transition metal- and/or heteroatom-doped carbon electrocatalysts and is even superior to benchmark Ir/C. Theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the well-dispersed molecular S vertical bar NiNx species act as active sites for catalyzing OER. The atomic structure of S vertical bar NiNx centers in the carbon matrix is clearly disclosed by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray absorption spectroscopy together with computational simulations. An integrated photoanode of nanocarbon on a Fe2O3 nanosheet array enables highly active solar-driven oxygen production

Genome-Wide Analysis of the Complex Transcriptional Networks of Rice Developing Seeds

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The development of rice (<em>Oryza sativa</em>) seed is closely associated with assimilates storage and plant yield, and is fine controlled by complex regulatory networks. Exhaustive transcriptome analysis of developing rice embryo and endosperm will help to characterize the genes possibly involved in the regulation of seed development and provide clues of yield and quality improvement.</p> <h3>Principal Findings</h3><p>Our analysis showed that genes involved in metabolism regulation, hormone response and cellular organization processes are predominantly expressed during rice development. Interestingly, 191 transcription factor (TF)-encoding genes are predominantly expressed in seed and 59 TFs are regulated during seed development, some of which are homologs of seed-specific TFs or regulators of <em>Arabidopsis</em> seed development. Gene co-expression network analysis showed these TFs associated with multiple cellular and metabolism pathways, indicating a complex regulation of rice seed development. Further, by employing a cold-resistant <em>cultivar</em> Hanfeng (HF), genome-wide analyses of seed transcriptome at normal and low temperature reveal that rice seed is sensitive to low temperature at early stage and many genes associated with seed development are down-regulated by low temperature, indicating that the delayed development of rice seed by low temperature is mainly caused by the inhibition of the development-related genes. The transcriptional response of seed and seedling to low temperature is different, and the differential expressions of genes in signaling and metabolism pathways may contribute to the chilling tolerance of HF during seed development.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>These results provide informative clues and will significantly improve the understanding of rice seed development regulation and the mechanism of cold response in rice seed.</p> </div

Evolution of MicroRNA Genes in Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana: An Update of the Inverted Duplication Model

The origin and evolution of microRNA (miRNA) genes, which are of significance in tuning and buffering gene expressions in a number of critical cellular processes, have long attracted evolutionary biologists. However, genome-wide perspectives on their origins, potential mechanisms of their de novo generation and subsequent evolution remain largely unsolved in flowering plants. Here, genome-wide analyses of Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana revealed apparently divergent patterns of miRNA gene origins. A large proportion of miRNA genes in O. sativa were TE-related and MITE-related miRNAs in particular, whereas the fraction of these miRNA genes much decreased in A. thaliana. Our results show that the majority of TE-related and pseudogene-related miRNA genes have originated through inverted duplication instead of segmental or tandem duplication events. Based on the presented findings, we hypothesize and illustrate the four likely molecular mechanisms to de novo generate novel miRNA genes from TEs and pseudogenes. Our rice genome analysis demonstrates that non-MITEs and MITEs mediated inverted duplications have played different roles in de novo generating miRNA genes. It is confirmed that the previously proposed inverted duplication model may give explanations for non-MITEs mediated duplication events. However, many other miRNA genes, known from the earlier proposed model, were rather arisen from MITE transpositions into target genes to yield binding sites. We further investigated evolutionary processes spawned from de novo generated to maturely-formed miRNA genes and their regulatory systems. We found that miRNAs increase the tunability of some gene regulatory systems with low gene copy numbers. The results also suggest that gene balance effects may have largely contributed to the evolution of miRNA regulatory systems

Deep sequencing of the Mexican avocado transcriptome, an ancient angiosperm with a high content of fatty acids

Background: Avocado (Persea americana) is an economically important tropical fruit considered to be a good source of fatty acids. Despite its importance, the molecular and cellular characterization of biochemical and developmental processes in avocado is limited due to the lack of transcriptome and genomic information. Results: The transcriptomes of seeds, roots, stems, leaves, aerial buds and flowers were determined using different sequencing platforms. Additionally, the transcriptomes of three different stages of fruit ripening (pre-climacteric, climacteric and post-climacteric) were also analyzed. The analysis of the RNAseqatlas presented here reveals strong differences in gene expression patterns between different organs, especially between root and flower, but also reveals similarities among the gene expression patterns in other organs, such as stem, leaves and aerial buds (vegetative organs) or seed and fruit (storage organs). Important regulators, functional categories, and differentially expressed genes involved in avocado fruit ripening were identified. Additionally, to demonstrate the utility of the avocado gene expression atlas, we investigated the expression patterns of genes implicated in fatty acid metabolism and fruit ripening. Conclusions: A description of transcriptomic changes occurring during fruit ripening was obtained in Mexican avocado, contributing to a dynamic view of the expression patterns of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis and the fruit ripening process