Toward Sustainability:Using Big Data to Explore Decisive Supply Chain Risk Factors Under Uncertainty

Rapid market changes aimed at sustainability have led to supply chain risks and uncertainties in the Taiwanese light-emitting diode industry. These risks and uncertainties can be captured by social media, quantitative and qualitative data (referred to herein as big data), but the industry has been unable to manage this information boom to respond to customer needs. These various types of data have their own characteristics that affect decision making about developing firm capabilities. This study aggregates the various data to undertake an extensive investigation of supply chain risks and uncertainties. Specifically, this study proposes using the fuzzy and grey Delphi methods to identify a set of reliable attributes and, based on these attributes, transforming big data to a manageable scale to consider their impacts. Subsequently, both the fuzzy and grey Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratories applied to determine the causal relationships for supply chain risks and uncertainties. The results reveal that capacity and operations have greater influence than other supply chain attributes and that risks stemming from triggering events are difficult to diagnose and control. The implications, conclusions and findings are addressed

Genome-Wide Identification of Maize Protein Arginine Methyltransferase Genes and Functional Analysis of <i>ZmPRMT1</i> Reveal Essential Roles in <i>Arabidopsis</i> Flowering Regulation and Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Histone methylation, as one of the important epigenetic regulatory mechanisms, plays a significant role in growth and developmental processes and stress responses of plants, via altering the methylation status or ratio of arginine and lysine residues of histone tails, which can affect the regulation of gene expression. Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) have been revealed to be responsible for histone methylation of specific arginine residues in plants, which is important for maintaining pleiotropic development and adaptation to abiotic stresses in plants. Here, for the first time, a total of eight PRMT genes in maize have been identified and characterized in this study, named as ZmPRMT1-8. According to comparative analyses of phylogenetic relationship and structural characteristics among PRMT gene family members from several representative species, all maize 8 PRMT proteins were categorized into three distinct subfamilies. Further, schematic structure and chromosome location analyses displayed evolutionarily conserved structure features and an unevenly distribution on maize chromosomes of ZmPRMT genes, respectively. The expression patterns of ZmPRMT genes in different tissues and under various abiotic stresses (heat, drought, and salt) were determined. The expression patterns of ZmPRMT genes indicated that they play a role in regulating growth and development and responses to abiotic stress. Eventually, to verify the biological roles of ZmPRMT genes, the transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing ZmPRMT1 gene was constructed as a typical representative. The results demonstrated that overexpression of ZmPRMT1 can promote earlier flowering time and confer enhanced heat tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. Taken together, our results are the first to report the roles of ZmPRMT1 gene in regulating flowering time and resisting heat stress response in plants and will provide a vital theoretical basis for further unraveling the functional roles and epigenetic regulatory mechanism of ZmPRMT genes in maize growth, development and responses to abiotic stresses

Opportunities and challenges for n-alkane and n-alkene biosynthesis: A sustainable microbial biorefinery

Alkanes and alkenes are high-value platform chemicals that can be synthesized by microorganisms, utilizing organic residues from agri-food industries and municipalities, thereby offering an alternative opportunity in resource recovery. Current research and technological advancements for the biosynthesis of alkanes and alkenes are mainly impeded by low product titers, obstructing the bioprocess upscaling and large-scale applications. Thus, current scientific investigations aim to improve productivity by utilizing natural and engineered metabolic pathways in various microbial chassis to suppress competing metabolic pathways, coupled with bioprocess optimization. Additionally, to reduce costs, research is being conducted on utilizing inorganic carbon sources such as CO2 to promote the green synthesis of alkanes and alkenes. Therefore, this review critically discusses the opportunities and challenges in alkane and alkene biosynthesis, aiming to examine the current technological advancements. In this review, the limitations of five major metabolic pathways for alkane and alkene biosynthesis are thoroughly discussed, highlighting their shortcomings. Additionally, various techniques, including metabolic engineering, autotrophic metabolic pathways, and new non-biosynthetic routes, are investigated as potential methods to enhance product titers. Furthermore, this review offers valuable insights into the economic and environmental aspects of alkane and alkene biosynthesis while also presenting perspectives for future research directions

Analysis of clinical features and identification of risk factors in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease based on FibroTouch

Abstract Our aim was to explore the correlation between ultrasound attenuation parameter (UAP) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) based on FibroTouch (China) and clinical features in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), so as to provide a certain basis for the clinical application of FibroTouch in NAFLD. Hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in patients with NAFLD were graded according to FibroTouch, and the relationship between steatosis and fibrosis levels and clinical characteristics was retrospectively analyzed. Hepatic steatosis was positively related with weight, BMI, waist, hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia, FBG, UA, TG, ALT, AST, GGT, LSM and hepatic fibrosis grading, and was negatively related with gender (male), age and AST/ALT ratio. Hepatic fibrosis was positively related with age, BMI, waist, hypertension, FBG, ALT, AST, GGT, NFS, APRI, FIB-4, UAP and hepatic steatosis grading, and was negatively related with blood platelet (PLT) counts. Moreover, BMI, waist, TG, ALT and LSM were independent risk factors of hepatic steatosis, while decreased PLT counts, AST and UAP were independent risk factors of hepatic fibrosis. Body mass parameters, metabolic risk factors and liver function indicators increase the risk of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in patients with NAFLD, and UAP and LSM can interact with each other

Fluorinated Alcohol-Processed N‑Type Organic Electrochemical Transistor with High Performance and Enhanced Stability

Tuning the film morphology and aggregated structure is a vital means to improve the performance of the mixed ionic–electronic conductors in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). Herein, three fluorinated alcohols (FAs), including 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE), 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP), and perfluoro-tert-butanol (PFTB), were employed as the alternative solvents for engineering the n-type small-molecule active layer gNR. Remarkedly, an impressive μC* of 5.12 F V–1 cm–1 s–1 and a normalized transconductance of 1.216 S cm–1 are achieved from the HFIP-fabricated gNR OECTs, which is three times higher than that of chloroform. The operational stability has been significantly enhanced by the FA-fabricated devices. Such enhancements can be ascribed to the aggregation-induced structural ordering by FAs during spin coating, which optimizes the microstructure of the films for a better mixed ion and electron transport. These results prove the huge research potential of FAs to improve OECT materials’ processability, device performance, and stability, therefore promoting practical bio-applications