Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Modelling and Risk Management in the Offshore and Marine Industry Supply Chain

Supply chain risk management is primarily a process that involves the identification, assessment and mitigation of risks that arise in a particular supply chain system. Pertaining to that, the offshore and marine industry is one of the many industries that have seldom received much consideration when it comes to management of the supply chain system. The rig building facet of the offshore and marine industry was thus chosen as the main focus of the project to manage the risks that arise in a particular oil rig building project. A risk mitigation plan framework was proposed to act as a guideline to identify as much risk as possible, eliminate trivial ones, and subsequently, prioritizing the remaining ones. The final step involves the formulation of a mathematical model based on the selected risk. In this case, the risk of raw material price fluctuation is studied. The demonstration of the Monte Carlo simulation using the Risk Solver program was also done to quantify the risks. Two case scenarios were then developed along with the implementation of risk management techniques in order to observe the effectiveness of the risk management of the overall rig building supply chain

Magnetodielectric Ni ferrite ceramics with Bi2O3additive for potential antenna miniaturizations

Journal of Materials Research242324-33

Lignin biodegradation and ligninolytic enzyme studies during biopulping of Acacia Mangium wood chips by tropical white rot fungi

Abstract White rot fungi are good lignin degraders and have the potential to be used in industry. In the present work, Phellinus sp., Daedalea sp., Trametes versicolor and Pycnoporus coccineus were selected due to their relatively high ligninolytic enzyme activity, and grown on Acacia mangium wood chips under solid state fermentation. Results obtained showed that manganese peroxidase produced is far more compared to lignin peroxidase, suggesting that MnP might be the predominating enzymes causing lignin degradation in Acacia mangium wood chips. Cellulase enzyme assays showed that no significant cellulase activity was detected in the enzyme preparation of T. versicolor and Phellinus sp. This low cellulolytic activity further suggests that these two white rot strains are of more interest in lignin degradation. The results on lignin losses showed 20–30% of lignin breakdown at 60 days of biodegradation. The highest lignin loss was found in Acacia mangium biotreated with T. versicolor after 60 days and recorded 26.9%, corresponding to the percentage of their wood weight loss recorded followed by P. coccineus. In general, lignin degradation was only significant from 20 days onwards. The overall percentage of lignin weight loss was within the range of 1.02–26.90% over the biodegradation periods. Microscopic observations conducted using scanning electron microscope showed that T. versicolor, P. coccineus, Daedalea sp. and Phellinus sp. had caused lignin degradation in Acacia mangium wood chips

Power system security assessment and enhancement using artificial neural network

Proceedings of the International Conference on Energy Management and Power Delivery, EMPD2582-58723

Ni1-xCoxFe1.98O4 ferrite ceramics with promising magneto-dielectric properties

10.1111/j.1551-2916.2008.02777.xJournal of the American Ceramic Society91123937-394

Landcover classification using ERS SAR/INSAR data on coastal region of Central Sumatra

European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP414 PART 1391-396ESPU

African sharptooth catfish Clarias gariepinus Does not detoxify ammonia to urea or amino acids but actively excretes ammonia during exposure to environmental ammonia

10.1086/383499Physiological and Biochemical Zoology772242-254PBZO

Mimicking both petal and lotus effects on a single silicon substrate by tuning the wettability of nanostructured surfaces

10.1021/la1050783Langmuir2774126-4133LANG

Schottky barrier height in germanide/Ge contacts and its engineering through germanidation induced dopant segregation

10.1109/IWJT.2007.4279954Extended Abstracts of the 7th International Workshop on Junction Technology, IWJT 200781-8