High-volumetric-energy-density redox-active polymer batteries

Department of Energy EngineeringLithium ion batteries (LIBs) have conquered the energy storage device market due to its high energy densities. Even higher densities are being pursued as LIBs’ applications are extended from small devices to larger ones including electric vehicles and energy storage devices. Energy densities (EDs) can be considered from two different bases: mass and volume. Volumetric EDs should be emphasized in space-limited situations even if gravimetric EDs are more considered in literatures. Here we demonstrate lithium metal | redox-active polymer batteries showing high volumetric EDs. Polyvinylcarbazole (PVK) was used as an organic redox-active material while polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF) and carbon black were used as a binder and a conducting agent respectively. The high volumetric EDs were achieved by spray deposition that we emphasize as a novel electrode-fabrication process in this work. The mixtures of the electrode components in solvents were spray-deposited on current collectors. Tiny droplets (size = 50um) containing the components were generated from nozzles. Solvent of the droplets were rapidly evaporated during the time of flight as well as when they met heated current collectors. The components originally included in the droplets were densely packed on the current collectors. The electrode densities achieved by the spray deposition were several times higher those of conventional blading methods. Accordingly, several times higher EDs were obtained from our lithium metal | redox-active polymer cells when compared with the cells prepared by blading methods. The volumetric ED gains overwhelmed the loss of porosity leading to mass transfer problems so that the volumetric EDs of spray-deposited electrodes were higher even at high rates than those of bladed electrodes. We expect that the spray deposition method is appropriate for preparing all-polymer-flexible batteries while conventional inorganic materials can be deposited by the method.ope

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population.

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Analysis of nutritional components and essential amino acids of Korean traditional porridge

ABSTRACTAdequate intake of foods composed of proteins may be necessary for the elderly. This study aimed to analyze the nutritional components of traditional porridge based on the recipe of traditional Korean literature, Jeungbo sallim gyeongj, focusing on chicken porridge, Uyang (beef stomach) porridge, and carp porridge. We analyzed their general nutritional and essential amino acid components, showing that chicken porridge, Uyang porridge, and carp porridge were all nutritionally excellent, but essential amino acids and branched-chain amino acids were the highest in chicken porridge among the three types of porridges. As a result, chicken porridge can be the most suitable for the health of the elderly in the time of COVID-19. In conclusion, this study revealed that traditional porridge based on the recipe of Jeungbo sallim gyeongj could be a nutritionally high-quality source of essential amino acids for the elderly, which can help maintain immunity and muscle strength in the elderly

Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease in Patients With Postpancreatectomy Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer: A Population‐Based Study

Background Postpancreatectomy diabetes can be caused by resection of functioning pancreatic tissue and is associated with postoperative pancreatic islet cell mass loss and subsequent endocrine dysfunction. Diabetes is a well‐known risk factor for ischemic heart disease. However, no previous studies have investigated ischemic heart disease in patients with postpancreatectomy diabetes and pancreatic cancer. Methods and Results Rates of patients with diabetes diagnosed with pancreatic cancer who underwent pancreatectomy between 2002 and 2019 in South Korea were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. Patient‐level propensity score matching was conducted to reduce the possibility of selection bias, and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the association between postpancreatectomy diabetes and ischemic heart disease. In total, 30 242 patients were initially enrolled in the study. After applying exclusion criteria and propensity score matching, 2952 patients were included in the comparative analysis between the postpancreatectomy group with diabetes and the group without diabetes. Patients in the postpancreatectomy group with diabetes had significantly higher rates of ischemic heart disease than those in the group without diabetes. In total, 3432 patients were included in the comparison between the postpancreatectomy and prepancreatectomy groups with diabetes. There was no significant difference in the risk of ischemic heart disease between the postpancreatectomy and prepancreatectomy groups with diabetes. Conclusions Patients who developed diabetes after pancreatectomy had a higher risk of ischemic heart disease than patients who did not develop diabetes after pancreatectomy, and the rate of ischemic heart disease in these patients was similar to that in patients preoperatively diagnosed with diabetes

The gender-specific association between age at first drink and later alcohol drinking patterns in Korea.

This study investigated the association between the age at first drink and later alcohol drinking patterns, and analyzed whether differences in the association exist among Korean adults according to gender. The subjects included 10,649 adults (5,405 men and 5,244 women) from the fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2007 and 2009, which extracted the standard survey household by using the proportional systematic sampling method. Baseline individual characteristics, the age at first drink, and individual alcohol drinking patterns were obtained by specially trained interviewers or examiners. The association between the age at first drink and the adult alcohol drinking patterns was summarized with odds ratios and their confidence intervals obtained from multiple logistic regression analysis with sampling weights of KNHANES complex sample survey design. The results of this study show that age, co-habitation, occupation, smoking, and self-rated stress level were significantly related to the drinking patterns for men, whereas education, co-habitation, smoking, and self-rated stress level were significant factors for the drinking patterns of women. The association between the age at first drink and the adult alcohol consumption was significant for both genders and, interestingly, the alcohol drinking patterns were significantly differed by gender even after controlling for the individual characteristics. These results imply a need for gender-specific strategies to prevent hazardous alcohol consumption at a later time for Korean

Mapping Korean National Health Insurance Pharmaceutical Claim Codes to SNOMED CT

© 2022 European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and IOS Press.The objective of this study was to map pharmaceutical claim codes to SNOMED CT and thereby facilitate multicenter collaborative research and improve semantic interoperability. The claim codes were mapped to SNOMED CT using rule-based automated and manual methods. The maps were internally validated by terminologists and a pharmacist. Finally, 80% of all claim codes were mapped to the concepts of Pharmaceutical/biologic product hierarchy in SNOMED CT. Of them, 50.6% of the codes were exactly mapped to one clinical drug branch concept.N