High-temperature terahertz optical diode effect without magnetic order in polar FeZnMo3_3O8_8

We present a terahertz spectroscopic study of polar ferrimagnet FeZnMo$_3$O$_8$. Our main finding is a giant high-temperature optical diode effect, or nonreciprocal directional dichroism, where the transmitted light intensity in one direction is over 100 times lower than intensity transmitted in the opposite direction. The effect takes place in the paramagnetic phase with no long-range magnetic order in the crystal, which contrasts sharply with all existing reports of the terahertz optical diode effect in other magnetoelectric materials, where the long-range magnetic ordering is a necessary prerequisite. In \fzmo, the effect occurs resonantly with a strong magnetic dipole active transition centered at 1.27 THz and assigned as electron spin resonance between the eigenstates of the single-ion anisotropy Hamiltonian. We propose that the optical diode effect in paramagnetic FeZnMo$_3$O$_8$ is driven by signle-ion terms in magnetoelectric free energy

The prevention of contrast induced nephropathy by sarpogrelate in patients with chronic kidney disease: a study protocol for a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a serious clinical problem associated with increased morbidity and mortality, particularly in patients with chronic renal insufficiency. Although some agents including hydration with saline are being prescribed to prevent renal deterioration in these high risk patients, their efficacy is not clearly defined and debatable. Therefore additional prophylactic pretreatments are needed.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The present study aims to investigate differences in occurrence of CIN after sarpogrelate premedication in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). 268 participants, aged 20-85 years with a clinical diagnosis of CKD will be recruited. They will be randomly allocated to one of two conditions: (i) routine treatment without sarpogrelate, and (ii) routine treatment with sarpogrelate (a fixed-flexible dose of 300 mg/day). The primary outcome is the occurrence of CIN during 4 weeks after receiving contrast agent.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>As of May 2010, there were no registered trials evaluating the therapeutic potentials of sarpogrelate in preventing for CIN. If sarpogrelate decreases the worsening of renal function and occurrence of CIN, it will provide a safe, easy and inexpensive treatment option.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>NCT01165567</p

High-intensity exercise to promote accelerated improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (HI-PACE): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: African Americans have a disproportionate prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes compared with Caucasians. Recent evidence indicates that low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) level, an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes, is also more prevalent in African Americans than Caucasians. Numerous studies in Caucasian populations suggest that vigorous exercise intensity may promote greater improvements in CRF and other type 2 diabetes risk factors (e.g., reduction of glucose/insulin levels, pulse wave velocity, and body fat) than moderate intensity. However, current evidence comparing health benefits of different aerobic exercise intensities on type 2 diabetes risk factors in African Americans is negligible. This is clinically important as African Americans have a greater risk for type 2 diabetes and are less likely to meet public health recommendations for physical activity than Caucasians. The purpose of the HI-PACE (High-Intensity exercise to Promote Accelerated improvements in CardiorEspiratory fitness) study is to evaluate whether high-intensity aerobic exercise elicits greater improvements in CRF, insulin action, and arterial stiffness than moderate-intensity exercise in African Americans. Methods/Design: A randomized controlled trial will be performed on overweight and obese (body mass index of 25–45 kg/m2) African Americans (35–65 years) (n = 60). Participants will be randomly assigned to moderate-intensity (MOD-INT) or high-intensity (HIGH-INT) aerobic exercise training or a non-exercise control group (CON) for 24 weeks. Supervised exercise will be performed at a heart rate associated with 45–55% and 70–80% of VO2 max in the MOD-INT and HIGH-INT groups, respectively, for an exercise dose of 600 metabolic equivalents of task (MET)-minutes per week (consistent with public health recommendations). The primary outcome is change in CRF. Secondary outcomes include change in insulin sensitivity (measured via an intravenous glucose tolerance test), skeletal muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity (via near-infrared spectroscopy), skeletal muscle measurements (i.e., citrate synthase, COX IV, GLUT-4, CPT-1, and PGC1-α), arterial stiffness (via carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity), body fat, C-reactive protein, and psychological outcomes (quality of life/exercise enjoyment). Discussion: The anticipated results of the HI-PACE study will provide vital information on the health effects of high-intensity exercise in African Americans. This study will advance health disparity research and has the potential to influence future public health guidelines for physical activity

International Asteroid Warning Network Timing Campaign : 2019 XS

Peer reviewe

Nucleant layer effect on nanocolumnar ZnO films grown by electrodeposition

Different ZnO nanostructured films were electrochemically grown, using an aqueous solution based on ZnCl2, on three types of transparent conductive oxides grow on commercial ITO (In2O3:Sn)-covered glass substrates: (1) ZnO prepared by spin coating, (2) ZnO prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering, and (3) commercial ITO-covered glass substrates. Although thin, these primary oxide layers play an important role on the properties of the nanostructured films grown on top of them. Additionally, these primary oxide layers prevent direct hole combination when used in optoelectronic devices. Structural and optical characterizations were carried out by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical transmission spectroscopy. We show that the properties of the ZnO nanostructured films depend strongly on the type of primary oxide-covered substrate used. Previous studies on different electrodeposition methods for nucleation and growth are considered in the final discussion.We thank Prof. A. Segura of the Universitat de Valencia for the facilities with the sputtering equipment. This work was supported by the project PROMETEO/2009/074 from the Generalitat Valenciana.Reyes Tolosa, MD.; Damonte, LC.; Brine, H.; Bolink, HJ.; Hernández Fenollosa, MDLÁ. (2013). Nucleant layer effect on nanocolumnar ZnO films grown by electrodeposition. Nanoscale Research Letters. 8:135-144. https://doi.org/10.1186/1556-276X-8-135S1351448Franklin JB, Zou B, Petrov P, McComb DW, Ryanand MP, McLachlan MA,J: Optimised pulsed laser deposition of ZnO thin films on transparent conducting substrates. Mater Chem 2011, 21: 8178–8182. 10.1039/c1jm10658aJaroslav B, Andrej V, Marie N, Šuttab P, Miroslav M, František U: Cryogenic pulsed laser deposition of ZnO. Vacuum 2012, 86(6):684–688. 10.1016/j.vacuum.2011.07.033Jae Bin L, Hyeong Joon K, Soo Gil K, Cheol Seong H, Seong-Hyeon H, Young Hwa S, Neung Hun L: Deposition of ZnO thin films by magnetron sputtering for a film bulk acoustic resonator. Thin Solid Films 2003, 435: 179–185. 10.1016/S0040-6090(03)00347-XXionga DP, Tanga XG, Zhaoa WR, Liua QX, Wanga YH, Zhoub SL: Deposition of ZnO and MgZnO films by magnetron sputtering. Vacuum 2013, 89: 254–256.Reyes Tolosa MD, Orozco-Messana J, Lima ANC, Camaratta R, Pascual M, Hernandez-Fenollosa MA: Electrochemical deposition mechanism for ZnO nanorods: diffusion coefficient and growth models. J Electrochem Soc 2011, 158(11):E107-E110.Ming F, Ji Z: Mechanism of the electrodeposition of ZnO nanosheets below room temperature. J Electrochem Soc 2010, 157(8):D450-D453. 10.1149/1.3447738Pullini D, Pruna A, Zanin S, Busquets Mataix D: High-efficiency electrodeposition of large scale ZnO nanorod arrays for thin transparent electrodes. J Electrochem Soc 2012, 159: E45-E51. 10.1149/2.093202jesPruna A, Pullini D, Busquets Mataix D: Influence of deposition potential on structure of ZnO nanowires synthesized in track-etched membranes. J Electrochem Soc 2012, 159: E92-E98. 10.1149/2.003205jesMarotti RE, Giorgi P, Machado G, Dalchiele EA: Crystallite size dependence of band gap energy for electrodeposited ZnO grown at different temperatures. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 2009, 90(15):2356–2361.Yeong Hwan K, Myung Sub K, Jae Su Y: Structural and optical properties of ZnO nanorods by electrochemical growth using multi-walled carbon nanotube-composed seed layers. Nanoscale Res Lett 2012, 7: 13. 10.1186/1556-276X-7-13Elias J, Tena-Zaera R, Lévy-Clément C: Electrodeposition of ZnO nanowires with controlled dimensions for photovoltaic applications: role of buffer layer. Thin Solid Films 2007, 515(24):8553–8557. 10.1016/j.tsf.2007.04.027Zhai Y, Zhai S, Chen G, Zhang K, Yue Q, Wang L, Liu J, Jia J: Effects of morphology of nanostructured ZnO on direct electrochemistry and biosensing properties of glucose oxidase. J Electroanal Chem 2011, 656: 198–205. 10.1016/j.jelechem.2010.11.020Reyes Tolosa MD, Orozco-Messana J, Damonte LC, Hernandez-Fenollosa MA: ZnO nanoestructured layers processing with morphology control by pulsed electrodeposition. J Electrochem Soc 2011, 158(7):D452-D455. 10.1149/1.3593004Gouxa A, Pauporté T, Chivot J, Lincot D: Temperature effects on ZnO electrodeposition. Electrochim Acta 2005, 50(11):2239–2248. 10.1016/j.electacta.2004.10.007Kwok WM, Djurisic , Aleksandra B, Leung , Yu H, Li D, Tam KH, Phillips DL, Chan WK: Influence of annealing on stimulated emission in ZnO nanorods. Appl Phys Lett 2006, 89(18):183112. 183112–3 183112–3 10.1063/1.2378560Donderis V, Hernández-Fenollosa MA, Damonte LC, Marí B, Cembrero J: Enhancement of surface morphology and optical properties of nanocolumnar ZnO films. Superlattices and Microstructures 2007, 42: 461–467. 10.1016/j.spmi.2007.04.068Ghayour H, Rezaie HR, Mirdamadi S, Nourbakhsh AA: The effect of seed layer thickness on alignment and morphology of ZnO nanorods. Vacuum 2011, 86: 101–105. 10.1016/j.vacuum.2011.04.025Michael B, Mohammad Bagher R, Sayyed-Hossein K, Wojtek W, Kourosh K-z: Aqueous synthesis of interconnected ZnO nanowires using spray pyrolysis deposited seed layers. Mater Lett 2010, 64: 291–294. 10.1016/j.matlet.2009.10.065Jang Bo S, Hyuk C, Sung-O K: Rapid hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowires by annealing methods on seed layers. J Nanomater 2011, 2011: 6.Peiro AM, Punniamoorthy R, Kuveshni G, Boyle DS, Paul O’B, Donal DC, Bradley , Jenny N, Durrant JR: Hybrid polymer/metal oxide solar cells based on ZnO columnar structures. J Mater Chem 2006, 16(21):2088–2096. 10.1039/b602084dVallet-Regí M, Salinas AJ, Arcos D: From the bioactive glasses to the star gels. J Mater Sci Mater Med 2006, 17: 1011–1017.Peulon S, Lincot D: Mechanistic study of cathodic electrodeposition of zinc oxide and zinc hydroxychloride films from oxygenated aqueous zinc chloride solutions. J Electrochem Soc 1998, 145: 864. 10.1149/1.1838359Dalchiele EA, Giorgi P, Marotti RE, Martín F, Ramos-Barrado JR, Ayouci R, Leinen D: Electrodeposition of ZnO thin films on n-Si(100). Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 2001, 70: 245. 10.1016/S0927-0248(01)00065-4Courtney IA, Dahn JR: Electrochemical and in situ X‐ray diffraction studies of the reaction of lithium with tin oxide composites. J Electrochem Soc 1997, 144(6):2045–2052. 10.1149/1.183774

The burden of unintentional drowning : global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

Background Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related mortality globally. Unintentional drowning (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes W65-74 and ICD9 E910) is one of the 30 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of injury-related mortality in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. This study's objective is to describe unintentional drowning using GBD estimates from 1990 to 2017. Methods Unintentional drowning from GBD 2017 was estimated for cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs), age, sex, country, region, Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile, and trends from 1990 to 2017. GBD 2017 used standard GBD methods for estimating mortality from drowning. Results Globally, unintentional drowning mortality decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017, from 531 956 (uncertainty interval (UI): 484 107 to 572 854) to 295 210 (284 493 to 306 187) deaths. Global age-standardised mortality rates decreased 57.4%, from 9.3 (8.5 to 10.0) in 1990 to 4.0 (3.8 to 4.1) per 100 000 per annum in 2017. Unintentional drowning-associated mortality was generally higher in children, males and in low-SDI to middle-SDI countries. China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh accounted for 51.2% of all drowning deaths in 2017. Oceania was the region with the highest rate of age-standardised YLLs in 2017, with 45 434 (40 850 to 50 539) YLLs per 100 000 across both sexes. Conclusions There has been a decline in global drowning rates. This study shows that the decline was not consistent across countries. The results reinforce the need for continued and improved policy, prevention and research efforts, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.Peer reviewe

The burden of unintentional drowning: Global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

__Background:__ Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related mortality globally. Unintentional drowning (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes W65-74 and ICD9 E910) is one of the 30 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of injury-related mortality in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. This study's objective is to describe unintentional drowning using GBD estimates from 1990 to 2017. __Methods:__ Unintentional drowning from GBD 2017 was estimated for cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs), age, sex, country, region, Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile, and trends from 1990 to 2017. GBD 2017 used standard GBD methods for estimating mortality from drowning. __Results:__ Globally, unintentional drowning mortality decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017, from 531 956 (uncertainty interval (UI): 484 107 to 572 854) to 295 210 (284 493 to 306 187) deaths. Global age-standardised mortality rates decreased 57.4%, from 9.3 (8.5 to 10.0) in 1990 to 4.0 (3.8 to 4.1) per 100 000 per annum in 2017. Unintentional drowning-associated mortality was generally higher in children, males and in low-SDI to middle-SDI countries. China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh accounted for 51.2% of all drowning deaths in 2017. Oceania was the region with the highest rate of age-standardised YLLs in 2017, with 45 434 (40 850 to 50 539) YLLs per 100 000 across both sexes. __Conclusions:__ There has been a decline in global drowning rates. This study shows that the decline was not consistent across countries. The results reinforce the need for continued and improved policy, prevention and research efforts, with a focus on low-and middle-income countries

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Abstract Background Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery. Results To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3–5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism. Conclusions Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Funding GMP, PN, and CW are supported by NHLBI R01HL127564. GMP and PN are supported by R01HL142711. AG acknowledge support from the Wellcome Trust (201543/B/16/Z), European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under grant agreement no. HEALTH-F2-2013–601456 (CVGenes@Target) & the TriPartite Immunometabolism Consortium [TrIC]-Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Grant number NNF15CC0018486. JMM is supported by American Diabetes Association Innovative and Clinical Translational Award 1–19-ICTS-068. SR was supported by the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (Grant No 312062), the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, and University of Helsinki HiLIFE Fellow and Grand Challenge grants. EW was supported by the Finnish innovation fund Sitra (EW) and Finska Läkaresällskapet. CNS was supported by American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowships 15POST24470131 and 17POST33650016. Charles N Rotimi is supported by Z01HG200362. Zhe Wang, Michael H Preuss, and Ruth JF Loos are supported by R01HL142302. NJT is a Wellcome Trust Investigator (202802/Z/16/Z), is the PI of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (MRC & WT 217065/Z/19/Z), is supported by the University of Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215–2001) and the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MC_UU_00011), and works within the CRUK Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme (C18281/A19169). Ruth E Mitchell is a member of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol funded by the MRC (MC_UU_00011/1). Simon Haworth is supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Academic Clinical Fellowship. Paul S. de Vries was supported by American Heart Association grant number 18CDA34110116. Julia Ramierz acknowledges support by the People Programme of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme grant n° 608765 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant n° 786833. Maria Sabater-Lleal is supported by a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII Spanish Health Institute (CP17/00142) and co-financed by the European Social Fund. Jian Yang is funded by the Westlake Education Foundation. Olga Giannakopoulou has received funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) (FS/14/66/3129). CHARGE Consortium cohorts were supported by R01HL105756. Study-specific acknowledgements are available in the Additional file 32: Supplementary Note. The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institutes of Health; or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Peer reviewedPublisher PD