Pyrolysis and Combustion of Phosphorus containing Solid Fuels: Char Structure, Char Reactivity and Particulate Matter Emission

This thesis first reports a new method for quantifying phosphorus (P) with various forms in solid fuels. Based on this method, P transformation during pyrolysis was then investigated. In situ volatiles with distinctly-different chemistry during volatile−char interactions could significantly affect char structure, reactivity and particulate matter (PM) emission during combustion of P-containing solid fuels. Water vapors are also found to substantially influence PM emission during combustion of volatiles and char from P-containing solid fuels

Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data

Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, confounding factors are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Methods: A population-based sample of 8194 participants aged 15–69 years old in Ningbo were used from China’s 2017 National Health Literacy Surveillance Data. We use multivariate regression analysis to disentangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Results: We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. This might arise because having one or more chronic conditions is associated with better knowledge about chronic diseases, thus improve their health literacy. More importantly, we find health literacy is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of having a comorbid condition. However, this protective effect is only found among urban residents, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the important role of health literacy in preventing comorbidities instead of preventing the first chronic condition. Moreover, family support could help improve health literacy and result in beneficial effects on health

Implementation of an integrated continuous downstream process for a monoclonal antibody production

The biopharmaceutical market is driving the revolution from batch to continuous manufacturing (CM) for higher productivity and lower cost. In this work, a bench-scale fully integrated continuous downstream process for monoclonal antibody production was established and successfully scaled up to 200 L scale. The process includes a continuous proteinA step, a viral inactivation step, a batch-wise cation exchange and anion exchange step, a batch-wise viral-filtration step, and a single-pass UF/DF step. An inline protein quantity monitoring system was designed to control protein loading mass on cation exchange column. All the steps were connected through surge tanks and integrated by DeltaVTM automatic control system. Please download the PDF file for full content

The rice ERF transcription factor OsERF922 negatively regulates resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae and salt tolerance

Rice OsERF922, encoding an APETELA2/ethylene response factor (AP2/ERF) type transcription factor, is rapidly and strongly induced by abscisic acid (ABA) and salt treatments, as well as by both virulent and avirulent pathovars of Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of rice blast disease. OsERF922 is localized to the nucleus, binds specifically to the GCC box sequence, and acts as a transcriptional activator in plant cells. Knockdown of OsERF922 by means of RNAi enhanced resistance against M. oryzae. The elevated disease resistance of the RNAi plants was associated with increased expression of PR, PAL, and the other genes encoding phytoalexin biosynthetic enzymes and without M. oryzae infection. In contrast, OsERF922-overexpressing plants showed reduced expression of these defence-related genes and enhanced susceptibility to M. oryzae. In addition, the OsERF922-overexpressing lines exhibited decreased tolerance to salt stress with an increased Na+/K+ ratio in the shoots. The ABA levels were found increased in the overexpressing lines and decreased in the RNAi plants. Expression of the ABA biosynthesis-related genes, 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) 3 and 4, was upregulated in the OsERF922-overexpressing plants, and NCED4 was downregulated in the RNAi lines. These results suggest that OsERF922 is integrated into the cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress-signalling networks perhaps through modulation of the ABA levels

Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidence from China’s data

Background: Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, confounding factors are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Methods: A population-based sample of 8194 participants aged 15–69 years old in Ningbo were used from China’s 2017 National Health Literacy Surveillance Data. We use multivariate regression analysis to disentangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Results: We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. This might arise because having one or more chronic conditions is associated with better knowledge about chronic diseases, thus improve their health literacy. More importantly, we find health literacy is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of having a comorbid condition. However, this protective effect is only found among urban residents, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the important role of health literacy in preventing comorbidities instead of preventing the first chronic condition. Moreover, family support could help improve health literacy and result in beneficial effects on health

Health literacy and its effect on chronic disease prevention: evidences from China's national health literacy surveillance data

Objectives Improving health literacy is an important public health goal in many countries. Although many studies have suggested that low health literacy has adverse effects on an individual’s health outcomes, factors that may be confounding the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes are often not accounted. This paper examines the interplay between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Methodology A sample of 2,835 residents aged 14-71 years old in Ningbo province of China were selected from China’s National Health Literacy Surveillance Survey in 2017. The multivariate regression analysis is used to untangle the relationship between health literacy and chronic disease prevention. Results We find the association between health literacy and the occurrence of the first chronic condition is attenuated after we adjust the results for age and education. In contrast, we find having one or more chronic conditions leads to better knowledge about chronic diseases and thus improved health literacy on chronic disease prevention. Thus, when a respondent has one chronic disease, health literacy could reduce the incidence of a new chronic condition (comorbidities). However, the protective effect of health literacy is only found among our urban sample, suggesting health literacy might be a key factor explaining the rural-urban disparity in health outcomes. Conclusion Our findings highlight that health literacy plays a more important role in helping individuals preventing comorbidity than preventing their first chronic disease. Moreover, family support could be a potential channel through which health literacy accumulates and results in beneficial effects on health

3′,6′-Bis(diethyl­amino)-2-[(E)-2-(4-hy­droxy-3-meth­oxy­benzyl­idene­amino)­eth­yl]spiro­[isoindoline-1,9′-xanthen]-3-one ethanol monosolvate

In the title compound, C38H42N4O4·C2H6O, prepared via a spiro­lactam ring-formation reaction in a rhodamine dye, the xanthene ring system is approximately planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0014Å) and subtends dihedral angles of 88.10 (3) and 86.92 (4)° with the spiro­lactam (r.m.s. deviations = 0.0012 Å) and benzene rings, respectively. The crystal structure consists of chains parallel to [-101], formed via O—H⋯O inter­actions

Evolutionary and regulatory pattern analysis of soybean Ca2+ ATPases for abiotic stress tolerance

P2-type Ca2+ ATPases are responsible for cellular Ca2+ transport, which plays an important role in plant development and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the role of P2-type Ca2+ ATPases in stress response and stomatal regulation is still elusive in soybean. In this study, a total of 12 P2-type Ca2+ ATPases genes (GmACAs and GmECAs) were identified from the genome of Glycine max. We analyzed the evolutionary relationship, conserved motif, functional domain, gene structure and location, and promoter elements of the family. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging analysis showed that vegetable soybean leaves are damaged to different extents under salt, drought, cold, and shade stresses. Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis demonstrated that most of the GmACAs and GmECAs are up-regulated after drought, cold, and NaCl treatment, but are down-regulated after shading stress. Microscopic observation showed that different stresses caused significant stomatal closure. Spatial location and temporal expression analysis suggested that GmACA8, GmACA9, GmACA10, GmACA12, GmACA13, and GmACA11 might promote stomatal closure under drought, cold, and salt stress. GmECA1 might regulate stomatal closure in shading stress. GmACA1 and GmECA3 might have a negative function on cold stress. The results laid an important foundation for further study on the function of P2-type Ca2+ ATPase genes GmACAs and GmECAs for breeding abiotic stress-tolerant vegetable soybean

Partially impaired functional connectivity states between right anterior insula and default mode network in autism spectrum disorder.

Time-invariant resting-state functional connectivity studies have illuminated the crucial role of the right anterior insula (rAI) in prominent social impairments of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, a recent dynamic connectivity study demonstrated that rather than being stationary, functional connectivity patterns of the rAI vary significantly across time. The present study aimed to explore the differences in functional connectivity in dynamic states of the rAI between individuals with ASD and typically developing controls (TD). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data obtained from a publicly available database were analyzed in 209 individuals with ASD and 298 demographically matched controls. A k-means clustering algorithm was utilized to obtain five dynamic states of functional connectivity of the rAI. The temporal properties, frequency properties, and meta-analytic decoding were first identified in TD group to obtain the characteristics of each rAI dynamic state. Multivariate analysis of variance was then performed to compare the functional connectivity patterns of the rAI between ASD and TD groups in obtained states. Significantly impaired connectivity was observed in ASD in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, which are two critical hubs of the default mode network (DMN). States in which ASD showed decreased connectivity between the rAI and these regions were those more relevant to socio-cognitive processing. From a dynamic perspective, these findings demonstrate partially impaired resting-state functional connectivity patterns between the rAI and DMN across states in ASD, and provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying social impairments in individuals with ASD.Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Grant Numbers: 2672018ZYGX2018J079, ZYGX2016J187 National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Resource Centre National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: 61533006, 61673089, 81771919, 81871432 Sichuan Science and Technology Program. Grant Number: 2018TJPT0016 Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China. Grant Number: 2012018511002