Symmetry breaking polymerization: one-pot synthesis of plasmonic hybrid Janus nanoparticles.

Asymmetric hybrid nanoparticles have many important applications in catalysis, nanomotion, sensing, and diagnosis, however ways to generate the asymmetric hybrid nanoparticles are quite limited and inefficient. Most current methods rely on interfacial adhesion and modification of already formed particles. In this article we report a one-pot, facile and scalable synthesis of anisotropic Au-polymer hybrid nanoparticles via interfacial oxidative dispersion polymerization. The interfacial nucleation and polymerization lead to spontaneous symmetry breaking and formation of the Janus particles. The reaction is initiated by monomer radicals generated by the strong oxidant HAuCl4, which is itself later reduced by the electron-rich monomers to self-nucleate and form Au nanoparticles (NPs). The competition between divinylbenzene adsorption and the PVP capping agent results in effective partial surface wetting, forming asymmetric Au-PDVB hybrid nanoparticles, by confining growth of each material to its own phase. Such spontaneous symmetry breaking, important in morphogenesis, with control over the subsequent growth processes should lead to significant advances in the synthesis of asymmetric nanostructures.The research was funded by ERC grants EMATTER 280078 and LINASS 320503, and EPSRC grants EP/G060649/1, and EP/ L027151/1.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/NR/c5nr01999k#!divAbstract

EQ-5D-5L or EQ-HWB-S:Which is the Better Instrument for Capturing Spillover Effects in Parental Carers of Children with COVID-19?

Background and Objectives:‘Caregiver health spillovers’ refer to the broader impacts of an individual’s illness and interventions on informal caregivers’ health and well-being. This study focuses on the spillover effects experienced by parental carers of children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), aiming to compare the psychometric properties of the EQ-5D-5L and the experimental EQ Health and Wellbeing Short version (EQ-HWB-S) in capturing these effects. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted with 861 parental carers of children aged 0–18 years with COVID-19 and 231 parents of healthy children as the control group. The EQ-5D-5L and EQ-HWB-S were used to assess parental health and well-being. Analyses included known-groups validity (multivariable regression), test–retest reliability (Gwet’s AC1, intraclass correlation coefficient) and responsiveness to health improvement (Glass’ Δ effect size). Results: Parents of infected children reported more problems than those of healthy controls. The EQ-HWB-S better discriminated between sub-groups defined by the child’s COVID-19 presence, caring time and work impact. Test–retest reliability was fair to good for EQ-HWB-S dimensions (Gwet’s AC1: 0.33–0.79), moderate to good for EQ-5D-5L (Gwet’s AC1: 0.40–0.76), and good for index scores and EQ VAS (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.70–0.77). Parental health and well-being improved as children recovered, with the EQ-5D-5L showing slightly higher responsiveness (effect size: 0.77–0.87) than EQ-HWB-S (effect size: 0.62–0.74). Conclusions: Both EQ-HWB-S and EQ-5D-5L are valid, reliable and responsive for measuring parental spillover effects related to a child’s COVID-19 infection. EQ-HWB-S outperformed in distinguishing social and emotional impacts of caregiving, while EQ-5D-5L better captured physical health improvements. The choice between tools may depend on study objectives.</p

Numerical simulation of small pool fires incorporating liquid fuel motion

For small-scale pool fires, Vali et al. [1] showed a pair of vortices in the liquid pool. The first vortex appeared just close to the sidewall of the container, and the second one emerged slightly away from the first vortex. Large-eddy simulations of small methanol pool fires coupled with liquid fuel convective flow were conducted using an in-house version of FireFOAM to investigate the above phenomenon. In this study, a three-dimensional liquid phase model is newly developed. The model incorporates the effects of thermocapillary Marangoni convection, buoyancy, shear stress, and evaporation. For the gas phase, the combustion model is the extended eddy dissipation concept model coupled with the laminar combustion model. This combustion model uses the viscous diffusion rate to consider laminar-turbulent transition. The predictions were in reasonably good agreement with the measured local mass burning rate, flame height and distributions of liquid temperature. The error of the mass burning rate was within 4%. The present predictions captured a pair of vortices in line with Vali et al.'s experiment [1]. Their sizes increased with increasing the liquid temperature. The Reynolds analogy could explain the sensible reason behind this trend. Shear stress and thermocapillary force caused convection in the liquid pool, and this convection formed a pair of vortices. Thermocapillary force was due to the different distributions of convective and radiative heat transfer. Sensitivity test for sub-models for the liquid phase demonstrated that their effects on the mass burning rate were all less than 5.1%. Conversely, the simulation assuming zero gravity only in the liquid phase resulted in almost 64% reduction in the mass burning rate

Predicting late-stage age-related macular degeneration by integrating marginally weak SNPs in GWA studies

Introduction: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and the leading cause of blindness in developed countries. Current genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for late-stage age-related macular degeneration are mainly single-marker-based approaches, which investigate one Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) at a time and postpone the integration of inter-marker Linkage-disequilibrium (LD) information in the downstream fine mappings. Recent studies showed that directly incorporating inter-marker connection/correlation into variants detection can help discover novel marginally weak single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which are often missed in conventional genome-wide association studies, and can also help improve disease prediction accuracy.Methods: Single-marker analysis is performed first to detect marginally strong single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Then the whole-genome linkage-disequilibrium spectrum is explored and used to search for high-linkage-disequilibrium connected single-nucleotide polymorphism clusters for each strong single-nucleotide polymorphism detected. Marginally weak single-nucleotide polymorphisms are selected via a joint linear discriminant model with the detected single-nucleotide polymorphism clusters. Prediction is made based on the selected strong and weak single-nucleotide polymorphisms.Results: Several previously identified late-stage age-related macular degeneration susceptibility genes, for example, BTBD16, C3, CFH, CFHR3, HTARA1, are confirmed. Novel genes DENND1B, PLK5, ARHGAP45, and BAG6 are discovered as marginally weak signals. Overall prediction accuracy of 76.8% and 73.2% was achieved with and without the inclusion of the identified marginally weak signals, respectively.Conclusion: Marginally weak single-nucleotide polymorphisms, detected from integrating inter-marker linkage-disequilibrium information, may have strong predictive effects on age-related macular degeneration. Detecting and integrating such marginally weak signals can help with a better understanding of the underlying disease-development mechanisms for age-related macular degeneration and more accurate prognostics

Dispersion hardening using amorphous nanoparticles deployed via additive manufacturing.

Nanoparticles or precipitates are long used to block dislocations to strengthen metals. However, this strengthening mechanism unavoidably adds stress concentrations at the obstacles, instigating crack initiation that hampers ductility. Here, we demonstrate a strategy that replaces the traditional crystalline dispersions with dense amorphous nanoparticles, which is made possible via laser powder bed fusion. Porosity-free copper-based nanocomposites are demonstrated as a prototype, consisting of densely and uniformly distributed amorphous boron-carbide nanoparticles (~47 nm in average diameter, up to 12% volume fraction) via an in situ nanofragmentation and melt-quench process. The amorphous nanoparticles act as dislocation sinks, thereby alleviating local stress concentration. They also self-harden along with tensile deformation, promoting strain hardening and therefore homogeneous plastic flow. The as-built composite achieves a tensile strength of more than one gigapascal and a total elongation of approximately 10%, more than twice that of its crystalline dispersion counterpart. Defect accumulation is also suppressed upon cyclic deformation of the as-built bulk nanocomposites, delivering a fatigue strength limit (at &gt; 107 cycles) of more than 70% of the tensile strength. Our results demonstrate an effective strategy for additive manufacturing of metallic materials with superior properties

Identification of 15 new psoriasis susceptibility loci highlights the role of innate immunity

To gain further insight into the genetic architecture of psoriasis, we conducted a meta-analysis of 3 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and 2 independent data sets genotyped on the Immunochip, including 10,588 cases and 22,806 controls. We identified 15 new susceptibility loci, increasing to 36 the number associated with psoriasis in European individuals. We also identified, using conditional analyses, five independent signals within previously known loci. The newly identified loci shared with other autoimmune diseases include candidate genes with roles in regulating T-cell function (such as RUNX3, TAGAP and STAT3). Notably, they included candidate genes whose products are involved in innate host defense, including interferon-mediated antiviral responses (DDX58), macrophage activation (ZC3H12C) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling (CARD14 and CARM1). These results portend a better understanding of shared and distinctive genetic determinants of immune-mediated inflammatory disorders and emphasize the importance of the skin in innate and acquired host defense

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat