Preparation and characterization of a new carbonaceous material for electrochemical systems

A new carbonaceous material was successfully prepared by the py-rolysis of scrap tire rubber at 600 °C under a nitrogen atmosphere. The physical characteristics of the prepared carbonaceous material were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was proved that the carbonaceous material had a disordered structure and spherical morphology with an average particle size about 100 nm. The prepared carbonaceous material was also used as electrodes in electrochemical systems to examine its electrochemical performances. It was demonstrated that it delivered a lithium insertion capacity of 658 mA h g-1 during the first cycle with a coulombic efficiency of 68 %. Cyclic voltammograms test results showed that a redox reaction occurred during the cycles. The chemical diffusion coefficient based on the impedance diagram was about 10-10 cm2 s-1. The pyrolytic carbonaceous material derived from scrap tire rubber is therefore considered to be a potential anode material in lithium secondary batteries or capacitors. Furthermore, it is advantageous for environmental protection

KB4VA: A Knowledge Base of Visualization Designs for Visual Analytics

Visual analytics (VA) systems have been widely used to facilitate decision-making and analytical reasoning in various application domains. VA involves visual designs, interaction designs, and data mining, which is a systematic and complex paradigm. In this work, we focus on the design of effective visualizations for complex data and analytical tasks, which is a critical step in designing a VA system. This step is challenging because it requires extensive knowledge about domain problems and visualization to design effective encodings. Existing visualization designs published in top venues are valuable resources to inspire designs for problems with similar data structures and tasks. However, those designs are hard to understand, parse, and retrieve due to the lack of specifications. To address this problem, we build KB4VA, a knowledge base of visualization designs in VA systems with comprehensive labels about their analytical tasks and visual encodings. Our labeling scheme is inspired by a workshop study with 12 VA researchers to learn user requirements in understanding and retrieving professional visualization designs in VA systems. The theme extends Vega-Lite specifications for describing advanced and composited visualization designs in a declarative manner, thus facilitating human understanding and automatic indexing. To demonstrate the usefulness of our knowledge base, we present a user study about design inspirations for VA tasks. In summary, our work opens new perspectives for enhancing the accessibility and reusability of professional visualization designs

Tissue Stresses in Stented Coronary Arteries with Different Geometries: Effect of the Relation Between Stent Length and Lesion Length

In-stent restenosis after stent deployment remains an obstruction in the long-term benefits of stenting. This study sought to investigate the influence of the relation between stent length and lesion length on the mechanics of the arterial wall with different geometries, including straight and tapered vessels. Results showed that when the length of the stent was longer than the lesion length, the maximum stress in plaque and vessel increased as the length of stent increased. When the length of the stent was shorter than the lesion length, the vessel stress induced by stent inflation was lower; both ends of the stenosis plaque could not be fully expanded. When the length of the stent was equal to the lesion length, the plaque and vessel stress induced by stent inflation was minimal, and stent foreshortening was minimal. Compared with the straight vessel, the stent implantation in the tapered vessel with the same stent length resulted in greater stress in vessel and plaque, an increased stent recoil, and a decreased stent foreshortening. When the length of the stent is equal to lesion length, it may be the reasonable choice for straight vessels and tapered vessels. Conclusions drawn from this article can help surgeons to choose appropriate stent lengths

Zinc finger and interferon-stimulated genes play a vital role in TB-IRIS following HAART in AIDS

Aim: Co-infection in HIV-1 patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis poses considerable risk of developing the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), especially upon the initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Methodology & results: For transcriptomic analysis, peripheral blood mononuclear cells’ whole gene expression was used from three patient groups: HIV+ (H), HIV-TB+ (HT), HIV-TB+ with IRIS (HTI). Pathway enrichment and functional analysis was performed before and after highly active ART. Genes in the interferon-stimulating and ZNF families maintained tight functional interaction and tilted the balance in favor of TB-IRIS. Discussion & conclusion: The functional impairment of interaction between ZNF genes and interferon-stimulated genes, along with higher expression of S100A8/S100A9 genes possibly forms the genomic basis of TB-IRIS in a subset of HIV patients while on highly active ART

Patterns of linkage disequilibrium and haplotype distribution in disease candidate genes

BACKGROUND: The adequacy of association studies for complex diseases depends critically on the existence of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between functional alleles and surrounding SNP markers. RESULTS: We examined the patterns of LD and haplotype distribution in eight candidate genes for osteoporosis and/or obesity using 31 SNPs in 1,873 subjects. These eight genes are apolipoprotein E (APOE), type I collagen α1 (COL1A1), estrogen receptor-α (ER-α), leptin receptor (LEPR), parathyroid hormone (PTH)/PTH-related peptide receptor type 1 (PTHR1), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3), and vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3)) receptor (VDR). Yin yang haplotypes, two high-frequency haplotypes composed of completely mismatching SNP alleles, were examined. To quantify LD patterns, two common measures of LD, D' and r(2), were calculated for the SNPs within the genes. The haplotype distribution varied in the different genes. Yin yang haplotypes were observed only in PTHR1 and UCP3. D' ranged from 0.020 to 1.000 with the average of 0.475, whereas the average r(2 )was 0.158 (ranging from 0.000 to 0.883). A decay of LD was observed as the intermarker distance increased, however, there was a great difference in LD characteristics of different genes or even in different regions within gene. CONCLUSION: The differences in haplotype distributions and LD patterns among the genes underscore the importance of characterizing genomic regions of interest prior to association studies

A simulation study on the measurement of D0-D0bar mixing parameter y at BES-III

We established a method on measuring the \dzdzb mixing parameter $y$ for BESIII experiment at the BEPCII $e^+e^-$ collider. In this method, the doubly tagged $\psi(3770) \to D^0 \overline{D^0}$ events, with one $D$ decays to CP-eigenstates and the other $D$ decays semileptonically, are used to reconstruct the signals. Since this analysis requires good $e/\pi$ separation, a likelihood approach, which combines the $dE/dx$, time of flight and the electromagnetic shower detectors information, is used for particle identification. We estimate the sensitivity of the measurement of $y$ to be 0.007 based on a $20fb^{-1}$ fully simulated MC sample.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure