The study of factors associated with pregnancy outcomes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can lead to unfavorable pregnancy complications in women. This study aimed to evaluate the factors associated with pregnancy outcomes in patients with SLE. Results: Fifty-nine pregnant women with SLE (121 pregnancies) participated in this retrospective cohort study. The mean age of the patients was 33.74 ± 3.80 years (range 21 to 48 years). Fetal loss occurred in 43.8 of pregnancies. The most common laboratory findings in SLE patients were antinuclear antibody (81.4) and anti-ds DNA positivity (54.2). High levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) during pregnancy, renal involvement, anti-double-stranded DNA positivity, anti-phospholipid antibody (APA) positivity and younger age at disease onset were significantly correlated with unfavourable pregnancy outcomes. A significant difference was observed between duration of SLE and low birth weight (P = 0.003), pre-eclampsia (P = 0.012) and still birth (P = 0.036). High CRP, APA positivity, anti-dsDNA positivity and kidney involvement were predictors of adverse pregnancy outcomes in SLE patients. Renal involvement increased risk of pregnancy with complication 8.5 times (OR = 8.5, 95 CI 1.396-63.373, P = 0.017). Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) also was associated with an odds ratio of 5.18 (95 CI 1.681-13.647, P = 0.001). © 2020 The Author(s)

A New Approach to Reduce Memory Consumption in Lattice Boltzmann Method on GPU

Several efforts have been performed to improve LBM defects related to its computational performance. In this work, a new algorithm has been introduced to reduce memory consumption. In the past, most LBM developers have not paid enough attention to retain LBM simplicity in their modified version, while it has been one of the main concerns in developing of the present algorithm. Note, there is also a deficiency in our new algorithm. Besides the memory reduction, because of high memory call back from the main memory, some computational efficiency reduction occurs. To overcome this difficulty, an optimization approach has been introduced, which has recovered this efficiency to the original two-steps two-lattice LBM. This is accomplished by a trade-off between memory reduction and computational performance. To keep a suitable computational efficiency, memory reduction has reached to about 33% in D2Q9 and 42% in D3Q19. In addition, this approach has been implemented on graphical processing unit (GPU) as well. In regard to onboard memory limitation in GPU, the advantage of this new algorithm is enhanced even more (39% in D2Q9 and 45% in D3Q19). Note, because of higher memory bandwidth in GPU, computational performance of our new algorithm using GPU is better than CPU

Combustion and Emission Enhancement of a Spark Ignition Two-Stroke Cycle Engine Utilizing Internal and External EGR Approach at Low-Load Operation

Two-stroke cycle engines have always been prominent due to their distinctive advantage incorporating high power-to-weight ratio, however the drawbacks are poor combustion efficiency, fuel short-circuiting and excessive emission of uHC and CO. These problems are apparent at low-load and speed regions and are the major obstacle to their global acceptance. The deficiencies can be addressed by increasing the in-cylinder average charge temperature employing Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR). An experimental study is conducted to investigate the influence of utilizing EGR techniques, including Internal and External EGR, on combustion misfiring occurrence, combustion stability and exhaust emissions using a single cylinder two-stroke SI engine at idling, low and mid-load conditions. From the results, it is observed since the average in-cylinder charge temperature is increased, due to utilizing EGRs, engine’s low and mid-load irregular combustions (misfire) and exhaust emissions are remarkably supressed and almost all of misfire cycles eliminated depending on the percentage of EGRs. In terms of combustion stability, it is agreed in general the application of EGRs improves the cyclic variation of IMEP, Pmax and CA10 compared to conventional operation. However, applying Ex-EGR compared to In-EGR will deteriorate cyclic variability of IMEP and CA10.The authors would like to acknowledge the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for financial support under the research university grant Q.J130000.3509.06G97

Association of interleukin 1 gene cluster and interleukin 1 receptor gene polymorphisms with ischemic heart failure

BACKGROUND: Proinfl ammatory cytokines have been known to play a considerable part in the pathomechanisms of chronic heart failure (CHF). Given the importance of proinfl ammatory cytokines in the context of the failing heart, we assessed whether the polymorphisms of interleukin (IL)-1 gene cluster, including IL-1a, IL-1β, and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) and IL-1R gene are predictors of CHF due to ischemic heart disease. METHODS: Forty- three patients with ischemic heart failure were recruited in this study as patients group and compared with 140 healthy unrelated control subjects. Using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specifi c primers method, the allele and genotype frequency of 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the IL- 1a (-889), IL-1β (-511, +3962), IL-1R (psti 1970), and IL-1RA (mspa1 11100) genes were determined.RESULTS: The frequency of the IL-1β -511/C allele was signifi cantly higher in the patient group compared to that in the control group (p = 0.031). The IL-1β (-511) C/C genotype was signifi cantly overrepresented in patients compared to controls (p = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS: Particular allele and genotype in IL-1β gene were overrepresented in patients with ischemic heart failure, possibly affecting the individual susceptibility to this disease (Tab. 1, Ref. 27). Text in PDF www.elis.sk

On the complexity of computing the kk-restricted edge-connectivity of a graph

The \emph{$k$-restricted edge-connectivity} of a graph $G$, denoted by $\lambda_k(G)$, is defined as the minimum size of an edge set whose removal leaves exactly two connected components each containing at least $k$ vertices. This graph invariant, which can be seen as a generalization of a minimum edge-cut, has been extensively studied from a combinatorial point of view. However, very little is known about the complexity of computing $\lambda_k(G)$. Very recently, in the parameterized complexity community the notion of \emph{good edge separation} of a graph has been defined, which happens to be essentially the same as the $k$-restricted edge-connectivity. Motivated by the relevance of this invariant from both combinatorial and algorithmic points of view, in this article we initiate a systematic study of its computational complexity, with special emphasis on its parameterized complexity for several choices of the parameters. We provide a number of NP-hardness and W[1]-hardness results, as well as FPT-algorithms.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Generating Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) Seed Triacylglycerols and Acetyl-Triacylglycerols Containing Medium-Chain Fatty Acids

Thlaspi arvense L. (pennycress) is a cold-tolerant Brassicaceae that produces large amounts of seeds rich in triacylglycerols and protein, making it an attractive target for domestication into an offseason oilseed cash cover crop. Pennycress is easily genetically transformed, enabling synthetic biology approaches to tailor oil properties for specific biofuel and industrial applications. To test the feasibility in pennycress of producing TAGs and acetyl-TAGs rich in medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs; C6–C14) for industrial, biojet fuel and improved biodiesel applications, we generated transgenic lines with seed-specific expression of unique acyltransferase (LPAT and diacylglycerol acyltransferase) genes and thioesterase (FatB) genes isolated from Cuphea viscosissima, Cuphea avigera var. pulcherrima, Cuphea hookeriana, Coco nucifera, and Umbellularia californica. Wild-type pennycress seed TAGs accumulate no fatty acids shorter than 16C and less than 5 mol percent C16 as palmitic acid (16:0). Co-expressing UcFatB and CnLPAT produced up to 17 mol% accumulation of lauric acid (12:0) in seed TAGs, whereas CvFatB1 CvLPAT2 CpDGAT1 combinatorial expression produced up to 27 mol% medium chain FAs Medium Chain Fatty Acids mostly in the form of capric acid (10:0). CpFatB2 ChFatB2 combinatorial expression predominantly produced, in equal parts, up to 28 mol% myristic acid (14:0) and palmitic acid. Genetically crossing the combinatorial constructs into a fatty acid elongation1 (fae1) mutant that produced no 22:1 erucic acid, and with an Euonymus alatus diacylglycerol acetyltransferase (EaDAcT)-expressing line that produced 60 mol% acetyl-TAGs, had no or relatively minor effects on MCFAs accumulation, suggesting fluxes to MCFAs were largely unaltered. Seed germination assays revealed no or minor delays in seed germination for most lines, the exception being CpFatB2 ChFatB2-expressing lines, which had substantially slower seed germination rates. Taken together, these data show that pennycress can be engineered to produce seeds accumulating modest amounts of MCFAs of varying carbon-chain length in TAGs and acetyl-TAGs, with rates of seed germination being delayed in only some cases. We hypothesize that increasing MCFAs further may require functional reductions to endogenous transferases and/or other FA elongases