Impact of solid fuel use on asthma prognosis and consistent peak expiratory flow changes: Evidence from China.

Background: Exposure to solid fuels might result in substantial indoor air contamination that can detrimentally affect respiratory wellness. Yet the connection between use of such fuels and the incidence as well as the progression of asthma needs further clarification. This investigation endeavors to conduct an integrative cross-sectional and longitudinal study to examined the link between solid fuel utilization and asthma.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated generation of a human induced pluripotent stem cell line with PRPF6 c.2699 G > A mutation to model retinitis pigmentosa.

PRPF6, located on chromosome 20, is required for the formation of the spliceosome. Mutations in the PRPF6 gene can lead to retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a common inherited retinal disease characterized by progressive degeneration of retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Here, we generated an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line carrying the PRPF6 c.

Construction of semiconductor nanocomposites for room-temperature gas sensors.

Gas sensors are essential for ensuring public safety and improving quality of life. Room-temperature gas sensors are notable for their potential economic benefits and low energy consumption, and their expected integration with wearable electronics, making them a focal point of contemporary research. Advances in nanomaterials and low-dimensional semiconductors have significantly contributed to the enhancement of room-temperature gas sensors.

Trade-off between Pore-Throat Structure and Mineral Composition in Modulating the Stability of Soil Organic Carbon.

The preservation of soil organic carbon (OC) is an effective way to decelerate the emission of CO emission. However, the coregulation of pore structure and mineral composition in OC stabilization remains elusive. We employed the nondestructive oxidation of OC by low-temperature ashing (LTA) combined with near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), high-resolution microtomography (μ-CT), field emission electron probe microanalysis (FE-EPMA) with C-free embedding, and novel Cosine similarity measurement to investigate the C retention in different aggregate fractions of contrasting soils.

Solution Blow Spinning of the Benzimidazole-Containing Aramid Nanofibers for Separators of Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Nanofibers based on high-performance polymers are much highlighted in recent studies toward advanced lithium-ion batteries. Herein, we demonstrate one scalable poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-assisted solution blow spinning strategy for the preparation of heterocyclic aramid (HA) nanofibers of poly(-phenylene-benzimidazole-terephthalamide). The incorporation of PEO is essential to improve the spinnability of the HA solution achieved directly through the low-temperature-solution copolymerization process.

Electrochemical Synthesis of Phenothiazinone as Fluorophore and Its Application in Bioimaging.

Phenothiazinone is a promising yet underutilized fluorophore, possibly due to the lack of a general accessibility. This study reports a robust and scalable TEMPO-mediated electrochemical method to access a variety of phenothiazinones from 2-aminothiophenols and quinones. The electrosynthesis proceeds in a simple cell architecture under mild condition, and notably carbon-halogen bond in quinones remains compared to conventional methods, enabling orthogonal downstream functionalization.

Long-term observation on safety and visual quality of implantable collamer lens V4c implantation for myopia correction: a 5-year follow-up.

Aim: To elucidate the safety and visual quality of implantable collamer lens with central hole (ICL V4c) implantation for correcting moderate and high myopia for at least 5y.

Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on 58 patients (114 eyes) who were followed up for at least 5y after ICL V4c implantation. The observation was done before and on 1d, 1mo, 1 and 5y or more after the surgical procedure.

A Biterm Topic Model for Sparse Mutation Data.

Mutational signature analysis promises to reveal the processes that shape cancer genomes for applications in diagnosis and therapy. However, most current methods are geared toward rich mutation data that has been extracted from whole-genome or whole-exome sequencing. Methods that process sparse mutation data typically found in practice are only in the earliest stages of development.

Recent Advances in Self-Assembly and Application of -Aramids.

Poly(-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) is one kind of lyotropic liquid crystal polymer. Kevlar fibers performed from PPTA are widely used in many fields due to their superior mechanical properties resulting from their highly oriented macromolecular structure. However, the "infusible and insoluble" characteristic of PPTA gives rise to its poor processability, which limits its scope of application.

Long-term effects of copper nanoparticles on volatile fatty acids production from sludge fermentation: Roles of copper species and bacterial community structure.

The long-term effects of copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) on volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production during the waste activated sludge (WAS) fermentation, and the underlying mechanisms regarding copper species distribution and bacterial community evolution were explored. The yield of VFAs in the control was 1086 mg COD/L, whereas those were inhibited by 11.1%, 56.

Source separation, transportation, pretreatment, and valorization of municipal solid waste: a critical review.

Waste sorting is an effective means of enhancing resource or energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW). Waste sorting management system is not limited to source separation, but also involves at least three stages, i.e.

A mixture model for signature discovery from sparse mutation data.

Mutational signatures are key to understanding the processes that shape cancer genomes, yet their analysis requires relatively rich whole-genome or whole-exome mutation data. Recently, orders-of-magnitude sparser gene-panel-sequencing data have become increasingly available in the clinic. To deal with such sparse data, we suggest a novel mixture model, Mix.

Propionic acid-rich fermentation (PARF) production from organic wastes: A review.

Nowadays, increasing attention has been drawn to biological valorization of organic wastes. Wherein, propionic acid-rich fermentation (PARF) has become a focal point of research. The objective of this review is to make a thorough investigation on the potential of PARF production and give future outlook.

Joint effects of carbon nanotubes and copper oxide nanoparticles on fermentation metabolism towards Saccharofermentans acetigenes: Enhancing environmental adaptability and transcriptional expression.

In this study, the joint effects of widely used copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the fermentation metabolism of a model acetogenic bacterium Saccharofermentans acetigenes were investigated and the underlying mechanisms were further explored. The presence of sole CuO NPs or MWCNTs severely inhibited the acetate generation, while their co-existences did not further decrease the acetate yield as expected. Further analysis indicated the joint effects facilitated the enhancement of bacterial stimulus response to the environment and interspecies communication, which improved adaptive capacity to the adverse environment involved in nanomaterials.

Of dilemmas and tensions: a qualitative study of palliative care physicians' positions regarding voluntary active euthanasia in Quebec, Canada.

Objectives: In 2015, the Province of Quebec, Canada passed a law that allowed voluntary active euthanasia (VAE). Palliative care stakeholders in Canada have been largely opposed to euthanasia, yet there is little research about their views. The research question guiding this study was the following: How do palliative care physicians in Quebec position themselves regarding the practice of VAE in the context of the new provincial legislation?

Methods: We used interpretive description, an inductive methodology to answer research questions about clinical practice.

Design Nitrogen (N) and Sulfur (S) Co-Doped 3D Graphene Network Architectures for High-Performance Sodium Storage.

To develop high-performance sodium-ion batteries (NIBs), electrodes should possess well-defined pathways for efficient electronic/ionic transport. In this work, high-performance NIBs are demonstrated by designing a 3D interconnected porous structure that consists of N, S co-doped 3D porous graphene frameworks (3DPGFs-NS). The most typical electrode materials (i.

A Novel Colon Wall Flattening Model for Computed Tomographic Colonography: Method and Validation.

Computed tomographic colonography (CTC) has been developed for screening of colon cancer. Flattening the three-dimensional (3D) colon wall into two-dimensional (2D) image is believed to (1) provide supplementary information to the endoscopic views and further (2) facilitate colon registration, taniae coli (TC) detection, and haustral fold segmentation. Though the previously-used conformal mapping-based flattening methods can preserve the angular geometry, they have the limitations in providing accurate information of the 3D inner colon wall due to the lack of undulating topography.

iTRAQ protein profile analysis of tomato green-ripe mutant reveals new aspects critical for fruit ripening.

Green-ripe (Gr) tomato carries a dominant mutation and yields a nonripening fruit phenotype. The mutation results from a 334 bp deletion in a gene of unknown function at the Gr locus. The putative influence of Gr gene-deletion mutation on biochemical changes underlying the nonripening phenotype remains largely unknown.

Gene expression network reconstruction by LEP method using microarray data.

Gene expression network reconstruction using microarray data is widely studied aiming to investigate the behavior of a gene cluster simultaneously. Under the Gaussian assumption, the conditional dependence between genes in the network is fully described by the partial correlation coefficient matrix. Due to the high dimensionality and sparsity, we utilize the LEP method to estimate it in this paper.