Genetic and genomic characterization followed by single-step genomic evaluation of withers height in German Warmblood horses

Reliability of genomic predictions is influenced by the size and genetic composition of the reference population. For German Warmblood horses, compilation of a reference population has been enabled through the cooperation of five German breeding associations. In this study, preliminary data from this joint reference population were used to genetically and genomically characterize withers height and to apply single-step methodology for estimating genomic breeding values for withers height. Using data on 2113 mares and their genomic information considering about 62,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), analysis of the genomic relationship revealed substructures reflecting breed origin and different breeding goals of the contributing breeding associations. A genome-wide association study confirmed a known quantitative trait locus (QTL) for withers height on equine chromosome (ECA) 3 close to LCORL and identified a further significant peak on ECA 1. Using a single-step approach with a combined relationship matrix, the estimated heritability for withers height was 0.31 (SE = 0.08) and the corresponding genomic breeding values ranged from − 2.94 to 2.96 cm. A mean reliability of 0.38 was realized for these breeding values. The analyses of withers height showed that compiling a reference population across breeds is a suitable strategy for German Warmblood horses. The single-step method is an appealing approach for practical genomic prediction in horses, because not many genotypes are available yet and animals without genotypes can by this way directly contribute to the estimation system.

Study on Black Phosphorus Characteristics Using a Two-Step Thinning Method

A mild two-step method of black phosphorus (BP) flake thinning was demonstrated in this article. Slight ultraviolet–ozone (UVO) radiation followed by an argon plasma treatment was employed to oxidize mechanically exfoliated BP flakes and remove the surface remains of previous ozone treatment. The annealing process introduced aims to reduce impurities and defects. Low damage and efficient electronic devices were fabricated in terms of controlling the thickness of BP flakes through this method. These results lead to an important step toward the fabrication of high-performance devices based on two-dimensioned materials.

High specific surface CeO2-NPs doped loose porous C3N4 for enhanced photocatalytic oxidation ability

Porous C3N4 (PCN) is favored by researchers because it has more surface active sites, higher specific surface area and stronger light absorption ability than traditional g-C3N4. In this study, cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO2-NPs) with mixed valence state of Ce3+ and Ce4+ were doped into the PCN framework by a two-step method. The results indicate that CeO2-NPs are highly dispersed in the PCN framework, which leads to a narrower band gap, a wider range of the light response and an improved the separation efficiency of photogenerated charge in PCN. Moreover, the specific surface area (145.69 m2•g-1) of CeO2-NPs doped PCN is a 25.5 % enhancement than that of PCN (116.13 m2•g-1). In the experiment of photocatalytic selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol, CeO2-NPs doped porous C3N4 exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity, especially Ce-PCN-30. The conversion rate of benzyl alcohol reaches 74.9 % using Ce-PCN-30 as photocatalyst by 8 hours of illumination, which is 25.7 % higher than that of pure porous C3N4. Additionally, CeO2-NPs doped porous C3N4 also exhibits better photocatalytic efficiency for other aromatic alcohols.

Comparison of the Respiratory Tractmicrobiome in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients with Different Disease Severity

Background: Little is known about the characteristics of respiratory tract microbiome in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) inpatients with different severity. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to characterize respiratory tract microbial communities of 69 COVID-19 inpatients from 64 nasopharyngeal swabs and 5 sputum specimens using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene V3-V4 region sequencing. The bacterial profiles were used to find potential biomarkers by the two-step method, the combination of random forest model and the linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe), and explore the connections with clinical characteristics by Spearman’s rank test.Results: Compared with mild COVID-19 patients, severe patients had significantly decreased bacterial diversity (Pvalues were less than 0.05 in the alpha and beta diversity) and relative lower abundance of opportunistic pathogens, including Actinomyces, Prevotella, Rothia, Streptococcus, Veillonella. Eight potential biomarkers including Treponema, Lachnoanaerobaculum, Parvimonas, Selenomonas, Alloprevotella, Porphyromonas, GemellaandStreptococcus were found to distinguish the mild COVID-19 patients from the severe COVID-19 patients. The genera of Actinomyces andPrevotella were negatively correlated with age and inpatient days. Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, neutrophil count (GRA) and lymphocyte count (LYMPH) were significantly correlated with different genera in the two groups. In addition, there were a positive correlation between Klebsiella and white blood cell count (WBC) in two groups.Conclusion: The respiratory tract microbiome had significant difference in COVID-19 patients with different severity. The value of the respiratory tract microbiome as predictive biomarkers for COVID-19 severity merits further exploration.

Analysis and Assessment of the Effects of Corrosive Hydrogen Media on the Stress-Strain State of a Spherical Titanium Alloy Shell

We consider the creation of a mathematical model describing the effect of corrosive hydrogen environment on the stress state of a hollow spherical shell made of titanium alloy grade VT1-0, the load is evenly distributed throughout the shell. The solution of the problem in practice was carried out by two-step method of sequential perturbation of parameters using MatLab and Maple programs. To solve the system of solving differential equations the finite difference method was applied. The solution of the diffusion equation of the aggressive hydrogen medium has been considered and the obtained solution has been compared with the results of the classical theory which does not take into account the aggressive effect of the corrosive medium.

3D-printed NiFe-layered double hydroxide pyramid electrodes for enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction

Electrochemical water splitting has been considered one of the most promising methods of hydrogen production, which does not cause environmental pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a significant step for highly efficient water splitting because OER involves the four electron transfer, overcoming the associated energy barrier that demands a potential greater than that required by hydrogen evolution reaction. Therefore, an OER electrocatalyst with large surface area and high conductivity is needed to increase the OER activity. In this work, we demonstrated an effective strategy to produce a highly active three-dimensional (3D)-printed NiFe-layered double hydroxide (LDH) pyramid electrode for OER using a three-step method, which involves direct-ink-writing of a graphene pyramid array and electrodeposition of a copper conducive layer and NiFe-LDH electrocatalyst layer on printed pyramids. The 3D pyramid structures with NiFe-LDH electrocatalyst layers increased the surface area and the active sites of the electrode and improved the OER activity. The overpotential (η) and exchange current density (i0) of the NiFe-LDH pyramid electrode were further improved compared to that of the NiFe-LDH deposited Cu (NiFe-LDH/Cu) foil electrode with the same base area. The 3D-printed NiFe-LDH electrode also exhibited excellent durability without potential decay for 60 h. Our 3D printing strategy provides an effective approach for the fabrication of highly active, stable, and low-cost OER electrocatalyst electrodes.

Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Uracil-Modified Chitosan as a Promising Adsorbent for Efficient Removal of Congo Red Dye

Novel Uracil-modified chitosan (UCs) adsorbent has successfully been synthesized through a four-step method during which the amino groups of chitosan have been protected, then epoxy nuclei have been incorporated, afterwards the latter have been opened using 6-amino-1,3-dimethyl uracil, and finally the amino groups have been regained via removing the protection. Its structure was checked using FTIR, XRD and SEM techniques. The adsorption capacity of UCs for anionic Congo Red (CR) dye was studied under various conditions. It decreased significantly with increasing the solution pH value and dye concentration, while increased with increasing temperature. The adsorption of UCs for CR dye at different temperatures, solution pH and dye concentrations fitted to the kinetic model of pseudo-second order and Elovich model. The intraparticle diffusion model showed that the adsorption process involves multi-step process. The isotherm of CR dye adsorption by UCs conforms to the Langmuir isotherm model indicating the monolayer nature of adsorption. The maximum monolayer coverage capacity, qmax, was 434.78 mg g−1. Studying the thermodynamic showed that the adsorption of CR dye onto UCs was endothermic as illustrated from the positive value of enthalpy (21.37 kJ mol−1). According to the values of ΔG°, the adsorption process was spontaneous at all selected temperatures. The value of ΔS° showed an increase in randomness for the adsorption of CR dye by UCs. The value of activation energy was 18.40 kJ mol−1.

A phenomenological study on barriers of adherence to medical advice among type 2 diabetic patients

Background More than three decades of research and study for overcoming the problem of “non-acceptance/non-compliance” of patients has neither resolved nor reduced the severity of this problem. This phenomenological study aimed to identify barriers of adherence to medical advice among type 2 diabetic patients. Methods This study was a qualitative research using phenomenology approach, and the data were analyzed using content analysis approach. Participants were 69 type 2 diabetic patients covered by the diabetes unit of West and East Community Health Centers of Ahvaz, Iran. The views and attitudes of patients about the barriers of adherence to medical advice were elicited by conducting 20–45 min sessions of semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was performed following Colaizzi’s seven-step method. Results Barriers of adherence to medical advice were classified into systemic and individual barriers. Individual barriers included 11 codes and 5 categories, and systemic barriers contained within 5 codes and 3 categories. Physiologic and physical factors, financial problems, occupational factors, attitudinal problems and lack of knowledge, and social and family problems were identified as individual barriers. Systemic barriers included inadequate publicizing and limited notification, inadequate equipment and facilities, and poor inter-sectional coordination. Conclusions Generally, problems stated by diabetic patients at the individual level can partly be solved by training patients and the people around them. However, as for the systemic problems, it seems that solving the barriers of adherence to medical advice requires coordination with other organizations as well as intersection coordination. Overall, these problems require not only comprehensive health service efforts, but also the support of policymakers to resolve barriers at infrastructure level.

Automatic Production and Preliminary PET Imaging of a New Imaging Agent [18F]AlF-FAPT

BackgroundFibroblast activating protein (FAP) has become an important target for cancer diagnostic imaging and targeted radiotherapy. In particular, [18F]FAPI-42 has been successfully applied to positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of various tumors. However, it exhibits high hepatobiliary metabolism and is thus not conducive to abdominal tumor imaging. This study reports a novel 18F-labeled FAP inhibitor, [18F]AlF-FAPT, a better FAPI imaging agent than [18F]FAPI-42.Materials and MethodsThe precursor of [18F]AlF-FAPT (NOTA-FAPT) was designed and synthesized using the standard FMOC solid phase synthesis method. [18F]AlF-FAPT was subsequently synthesized and radiolabeled with 18F using the AllInOne synthesis module. Dynamic MicroPET and biodistribution studies of [18F]AlF-FAPT were then conducted in xenograft tumor mouse models to determine its suitability.ResultsThe precursors NOTA-FAPT were obtained with a chemical purity of > 95%. [18F]AlF-FAPT was synthesized automatically using the cassette-based module AllInOne within 40 min. The non-decay corrected radiochemical yield was 25.0 ± 5.3% (n=3). In vivo imaging and biodistribution studies further demonstrated that compared with [18F]-FAPI-42, [18F]AlF-FAPT had a lower hepatobiliary uptake than [18F]FAPI-42, which was advantageous for imaging abdominal tumors.Conclusion[18F]AlF-FAPT can be synthesized automatically using a one-step method of aluminum fluoride. Collectively, [18F]AlF-FAPT is a better FAPI imaging agent than [18F]FAPI-42. This study proves the feasibility of using [18F]AlF-FAPT as a new radioactive tracer for PET imaging.

Synthesis, Characterization and Properties of Antibacterial Polyurethanes

Novel physically crosslinked polyurethane (PUII), based on isophorone diisocyanates, was prepared by a conventional two-step method. The chemical structures of the PUII were characterized by fourier transform infrared (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and DSC. The PUII hydrogels were subjected to solvent-induced self-assembly in THF + water to construct a variety of morphologies. The self-assembly morphology of the PUII was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The PUII films with different amounts (0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, 1.0%) of 1,3,5-Tris(2-hydroxyethyl)hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (TNO) were challenged with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Gray mold. The results showed that when a small amount of antibacterial agent were added, the antibacterial effect of films on Botrytis cinerea was more obvious. The mechanical evaluation shows that the antimicrobial polyurethane films exhibit good mechanical properties.