DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation biomarker of the pace of aging

Background: Measures to quantify changes in the pace of biological aging in response to intervention are needed to evaluate geroprotective interventions for humans. Previously we showed that quantification of the pace of biological aging from a DNA-methylation blood test was possible (Belsky et al. 2020). Here we report a next-generation DNA-methylation biomarker of Pace of Aging, DunedinPACE (for Pace of Aging Calculated from the Epigenome).Methods: We used data from the Dunedin Study 1972-3 birth cohort tracking within-individual decline in 19 indicators of organ-system integrity across four time points spanning two decades to model Pace of Aging. We distilled this two-decade Pace of Aging into a single-time-point DNA-methylation blood-test using elastic-net regression and a DNA-methylation dataset restricted to exclude probes with low test-retest reliability. We evaluated the resulting measure, named DunedinPACE, in five additional datasets.Results: DunedinPACE showed high test-retest reliability, was associated with morbidity, disability, and mortality, and indicated faster aging in young adults with childhood adversity. DunedinPACE effect-sizes were similar to GrimAge Clock effect-sizes. In analysis of incident morbidity, disability, and mortality, DunedinPACE and added incremental prediction beyond GrimAge.Conclusions: DunedinPACE is a novel blood biomarker of the pace of aging for gerontology and geroscience.Funding: This research was supported by US-National Institute on Aging grants AG032282, AG061378, AG066887, and UK Medical Research Council grant MR/P005918/1.

Instrument Safety Valves Enhanced Maintenance Strategy

Emergency Shutdown (ESD) and Blowdown (BDV) valves are the final elements part of the Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF) in which are deployed in oil and gas assets. They are classified as safety critical equipment to prevent major accident hazards. The conventional method of proof testing these valves is to close/open them fully, and thus require a process shutdown. In general, planned process shutdown is only viable every two to four years. Such infrequent and limited tests lead to imperfect testing and degrade the reliability of safety instrumented functions. Accordingly, this paper presents the work done to develop a comprehensive maintenance strategy that addresses lifecycle management of safety instrumented function in operate phase which help reduce the potential of process safety incidents. In summary, the innovative approach presented by this paper offers best practice of safety critical system integrity management implementation to achieve the highest standards of operational excellence.

A novel 1T2R self-reference physically unclonable function suitable for advanced logic nodes for high security level applications

A self-reference resistive random access memory (ReRAM)-based 1T2R (1-transistor-2-ReRAM) physically unclonable function (PUF) is proposed to provide hardware security feature for electrical products in the IoT/5G era. There are four advantages from the proposed structure: (1) small cell size; (2) intrinsic randomness; (3) no programming circuit; (4) no data retention concern. The conduction mechanism, temperature dependency, and read fluctuation of pristine ReRAM device are studied. An information-address separation scheme is proposed which not only reduces the impact of the read noise and the temperature effect, but also improves the system integrity against hardware attack. The proposed 1T2R PUF unit also has great potential for using as the random seed for linear feedback shift register (LFSR) in pseudo random number generators (PRNG) with high unpredictability, good randomness, and high data rate.

Sustainable Technology on Aircraft Design: A Review

Next-generation air transportation is a key to influence the environment, safety, and the economy. Several programs strive to create emerging innovation towards sustainability, system integrity, and alternative fuels to guarantee a reduction of its environmental effect as greenhouse gas. Nowadays, the aerospace industry is looking forward to aviation sustainable developments across the globe. Few initiatives through a novel configuration of aircraft is established like Blended Wing Body, Flying V aircraft, Box wing Aircraft, and Double bubble Aircraft to enhance the cargo and passenger volume occupancy and cut-off the fuel burn percent. With the use of disruptive technologies, researchers are progressing the revolutionary airframe for transportation. A systematic overview and comprehensive survey of passenger-based aircraft are investigated. The objective study is to examine fuel burn and its impact on the environment by types of aircraft. In-depth literature review studies on four pillar strategies used to design an efficient airplane. In addition, this paper also serves on advancement in evolutionary technologies used in jet transport aircraft. Reflecting the benefits and challenges of different aircraft designs technologies were also highlighted. This paper highlights the future implications and managerial insights for future aircraft designers.

Impact of operational temperature changes and freeze–thaw cycles on the hydraulic conductivity of borehole heat exchangers

A large share of the primary energy is consumed to provide space heating. Geothermal energy offers a regenerative alternative. For reasons of efficiency and environmental protection, it is important to ensure the system integrity of a borehole heat exchanger (BHE). Previous investigations have focused on the individual components of the BHE or on the grout and pipe systems’ integrity. This study focused on the analysis of the hydraulic system integrity of the complete subsoil–grout–pipe system as well as possible thermally induced changes. For this purpose, a pilot-scale experiment was built to test a 1-m section of a typical BHE under in situ pressure, hydraulic and temperature conditions. During the tests the hydraulic system permeability of the soil and the BHE was measured continuously and separately from each other. In addition, the temperature monitoring array was installed in a 50-cm cross-sectional area. Significant temperature-related fluctuations in the sealing performance could be observed. Hydraulic conductivity limits required by VDI 4640-2 (Thermal use of the underground—ground source heat pump systems, 2019) were exceeded without frost action. The succeeding application of freeze–thaw cycles further enhances the system permeability. The study shows that the thermally induced effects on the system integrity of the BHE are larger and more significant than the subsequent frost-induced effects. The hydrophobic character of the high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) pipes as well as its high coefficient of thermal expansion seem to be the main points of weakness in the system. Optimization research should focus on the interface connection between grout and pipe, whereby hydrophilic pipe materials such as stainless steel or aluminum should also be considered as well as manipulation of the pipe surface properties of PE-HD.

Social mobility and biological aging among older adults in the United States

Lower socioeconomic status is associated with faster biological aging, the gradual and progressive decline in system integrity that accumulates with advancing age. Efforts to promote upward social mobility may therefore extend healthy lifespan. However, recent studies suggest that upward mobility may also have biological costs related to the stresses of crossing social boundaries. We analyzed blood-chemistry and DNA methylation (DNAm) data from n=9286 participants in the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Venous Blood Study to test associations of life-course social mobility with biological aging. We quantified social mobility from childhood to later-life using data on childhood family characteristics, educational attainment, and wealth accumulation. We quantified biological aging using three DNA methylation "clocks" and three blood-chemistry algorithms. We observed substantial social mobility among study participants. Those who achieved upward mobility exhibited less-advanced and slower biological aging. Associations of upward mobility with less-advanced and slower aging were consistent for blood-chemistry and DNAm measures of biological aging and were similar for men and women and for Black and White Americans (Pearson-r effect-sizes ~0.2 for blood-chemistry measures and the DNAm GrimAge clock and DunedinPoAm pace-of-aging measures; effect-sizes were smaller for the DNAm PhenoAge clock). Analysis restricted to educational mobility revealed differential effects by racial identity, suggesting that mediating links between educational mobility and healthy aging may be disrupted by structural racism. In contrast, mobility producing accumulation of wealth appeared to benefit White and Black Americans equally, suggesting economic intervention to reduce wealth inequality may have potential to heal disparities in healthy aging.