As a special geotechnical material, coral calcareous sand (CCS), also widely known as coral sand or calcareous sand, surely has similarities and differences in mechanical behaviors with terrigenous ...sand. As the foundation material of some important structures such as ports, aircraft runways, and marine lighthouses in the South China Sea (SCS), it is necessary and has engineering significance to study its basic mechanical properties. Taking the CCS sampled from a reclaimed land on the top of a natural coral reef in the SCS as the typical case, a series of drained and undrained triaxial shear tests were performed under conventional and high confining pressure in this study. It is found that CCS has all the characteristics that all granular materials should have. However, since the irregular particle morphology and high roughness particle surface, CCS presents a great initial shear stiffness which is significantly different from that of quartz sand. Only some CCS specimens can strictly reach the critical state, and the feature lines in the p’-q space, i.e., critical state line, and phase transformation line are not affected by the factors such as the consolidation confining pressure, initial dry density, and drainage condition. However, the critical state line in the e-lnp’ space is not unique, but dependent on the initial dry density. Based on the particle breakage measurement, a new description for the relationship between particle crushing and plastic work is proposed. It could provide an experimental basis for the development of a constitutive model considering the particle breakage for CCS.
•A series of drained and undrained triaxial tests under conventional and high confining pressure are performed for coral sand.•The grain size distribution (GSD) of specimens used in test is based on the test results at the engineering fields in the SCS.•Coral sand has all the behavior characteristics that all granular materials should have.•Coral sand presents some unique behaviors due to the irregular particle morphology and high roughness particle surface.•A new description for the relationship between particle breakage and plastic work is proposed.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Nutritional and microbiological psychiatry, especially the contribution of the gut microbiota to depression, has become a promising research field over the past several decades. An imbalance in the ...“microbiota-gut-brain axis”, which reflects the constant bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract, has been used as a hypothesis to interpret the pathogenesis of depression. Alterations in gut microbiota composition could increase the permeability of the gut barrier, activate systemic inflammation and immune responses, regulate the release and efficacy of monoamine neurotransmitters, alter the activity and function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and modify the abundance of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), eventually leading to depression. In this article, we review changes in gut microbiota in depressive states, the association between these changes and depression-like behavior, the potential mechanism linking gut microbiota disruptions and depression, and preliminary attempts at using gut microbiota intervention for the treatment of depression. In summary, although the link between gut microbiota and depression and the potential mechanism have been discussed, a more detailed mechanistic understanding is needed to fully realize the importance of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in depression. Future efforts should aim to determine the potential causative mechanisms, which will require further animal and clinical research as well as the development of analytical approaches.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In this study, we present a case of acute myeloid leukemia characterized by the t(11;12)(p15;q13) translocation, exhibiting clinical, immunophenotypical, and morphological features consistent with ...acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). The RNA sequencing analysis of the patient's bone marrow samples revealed the presence of the NUP98-retinoic acid receptor gamma (RARG) (NUP98::RARG) gene resulting from the translocation. Furthermore, the presence of a mutation in the ARID1B gene in the patient under study indicates a potential association with resistance to all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA).
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Epigenome-Wide Association Study (EWAS) has become increasingly significant in identifying the associations between epigenetic variations and different biological traits. In this study, we ...develop EWAS Atlas (http://bigd.big.ac.cn/ewas), a curated knowledgebase of EWAS that provides a comprehensive collection of EWAS knowledge. Unlike extant data-oriented epigenetic resources, EWAS Atlas features manual curation of EWAS knowledge from extensive publications. In the current implementation, EWAS Atlas focuses on DNA methylation—one of the key epigenetic marks; it integrates a large number of 329 172 high-quality EWAS associations, involving 112 tissues/cell lines and covering 305 traits, 1830 cohorts and 390 ontology entities, which are completely based on manual curation from 649 studies reported in 401 publications. In addition, it is equipped with a powerful trait enrichment analysis tool, which is capable of profiling trait-trait and trait-epigenome relationships. Future developments include regular curation of recent EWAS publications, incorporation of more epigenetic marks and possible integration of EWAS with GWAS. Collectively, EWAS Atlas is dedicated to the curation, integration and standardization of EWAS knowledge and has the great potential to help researchers dissect molecular mechanisms of epigenetic modifications associated with biological traits.
Based on first-principles calculation, the adsorption of sulfur-based gas molecules (H
S, SO
, SO
) on various metal-decorated phosphorenes is researched systematically. Eleven metals (Li, Na, K, Rb, ...Cs, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ni, La, Tl) which can avoid the formation of clusters on the phosphorene are considered. Noticeably, all metal decorations can enhance the adsorption strength of phosphorene to sulfur-based gas molecules except for H
S on Tl-decorated phosphorene. Meanwhile, the adsorption energy (E
) shows the trend of E
(H
S) < E
(SO
) < E
(SO
) for the same metal decoration case. In addition, some metal-decorated phosphorene systems exhibit intriguing magnetic and electrical variation after sulfur-based gas molecule adsorptions, indicating that these systems are promising to be candidates for the detection and removal of sulfur-based gas molecules.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Little is known about the disease burden, health‐care resource utilization (HCRU), or treatment of patients with generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) in Japan. This retrospective cohort study used ...data from the Japanese Medical Data Center database to compare the demographics, comorbidities, and medication use of patients with GPP and plaque psoriasis and estimate their all‐cause HCRU. The patient selection period was from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019, and patients must have had at least one confirmed inpatient claim or outpatient claim for GPP or plaque psoriasis. During the 12‐month follow‐up period, 110 patients with GPP and 20,254 patients with plaque psoriasis were identified. An age‐ and sex‐matched (4:1) comparator control cohort, including members of the general population without a diagnosis of psoriasis (but allowing for a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis), GPP, or palmoplantar pustulosis, was used. The most prevalent comorbidities in patients with GPP included allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, hypertension, and peptic ulcer disease. Patients with GPP were more likely to experience more comorbidities than those with plaque psoriasis, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial pneumonia, hyperuricemia and gout, tonsillitis, psoriatic arthritis, other psoriasis, and osteoporosis. Patients with GPP were more likely to be treated with a combination therapy than those with plaque psoriasis (65.5% vs 21.7%, respectively) and less likely to be treated with a topical medication alone (20.9% vs 50.8%). Patients with GPP had more outpatient visits than patients in the plaque psoriasis or matched control cohorts (mean standard deviation, 14.8 8.3 vs 11.0 7.6 and 7.8 7.2, respectively). They were also more likely to require inpatient hospitalization (24.5% vs 6.4% and 5.0%, respectively). Despite study limitations, patients with GPP in Japan were found to have a higher disease burden, including presence of comorbidities and medication use, than those with plaque psoriasis.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a rare and severe systemic, neutrophilic skin disease. To date, accurate clinical profiling of patients with GPP remains poorly understood. In this study, we ...present the characteristics and estimate the burden of disease in patients with GPP compared with those with plaque psoriasis, in Japan. This retrospective study was conducted using the Medical Data Vision database between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2019. Patients with at least one confirmed inpatient or outpatient diagnostic code for GPP (L40.1) or psoriasis vulgaris (L40.0) were included for analysis. The main outcome measures included comparisons of the prevalence of comorbidities, medication use, and healthcare resource utilization between patients with GPP, patients with plaque psoriasis, and a general population‐matched cohort. In total, 718 patients with GPP and 27,773 patients with plaque psoriasis were identified. Patients with GPP were more likely to be female than those with plaque psoriasis (51.6% vs. 38.7%). During the 12‐month follow‐up period, patients with GPP were more likely to experience comorbidities than those with plaque psoriasis, including psoriatic arthritis, other forms of psoriasis, osteoporosis, interstitial pneumonia, and peptic ulcer disease. Medication use also differed between those with GPP and those with plaque psoriasis: patients with GPP were more likely to be prescribed antibiotics and psychiatric medication. Patients with GPP were also more likely to require more healthcare resource utilization with longer hospitalizations than those with plaque psoriasis. Overall, in Japan, patients with GPP have a higher burden of illness than those with plaque psoriasis.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Elastic moduli, e.g. shear modulus G and bulk modulus K, are important parameters of geotechnical materials, which are not only the indices for the evaluation of the deformation ability of soils but ...also the important basic parameters for the development of the constitutive models of geotechnical materials. In this study, a series of triaxial loading-unloading-reloading shear tests and isotropic loading-unloading-reloading tests are conducted to study several typical mechanical properties of coral calcareous sand (CCS), and the void ratio evolution during loading, unloading and reloading. The test results show that the stress-strain curves during multiple unloading processes are almost parallel, and their slopes are much greater than the deformation modulus at the initial stage of loading. The relationship between the confining pressure and the volumetric strain can be defined approximately by a hyperbolic equation under the condition of monotonic loading of confining pressure. Under the condition of confining pressure unloading, the evolution of void ratio is linear in the e-lnp′ plane, and these lines are a series of almost parallel lines if there are multiple processes of unloading. Based on the experimental results, it is found that the modified Hardin formulae for the elastic modulus estimation have a significant deviation from the tested values for CCS. Based on the experimental results, it is proposed that the elastic modulus of soils should be determined by the intersection line of two spatial surfaces in the G/K-e-p'/pa space (pa: atmosphere pressure). “Ye formulation” is further proposed for the estimation of the elastic modulus of CCS. This new estimation formulation for soil elastic modulus would provide a new method to accurately describe the mechanical behavior of granular soils.
•A series of triaxial loading-unloading-reloading shear tests and isotropic loading-unloading-reloading tests are conducted.•Several typical mechanical properties of coral calcareous sand (CCS) are explored.•A novel relationship for elastic modulus with void ratio and mean principal stress for granular materials is proposed.•The newly proposed relationship will be helpful for the development of constitutive model for granular soils.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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