Twin and family studies have shown that same-sex sexual behavior is partly genetically influenced, but previous searches for specific genes involved have been underpowered. We performed a genome-wide ...association study (GWAS) on 477,522 individuals, revealing five loci significantly associated with same-sex sexual behavior. In aggregate, all tested genetic variants accounted for 8 to 25% of variation in same-sex sexual behavior, only partially overlapped between males and females, and do not allow meaningful prediction of an individual's sexual behavior. Comparing these GWAS results with those for the proportion of same-sex to total number of sexual partners among nonheterosexuals suggests that there is no single continuum from opposite-sex to same-sex sexual behavior. Overall, our findings provide insights into the genetics underlying same-sex sexual behavior and underscore the complexity of sexuality.
Adherence to oral anticoagulant therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in China is low. Patient preference, one of the main reasons for discontinuation of oral anticoagulant therapy, is an ...unfamiliar concept in China.
A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to quantify patient preference on 7 attributes of oral anticoagulant therapy: antidote (yes/no), food-drug interaction (yes/no), frequency of blood monitoring (no need, every 6/3/1 months), risk of nonfatal major bleeding (0.7/3.1/5.5/7.8%), risk of nonfatal stroke (ischemic/hemorrhagic) or systemic embolism (0.6/3.2/5.8/8.4%), risk of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (0.2/1.0/1.8/2.5%), and monthly out-of-pocket cost (0/120/240/360 RMB) (0 to 56 USD). A total of 16 scenarios were generated by using D-Efficient design and were randomly divided into 2 blocks. Eligible patients were recruited and interviewed from outpatient and inpatient settings of 2 public hospitals in Beijing and Shenzhen, respectively. Patients were presented with 8 scenarios and asked to select 1 of 3 options: 2 unlabeled hypothetical treatments and 1 opt-out option. Mixed logit regression model was used for estimating patients' preferences of attributes of oral anticoagulants and willingness to pay (WTP) with adjustments for age, sex, education level, income level, city, self-evaluated health score, histories of cardiovascular disease/other vascular disease/any stroke/any bleeding, and use of anticoagulant/antiplatelet therapy. A total of 506 patients were recruited between May 2018 and December 2019 (mean age 70.3 years, 42.1% women). Patients were mainly concerned about the risks of AMI (β: -1.03; 95% CI: -1.31, -0.75; p < 0.001), stroke or systemic embolism (β: -0.81; 95% CI: -0.90, -0.73; p < 0.001), and major bleeding (β: -0.69; 95% CI: -0.78, -0.60; p < 0.001) and were willing to pay more, from up to 798 RMB to 536 RMB (124 to 83 USD) monthly. The least concerning attribute was frequency of blood monitoring (β: -0.31; 95% CI: -0.39, -0.24; p < 0.001). Patients had more concerns about food-drug interactions even exceeding preferences on the 3 risks, if they had a history of stroke or bleeding (β: -2.47; 95% CI: -3.92, -1.02; p < 0.001), recruited from Beijing (β: -1.82; 95% CI: -2.56, -1.07; p < 0.001), or men (β: -0.96; 95% CI: -1.36, -0.56; p < 0.001). Patients with lower educational attainment or lower income weighted all attributes lower, and their WTP for incremental efficacy and safety was minimal. Since the patients were recruited from 2 major hospitals from developed cities in China, further studies with better representative samples would be needed.
Patients with AF in China were mainly concerned about the safety and effectiveness of oral anticoagulant therapy. The preference weighting on food-drug interaction varied widely. Patients with lower educational attainment or income levels and less experience of bleeding or stroke had more reservations about paying for oral anticoagulant therapies with superior efficacy, safety, and convenience of use.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Phase transitions share the universal feature of enhanced fluctuations near the transition point. Here, we show that density fluctuations reveal how a Bose-Einstein condensate of dipolar atoms ...spontaneously breaks its translation symmetry and enters the supersolid state of matter—a phase that combines superfluidity with crystalline order. We report on the first direct in situ measurement of density fluctuations across the superfluid-supersolid phase transition. This measurement allows us to introduce a general and straightforward way to extract the static structure factor, estimate the spectrum of elementary excitations, and image the dominant fluctuation patterns. We observe a strong response in the static structure factor and infer a distinct roton minimum in the dispersion relation. Furthermore, we show that the characteristic fluctuations correspond to elementary excitations such as the roton modes, which are theoretically predicted to be dominant at the quantum critical point, and that the supersolid state supports both superfluid as well as crystal phonons.
Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are an approach for directed gene disruption and have been proved to be effective in various animal models. Here, we report that TALENs can ...induce somatic mutations in Xenopus embryos with reliably high efficiency and that such mutations are heritable through germ-line transmission. We modified the Golden Gate method for TALEN assembly to make the product suitable for RNA transcription and microinjection into Xenopus embryos. Eight pairs of TALENs were constructed to target eight Xenopu s genes, and all resulted in indel mutations with high efficiencies of up to 95.7% at the targeted loci. Furthermore, mutations induced by TALENs were highly efficiently passed through the germ line to F ₁ frogs. Together with simple and reliable PCR-based approaches for detecting TALEN-induced mutations, our results indicate that TALENs are an effective tool for targeted gene editing/knockout in Xenopus .
The B.1.1.529/Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was only recently detected in southern Africa, but its subsequent spread has been extensive, both regionally and globally
. It is expected to become ...dominant in the coming weeks
, probably due to enhanced transmissibility. A striking feature of this variant is the large number of spike mutations
that pose a threat to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapies
. This concern is amplified by the findings of our study. Here we found that B.1.1.529 is markedly resistant to neutralization by serum not only from patients who recovered from COVID-19, but also from individuals who were vaccinated with one of the four widely used COVID-19 vaccines. Even serum from individuals who were vaccinated and received a booster dose of mRNA-based vaccines exhibited substantially diminished neutralizing activity against B.1.1.529. By evaluating a panel of monoclonal antibodies against all known epitope clusters on the spike protein, we noted that the activity of 17 out of the 19 antibodies tested were either abolished or impaired, including ones that are currently authorized or approved for use in patients. Moreover, we also identified four new spike mutations (S371L, N440K, G446S and Q493R) that confer greater antibody resistance on B.1.1.529. The Omicron variant presents a serious threat to many existing COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, compelling the development of new interventions that anticipate the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2.
“Free-standing” single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) papers have been synthesised by simple filtration method via positive pressure. A conventional SWNT slurry coated electrode was fabricated to ...compare with the SWNT papers. The results show that the capacity of the “Free-standing” electrode was slightly lower than that of the conventional electrode, but the “Free-standing” electrode was produced without any binder, and metal substrate, so that the weight of electrode was reduced significantly. On the other hand, the procedures for SWNT electrode preparation were simplified, so the cost of the manufacturing could be reduced.
This study aims at implementing a simple and effective remedial learning system. Based on fuzzy inference, a remedial learning material selection system is proposed for a digital logic course. Two ...learning concepts of the course have been used in the proposed system: number systems and combinational logic. We conducted an experiment to validate the success of the proposed system where 88 students who studied a computer‐related program at a vocational high school in Taiwan participated in the experiment. The participating students came from three different types of classes. The fuzzy expert system determined the numbers of the remedial material units according to the scores of the pre‐test. Based on the results of the fuzzy expert system, each student then received personalized remedial learning materials by randomly selecting problem‐based learning units from a learning material repository. After reading the remedial learning materials, the students took the post‐test. The experimental results reveal that the students made significant progresses after studying the remedial learning materials. Both of high‐achieving students and low‐achieving students made significant progresses. Moreover, all of the three types of students made significant progresses.
Lay description
What is currently known about the subject matter:
Remedial learning systems are helpful.
Some systems are good for only low‐achieving students.
The remedial systems are complicated.
What their paper adds to this:
A fuzzy expert system has been added to produce remedial materials.
Automatically select the remedial learning units according to the pre‐test.
The implications of study findings for practitioners:
Our remedial system is good for both high‐achieving and low‐achieving students.
Our remedial system is good for different types of students.
Our remedial system is simple and easy‐to‐implement.
We identify an abundant population of extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs) at redshift z ~ 1.7 in the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey imaging from Hubble Space ...Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3). Sixty-nine EELG candidates are selected by the large contribution of exceptionally bright emission lines to their near-infrared broadband magnitudes. Supported by spectroscopic confirmation of strong O III emission lines--with rest-frame equivalent widths ~1000 A--in the four candidates that have HST/WFC3 grism observations, we conclude that these objects are galaxies with ~108 M in stellar mass, undergoing an enormous starburst phase with of only ~15 Myr. These bursts may cause outflows that are strong enough to produce cored dark matter profiles in low-mass galaxies. The individual star formation rates and the comoving number density (3.7 X 10--4 Mpc--3) can produce in ~4 Gyr much of the stellar mass density that is presently contained in 108-109 M dwarf galaxies. Therefore, our observations provide a strong indication that many or even most of the stars in present-day dwarf galaxies formed in strong, short-lived bursts, mostly at z > 1.
Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are currently attracting significant interest owing to their promising outdoor performance. However, the ability of indoor light harvesting of ...the perovskites and corresponding device performance are rarely reported. Here, the potential of planar PSCs in harvesting indoor light for low‐power consumption devices is investigated. Ionic liquid of 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIMBF4) is employed as a modification layer of 6,6‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester) (PCBM) in the inverted PSCs. The incorporation of BMIMBF4 not only paves the interface contact between PCBM and electrode, but also facilitates the electron transport and extraction owing to the efficient passivation of the surface trap states. Moreover, BMIMBF4 with excellent thermal stability can act as a protective layer by preventing the erosion of moisture and oxygen into the perovskite layer. The resulting devices present a record indoor power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 35.20% under fluorescent lamps of 1000 lux, and an impressive PCE of 19.30% under 1 sun illumination. The finding in this work verifies the excellent indoor performance of PSCs to meet the requirements of eco‐friendly economy.
Ionic liquid of 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIMBF4) is employed as a cathode modification and a protective layer to fabricate indoor perovskite solar cells. The resulting devices deliver an impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.30% at 1 sun illumination, and a record indoor PCE of 35.20% under fluorescent lamp with 1000 lux, which is the highest value reported so far for indoor solar cells.
PDF
