The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas belongs to one of the most species-rich but genomically poorly explored phyla, the Mollusca. Here we report the sequencing and assembly of the oyster genome using ...short reads and a fosmid-pooling strategy, along with transcriptomes of development and stress response and the proteome of the shell. The oyster genome is highly polymorphic and rich in repetitive sequences, with some transposable elements still actively shaping variation. Transcriptome studies reveal an extensive set of genes responding to environmental stress. The expansion of genes coding for heat shock protein 70 and inhibitors of apoptosis is probably central to the oyster's adaptation to sessile life in the highly stressful intertidal zone. Our analyses also show that shell formation in molluscs is more complex than currently understood and involves extensive participation of cells and their exosomes. The oyster genome sequence fills a void in our understanding of the Lophotrochozoa.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Based on the quenching of the fluorescence of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) by spironolactone, a simple, rapid and specific method for spironolactone determination was proposed. In the optimum conditions, ...spironolactone concentration versus quantum dot fluorescence gave a linear response with an excellent 0.997 correlation coefficient, between 2.5 and 700
mg/mL (6.0–1680
μmol/L) and the limit of detection (S/N
=
3) was 0.2
μg/mL (0.48
μmol/L). The contents of spironolactone in pharmaceutical tablets were determined by the proposed method and the results agreed with the claimed values. The possible mechanism for the reaction was also discussed.
In recent years, there has been growing interest in large-eddy simulation (LES) modelling of atmospheric boundary layers interacting with arrays of wind turbines on complex terrain. However, such ...terrain typically contains geometric features and roughness elements reaching down to small scales that typically cannot be resolved numerically. Thus subgrid-scale models for the unresolved features of the bottom roughness are needed for LES. Such knowledge is also required to model the effects of the ground surface 'underneath' a wind farm. Here we adapt a dynamic approach to determine subgrid-scale roughness parametrizations and apply it for the case of rough surfaces composed of cuboidal elements with broad size distributions, containing many scales. We first investigate the flow response to ground roughness of a few scales. LES with the dynamic roughness model which accounts for the drag of unresolved roughness is shown to provide resolution-independent results for the mean velocity distribution. Moreover, we develop an analytical roughness model that accounts for the sheltering effects of large-scale on small-scale roughness elements. Taking into account the shading effect, constraints from fundamental conservation laws, and assumptions of geometric self-similarity, the analytical roughness model is shown to provide analytical predictions that agree well with roughness parameters determined from LES.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Wind energy in complex terrains’.
Summary
Background
In asthma, the airway inflammatory phenotype influences clinical characteristics and treatment response. Although induced sputum is the gold standard test for phenotyping asthma, a ...more accessible method is needed for clinical practice.
Objective
To investigate whether white blood cell counts and/or their derived ratios can predict sputum eosinophils or neutrophils in uncontrolled asthma.
Methods
This cross‐sectional study evaluated 164 treated but uncontrolled asthmatic patients with sputum induction and blood collection. Receiver‐operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to assess the relationship between blood and sputum parameters.
Results
There was a significant positive relationship between blood eosinophil parameters and the percentage of sputum eosinophil count. A weak but significant correlation was found between sputum neutrophil percentage and blood neutrophil percentage (r = 0.219, P = 0.005). ROC curve analysis identified that blood eosinophil percentage count was the best predictor for eosinophilic asthma, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.907 (P < 0.001). The optimum cut‐point for blood eosinophil percentage was 2.7%, and this yielded a sensitivity of 92.2% and a specificity of 75.8%. The absolute blood eosinophil count was also highly predictive with an AUC of 0.898 (P < 0.0001) at a blood eosinophil cut‐off of 0.26 × 109/L. The blood eosinophil/lymphocyte ratio (ELR) and eosinophil/neutrophil ratio (ENR) were increased in eosinophilic asthma, and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was increased in neutrophilic asthma. Neutrophilic asthma could also be detected by blood neutrophil percentages and NLR, but with less accuracy.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance
Blood eosinophil counts and derived ratios (ELR and ENR) can accurately predict eosinophilic asthma in patients with persistent uncontrolled asthma despite treatment. Blood neutrophil parameters are poor surrogates for the proportion of sputum neutrophils. Blood counts may be a useful aid in the monitoring of uncontrolled asthma.
Flow over aligned and staggered cube arrays is a classic model problem for rough-wall turbulent boundary layers. Earlier studies of this model problem mainly looked at rough surfaces with a moderate ...coverage density, i.e.
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D706}_{p}>O(3\,\%)$
, where
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D706}_{p}$
is the surface coverage density and is defined to be the ratio between the area occupied by the roughness and the total ground area. At lower surface coverage densities, i.e.
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D706}_{p}<O(3\,\%)$
, it is conventionally thought that cubical roughness acts like isolated roughness elements; and that the single-cube drag coefficient, i.e.
$C_{d}\equiv f/(\unicodeSTIX{x1D70C}U_{h}^{2}h^{2})$
, equals
$C_{R}$
. Here,
$f$
is the drag force on one cubical roughness element,
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D70C}=\text{const.}$
is the fluid density,
$h$
is the height of the cube,
$U_{h}$
is the spatially and temporally averaged wind speed at the cube height, and
$C_{R}$
is the drag coefficient of an isolated cube. In this work, we conduct large-eddy simulations and direct numerical simulations of flow over wall-mounted cubes with very low surface coverage densities, i.e.
$0.08\,\%<\unicodeSTIX{x1D706}_{p}<4.4\,\%$
. The large-eddy simulations are at nominally infinite Reynolds numbers. The results challenge the conventional thinking, and we show that, at very low surface coverage densities, the single-cube drag coefficient may increase as a function of
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D706}_{p}$
. Our analysis suggests that this behaviour may be attributed to secondary turbulent flows. Secondary turbulent flows are often found above spanwise-heterogeneous roughness. Although the roughness considered in this work is nominally homogeneous, the secondary flows in our simulations are very similar to those observed above spanwise-heterogeneous surface roughness. These secondary vortices redistribute the fluid momentum in the outer layer, leading to high-momentum pathways above the wall-mounted cubes and low-momentum pathways at the two sides of the wall-mounted cubes. As a result, the spatially and temporally averaged wind speed at the cube height, i.e.
$U_{h}$
, is an underestimate of the incoming flow to the cubes, which in turn leads to a large drag coefficient
$C_{d}$
.
Objective To investigate the clinical outcome of 9 very preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)-associated pulmonary hypertension (PH) and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) after PDA ...ligation. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 9 very preterm infants with BPD-associated PH and PDA, and all infants underwent PDA ligation and were followed up regularly after surgery. Results After surgical treatment, 7 infants had normal pulmonary artery pressure and were discharged after successful ventilator weaning, and all these infants were regularly followed up to June 2022 at the outpatient service, among whom the oldest infant was aged 4 years; echocardiography showed that all infants had normal heart structure and function, pulmonary artery pressure, and growth and development, without recurrent respiratory infection. Two infants died. Conclusion Very preterm infants with BPD-associated PH and PDA often have critical situations, and in case of failed pharmacotherapy, time
The cascading process of turbulent kinetic energy from large-scale fluid motions to small-scale and lesser-scale fluid motions in isotropic turbulence may be modelled as a hierarchical random ...multiplicative process according to the multifractal formalism. In this work, we show that the same formalism might also be used to model the cascading process of momentum in wall-bounded turbulent flows. However, instead of being a multiplicative process, the momentum cascade process is additive. The proposed multifractal model is used for describing the flow kinematics of the low-pass filtered streamwise wall-shear stress fluctuation
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D70F}_{l}^{\prime }$
, where
$l$
is the filtering length scale. According to the multifractal formalism,
$\langle {\unicodeSTIX{x1D70F}^{\prime }}^{2}\rangle \sim \log (Re_{\unicodeSTIX{x1D70F}})$
and
$\langle \exp (p\unicodeSTIX{x1D70F}_{l}^{\prime })\rangle \sim (L/l)^{\unicodeSTIX{x1D701}_{p}}$
in the log-region, where
$Re_{\unicodeSTIX{x1D70F}}$
is the friction Reynolds number,
$p$
is a real number,
$L$
is an outer length scale and
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D701}_{p}$
is the anomalous exponent of the momentum cascade. These scalings are supported by the data from a direct numerical simulation of channel flow at
$Re_{\unicodeSTIX{x1D70F}}=4200$
.
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