A review presenting water as the logical reaction medium for the future of organic chemistry. A discussion is offered that covers both the "on water" and "in water" phenomena, and how water is ...playing unique roles in each, specifically with regard to its use in organic synthesis.
A review that highlights water as the logical reaction medium in which organic chemistry can be practiced. The key roles that water can play in directing reaction outcomes, including impacting mechanistic features, are discussed using selected examples.
Powdery, spherical nanoparticles (NPs) containing ppm levels of palladium ligated by t-Bu3P, derived from FeCl3, upon simple exposure to water undergo a remarkable alteration in their morphology ...leading to nanorods that catalyze Mizoroki–Heck (MH) couplings. Such NP alteration is general, shown to occur with three unrelated phosphine ligand-containing NPs. Each catalyst has been studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) analyses. Couplings that rely specifically on NPs containing t-Bu3P-ligated Pd occur under aqueous micellar catalysis conditions between room temperature and 45 °C, and show broad substrate scope. Other key features associated with this new technology include low residual Pd in the product, recycling of the aqueous reaction medium, and an associated low E Factor. Synthesis of the precursor to galipinine, a member of the Hancock family of alkaloids, is suggestive of potential industrial applications.
In response to the recently rising number of academic papers that empirically examine local variances in China's Belt and Initiative (BRI) projects in various foreign lands, this paper points out the ...tension between attempts to theorize BRI projects. The Sino-localized approach and the assemblage theory were the two main attempts used by scholars from disparate academic disciplines to conceptualize local agency and to understand how local conditionalities, practices, and norms may affect the outcome of BRI projects. We need to examine their differences and similarities, and determine whether they are really irreconcilable. In addition, how their ontological differences lead to epistemological, methodological and analytical differences in studying BRI projects should be clarified as well.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Recently, a group of hepatologists proposed to rename non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) with modified diagnostic criteria. We aimed to ...study the impact of the new definition on the epidemiology of fatty liver disease.
We randomly selected 1013 adults from the Hong Kong census database for clinical assessment, proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and transient elastography. Five hundred sixty-five subjects without fatty liver at baseline underwent follow-up assessment. MAFLD was diagnosed as intrahepatic triglyceride content (IHTG) ≥5% and the presence of overweight/obesity, diabetes, or two other metabolic risk factors, with and without concomitant liver diseases. The diagnosis of NAFLD required the exclusion of concomitant liver diseases; metabolic factors were not considered.
The population prevalence of MAFLD and NAFLD was 25.9% (95% CI 23.2-28.7%) and 25.7% (95% CI 23.1-28.5%), respectively. Among 277 subjects with IHTG ≥5%, 247 (89.2%) fulfilled both the definitions of MAFLD and NAFLD. Fourteen subjects (5.1%) had IHTG ≥5% but did not meet the metabolic criteria of MAFLD. The incidence of MAFLD was 2.8 per 100 person-years at a median interval of 47 months (range 34-60 months). Among 78 subjects with incident NAFLD, 59 (75.6%) met the criteria of MAFLD; only one of the latter, a regular drinker, had liver stiffness ≥10 kPa.
The new definition of MAFLD does not significantly change the prevalence compared with NAFLD, but it may reduce the incidence by 25%. People with hepatic steatosis but not fulfilling the definition of MAFLD unlikely have significant liver disease.
Background and Aims
Type 2 diabetes is an important risk factor for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and advanced fibrosis. Current international guidelines recommend the use of noninvasive ...tests as initial assessments for NAFLD, but the role of noninvasive tests as monitoring tools has not been established. We aimed to study the role of transient elastography as a monitoring tool in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Approach and Results
We recruited patients with type 2 diabetes without viral hepatitis or excessive alcohol intake from a complication screening facility in Hong Kong in 2013‐2014 and repeated the assessments in 2016‐2018. The primary endpoint was an increase of liver stiffness measurement (LSM) to ≥10 kPa. The secondary endpoint was the change in the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP). A total of 611 patients with type 2 diabetes and a valid LSM (mean age, 57.7 ± 10.9 years; 342 men 56.0%) were included in this study (568 also had a valid CAP). Overall, there was moderate correlation between the baseline and follow‐up LSM (r = 0.689, P < 0.001). Among 487 patients with a baseline LSM <10 kPa, 21 (4.3%) had a follow‐up LSM ≥10 kPa. Baseline body mass index, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and ∆ALT were independent factors associated with LSM increase. Among 124 patients with a baseline LSM ≥10 kPa, 70 (56.5%) had a follow‐up LSM <10 kPa. Among 198 patients with a CAP <248 dB/m at baseline, 103 (52.0%) had a CAP increased to ≥248 dB/m.
Conclusions
The prevalence and incidence of NAFLD in patients with type 2 diabetes are high. Although advanced fibrosis is common in this population, few patients progress to advanced fibrosis in 3 years. Future studies should define the optimal surveillance interval in patients with diabetes.
The Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) test is a standardized Chinese language proficiency test targeting non-native speakers. Compared with other Chinese proficiency tests, the HSK has the largest test ...population in the world and has attracted the most academic research. This article examines how the HSK was carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic and the issues facing home-based HSK test, the so-called HSK Home Edition. The results of a primary survey showed that the majority of test centres in Europe opted to implement the traditional paper-based format of the HSK during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the availability of the HSK Home Edition. Concerns related to technical and security issues were among the major factors that hindered successful implementation of the Home Edition. Of the test centres that utilised the Home Edition, they rated their overall experience as satisfactory. This finding suggests that concerns relating to technical and security issues associated with the adoption of the Home Edition may be less daunting than anticipated. Additional training for test centre staff could improve the implementation of the Home Edition.
The advent of metagenomic sequencing provides microbial abundance patterns that can be leveraged for sample origin prediction. Supervised machine learning classification approaches have been reported ...to predict sample origin accurately when the origin has been previously sampled. Using metagenomic datasets provided by the 2019 CAMDA challenge, we evaluated the influence of variable technical, analytical and machine learning approaches for result interpretation and novel source prediction.
Comparison between 16S rRNA amplicon and shotgun sequencing approaches as well as metagenomic analytical tools showed differences in normalized microbial abundance, especially for organisms present at low abundance. Shotgun sequence data analyzed using Kraken2 and Bracken, for taxonomic annotation, had higher detection sensitivity. As classification models are limited to labeling pre-trained origins, we took an alternative approach using Lasso-regularized multivariate regression to predict geographic coordinates for comparison. In both models, the prediction errors were much higher in Leave-1-city-out than in 10-fold cross validation, of which the former realistically forecasted the increased difficulty in accurately predicting samples from new origins. This challenge was further confirmed when applying the model to a set of samples obtained from new origins. Overall, the prediction performance of the regression and classification models, as measured by mean squared error, were comparable on mystery samples. Due to higher prediction error rates for samples from new origins, we provided an additional strategy based on prediction ambiguity to infer whether a sample is from a new origin. Lastly, we report increased prediction error when data from different sequencing protocols were included as training data.
Herein, we highlight the capacity of predicting sample origin accurately with pre-trained origins and the challenge of predicting new origins through both regression and classification models. Overall, this work provides a summary of the impact of sequencing technique, protocol, taxonomic analytical approaches, and machine learning approaches on the use of metagenomics for prediction of sample origin.
Background and Aim
The Baveno VI Consensus recommends repeating examination in patients with high liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by transient elastography to reduce false‐positive diagnosis of ...advanced liver disease. We tested whether repeating transient elastography can increase the overall diagnostic accuracy.
Methods
Ninety‐seven patients with non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease who underwent two FibroScan examinations within 6 months prior to liver biopsy were evaluated. An LSM cut‐off of 7.9 kPa was used to exclude F3‐4 fibrosis.
Results
Seventy‐eight patients had high LSM at baseline, among whom 27 had low LSM on repeated testing; only four had F3 and none had cirrhosis. In contrast, 31 of 51 patients with high LSM at both examinations had F3‐4. Nineteen patients had low LSM at baseline; none of them had F3‐4 regardless of the second LSM results. If we took LSM <7.9 kPa at either examination as sufficient to exclude F3‐4, the negative predictive value remained high at 91%. The positive predictive value for F3‐4 increased from 45% in patients with high LSM at baseline to 61% in those with high LSM at both examinations. Sensitivity analysis using different cut‐offs yielded similar results, with 76% of patients with LSM >12 kPa at both examinations having F3‐4.
Conclusions
Transient elastography is a highly sensitive screening test to exclude F3‐4 fibrosis in non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease patients. One‐third of patients with high LSM may have normal results on repeated examination. By repeating examination in cases with high LSM, one may spare patients from unnecessary liver biopsy.
In February 2021, Asian Ethnicity formed a new team of editors-in-chief, led by Ian G. Baird, professor of geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Matthew W. King, associate professor of ...religious studies, University of California, Riverside, and Debojyoti Das, lecturer, University of Sussex, Falmer. The new team of editors-in-chief has geographical expertise in Southeast Asia, Inner Asia, and South Asia; while disciplinarily speaking, they are located in religious studies and history, social anthropology and geography. This collective leadership signals a change in the journal’s history and might further lead the journal to other uncharted territories in the future. Before this new team, the three former editors-in-chief of Asian Ethnicity were all more engaged with studies of China. Colin Mackerras, the founding editor, is an Australian sinologist and is currently emeritus professor at Griffith University specializing in Chinese culture. He has published widely on Chinese ethnicities. The second editor-in-chief, Chih-yu Shih, started his term in 2008. Shih is a professor of international relations and has also published widely on identities and nationalism in China. Shih thrives in both the discipline of political science and China studies. After working under Shih’s guidance as an executive editor for Asian Ethnicity for several years, Julie Yu-Wen Chen became the third editor-in-chief of the journal in late 2015. Chen, a former student of Shih, is also active in both political science and China studies. Her interest in ethnic politics in China focuses on the Uyghurs’ diasporic experience. In this short article, Mackerras shares his recollection of the birth of the journal and his observations about the journal’s development over its twenty-one-year trajectory. After that, Shih and Chen discuss the new elements that they have added to the journal with the hope that the new generation of editors-in-chief can continue to bring the journal to the next level of intellectual creativity.
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Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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