Long nanopore reads are advantageous in de novo genome assembly. However, nanopore reads usually have broad error distribution and high-error-rate subsequences. Existing error correction tools cannot ...correct nanopore reads efficiently and effectively. Most methods trim high-error-rate subsequences during error correction, which reduces both the length of the reads and contiguity of the final assembly. Here, we develop an error correction, and de novo assembly tool designed to overcome complex errors in nanopore reads. We propose an adaptive read selection and two-step progressive method to quickly correct nanopore reads to high accuracy. We introduce a two-stage assembler to utilize the full length of nanopore reads. Our tool achieves superior performance in both error correction and de novo assembling nanopore reads. It requires only 8122 hours to assemble a 35X coverage human genome and achieves a 2.47-fold improvement in NG50. Furthermore, our assembly of the human WERI cell line shows an NG50 of 22 Mbp. The high-quality assembly of nanopore reads can significantly reduce false positives in structure variation detection.
Perovskite light‐emitting didoes (PeLEDs) have shown considerable potential in solution‐processable display applications. However, the performance of blue PeLEDs in terms of efficiency and stability ...hinders their practicality on account of severe trap‐mediated nonradiative recombination losses and halide phase segregation. To ameliorate these issues, mixed‐halide sky‐blue perovskite materials are strategically modulated through crystal defect passivation with a trifurcate isocyanate oligomer, which leads to the synergistical suppression of charge trap density and halide ion migration. The proposed approach enables the performance improvement for sky‐blue PeLEDs, exhibiting a peak external quantum efficiency of 14.82% and spectrally stable emission at 487 nm. In addition, prolonged operational lifetime and enhanced capability of moisture resistance are achieved simultaneously, approaching a half‐lifetime of ≈2900 s at an initial brightness of 178 cd m–2.
A trifurcate isocyanate oligomer is proposed for modulating mixed‐halide sky‐blue perovskite materials by passivating crystal defects, suppressing halide ion migration, and resisting moisture simultaneously. Sky‐blue perovskite light‐emitting diodes achieve a high external quantum efficiency of 14.82% and distinctly improved operational stability with a half‐lifetime of ≈3000 s.
•This paper provides a systematic review of researches on FMEA improvement.•A set of 236 journal articles published between 1998 and 2018 was identified.•Bibliometric analysis was conducted to ...provide insights into the research theme.•Research gaps and opportunities on the improvement of FMEA are identified.
Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a reliability management technique commonly utilized in various industries to guarantee the security and reliability of systems, services and projects. Nonetheless, the classical risk priority number (RPN) method has been criticized for many inherent deficiencies in the literature. Over the last decades, plenty of models and approaches have been employed to enhance the inherent characteristics of FMEA, but few contributions are devoted to review and summarize the related researches on FMEA improvement. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a systematic review of the journal articles on the topic during the years between 1998 and 2018. A metadata statistical analysis is undertaken to present an overview of publication distribution across time and journals. Besides, a bibliometric analysis is performed to identify the most influential authors, institutions and areas, reveal the research hotspots and give an insight into the theme evolution in this field. The results indicated that the annual publications on FMEA improvement are rising quickly in the past two decades, especially after 2013; Liu HC, Chang KH, Kumar D, Sharma RK and You JX are the most prolific researchers; and Asian especially China is the major contributor in this field. Moreover, “healthcare failure mode”, “risk ranking”, “extended FMEA”, “gray theory”, “risk evaluation”, and “fuzzy inference” are the research focuses in improving the traditional FMEA.
Abstract Oxytocin (OXT), a nonapeptide hormone of posterior pituitary, reaches the central nervous system from systemic blood circulation with a difficulty because of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). ...The interest has been expressed in the use of the nasal route for delivery of OXT to the brain directly, exploiting the olfactory pathway. Our previous study has demonstrated that OXT in the central nervous system rather than the blood circulation plays an important role in rat pain modulation. The communication tried to investigate the interaction between the OXT and pain modulation in Chinese patients with headache to understand the OXT effect on human pain modulation. The results showed that (1) intranasal OXT could relieve the human headache in a dose-dependent manner; (2) OXT concentration in both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) increased significantly in headache patients in relation with the pain level; and (3) there was a positive relationship between plasma and CSF OXT concentration in headache patients. The data suggested that intranasal OXT, which was delivered to the central nervous system through olfactory region, could treat human headache and OXT might be a potential drug of headache relief by intranasal administration.
Abstract
Sepsis is a common complication of combat injuries and trauma, and is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. It is also one of ...the significant causes of death and increased health care costs in modern intensive care units. The use of antibiotics, fluid resuscitation, and organ support therapy have limited prognostic impact in patients with sepsis. Although its pathophysiology remains elusive, immunosuppression is now recognized as one of the major causes of septic death. Sepsis-induced immunosuppression is resulted from disruption of immune homeostasis. It is characterized by the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines, abnormal death of immune effector cells, hyperproliferation of immune suppressor cells, and expression of immune checkpoints. By targeting immunosuppression, especially with immune checkpoint inhibitors, preclinical studies have demonstrated the reversal of immunocyte dysfunctions and established host resistance. Here, we comprehensively discuss recent findings on the mechanisms, regulation and biomarkers of sepsis-induced immunosuppression and highlight their implications for developing effective strategies to treat patients with septic shock.
Continuous and scalable nanopatterning over flexible substrates is highly desirable for both commercial and scientific interests, but is difficult to realize with traditional photolithographic ...processes. The recent advancements in nanofabrication methodologies enable light management with photonic structures on flexible materials, providing an increasingly popular strategy to control the light harvesting in the optoelectronic devices of photovoltaics, and in organic and inorganic light‐emitting diodes. Here, the current status of nanopatterning technologies for the fabrication of optoelectronic devices is summarized. Scalable nanopatterning technologies for nanomanufacturing on flexible materials are emphasized. Critical challenges in various patterning techniques when considering the resolution, scalability, processing throughput, and the use of masks and resists are addressed. The integration of flexible nanopatterned substrates with light manipulation in organic optoelectronic devices is also discussed; this enables the control of light flux and spectra. Finally, potential development directions are highlighted.
Recent advances in continuous and scalable nanopatterning technologies for the fabrication of flexible electronic and photonic devices are reviewed. Critical challenges in various nanofabrication methodologies and light management with photonic structures on flexible organic optoelectronic devices are addressed in terms of material compatibility, processing throughput, and device performance.
: Dysregulation of arachidonic acid (ARA) metabolism results in inflammation; however, its role in acute lung injury (ALI) remains elusive. In this study, we addressed the role of dysregulated ARA ...metabolism in cytochromes P450 (CYPs) /cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) pathways in the pathogenesis of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI in mice.
: The metabolism of CYPs/COX-2-derived ARA in the lungs of LPS-induced ALI was investigated in C57BL/6 mice. The COX-2/sEH dual inhibitor PTUPB was used to establish the function of CYPs/COX-2 dysregulation in ALI. Primary murine macrophages were used to evaluate the underlying mechanism of PTUPB involved in the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome
.
: Dysregulation of CYPs/COX-2 metabolism of ARA occurred in the lungs and in primary macrophages under the LPS challenge. Decrease mRNA expression of
and
was observed, which metabolize ARA into epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs). The expressions of COX-2 and soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), on the other hand, was significantly upregulated. Pre-treatment with the dual COX-2 and sEH inhibitor, PTUPB, attenuated the pathological injury of lung tissues and reduced the infiltration of inflammatory cells. Furthermore, PTUPB decreased the pro-inflammatory factors, oxidative stress, and activation of NACHT, LRR, and PYD domains-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in LPS-induced ALI mice. PTUPB pre-treatment remarkably reduced the activation of macrophages and NLRP3 inflammasome
. Significantly, both preventive and therapeutic treatment with PTUPB improved the survival rate of mice receiving a lethal dose of LPS.
: The dysregulation of CYPs/COX-2 metabolized ARA contributes to the uncontrolled inflammatory response in ALI. The dual COX-2 and sEH inhibitor PTUPB exerts anti-inflammatory effects in treating ALI by inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
Covering: December 2005 to June 2016. Previous review: Nat. Prod. Rep., 2006, 23, 673-698Over the last decade, great efforts have been made to conduct phytochemistry research on the genus Isodon, ...which have led to the isolation and identification of a number of diterpenoids. At the same time, these newly reported diterpenoids with diverse structures have led to new findings on their biological functions and chemical synthesis research. In this update, we review more than 600 new diterpenoids, including their structures, classifications, biogenetic pathways, bioactivities, and chemical synthesis.
We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) in Han Chinese, with 1,434 affected individuals (cases) and 4,270 controls in the discovery phase and follow-up of the ...top 61 SNPs in an additional 2,703 cases and 3,464 controls. We identified associations at 17p13 (rs3803800, P = 9.40 × 10(-11), OR = 1.21; rs4227, P = 4.31 × 10(-10), OR = 1.23) and 8p23 (rs2738048, P = 3.18 × 10(-14), OR = 0.79) that implicated the genes encoding tumor necrosis factor (TNFSF13) and α-defensin (DEFA) as susceptibility genes. In addition, we found multiple associations in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region (rs660895, P = 4.13 × 10(-20), OR = 1.34; rs1794275, P = 3.43 × 10(-13), OR = 1.30; rs2523946, P = 1.74 × 10(-11), OR = 1.21) and confirmed a previously reported association at 22q12 (rs12537, P = 1.17 × 10(-11), OR = 0.78). We also found that rs660895 was associated with clinical subtypes of IgAN (P = 0.003), proteinuria (P = 0.025) and IgA levels (P = 0.047). Our findings show that IgAN is associated with variants near genes involved in innate immunity and inflammation.
Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is a systematic, multidisciplinary team-based risk management tool used in diverse industries to help improve the safety and reliability of systems, designs, ...processes and/or services. However, the traditional FMEA method, when applied in real situations, shows some important drawbacks regarding failure mode evaluations, risk factor weights and risk priority ranking, etc. In this paper, we aim to develop an integrated risk prioritization approach to improve the performance of FMEA by using interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) and the multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) method. Moreover, a linear programming model is developed to obtain the optimal weights of risk factors when the weight information is incompletely known a priori. Finally, a practical example is presented to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed FMEA, and results show that the new integrated approach offers a useful and reliable tool for rational criticality analysis.
•This study proposes a new risk priority model to improve the traditional FMEA.•Diversified assessments of experts are handled by interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets.•An extended MABAC method is presented for ranking failure modes.•A linear programming model is used to determine risk factor weights with partial information.•The advantages of the new model are illustrated with a healthcare risk analysis case.
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