ALBERT

Description: The effects of genetic variants on the interaction between hyperlipidemia and sex have not been investigated among gout patients in Taiwan. Using Taiwan Biobank and the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), we examined hyperlipidemia, sex, and their relationship with gout among Taiwanese adults with the human leukocyte antigen B (HLA-B) genetic variants. Hyperlipidemia was present in 1437 patients with gout. Sex and hyperlipidemia had significant associations on gout risk, with hyperlipidemia showing a relatively stronger effect. Gout was present in men, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.945 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.568–2.411) compared to women, and in hyperlipidemic (OR = 4.032; 95% CI: 3.581–4.540) compared to non-hyperlipidemic patients. The interaction of sex and hyperlipidemia was significant for rs2523608 GG (p = 0.0402) and rs4713518 AA (p = 0.0003) genotypes. After stratification, hyperlipidemia remained a risk factor in women (OR = 4.735, 95% CI: 3.375–6.643) and men (OR = 3.640, 95% CI: 2.916–4.544) with rs2523608 GG genotype. The odds ratio in hyperlipidemic women and men with rs4713518 AA genotype was 7.454 (95% CI 5.103–10.888) and 3.585 (95% CI 2.854–4.503), respectively. Our study indicates that hyperlipidemia-sex interactions exist for gout risk in Taiwanese adults with rs2523608 GG and rs4713518 AA genotypes.

Description: Although HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) testing for all women has been promoted by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health since 2000, test acceptance rates in this country were reported to be less than 30% in the community. This country has been facing the barriers to approach the national services towards transmission prevention from mother to child including HIV testing during antenatal care (ANC) towards mothers. Here, we aim to assess the socioeconomic inequalities in HIV testing during ANC among Vietnamese women. This study used available data from the Vietnam Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014. Overall, the prevalence of HIV testing during antenatal care was 30% and the concentrate index (CCI) was 0.1926. There was significant inequality between women classified as poor and rich, and when stratified by social characteristics, inequality was found in women aged 15–49 years (CCI: 0.4), living in rural areas (CCI: 0.3), belonging to ethnic minorities (CCI: 0.5) and having primary or less education (CCI: 0.4). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, ethnicity and socioeconomic status were significant factors associated with HIV testing during ANC. We found the prevalence of HIV testing during ANC was low, and its inequalities were associated with age, living area, ethnicity, education, and economic status.

Description: We determined the complete mitogenome of Pyrrhocoris tibialis (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae) to better understand the diversity and phylogeny within Pentatomomorpha, which is the second largest infra-order of Heteroptera. Gene content, gene arrangement, nucleotide composition, codon usage, ribosomal RNA (rRNA) structures, and sequences of the mitochondrial transcription termination factor were well conserved in Pyrrhocoroidea. Different protein-coding genes have been subject to different evolutionary rates correlated with the G + C content. The size of control regions (CRs) was highly variable among mitogenomes of three sequenced Pyrrhocoroidea species, with the P. tibialis CR being the largest. All the transfer RNA genes found in Pyrrhocoroidea had the typical clover leaf secondary structure, except for trnS1 (AGN), which lacked the dihydrouridine arm and possessed an unusual anticodon stem (9 bp vs. the normal 5 bp). A total of three different phylogenetic relationships among the five super-families of Pentatomomorpha were obtained using three analytical methods (MrBayes and RAxML under site-homogeneous models and PhyloBayes under a site-heterogeneous CAT + GTR model) and two mitogenomic datasets (nucleotides and amino acids). The tree topology test using seven methods statistically supported a phylogeny of (Aradoidea + (Pentatomoidea + (Lygaeoidea + (Pyrrhocoroidea + Coreoidea)))) as the best topology, as recognized by both RAxML and MrBayes based on the two datasets.

Description: This paper explores the energy efficiency (EE) maximization problem in single-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) half-duplex wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). Such an energy efficiency maximization problem is considered in two different scenarios, in which the number of energy-harvesting (EH) sensor nodes are different. In the scenario where the single energy-harvesting sensor node is applied, the modeled network consists of two multiple-antenna transceivers, of which the energy-constrained energy-harvesting sensor node harvests energy from the signals transmitted from the source by a power splitting (PS) scheme. In the scenario of multiple EH sensor nodes, K energy-constrained sensor nodes are applied and the same quantity of antennas are equiped on each of them. The optimization problem is formulated to maximize the energy efficiency by jointly designing the transceivers’ precoding matrices and the PS factor of the energy-harvesting sensor node. The considered constraints are the required harvested energy, the transmission power limit and the requirement on the data rate. The joint design of the precoding matrices and the PS factor can be formulated as an optimization problem, which can be transformed into two sub-problems. An alternating algorithm based on Dinkelbach is proposed to solve the two sub-problems. The convergence of the proposed alternating algorithm, the solution optimality and the computational complexity are analyzed in the paper. Simulation results demonstrate the convergence and effectiveness of our proposed algorithm for realizing the maximum energy efficiency.

Description: Various species of Alexandrium can produce a number of bioactive compounds, e.g., paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), spirolides, gymnodimines, goniodomins, and also uncharacterised bioactive extracellular compounds (BECs). The latter metabolites are released into the environment and affect a large range of organisms (from protists to fishes and mammalian cell lines). These compounds mediate allelochemical interactions, have anti-grazing and anti-parasitic activities, and have a potentially strong structuring role for the dynamic of Alexandrium blooms. In many studies evaluating the effects of Alexandrium on marine organisms, only the classical toxins were reported and the involvement of BECs was not considered. A lack of information on the presence/absence of BECs in experimental strains is likely the cause of contrasting results in the literature that render impossible a distinction between PSTs and BECs effects. We review the knowledge on Alexandrium BEC, (i.e., producing species, target cells, physiological effects, detection methods and molecular candidates). Overall, we highlight the need to identify the nature of Alexandrium BECs and urge further research on the chemical interactions according to their ecological importance in the planktonic chemical warfare and due to their potential collateral damage to a wide range of organisms.

Description: Gas-liquid two-phase flow behavior in horizontal channel under heaving motion showed unique dynamic characteristics due to the complex nonlinear interaction. To further establish a description model and investigate the effects of heaving motion on horizontal gas-liquid flow, experiments in a wide range of vibration parameters and working conditions were carried out by combining vibration platform with two-phase flow loop. It was found that the flow regimes under heaving motion showed significant differences compared to the ones expected in steady state flow under the same working conditions. Increasing vibration parameters showed an obvious impact on fluctuation degree of gas-liquid interface by visualizing high-speed photographs. A method based on multi-scale entropy was applied to identify flow regimes and reveal the underlying dynamic characteristics by collecting signals of pressure-difference. The results indicated that the proposed method was effective to analyze gas-liquid two-phase flow transition in horizontal channel under heaving motion by incorporating information of flow condition and change rate of multi-scale entropy, which provided a reliable guide for flow pattern control design and safe operation of equipment. However, for slug-wave and boiling wave flow, an innovative method based on multi-scale marginal spectrum entropy showed more feasible for identification of transition boundary.

Description: Previous study has demonstrated that the riboflavin treatment promoted the early ripening of the ‘Kyoho’ grape berry. However, the molecular mechanism causing this was unclear. In order to reveal the regulation mechanism of riboflavin treatment on grape berry development and ripening, the different berry developmental stages of the ‘Kyoho’ berry treated with 0.5 mmol/L of riboflavin was sampled for transcriptome profiling. RNA-seq revealed that 1526 and 430 genes were up-regulated and down-regulated, respectively, for the comparisons of the treatment to the control. TCseq analysis showed that the expression patterns of most of the genes were similar between the treatment and the control, except for some genes that were related to the chlorophyll metabolism, photosynthesis–antenna proteins, and photosynthesis, which were revealed by the enrichment analysis of Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The differentially expressed genes and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) analysis identified some significantly differentially expressed genes and some hub genes, including up-regulation of the photosynthesis-related ELIP1 and growth and development-related GDSL; and down-regulation of the oxidative stress-related ATHSP22 and berry softening-related XTH32 and GH9B15. The results suggested that the riboflavin treatment resulted in the variations of the expression levels of these genes, and then led to the early ripening of the ‘Kyoho’ berry.

Description: In this study, we investigated sulfate-modified BiVO4 with the high photocatalytic activity synthesized by a sol-gel method in the presence of thiourea, followed by the annealing process at different temperatures. Its structure was characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The BiVO4 synthesized in the presence of thiourea and calcined at 600 °C (T-BVO-600) exhibited the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency of methylene blue (MB) in water; 98.53% MB removal was achieved within 240 min. The reaction mechanisms that affect MB photocatalytic degradation on the T-BVO-600 were investigated via an indirect chemical probe method, using chemical agents to capture the active species produced during the early stages of photocatalysis, including 1,4-benzoquinone (scavenger for O2−), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt (scavenger for h+), and tert-butanol (scavenger for HO•). The results show that holes (h+) and hydroxyl radicals (HO•) are the dominant species of MB decomposition. Photoluminescence (PL) measurement results of terephthalic acid solutions in the presence of BiVO4 samples and BiVO4 powders confirm the involvement of hydroxyl radicals and the separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs in MB photocatalytic degradation. Besides, the T-BVO-600 exhibits good recyclability for MB removal, achieving a removal rate of above 83% after five cycles. The T-BVO-600 has the features of high efficiency and good recyclability for MB photocatalytic degradation. These results provide new insight into the purpose of improving the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 catalyst.

Description: As one of the most essential technologies, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) integrate sensor technology, embedded computing technology, and modern network and communication technology, which have become research hotspots in recent years. The localization technique, one of the key techniques for WSN research, determines the application prospects of WSNs to a great extent. The positioning errors of wireless sensor networks are mainly caused by the non-line of sight (NLOS) propagation, occurring in complicated channel environments such as the indoor conditions. Traditional techniques such as the extended Kalman filter (EKF) perform unsatisfactorily in the case of NLOS. In contrast, the robust extended Kalman filter (REKF) acquires accurate position estimates by applying the robust techniques to the EKF in NLOS environments while losing efficiency in LOS. Therefore it is very hard to achieve high performance with a single filter in both LOS and NLOS environments. In this paper, a localization method using a robust extended Kalman filter and track-quality-based (REKF-TQ) fusion algorithm is proposed to mitigate the effect of NLOS errors. Firstly, the EKF and REKF are used in parallel to obtain the location estimates of mobile nodes. After that, we regard the position estimates as observation vectors, which can be implemented to calculate the residuals in the Kalman filter (KF) process. Then two KFs with a new observation vector and equation are used to further filter the estimates, respectively. At last, the acquired position estimates are combined by the fusion algorithm based on the track quality to get the final position vector of mobile node, which will serve as the state vector of both KFs at the next time step. Simulation results illustrate that the TQ-REKF algorithm yields better positioning accuracy than the EKF and REKF in the NLOS environment. Moreover, the proposed algorithm achieves higher accuracy than interacting multiple model algorithm (IMM) with EKF and REKF.

Description: Sorption is widely used for the removal of toxic heavy metals such as hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from aqueous solutions. Green sorbents prepared from biomass are attractive, because they leverage the value of waste biomass and reduce the overall cost of water treatment. In this study, we fabricated biochar (BC) adsorbent from the biomass of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), an invasive species in many river channels. Pristine BC was further modified with nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) and stabilized with chitosan (C) to form C–nZVI–BC. C–nZVI–BC adsorbent showed high hexavalent chromium sorption capacity (82.2 mg/g) at pH 2 and removed 97.34% of 50 mg/L Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions. The sorption capacity of chitosan–nZVI-modified biochar decreased while increasing the solution pH value and ionic strength. The results of a sorption test indicated that multiple mechanisms accounted for Cr(VI) removal by C–nZVI–BC, including complexation, precipitation, electrostatic interactions, and reduction. Our study suggests a way of adding value to biomass waste by considering environmental treatment purposes.