The APOA5-rs662799 Polymorphism Is a Determinant of Dyslipidemia in Vietnamese Primary School Children

Apolipoprotein A-V encoded by apolipoprotein 5 (APOA5) gene plays an important role in lipid metabolism, especially in the regulation of plasma triglycerol levels. The study aimed to evaluate the association of the APOA5-rs662799 polymorphism with dyslipidemia in Vietnamese children and the potential modification of obesity-related traits (body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio) on this association. A case–control study was conducted with a total of 154 dyslipidemia cases and 389 controls at the age of 6 to 10 recruited at 31 primary schools in Hanoi city of Vietnam. Genotype for APOA5-rs662799 polymorphism was determined by the restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. The association of APOA5-rs662799 polymorphism with dyslipidemia adjusting for age, sex, residence, and obesity-related traits was analyzed by binary logistic regression analysis. The results showed that in comparison with T/T and T/C carriers, the C/C carriers had a higher concentration of serum TAG in cases (p =0.049). Carriers of the C allele (C/C + T/C) had higher risk for developing dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia than subjects with T/T genotype (odds ratio, OR = 1.7, p =0.0062 and OR = 1.6, p = 0.026, respectively). The association remained significant after adjusting for age, gender, residence, and obesity status (OR = 1.75, p = 0.006 and OR = 1.53, p = 0.049, respectively) or other obesity-related traits. The study suggested that the APOA5-rs662799 polymorphism may be a determinant of dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia in Vietnamese children, independent of obesity-related traits.     

Performance Analysis of Full-Duplex Vehicle-to-Vehicle Relay System over Double-Rayleigh Fading Channels

Mobile Networks and Applications - In this paper, we study the performance of a full-duplex (FD) relay system in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. In this relay communication system, the...     

Sufficient dimension reduction for average causal effect estimation

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery - A large number of covariates can have a negative impact on the quality of causal effect estimation since confounding adjustment becomes unreliable when the...     

Do Agile Managed Information Systems Projects Fail Due to a Lack of Emotional Intelligence?

Information Systems Frontiers - Agile development methodologies (ADM) have become a widely implemented project management approach in Information Systems (IS). Yet, along with its growing...     

Cache-aided full-duplex: delivery time analysis and optimization

Edge caching has received much attention as a promising technique to overcome the stringent latency and data-hungry challenges in the future generation wireless networks. Meanwhile, full-duplex (FD) transmission can potentially double the spectral efficiency by allowing a node to receive and transmit at the same frequency band simultaneously. In this paper, we investigate the delivery time performance of a cache-aided FD system, in which an edge node, operates in FD mode, serves users via wireless channels and is equipped with a cache memory. Firstly, we derive a closed-form expression for the average delivery time by taking into account the uncertainties of both backhaul and access wireless channels. The derived analysis allows the examination of the impact of key parameters, e.g., cache size and transmit power. Secondly, a power optimization problem is formulated to minimize the average delivery time. To deal with the non-convexity of the formulated problem, we propose an iterative optimization algorithm based on the bisection method. Finally, numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. A significant delivery time reduction is achieved by the proposed optimization compared to the FD reference and half-duplex counterpart.

     

Phototemtide A,a Cyclic Lipopeptide Heterologously Expressed from Photorhabdus temperata Meg1, Shows Selective Antiprotozoal Activity

A new cyclic lipopeptide, phototemtide A ( 1 ), was isolated from Escherichia coli expressing the biosynthetic gene cluster pttABC from Photorhabdus temperata Meg1. The structure of 1 was elucidated by HR-ESI-MS and NMR experiments. The absolute configurations of amino acids and 3-hydroxyoctanoic acid in 1 were determined by using the advanced Marfey's method and comparison after total synthesis of 1 , respectively. Additionally, three new minor derivatives, phototemtides B–D ( 2 – 4 ), were identified by detailed HPLC–MS analysis. Phototemtide A ( 1 ) showed weak antiprotozoal activity against Plasmodium falciparum, with an IC₅₀ value of 9.8 μm . The biosynthesis of phototemtides A–D ( 1 – 4 ) was also proposed.     

Self-assembled poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether-grafted gelatin nanogels for efficient delivery of curcumin in cancer treatment

Curcumin (CUR) is a natural active ingredient that attracted much attention for its chemotherapeutic activity against tumors without causing toxicity in healthy cells. However, it has certain limitations for being used in chemotherapy such as low aqueous solubility and hydrolytic instability in the physiological environment. In this study, self-assembled poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether-grafted gelatin (Gel-mPEG) nanogels were fabricated as delivery systems to improve the applicability of CUR in cancer treatment. CUR-loaded Gel-mPEG nanogels exhibited desired size range, relatively colloidal stability, and provided enhanced CUR stability in aqueous solutions. Especially, they showed significant high CUR loading capacity and better anticancer activity than free CUR as compared to previously reported CUR-loaded nanogels according to the best of our knowledge. Moreover, the in vitro release of CUR from the nanogels was controlled and prolonged up to 96 h. These results demonstrated that Gel-mPEG nanogels are the promising modality for the efficient delivery of CUR in cancer treatment. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47544.     

Tubular graphene architectures at the macroscopic scale: fabrication and properties

Specific graphene architectures at the macroscopic scale are paramount for exploring new functions and practical uses of graphene. In this study, macroscopic, freestanding, and tubular graphene (TG) architectures were successfully fabricated through a versatile and robust process based on the annealing of cellulose acetate (CA) on Ni templates. These TG architectures can be obtained as woven tubes with diameters of approximately 50 μm; they possess high graphitic crystallinity, strong electrical conductivity, and favorable corrosion resistance. The effects of processing parameters, such as annealing temperature, annealing time, and amount of CA, on the graphene properties of these architectures were investigated and are discussed in this paper. The graphene properties were characterized through field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, four-point probe resistivity, and electrochemical measurements.     

Efficiency improvement of InGaP/GaAs/Ge solar cells by hydrothermal-deposited ZnO nanotube structure

In this paper, a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanotube, fabricated by the hydrothermal growth method on triple-junction (T-J) solar cell devices to enhance efficiency, is investigated. Compared to those of bare T-J solar cells (without antireflection (AR) coating) and solar cells with Si₃N₄ AR coatings, the experimental results show that the T-J solar cells, which use a ZnO nanotube as an AR coating, have the lowest reflectance in the short wavelength spectrum. The ZnO nanotube has the lowest light reflection among all experimental samples, especially in the range of 350 to 500 nm from ultraviolet (UV) to visible light. It was found that a ZnO nanotube can enhance the conversion efficiency by 4.9%, compared with a conventional T-J solar cell. The Si₃N₄ AR coatings also enhance the conversion efficiency by 3.2%.The results show that a cell with ZnO nanotube coating could greatly improve solar cell performances.