High-density lipoprotein subclass and particle size in coronary heart disease patients with or without diabetes

BACKGROUND: A higher prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in people with diabetes. We investigated the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subclass profiles and alterations of particle size in CHD patients with diabetes or without diabetes. METHODS: Plasma HDL subclasses were quantified in CHD by 1-dimensional gel electrophoresis coupled with immunodetection. RESULTS: Although the particle size of HDL tend to small, the mean levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C) and total cholesterol (TC) have achieved normal or desirable for CHD patients with or without diabetes who administered statins therapy. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglyceride (TG), TC, LDL-C concentrations, and HDL(3) (HDL(3b) and (3a)) contents along with Gensini Score were significantly higher; but those of HDL-C, HDL(2b+preβ2), and HDL(2a) were significantly lower in CHD patients with diabetes versus CHD patients without diabetes; The preβ(1)-HDL contents did not differ significantly between these groups. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that Gensini Score was significantly and independently predicted by HDL(2a), and HDL(2b+preβ2). CONCLUSIONS: The abnormality of HDL subpopulations distribution and particle size may contribute to CHD risk in diabetes patients. The HDL subclasses distribution may help in severity of coronary artery and risk stratification, especially in CHD patients with therapeutic LDL, TG and HDL levels

Educational success of low-income and first generation college students in private colleges of China

In China, low-income and first generation college students in private institutions are faced with adversities which undermine their educational outcome. Since the previous researches are mainly deficit-focused, the researcher conducted an investigation which put emphasis on the students’ successful educational outcome in order to round out the knowledge of this problem. The researcher employed a qualitative multiple case study to explore how three students accomplished educational resilience despite their hardships. The researcher findings suggested that: 1) Internal locus of control, career and academic planning, financial aids, job-related experience, and rational occupational aspiration contribute to students’ educational success; 2) The primary risks that the low-income and first-generation college students undergo in private college are lack of social connection, psychological maladjustment and financial hardships; 3) The protective factors offset the risk and produce educational success; 4) The protective factors contribute to educational resilience by interacting one another. The findings have implications for national policy makers, college administrators and teachers. Future studies are suggested to include students of public institutions and explore the interaction between internal and external protective factors by conducting quantitative design

Co-existence of multiple distinct lineages in Vibrio parahaemolyticus serotype O4:K12

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important cause of foodborne gastroenteritis globally. Thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) and the TDH-related haemolysin are the two key virulence factors in V. parahaemolyticus. Vibrio pathogenicity islands harbour the genes encoding these two haemolysins. The serotyping of V. parahaemolyticus is based on the combination of O and K antigens. Frequent recombination has been observed in V. parahaemolyticus , including in the genomic regions encoding the O and K antigens. V. parahaemolyticus serotype O4:K12 has caused gastroenteritis outbreaks in the USA and Spain. Recently, outbreaks caused by this serotype of V. parahaemolyticus have been reported in China. However, the relationships among this serotype of V. parahaemolyticus strains isolated in different regions have not been addressed. Here, we investigated the genome variation of the V. parahaemolyticus serotype O4:K12 using the whole-genome sequences of 29 isolates. We determined five distinct lineages in this strain collection. We observed frequent recombination among different lineages. In contrast, little recombination was observed within each individual lineage. We showed that the lineage of this serotype of V. parahaemolyticus isolated in America was different from those isolated in Asia and identified genes that exclusively existed in the strains isolated in America. Pan-genome analysis showed that strain-specific and cluster-specific genes were mostly located in the genomic islands. Pan-genome analysis also showed that the vast majority of the accessory genes in the O4:K12 serotype of V. parahaemolyticus were acquired from within the genus Vibrio . Hence, we have shown that multiple distinct lineages exist in V. parahaemolyticus serotype O4:K12 and have provided more evidence about the gene segregation found in V. parahaemolyticus isolated in different continents

Breakthrough of a cross-century problematic issue:The perfect statements of the third law of thermodynamics

The third law of thermodynamics has been verified experimentally, but how to perfectly express such a law in theory has become a cross-century problematic issue. It is found from the recent researches that by introducing an innovative method, the Nernst equation can be obtained directly from the experimental data of chemical reactions at low temperatures without the need for artificial additional assumptions appearing in textbooks, so that the Nernst theorem should be replaced by the Nernst statement. The heat capacity statement proposed recently can be also obtained from the experimental data of the heat capacity at low temperatures. The heat capacity statement and the Nernst statement are proved to be mutually derivable and the two are equivalent. The unattainability statement of absolute zero temperature is only a coloration of the Nernst statement or the heat capacity statement. Simultaneously, the defects and deficiencies related to the contents of the third law of thermodynamics appearing in textbooks are pointed out and corrected. The results obtained show clearly that the Nernst theorem and the unattainability statement of absolute zero temperature should be withdrawn from the statements of the third law of thermodynamics. It is important to find that the Nernst statement and the heat capacity statement are two equivalent statements of the third law of thermodynamics, which can solve the centennial debate problems of the third law of thermodynamics and supply the perfect statements for the third law of thermodynamics

Algorithms and Complexity for Congested Assignments

We study the congested assignment problem as introduced by Bogomolnaia and Moulin (2023). We show that deciding whether a competitive assignment exists can be done in polynomial time, while deciding whether an envy-free assignment exists is NP-complete

Screening and evaluating of long noncoding RNAs in the puberty of goats

GO analysis of predicted targets of lncRNAs in trans. (XLS 1551 kb