RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF TIMBER STRUCTURE DESIGN OF POPLAR LUMBER WITH NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING METHODS

The safety of timber structure design based on the predicted Modulus of Rupture (MOR) of poplar lumber with nondestructive methods is presented in this paper. Dynamic Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) of poplar lumber was measured with three different nondestructive methods, and static MOE and MOR were obtained by a static bending test. The regression relationship between various MOE and MOR was evaluated to predict MOR with various MOE. Then timber construction design was conducted on poplar lumber based on measured and predicted MOR. Furthermore, reliability of timber structure design was analyzed with advanced first-order second-moment method. Results indicated that mean values of predicted MOR were slightly greater than those of measured MOR, but Coefficient of Variation (COV) of them were less than those of measured MOR. The reliability index of timber structure design based on predicted MOR, varying from 2.404 to 2.574, was less than that on measured MOR as 2.831

Innovative inbuilt moving bed biofilm reactor for nitrogen removal applied in household aquarium

An innovative inbuilt moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was created to protect fish from nitrogen in a household aquarium. During the 90 experimental days, the ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) concentration in the aquarium with the inbuilt MBBR was always below 0.5 mg/L, which would not threaten the fish. Concurrently, nitrite and nitrate nitrogen concentrations were always below 0.05 mg/L and 4.5 mg/L, respectively. However, the blank contrast aquarium accumulated 1.985 mg/L NH4+-N on the 16th day, which caused the fish to die. The suspended biofilms could achieve the specific NH4+-N removal rate of 45.43 g/m3/d. Biofilms presented sparsely with filamentous structures and showed certain degrees of roughness. The bacterial communities of the suspended biofilms and the sediment were statistically different (p < 0.05), reflected in denitrifying and nitrifying bacteria. In particular, the relative abundance of Nitrospira reached 1.4%, while the genus was barely found in sediments. The suspended biofilms showed potentials for nitrification function with the predicted sequence numbers of ammonia monooxygenase [1.14.99.39] and hydroxylamine dehydrogenase [EC:1.7.2.6] of 220 and 221, while the values of the sediment were only 5 and 1. This study created an efficient NH4+-N removal inbuilt MBBR for household aquariums and explored its mechanism to afford a basis for its utilization

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Funding GMP, PN, and CW are supported by NHLBI R01HL127564. GMP and PN are supported by R01HL142711. AG acknowledge support from the Wellcome Trust (201543/B/16/Z), European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under grant agreement no. HEALTH-F2-2013–601456 (CVGenes@Target) & the TriPartite Immunometabolism Consortium [TrIC]-Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Grant number NNF15CC0018486. JMM is supported by American Diabetes Association Innovative and Clinical Translational Award 1–19-ICTS-068. SR was supported by the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (Grant No 312062), the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, and University of Helsinki HiLIFE Fellow and Grand Challenge grants. EW was supported by the Finnish innovation fund Sitra (EW) and Finska Läkaresällskapet. CNS was supported by American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowships 15POST24470131 and 17POST33650016. Charles N Rotimi is supported by Z01HG200362. Zhe Wang, Michael H Preuss, and Ruth JF Loos are supported by R01HL142302. NJT is a Wellcome Trust Investigator (202802/Z/16/Z), is the PI of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (MRC & WT 217065/Z/19/Z), is supported by the University of Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215–2001) and the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MC_UU_00011), and works within the CRUK Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme (C18281/A19169). Ruth E Mitchell is a member of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol funded by the MRC (MC_UU_00011/1). Simon Haworth is supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Academic Clinical Fellowship. Paul S. de Vries was supported by American Heart Association grant number 18CDA34110116. Julia Ramierz acknowledges support by the People Programme of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme grant n° 608765 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant n° 786833. Maria Sabater-Lleal is supported by a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII Spanish Health Institute (CP17/00142) and co-financed by the European Social Fund. Jian Yang is funded by the Westlake Education Foundation. Olga Giannakopoulou has received funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) (FS/14/66/3129). CHARGE Consortium cohorts were supported by R01HL105756. Study-specific acknowledgements are available in the Additional file 32: Supplementary Note. The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institutes of Health; or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Background: Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery. Results: To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3–5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.Peer reviewe

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis

Abstract Background Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery. Results To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3–5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism. Conclusions Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk

Stain capacity of three fungi on two fast-growing wood

AbstractWe investigated the stain of fast-growing wood (Cunninghamia lanceolate, CL; Paulownia, PT) inoculated with three fungi (Arthrinium phaeospermum, AP; Vibrio anguillarum, VA; Aspergillacea, AS) to explore the new wood dyeing ways and the better combination of wood and fungi for dyeing. Only AP could dye on CL and PT. Especially for CL, its percentage of internal spalting, percentage of external spalting and dyeing depth were the highest (48%, 15% and 5.06 mm, respectively). Surprisingly, the bigger weight loss occurs on PT. The results showed that the dyeing effect of AP dyeing CL was the best, and the wood color change was obviously (Orange to dark red). AP could produce more pigments than the other two fungi (VA; AS), CL was more suitable for fungus staining than PT, indicating that AP could offered a new potential market and a chance for areas to earning higher income for CL. This research paves the way for improving color change was obviously (Orange to dark red). AP could produce more pigments than the other two fungi (VA; AS), CL was more suitable for fungus staining than PT, indicating that AP could offer a new potential market and a chance for areas to earn higher income for CL.</jats:p

Butyration of Lignosulfonate with Butyric Anhydride in the Presence of Choline Chloride

A novel process was developed for the butyration of lignosulfonate (LS) with butyric anhydride in the presence of choline chloride at elevated temperatures. The degree of substitution (DS) was qualitatively and quantitatively determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy using the baseline method. It was found that the DS of butyrated LS products increased from 0 to the range of 0.41 to 2.14 with the addition of choline chloride, indicating that butyric anhydride-choline chloride is a novel and highly effective solvent for the butyration of LS. The DS of butyrated LS was dependent on choline chloride dosage, reaction temperature, reaction time, and the mass ratio of butyric anhydride to LS. Characterization results by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy further demonstrated the occurrence of the butyration reaction. The results of thermogravimetric analysis showed that the thermal stability of the butyrated LS decreased with increasing degree of substitution