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AbstractThe mass transfer performance of isopropanol (IPA) absorption by triethylene glycol (TEG) aqueous solution in a spray-bed absorber was investigated, and the mass transfer coefficients predicted by an artificial neural network (ANN) and response surface methodology were compared in this study. The operating variables affecting the mass transfer performance of a spray-bed absorber include the gas and TEG fluxes, concentration of IPA, concentration of TEG aqueous solution, and operating temperature. The experimental results demonstrated that the mass transfer coefficient of a spray-bed absorber increased with increases in gas and liquid fluxes and decreased with increases in concentration of IPA. The Back-Propagation algorithm in the ANN model was selected to predict the mass transfer coefficients of the spray–bed absorption system. Hidden layers with 2, 4 and 6 neurons respectively were set to analyze the effect of the number of neurons on the target value, and then different transfer functions were used to compare the accuracy in predicting mass transfer coefficient. Finally, the influences of the number of hidden layers and different learning rules on the prediction of mass transfer coefficients were examined. The simulated results showed that the average error of the ANN using the TanhAxon transfer function, the Conjugate Gradient learning rule, two hidden layers, and 6 neurons in each hidden layer was within 1%. The results not only verified the successful establishment of the experimental device but also proved the accurate prediction of mass transfer coefficients by the ANN model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has almost become synonymous with greenhouse gases. Neither improvement of energy efficiency nor the application of alternative energy can reduce the concentration of CO2 to the allowable concentration. Therefore, CO2 must be captured to prevent its escape into the atmosphere. CO2 is commonly adsorbed by activated carbon because of the good affinity between them. In this study, to enhance the CO2 adsorption performance of this material, activated carbon was modified by two ways, synthesis and grafting with chitosan, to examine how the adsorption performance was affected by the different modifications. The experimental results showed that the adsorption performances of activated carbon with grafted chitosan and synthesized with chitosan were better than that of activated carbon. Although the nitrogen content was higher in the activated carbon synthesized with chitosan than in the carbon grafted with chitosan, the adsorption enhancements were similar due to the reduced surface area of the former. In addition, the results of the multi adsorption-desorption processes showed that the adsorption performance of the activated carbon grafted with chitosan slightly decreased, while that of the activated carbon synthesized with chitosan was almost unchanged. As the heterogeneous adsorption was modeled well by the Toth adsorption isotherm model, this isotherm model was used to model the experimental data for comparison with the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. The average deviation of adsorption uptake fitted by the Toth adsorption isotherm model was about 3.07%, in comparison with 12.71% fitted by the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of early‐onset colorectal cancer (CRC), which affects people under 50, is increasing for unknown reasons. Additionally, no underlying genetic cause is found in 20%–30% of patients suspected of having familial CRC syndrome. Whole exome sequencing (WES) has generated evidence for new genes associated with CRC susceptibility, but many patients remain undiagnosed. This study applied WES in five early‐onset CRC patients from three unrelated families to identify novel genetic variants that could be linked to rapid disease development. Furthermore, the candidate variants were validated using Sanger sequencing. Two heterozygote variations, c.1077‐2A>G and c.199G>A, were found in the MSH2 and the MLH1 genes, respectively. Sanger sequencing analysis confirmed that these (likely) pathogenic mutations segregated in all the affected families' members. In addition, we identified a rare heterozygote variant (c.175C>T) with suspected pathogenic potential in the MAP3K1 gene; formally the variant is of uncertain significance (VUS). Our findings support the hypothesis that CRC onset may be oligogenic and molecularly heterogeneous. Larger and more robust studies are needed to understand the genetic basis of early‐onset CRC development, combined with novel functional analyses and omics approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To identify genetic variants and polygenic risk score (PRS) relating to female gout and asymptomatic hyperuricaemia (AH) in a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Methods Gout, AH and normouricemia controls were included from Taiwan biobank and China Medical University Hospital. All participants were divided into discovery and replication cohorts for GWAS. PRS was estimated according to whether the variant exhibited a protective effect on the phenotypes or not. Each cohort was separated into two groups by the age of 50 years old. Results A total of 59 472 females were enrolled, and gout and AH occupied 1.60% and 19.59%, respectively. Six variants located in genes SLC2A9 , C5orf22 , CNTNAP2 and GLRX5 were significantly predictors of female gout in those aged ≥50. For those aged <50 years old, only the variant rs147750368 (SPANXN1) on chromosome X was found. Most variants located in genes SLC2A9 , ZNF518B , PKD2 and ABCG2 were found to be significantly related to AH in both age groups. The PRS could explain ∼0.59% to 0.89% of variance of gout in variants with protective effects, which showed 6.2 times of mean PRS in the risk variants, but only 1.2 times in the AH phenotype. Moreover, the PRS also revealed a dose-response trend between AH rates and quartile scores. Conclusion The variants in gene SLC2A9 are the major genetic factors for females associated with gout in those aged ≥50. PRS can provide a more robust prediction of the gout/AH under a homogeneous selection of variants that show effects on the traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer is a major cause of death, and its early identification and intervention have potential for clinical actionability and benefits for human health. The studies using whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) and large samples analysis of cancer‐related genes have been rarely done. Methods: We performed WGS to explore germline mutations in coding and non‐coding areas of cancer‐related genes and non‐coding driver genes and regulatory areas. Structural variants (SVs) was also analyzed. We used several tools and a subgrouping method to analyze the variants in 1491 healthy participants. Moreover, 275 cancer‐related genes sequencing was carried out in 125 cancer patients. Results: The incidence of familial cancer in the Taiwanese general population is 8.79% (131/1491). Cancer carrier rate of cancer‐related genes is about 7.04% (105/1491) for pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants (P/LP) on ClinVar database only, and 28.24% (421/1491) for P/LP and loss of function variants. The carrier frequencies of cancer‐related genes P/LP on ClinVar database were as follows: 8.40% (11/131), 7.11% (28/394), and 6.83% (66/966) in FC, 1MC, and nMC, respectively. The SVs and non‐coding driver gene variants are uncommon. There are 1.54% (23/1491) of actionable cancer genes in American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), and the germline mutation rate of 275 cancer‐related genes is 7.2% (9/125) in cancer patients including 4.0% (5/125) of actionable cancer genes in ACMG. After analyzing the frequencies of P/LP variants on GJB2 and SLC25A13 genes, we suggest that these two genes may not be cancer‐related genes and need be re‐evaluated. Conclusions: WGS analysis can completely detect germline mutations in cancer carriers. This study use subgrouping approach for samples provides a strategy to study whether a gene or variant is a cancer‐related gene or variant in the future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Oxide assisted vapor–solid (VS) process has been used for rapid crystal growth of Fe3O4 nanowires (NWs) on Fe:Ni (1:1) alloy substrate. Oxide layers have been created initially on the substrate by heating it inside the quartz tube of a single tube furnace at 600°C in air. On rising the temperature of the chamber to 700°C in vacuum and flowing argon (Ar) at a flux 10sccm for 20min NWs of lengths up to 10μm and average width 120nm can be grown on the oxidized substrate. Capillarity model and resident time theorem have been combined to analyze the nanowire growth process. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) studies show that the product formed are Fe3O4 NWs which are magnetic materials. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]