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Minimizing heat accumulation is essential to prolong quantum dot LEDs' operational lifetime. Reducing heat generation at the source is the ideal solution because quantum dot LEDs are composed of low thermal conductivity materials which limits heat dissipation. Achieving high brightness and high quantum efficiency at low driving voltage are the keys to realizing this goal. In this work, we propose to enhance the brightness of quantum dot LEDs at low driving voltages by using a monolayer of large quantum dots to reduce the packing number in the emitting layer. This strategy allows us to achieve a higher charge population per quantum dot for a given number of total charges without charge leakage, enabling enhanced quasi-Fermi level splitting and brightness at low driving voltage. Thanks to the minimized heat generation, these LEDs show a record high power conversion efficiency of 23% and an unprecedented T95 operation lifetime (the time for the luminance to decrease to 95% of the initial value) of more than 48,000 h at 1,000 cd m-2. The underline mechanism – enhanced quasi-Fermi level splitting enables high brightness at low driving voltage - was confirmed by our latest electrically excited transient absorption spectroscopy.

Suboptimal health status (SHS), a physical state between health and disease, is a subclinical and reversible stage of chronic disease. Previous studies have shown alterations in the intestinal microbiota in patients with some chronic diseases. This study aimed to investigate the association between SHS and intestinal microbiota in a case‐control study with 50 SHS individuals and 50 matched healthy controls. Intestinal microbiota was analysed by MiSeq 250PE. Alpha diversity of intestinal microbiota in SHS individuals was higher compared with that of healthy controls (Simpson index, W = 2238, P = .048). Beta diversity was different between SHS and healthy controls (P = .018). At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia was higher in the SHS group than that in the controls (W = 2201, P = .049). Compared with that of the control group, nine genera were significantly higher and five genera were lower in abundance in the SHS group (all P

Aberrant immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycosylation offers new prospects to detect changes in cell metabolism and by extension, for biomarker discovery in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, past studies did not analyze the individual IgG subclasses in relation to T2DM pathophysiology. We report here original findings through a comparison of the IgG subclass-specific fragment crystallizable (Fc) glycan biosignatures in 115 T2DM patients with 122 healthy controls within the Uyghur population in China. IgG Fc glycosylation profiles were analyzed using nano- liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry to exclude changes attributed to fragment antigen binding N- glycosylation. After correction for clinical covariates, 27 directly measured and 4 derived glycan traits of the IgG subclass-specific N- glycopeptides were significantly associated with T2DM. Furthermore, we observed in T2DM a decrease in bisecting N-acetylglucosamine of IgG2 and agalactosylation of IgG4, and an increase in sialylation of IgG4 and digalactosylation of IgG2. Classification model based on IgG subclass- specific N-glycan traits was able to distinguish patients with T2DM from controls with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.927 (95% confidence interval 0.894–0.960, p < 0.001). In conclusion, a robust association between the IgG subclass-specific Fc N-glycomes and T2DM was observed in the Uyghur population sample in China, suggesting a potential for the IgG Fc glycosylation as a biomarker candidate for type 2 diabetes. The integration of glycomics with other system science biomarkers might offer further hope for innovation in diagnosis and treatment of T2DM in the future. Finally, it is noteworthy that “Population Glycomics” is an emerging approach to biomarker discovery for common complex diseases.

Male infertility is an important global health burden that can benefit from novel biomarkers and diagnostics innovation. Aberrant methylation of the imprinted genes H19 and SNRPN (small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide N) in sperm DNA has been implicated in abnormal sperm parameters and male infertility. However, whether certain methylation patterns of one or multiple CpG sites within an imprinted gene are pathological for multiple sperm defects remains poorly understood. To examine the diagnostic potential of certain methylation patterns of CpG sites for multiphenotype defects in human sperm, the sperm DNA methylation patterns of individual CpG sites within imprinting control regions (ICRs) of imprinted genes H19 and SNRPN were measured by bisulfite pyrosequencing in a Han Chinese population sample: 39 oligoasthenozoospermia (OA) patients, 36 asthenoteratozoospermia (AT) patients, and 50 normozoospermia (N) controls. A partial least squares discriminant analysis model was built with the CpG sites as independent variables. Among the 16 CpG sites screened, the methylation patterns of eight CpG sites within H19-ICR (CpG sites 1, 6-9, 12 and 15-16), and eight CpG sites within SNRPN-ICR (CpG sites 2, 5-6, 8-10, 13, and 16) correctly classified 74.4% and 72.0% of the samples in terms of male fertile status, respectively. Furthermore, by combination of these 16 selected CpG sites within ICRs of H19 and SNRPN, 88.0% of the samples could be successfully classified. Our study demonstrates that methylation profiles of CpG sites within ICRs of imprinted genes H19 and SNRPN may potentially serve as epigenomic biomarkers for assessment of infertility in men with multiple sperm defects. Further studies in independent population samples are called for diagnostic significance of methylation patterns of CpG sites within imprinted genes.

Hypertension results from the interaction of genetic and acquired factors. IgG occurs in the form of different subclasses, of which the effector functions show significant variation. The detailed differences between the glycosylation profiles of the individual IgG subclasses may be lost in a profiling method for total IgG N-glycosylation. In this study, subclass-specific IgG Fc glycosylation profile was investigated in the four northwestern Chinese minority populations, namely, Uygur (UIG), Kazak (KZK), Kirgiz (KGZ), and Tajik (TJK), composed of 274 hypertensive patients and 356 healthy controls. The results showed that ten directly measured IgG N-glycan traits (i.e., IgG1G0F, IgG2G0F, IgG2G1FN, IgG2G1FS, IgG2G2S, IgG4G0F, IgG4G1FS, IgG4G1S, IgG4G2FS, and IgG4G2N) representing galactosylation and sialylation are significantly associated with hypertension, with IgG4 consistently showing weaker associations of its sialylation, across the four ethnic groups. We observed a modest improvement on the AUC of ROC curve when the IgG Fc N-glycan traits are added into the glycan-based model (difference between AUCs, 0.044, 95% CI: 0.016–0.072, P = 0.002). The AUC of the diagnostic model indicated that the subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycan profiles provide more information reinforcing current models utilizing age, gender, BMI, and ethnicity, and demonstrate the potential of subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycosylation profiles to serve as a biomarker for hypertension. Further research is however required to determine the additive value of subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycosylation on top of biomarkers, which are currently used.

Background: DNA methylation in sputum has been an attractive candidate biomarker for the non-invasive screening and detection of lung cancer. Materials and Methods: Databases including PubMed, Ovid, Cochrane library, Web of Science databases, Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Vip Databases and Google Scholar were searched to collect the diagnostic trials on aberrant DNA methylation in the screening and detection of lung cancer published until 1 December 2016. Indirect comparison meta-analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of the included candidate genes. Results: The systematic literature search yielded a total of 33 studies including a total of 4801 subjects (2238 patients with lung cancer and 2563 controls) and covering 32 genes. We identified that methylated genes in sputum samples for the early screening and auxiliary detection of lung cancer yielded an overall sensitivity of 0.46 (0.41–0.50) and specificity of 0.83 (0.80–0.86). Combined indirect comparisons identified the superior gene of SOX17 (sensitivity: 0.84, specificity: 0.88), CDO1 (sensitivity: 0.78, specificity: 0.67), ZFP42 (sensitivity: 0.87, specificity: 0.63) and TAC1 (sensitivity: 0.86, specificity: 0.75). Conclusions: The present meta-analysis demonstrates that methylated SOX17, CDO1, ZFP42, TAC1, FAM19A4, FHIT, MGMT, p16, and RASSF1A are potential superior biomarkers for the screening and auxiliary detection of lung cancer.