Association Between Serum Bilirubin and Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The association between bilirubin and atrial fibrillation (AF) has been evaluated previously in observational studies but with contradictory results. This study evaluated the causal association between serum bilirubin level and AF using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. METHODS: This cross-sectional study includes 8,977 participants from the Dong-gu Study. In the observational analysis, multivariate logistic regression was performed to evaluate the association between bilirubin and prevalent AF. To evaluate the causal association between bilirubin and AF, MR analysis was conducted by using the UGT1A1 rs11891311 and rs4148323 polymorphisms as instrumental variables. RESULTS: Elevated serum bilirubin levels were associated with an increased risk for AF in observational analysis (total bilirubin: odds ratio [OR], 1.31; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.15-1.48 per 1 standard deviation [SD]; direct bilirubin: OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.18-1.46 per 1 SD), whereas the genetically predicted serum bilirubin levels in MR analysis did not show this association (total bilirubin: OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.67-1.53 per 1 SD; direct bilirubin: OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.61-1.73 per 1 SD). CONCLUSIONS: Genetically predicted bilirubin levels were not associated with prevalent AF. Thus, the observational association between serum bilirubin levels and AF may be non-causal and affected by reverse causality or unmeasured confounding.

Highly Flexible and Photo-Activating Acryl-Polyurethane for 3D Steric Architectures.

An acryl-functionalized polyurethane (PU) series was successfully synthesized using poly(tetramethylene ether) glycol-methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (PTMG-MDI) oligomer based on urethane methacrylates to control the flexibility of photo-cured 3D printing architectures. The mass ratio of acryl-urethane prepolymer: 1,4-butanediol (BD) chain-extender: diphenyl(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl) phosphine oxide (TPO) photoinitiator was 10:0.25:1. To produce suitably hard and precisely curved 3D architectures, the optimal UV absorbance and exposure energy of the acryl-PTMG-MDI resin were controlled precisely. Owing to the optimized viscosity of the acryl-PTMG-MDI resins, they could be printed readily by digital light processing (DLP) to form precisely curved 3D architectures after mixing with 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA). The acryl-PTMG-MDI formulations showed much better flexural resolution than the neat resins. The printed 3D structure exhibited high surface hardness, good mechanical strength, and high elasticity for flexible applications in consumer/industrial and biomedical fields.

Efficacy of live NNV immersion vaccine immunized at low temperature in sevenband grouper, Epinephelus septemfasciatus.

The objective of this study was to investigate safety and efficacy using a low-temperature immunization protocol with NNV in sevenband grouper, Epinephelus septemfasciatus. Further, NNV specific antibody post immunization and intramuscularly challenge was also evaluated. Immunization at low temperature resulted in a low titer virus infection in brain tissues without any clinical symptoms of infection such as sluggish behavior and/or spinning, rotating swimming being observed, and no mortality was observed. Post challenge, NNV titer NNV giving an RPS of 100 %, increased in brain tissues of naïve (non-immunized) sevenband grouper NNV giving an RPS of 100 %, with a cumulative mortality of 100 % at 25 days post-infection. No mortality or disease symptoms NNV giving an RPS of 100 %, as NNV giving and of 100 %, observed in the groups immunized at low temperature with live NNV giving an RPS of 100 %. NNV giving an RPS of 100 %. NNV specific antibody was not detected in live NNV vaccinated sevenband grouper. This is the first study that confirms that field-scale NNV immersion vaccine can protect sevenband grouper against lethal infection with NNV at natural seawater temperature under the gradually increased from 14.3-24.8 °C.

Highly Twisted Donor-Acceptor Boron Emitter and High Triplet Host Material for Highly Efficient Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Device.

New highly efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) dopant materials (PXB-DI and PXB-mIC) for blue organic light-emitting diodes are reported. These materials were designed by combining highly conjugated rigid ring donor moieties and a boron acceptor with a highly twisted configuration to have high TADF performance and minimized self-quenching properties. In addition, a new high triplet energy and hole transport-type host material, 5-(5-(2,4,6-triiso-propylphenyl)pyridin-2-yl)-5 H-benzo[ d]benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2- a]imidazole (PPBI), is also reported. This host represents deeper blue color owing to keeping the original spectra of emitters. A fabricated blue TADF device with PXB-mIC in the PPBI host exhibited maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 12.5% with a CIE of (0.15, 0.08), which is close to that of the National Television System Committee blue color. The blue TADF device performances of the PPBI host was compared with the electron transport-type 2,8-bis(diphenylphosphine oxide)dibenzofuran (DBFPO) host. The blue TADF device with PXB-DI in the DBFPO host exhibited a maximum EQE of 37.4% in the sky blue region. This study demonstrates that our molecular design concept of new emitters and host is beneficial for future high-efficiency deep-blue TADF devices.

Unconventional Three-Armed Luminogens Exhibiting Both Aggregation-Induced Emission and Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Resulting in High-Performing Solution-Processed Organic Light-Emitting Diodes.

In this work, three-armed luminogens IAcTr-out and IAcTr-in were synthesized and used as emitters bearing triazine and indenoacridine moieties in thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). These molecules could form a uniform thin film via the solution process and also allowed the subsequent deposition of an electron transporting layer either by vacuum deposition or by an all-solution coating method. Intriguingly, the new luminogens displayed aggregation-induced emission (AIE), which is a unique photophysical phenomenon. As a nondoped emitting layer (EML), IAcTr-in showed external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 11.8% for the hybrid-solution processed OLED and 10.9% for the all-solution processed OLED with a low efficiency roll-off. This was evident by the higher photoluminescence quantum yield and higher rate constant of reverse intersystem crossing of IAcTr-in, as compared to IAcTr-out. These AIE luminogens were used as dopants and mixed with the well-known host material 1,3-bis( N-carbazolyl)benzene (mCP) to produce a high-efficiency OLED with a two-component EML. The maximum EQE of 17.5% was obtained when using EML with IAcTr-out doping (25 wt %) into mCP, and the OLED with EML bearing IAcTr-in and mCP showed a higher maximum EQE of 18.4% as in the case of the nondoped EML-based device.

δ-Carboline-based bipolar host materials for deep blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs with high efficiency and low roll-off characteristic.

Two bipolar host materials, 8-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-5-(pyridin-2-yl)-5H-pyrido[3,2-b]indole (CzCbPy) and 5-(6-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)pyridin-2-yl)-8-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-5H-pyrido[3,2-b]indole (2CzCbPy), were synthesized for deep blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light emitting diodes (TADF OLEDs). Both CzCbPy and 2CzCbPy hosts possess bipolar characteristic with high polarity, which results in high delayed photoluminescence quantum yields by reducing the energy gap between singlet and triplet states of TADF materials. In addition, these hosts have high enough triplet energies of 3.05 eV to transfer exciton energy to a deep blue TADF emitter. A deep blue TADF OLED fabricated with a CzCbPy host exhibited high external quantum efficiency of 22.9% and low efficiency roll-off (19.2% at 1000 cd m-2).

Development and application of quantitative detection method for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) genogroup IVa.

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a problematic pathogen in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) aquaculture farms in Korea. Thus, it is necessary to develop a rapid and accurate diagnostic method to detect this virus. We developed a quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) method based on the nucleocapsid (N) gene sequence of Korean VHSV isolate (Genogroup IVa). The slope and R² values of the primer set developed in this study were -0.2928 (96% efficiency) and 0.9979, respectively. Its comparison with viral infectivity calculated by traditional quantifying method (TCID50) showed a similar pattern of kinetic changes in vitro and in vivo. The qRT-PCR method reduced detection time compared to that of TCID50, making it a very useful tool for VHSV diagnosis.