Assessment and characterization of gut microbiota has become a major research area in human disease, including type 2 diabetes, the most prevalent endocrine disease worldwide. To carry out analysis on gut microbial content in patients with type 2 diabetes, we developed a protocol for a metagenome-wide association study (MGWAS) and undertook a two-stage MGWAS based on deep shotgun sequencing of the gut microbial DNA from 345 Chinese individuals. We identified and validated approximately 60,000 type-2-diabetes-associated markers and established the concept of a metagenomic linkage group, enabling taxonomic species-level analyses. MGWAS analysis showed that patients with type 2 diabetes were characterized by a moderate degree of gut microbial dysbiosis, a decrease in the abundance of some universal butyrate-producing bacteria and an increase in various opportunistic pathogens, as well as an enrichment of other microbial functions conferring sulphate reduction and oxidative stress resistance. An analysis of 23 additional individuals demonstrated that these gut microbial markers might be useful for classifying type 2 diabetes.

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) behaving as a layered feature with graphite was indexed as a high-content nitrogen-doping carbon material, attracting increasing attention for application in energy storage devices. However, poor conductivity and resulting serious irreversible capacity loss were pronounced for g-CN material due to its high nitrogen content. In this work, magnesiothermic denitriding technology is demonstrated to reduce the nitrogen content of g-CN (especially graphitic nitrogen) for enhanced lithium storage properties as lithium ion battery anodes. The obtained nitrogen-deficient g-CN (ND-g-CN) exhibits a thinner and more porous structure composed of an abundance of relatively low nitrogen doping wrinkled graphene nanosheets. A highly reversible lithium storage capacity of 2753 mAh/g was obtained after the 300th cycle with an enhanced cycling stability and rate capability. The presented nitrogen-deficient g-CN with outstanding electrochemical performances may unambiguously promote the application of g-CN materials in energy-storage devices.

The objective of this study is to evaluate two satellite rainfall products Global Precipitation Measurement Integrated MultisatellitE Retrievals and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B42V7 (GPM IMERG and TRMM 3B42V7) in southern Tibetan Plateau region, with special focus on the dependence of products' performance on topography and rainfall intensity. Over 500 in situ rain gauges constitute an unprecedentedly dense rain gauge network over this region and provide an exceptional resource for ground validation of satellite rainfall estimates. Our evaluation centers on the rainy season from May to October in 2014. Results indicate that (1) GPM product outperforms TRMM at all spatial scales and elevation ranges in detecting daily rainfall accumulation; (2) rainfall accumulation over the entire rainy season is negatively correlated with mean elevation for rain gauges and the two satellite rainfall products, while the performance of TRMM also significantly correlates with topographic variations; (3) in terms of the ability of rainfall detection, false alarming ratio of TRMM (21%) is larger than that of GPM (14%), while missing ratio of GPM (13%) is larger than that of TRMM (9%). GPM tends to underestimate the amount of light rain events of 0–1 mm/d, while the opposite (overestimation) is true for TRMM. GPM shows better detecting ability for light rainfall (0–5 mm/d) events but there is no detection skill for both GPM and TRMM at high‐elevation (>4500 m) regions. Our results not only highlight the superiority of GPM to TRMM in southern Tibetan Plateau region but also recommend that further improvement on the rainfall retrieval algorithm is needed by considering topographical influences for both GPM and TRMM rainfall products.

Novel BaTiO3-based capacitors show promising energy storage performance with high breakdown strength and discharge energy density and outstanding energy efficiency.

BaTiO3-based materials show great promise for energy storage capacitor but their low breakdown strength and high remnant polarization currently result in relatively low energy density. Here, we report a novel (1-x)BaTiO3-xBi(Li0.5Ta0.5)O3 (0.06 ≤ x ≤ 0.12, BT-xBLT) leadfree ceramic with electric field (E) ~ 280 kV cm-1 , discharge energy density (We) ~ 2.2 J cm-3 , charge-discharge efficiency () >89% that is thermally stable up to 160 °C and with a fast discharge time (≤ 0.5 s). Multilayers of compositions with x = 0.1 also exhibited high We = 4.05 J cm-3 and = 95.5%, demonstrating their potential for energy storage.

The energy in pulse capacitors need to discharge rapidly to obtain high peak power. However, the discharge energy density of antiferroelectric (AFE) dielectrics for pulse capacitors is traditionally evaluated by hysteresis loop (defined as quasi-static method). To verify whether the quasi-static method is suitable for pulse applications, AFE ceramics Pb0.94La0.04[(Zr0.70Sn0.30)0.86Ti0.14]O3 were prepared, and their discharge energy density was calculated by hysteresis loop and pulse current (defined as dynamic method), respectively. A significant difference was found between these two kinds of results. Under 36 kV/cm, the discharge energy density calculated by 1 Hz hysteresis loop was 0.35 J/cm3 while that by pulse discharge current was only 0.18 J/cm3. It was found that the discharge energy density declined with increasing test frequency (0.1 Hz–100 Hz) and decreased further via dynamic hysteresis loop in microseconds scale. This declination can be explained by the viscous force during the motion of the domain wall. Thus, for pulse capacitors, it is more reasonable and practical to evaluate discharge energy density of AFE by pulse current than by quasi-static hysteresis loop.

With the ultrahigh power density and fast charge−discharge capability, a dielectric capacitor is an important way to meet the fast increase in the demand for an energy storage system such as pulsed power systems (PPS). The BaTiO 3 -based capacitor is considered as one of the candidates for PPS due to its high permittivity. However, with the continuous miniaturization of PPS, the demand further increases in energy density and thermal stability of BaTiO 3 -based capacitors. Thus, this work describes a new high performance multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) of BaTiO 3 − xBi(Li 0.5 Nb 0.5 )O 3 (BT−xBLN) (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) for PPS. On the basis of the XRD and dielectric constant of BT−xBLN (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) ceramics, all compositions exhibited an average perovskite structure (tetragonal phase, 0.0 ≤ x < 0.05; pseudocubic phase, 0.05 ≤ x < 0.4) and multiple phase (0.4 ≤ x < 1.0). For example, the 0.90BaTiO 3 − 0.10Bi(Li 0.5 Nb 0.5 )O 3 multilayer ceramics capacitors were characterized by charge efficiency (η ≥ 91.5%), discharge energy density (U e ∼ 4.5 J cm −3 ), breakdown strength (E b > 450 kV cm −1 ), and good thermal stability, demonstrating their potential in PPS. This work makes breakthroughs in BaTiO 3 -based capacitor materials with high U e and adds a new member to the BaTiO 3 -based dielectric capacitor material family for the energy storage field.

Little is known about mutational landscape of rare breast cancer (BC) subtypes. The aim of the study was to apply next generation sequencing to three different subtypes of rare BCs in order to identify new genes related to cancer progression. We performed whole exome and targeted sequencing of 29 micropapillary, 23 metaplastic, and 27 pleomorphic lobular BCs. Micropapillary BCs exhibit a profile comparable to common BCs: PIK3CA, TP53, GATA3, and MAP2K4 were the most frequently mutated genes. Metaplastic BCs presented a high frequency of TP53 (78 %) and PIK3CA (48 %) mutations and were recurrently mutated on KDM6A (13 %), a gene involved in histone demethylation. Pleomorphic lobular carcinoma exhibited high mutation rate of PIK3CA (30 %), TP53 (22 %), and CDH1 (41 %) and also presented mutations in PYGM, a gene involved in glycogen metabolism, in 8 out of 27 samples (30 %). Further analyses of publicly available datasets showed that PYGM is dramatically underexpressed in common cancers as compared to normal tissues and that low expression in tumors is correlated with poor relapse-free survival. Immunohistochemical staining on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues available in our cohort of patients confirmed higher PYGM expression in normal breast tissue compared to equivalent tumoral zone. Next generation sequencing methods applied on rare cancer subtypes can serve as a useful tool in order to uncover new potential therapeutic targets. Sequencing of pleomorphic lobular carcinoma identified a high rate of alterations in PYGM. These findings emphasize the role of glycogen metabolism in cancer progression.