Next-generation sequencing now enables the rapid and affordable production of reliable biological data at multiple molecular levels, collectively referred to as “omics”. To maximize the potential for discovery, computational biologists have created and adapted integrative multi-omic analytical methods. When applied to diseases with traceable pathophysiology such as cancer, these new algorithms and statistical approaches have enabled the discovery of clinically relevant molecular mechanisms and biomarkers.
In contrast, these methods have been much less applied to the field of molecular psychiatry, although diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers are similarly needed. In the present review, we first briefly summarize the main findings from two decades of studies that investigated single molecular processes in relation to mood disorders.
Then, we conduct a systematic review of multi-omic strategies that have been proposed and used more recently. We also list databases and types of data available to researchers for future work. Finally, we present the newest methodologies that have been employed for multi-omics integration in other medical fields, and discuss their potential for molecular psychiatry studies.
A Materials Science Perspective of Midstream Challenges in the Utilization of Heavy Crude Oil
An increasing global population and a sharply upward trajectory of per capita energy consumption continue to drive the demand for Gentaur Traceable Jumbo fossil fuels, which remain integral to energy grids and the global transportation infrastructure. The oil and gas industry is increasingly reliant on unconventional deposits such as heavy crude oil and bitumen for reasons of accessibility, scale, and geopolitics. Unconventional deposits such as the Canadian Oil Sands in Northern Alberta contain more than one-third of the world’s viscous oil reserves and are vital linchpins to meet the energy needs of rapidly industrializing populations.
Heavy oil is typically recovered from subsurface deposits using thermal recovery approaches such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). In this perspective article, we discuss several aspects of materials science challenges in the utilization of heavy crude oil with an emphasis on the needs of the Canadian Oil Sands. In particular, we discuss surface modification and materials’ design approaches essential to operations under extreme environments of high temperatures and pressures and the presence of corrosive species.
The demanding conditions for materials and surfaces are directly traceable to the high viscosity, low surface tension, and substantial sulfur content of heavy crude oil, which necessitates extensive energy-intensive thermal processes, warrants dilution/emulsification to ease the flow of rheologically challenging fluids, and engenders the need to protect corrodible components.
Geopolitical reasons have further led to a considerable geographic separation between extraction sites and advanced refineries capable of processing heavy oils to a diverse slate of products, thus necessitating a massive midstream infrastructure for transportation of these rheologically challenging fluids. Innovations in fluid handling, bitumen processing, and midstream transportation are critical to the economic viability of heavy oil.
Here, we discuss foundational principles, recent technological advancements, and unmet needs emphasizing candidate solutions for thermal insulation, membrane-assisted separations, corrosion protection, and midstream bitumen transportation.
This perspective seeks to highlight illustrative materials’ technology developments spanning the range from nanocomposite coatings and cement sheaths for thermal insulation to the utilization of orthogonal wettability to engender separation of water-oil emulsions stabilized by endogenous surfactants extracted during SAGD, size-exclusion membranes for fractionation of bitumen, omniphobic coatings for drag reduction in pipelines and to ease oil handling in containers, solid prills obtained from partial bitumen solidification to enable solid-state transport with reduced risk of damage from spills, and nanocomposite coatings incorporating multiple modes of corrosion inhibition. Future outlooks for onsite partial upgradation are also described, which could potentially bypass the use of refineries for some fractions, enable access to a broader cross-section of refineries, and enable a new distributed chemical manufacturing paradigm.
A glimpse on metazoan ZNFX1 helicases, ancient players of antiviral innate immunity
The human zinc finger NFX1-type containing 1 (ZNFX1) is an interferon-stimulated protein associated to the outer mitochondrial membrane, able to bind dsRNAs and interact with MAVS proteins, promoting type I IFN response in the early stage of viral infection. An N-terminal Armadillo (ARM)-type fold and a large helicase core (P-loop) and zinc fingers confer RNA-binding and ATPase activities to ZNFX1.
- We studied the phylogenetic distribution of metazoan ZNFX1s, ZNFX1 gene expression trends and genomic and protein signatures during viral infection of invertebrates. Based on 221 ZNFX1 sequences, we obtained a polyphyletic tree with a taxonomy-consistent branching at the phylum-level only.
- In metazoan genomes, ZNFX1 genes were found either in single copy, with up to some tens of exons in vertebrates, or in multiple copies, with one or a few exons and one of them sometimes encompassing most of the coding sequence, in invertebrates like sponges, sea urchins and mollusks.
- Structural analyses of selected ZNFX1 proteins showed high conservation of the helicase region (P-loop), an overall conserved region and domain architecture, an ARM-fold mostly traceable, and the presence of intrinsically disordered regions of varying length and position.
- The remarkable over-expression of ZNFX1 in bivalve and gastropod mollusks infected with dsDNA viruses underscores the antiviral role of ZNFX1, whereas nothing similar was found in virus-infected nematodes and corals.
- Whether the functional diversification reported in the C. elegans ZNFX1 occurs in other metazoan proteins remains to be established.
An electron turnstile for frequency-to-power conversion
Single-electron transport relates an operation frequency f to the emitted current I through the electron charge e as I = ef (refs. 1-5). Similarly, direct frequency-to-power conversion (FPC) links both quantities through a known energy. FPC is a natural candidate for a power standard resorting to the most basic definition of the watt: energy emitted per unit of time. The energy is traceable to Planck’s constant and the time is in turn traceable to the unperturbed ground state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom.
Hence, FPC comprises a simple and elegant way to realize the watt6. In this spirit, single-photon emission7,8 and detection9 at known rates have been proposed as radiometric standards and experimentally realized10-14. However, power standards are so far only traceable to electrical units, that is, to the volt and the ohm6,15-17.
In this Letter, we demonstrate an alternative proposal based on solid-state direct FPC using a hybrid single-electron transistor (SET). The SET injects n (integer) quasi-particles (QPs) per cycle into the two superconducting leads with discrete energies close to their superconducting gap Δ, even at zero source-drain voltage. Furthermore, the application of a bias voltage can vary the distribution of the power among the two leads, allowing for an almost equal power injection nΔf into the two. While in single-electron transport current is related to a fixed universal constant (e), in our approach Δ is a material-dependent quantity. We estimate that under optimized conditions errors can be well below 1%.
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