The long-term effects of blood urea nitrogen levels on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in diabetes: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The long-term effects of blood urea nitrogen(BUN) in patients with diabetes remain unknown. Current studies reporting the target BUN level in patients with diabetes are also limited. Hence, this prospective study aimed to explore the relationship of BUN with all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities in patients with diabetes. METHODS: In total, 10,507 participants with diabetes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2018) were enrolled. The causes and numbers of deaths were determined based on the National Death Index mortality data from the date of NHANES interview until follow-up (December 31, 2019). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs) of mortality. RESULTS: Of the adult participants with diabetes, 4963 (47.2%) were female. The median (interquartile range) BUN level of participants was 5 (3.93-6.43) mmol/L. After 86,601 person-years of follow-up, 2,441 deaths were documented. After adjusting for variables, the HRs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality in the highest BUN level group were 1.52 and 1.35, respectively, compared with those in the lowest BUN level group. With a one-unit increment in BUN levels, the HRs of all-cause and CVD mortality rates were 1.07 and 1.08, respectively. The results remained robust when several sensitivity and stratified analyses were performed. Moreover, BUN showed a nonlinear association with all-cause and CVD mortality. Their curves all showed that the inflection points were close to the BUN level of 5 mmol/L. CONCLUSION: BUN had a nonlinear association with all-cause and CVD mortality in patients with diabetes. The inflection point was at 5 mmol/L.

A novel ß-thalassemia variant at HBB:c.14delC (Codon 4, -C) identified via next-generation sequencing.

OBJECTIVES: ß-Thalassemia (ß-thal) is a genetic disease of the blood caused by mutations in the ß-globin gene. Conventional methods for detecting thalassemia variants often miss rare and novel variants. Identifying the rare and novel ß-thal variants, especially in the high prevalence regions, would enable better disease prevention. METHODS: A Chinese family who had joined the Thalassemia Prevention Program was recruited in this study. The ß-thal carrier screening was performed using next-generation sequencing (NGS), and the results were validated through direct DNA sequencing. Hematological parameters were analyzed, and hemoglobin electrophoresis was performed. Additionally, the presence of thalassemia-associated deletions was determined using gap-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: A novel frameshift variant of ß-thal, HBB:c.14delC(Codon 4, -C), was identified in a 31-year-old Chinese man. Subsequent genetic investigation showed that his mother also carried this novel variant. Hematological analysis and clinical evaluation suggested that this variant was present in the heterozygous state and might belong to a severe phenotype of ß-thal. CONCLUSIONS: We identified a novel frameshift variant of ß-thal. NGS has the potential for identifying rare and novel thalassemia variants and broadening the spectrum of thalassemia screening and thus may contribute to effective prevention of thalassemia.

Kuznetsov-Ma Soliton Dynamics Based on the Mechanical Effect of Light.

A Kuznetsov-Ma soliton that exhibits an unusual pulsating dynamics has attracted particular attention in hydrodynamics and plasma physics in the context of understanding nonlinear coherent phenomena. Here, we demonstrate theoretically the formation of a novel form of Kuznetsov-Ma soliton in a microfabricated optomechanical array, where both photonic and phononic evolutionary dynamics exhibit periodic structure and coherent localized behavior enabled by radiation-pressure coupling of optical fields and mechanical oscillations, which is a manifestation of the unique property of optomechanical systems. Numerical calculations of the optomechanical dynamics show an excellent agreement with this theory. In addition to providing insight into optomechanical nonlinearity, optomechanical Kuznetsov-Ma soliton dynamics fundamentally broadens the regime of cavity optomechanics and may find applications in on-chip manipulation of light propagation.

Solitons in optomechanical arrays.

We show that optical solitons can be obtained with a one-dimensional optomechanical array that consists of a chain of periodically spaced identical optomechanical systems. Unlike conventional optical solitons, which originate from nonlinear polarization, the optical soliton here stems from a new mechanism, namely, phonon-photon interaction. Under proper conditions, the phonon-photon induced nonlinearity that refers to the optomechanical nonlinearity will exactly compensate the dispersion caused by photon hopping of adjacent optomechanical systems. Moreover, the solitons are capable of exhibiting very low group velocity, depending on the photon hopping rate, which may lead to many important applications, including all-optical switches and on-chip optical architecture. This work may extend the range of optomechanics and nonlinear optics and provide a new field to study soliton theory and develop corresponding applications.