We demonstrate that forecASD has substantially better performance than previous predictors of autism association in three independent trio-based sequencing studies. Studying forecASD prioritized genes, we show that forecASD is a robust indicator of a gene's involvement in ASD etiology, with diverse applications to gene discovery, differential expression analysis, eQTL prioritization, and pathway enrichment analysis.Insulin resistance is associated with aging in mice and humans. We have previously shown that administration of recombinant GDF11 (rGDF11) to aged mice alters aging phenotypes in the brain, skeletal muscle, and heart. check details While the closely related protein GDF8 has a role in metabolism, limited data are available on the potential metabolic effects of GDF11 or GDF8 in aging. To determine the metabolic effects of these two ligands, we administered rGDF11 or rGDF8 protein to young or aged mice fed a standard chow diet, short-term high-fat diet (HFD), or long-term HFD. Under nearly all of these diet conditions, administration of exogenous rGDF11 reduced body weight by 3-17% and significantly improved glucose tolerance in aged mice fed a chow (~30% vs. saline) or HF (~50% vs. saline) diet and young mice fed a HFD (~30%). On the other hand, exogenous rGDF8 showed signifcantly lesser effect or no effect at all on glucose tolerance compared to rGDF11, consistent with data demonstrating that GFD11 is a more potent signaling ligand than GDF8. Collectively, our results show that administration of exogenous rGDF11, but not rGDF8, can reduce diet-induced weight gain and improve metabolic homeostasis.The presence of bronchial mucus plugs (BMP) in children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) results in delayed clinical and radiographic resolution and long-standing pulmonary sequelae. The predictive factors associated with BMP formation remains poorly defined. Nomograms to predict BMP presence in children with MPP were proposed using a cohort of patients who underwent bronchoscopy intervention at Children's Hospital in Eastern China. Patients with MPP in an earlier period formed the training cohort (n = 872) for nomogram development, and those thereafter formed the validation cohort (n = 399) to confirmed model's performance. BMP in children with MPP were found in 196 (22.5%) and 91(22.8%) patients in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The independent risk factors associated with BMP were age >5years (OR 2.06; 95% CI 1.43 to 2.98), higher IL-10 level (>10 ng/L, 2.19; 95% CI 1.46 to 3.28), higher IFN-γ level (>30 ng/L, 1.69; 95% CI 1.13 to 2.54), and presence of complication (3.43; 95% CI 1.45 to 8.09). Incorporating these 4 factors, the nomogram achieved good concordance indexes of 0.771(95% CI, 0.734-0.808) and 0.796 (95% CI, 0.744-0.848) in predicting BMP in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The nomogram achieved an optimal prediction of BMP in children with MPP. Using this model, the risk of BMP formation would be determined, contributing to a rational therapeutic choice.Breast cancer (BC) is a common cancer in women worldwide. Despite advances in treatment, up to 30% of women eventually relapse and die of metastatic breast cancer. Liquid biopsy analysis of circulating cell-free DNA fragments in the patients' blood can monitor clonality and evolving mutations as a surrogate for tumour biopsy. Next generation sequencing platforms and digital droplet PCR can be used to profile circulating tumour DNA from liquid biopsies; however, they are expensive and time consuming for clinical use. Here, we report a novel strategy with proof-of-concept data that supports the usage of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to detect PIK3CA c.3140 A > G (H1047R), a prevalent BC missense mutation that is attributed to BC tumour growth. Allele-specific primers were designed and optimized to detect the p.H1047R variant following the USS-sbLAMP method. The assay was developed with synthetic DNA templates and validated with DNA from two breast cancer cell-lines and two patient tumour tissue samples through a qPCR instrument and finally piloted on an ISFET enabled microchip. This work sets a foundation for BC mutational profiling on a Lab-on-Chip device, to help the early detection of patient relapse and to monitor efficacy of systemic therapies for personalised cancer patient management.The existence of methane in the Earth's mantle does not cause any doubt, however, its possible chemical transformation under the mantle thermobaric conditions is not enough known. Investigation of methane at the upper mantle thermobaric conditions, using diamond anvil cells, demonstrated the possible formation of ethane, propane and n-butane from methane, however, theoretical calculations of methane behaviour at extreme temperature and pressure predicted also heavier hydrocarbons. We experimentally investigated the chemical transformations of methane at the upper mantle thermobaric conditions, corresponding to the depth of 70-80 km (850-1000 K, 2.5 GPa), using "Toroid"-type Large reactive volume device and gas chromatography. The experimental results demonstrated the formation of the complex hydrocarbon mixture up to C7 with linear, branched and cycled structures and benzene. Unsaturated hydrocarbons were detected on the trace level in the products mixture. The increasing of exposure time leaded to growth of heavier components in the product systems. The data obtained suggest possible existence of complex hydrocarbon mixtures at the upper mantle thermobaric conditions and provide a new insight on the possible pathways of the hydrocarbons synthesis from methane in the upper mantle.Controlling the structural organization and crystallinity of functional oxides is key to enhancing their performance in technological applications. In this work, we report a strong enhancement of the structural organization and crystallinity of Bi2WO6 samples synthetized by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method after exposing them to femtosecond laser irradiation. X-ray diffraction, UV-vis and Raman spectroscopies, photoluminescence emissions, energy dispersive spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were employed to characterize the as-synthetized samples. To complement and rationalize the experimental results, first-principles calculations were employed to study the effects of femtosecond laser irradiation. Structural and electronic effects induced by femtosecond laser irradiation enhance the long-range crystallinity while decreasing the free carrier density, as it takes place in the amorphous and liquid states. These effects can be considered a clear cut case of surface-enhanced Raman scattering.