| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Deng, Min, et al.
(författare)
-
Genome-wide association analyses in Han Chinese identify two new susceptibility loci for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 45:6, s. 697-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To identify susceptibility genes for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 506 individuals with sporadic ALS and 1,859 controls of Han Chinese ancestry. Ninety top SNPs suggested by the current GWAS and 6 SNPs identified by previous GWAS were analyzed in an independent cohort of 706 individuals with ALS and 1,777 controls of Han Chinese ancestry. We discovered two new susceptibility loci for ALS at 1q32 (CAMK1G, rs6703183, P-combined = 2.92 x 10(-8), odds ratio (OR) = 1.31) and 22p11 (CABIN1 and SUSD2, rs8141797, P-combined = 2.35 x 10(-9), OR = 1.52). These two loci explain 12.48% of the overall variance in disease risk in the Han Chinese population. We found no association evidence for the previously reported loci in the Han Chinese population, suggesting genetic heterogeneity of disease susceptibility for ALS between ancestry groups. Our study identifies two new susceptibility loci and suggests new pathogenic mechanisms of ALS.
|
|
| 3. |
- Miehe, Georg, et al.
(författare)
-
The Kobresia pygmaea ecosystem of the Tibetan highlands – Origin, functioning and degradation of the world's largest pastoral alpine ecosystem: Kobresia pastures of Tibet
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697. ; 648, s. 754-771
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With 450,000 km2 Kobresia (syn. Carex) pygmaea dominated pastures in the eastern Tibetan highlands are the world's largest pastoral alpine ecosystem forming a durable turf cover at 3000–6000 m a.s.l. Kobresia's resilience and competitiveness is based on dwarf habit, predominantly below-ground allocation of photo assimilates, mixture of seed production and clonal growth, and high genetic diversity. Kobresia growth is co-limited by livestock-mediated nutrient withdrawal and, in the drier parts of the plateau, low rainfall during the short and cold growing season. Overstocking has caused pasture degradation and soil deterioration over most parts of the Tibetan highlands and is the basis for this man-made ecosystem. Natural autocyclic processes of turf destruction and soil erosion are initiated through polygonal turf cover cracking, and accelerated by soil-dwelling endemic small mammals in the absence of predators. The major consequences of vegetation cover deterioration include the release of large amounts of C, earlier diurnal formation of clouds, and decreased surface temperatures. These effects decrease the recovery potential of Kobresia pastures and make them more vulnerable to anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Traditional migratory rangeland management was sustainable over millennia, and possibly still offers the best strategy to conserve and possibly increase C stocks in the Kobresia turf.
|
|
| 4. |
- Vrang, Niels, et al.
(författare)
-
The Imprinted Gene Neuronatin Is Regulated by Metabolic Status and Associated With Obesity.
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Obesity. - : Wiley. - 1930-7381. ; 18:7, s. 1289-1296
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using restriction fragment differential display (RFDD) technology, we have identified the imprinted gene neuronatin (Nnat) as a hypothalamic target under the influence of leptin. Nnat mRNA expression is decreased in several key appetite regulatory hypothalamic nuclei in rodents with impaired leptin signaling and during fasting conditions. Furthermore, peripheral administration of leptin to ob/ob mice normalizes hypothalamic Nnat expression. Comparative immunohistochemical analysis of human and rat hypothalami demonstrates that NNAT protein is present in anatomically equivalent nuclei, suggesting human physiological relevance of the gene product(s). A putative role of Nnat in human energy homeostasis is further emphasized by a consistent association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human Nnat gene and severe childhood and adult obesity.
|
|
| 5. |
- Yang, Bin, et al.
(författare)
-
A novel occupant-centric stratum ventilation system using computer vision : Occupant detection, thermal comfort, air quality, and energy savings
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0360-1323 .- 1873-684X. ; 237
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traditional ventilation and air conditioning systems typically operate on a predetermined schedule with fixed operating parameters. Occupant-centric control (OCC) strategies have been proposed to reduce system operation energy consumption without sacrificing thermal comfort. Indoor occupancy detection in real time is a critical step in successfully implementing the OCC strategy. Thus, the deep learning-based computer vision method was adopted in the first step of the study, and the detection performance and camera position were analyzed in an office scenario. Next, the proposed OCC strategy was used to regulate the supply air parameters and outdoor air volume in stratum ventilation based on the monitored occupant number. The traditional static control strategy was then compared to two control strategies: constant air volume and variable air volume. Occupant detection performance results showed the mean NRMSD for the five most common relative positions of the occupants and camera was 0.1109, with sitting back to camera having the lowest accuracy. Subjective response results demonstrated that, when compared to the traditional control strategy, thermal comfort was improved by 43%-73%, perceived air quality was maintained at an acceptable level, CO2 concentration was less than 700 ppm, and energy could be saved by 2.3%-8.1%. Furthermore, the lower the occupancy, the greater the improvement in comfort and the greater the energy savings. This research focused on how the stratum ventilation system responds to dynamic changes in occupancy and provided insights into reducing unnecessary energy waste while maintaining comfort.
|
|
| 6. |
- Cheng, Xiaogang, et al.
(författare)
-
A pilot study of online non-invasive measuring technology based on video magnification to determine skin temperature
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0360-1323 .- 1873-684X. ; 121, s. 1-10
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Much attention was paid on human centered design strategies for environmental control systems of indoor built environments. The goal is to achieve thermally comfortable, healthy and safe working or living environments in energy efficient manners. Normally building Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems have fixed operating settings, which can't satisfy human thermal comfort requirements under transient and non-uniform indoor thermal environments. Therefore, human thermal physiology signal such as skin temperature, which can reflect human body thermal sensation, has to be measured over time. Several trials have been performed by minimizing measuring sensors such as i-Button and mounting measuring sensors into wearable devices such as glasses. Infrared thermography technology has also been tried to achieve non-invasive measurements. However, it would be much more convenient and feasible if normal computer camera could record images, which could be used to obtain human thermal physiology signals. In this study, skin temperature of hand back, which has a high density of blood vessels and is normally not covered by clothing, was measured by i-button sensors. Images recorded by normal camera were amplified to analyzing skin temperature variation, which are impossible to see with naked eyes. The agreement between i-button sensor measuring results and image magnification results demonstrated the possibility of non-invasive measuring technology by image magnification. Partly personalized saturation-temperature model (T = 96.5 × S + bi) can be used to predict skin temperatures for young East Asia females.
|
|
| 7. |
- Cheng, Xiaogang, et al.
(författare)
-
A total bounded variation approach to low visibility estimation on expressways
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI. - 1424-8220. ; 18:2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Low visibility on expressways caused by heavy fog and haze is a main reason for traffic accidents. Real-time estimation of atmospheric visibility is an effective way to reduce traffic accident rates. With the development of computer technology, estimating atmospheric visibility via computer vision becomes a research focus. However, the estimation accuracy should be enhanced since fog and haze are complex and time-varying. In this paper, a total bounded variation (TBV) approach to estimate low visibility (less than 300 m) is introduced. Surveillance images of fog and haze are processed as blurred images (pseudo-blurred images), while the surveillance images at selected road points on sunny days are handled as clear images, when considering fog and haze as noise superimposed on the clear images. By combining image spectrum and TBV, the features of foggy and hazy images can be extracted. The extraction results are compared with features of images on sunny days. Firstly, the low visibility surveillance images can be filtered out according to spectrum features of foggy and hazy images. For foggy and hazy images with visibility less than 300 m, the high-frequency coefficient ratio of Fourier (discrete cosine) transform is less than 20%, while the low-frequency coefficient ratio is between 100% and 120%. Secondly, the relationship between TBV and real visibility is established based on machine learning and piecewise stationary time series analysis. The established piecewise function can be used for visibility estimation. Finally, the visibility estimation approach proposed is validated based on real surveillance video data. The validation results are compared with the results of image contrast model. Besides, the big video data are collected from the Tongqi expressway, Jiangsu, China. A total of 1,782,000 frames were used and the relative errors of the approach proposed are less than 10%.
|
|
| 8. |
- Cheng, Xiaogang, et al.
(författare)
-
A variational approach to atmospheric visibility estimation in the weather of fog and haze
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Sustainable cities and society. - : Elsevier. - 2210-6707. ; 39, s. 215-224
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Real-time atmospheric visibility estimation in foggy and hazy weather plays a crucial role in ensuring traffic safety. Overcoming the inherent drawbacks with traditional optical estimation methods, like limited sampling volume and high cost, vision-based approaches have received much more attention in recent research on atmospheric visibility estimation. Based on the classical Koschmieder's formula, atmospheric visibility estimation is carried out by extracting an inherent extinction coefficient. In this paper we present a variational framework to handle the nature of time-varying extinction coefficient and develop a novel algorithm of extracting the extinction coefficient through a piecewise functional fitting of observed luminance curves. The developed algorithm is validated and evaluated with a big database of road traffic video from Tongqi expressway (in China). The test results are very encouraging and show that the proposed algorithm could achieve an estimation error rate of 10%. More significantly, it is the first time that the effectiveness of Koschmieder's formula in atmospheric visibility estimation was validated with a big dataset, which contains more than two million luminance curves extracted from real-world traffic video surveillance data.
|
|
| 9. |
- Li, Hanbing, et al.
(författare)
-
Dual Function of PI(4,5)P2 in Insulin-Regulated Exocytic Trafficking of GLUT4 in Adipocytes
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 432:16, s. 4341-4357
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Phosphoinositides are important signaling molecules involved in the regulation of vesicular trafficking. It has been implicated that phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P-2] is involved in insulin-regulated GLUT4 translocation in adipocytes. However, it remains unclear where and how PI(4,5)P-2 regulates discrete steps of GLUT4 vesicle translocation in adipocytes, especially on the exocytic arm of regulation. Here, we employed optogenetic tools to acutely control the PI(4,5)P-2 metabolism in living cells. By combination of TIRFM imaging, we were able to monitor the temporal-spatial-dependent PI(4,5)P-2 regulation on discrete steps of GLUT4 translocation in adipocytes. We found that the plasma membrane localized PI(4,5)P-2 is crucial for proper insulin signaling propagation and for insulin-stimulated GLUT4 vesicle translocation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Global depletion of PI(4,5)P-2 on the cell surface blunted insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation and abolished insulin effects in promotion of the docking and fusion of GLUT4 vesicle with the plasma membrane. Furthermore, by development of a novel optogenetic module to selectively modulate PI(4,5)P-2 levels on the GLUT4 vesicle docking site, we identified an important regulatory role of PI(4,5)P-2 in controlling of vesicle docking process. Local depletion of PI(4,5)P-2 at the vesicle docking site promoted GLUT4 vesicle undocking, diminished insulin-stimulated GLUT4 vesicle docking and fusion, but without perturbation of insulin signaling propagation in adipocytes. Our results provide strong evidence that cell surface PI(4,5)P-2 plays two distinct functions on regulation of the exocytic trafficking of GLUT4 in adipocytes. PI(4,5)P-2 not only regulates the proper activation of insulin signaling in general but also controls GLUT4 vesicle docking process at the vesicle-membrane contact sites.
|
|
| 10. |
- Liu, Juzhe, et al.
(författare)
-
Ultrathin amorphous cobalt-vanadium hydr(oxy)oxide catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Energy & Environmental Science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1754-5692 .- 1754-5706. ; 11:7, s. 1736-1741
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cost efficient and long-term stable catalysts are in great demand for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a key process involved in water splitting cells and metal-air batteries. Here, we demonstrate that the ultrathin amorphous cobalt-vanadium hydr(oxy)oxide we synthesized is a highly promising electrocatalytic material for the OER with a low overpotential of 0.250 V (even lower down to 0.215 V when supported on Au foam) at 10 mA cm(-2) and a long stable operation time (170 h) in alkaline media. In combination with in situ X-ray absorption spectral characterization and first-principles simulations, we reveal that the ultrathin, amorphous and alloyed structural characteristics have enabled its facile transformation to the desirable active phase, leading to a dramatically enhanced catalytic activity. Our finding highlights the remarkable advantages of the two-dimensional amorphous material and sheds new light on the design of high-performance electrocatalysts.
|
|
