| 1. |
- Deng, Min, et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide association analyses in Han Chinese identify two new susceptibility loci for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- 2013
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 45:6, s. 697-
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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.
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| 2. |
- Cui, Sheng, et al.
(författare)
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Preparation of magnetic MnFe2O4-Cellulose aerogel composite and its kinetics and thermodynamics of Cu(II) adsorption
- 2018
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Ingår i: Cellulose. - : SPRINGER. - 0969-0239 .- 1572-882X. ; 25:1, s. 735-751
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, a MnFe2O4-Cellulose magnetic composite aerogel (MnCA) with high adsorption capacity was fabricated by in situ incorporating MnFe2O4 to regenerated cellulose hydrogel matrix, followed by CO2 supercritical drying. A green synthetic strategy was performed by using renewable cellulose materials, environmentally benign cellulose solvents and facile synthetic conditions. The results showed that the obtained magnetic cellulose aerogel had a continuous and tiered three dimensional network with interconnected fibrils of about 30 nm in width, which was similar to those of cellulose aerogel prepared from NaOH/urea solution via CO2 supercritical drying. Meanwhile, they had high specific surface areas of 236-288 m(2)/g and total pore volume of 0.55-0.88 cm(3)/g. In addition, the hybrid aerogel showed superparamagnetism with maximum saturation magnetization reaching up to 18.53 emu/g. The magnetic nanocomposite aerogel could be used for biological and environmental applications. The adsorption test showed that MnCA had rapid adsorption rate and excellent adsorption ability of removing heavy metal ions in aqueous solution which could attain to 63.3 mg/g within 100 min. Moreover, all the composite aerogels exhibited good reusability and could be easily reused from the water after adsorption.
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| 3. |
- Dai, Heng, et al.
(författare)
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Finned zeolite catalysts
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature Materials. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-1122 .- 1476-4660. ; 19:10, s. 1074-1080
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nanosized zeolites enable better catalytic performance; however, their synthesis is non-trivial. Here, a simple treatment is presented that enables the growth of nanosized fins on zeolites that act as pseudo-nanoparticles, reducing deactivation rates for methanol-to-hydrocarbon catalysis. There is growing evidence for the advantages of synthesizing nanosized zeolites with markedly reduced internal diffusion limitations for enhanced performances in catalysis and adsorption. Producing zeolite crystals with sizes less than 100 nm, however, is non-trivial, often requires the use of complex organics and typically results in a small product yield. Here we present an alternative, facile approach to enhance the mass-transport properties of zeolites by the epitaxial growth of fin-like protrusions on seed crystals. We validate this generalizable methodology on two common zeolites and confirm that fins are in crystallographic registry with the underlying seeds, and that secondary growth does not impede access to the micropores. Molecular modelling and time-resolved titration experiments of finned zeolites probe internal diffusion and reveal substantial improvements in mass transport, consistent with catalytic tests of a model reaction, which show that these structures behave as pseudo-nanocrystals with sizes commensurate to that of the fin. This approach could be extended to the rational synthesis of other zeolite and aluminosilicate materials.
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| 4. |
- Ganapathy, Suthakar, et al.
(författare)
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Ral A, via activating the mitotic checkpoint, sensitizes cells lacking a functional Nf1 to apoptosis in the absence of protein kinase C.
- 2016
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Ingår i: Oncotarget. - : Impact Journals, LLC. - 1949-2553. ; 7:51, s. 84326-84337
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nf1 mutations or deletions are suggested to underlie the tumor predisposition of NF1 (neurofibromatosis type 1) and few treatments are available for treating NF1 patients with advanced malignant tumors. Aberrant activation of Ras in Nf1-deficient conditions is responsible for the promotion of tumorigenesis in NF1. PKC is proven to be an important factor in supporting the viability of Nf1-defected cells, but the molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we demonstrate that the inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) by 1-O-Hexadecyl-2-O-methyl-rac-glycerol (HMG, a PKC inhibitor) preferentially sensitizes Nf1-defected cells to apoptosis, via triggering a persistent mitotic arrest. In this process, Ral A is activated. Subsequently, Chk1 is phosphorylated and translocated to the nucleus. Silencing Ral A significantly blocks Chk1 nuclear translocation and releases HMG-treated Nf1-deficient cells from mitotic arrest, resulting in the reduction of the magnitude of apoptosis. Thus, our study reveals that PKC is able to maintain the homeostasis or viability of Nf1-defected cells and may serve as a potential target for developing new therapeutic strategies.
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| 5. |
- Jiang, Jingting, et al.
(författare)
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Clinical Application of Determining Serum AFP-IgM Complexes for Diagnosis of Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Anticancer research. - 1791-7530. ; 31:2, s. 687-691
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diagnosis of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at early stages has obviously been improved since determination of serum levels of free alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was implemented. AFP has been considered as the standard tumor marker of primary HCC, although certain patients have very low serum free AFP levels. In the present study, clinical application of measuring serum AFP-IgM immune complexes compared to the serum free AFP was evaluated for diagnosis of small HCC. One hundred and three healthy controls, 74 patients with primary HCC, 27 patients with liver cirrhosis and 63 patients with chronic hepatitis were included in the present study. Serum levels of AFP-IgM immune complexes and free AFP were determined by ELISA and electrochemiluminescence, respectively. The best cut-off values of AFP-IgM immune complexes and free AFP for the diagnosis of primary HCC were 300 AU/ml and 10 μg/l, respectively, according to the area under the curve (AUC). At these cut-off values, the sensitivities of AFP-IgM and AFP for HCC were 64.9% and 79.7%, respectively, with specificities of 75.6% and 80.3%, respectively. Combining positivity for both tumor markers, the specificity and accuracy of diagnosis of HCC were 89.1% and 79.0%, respectively. Moreover, when the diameter of the tumor was ≤3 cm (being considered as small HCC), the sensitivity and specificity were 100.0% and 75.3%, respectively. There was no significant correlation between AFP-IgM level, patient sex or age (p>0.05). The ROC area was significantly different between AFP-IgM and AFP (Z=2.19, p=0.0286). In addition, the serum AFP-IgM levels were significantly higher in the patients with tumor diameter ≤3 cm (1090.4±571.8 AU/ml) than in the patients with tumor diameter >3 cm (604.9±749.9 AU/ml). It is concluded that determining serum levels of both AFP-IgM immune complex and AFP may have potential benefit for the diagnosis of small HCC.
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| 6. |
- Lensink, Marc F., et al.
(författare)
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Impact of AlphaFold on structure prediction of protein complexes: The CASP15-CAPRI experiment
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proteins. - : WILEY. - 0887-3585 .- 1097-0134.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the results for CAPRI Round 54, the 5th joint CASP-CAPRI protein assembly prediction challenge. The Round offered 37 targets, including 14 homodimers, 3 homo-trimers, 13 heterodimers including 3 antibody-antigen complexes, and 7 large assemblies. On average similar to 70 CASP and CAPRI predictor groups, including more than 20 automatics servers, submitted models for each target. A total of 21 941 models submitted by these groups and by 15 CAPRI scorer groups were evaluated using the CAPRI model quality measures and the DockQ score consolidating these measures. The prediction performance was quantified by a weighted score based on the number of models of acceptable quality or higher submitted by each group among their five best models. Results show substantial progress achieved across a significant fraction of the 60+ participating groups. High-quality models were produced for about 40% of the targets compared to 8% two years earlier. This remarkable improvement is due to the wide use of the AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold2-Multimer software and the confidence metrics they provide. Notably, expanded sampling of candidate solutions by manipulating these deep learning inference engines, enriching multiple sequence alignments, or integration of advanced modeling tools, enabled top performing groups to exceed the performance of a standard AlphaFold2-Multimer version used as a yard stick. This notwithstanding, performance remained poor for complexes with antibodies and nanobodies, where evolutionary relationships between the binding partners are lacking, and for complexes featuring conformational flexibility, clearly indicating that the prediction of protein complexes remains a challenging problem.
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| 7. |
- Liu, Kexin, et al.
(författare)
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Interaction Between Two One-Way Waveguides
- 2012
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Ingår i: IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. - : IEEE. - 0018-9197 .- 1558-1713. ; 48:8, s. 1059-1064
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The interaction between two (parallel) one-way waveguidesformed by photonic crystals is investigated theoretically. It is shown that when thetwo waveguides support modes propagating in opposite directions, they can effectively interact with each other only within a narrow guiding region where their propagation constants are nearly zero. In this coupling window, the waveguides are contra-directionally coupled and the efficiency grows monotonously with the coupling length, reaching 100% as the coupling length is large enough. When the one-waywaveguides support the modes propagating in the same direction, they may be efficiently coupled through the whole guiding regime, and their coupling exhibits the same behavior as the conventional uniform waveguides. The coupling between theone-way waveguides is first analyzed with the coupled-mode approximation and then verified by rigorous numerical simulation.
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| 8. |
- Luo, Yifei, et al.
(författare)
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Technology Roadmap for Flexible Sensors
- 2023
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Ingår i: ACS Nano. - : American Chemical Society. - 1936-0851 .- 1936-086X. ; 17:6, s. 5211-5295
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Humans rely increasingly on sensors to address grand challenges and to improve quality of life in the era of digitalization and big data. For ubiquitous sensing, flexible sensors are developed to overcome the limitations of conventional rigid counterparts. Despite rapid advancement in bench-side research over the last decade, the market adoption of flexible sensors remains limited. To ease and to expedite their deployment, here, we identify bottlenecks hindering the maturation of flexible sensors and propose promising solutions. We first analyze challenges in achieving satisfactory sensing performance for real-world applications and then summarize issues in compatible sensor-biology interfaces, followed by brief discussions on powering and connecting sensor networks. Issues en route to commercialization and for sustainable growth of the sector are also analyzed, highlighting environmental concerns and emphasizing nontechnical issues such as business, regulatory, and ethical considerations. Additionally, we look at future intelligent flexible sensors. In proposing a comprehensive roadmap, we hope to steer research efforts towards common goals and to guide coordinated development strategies from disparate communities. Through such collaborative efforts, scientific breakthroughs can be made sooner and capitalized for the betterment of humanity.
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| 9. |
- Xie, Lan, et al.
(författare)
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Hysteretic Behavior of Bolt Connections in Timber-Concrete Composite Bridges : Experimental and Numerical Research
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Bridge Engineering. - : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 1084-0702 .- 1943-5592. ; 28:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The hysteretic behavior of bolt connections in a timber-concrete composite (TCC) bridge was investigated. Six identical TCC specimens were designed with bolted connections and subjected to reversed cyclic loading tests. The failure modes, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation, strength degradation, and hysteretic responses of the specimens were evaluated. The experimental results indicate that the predominant failure mode was a dual-hinge mechanism in the bolts of the TCC specimens. The TCC specimens exhibited satisfactory energy dissipation and achieved a mean ductility factor of 6.76. A finite-element model was developed to simulate the cyclic response of the tested TCC specimens. The simulated data are in good agreement with the experimental data. The experimental and numerical results reported are useful for the development of design guidelines for TCC bridges with bolted connections.
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| 10. |
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