| 11. |
- Wang, Anqi, et al.
(författare)
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Characterizing prostate cancer risk through multi-ancestry genome-wide discovery of 187 novel risk variants
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Nature. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 55:12, s. 2065-2074
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The transferability and clinical value of genetic risk scores (GRSs) across populations remain limited due to an imbalance in genetic studies across ancestrally diverse populations. Here we conducted a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 156,319 prostate cancer cases and 788,443 controls of European, African, Asian and Hispanic men, reflecting a 57% increase in the number of non-European cases over previous prostate cancer genome-wide association studies. We identified 187 novel risk variants for prostate cancer, increasing the total number of risk variants to 451. An externally replicated multi-ancestry GRS was associated with risk that ranged from 1.8 (per standard deviation) in African ancestry men to 2.2 in European ancestry men. The GRS was associated with a greater risk of aggressive versus non-aggressive disease in men of African ancestry (P = 0.03). Our study presents novel prostate cancer susceptibility loci and a GRS with effective risk stratification across ancestry groups.
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| 12. |
- Yang, Xiaoliu, et al.
(författare)
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Institutional Arrangement for Integrated River Basin Management
- 2016
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study concerns the management functions, institutional and legal frameworks to foster IRBM in the Yangtze River Basin. It is implemented as part of the EU China River Basin Management Programme funded by the EU.The overall objective of the study is to contribute to an enabling framework of policies, legislation and institutions that will promote IRBM in China and assist the government to harmonise social and economic development and water and environmental protection within the Yangtze River Basin. Specifically, the study will provide the CWRC with a better basis for informed decisions on adjustment of its organization, responsibilities and management functions to be incorporated in the Yangtze River Master Plan. Based on stakeholder mapping an assessment has been made to characterise the present situation of water resources management in China and provide direction for future changes. The assessment found that 1) China has established a legal framework supporting water management in a river basin context, 2) plans embodying IRBM are drafted at national, river basin and provincial levels, and 3) the existing funding of water management is dominated by government investment. A diagnosis and evaluation of the management functions of the CWRC is presented with focus on gaps and overlaps providing recommendations for a more effective governance structure in accordance with internationally accepted principles that have emerged during the past 10 years. The diagnosis is based on key informant interviews and questionnaires and indicated that 1) Chinese legislation enables decentralized river basin management, 2) river basin, regional and provincial management functions are not clearly defined, 3) some management functions of the CWRC are difficult to implement due to discrepancies between authority and responsibilities 4) there are no efficient consultation and coordination mechanisms among stakeholders within the river basin, 5) the implementation of IRBM lacks support of provincial and local authorities, and 6) the CWRC sees stakeholder participation as the key to better river basin governance. Water management in the Yangtze River Basin has been analysed with the Rhine River, Danube River, France and the European Union as reference. The comparisons indicate that 1) legislation or formal agreements between different administrative units, nations or provinces, are required for efficient cooperation, 2) an inter-provincial river basin organization is an ideal platform to promote IRBM and resolve conflicts between nations or provinces within a river basin, 3) political governance and technical support should be separated, 4) stakeholder participation is imperative for efficient IRBM, and 5) pollution of the Yangtze River is at risk of increasing while the Rhine River and to some extent the Danube River have passed a turning point (top of Kuznet’s curve), where pollution is effectively managed and declining.Strategically institutional arrangements for IRBM will be conditional on central government initiative. At the national level four initiatives are proposed as umbrella for basin level action, 1) a national water framework plan to be inspired by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), 2) an assessment of basin institutional arrangements inspired by the Rhine and Danube rivers, 3) an assessment of provincial institutions inspired by France and 4) an assessment of legal efficiency taking the EU WFD as benchmark.In close consultation with the CWRC an action plan to foster IRBM in the Yangtze River Basin has been formulated in terms of legislation, institutions, capacity building, financing, information disclosure and stakeholder participation.The principal recommendations of the study are:1) Water Law to be amended or supplemented with legislation, which clearly defines the division of responsibilities between the national, river basin and provincial level authorities.2) A National Water Resource Commission to be established to strengthen cross-sectorial coordination and cooperation and mitigate the current fragmentation of responsibilities, especially the overlapping responsibilities of the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in water pollution management and of the Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Land and Resources in groundwater management.3) Reform of the CWRC may take one of three basic models: Unified management as branch of central government, essentially the current structure; Coordinated management governed by stakeholders, including central government; Autonomous enterprise authorised by central government.4) Institutions and responsibilities for water resources management and water service delivery to be separated and clearly defined.5) River basin commissions to be assigned responsibility for coordination of water resources management at basin scale and provinces for implementation in accordance with overall management objectives.6) River basin commissions to be responsible for operation of multipurpose infrastructure and bulk water supply.7) Provinces and municipalities to be the responsible for management and delivery of water supply and sanitation services in both rural and urban areas.8) Cost recovery for water resources management, bulk water supply, water supply and sanitation services to be scaled up and serve as water demand management tool as well as a significant source of funding for infrastructure development.9) National Water Resources Council to be set up at national level to supervise and regulate water resources management and services delivery by benchmarking of river basin commissions, provincial administrations and water utility companies using clear and well defined performance indicators.
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| 13. |
- Zhang, Xueying, et al.
(författare)
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Warped Filter Banks Used in Noisy Speech Recognition
- 2009
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Ingår i: Proc. IV Int. Conf. Innovative Computing, Information and Control (ICICIC-2009). ; , s. 1385-1388
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The filter bank in the front-end of a speech recognition system mimics the function of the basilar membrane. It is believed that the closer the band subdivision is to human perception, the better the recognition results. This paper proposes the use of Warped Filter Banks (WFBs) to replace traditional FIR filter banks and validates its use for the recognition of noisy speech. The WFBs bandwidths can be warped by using a first-order allpass transformation replacing the unit delay. Different warped factors in the allpass function can make the different scaled filter banks. Experiments carried on isolated words for speaker independent speech recognition show that the recognition rate with our proposed WFBs has been effectively increased.
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| 14. |
- Zhao, Juan, et al.
(författare)
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A cross-sectional study on upright heart rate and BP changing characteristics: basic data for establishing diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and orthostatic hypertension
- 2015
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ Publishing Group: Open Access / BMJ Journals. - 2044-6055. ; 5:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: We aimed to determine upright heart rate and blood pressure (BP) changes to suggest diagnostic criteria for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and orthostatic hypertension (OHT) in Chinese children. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1449 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years were randomly recruited from two cities in China, Kaifeng in Henan province and Anguo in Hebei province. They were divided into two groups: 844 children aged 6-12 years (group I) and 605 adolescents aged 13-18 years (group II). Heart rate and BP were recorded during an active standing test. Results: 95th percentile (P-95) of delta heart rate from supine to upright was 38 bpm, with a maximum upright heart rate of 130 and 124 bpm in group I and group II, respectively. P-95 of delta systolic blood pressure (SBP) increase was 18 mm Hg and P-95 of upright SBP was 132 mm Hg in group I and 138 mm Hg in group II. P-95 of delta diastolic blood pressure (DBP) increase was 24 mm Hg in group I and 21 mm Hg in group II, and P-95 of upright DBP was 89 mm Hg in group I and 91 mm Hg in group II. Conclusions: POTS is suggested when delta heart rate is greater than= 38 bpm (for easy memory, greater than= 40 bpm) from supine to upright, or maximum heart rate greater than= 130 bpm (children aged 6-12 years) and greater than= 125 bpm (adolescents aged 13-18 years), associated with orthostatic symptoms. OHT is suggested when delta SBP (increase) is greater than= 20 mm Hg, and/or delta DBP (increase) greater than= 25 mm Hg (in children aged 6-12 years) or greater than= 20 mm Hg (in adolescents aged 13-18 years) from supine to upright; or upright BP greater than= 130/90 mm Hg (in children aged 6-12 years) or greater than= 140/90 mm Hg (in adolescents aged 13-18 years).
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| 15. |
- Zhou, Ping, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular characterization of transcriptome-wide interactions between highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and porcine alveolar macrophages in vivo
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Biological Sciences. - 1449-2288. ; 7:7, s. 947-959
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infects mainly the porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) and causes porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Previous studies have analyzed the global gene expression profiles of lung tissue in vivo and PAMs in vitro following infection with PRRSV, however, transcriptome-wide understanding of the interaction between highly pathogenic PRRSV (HP-PRRSV) and PAMs in vivo has not yet been established. In this study, we employed Affymetrix microarrays to investigate the gene expression patterns of PAMs isolated from Tongcheng piglets (a Chinese indigenous breed) after infection with HP-PRRSV. During the infection, Tongcheng piglets exhibited typical clinical signs, e.g. fever, asthma, coughing, anorexia, lethargy and convulsion, but displayed mild regional lung damage at 5 and 7 dpi. Microarray analysis revealed that HP-PRRSV infection has affected PAMs in expression of the important genes involved in cytoskeleton and exocytosis organization, protein degradation and folding, intracellular calcium and zinc homeostasis. Several potential antiviral strategies might be employed in PAMs, including upregulating IFN-induced genes and increasing intracellular zinc ion concentration. And inhibition of the complement system likely attenuated the lung damage during HP-PRRSV infection. Transcriptomic analysis of PAMs in vivo could lead to a better understanding of the HP-PRRSV-host interaction, and to the identification of novel antiviral therapies and genetic components of swine tolerance/susceptibility to HP-PRRS.
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