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- 2019
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 2. |
- Hao, Yanfen, et al.
(författare)
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Air monitoring of polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and organochlorine pesticides in West Antarctica during 2011-2017 : Concentrations, temporal trends and potential sources
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Pollution. - : Elsevier. - 0269-7491 .- 1873-6424. ; 249, s. 381-389
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Annual air samples were collected at various sites in the Fildes Peninsula, West Antarctica from December 2010 to January 2018 using XAD-2 resin passive air samplers to investigate concentrations, temporal trends and potential sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Antarctic air. Relatively low concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Σ19PCBs: 1.5-29.7 pg/m3), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) (Σ12PBDEs: 0.2-2.9 pg/m3) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) (Σ13OCPs: 101-278 pg/m3) were found in the atmosphere of West Antarctica. PCB-11, BDE-47 and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) were the predominant compounds in the atmosphere. The concentrations of PCBs, HCHs, DDTs and endosulfans were found to show decreasing temporal trends, whereas uniform temporal trends were observed for HCB. The atmospheric half-life values for PCBs, HCHs, DDTs and endosulfans in Antarctic air were estimated for the first time, using regressions of the natural logarithm of the concentrations versus the number of years, obtaining the values of 2.0, 2.0, 2.4 and 1.2 year, respectively. An increasing ratio of α-HCH/γ-HCH indicated long residence time for α-HCH and possible transformation of γ-HCH to α-HCH in the atmosphere. The ratios of p,p'-DDT/p,p'-DDE were mostly lower than unity in this study, which could be attributed to aged sources. It was found that long-range atmospheric transport was still considered to be the main contributing factor to the atmospheric levels of the POPs in West Antarctica whereas the contribution of human activities at the Chinese Great Wall Station was minor. The results of this study give a view on the most recent temporal trends and provide new insights regarding the occurrence of various POPs in the Antarctic atmosphere.
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| 3. |
- Liu, Xueping, et al.
(författare)
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Variants in the fetal genome near pro-inflammatory cytokine genes on 2q13 associate with gestational duration.
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The duration of pregnancy is influenced by fetal and maternal genetic and non-genetic factors. Here we report a fetal genome-wide association meta-analysis of gestational duration, and early preterm, preterm, and postterm birth in 84,689 infants. One locus on chromosome 2q13 is associated with gestational duration; the association is replicated in 9,291 additional infants (combined P=3.96×10-14). Analysis of 15,588 mother-child pairs shows that the association is driven by fetal rather than maternal genotype. Functional experiments show that the lead SNP, rs7594852, alters the binding of the HIC1 transcriptional repressor. Genes at the locus include several interleukin 1 family members with roles in pro-inflammatory pathways that are central to the process of parturition. Further understanding of the underlying mechanisms will be of great public health importance, since giving birth either before or after the window of term gestation is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.
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| 4. |
- Ma, Christina Zong-Hao, et al.
(författare)
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Towards Wearable Comprehensive Capture and Analysis of Skeletal Muscle Activity during Human Locomotion
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sensors. - Basel, Switzerland : MDPI. - 1424-8220. ; 19:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Motion capture and analyzing systems are essential for understanding locomotion. However, the existing devices are too cumbersome and can be used indoors only. A newly-developed wearable motion capture and measurement system with multiple sensors and ultrasound imaging was introduced in this study. Methods: In ten healthy participants, the changes in muscle area and activity of gastrocnemius, plantarflexion and dorsiflexion of right leg during walking were evaluated by the developed system and the Vicon system. The existence of significant changes in a gait cycle, comparison of the ankle kinetic data captured by the developed system and the Vicon system, and test-retest reliability (evaluated by the intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC) in each channel’s data captured by the developed system were examined. Results: Moderate to good test-retest reliability of various channels of the developed system (0.512 ≤ ICC ≤ 0.988, p < 0.05), significantly high correlation between the developed system and Vicon system in ankle joint angles (0.638R ≤ 0.707, p < 0.05), and significant changes in muscle activity of gastrocnemius during a gait cycle (p < 0.05) were found. Conclusion: A newly developed wearable motion capture and measurement system with ultrasound imaging that can accurately capture the motion of one leg was evaluated in this study, which paves the way towards real-time comprehensive evaluation of muscles and joint motions during different activities in both indoor and outdoor environments.
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| 5. |
- Ren, Long Jun, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of conventional physiotherapy on pain and muscle stiffness in patients with low back pain assessed by a wireless hand-held tissue ultrasound palpation system (TUPS)
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation. - : Omics Publishing Group. - 2329-9096. ; 7:2, s. 1-5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Low back pain (LPB) is a common health problem. While physiotherapy can relieve pain and the muscle stiffness of patients with LBP was shown to be different from healthy people, few studies have investigated the effect of physiotherapy on back muscle stiffness in patients with LBP.Objective: To investigate the effect of a 5-day conventional physiotherapy treatment on muscle stiffness of patients with LBP using a newly developed wireless hand-held ultrasound probe.Methods: A total of ten patients with LBP participated in this study. They received customized conventional physiotherapy containing electrical therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, manipulation and wax therapy. The pain level was evaluated by the visual analogue scale, and the muscle stiffness was measured by a wireless hand-held tissue ultrasound palpation system. The muscle stiffness of left and right sides at L1 and L4 levels and pain level were evaluated in two conditions, including baseline and 5-day post treatments.Results and discussion: After receiving the treatment, the muscle stiffness of all tested low back regions increased significantly (p=0.040). The muscle stiffness at L4 level was significantly higher than that of L1 level (p=0.021). No significant difference of muscle stiffness between left and right sides was found. The correlation between the muscle stiffness and VAS score appeared to decrease after receiving the treatment (R2 changed from 0.3598 to 0.0533).Conclusion: A five-day conventional physiotherapy treatment could relieve the pain level and increase the muscle stiffness of patients with LBP as evaluated by a wireless hand-held ultrasound probe. The stiffness of back muscle at L4 level was significantly higher than that of L1 level in patients with LBP. The treatment may change the correlation between the muscle stiffness and VAS score at low back region.
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| 6. |
- Shrine, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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New genetic signals for lung function highlight pathways and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease associations across multiple ancestries
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 51:3, s. 481-493
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reduced lung function predicts mortality and is key to the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a genome-wide association study in 400,102 individuals of European ancestry, we define 279 lung function signals, 139 of which are new. In combination, these variants strongly predict COPD in independent populations. Furthermore, the combined effect of these variants showed generalizability across smokers and never smokers, and across ancestral groups. We highlight biological pathways, known and potential drug targets for COPD and, in phenome-wide association studies, autoimmune-related and other pleiotropic effects of lung function-associated variants. This new genetic evidence has potential to improve future preventive and therapeutic strategies for COPD.
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