| 1. |
- Li, Zhuona, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of polycyclic musks HHCB and AHTN on steroidogenesis in H295R cells
- 2013
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Ingår i: Chemosphere. - : Elsevier. - 0045-6535 .- 1879-1298. ; 90:3, s. 1227-1235
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1,3,4,6,7,8-Hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexamethylcyclopenta-(γ)-2-benzopyran (HHCB) and 7-acetyl-1,1,3,4,4,6-hexamethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (AHTN) are widely used in personal care products. Previous studies showed that HHCB and AHTN can be found in various environmental matrices and have potential endocrine disrupting effects. However, the effects on adrenocortical function of HHCB and AHTN are not fully understood. This study evaluated the influences of HHCB and AHTN on seven steroid hormones (progesterone, aldosterone, cortisol, 17α-OH-progesterone, androstenedione, 17β-estradiol, and testosterone) and 10 genes involved in steroidogenic pathways (HMGR, StAR, CYP11A1, 3βHSD2, CYP17, CYP21, CYP11B1, CYP11B2, 17βHSD, and CYP19) using the H295R cell line in the absence and presence of 8-Br-cAMP. MC2R transcription on the cell membrane was also examined to further investigate the effects of HHCB and AHTN on adrenal steroidogenesis. The results demonstrated that HHCB and AHTN could inhibit progesterone and cortisol production mainly by the suppression of 3βHSD2 and CYP21. Meanwhile, high concentrations of AHTN can affect the sensitivity of H295R cells to ACTH by disrupting MC2R transcription. Overall, the results indicate that high concentrations of HHCB and AHTN can affect steroidogenesis in vitro using the H295R cell line.
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| 2. |
- Ning, Rui, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing progression limits in different grades of keratoconus from a novel perspective : precision of measurements of the corneal epithelium
- 2024
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Ingår i: Eye and Vision. - 2326-0254. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: To assess repeatability and reproducibility of corneal epithelium thickness (ET) measured by a spectral-domain optical coherence tomographer (SD-OCT)/Placido topographer (MS-39, CSO, Florence, Italy) in keratoconus (KC) population at different stages, as well as to determine the progression limits for evaluating KC progression. Methods: A total of 149 eyes were enrolled in this study, with 29 eyes in the forme fruste keratoconus (FFKC) group, 34 eyes in the mild KC group, 40 eyes in the moderate KC group, and 46 eyes in the severe KC group. Employing the within-subject standard deviation (Sw), test-retest variability (TRT), coefficient of variation (CoV), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to evaluate intraoperator repeatability and interoperator reproducibility. Results: The repeatability and reproducibility of MS-39 in patients with KC were acceptable, according to ICC values ranging from 0.732 to 0.954. However, patients with more severe KC and progressive peripheralization of the measurement points had higher TRTs but a thinning trend. The current study tended to set the cut-off values of mild KC, moderate KC, and severe KC to 4.9 µm, 5.2 µm, and 7.4 µm for thinnest epithelium thickness (TET). When differences between follow-ups are higher than those values, progression of the disease is possible. As for center epithelium thickness (CET), cut-off values for mild KC, moderate KC, and severe KC should be 2.8 µm, 4.4 µm, and 5.3 µm. This might be useful in the follow-up and diagnosis of keratoconus. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the precision of MS-39 was reduced in measuring more severe KC patients and more peripheral corneal points. In determining disease progression, values should be differentiated between disease-related real changes and measurement inaccuracies. Due to the large difference in ET measured by MS-39 between various stages of disease progression, it is necessary to accurately grade KC patients to avoid errors in KC clinical decision-making.
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| 3. |
- Karlsson, M., et al.
(författare)
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Wafer-scale epitaxial graphene on SiC for sensing applications
- 2015
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Ingår i: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. - : SPIE - The International Society for Optics and Photonics. - 9781628418903
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The epitaxial graphene-on-silicon carbide (SiC-G) has advantages of high quality and large area coverage owing to a natural interface between graphene and SiC substrate with dimension up to 100 mm. It enables cost effective and reliable solutions for bridging the graphene-based sensors/devices from lab to industrial applications and commercialization. In this work, the structural, optical and electrical properties of wafer-scale graphene grown on 2'™'™ 4H semi-insulating (SI) SiC utilizing sublimation process were systemically investigated with focus on evaluation of the graphene'™s uniformity across the wafer. As proof of concept, two types of glucose sensors based on SiC-G/Nafion/Glucose-oxidase (GOx) and SiC-G/Nafion/Chitosan/GOx were fabricated and their electrochemical properties were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. In addition, a few similar glucose sensors based on graphene by chemical synthesis using modified Hummer'™s method were also fabricated for comparison.
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| 4. |
- Shao, Bing, et al.
(författare)
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Deep Learning based Coffee Beans Quality Screening
- 2022
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Ingår i: Proceedings 2022 IEEE International Conference on e-Business Engineering ICEBE 2022. - : IEEE. - 9781665492447 - 9781665492454 ; , s. 271-275
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coffee bean quality screening is a time-consuming work, and its workload increases abruptly with the rapid development of coffee beverage consumer market. In this work, a CNN-based classifier is developed to categorizing the coffee beans into sour, black, broken, moldy, shell, insect damage and good beans. The screening test results show that the screening accuracy could reach more than 90% for all other beans except for shell beans (88%). Therefore, the proposed method is feasible and promising. Moreover, a cost-effective automatic coffee bean screening system using the developed classifier is manufactured and implemented for a local company.
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| 5. |
- Zhang, Ruyang, et al.
(författare)
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Independent Validation of Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Prognostic Scores Incorporating Epigenetic and Transcriptional Biomarkers With Gene-Gene Interactions and Main Effects
- 2020
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Ingår i: Chest. - : Elsevier BV. - 0012-3692. ; 158:2, s. 808-819
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: DNA methylation and gene expression are promising biomarkers of various cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Besides the main effects of biomarkers, the progression of complex diseases is also influenced by gene-gene (G×G) interactions. Research Question: Would screening the functional capacity of biomarkers on the basis of main effects or interactions, using multiomics data, improve the accuracy of cancer prognosis? Study Design and Methods: Biomarker screening and model validation were used to construct and validate a prognostic prediction model. NSCLC prognosis-associated biomarkers were identified on the basis of either their main effects or interactions with two types of omics data. A prognostic score incorporating epigenetic and transcriptional biomarkers, as well as clinical information, was independently validated. Results: Twenty-six pairs of biomarkers with G×G interactions and two biomarkers with main effects were significantly associated with NSCLC survival. Compared with a model using clinical information only, the accuracy of the epigenetic and transcriptional biomarker-based prognostic model, measured by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), increased by 35.38% (95% CI, 27.09%-42.17%; P = 5.10 × 10–17) and 34.85% (95% CI, 26.33%-41.87%; P = 2.52 × 10–18) for 3- and 5-year survival, respectively, which exhibited a superior predictive ability for NSCLC survival (AUC3 year, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.83-0.93]; and AUC5 year, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.83-0.93]) in an independent Cancer Genome Atlas population. G×G interactions contributed a 65.2% and 91.3% increase in prediction accuracy for 3- and 5-year survival, respectively. Interpretation: The integration of epigenetic and transcriptional biomarkers with main effects and G×G interactions significantly improves the accuracy of prognostic prediction of early-stage NSCLC survival.
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| 6. |
- Zhao, Wei, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of Zinc Oxide Nano-Microtetrapods for Biomolecule Sensing Applications
- 2015
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Ingår i: MICRO+NANO MATERIALS, DEVICES, AND SYSTEMS. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9781628418903
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Zinc oxide tetrapods (ZnO-Ts) were synthesized by flame transport synthesis using Zn microparticles. This work herein reports a systematical study on the structural, optical and electrochemical properties of the ZnO-Ts. The morphology of the ZnO-Ts was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as joint structures of four nano-microstructured legs, of which the diameter of each leg is 0.7-2.2 mu m in average from the tip to the stem. The ZnO-Ts were dispersed in glucose solution to study the luminescence as well as photocatalytic activity in a mimicked biological environment. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity in the ultraviolet (UV) region decreased with linear dependence on the glucose concentration up to 4 mM. The ZnO-Ts were also attached with glucose oxidase (GOx) and over coated with a thin film of Nafion to form active layers on Si/SiO2/Au substrate for electrochemical glucose sensing. The attachment of GOx and the coating of Nafion onto ZnO-Ts were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Furthermore, the current response of the active layers based on ZnO-Ts was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in various glucose concentration conditions. Stable current response of glucose was detected with linear dependence on the glucose concentration up to 12 mM, which confirms the potential of ZnO-Ts for biomolecule sensing applications.
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| 7. |
- Zhao, Yichen, et al.
(författare)
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Direct Determination of Spatial Localization of Carriers in CdSe-CdS Quantum Dots
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Nanomaterials. - : Hindawi Publishing Corporation. - 1687-4110 .- 1687-4129. ; 2015
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have gained significant attention due to their tunable band gap, simple solution processability, ease of scale-up, and low cost. By carefully choosing the materials, core-shell heterostructure QDs (HQDs) can be further synthesized with a controlled spatial spread of wave functions of the excited electrons and holes for various applications. Many investigations have been done to understand the exciton dynamics by optical characterizations. However, these spectroscopic data demonstrate that the spatial separation of the excitons cannot distinguish the distribution of excited electrons and holes. In this work, we report a simple and direct method to determine the localized holes and delocalized electrons in HQDs. The quasi-type-II CdSe-CdS core-shell QDs were synthesized via a thermolysis method. Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanofiber and ZnO nanorods were selected as hole and electron conductor materials, respectively, and were combined with HQDs to form two different nanocomposites. Photoelectrical properties were evaluated under different environments via a quick and facile characterization method, confirming that the electrons in the HQDs were freely accessible at the surface of the nanocrystal, while the holes were confined within the CdSe core.
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| 8. |
- Zhao, Yichen, et al.
(författare)
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Electrical Field Induced Alignment of P3HT Nanofibers
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Abstract: Poly 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) is one of the most studied conjugated polymers for organic solar cell applications due to its light weight, flexible processing methods and low cost fabrication. However, the hole mobility in P3HT is still relatively low compared to that of the inorganic semiconductors, which is one of the main challenges to achieve better performance of organic solar cells. The P3HT nanofibers with aligned by inducing an external electric field have been studied to improve the hole mobility in P3HT nanofibers. Here we present an AC electric field (1.3 V/µm, 50 Hz) induced alignment of P3HT nanofibers with two different lengths. The optical absorption spectra of aligned nanofibers were measured under different polarizations of incident light. The longer nanofibers showed higher dichroic raitos than that of shorter nanofibers, revealing a better alignment pattern. The photoconductivity of non-aligned and aligned P3HT nanofibers were measured and compared, where the aligned P3HT nanofibers showed a ~270% higher dark current than that of non-aligned sample. Moreover, the current measured under the illumination showed ~110% enhancement in the aligned P3HT nanofibers while only ~70% enhancement was obseved in non-aligned nanofibers, revealing that the alignment process have the potential to improve the mobility for optoelectronic applications.
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| 9. |
- Zhao, Yichen, et al.
(författare)
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Size-tuneable synthesis of photoconducting poly-(3-hexylthiophene) nanofibres and nanocomposites
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physica Status Solidi. C, Current topics in solid state physics. - : Wiley. - 1610-1634 .- 1610-1642. ; 9:7, s. 1546-1550
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Poly-(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) has been applied in many fields such as organic solar cells, printed electronic circuits, due to superior semiconducting properties compared to other semiconducting polymers. The presence of p-p interaction causes regio-regular P3HT to form ordered lamellar stacks during crystallisation. Here we report a simple room temperature, solution based method to synthesise P3HT nanofibres with controllable sizes. Our method is based on differing solubility of P3HT in various solvents. In a mixed solvent environment, we could control the precipitation of P3HT to obtain nanofibres with various diameters by varying the ratios of the solvents. We found that the lengths of the nanofibres could be controlled with concentration of the solution. Other methods to obtain nanofibres of P3HT invariably involves heating and controlled cooling which makes reproducibility and morphology control difficult. Furthermore, we synthesised a nanocomposite consisting of P3HT nanofibres and quasi-type-II quantum dots and evaluated the photoelectric properties of the nanofibres as well as the nanocomposites using interdigitated gold microelectrodes.
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| 10. |
- Zhong, Jia, et al.
(författare)
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B vitamins attenuate the epigenetic effects of ambient fine particles in a pilot human intervention trial
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 114:13, s. 3503-3508
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Acute exposure to fine particle (PM2.5) induces DNA methylation changes implicated in inflammation and oxidative stress. We conducted a crossover trial to determine whether B-vitamin supplementation averts such changes. Ten healthy adults blindly received a 2-h, controlled-exposure experiment to sham under placebo, PM2.5 (250 μg/m(3)) under placebo, and PM2.5 (250 μg/m(3)) under B-vitamin supplementation (2.5 mg/d folic acid, 50 mg/d vitamin B6, and 1 mg/d vitamin B12), respectively. We profiled epigenome-wide methylation before and after each experiment using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip in peripheral CD4(+) T-helper cells. PM2.5 induced methylation changes in genes involved in mitochondrial oxidative energy metabolism. B-vitamin supplementation prevented these changes. Likewise, PM2.5 depleted 11.1% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.4%, 21.7%; P = 0.04] of mitochondrial DNA content compared with sham, and B-vitamin supplementation attenuated the PM2.5 effect by 102% (Pinteraction = 0.01). Our study indicates that individual-level prevention may be used to complement regulations and control potential mechanistic pathways underlying the adverse PM2.5 effects, with possible significant public health benefit in areas with frequent PM2.5 peaks.
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