| 1. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(author)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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In: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 2. |
- Campbell, PJ, et al.
(author)
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Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes
- 2020
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 578:7793, s. 82-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale1–3. Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4–5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter4; identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation5,6; analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution7; describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity8,9; and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes8,10–18.
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| 3. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(author)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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In: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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| 4. |
- Menkveld, Albert J., et al.
(author)
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Nonstandard Errors
- 2024
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In: JOURNAL OF FINANCE. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0022-1082 .- 1540-6261. ; 79:3, s. 2339-2390
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty-nonstandard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for more reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants.
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| 5. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(author)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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In: eLIFE. - 2050-084X. ; 5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.522.7) and 16.5 cm (13.319.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
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| 6. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(author)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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In: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3– 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8– 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Lian, Ke-Yan, et al.
(author)
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Big Bandgap in Highly Reduced Graphene Oxides
- 2013
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In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 117:12, s. 6049-6054
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It is generally believed that the bandgap of the graphene oxide is proportional to the concentration of the oxygen atoms and a highly reduced graphene oxide (rGO) without vacancy defects should be gapless. We show here from first principles calculations that the bandgap can be effectively opened even in low oxidation level with the absorption of oxygen atoms either symmetrically or asymmetrically. The properly arranged absorption can induce a bandgap up to 1.19 eV for a C/O ratio of 16/1 in a symmetric system and a bandgap up to 1.58 eV for a C/O ratio of 32/3 in an asymmetric system, at generalized gradient approximation (GGA) level. The hybridization between the in-plane p(xy) orbitals of oxygen atoms and the out-of-plane p(z) frontier orbital of graphene is responsible for the opening of the bandgap. This finding sheds new light on the bandgap engineering of graphene.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Lian, Ke-Yan, et al.
(author)
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Tuning electronic and magnetic properties of armchair vertical bar zigzag hybrid graphene nanoribbons by the choice of supercell model of grain boundaries
- 2014
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In: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 115:10, s. 104303-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Grain boundaries (GBs) attract much interest for its ability to tune the property of hybrid materials. Theoretically predicting the properties of hybrid graphene with GBs, even a linear GB remains challenging due to its inhomogeneous structure, which makes supercell model tough to choose in theoretic studies. For the first time, the applicability of supercells with different GBs and lattice-mismatches for describing armchair-zigzag hybrid graphene nanoribbons was validated by ab initio molecular dynamic simulations and first principles electronic structure calculations. And to what extent the electronic properties can be tuned by the strain effects resulting from the lattice-mismatch and the GBs distortion in supercells was demonstrated. This work showed that the intrinsic strain in such system plays a decisive role in determining the band structure and spin polarization properties. Hybrid graphene nanoribbon was found to be ferromagnetic in the ground state, especially for the case of using the supercell with nearly-perfect lattice match. Its high Curie temperature suggests the potential applications of this material in spintronics.
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| 11. |
- Xing, Li-Da, et al.
(author)
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Asianopodus-type footprints from the Hekou Group of Honggu District, Lanzhou City, Gansu, China and the “heel” of large theropod tracks
- 2014
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In: Palaeoworld. - : Elsevier BV. - 1871-174X .- 1875-5887. ; 23:3-4, s. 304-313
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An increasing number of dinosaur tracksites have been reported from the Cretaceous Hekou Group deposits of the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin in theGansu Province region. These include small sites such as the Huazhuang tracksite, from the Honggu District reported here, the Zhongpu tracksitewith multiple track levels but few well-preserved tracks, other small tracksites currently under investigation, and the large and diverse LiujixiaNational Dinosaur Geopark site at Yanguoxia, where intensive study is ongoing. Collectively these sites reveal that ichnofaunas in the HekouGroup are widespread and diverse. The Huazhuang tracksite yields a small assemblage of moderately well-preserved theropod tracks assigned toAsianopodus. This is the first report of Asianopodus from the Hekou Group. Huazhuang Asianopodus belongs to the Eubrontes morphotype. Thelarge theropod tracks from Lanzhou-Minhe Basin were left by large theropod trackmakers with the same general foot morphology. The specimensare described in detail and compared with other theropod track morphotypes from the Lower Cretaceous of China and elsewhere. In general,although the metatarsophalangeal pads of some Jurassic Eubrontes-type tracks are aligned with the axis of digit III, this feature appears mostcommon in the Early Cretaceous theropod (Eubrontes-type) tracks.
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| 12. |
- Zhang, Jin-Ting, et al.
(author)
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Nuclear to cytoplasmic shift of p33ING1b protein from normal oral mucosa to oral squamous cell carcinoma in relation to clinicopathological variables
- 2008
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In: Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0171-5216 .- 1432-1335. ; 134:3, s. 421-426
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: p33ING1b, as a candidate tumour suppressor gene, has been found to be expressed a proportion of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs), however, its clinicopathological significance is not studied yet. Our aim was to investigate association of p33ING1b expression with clinicopathological variables and particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine rich protein (PINCH) in OSCCs. Methods: p33ING1b expression was immumohistochemically examined in 20 normal oral mucosa specimens and 49 OSCCs. Results: Normal squamous cells showed only p33ING1b nuclear expression (no cytoplasmic expression), with a rate of 90% positive cases. While 24% of OSCCs appeared cytoplasmic expression (11 of them with weak nuclear staining) and the rest tumours (76%) were negative for p33 ING1b. Furthermore, the cases having lymph node metastasis showed a higher frequency of positive cytoplasmic expression than those without metastasis (P = 0.03). The p33ING1b cytoplasmic expression was positively related to PINCH expression (P = 0.04), the cases positive for both proteins had a high rate of the metastasis (P = 0.03). Conclusions: The transfer of p33ING1b protein from the nucleus to the cytoplasm may result in loss of normal cellular function of the protein, which might play a role in the tumourigenesis and metastasis of OSCCs. © 2007 Springer-Verlag.
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