| 1. |
- Koenig, Julian, et al.
(författare)
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Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan : A cross-sectional pooled mega-analysis
- 2021
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Ingår i: Psychophysiology. - : Wiley. - 0048-5772 .- 1469-8986 .- 1540-5958. ; 58:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting-state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega-analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12–87)). Findings suggest a decline in HRV as well as CT with increasing age. CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, explained additional variance in HRV, beyond the effects of aging. This pattern of results may suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in orbitofrontal CT. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS—or greater cardiac vagal activity as indirectly reflected in HRV may slow brain atrophy. Findings reveal an important association between CT and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity that should be studied further in longitudinal research.
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| 2. |
- Jones, Geraint H., et al.
(författare)
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The Comet Interceptor Mission
- 2024
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Ingår i: Space Science Reviews. - : Springer Nature. - 0038-6308 .- 1572-9672. ; 220:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Here we describe the novel, multi-point Comet Interceptor mission. It is dedicated to the exploration of a little-processed long-period comet, possibly entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or to encounter an interstellar object originating at another star. The objectives of the mission are to address the following questions: What are the surface composition, shape, morphology, and structure of the target object? What is the composition of the gas and dust in the coma, its connection to the nucleus, and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind? The mission was proposed to the European Space Agency in 2018, and formally adopted by the agency in June 2022, for launch in 2029 together with the Ariel mission. Comet Interceptor will take advantage of the opportunity presented by ESA’s F-Class call for fast, flexible, low-cost missions to which it was proposed. The call required a launch to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. The mission can take advantage of this placement to wait for the discovery of a suitable comet reachable with its minimum Δ V capability of 600 ms − 1 . Comet Interceptor will be unique in encountering and studying, at a nominal closest approach distance of 1000 km, a comet that represents a near-pristine sample of material from the formation of the Solar System. It will also add a capability that no previous cometary mission has had, which is to deploy two sub-probes – B1, provided by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and B2 – that will follow different trajectories through the coma. While the main probe passes at a nominal 1000 km distance, probes B1 and B2 will follow different chords through the coma at distances of 850 km and 400 km, respectively. The result will be unique, simultaneous, spatially resolved information of the 3-dimensional properties of the target comet and its interaction with the space environment. We present the mission’s science background leading to these objectives, as well as an overview of the scientific instruments, mission design, and schedule.
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| 3. |
- Kleeman, Sam O, et al.
(författare)
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Cystatin C is glucocorticoid responsive, directs recruitment of Trem2+ macrophages, and predicts failure of cancer immunotherapy.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Cell genomics. - 2666-979X. ; 3:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cystatin C (CyC), a secreted cysteine protease inhibitor, has unclear biological functions. Many patients exhibit elevated plasma CyC levels, particularly during glucocorticoid (GC) treatment. This study links GCs with CyC's systemic regulation by utilizing genome-wide association and structural equation modeling to determine CyC production genetics in the UK Biobank. Both CyC production and a polygenic score (PGS) capturing predisposition to CyC production were associated with increased all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. We found that the GC receptor directly targets CyC, leading to GC-responsive CyC secretion in macrophages and cancer cells. CyC-knockout tumors displayed significantly reduced growth and diminished recruitment of TREM2+ macrophages, which have been connected to cancer immunotherapy failure. Furthermore, the CyC-production PGS predicted checkpoint immunotherapy failure in 685 patients with metastatic cancer from combined clinical trial cohorts. In conclusion, CyC may act as a GC effector pathway via TREM2+ macrophage recruitment and may be a potential target for combination cancer immunotherapy.
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| 4. |
- Breznau, Nate, et al.
(författare)
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Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty
- 2022
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores how researchers analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each teams workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings.
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| 5. |
- Dunning, Belinda J, et al.
(författare)
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Selenium and coenzyme Q10 improve the systemic redox status while reducing cardiovascular mortality in elderly population-based individuals.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Free Radical Biology & Medicine. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. - 0891-5849 .- 1873-4596.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Serum sulfhydryl groups (R-SH, free thiols) reflect the systemic redox status in health and disease, and may be amenable to therapeutic modulation. Since R-SH are readily oxidized by reactive species, oxidative stress is characterized by reduced serum R-SH levels. Selenium and coenzyme Q10 supplementation may improve the systemic redox status. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10 on serum free thiols and to study associations with the risk of cardiovascular mortality in elderly community-dwelling individuals.METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, serum R-SH were measured colorimetrically and adjusted for albumin in 434 individuals at baseline and after 48 months of intervention. Selenium yeast (200 μg/day) and coenzyme Q10 (200 mg/day) or placebo were provided as dietary supplements.RESULTS: After 48 months of intervention, participants receiving combined selenium and coenzyme Q10 supplementation demonstrated increased levels of serum R-SH compared to placebo (P = 0.002). In prospective association analysis, the highest rate of cardiovascular mortality after a median follow-up of 10 years (IQR: 6.8-10.5) was observed in the lowest quartile (Q1) of R-SH levels. Baseline albumin-adjusted serum R-SH were significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular mortality, even after adjustment for potential confounding factors (hazard ratio [HR] 1.98 per SD, 95% CI: 1.34-2.91, P < 0.001).CONCLUSION: Supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10 to an elderly community-dwelling population low on the two substances, significantly improved serum R-SH levels, supporting a reduction in systemic oxidative stress. Low serum R-SH levels were significantly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in elderly individuals.
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| 6. |
- Larsson, Alfred, et al.
(författare)
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The Oxygen Evolution Reaction Drives Passivity Breakdown for Ni–Cr–Mo Alloys
- 2023
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Ingår i: Advanced Materials. - : Wiley. - 0935-9648 .- 1521-4095. ; 35:39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Corrosion is the main factor limiting the lifetime of metallic materials, and a fundamental understanding of the governing mechanism and surface processes is difficult to achieve since the thin oxide films at the metal–liquid interface governing passivity are notoriously challenging to study. In this work, a combination of synchrotron-based techniques and electrochemical methods is used to investigate the passive film breakdown of a Ni–Cr–Mo alloy, which is used in many industrial applications. This alloy is found to be active toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and the OER onset coincides with the loss of passivity and severe metal dissolution. The OER mechanism involves the oxidation of Mo4+ sites in the oxide film to Mo6+ that can be dissolved, which results in passivity breakdown. This is fundamentally different from typical transpassive breakdown of Cr-containing alloys where Cr6+ is postulated to be dissolved at high anodic potentials, which is not observed here. At high current densities, OER also leads to acidification of the solution near the surface, further triggering metal dissolution. The OER plays an important role in the mechanism of passivity breakdown of Ni–Cr–Mo alloys due to their catalytic activity, and this effect needs to be considered when studying the corrosion of catalytically active alloys.
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| 7. |
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| 9. |
- Minelli, Caterina, et al.
(författare)
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Versailles project on advanced materials and standards (VAMAS) interlaboratory study on measuring the number concentration of colloidal gold nanoparticles
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nanoscale. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2040-3372 .- 2040-3364. ; 14, s. 4690-4704
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We describe the outcome of a large international interlaboratory study of the measurement of particle number concentration of colloidal nanoparticles, project 10 of the technical working area 34, "Nanoparticle Populations" of the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS). A total of 50 laboratories delivered results for the number concentration of 30 nm gold colloidal nanoparticles measured using particle tracking analysis (PTA), single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) light spectroscopy, centrifugal liquid sedimentation (CLS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The study provides quantitative data to evaluate the repeatability of these methods and their reproducibility in the measurement of number concentration of model nanoparticle systems following a common measurement protocol. We find that the population-averaging methods of SAXS, CLS and UV-Vis have high measurement repeatability and reproducibility, with between-labs variability of 2.6%, 11% and 1.4% respectively. However, results may be significantly biased for reasons including inaccurate material properties whose values are used to compute the number concentration. Particle-counting method results are less reproducibile than population-averaging methods, with measured between-labs variability of 68% and 46% for PTA and spICP-MS respectively. This study provides the stakeholder community with important comparative data to underpin measurement reproducibility and method validation for number concentration of nanoparticles.
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| 10. |
- Suliali, Nyasha J., et al.
(författare)
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Ti thin films deposited by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering in an industrial system : Process parameters for a low surface roughness
- 2022
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Ingår i: Vacuum. - : Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. - 0042-207X .- 1879-2715. ; 195
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influence of the choice of process parameters in an industrial high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) system on the surface roughness and crystallinity of Ti coatings is presented in this work. A current density of 1 A/cm(2) was kept constant by varying the pulse frequency to control the average power. The films were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The surface roughness, residual stress and grain size are discussed as a function of the HiPIMS target average power in the 1.45-7.90 kW range. The surface roughness, ranging from 14 to 24 nm, is lower than that of the SnO2 glass substrate, and has a non-linear dependence on the HiPIMS power. X-ray 20 diffraction shows (100), (001) and (101) orientation of the film crystallites. The peak shifts reveal a gradual reduction in residual stress as target power increases. Further, the effect of target power on crystal grain length and geometric orientation is also determined.
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