| 1. |
- Blunden, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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State of the Climate in 2012
- 2013
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Ingår i: Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). - 0003-0007 .- 1520-0477. ; 94:8, s. S1-S258
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- For the first time in serveral years, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation did not dominate regional climate conditions around the globe. A weak La Ni a dissipated to ENSOneutral conditions by spring, and while El Nino appeared to be emerging during summer, this phase never fully developed as sea surface temperatures in the eastern conditions. Nevertheless, other large-scale climate patterns and extreme weather events impacted various regions during the year. A negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation from mid-January to early February contributed to frigid conditions in parts of northern Africa, eastern Europe, and western Asia. A lack of rain during the 2012 wet season led to the worst drought in at least the past three decades for northeastern Brazil. Central North America also experienced one of its most severe droughts on record. The Caribbean observed a very wet dry season and it was the Sahel's wettest rainy season in 50 years. Overall, the 2012 average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces ranked among the 10 warmest years on record. The global land surface temperature alone was also among the 10 warmest on record. In the upper atmosphere, the average stratospheric temperature was record or near-record cold, depending on the dataset. After a 30-year warming trend from 1970 to 1999 for global sea surface temperatures, the period 2000-12 had little further trend. This may be linked to the prevalence of La Ni a-like conditions during the 21st century. Heat content in the upper 700 m of the ocean remained near record high levels in 2012. Net increases from 2011 to 2012 were observed at 700-m to 2000-m depth and even in the abyssal ocean below. Following sharp decreases in to the effects of La Ni a, sea levels rebounded to reach records highs in 2012. The increased hydrological cycle seen in recent years continued, with more evaporation in drier locations and more precipitation in rainy areas. In a pattern that has held since 2004, salty areas of the ocean surfaces and subsurfaces were anomalously salty on average, while fresher areas were anomalously fresh. Global tropical cyclone activity during 2012 was near average, with a total of 84 storms compared with the 1981-2010 average of 89. Similar to 2010 and 2011, the North Atlantic was the only hurricane basin that experienced above-normal activity. In this basin, Sandy brought devastation to Cuba and parts of the eastern North American seaboard. All other basins experienced either near-or below-normal tropical cyclone activity. Only three tropical cyclones reached Category 5 intensity-all in Bopha became the only storm in the historical record to produce winds greater than 130 kt south of 7 N. It was also the costliest storm to affect the Philippines and killed more than 1000 residents. Minimum Arctic sea ice extent in September and Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in June both reached new record lows. June snow cover extent is now declining at a faster rate (-17.6% per decade) than September sea ice extent (-13.0% per decade). Permafrost temperatures reached record high values in northernmost Alaska. A new melt extent record occurred on 11-12 July on the Greenland ice sheet; 97% of the ice sheet showed some form of melt, four times greater than the average melt for this time of year. The climate in Antarctica was relatively stable overall. The largest maximum sea ice extent since records begain in 1978 was observed in September 2012. In the stratosphere, warm air led to the second smallest ozone hole in the past two decades. Even so, the springtime ozone layer above Antarctica likely will not return to its early 1980s state until about 2060. Following a slight decline associated with the global 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production reached a record 9.5 +/- 0.5 Pg C in 2011 and a new record of 9.7 +/- 0.5 Pg C is estimated for 2012. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased by 2.1 ppm in 2012, to 392.6 ppm. In spring 2012, 2 concentration exceeded 400 ppm at 7 of the 13 Arctic observation sites. Globally, other greenhouse gases including methane and nitrous oxide also continued to rise in concentration and the combined effect now represents a 32% increase in radiative forcing over a 1990 baseline. Concentrations of most ozone depleting substances continued to fall.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Lessard, Christopher J., et al.
(författare)
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Identification of IRF8, TMEM39A, and IKZF3-ZPBP2 as Susceptibility Loci for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in a Large-Scale Multiracial Replication Study
- 2012
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Ingår i: American Journal of Human Genetics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0002-9297 .- 1537-6605. ; 90:4, s. 648-660
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic heterogeneous autoimmune disorder characterized by the loss of tolerance to self-antigens and dysregulated interferon responses. The etiology of SLE is complex, involving both heritable and environmental factors. Candidate-gene studies and genome-wide association (GWA) scans have been successful in identifying new loci that contribute to disease susceptibility; however, much of the heritable risk has yet to be identified. In this study, we sought to replicate 1,580 variants showing suggestive association with SLE in a previously published GWA scan of European Americans; we tested a multiethnic population consisting of 7,998 SLE cases and 7,492 controls of European, African American, Asian, Hispanic, Gullah, and Amerindian ancestry to find association with the disease. Several genes relevant to immunological pathways showed association with SLE. Three loci exceeded the genome-wide significance threshold: interferon regulatory factor 8 (IRF8; rs11644034; p(meta-Euro) = 2.08 x 10(-10)), transmembrane protein 39A (TMEM39A; rs1132200; p(meta-all) 8.62 x 10(-9)), and 17q21 (rs1453560; p(meta-all) = 3.48 x 10(-10)) between IKAROS family of zinc finger 3 (AIOLOS; IKZF3) and zona pellucida binding protein 2 (ZPBP2). Fine mapping, resequencing, imputation, and haplotype analysis of IRF8 indicated that three independent effects tagged by rs8046526, rs450443, and rs4843869, respectively, were required for risk in individuals of European ancestry. Eleven additional replicated effects (5 x 10(-8) < p(meta-Euro) < 9.99 x 10(-5)) were observed with CFHR1, CADM2, LOC730109/IL12A, LPP, LOC63920, SLU7, ADAMTSL1, C10orf64, OR8D4 FAM19A2, and STXBP6. The results of this study increase the number of confirmed SLE risk loci and identify others warranting further investigation.
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| 4. |
- Franco-Gonzalez, Juan Felipe, et al.
(författare)
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Conformational flexibility of the ErbB2 ectodomain and trastuzumab antibody complex as revealed by molecular dynamics and principal component analysis.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Modeling. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1610-2940 .- 0948-5023. ; 19:3, s. 1227-1236
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ErbB2) is a transmembrane oncoprotein that is over expressed in breast cancer. A successful therapeutic treatment is a monoclonal antibody called trastuzumab which interacts with the ErbB2 extracellular domain (ErbB2-ECD). A better understanding of the detailed structure of the receptor-antibody interaction is indeed of prime interest for the design of more effective anticancer therapies. In order to discuss the flexibility of the complex ErbB2-ECD/trastuzumab, we present, in this study, a multi-nanosecond molecular dynamics simulation (MD) together with an analysis of fluctuations, through a principal component analysis (PCA) of this system. Previous to this step and in order to validate the simulations, we have performed a detailed analysis of the variable antibody domain interactions with the extracellular domain IV of ErbB2. This structure has been statically elucidated by x-ray studies. Indeed, the simulation results are in excellent agreement with the available experimental information during the full trajectory. The PCA shows eigenvector fluctuations resulting in a hinge motion in which domain II and C(H) domains approach each other. This move is likely stabilized by the formation of H-bonds and salt bridge interactions between residues of the dimerization arm in the domain II and trastuzumab residues located in the C(H) domain. Finally, we discuss the flexibility of the MD/PCA model in relation with the static x-ray structure. A movement of the antibody toward the dimerization domain of the ErbB2 receptor is reported for the first time. This finding could have important consequences on the biological action of the monoclonal antibody.
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| 5. |
- Franco-Gonzalez, Juan Felipe, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the dynamics and interaction of a full ErbB2 receptor and Trastuzumab-Fab antibody in a lipid bilayer model using Martini coarse-grained force field.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0920-654X .- 1573-4951. ; 28:11, s. 1093-1107
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coarse grained (CG) modeling has been applied to study the influence of the Trastuzumab monoclonal antibody on the structure and dynamics of the full ErbB2 receptor dimer, including the lipid bilayer. The usage of CG models to study such complexes is almost mandatory, at present, due to the large size of the whole system. We will show that the Martini model performs satisfactorily well, giving results well-matched with those obtained by atomistic models as well as with the experimental information existing on homolog receptors. For example, the extra and intracellular domains approach the bilayer surface in both the monomer and dimer cases. The Trastuzumab-Fab hinders the interaction of the receptors with the lipid bilayer. Another interesting effect of the antibody is the disruption of the antiparallel arrangement of the juxtamembrane segments in the dimer case. These findings might help to understand the effect of the antibody on the receptor bioactivity.
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| 6. |
- Franco-Gonzalez, Juan Felipe, et al.
(författare)
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Simulation of homology models for the extracellular domains (ECD) of ErbB3, ErbB4 and the ErbB2-ErbB3 complex in their active conformations.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Modeling. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1610-2940 .- 0948-5023. ; 19:2, s. 931-941
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) are associated with a number of biological processes and are becoming increasingly recognized as important therapeutic targets against cancer. In this work, we provide models based on homology for the extracellular domains (ECD) of ErbB3 and ErbB4 in their active conformations, including a Heregulin ligand, followed by further refinement of the models by molecular dynamics simulations at atomistic scale. We compare the results with a model built for ErbB2 based on crystallographic information and analyze the common features observed among members of the family, namely, the periscope movement of the dimerization arm and the hinge displacement of domain IV. Finally, we refine a model for the interaction of the ECDs corresponding to a ErbB2-ErbB3 heterodimer, which is widely recognized to have a high impact in cancer development.
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