| 1. |
- Chen, Wei-Min, et al.
(författare)
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Variations in the G6PC2/ABCB11 genomic region are associated with fasting glucose levels.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Investigation. - 0021-9738. ; Jun 2, s. 2620-2628
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Identifying the genetic variants that regulate fasting glucose concentrations may further our understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetes. We therefore investigated the association of fasting glucose levels with SNPs in 2 genome-wide scans including a total of 5,088 nondiabetic individuals from Finland and Sardinia. We found a significant association between the SNP rs563694 and fasting glucose concentrations (P = 3.5 x 10(-7)). This association was further investigated in an additional 18,436 nondiabetic individuals of mixed European descent from 7 different studies. The combined P value for association in these follow-up samples was 6.9 x 10(-26), and combining results from all studies resulted in an overall P value for association of 6.4 x 10(-33). Across these studies, fasting glucose concentrations increased 0.01-0.16 mM with each copy of the major allele, accounting for approximately 1% of the total variation in fasting glucose. The rs563694 SNP is located between the genes glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit 2 (G6PC2) and ATP-binding cassette, subfamily B (MDR/TAP), member 11 (ABCB11). Our results in combination with data reported in the literature suggest that G6PC2, a glucose-6-phosphatase almost exclusively expressed in pancreatic islet cells, may underlie variation in fasting glucose, though it is possible that ABCB11, which is expressed primarily in liver, may also contribute to such variation.
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| 2. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy in higher eukaryotes
- 2008
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Landes Bioscience. - 1554-8627 .- 1554-8635. ; 4:2, s. 151-175
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research in autophagy continues to accelerate,1 and as a result many new scientists are entering the field. Accordingly, it is important to establish a standard set of criteria for monitoring macroautophagy in different organisms. Recent reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose.2,3 There are many useful and convenient methods that can be used to monitor macroautophagy in yeast, but relatively few in other model systems, and there is much confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure macroautophagy in higher eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers of autophagosomes versus those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway; thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from fully functional autophagy that includes delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of the methods that can be used by investigators who are attempting to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as by reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that investigate these processes. This set of guidelines is 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 verify an autophagic response.
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| 3. |
- Schael, S, et al.
(författare)
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Precision electroweak measurements on the Z resonance
- 2006
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Ingår i: Physics Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-1573 .- 1873-6270. ; 427:5-6, s. 257-454
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electron-positron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLID experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, m(Z) and Gamma(Z), and its couplings to fermions, for example the p parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle for leptons, are precisely measured: m(Z) = 91.1875 +/- 0.0021 GeV, Gamma(Z) = 2.4952 +/- 0.0023 GeV, rho(l) = 1.0050 +/- 0.0010, sin(2)theta(eff)(lept) = 0.23153 +/- 0.00016. The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840 +/- 0.0082, in agreement with the three observed generations of fundamental fermions. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model (SM). At the Z-pole, electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forward-backward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its SM expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative corrections evaluated in the framework of the Standard Model, the Z-pole data are also used to predict the mass of the top quark, m(t) = 173(+10)(+13) GeV, and the mass of the W boson, m(W) = 80.363 +/- 0.032 GeV. These indirect constraints are compared to the direct measurements, providing a stringent test of the SM. Using in addition the direct measurements of m(t) and m(W), the mass of the as yet unobserved SM Higgs boson is predicted with a relative uncertainty of about 50% and found to be less than 285 GeV at 95% confidence level. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 4. |
- Yan, Wei, et al.
(författare)
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High directive antenna based on metamaterial slab with zero permittivity
- 2008
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Ingår i: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. - : SPIE.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the present paper, the properties of an antenna centred at a metamaterial slab with zero permittivity are investigated. It is analyzed that the antenna can achieve high directive performance. Its half power beam width (HPBW) decreases monotonically with the increase of the width of the slab. While the gain of such antenna can only be 0dB independent of the slab's width. When the permittivity deviates form zero to a little positive number, antenna can achieve high gain by choosing appropriate slab's width due to the transmission resonance. The effect of loss is also analyzed.
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