| 1. |
- Sun, Hui-Min, et al.
(författare)
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SERPINA4 is a novel independent prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target for colorectal cancer
- 2016
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Ingår i: American Journal of Cancer Research. - Madison : E-CENTURY PUBLISHING CORP. - 2156-6976. ; 6:8, s. 1636-1649
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Serpina family A member 4 (SERPINA4), also known as kallistatin, exerts important effects in inhibiting tumor growth and angiogenesis in many malignancies. However, the precise role of SERPINA4 in CRC has not been fully elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the expression of SERPINA4 and its clinical significance in CRC. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot analyses showed that the mRNA and protein expression of SERPINA4 in colorectal cancer (CRC) specimens was significantly decreased than that in adjacent normal mucosa. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was conducted to characterize the expression pattern of SERPINA4 by using a tissue microarray (TMA) containing 327 archived paraffin-embedded CRC specimens. Statistical analyses revealed that decreased SERPINA4 expression was significantly associated with invasion depth, nodal involvement, distant metastasis, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage, and tumor differentiation. SERPINA4 was also an independent prognostic indicator of disease-free survival and overall survival in patients with CRC. Furthermore, the impact of altered SERPINA4 expression on CRC cells was analyzed with a series of in vitro and in vivo assays. The results demonstrated that SERPINA4 significantly inhibits malignant tumor progression and serves as a novel prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target for CRC.
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| 2. |
- Kristanl, Matej, et al.
(författare)
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The Seventh Visual Object Tracking VOT2019 Challenge Results
- 2019
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Ingår i: 2019 IEEE/CVF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER VISION WORKSHOPS (ICCVW). - : IEEE COMPUTER SOC. - 9781728150239 ; , s. 2206-2241
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2019 is the seventh annual tracker benchmarking activity organized by the VOT initiative. Results of 81 trackers are presented; many are state-of-the-art trackers published at major computer vision conferences or in journals in the recent years. The evaluation included the standard VOT and other popular methodologies for short-term tracking analysis as well as the standard VOT methodology for long-term tracking analysis. The VOT2019 challenge was composed of five challenges focusing on different tracking domains: (i) VOT-ST2019 challenge focused on short-term tracking in RGB, (ii) VOT-RT2019 challenge focused on "real-time" short-term tracking in RGB, (iii) VOT-LT2019 focused on long-term tracking namely coping with target disappearance and reappearance. Two new challenges have been introduced: (iv) VOT-RGBT2019 challenge focused on short-term tracking in RGB and thermal imagery and (v) VOT-RGBD2019 challenge focused on long-term tracking in RGB and depth imagery. The VOT-ST2019, VOT-RT2019 and VOT-LT2019 datasets were refreshed while new datasets were introduced for VOT-RGBT2019 and VOT-RGBD2019. The VOT toolkit has been updated to support both standard short-term, long-term tracking and tracking with multi-channel imagery. Performance of the tested trackers typically by far exceeds standard baselines. The source code for most of the trackers is publicly available from the VOT page. The dataset, the evaluation kit and the results are publicly available at the challenge website(1).
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| 3. |
- Guo, Jianqiu, et al.
(författare)
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Associations of prenatal and childhood chlorpyrifos exposure with Neurodevelopment of 3-year-old children
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Pollution. - : Elsevier. - 0269-7491 .- 1873-6424. ; 251, s. 538-546
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Chlorpyrifos (CPF), an organophosphate insecticide, has been linked to adverse neurodevelopmental effects in animal studies. However, little is known about long-term neurotoxicity of early-life CPF exposure in humans. We aimed to evaluate the associations of both prenatal and early childhood CPF exposure with neurodevelopment of children. In this observational study based on Sheyang Mini Birth Cohort, pregnant women were recruited from an agricultural region between June 2009 and January 2010, and their children were followed up from birth to age three. Urinary 3,5,6-Trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy), a specific metabolite of CPF, was quantified using large-volume-injection gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Developmental quotients (DQs) of children in motor, adaptive, language, and social areas were assessed by trained pediatricians. Data from 377 mother-child pairs were used in the current study. Associations between CPF exposure and neurodevelopmental indicators were estimated using generalized linear models with adjustment for potential confounders. The median concentrations of TCPy in maternal and children's urine were 5.39 mu g/L and 5.34 mu g/L, respectively. No statistically significant association was found between maternal urinary TCPy concentrations and children neurodevelopment. While for postnatal exposure, we found lower motor area DQ score 0.61 [95% confidence interval (CI): -1.13, -0.09; p = 0.02] and social area DQ score 0.55 (95% CI: -1.07, -0.03; p = 0.04) per one-unit increase in the In-transformed childhood urinary TCPy concentrations. Further stratification by sex indicated that the inverse associations were only observed in boys, but not in girls. Our findings suggest that adverse neurodevelopmental effects were associated with early childhood CPF exposure, but not prenatal exposure. Additional longitudinal studies are needed to replicate these results and to further understand the toxicological mechanisms of CPF.
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| 4. |
- Liu, Shuai, et al.
(författare)
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Development of Pdn/g-C3N4 adsorbent for Hg0 removal – DFT study of influences of the support and Pd cluster size
- 2019
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Ingår i: Fuel. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-2361. ; 254
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Elemental mercury in the flue gas is highly hazardous to the ecosystem. However, its removal from gas phase is of challenges as it is highly volatile, chemically very stable and insoluble in water. It is therefore imperative to develop novel adsorbents that are efficient in the removal of elemental mercury from gas mixtures. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) was adopted to assist the development of novel adsorbents for mercury removal based on the in-depth understanding of the adsorption of Hg0 on g-C3N4, single Pd atoms and Pdn(n=2–4) clusters as well as the influences of the support and the size of Pd clusters on Hg0 adsorption. It is found that Hg0 atoms are physically adsorbed on the pristine g-C3N4 and are chemisorbed on the pure Pdn clusters and the Pdn/g-C3N4. The strongest adsorption happens on the Pd2 cluster and the Pd3/g-C3N4, while single Pd atoms doped on the g-C3N4 do not adsorb Hg0 atoms effectively. For a Pd4 cluster, there are at least four adsorption sites for the adsorption of Hg0, while these sites become more active in the presence of the support and the number of active sites for Hg0 adsorption on a Pd4 cluster doped on the g-C3N4 becomes seven due to the enhanced charge transfer from Hg atoms to the Pd cluster and the g-C3N4 surface. The most charge transfers are found to take place in the case of Pd2, Pd2/g-C3N4 and Pd3/g-C3N4, indicating the most intensive interactions between Hg0 and these configurations. Moreover, the shortened Pd-Hg bonds in the Pd3/g-C3N4 and the Pd4/g-C3N4 also shows the enhanced mercury adsorption, while opposite phenomena were observed in the other two structures, i.e., the Pd/g-C3N4 and the Pd2/g-C3N4.
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| 5. |
- Shuai, Hongyan, et al.
(författare)
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Fluorescent protein vectors for pancreatic islet cell identification in live-cell imaging
- 2016
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Ingår i: Pflügers Archiv. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0031-6768 .- 1432-2013. ; 468:10, s. 1765-1777
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The islets of Langerhans contain different types of endocrine cells, which are crucial for glucose homeostasis. beta- and alpha-cells that release insulin and glucagon, respectively, are most abundant, whereas somatostatin-producing delta-cells and particularly pancreatic polypeptide-releasing PP-cells are more scarce. Studies of islet cell function are hampered by difficulties to identify the different cell types, especially in live-cell imaging experiments when immunostaining is unsuitable. The aim of the present study was to create a set of vectors for fluorescent protein expression with cell-type-specific promoters and evaluate their applicability in functional islet imaging. We constructed six adenoviral vectors for expression of red and green fluorescent proteins controlled by the insulin, preproglucagon, somatostatin, or pancreatic polypeptide promoters. After transduction of mouse and human islets or dispersed islet cells, a majority of the fluorescent cells also immunostained for the appropriate hormone. Recordings of the sub-plasma membrane Ca2+ and cAMP concentrations with a fluorescent indicator and a protein biosensor, respectively, showed that labeled cells respond to glucose and other modulators of secretion and revealed a striking variability in Ca2+ signaling among alpha-cells. The measurements allowed comparison of the phase relationship of Ca2+ oscillations between different types of cells within intact islets. We conclude that the fluorescent protein vectors allow easy identification of specific islet cell types and can be used in live-cell imaging together with organic dyes and genetically encoded biosensors. This approach will facilitate studies of normal islet physiology and help to clarify molecular defects and disturbed cell interactions in diabetic islets.
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| 6. |
- Wessel, Jennifer, et al.
(författare)
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Low-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF = 1.4%) with lower FG (beta = -0.09 +/- 0.01 mmol l(-1), P = 3.4 x 10(-12)), T2D risk (OR[95% CI] = 0.86[0.76-0.96], P = 0.010), early insulin secretion (beta = -0.07 +/- 0.035 pmol(insulin) mmol(glucose)(-1), P = 0.048), but higher 2-h glucose (beta = 0.16 +/- 0.05 mmol l(-1), P = 4.3 x 10(-4)). We identify a gene-based association with FG at G6PC2 (p(SKAT) = 6.8 x 10(-6)) driven by four rare protein-coding SNVs (H177Y, Y207S, R283X and S324P). We identify rs651007 (MAF = 20%) in the first intron of ABO at the putative promoter of an antisense lncRNA, associating with higher FG (beta = 0.02 +/- 0.004 mmol l(-1), P = 1.3 x 10(-8)). Our approach identifies novel coding variant associations and extends the allelic spectrum of variation underlying diabetes-related quantitative traits and T2D susceptibility.
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| 7. |
- Yu, Qian, et al.
(författare)
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Glucose controls glucagon secretion by directly modulating cAMP in alpha cells
- 2019
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Ingår i: Diabetologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0012-186X .- 1432-0428. ; 62:7, s. 1212-1224
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aims/hypothesisGlucagon is critical for normal glucose homeostasis and aberrant secretion of the hormone aggravates dysregulated glucose control in diabetes. However, the mechanisms by which glucose controls glucagon secretion from pancreatic alpha cells remain elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the intracellular messenger cAMP in alpha-cell-intrinsic glucose regulation of glucagon release.MethodsSubplasmalemmal cAMP and Ca2+ concentrations were recorded in isolated and islet-located alpha cells using fluorescent reporters and total internal reflection microscopy. Glucagon secretion from mouse islets was measured using ELISA.ResultsGlucose induced Ca2+-independent alterations of the subplasmalemmal cAMP concentration in alpha cells that correlated with changes in glucagon release. Glucose-lowering-induced stimulation of glucagon secretion thus corresponded to an elevation in cAMP that was independent of paracrine signalling from insulin or somatostatin. Imposed cAMP elevations stimulated glucagon secretion and abolished inhibition by glucose elevation, while protein kinase A inhibition mimicked glucose suppression of glucagon release.Conclusions/interpretationGlucose concentrations in the hypoglycaemic range control glucagon secretion by directly modulating the cAMP concentration in alpha cells independently of paracrine influences. These findings define a novel mechanism for glucose regulation of glucagon release that underlies recovery from hypoglycaemia and may be disturbed in diabetes.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Zhao, Ruikai, et al.
(författare)
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Solar-assisted pressure-temperature swing adsorption for CO2 capture : Effect of adsorbent materials
- 2018
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Ingår i: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. - : Elsevier. - 0927-0248 .- 1879-3398. ; 185, s. 494-504
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Because of the ability to utilize the low-grade solar thermal energy for regeneration, a CO2 capture system characterized by solar-assisted pressure temperature swing adsorption (SOL-PTSA) is studied on the effects of adsorbent materials. A detailed cycle description is firstly presented within the diagram of adsorption isotherm for the energy-efficiency analysis. Typical adsorbent materials, including zeolites and chemical adsorbent, are assessed in terms of sensible heat and latent heat, etc. Then, the energy consumption and the second-law efficiency, which can be considered as lumped indicators from such material parameters, are chosen as performance indicators as well. The influence of separation temperature, desorption temperature, CO2 concentration and CO2 adsorption pressure on system performance are finally obtained. For the chosen three adsorbent materials, the energy consumption of SOL-PTSA system is at the range of 25.96-87.76 kJ/mol, and the corresponding second law efficiencies are at the range of 9.18-26.89%. The effect of adsorbent materials on the energy-efficiency of SOL-PTSA system mainly depends on specific heat, CO2 working capacity and cycle design. In addition, the integration options of solar energy into PTSA technology are also discussed from the standpoint of the utilization of solar grade heat due to two energy loads required for PTSA's operation.
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| 10. |
- Zhou, Shuai, et al.
(författare)
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The calculation of InGaN quantum dot formation mechanism on GaN pyramid
- 2015
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Ingår i: Superlattices and Microstructures. - : Elsevier. - 0749-6036 .- 1096-3677. ; 84, s. 72-79
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An equilibrium approach is used to calculate the free energy and composition distribution of InGaN/GaN quantum dot located on the InGaN/GaN pyramid. The energy balance method is adopted to predict critical conditions for quantum dot formation. We find that the formation of QD depends strongly on the size of pyramid top surface. The results can fit our experiment qualitatively.
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