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- Hao, Wende, et al.
(author)
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Vitronectin : a promising breast cancer serum biomarker for early diagnosis of breast cancer in patients
- 2016
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In: Tumor Biology. - : Springer. - 1010-4283 .- 1423-0380. ; 37:7, s. 8909-8916
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, identification of new biomarkers for early diagnosis and detection will improve the clinical outcome of breast cancer patients. In the present study, we determined serum levels of vitronectin (VN) in 93 breast cancer patients, 30 benign breast lesions, 9 precancerous lesions, and 30 healthy individuals by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Serum VN level was significantly higher in patients with stage 0-I primary breast cancer than in healthy individuals, patients with benign breast lesion or precancerous lesions, as well as those with breast cancer of higher stages. Serum VN level was significantly and negatively correlated with tumor size, lymph node status, and clinical stage (p < 0.05 in all cases). In addition, VN displayed higher area under curve (AUC) value (0.73, 95 % confidence interval (CI) [0.62-0.84]) than carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (0.64, 95 % CI [0.52-0.77]) and cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) (0.69, 95 % CI [0.58-0.81]) when used to distinguish stage 0-I cancer and normal control. Importantly, the combined use of three biomarkers yielded an improvement in receiver operating characteristic curve with an AUC of 0.83, 95 % CI [0.74-0.92]. Taken together, our current study showed for the first time that serum VN is a promising biomarker for early diagnosis of breast cancer when combined with CEA and CA15-3.
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2. |
- LI, Chao, et al.
(author)
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Changes in composition, cellulose degradability and biochemical methane potential of Miscanthus species during the growing season
- 2017
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In: Bioresource Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-8524. ; 235, s. 389-395
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The composition, cellulose degradability and biochemical methane potential (BMP) of M. sinensis, M. floridulus, Miscanthus × giganteus and M. lutarioriparius were investigated concomitantly at different growth/harvest times during their growing season. For all the four species, there was only a slight change in the compositional content. Meanwhile there was a huge change in the BMP values. At the growth time of 60 days the BMPs ranged from 247.1 to 266.5 ml g−1 VS. As growth time was prolonged, the BMPs decreased by 11–35%. For each species, the BMP was positively correlated to the cellulose degradability with the correlation coefficients (R2) ranging from 0.8055 to 0.9925. This suggests that besides the biomass yield, it is justifiable to consider cellulose degradability when selecting the suitable harvest time for biofuels production from Miscanthus, especially in tropical and subtropical regions where Miscanthus can be harvested twice or more within a year.
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3. |
- Xu, Husen, et al.
(author)
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Synergistically boosting performances of organic solar cells from dithieno[3,2-b]benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-based copolymers via side chain engineering and radical polymer additives
- 2024
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In: Journal of Materials Chemistry C. - 2050-7534 .- 2050-7526. ; 12:10, s. 3644-3653
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As a notable analogue of benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT), dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d′]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (DTBDT) is expected to be a more promising building block for polymer photovoltaic donor materials due to its larger coplanar core and extended conjugation length as well as a similar electron donor ability to BDT. However, the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) from DTBDT-based copolymers is much lower than that of OSCs from BDT-based copolymers, which is attributed to the higher voltage loss of the OSCs from DTBDT-based polymers as compared to that from BDT-based polymers. In this study, approaches such as increasing the donor (D) and acceptor (A) spacing by lengthening the side chains of the polymer donors and use of radical conjugated polymer additives are synergistically employed in OSCs from 2-alkyl-3-chlorothiophene flanked DTBDT-alt-1,3-bis(thiophen-2-yl)-5,7-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H,8H-benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c′]dithiophene-4,8-dione (BDD) polymers paired with Y6. Compared to the OSCs from the DTBDT-alt-BDD polymer with 2-ethylhexyl side chains (PBDT-Cl) paired with Y6, the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the counterpart OSCs from the DTBDT-alt-BDD polymer with 2-butyloctyl side chains (PDBT-Cl-BO) increased from 12.67% to 14.58%, with a remarkable improvement of the open circuit voltage (VOC). The reduction of non-radiative energy loss of the OSCs from PBDT-Cl-BO:Y6, ascribed to the increase of the DA spacing by lengthening the side chains, is supported through detailed studies such as Fourier-transform photocurrent spectroscopy external quantum efficiency (FTPS-EQE), electroluminescence (EL), electroluminescence external quantum efficiency (EQEEL), and molecular dynamics simulations (MD). Afterwards, the PCEs of the OSCs from the blends of PDBT-Cl-BO:Y6 were further improved from 14.58% to 15.93% with a notable improvement of short circuit densities (JSCs) and fill factors (FFs), along with a small improvement in VOC upon the addition of the radical conjugated polymer GDTA as an additive. For comparison, the PCEs of the OSCs from the blends of PDBT-Cl:Y6 remained almost unchanged upon the addition of GDTA. This work suggests a wise strategy to synergistically utilize side-chain engineering and radical conjugated polymer additives to reduce the non-radiative energy loss, thus improving the performance of OSCs from DTBDT-based polymer donors.
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4. |
- Zhang, Lin, et al.
(author)
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Cr-promoted formation of B2+L21 composite nanoprecipitates and enhanced mechanical properties in ferritic alloy
- 2023
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In: Acta Materialia. - : Elsevier. - 1359-6454 .- 1873-2453. ; 243
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The critical role of Cr on nanoprecipitates and the mechanical property of Fe-Ni-Al-Mn ferritic steel were systematically studied in this research. The two types of nanoprecipitates in the Cr added alloy were characterized through a combination of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography techniques. The atomic-scale structure and chemistry analysis reveal that fine globular-shaped precipitates have a B2-structure, while coarse elongated precipitates have B2+L21 composite structures. The first-principles calculations reveal that the segregation of Cr at the L21/bcc interface reduces the interface and strain energy for the nucleation of the L21-type phase. With the increasing precipitate size, the B2 structure is gradually transformed to L21 to reduce elastic strain, thereby promoting the formation of B2+L21 composite nanoprecipitate. The addition of 10 wt% Cr results in an increase of ∼275 MPa in yield strength without obvious loss of ductility. The effect of Cr on the strength mechanisms were quantitatively analyzed, revealing that the strength of the ferritic alloy mainly improved by the formation of B2+L21 composite nanoprecipitate, which is more effective than solid solution strengthening.
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