| 1. |
- Chen, Jie, et al.
(författare)
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Bidirectional Mendelian Randomisation Analysis Provides Evidence for the Causal Involvement of Dysregulation of CXCL9, CCL11 and CASP8 in the Pathogenesis of Ulcerative Colitis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Crohn's & Colitis. - : Oxford University Press. - 1873-9946 .- 1876-4479. ; 17:5, s. 777-785
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and Aims Systemic inflammation is well recognised to be associated with ulcerative colitis [UC], but whether these effects are causal or consequential remains unclear. We aimed to define potential causal relationship of cytokine dysregulation with different tiers of evidence. Methods We first synthesised serum proteomic profiling data from two multicentred observational studies, in which a panel of systemic inflammatory proteins was analysed to examine their associations with UC risk. To further dissect observed associations, we then performed a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomisation [TSMR] analysis from both forward and reverse directions using five genome-wide association study [GWAS] summary level data for serum proteomic profiles and the largest GWAS of 28 738 European-ancestry individuals for UC risk. Results Pooled analysis of serum proteomic data identified 14 proteins to be associated with the risk of UC. Forward MR analysis using only cis-acting protein quantitative trait loci [cis-pQTLs] or trans-pQTLs further validated causal associations of two chemokines and the increased risk of UC: C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 9 [CXCL9] [OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.08, 1.95, p = 0.012] and C-C motif chemokine ligand 11 [CCL11] [OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.09, 1.18, p = 3.89 x 10(-10)]. Using both cis- and trans-acting pQTLs, an association of caspase-8 [CASP8] [OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.03, 1.05, p = 7.63 x 10(-19)] was additionally identified. Reverse MR did not find any influence of genetic predisposition to UC on any of these three inflammation proteins. Conclusion Pre-existing elevated levels of CXCL9, CCL11 and CASP8 may play a role in the pathogenesis of UC.
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| 2. |
- Cheng, Fangwen, et al.
(författare)
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Interfacial Property Tuning Enables Copper Electrodes in High-Performance n-i-p Perovskite Solar Cells
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 145:36, s. 20081-20087
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Developing cost-effective metal electrodes is essential for reducing the overall cost of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Although copper is highly conductive and economical, it is rarely used as a positive electrode in efficient n-i-p PSCs due to its unmatched Fermi level and low oxidation threshold. We report herein that modification for the inner surface of electrodes using mercaptopyridine-based molecules readily tunes the electronic and chemical properties of copper, which has been achieved by fine-tuning the substituents of mercaptopyridines. The systematic adjustment for the Fermi level and oxidation potential of copper facilitates interfacial hole extraction and enhances the oxidation resistance of copper electrodes, which enables pure copper electrodes to be used in high-performance n-i-p PSCs with different hole transport materials. The resulting PSCs with copper electrodes display excellent power conversion efficiency and long-term stability, even comparable to those of the gold electrodes, showing great potential in the manufacturing and commercialization of PSCs.
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| 3. |
- Dai, Yanhui, et al.
(författare)
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An automatic classification algorithm for submerged aquatic vegetation in shallow lakes using Landsat imagery
- 2021
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Ingår i: Remote Sensing of Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0034-4257. ; 260
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is one of the main producers in inland lakes. Tracking the temporal and spatial changes in SAV is crucial for the identification of state changes in lacustrine ecosystems, such as changes in light, nutrients, and temperature. However, the available SAV classification algorithms based on remote sensing are highly dependent on field survey data and/or human interventions, prohibiting the extraction of large-scale and/or long-term patterns. Here, we developed an automatic SAV classification algorithm using Landsat imagery, where the thresholds of two key parameters (the floating algae index (FAI) and reflectance in the shortwave-infrared (SWIR) band) are automatically determined. The algorithm was applied to eight Landsat images of four Yangtze Plain lakes and obtained a mean producer accuracy of 82.9% when gauged against field-surveyed datasets. The algorithm was further employed to obtain long-term SAV areal data from Changdang Lake on the Yangtze Plain from 1984 to 2018, and the result was highly consistent with lake transparency data. Numerical simulations indicated that our developed algorithm is insensitive to the Chl-a concentration of the water column. Yet, it has a detection limit of ~0.35 m below the water surface, and such a limit changes with different fractions of vegetation coverage within a pixel. The automatic classification algorithm proposed in this study has the potential to obtain the temporal and spatial distribution patterns of SAV in other shallow lakes where SAV grows in lakes sharing similar hydrological characteristics as the lakes in the Yangtze Plain.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Fan, Jing, et al.
(författare)
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Hybrid data-driven and physics-based modeling for viscosity prediction of ionic liquids
- 2024
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Ingår i: Green Energy & Environment. - : Elsevier. - 2468-0257.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Viscosity is one of the most important fundamental properties of fluids. However, accurate acquisition of viscosity for ionic liquids (ILs) remains a critical challenge. In this study, an approach integrating prior physical knowledge into the machine learning (ML) model was proposed to predict the viscosity reliably. The method was based on 16 quantum chemical descriptors determined from the first principles calculations and used as the input of the ML models to represent the size, structure, and interactions of the ILs. Three strategies based on the residuals of the COSMO-RS model were created as the output of ML, where the strategy directly using experimental data was also studied for comparison. The performance of six ML algorithms was compared in all strategies, and the CatBoost model was identified as the optimal one. The strategies employing the relative deviations were superior to that using the absolute deviation, and the relative ratio revealed the systematic prediction error of the COSMO-RS model. The CatBoost model based on the relative ratio achieved the highest prediction accuracy on the test set (R2 = 0.9999, MAE = 0.0325), reducing the average absolute relative deviation (AARD) in modeling from 52.45 % to 1.54 %. Features importance analysis indicated the average energy correction, solvation-free energy, and polarity moment were the key influencing the systematic deviation.
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| 6. |
- Hou, Jing, et al.
(författare)
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Associations of indoor carbon dioxide concentrations, air temperature, and humidity with perceived air quality and sick building syndrome symptoms in Chinese homes
- 2021
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Ingår i: Indoor Air. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0905-6947 .- 1600-0668. ; 31:4, s. 1018-1028
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The indoor environment influences occupants' health. From March 1, 2018, to February 28, 2019, we continuously monitored indoor temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and CO2 concentration in bedrooms via an online system in 165 residences that covered all five climate zones of China. Meanwhile, we asked one specific occupant in each home to complete questionnaires about perceived air quality and sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms at the end of each month. Higher CO2 concentration was significantly associated with a higher percentage of perceived stuffy odor and skin SBS symptoms. Higher relative humidity was associated with higher percentage of perceived moldy odor and humid air, while lower RH was associated with a higher percentage of perceived dry air. Occupants who lived in residences with high RH were less likely to have mucosal and skin SBS symptoms (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.73-0.78). However, the benefit of high humidity for perceived dry air and skin dryness symptoms is weaker if there is a high CO2 concentration level.
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| 7. |
- Hou, Xuejiao, et al.
(författare)
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Anthropogenic transformation of Yangtze Plain freshwater lakes: patterns, drivers and impacts
- 2020
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Ingår i: Remote Sensing of Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0034-4257. ; 248
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over the past half century, the Yangtze Plain of China has experienced rapid economic development. Lake reclamation (i.e., conversion of natural lake/wetland areas to agricultural/urban land or aquaculture, thereby reducing the area of natural waters) in particular has greatly contributed to meeting the increasing demands for food and urban development. However, until now, a comprehensive quantification and understanding of historical anthropogenic lacustrine exploitation in this region has been lacking, prohibiting assessment of the impacts of these activities. We used Landsat observations from 1973 to 2018 to track reclamation-induced changes in 112 large lakes (97.8% of the total lake area) in the Yangtze Plain. We show that 41.6% (6056.9 km2) of the total lake area has been reclaimed since the 1970s. The expansion of agricultural and built-up lands dominated the reclamation activities in the 1970s, while the increase of aquaculture zones has prevailed since the mid-1980s. Reclamation activities were closely connected to government policies and major socio-economic events and had strong impacts on lake hydrology, flood risk mitigation capacity, and water quality as revealed by satellite and in situ observations. This new quantitative understanding of anthropogenic reclamation and its associated impacts on Yangtze Plain freshwater lakes can underpin the development of strategies to reduce the impacts of lake reclamation on environmental quality. The study has also demonstrated the unique strength of using long-term series satellite images in tracking historical environmental changes in a substantial region of the world, and the methods used here are potentially extendable to other inland and coastal areas to understand similar human-environment interaction problems.
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| 8. |
- Hou, Xuejiao, et al.
(författare)
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Global mapping reveals increase in lacustrine algal blooms over the past decade
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Geoscience. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 15:2, s. 130-134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Algal blooms constitute an emerging threat to global inland water quality, yet their spatial and temporal distribution at the global scale remains largely unknown. Here we establish a global bloom database, using 2.91 million Landsat satellite images from 1982 to 2019 to characterize algal blooms in 248,243 freshwater lakes, representing 57.1% of the global lake area. We show that 21,878 lakes (8.8%) spread across six continents have experienced algal blooms. The median bloom occurrence of affected lakes was 4.6%, but this frequency is increasing; we found increased bloom risks in the 2010s, globally (except for Oceania). The most pronounced increases were found in Asia and Africa, mostly in developing countries that remain reliant on agricultural fertilizer. As algal blooms continue to expand in scale and magnitude, this baseline census will be vital towards future risk assessments and mitigation efforts.
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| 9. |
- Kou, Mengyun, et al.
(författare)
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Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for efficient production of optically pure (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol
- 2022
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Ingår i: Microbial Cell Factories. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1475-2859. ; 21:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: 2,3-butanediol is an important platform compound which has a wide range of applications, involving in medicine, chemical industry, food and other fields. Especially the optically pure (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol can be employed as an antifreeze agent and as the precursor for producing chiral compounds. However, some (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol overproducing strains are pathogenic such as Enterobacter cloacae and Klebsiella oxytoca. Results: In this study, a (3R)-acetoin overproducing C. glutamicum strain, CGS9, was engineered to produce optically pure (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol efficiently. Firstly, the gene bdhA from B. subtilis 168 was integrated into strain CGS9 and its expression level was further enhanced by using a strong promoter Psod and ribosome binding site (RBS) with high translation initiation rate, and the (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol titer of the resulting strain was increased by 33.9%. Then the transhydrogenase gene udhA from E. coli was expressed to provide more NADH for 2,3-butanediol synthesis, which reduced the accumulation of the main byproduct acetoin by 57.2%. Next, a mutant atpG was integrated into strain CGK3, which increased the glucose consumption rate by 10.5% and the 2,3-butanediol productivity by 10.9% in shake-flask fermentation. Through fermentation engineering, the most promising strain CGK4 produced a titer of 144.9 g/L (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol with a yield of 0.429 g/g glucose and a productivity of 1.10 g/L/h in fed-batch fermentation. The optical purity of the resulting (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol surpassed 98%. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest titer of optically pure (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol achieved by GRAS strains, and the result has demonstrated that C. glutamicum is a competitive candidate for (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol production.
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| 10. |
- Li, Xinxuan, et al.
(författare)
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Genetically predicted high IGF-1 levels showed protective effects on COVID-19 susceptibility and hospitalization : a Mendelian randomisation study with data from 60 studies across 25 countries
- 2022
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Epidemiological studies observed gender differences in COVID-19 outcomes, however, whether sex hormone plays a causal in COVID-19 risk remains unclear. This study aimed to examine associations of sex hormone, sex hormones-binding globulin (SHBG), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and COVID-19 risk. Methods: Two-sample Mendelian randomization (TSMR) study was performed to explore the causal associations between testosterone, estrogen, SHBG, IGF-1, and the risk of COVID-19 (susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity) using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary level data from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (N=1,348,701). Random-effects inverse variance weighted (IVW) MR approach was used as the primary MR method and the weighted median, MR-Egger, and MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier (MR-PRESSO) test were conducted as sensitivity analyses. Results: Higher genetically predicted IGF-1 levels have nominally significant association with reduced risk of COVID-19 susceptibility and hospitalization. For one standard deviation increase in genetically predicted IGF-1 levels, the odds ratio was 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-0.97, p=0.027) for COVID-19 susceptibility, 0.62 (95% CI: 0.25-0.51, p=0.018) for COVID-19 hospitalization, and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.52-1.38, p=0.513) for COVID-19 severity. There was no evidence that testosterone, estrogen, and SHBG are associated with the risk of COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity in either overall or sex-stratified TSMR analysis. Conclusions: Our study indicated that genetically predicted high IGF-1 levels were associated with decrease the risk of COVID-19 susceptibility and hospitalization, but these associations did not survive the Bonferroni correction of multiple testing. Further studies are needed to validate the findings and explore whether IGF-1 could be a potential intervention target to reduce COVID-19 risk.
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| 11. |
- Majhi, Debashis, et al.
(författare)
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Insights into cation-anion hydrogen bonding in mesogenic ionic liquids : an NMR study
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 24:38, s. 23532-23539
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The hydrogen-bonding interaction is studied in imidazolium-based mesogenic ionic liquids in their isotropic, smectic, and solid phases and in a nanoconfined state by proton solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). In the smectic phase, the more basic anions form stronger hydrogen bonds. A small decrease of H-bonding in the mesophase with respect to that in the isotropic phase is associated with the presence of a layered assembly with high orientational order and limited conformational freedom. Hydrogen bond strength is not sensitive to the cation structural modification as long as the aprotic nature of the material is preserved. The strong cation-anion hydrogen bonding observed in the smectic phases provides direct support for the presence of ionic sublayers which form in ionic liquid crystals regardless of the location and alignment of the charged group in the cation, particularly irrespective of whether the charged group occupies a terminal or central position in the cation structure. A comparison of the results obtained in isotropic, liquid-crystalline, and solid states shows that in the bulk materials the dynamic state of ions ranging from high reorientational and translational freedom to partial orientation and positional order to full immobilization, respectively, has no strong impact on the cation-anion hydrogen bond strength. On the other hand, nanoconfinement of ionic liquid crystals led to hydrogen bond disruption due to competing interactions of anions with a solid interface.
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| 12. |
- Majhi, Debashis, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding ionic mesophase stabilization by hydration : a solid-state NMR study
- 2020
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 22:24, s. 13408-13417
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The correlation between the water contribution to hydrogen bonding within ionic sublayer, mesophase order parameter, and ion translational self-diffusion in the layered ionic liquid crystalline phase is investigated. Changes in hydrogen bonding, conformational and translational dynamics, and orientational order upon hydration were followed by solid-state NMR combined with density functional theory (DFT) analysis. We observed that the smectic mesophase of monohydrated imidazolium-based ionic liquids, which was stabilized in a wider temperature range compared to that of anhydrous materials, counterintuitively exhibited a lower orientational order of organic cations. Thus the role of anisotropic alignment of cations and contribution of dispersion forces in the mesophase stability decreased upon hydration. The local dynamics of cations is controlled by the alignment of the bulky methyl-imidazolium ring, experiencing strong electrostatic and H-bond interactions in the ionic sublayer. Anisotropy of translational diffusion increased in the hydrated samples, thus supporting the layer-stabilizing effect of water. The effect of decreasing molecular order is outweighed by the contribution of water hydrogen bonding to the overall interaction energy within the ionic sublayer.
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| 13. |
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