72 research outputs found
Some Implications of Core Regime Wind Structures in Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclones
No full textCan high-dose aflibercept satisfy unmet treatment needs in diabetic macular oedema?
No full textCorresponding author: [email protected] audienceRefers toIntravitreal aflibercept 8 mg in diabetic macular oedema (PHOTON): 48-week results from a randomised, double-masked, non-inferiority, phase 2/3 trialThe Lancet, Volume 403, Issue 10432, 23–29 March 2024, Pages 1153-1163David M Brown, David S Boyer, Diana V Do, Charles C Wykoff, Taiji Sakamoto, Peter Win, Sunir Joshi, Hani Salehi-Had, András Seres, Alyson J Berliner, Sergio Leal, Robert Vitti, Karen W Chu, Kimberly Reed, Rohini Rao, Yenchieh Cheng, Wei Sun, Delia Voronca, Rafia Bhore, Ursula Schmidt-Ott, Thomas Schmelter, Andrea Schulze, Xin Zhang, Boaz Hirshberg, George D Yancopoulos, Sobha SivaprasadReferred to byIntravitreal aflibercept 8 mg in diabetic macular oedema (PHOTON): 48-week results from a randomised, double-masked, non-inferiority, phase 2/3 trialThe Lancet, Volume 403, Issue 10432, 23–29 March 2024, Pages 1153-1163David M Brown, David S Boyer, Diana V Do, Charles C Wykoff, Taiji Sakamoto, Peter Win, Sunir Joshi, Hani Salehi-Had, András Seres, Alyson J Berliner, Sergio Leal, Robert Vitti, Karen W Chu, Kimberly Reed, Rohini Rao, Yenchieh Cheng, Wei Sun, Delia Voronca, Rafia Bhore, Ursula Schmidt-Ott, Thomas Schmelter, Andrea Schulze, Xin Zhang, Boaz Hirshberg, George D Yancopoulos, Sobha Sivaprasa
Some Implications of Core Regime Wind Structures in Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclones
No full textAbstract
In this study, a tropical cyclone (TC) is considered to be compact if 1) the radius of maximum wind or the maximum tangential wind is smaller than what would be expected for an average tropical cyclone of the same intensity or the same radius of maximum wind, and 2) the decrease of tangential wind outside the radius of maximum wind is greater than that of an average TC. A structure parameter S is defined to provide a quantitative measure of the compactness of tropical cyclones. Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) oceanic winds are used to calculate S for 171 tropical cyclones during 2000–07. The S parameters are then used to classify all of the cases as either compact or incompact according to the 33% and 67% percentiles. It is found that the early intensification stage is favorable for the occurrence of compact tropical cyclones, which also have a higher percentage of rapid intensification than incompact cases. Composite infrared brightness temperature shows that compact tropical cyclones have highly axisymmetric convective structures with strong convection concentrated in a small region near the center. Low-level synoptic patterns are important environmental factors that determine the degree of compactness; however, it is believed that compact tropical cyclones maintain their structures mainly through internal dynamics.</jats:p
Masculinity on the run: history, nation and subjectivity in contemporary mainland Chinese cinema
Get PDFThe study investigates representations of masculinities in modern Mainland Chinese cinema from the early reform period to the year 2000. It argues that masculinities from this era are `on the run'; that is, male protagonists' ambiguous relationships with dominant discourses of nation, history and new formulations of subjectivity cause them either to flee from Maoist collective identity categories or more actively to move towards discourses of the sovereignty of the individual brought into China with the `opening up' policies enacted after the Chairman's death. The social and cultural upheavals represented in these films create an atmosphere of uncertainty in which little is solid or settled: for example, although filmmakers may represent their male protagonists rushing from ideas of Maoist manhood, these ambitions and identity figurations, active in the public imagination for so long, still structure male identity, and even male rebellion, acting as reins pulling at the individual agency male filmmakers may try so hard to trace on screen. The result is a recent history of
representation in which male characters stand as symbols for their nation's central dilemma, as it wavers between a collective past and an unknown (both exciting and threatening) future.
Whereas images of women have been analysed (especially those in the Fifth Generation cinema of the 1980s and 1990s), their male counterparts on the Chinese cinema screen have been largely ignored. This study redresses this imbalance and interprets the representation of men on screen through gender theory, cultural studies, and sources on Chinese society. The main chapters of the study concentrate on versions or expressions of masculinities, reflecting a society that has expressed its revolutionary aims through human models. The introduction to each chapter provides a contextualisation of the manner in which masculinities have been configured in other contemporary representational fields and will explain the relevance of the discussed ideas of masculinity in China's recent past. This study contributes both to conceptions of film and gender in China, and will widen the scope of cross-cultural
theorisations of masculinities
Genetic variation in the sex hormone metabolic pathway and endometriosis risk: an evaluation of candidate genes
No full textLignan and Isoflavone Excretion in Relation to Uterine Fibroids: a Case-Control Study of Young to Middle-Aged Women in the United States
No full textAbstract BACKGROUND: Uterine fibroids are hormonally responsive; estradiol and progesterone stimulate their growth, and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists shrink them. Phytoestrogens, including isoflavones and lignans, can act as weak estrogens or antiestrogens. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this case-control study was to evaluate the relation between uterine fibroid risk and phytoestrogen exposure. DESIGN: Two overnight urine collections (48 h apart) from 170 uterine fibroid cases and 173 controls were analyzed for isoflavonoids (ie, daidzein, genistein, equol, and O-desmethylangolensin) and lignans (enterodiol and enterolactone). Logistic regression was used to determine associations between the mean excretion of the 2 collections and the risk of uterine fibroids. RESULTS: Unadjusted isoflavone excretion did not differ significantly between cases and controls (2.33 +/- 5.82 and 2.60 +/- 5.90 nmol/mg Cr, respectively; P = 0.68), but cases excreted significantly less lignans than did controls (2.86 +/- 3.45 and 4.57 +/- 6.67 nmol/mg Cr, respectively; P <0.01). The trend for a reduced risk of uterine fibroids with increasing quartiles of lignan excretion was significant (odds ratio for highest versus lowest quartile = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.58; P for trend <0.01). When adjusted for age, BMI, race, family history of uterine fibroids, and isoflavone excretion, this trend remained but was attenuated (P = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a modest inverse association between lignan excretion and uterine fibroid risk. Whether this relation represents an effect of lignans per se or of other constituents of lignan-containing foods on the development of uterine fibroids remains to be determined. No association was found between isoflavone excretion and uterine fibroids; however, the intake of soy foods, the primary source of isoflavones, was low in this population.Abstract BACKGROUND: Uterine fibroids are hormonally responsive; estradiol and progesterone stimulate their growth, and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists shrink them. Phytoestrogens, including isoflavones and lignans, can act as weak estrogens or antiestrogens. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this case-control study was to evaluate the relation between uterine fibroid risk and phytoestrogen exposure. DESIGN: Two overnight urine collections (48 h apart) from 170 uterine fibroid cases and 173 controls were analyzed for isoflavonoids (ie, daidzein, genistein, equol, and O-desmethylangolensin) and lignans (enterodiol and enterolactone). Logistic regression was used to determine associations between the mean excretion of the 2 collections and the risk of uterine fibroids. RESULTS: Unadjusted isoflavone excretion did not differ significantly between cases and controls (2.33 +/- 5.82 and 2.60 +/- 5.90 nmol/mg Cr, respectively; P = 0.68), but cases excreted significantly less lignans than did controls (2.86 +/- 3.45 and 4.57 +/- 6.67 nmol/mg Cr, respectively; P <0.01). The trend for a reduced risk of uterine fibroids with increasing quartiles of lignan excretion was significant (odds ratio for highest versus lowest quartile = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.58; P for trend <0.01). When adjusted for age, BMI, race, family history of uterine fibroids, and isoflavone excretion, this trend remained but was attenuated (P = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a modest inverse association between lignan excretion and uterine fibroid risk. Whether this relation represents an effect of lignans per se or of other constituents of lignan-containing foods on the development of uterine fibroids remains to be determined. No association was found between isoflavone excretion and uterine fibroids; however, the intake of soy foods, the primary source of isoflavones, was low in this population
Cultivo superintensivo de camarões marinhos: efeitos no ajuste da relação C/N e tratamento do efluente em reatores em bateladas sequenciais (RBS)
Get PDFDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental.Os graves prejuízos mundiais causados pelos episódios de enfermidades obrigaram a indústria da carcinicultura a buscar formas de se manter sustentável. A redução do efluente, associada a intensificação dos cultivos, mostrou ser uma alternativa interessante do ponto de vista econômico e ambiental. Utilizando melaço, o presente estudo avaliou duas formas de ajuste da relação C/N nos parâmetros de qualidade da água do cultivo superintensivo de Litopenaeus vannamei: uma com base na quantidade de ração fornecida, denominada Fertilização Fixa (FF) e outra com base na concentração de amônia, denominada Fertilização Pontual (FP). No Tratamento Controle (TC) não foi feito uso de melaço. A FP apresentou as menores médias de amônia (3,04 mg L-1), nitrito (6,49 mg L-1), nitrato (0,38 mg L-1), ortofosfato (0,60 mg L-1) e transparência (15 cm) e as maiores para sólidos suspensos totais (786 mg L-1), voláteis (360 mg L-1) e turbidez (134,2 UNT). A alta concentração da amônia na FF e no TC foi responsável pela baixa sobrevivência dos camarões. Mesmo na FP, procedimentos paralelos ao ajuste da relação C/N devem ser realizados para não expor os camarões a concentrações sub-letais de amônia. O uso de Reatores em Bateladas Seqüenciais (RBS) tratando o efluente da FP foi uma alternativa capaz de remover mais de 40% da DBO5, 70% do nitrogênio, 40% dos sólidos suspensos totais e 60% dos sólidos suspensos voláteis. Serious losses caused by global episodes of disease outbreaks forced the shrimp farming industry to seek ways to remain sustainable. The wastewater reduction, coupled with intensive cultivation, showed to be an interesting alternative of the economical and environmental point of view. Using molasses, this study evaluated two ways to fit C/N ratio in the water quality parameters of Litopenaeus vannamei superintensive rearing: one based on the amount of feed supplied, called Fixed Fertilization (FF) and another based on the concentration of ammonia, called Punctual Fertilization (PF). In the Control treatment (CT) was not made use of molasses. PF presented the lowest average of ammonia (3,04 mg L-1), nitrite (6,49 mg L-1), nitrate (0,38 mg L-1), orthophosphate (0,60 mg L-1) and transparency (15 cm) and the largest for total suspended solids (786 mg L-1), volatile suspended solids (360 mg L-1) and turbidity (134,2 NTU). The high concentration of ammonia in FF and CT was responsible for low survival of shrimp. Even in PF, additional procedures to adjustment of C/N ratio must be made to avoid exposing shrimp to sub-lethal ammonia concentrations. Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) treating PF effluent was an alternative capable to remove more than 40% of BOD5, 70% of nitrogen, 40% of total suspended solids and 60% of volatile suspended solids
Interplay between autophagy and amyloid beta metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease
No full textAlzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disease, is characterized by two pathological hallmarks: extracellular amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) plaque depositions and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of intracellular hyperphosphorylated tau aggregations. A cellular degradation system, autophagy is additionally dysfunctional in AD and plays a key role in Aβ and tau metabolisms.Paper I and II. To investigate the molecular mechanisms of autophagy alterations induced by Aβ amyloidosis, we characterized the autophagy status in amyloid precursor protein (App) knock-in mouse models exhibiting robust Aβ pathology. Interestingly, impaired autophagy was a general phenomenon in the brains which was specifically pronounced in the surrounding regions of Aβ plaques, especially in neurites and pre-synapses in App knock-in mice. The region-specific autophagy impairment was substantiated by electron microscopy imaging showing autophagic vacuole accumulation in dystrophic neurites around Aβ plaques. Time course bulk RNA sequencing from hippocampi of App knock-in mouse brains further revealed alterations of autophagy-associated gene expression.Paper III. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is an important body fluid source to study brain-derived biomarkers for AD diagnosis. Comparing the CSF proteomes from App knock-in mice and AD human subjects revealed an extracellular matrix protein, decorin, as significantly increased in preclinical AD subjects having abnormal CSF-Aβ42 but normal CSF-total-tau (a+t-) levels and in AppNL-F mice exhibiting mild Aβ pathology. In a+t- preclinical AD subjects, CSF-decorin levels positively correlated with CSF-Aβ42 levels and negatively correlated with CSF phosphorylated and total tau levels. Increase of CSF-decorin could predict an AD subtype having innate immune activation and potential choroid plexus dysfunction in the brain with high sensitivity and specificity. Consistently, increased CSFdecorin in AppNL-F mice correlated with the decorin levels in choroid plexus and Aβ plaque load.Paper IV. To directly investigate the role of autophagy in Aβ metabolism, we generated autophagy-deficient AD mouse models by crossing App knock-in mice with autophagyrelated gene 7 (Atg7) conditional knockout mice. Loss of autophagy in excitatory neurons lowered Aβ plaque load but raised intracellular Aβ levels. Severe Aβ pathology together with lack of autophagy led to an autistic-like behavior, decreased anxiety and memory deficits which potentially was related to activated programmed cell death, synaptic impairment, and degraded gamma oscillation power. However, a mild Aβ amyloidosis in autophagy-deficient AppNL-F mice ameliorated the autistic-like behavior driven by loss of autophagy. Notably, proteomic analysis of CA1 pyramidal cell layer in hippocampus unveiled that loss of autophagy upregulated cell transport but downregulated protein translation which can be alleviated by a mild Aβ amyloidosis.Paper V. Limitations of App knock-in mice include a less pronounced tau pathology and lack of neurodegeneration. Generation of an App knock-in rat model, AppNL-G-F, circumvented above mentioned shortages by inducing phosphorylated tau aggregations and neuronal loss. AppNL-G-F rats additionally exhibited enhanced gliosis, impaired spatial learning, and memory deficits including episodic-like memory.List of scientific papersI. Richeng Jiang, Makoto Shimozawa, Johanna Mayer, Simone Tambaro, Rakesh Kumar, Axel Abelein, Bengt Winblad, Nenad Bogdanovic, Per Nilsson. Autophagy impairment in App knock-in Alzheimer model mice. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. [Accepted] https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.878303 II. Luana Naia, Makoto Shimozawa, Erika Bereczki, Xidan Li, Jianping Liu, Richeng Jiang, Nuno Santos Leal, Catarina Moreira Pinho, Erik Berger, Viktoria Lim Falk, Giacomo Dentoni, Maria Ankarcrona, Per Nilsson. Early mitochondrial dysfunction proceeds synaptic alteration, neuroinflammation and autophagy inhibition in hippocampus of App knock-in Alzheimer mouse models. [Submitted]III. Richeng Jiang, Una Smailovic, Hazal Haytural, Betty M. Tijms, Robert Mihai Haret, Ganna Shevchenko, Gefei Chen, Axel Abelein, Johan Gobom, Susanne Frykman, Misaki Sekiguchi, Ryo Fujioka, Naoto Watamura, Hiroki Sasaguri, Sofie Nyström, Per Hammarström, Takaomi C. Saido, Vesna Jelic, Stina Syvänen, Henrik Zetterberg, Bengt Winblad, Jonas Bergquist, Pieter Jelle Visser, Per Nilsson. Increased CSF-decorin predicts brain pathological changes driven by Alzheimer’s Aβ amyloidosis. [Submitted]IV. Richeng Jiang, Simone Tambaro, Arturo G Isla, Lovisa Johansson, Valerie Sackmann, Delia-Denisa Dunca, Yuxi Guo, Hazal Haytural, Ganna Shevchenko, Makoto Shimozawa, Fengna Chu, Luis E Arroyo-García, Hugo Balleza-Tapia, Bengt Winblad, Jonas Bergquist, André Fisahn, Martin Hallbeck and Per Nilsson. Degree of Aβ amyloidosis has distinct effects on mouse phenotypes induced by loss of autophagy. [Manuscript]V. Keliang Pang, Richeng Jiang, Wei Zhang, Zhengyi Yang, Lin-Lin Li, Makoto Shimozawa, Simone Tambaro, Johanna Mayer, Baogui Zhang, Man Li, Jiesi Wang, Hang Liu, Ailing Yang, Xi Chen, Jiazheng Liu, Bengt Winblad, Hua Han, Tianzi Jiang, Weiwen Wang, Per Nilsson, Wei Guo and Bai Lu. An App knock-in rat model for Alzheimer’s disease exhibiting Aβ and tau pathologies, neuronal death and cognitive impairments. Cell Research. 2021, 32, 157–175. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-021-00582-x </p
Metodologias da inteligencia computacional em identificação e controle de processos : abordagem nebulosa evolutiva e neural
Get PDFDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro TecnologicoEsta dissertação trata da descrição, projeto e implementação de metodologias da inteligência computacional em identificação e controle de processos, em escala laboratorial, com propósito ao tratamento adequado das restrições e dos requisitos exigidos no projeto de sistemas. As metodologias da inteligência computacional utilizados são: lógica nebulosa, computação evolucionária, redes neurais artificiais, "simulated annealing" e sistemas híbridos inteligentes
Artemis over-expression and radiosensitivity in human cell lines
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The cellular radiosensitivity of two fibroblast cell lines derived from a breast cancer patient that “over-reacted” to radiotherapy (84BR) and a patient with multiple independent tumours (175BR) was examined. Both patients had not been previously diagnosed with a mutation in any known DNA repair gene. The clonogenic assay revealed the 84BR and 175BR cell lines were hypersensitive to gamma radiation when compared to repair normal NB1 and 1BR.3 fibroblast cells. In addition, DNA DSB repair was found to be defective in both patient cell lines due to the abnormal persistence of -H2AX foci over a 24 hour time point in the nuclei of gamma irradiated cells when compared to normal fibroblasts. Also normal response to the cross-linking agent nitrogen mustard in a clonogenic assay was observed in 84BR and 175BR cell lines indicating a normal homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair pathway (since HR is essential for DNA crosslink repair). From these data it was concluded that these cells were defective in one or more components of the Non Homologous End Joining (NHEJ) pathway. The Artemis gene which has an endonuclease activity in the NHEJ repair pathway trims the ends of the double strand breaks before the two ends are ligated. Quantitative real time PCR analysis detected approximately 1.5 to 2 fold over-expression in Artemis gene in 84BR and 175BR cell lines compared to normal cells. Also an increase in the level of apoptosis before and following radiation exposure and a failure to efficiently repair DNA DSB were observed in the patient cell lines. Consequently, it was demonstrated in the cell lines described in this study that increased expression of Artemis endonuclease leads to abnormal and illegitimate DNA DSBs due to unregulated action of the protein thus, contributing to increased radiosensitivity and elevated apoptosis
- …
