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T Zhao,
C Yang,
Y Qiu,
Y Xue,
Z Zhao,
D Song,
Z Ma, B Yang,
M Xu,
R Rong,
T Zhu
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ABSTRACT: Sirolimus-based regimens have recently been introduced as nephron-sparing strategies to avoid the calcineurin inhibitors-induced nephrotoxicity.
To investigate the different effects of these 2 immunosuppressants on CD4(+)CD25(hi)FoxP3(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) and the newly defined subsets of FoxP3(+) T cells, including CD45RA(-)FoxP3(lo) cytokine-secreting T cells (csT cells), CD45RA(-)FoxP3(hi) activated Treg (aTregs), and CD45RA(+)FoxP3(+) resting Treg (rTregs), 52 cases of renal transplant recipients who have received a maintenance immunosuppressive regimen comprised either cyclosporine (n = 34) or sirolimus (n = 18) were collected and proportion of Tregs and each subset of FoxP3(+) T cells in peripheral blood was detected by flowcytometry.
Sirolimus significantly prompted the proportion of Tregs (5.92 ± 0.40 vs 2.19 ± 0.18; P < .001) and both of the CD45RA-negative subsets, including csT cells (4.92 ± 0.50 vs 1.83 ± 0.18; P < .001) and aTregs (1.04 ± 0.15 vs 0.23 ± 0.05; P < .05) when compared with cyclosporine. However, the rTregs were not remarkably affected (0.36 ± 0.09 vs 0.79 ± 0.28; P = .063).
Sirolimus plays its immune regulatory role in renal transplantation partly by increasing the proportion of Tregs. However, the increasing of both pro- and anti-inflammatory subsets of FoxP3(+) T cells also indicates the potential compromising of the effects of sirolimus on immune regulation.
Transplantation Proceedings 01/2013; 45(1):148-52. · 1.00 Impact Factor
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Y Ramayo-Caldas,
A Mercadé,
A Castelló, B Yang,
C Rodríguez,
E Alves,
I Díaz,
N Ibáñez-Escriche,
J L Noguera,
M Pérez-Enciso,
A I Fernández,
J M Folch
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ABSTRACT: The lipid content and fatty acid (FA) profile have an important impact in human health as well as in the technological transformation and nutritional and organoleptic quality of meat. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 144 backcross pigs (25% Iberian × 75% Landrace) was performed for 32 traits associated with intramuscular FA composition and indices of FA metabolism. The GWAS was carried out using Qxpak 5.0 and the genotyping information obtained from the Porcine SNP60K BeadChip (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). Signals of significant association considering a false- discovery rate (q-value < 0.05) were observed in 15 of the 32 analyzed traits, and a total of 813 trait-associated SNP (TAS), distributed in 43 chromosomal intervals on almost all autosomes, were annotated. According to the clustering analysis based on functional classification, several of the annotated genes are related to FA composition and lipid metabolism. Some interesting positional concordances among TAS and previously reported QTL for FA compositions and/or other lipid traits were also found. These common genomic regions for different traits suggest pleiotropic effects for FA composition and were found primarily on SSC4, SSC8, and SSC16. These results contribute to our understanding of the complex genetic basis of FA composition and FA metabolism.
Journal of Animal Science 07/2012; 90(9):2883-93. · 2.10 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Accurate lineage tracing is crucial to understanding of developmental and stem cell biology, but is particularly challenging for transient and highly dispersive cell-types like the neural crest (NC). The authors report in this article a new zebrafish transgenic line Tg(-4725sox10:Cre)(ba74) . This line expresses Cre under the control of a well-characterized portion of the sox10 promoter and, by crossing to a floxed-reporter line, the authors show in this article that expression in this line is consistent with those described for GFP reporter lines using the same promoter. Reporter expression is readily detected in patterns consistent with the early expression domains. Thus, the authors see all major groups (pigment, neural, and skeletal) of NC-derived cell-types, as well as cell-types derived from the known non-NC sites of sox10 expression, including otic epithelium and oligodendrocytes. This line provides an invaluable tool for the further study of zebrafish NC development and NC-derived stem cells as well as that of the otic vesicle and oligodendrocytes. genesis 50:750-757, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
genesis 04/2012; 50(10):750-7. · 2.53 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A rather unusual failure mode transition from brittle to ductile at high strain rates occurs under a combined pressure and
shear loading. This transition also represents a change in the failure mode from a normal stress dominated fracture mode at
low loading rates to a shear stress dominated shear banding failure at high strain rates. While most such observations have
been in metallic materials, where such transitions are attributed to thermal softening caused by adiabatic heating, in this
paper we present evidence of such mode transitions in a polymer. Experimental observations of the pressure-shear loading experiments
are reported in two polymers; polycarbonate (PC) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). Dynamic photomechanics techniques were
used in obtaining information regarding the crack tip state in these experiments. While PC exhibits a failure mode transi-
tion to shear banding, PMMA changes to a shear mode of fracture; dynamic shear fracture has been observed in real-time using
high speed photography for the first time. A numerical simulation of the experiment using a simple constitutive description
of the material is performed in order to gain an understanding of the evolution of the crack tip fields that generate the
observed mode transitions. The results of the simulation suggest that thermal softening may not play a significant role in
the failure mode transitions in polymers. On the other hand, it is shown that the competition between shear yielding and normal
stress dominated fracture mechanisms is the key to the failure mode transitions in these polymers.
International Journal of Fracture 04/2012; 101(1):33-72. · 1.49 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Luminescence data have often been used to study imperfections and to characterize lattice distortions because the signals are sensitive to changes of structure and composition. Previous studies have included intentionally added probe ions such as rare earth ions to sense distortions in local crystal fields caused by modified structural environments. An under-exploited extension of this approach was to use luminescence to monitor crystalline phase changes. A current overview of this new and powerful technique shows that continuous scanning of the sample temperatures immediately offered at least three types of signatures for phase transitions. Because of high sensitivity, luminescence signals were equally responsive to structural changes from inclusions and nanoparticles. These coupled to the host material via long-range interactions and modified the host signals. Two frequently observed examples that are normally overlooked are from nanoparticle inclusions of water and CO(2.) Examples also indicated that phase transitions were detected in more diverse materials such as superconductors and fullerenes. Finally, luminescence studies have shown that in some crystalline examples, high dose ion implantation of surface layers could induce relaxations and/or structural changes of the entire underlying bulk material. This was an unexpected result and therefore such a possibility has not previously been explored. However, the implications for ion implication are significant and could be far more general than the examples mentioned here. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Luminescence 04/2012; · 1.73 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Stenosis of the carotid artery may cause reduced hemodynamic and neural function that may be ameliorated with CAS. The goal of this study was to evaluate short- and long-term hemodynamic and clinical effects after CAS.
Hemodynamic parameters were acquired by PCT within 1 week before CAS and at 1 week and 1 year (10-13 months) after CAS. In ACA territory, MCA territory, PCA territory, basal ganglia, anterior and posterior CWS and IWS, the rCBF, rCBV, and rMTT were determined in 20 patients with unilateral carotid artery stenosis who underwent CAS. MR and noncontrast CT were performed within 1 week before CAS. Noncontrast CT and carotid arteriography were performed immediately after CAS. Carotid arteriography was performed 1 year after CAS. MRS was performed in 3 measurements. The variance analysis was performed to determine whether there were significant differences among the 3 measurements.
No significant differences were found among rCBV in any territory (P > .05). In the non-PCA territories, rMTT decreased and rCBF increased at 1 week after CAS (P < .01), but there was no significant difference between 1-week and 1-year effects (P > .05). For MR spectroscopy, no significant differences were found between 1 week after CAS and pretreatment (P > .05); the 1-year scores improved significantly (P < .01).
The long-term hemodynamic and clinical results after treatment validated that CAS is a durable procedure. The 1-week hemodynamic effects can predict long-term effects.
American Journal of Neuroradiology 01/2012; 33(6):1170-6. · 2.93 Impact Factor
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T Zhao,
C Yang,
Y Xue,
Y Y Qiu,
L Hu,
Y Qiu,
X Wang, B Yang,
R Rong,
M Xu,
T Zhu
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ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the impact of anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody (basiliximab) on peripheral blood regulatory T cells (Treg) and their subsets in recipients early after renal transplantation.
Ten renal transplant recipients from November 2009 to February 2011 were divided into an induction therapy and a no-induction therapy group, mainly based on their will to accept basiliximab induction. Peripheral blood samples were collected at 2 hours before as well as 1 and 2 weeks after transplantation. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the proportion of regulatory T cells and their subsets.
Compared with the no-induction therapy group, the proportions of both CD25(high) T cell and CD25(high) Foxp3(+) double marked T cells were significantly decreased among in the basiliximab induction group remaining at low at 2 weeks. The subsets of activated Treg and cytokine-secreting Treg were also temporarily downregulated at 1 week after transplantation using basiliximab induction. However, the inhibitory transcriptional factor Foxp3 was not significantly affected by the induction therapy.
Anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody downregulated the proportion of regulatory T cell and its activated subsets in peripheral blood in the early stage after renal transplantation while the inhibitory function may still be spared.
Transplantation Proceedings 01/2012; 44(1):175-8. · 1.00 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The thickness of SnO<sub>2</sub> buffer layers has been found to considerably affect the structure and magnetic properties of Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films. As the buffer-layer thickness increases, the lattice constant a and Co-O bond length of the Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films contract, which suggest the gradual relaxation of the accumulated tensile strain. Simultaneously, the amount of structural defects in Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films decreases significantly and the grain size increases with increasing buffer-layer thickness. All the Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films exhibit intrinsic ferromagnetism at room temperature and the saturated magnetic moment varies with the buffer-layer thickness. The dependence of ferromagnetism on the buffer-layer thickness can be explained on the basis of the variations in the density of structural defects and Co-O bond length in Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films.
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 11/2011; · 1.36 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Growth and fatness are economically important traits in pigs. In this study, a genome scan was performed to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for 14 growth and fatness traits related to body weight, backfat thickness and fat weight in a large-scale White Duroc × Erhualian F(2) intercross. A total of 76 genome-wide significant QTL were mapped to 16 chromosomes. The most significant QTL was found on pig chromosome (SSC) 7 for fatness with unexpectedly small confidence intervals of ∼2 cM, providing an excellent starting point to identify causal variants. Common QTL for both fatness and growth traits were found on SSC4, 5, 7 and 8, and shared QTL for fat deposition were detected on SSC1, 2 and X. Time-series analysis of QTL for body weight at six growth stages revealed the continuously significant effects of the QTL on SSC4 at the fattening period and the temporal-specific expression of the QTL on SSC7 at the foetus and fattening stages. For fatness traits, Chinese Erhualian alleles were associated with increased fat deposition except that at the major QTL on SSC7. For growth traits, most of White Duroc alleles enhanced growth rates except for those at three significant QTL on SSC6, 7 and 9. The results confirmed many previously reported QTL and also detected novel QTL, revealing the complexity of the genetic basis of growth and fatness in pigs.
Animal Genetics 10/2011; 43(4):383-91. · 2.40 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Models in QTL mapping can be improved by considering all potential variables, i.e. we can use remaining traits other than the trait under study as potential predictors. QTL mapping is often conducted by correcting for a few fixed effects or covariates (e.g. sex, age), although many traits with potential causal relationships between them are recorded. In this work, we evaluate by simulation several procedures to identify optimum models in QTL scans: forward selection, undirected dependency graph and QTL-directed dependency graph (QDG). The latter, QDG, performed better in terms of power and false discovery rate and was applied to fatty acid (FA) composition and fat deposition traits in two pig F2 crosses from China and Spain. Compared with the typical QTL mapping, QDG approach revealed several new QTL. To the contrary, several FA QTL on chromosome 4 (e.g. Palmitic, C16:0; Stearic, C18:0) detected by typical mapping vanished after adjusting for phenotypic covariates in QDG mapping. This suggests that the QTL detected in typical mapping could be indirect. When a QTL is supported by both approaches, there is an increased confidence that the QTL have a primary effect on the corresponding trait. An example is a QTL for C16:1 on chromosome 8. In conclusion, mapping QTL based on causal phenotypic networks can increase power and help to make more biologically sound hypothesis on the genetic architecture of complex traits.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 10/2011; 128(5):329-43. · 1.46 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: KEPCO decided to apply the HTS FCL and cable in real substation in 2009. This is the first commercial demonstration case and starting point of the HTS equipment in South Korea, even though this is not a general perfect commercialization. For a successful application on this commercialization preliminary, it is quite important to design the HTS-FCL specification with regard to the current status of the application site (for example, the existence of NGR (Neutral Grounding Reactor), 3-winding low% impedance and so on). This paper evaluates the necessary and sufficient design specifications of the 22.9 kV HTS-FCL to fulfill the real power system conditions. It investigates the detailed design criteria, short circuit capacity, FCL impedance, protection scheme, fault limiting type and other design parameters to learn the real status of ICHEON substation which will be using the HTS- FCL.
IEEE Transactions on Appiled Superconductivity 07/2011; · 1.04 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The authors present a general framework of the construction of biorthogonal wavelets based on Bernstein bases along with theory analysis and application. The presented framework possesses the largest possible regularity, the required vanishing moments and the passband flatness of frequency response of filters. Based on this concept, the authors establish explicit formulas for filters of biorthogonal wavelets with arbitrary odd lengths. Meanwhile, a new family of parametric filters with symmetry is constructed. The choice of filter bank in wavelet compression is a critical issue that affects image quality. In this study, an optimal model of FIR aiming at image compression is brought forward, and the optimal finite impulse response (FIR) filters can be obtained correspondingly through sequential quadratic programming (SQP) and genetic algorithm (GA). The authors demonstrate the performance of the new family of filters given in this study for image compression with very encouraging results.
IET Computer Vision 02/2011; · 0.64 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Pressurized melt grown zinc oxide (ZnO) single crystals purchased from Cermet Inc. were irradiated by 2MeV electrons with fluence of 6x1017cm−2. Isochronal annealing from 100°C-800°C was performed on the crystals under argon and air ambience. Variable Energy Doppler Broadening Spectroscopy (VEDBS) was carried out on both the as-grown and the irradiated samples at each annealing step. The migration, agglomeration and annealing of grown-in and irradiated-introduced defects were studied. It was observed that the grown-in vacancy-type defects concentration decreased at 300°C and 600 °C. For the irradiated sample annealed in argon, the positron trapping vacancy-type defect concentration decreased at 300°C and 600°C. Further annealing the as-grown and irradiated samples in argon increased the S parameter further. For the irradiated sample annealed in air, the vacancy-type defect concentration decreases at 300°C and 700°C.
Journal of Physics Conference Series 01/2011; 262(1):012059.
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ABSTRACT: Direct conversion architectures have the advantage of no image frequencies, fewer components and lower cost. However, local oscillator (LO) leakage reduces receiver sensitivity, causes LO pulling, and is a challenging problem for direct conversion transceiver design. Proposed is a mixer using the second-order harmonic of the LO. The proposed subharmonic mixer is based on a switching common-gate structure. This mixer, built using 65 nm CMOS technology, achieves measured voltage conversion gain better than 3 dB for frequencies between 5 to 75 GHz with a current consumption of 2 mA at 1.5 V power supply. In the 57 to 66 GHz frequency band, the LO to RF port isolation is better than 38 dB and the noise figure is 14.8 dB when driven with a 30 GHz quadrature LO input.
Electronics Letters 09/2010; · 0.96 Impact Factor
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Zhen Zhang,
F. Pagette,
C. D'Emic, B. Yang,
C. Lavoie,
Y. Zhu,
M. Hopstaken,
S. Maurer,
C. Murray,
M. Guillorn, [......],
W. Song,
V. Chhabra,
G. Zuo,
K.-L. Lee,
A. Ozcan,
J. Silverman,
Q. Ouyang,
D.-G. Park,
W. Haensch,
P.M. Solomon
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ABSTRACT: An extremely low contact resistivity of 6-7 × 10<sup>-9</sup> Ω·cm<sup>2</sup> between Ni<sub>0.9</sub>Pt<sub>0.1</sub>Si and heavily doped Si is achieved through Schottky barrier engineering by dopant segregation. In this scheme, the implantation of B or As is performed into silicide followed by a low-temperature drive-in anneal. Reduction of effective Schottky barrier height is manifested in the elimination of nonlinearities in IV characteristics.
IEEE Electron Device Letters 08/2010; · 2.85 Impact Factor
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S. Yamada,
K. Awai,
Y. Hayato,
K. Kaneyuki,
Y. Kouzuma,
S. Nakayama,
H. Nishino,
K. Okumura,
Y. Obayashi,
Y. Shimizu, [......], B. Yang,
S. Chen,
T. Tanaka,
T. Yokozawa,
Y. Koshio,
S. Moriyama,
Y. Arai,
K. Ishikawa,
A. Minegishi,
T. Uchida
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ABSTRACT: The Super-Kamiokande detector is a ring imaging Cherenkov detector for neutrino physics and proton-decay search and consists of 50 000 tons of pure water equipped with about 13 000 photo-multipliers. The old front-end electronics and online system running for more than one decade were all upgraded in September, 2008 and the data acquisition was started successfully. The new front-end electronics is based on a charge to time converter and a multi-hit Time to Digital converter. TCP/IP based readout channel is implemented to handle large amounts of data. In the new data acquisition scheme, the hardware event-trigger for the data reduction is replaced by processing all the hits in the online farm, so that we are able to lower the threshold of the detection energy for solar neutrino and analyze consecutive events whose time interval is too long to detect in the previous system. To make the new online system to be capable of processing larger dataflow of up to 470 MB/s, we utilize Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet technologies and distribute the load over Linux PCs to handle a large amount of data. In this paper, we will describe the design and performance of the new system in the commissioning.
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 05/2010; · 1.45 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The small intestine is a vital organ in animal gastrointestinal system, in which a large variety of nutrients are absorbed. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for the length of porcine small intestine, phenotypic values were measured in 1034 individuals at 240 d from a White Duroc x Chinese Erhualian intercross F(2) population. The length of small intestine showed strong correlation with growth traits and carcass length in the F2 population. A whole-genome scan was performed based on 183 microsatellites covering the pig genome in the F(2) population. A total of 10 QTL for this trait were identified on 8 pig chromosomes (SSC), including four 1% genome-wide significant QTL on SSC2, 4, 7 and 8, one 5% genome-wide significant QTL on SSC12, and five 5% chromosome-wide significant QTL on SSC5, 7, 13 and 14. The Erhualian alleles were generally associated with shorter length of the small intestine except the alleles on SSC7 and 13. The QTL on SSC4 overlapped with the previously reported QTL for the length of small intestine. Several significant QTL on SSC2, 8, and 12 were consistent with previous reports. The significant QTL detected on SSC7 was reported for the first time. All QTL identified in this study corresponded to the known region significantly associated with growth traits, supporting the important role of the length of small intestine in pig growth.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 04/2010; 127(2):119-24. · 1.46 Impact Factor
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Zhen Zhang,
F Pagette,
C. D'Emic, B Yang,
C Lavoie,
A Ray,
Y Zhu,
M Hopstaken,
S Maurer,
C Murray,
others
VLSI Technology Systems and Applications (VLSI-TSA), 2010 International Symposium onVLSI Technology Systems and Applications (VLSI-TSA), 2010 International Symposium on; 01/2010
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ABSTRACT: Small suspended SU-8 optical waveguides with a high refractive index contrast are designed and optimized. The single-mode condition and the bending characteristics of the present waveguide are numerically calculated by using a full-vectorial finite-difference method. Pure bending losses and transition losses of bending waveguides with different bending radii and different core widths are studied. The simulation results show that a wider core is helpful to reduce the pure bending loss. For example, when the core width is chosen as 2 µm, a very small bending radius (∼5 µm) can be achieved. However the transition loss is high. When a small total bending loss (≪0.1dB/90° bend) is required, the minimal bending radius is about 7 µm when an optimal offset is introduced. A crossing structure with two arms to support the suspended waveguides is designed and optimized by using a two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. The structure parameters (e.g., the expanding width, the taper length and the length of the insert straight section) of the crossing structure are optimized to minimize the excess loss. The optimal crossing structures exhibits a low excess loss (≪0.1 dB) and performs well in a wide wavelength range (1500 nm∼1600 nm).
Communications and Photonics Conference and Exhibition (ACP), 2009 Asia; 12/2009
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ABSTRACT: Muscle fibre traits are related with meat quality in meat animals. In this study, a whole-genome scan with 183 microsatellite markers covering the pig genome was performed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for cross-sectional area, numerical percentage and relative area of type I, IIA and IIB myofibres, fibre number per square centimetre and total fibre number in the longissimus muscle by using 120 F(2) animals in a White Duroc x Erhualian intercross. In total, 20 QTL were mapped on pig chromosomes (SSC) 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16 and X, of which eight reached genome-wide significance levels and explained large proportions (6.53-34.63%) of phenotypic variance. Five QTL detected in this study confirmed the previous QTL reports and the others were detected for the first time. Chinese Erhualian alleles are generally associated with muscle fibre traits favourable for meat quality.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 12/2009; 126(6):468-74. · 1.46 Impact Factor
