11,021 research outputs found
Novel method of capturing static and dynamic anthropometric data for home design
This paper presents a novel method for capturing and measuring both static and dynamic anthropometric data of people. These data can be then used for barrier-free home design based on a concept of ergonomic design with motion. This new approach utilized a 3D motion capture system as a tool to simultaneously obtain anthropometric information based on body motion analyses. This paper reports the experimental system design, data collection and analysis techniques on body motions
Using biomarker signature patterns for an mRNA molecular diagnostic of mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation state
BACKGROUND: The pluripotency and self-renewal capabilities, which define the 'stemness' state, of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, are usually investigated by functional assays or quantitative measurements of the expression levels of known ES cell markers. Strong correlations between these expression levels and functional assays, particularly at the early stage of cell differentiation, have usually not been observed. An effective molecular diagnostic to properly identify the differentiation state of mouse ES cells, prior to further experimentation, is needed. RESULTS: A novel molecular pattern recognition procedure has been developed to diagnose the differentiation state of ES cells. This is based on mRNA transcript levels of genes differentially expressed between ES cells and their differentiating progeny. Large publicly available ES cell data sets from various platforms were used to develop and test the diagnostic model. Signature patterns consisting of five gene expression levels achieved high accuracy at determining the cell state (sensitivity and specificity > 97%). CONCLUSION: The effective ES cell state diagnostic scheme described here can be implemented easily to assist researchers in identifying the differentiation state of their cultures. It also provides a step towards standardization of experiments relying on cells being in the stem cell or differentiating state.published_or_final_versio
HaploShare: identification of extended haplotypes shared by cases and evaluation against controls
Recent founder mutations may play important roles in complex diseases and Mendelian disorders. Detecting shared haplotypes that are identical by descent (IBD) could facilitate discovery of these mutations. Several programs address this, but are usually limited to detecting pair-wise shared haplotypes and not providing a comparison of cases and controls. We present a novel algorithm and software package, HaploShare, which detects extended haplotypes that are shared by multiple individuals, and allows comparisons between cases and controls. Testing on simulated and real cases demonstrated significant improvements in detection power and reduction of false positive rate by HaploShare relative to other programs.published_or_final_versio
Telomerase activity in gestational trophoblastic disease
Aims - To investigate the pattern of telomerase activity in hydatidiform mole as compared with normal placenta and choriocarcinoma, and to determine the prognostic significance of telomerase activity in hydatidiform mole. Methods - Telomerase activity in 35 cases of hydatidiform mole, 35 normal placentas, one choriocarcinoma sample, and two choriocarcinoma cell lines (JAR, JEG3) was determined using the sensitive polymerase chain reaction based telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Two cases of breast carcinoma and two cases of ovarian carcinoma were also included as positive controls in the telomerase assay. Results - Telomerase activity was detected in 11 of 30 early placentas (36.7%), one of five term placentas (20%), five of 27 hydatidiform moles which regressed spontaneously (18.5%), and six of eight hydatidiform moles which developed persistent trophoblastic disease (75%) (including three which developed metastases). Hydatidiform moles which subsequently developed persistent disease, especially those which metastasised, were more likely to express telomerase activity (p < 0.01). However, there was no significant difference in the frequency of telomerase activity between early placentas and hydatidiform mole. Strong telomerase activity was observed in choriocarcinoma tissue, choriocarcinoma cell lines, and ovarian and breast carcinomas. Conclusions - Telomerase activation occurs in hydatidiform mole with a similar incidence to early normal placentas. This supports the concept that hydatidiform mole is essentially an abnormal conceptus. There is an association between telomerase activation and the development of persistent trophoblastic disease. Further study is warrant to confirm the prognostic significance of telomerase activity in hydatidiform mole.published_or_final_versio
Robust radiative cooling via surface phonon coupling-enhanced emissivity from SiO2 micropillar arrays
Silicon dioxide (SiO2) is a prominent candidate for radiative cooling applications due to its low absorption in solar wavelengths (0.25-2.5 µm) and exceptional stability. However, its bulk phonon-polariton band results in a strong reflection peak in the atmospheric transparency window (8-13 µm), making it difficult to meet the requirements for sub-ambient passive radiative cooling. Herein, we demonstrate that SiO2 micropillar arrays can effectively suppress infrared reflection at 8-13 µm and enhance the infrared emissivity by optimizing the micropillar array structure. We created a pattern with a height, spacing, and diameter of approximately 1.45 µm, 0.15 µm, and 0.35 µm, respectively, on top of a bulk SiO2 substrate using reactive ion etching. The resulting surface phonon coupling of the micropillar array led to an increase in the thermal emissivity from 0.79 to 0.94. Outdoor tests show that the SiO2 cooler with an optimized micropillar array can generate an average temperature drop of 5.5 °C throughout the daytime underneath an irradiance of 843.1 W/m^2 at noon. Furthermore, the micropillar arrays endow the SiO2 cooler with remarkable hydrophobic properties, attributed to the formation of F/C compounds introduced during the etching process. Finally, we also replicated the micropillar pattern onto the surface of industrial optical solar reflectors (OSRs), demonstrating similar emissivity and hydrophobicity enhancements. Our findings revealed an effective strategy for modifying the thermal management features of durable SiO2 layers, which can be harnessed to cool OSRs and other similar sky-facing devices
MicroRNA expression profiles in pediatric dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors.
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015Among noncoding RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been most extensively studied, and their biology has repeatedly been proven critical for central nervous system pathological conditions. The diagnostic value of several miRNAs was appraised in pediatric dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNETs) using miRNA microarrays and receiving operating characteristic curves analyses. Overall, five pediatric DNETs were studied. As controls, 17 samples were used: the FirstChoice Human Brain Reference RNA and 16 samples from deceased children who underwent autopsy and were not present with any brain malignancy. The miRNA extraction was carried out using the mirVANA miRNA Isolation Kit, while the experimental approach included miRNA microarrays covering 1211 miRNAs. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to validate the expression profiles of miR-1909* and miR-3138 in all samples initially screened with miRNA microarrays. Our findings indicated that miR-3138 might act as a tumor suppressor gene when down-regulated and miR-1909* as a putative oncogenic molecule when up-regulated in pediatric DNETs compared to the control cohort. Subsequently, both miRNA signatures might serve as putative diagnostic biomarkers for pediatric DNETs.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Room temperature plasmon laser by total internal reflection
Plasmon lasers create and sustain intense and coherent optical fields below
light's diffraction limit with the unique ability to drastically enhance
light-matter interactions bringing fundamentally new capabilities to
bio-sensing, data storage, photolithography and optical communications.
However, these important applications require room temperature operation, which
remains a major hurdle. Here, we report a room temperature semiconductor
plasmon laser with both strong cavity feedback and optical confinement to
1/20th of the wavelength. The strong feedback arises from total internal
reflection of surface plasmons, while the confinement enhances the spontaneous
emission rate by up to 20 times.Comment: 8 Page, 2 Figure
Critical change in the Fermi surface of iron arsenic superconductors at the onset of superconductivity
The phase diagram of a correlated material is the result of a complex
interplay between several degrees of freedom, providing a map of the material's
behavior. One can understand (and ultimately control) the material's ground
state by associating features and regions of the phase diagram, with specific
physical events or underlying quantum mechanical properties. The phase diagram
of the newly discovered iron arsenic high temperature superconductors is
particularly rich and interesting. In the AE(Fe1-xTx)2As2 class (AE being Ca,
Sr, Ba, T being transition metals), the simultaneous structural/magnetic phase
transition that occurs at elevated temperature in the undoped material, splits
and is suppressed by carrier doping, the suppression being complete around
optimal doping. A dome of superconductivity exists with apparent equal ease in
the orthorhombic / antiferromagnetic (AFM) state as well as in the tetragonal
state with no long range magnetic order. The question then is what determines
the critical doping at which superconductivity emerges, if the AFM order is
fully suppressed only at higher doping values. Here we report evidence from
angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) that critical changes in the
Fermi surface (FS) occur at the doping level that marks the onset of
superconductivity. The presence of the AFM order leads to a reconstruction of
the electronic structure, most significantly the appearance of the small hole
pockets at the Fermi level. These hole pockets vanish, i. e. undergo a Lifshitz
transition, at the onset of superconductivity. Superconductivity and magnetism
are competing states in the iron arsenic superconductors. In the presence of
the hole pockets superconductivity is fully suppressed, while in their absence
the two states can coexist.Comment: Updated version accepted in Nature Physic
Generation of fusion protein EGFRvIII-HBcAg and its anti-tumor effect in vivo
The epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) is the most common variation of EGFR. Because it shows a high frequency in several different types of tumor and has not been detected in normal tissues, it is an ideal target for tumor specific therapy. In this study, we prepared EGFRvIII-HBcAg fusion protein. After immunization with fusion protein, HBcAg or PBS, the titers of antibody in BALB/c mice immunized with fusion protein reached 2.75 × 105. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the fusion protein had specific antigenicity against anti-EGFRvIII antibody. Further observation showed fusion protein induced a high frequency of IFN-γ-secreting lymphocytes. CD4+T cells rather than CD8+T cells were associated with the production of IFN-γ. Using Renca-vIII(+) cell as specific stimulator, we observed remarkable cytotoxic activity in splenocytes from mice immunized with fusion protein. Mice were challenged with Renca-vIII(+) cells after five times immunization. In fusion protein group, three of ten mice failed to develop tumor and all survived at the end of the research. The weight of tumors in fusion protein were obviously lighter than that in other two groups (t = 4.73, P = 0.044;t = 6.89, P = 0.040). These findings demonstrated that EGFRvIII-HBcAg fusion protein triggered protective responses against tumor expressing EGFRvIII
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