211 research outputs found

    Semi-Parametric Mixture Gaussian Model to Detect Breast Cancer Intra-Tumor Heterogeneity

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    Breast cancer intratumor heterogeneity challenges our ability to predict patients’ outcomes or responses to targeted therapy; yet, available methods are limited to measure intratumor heterogeneity quantitatively. The goal of this research is to develop statistical methodologies for high dimensional PAM50 gene expression data to characterize the intratumor heterogeneity for better treatment option. In this dissertation, I propose two approaches for classification of intratumor heterogeneity: non-parametric clustering methods and finite mixture Gaussian method. For non-parametric clustering methods, I use Mahalanobis distance for classification. For finite mixture Gaussian method, as the parameters of these Gaussian mixtures cannot be estimated in closed form, so estimates are typically obtained via an iterative process, e.g. EM algorithm. However, finite mixture modeling can suffer from locally optimal solutions because of poor initial starting values. I improve EM in mixture Gaussian model by applying a simple and efficient initialization strategy based on Mahalanobis distance. This improved method allows the model to borrow information from data without any distributional assumption. The proposed model is illustrated with two real datasets from breast cancer patients, and also evaluated using simulated datasets

    Mixed Matrix Membranes for Natural Gas Upgrading: Current Status and Opportunities

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    In the past few decades, natural gas has attracted worldwide attention as one of the most desired energy sources owing to its more efficient and cleaner combustion process compared to that of coal and crude oil. Due to the presence of impurities, raw natural gas needs to be upgraded to meet the pipeline specifications. Membrane-based separation is a promising alternative to conventional processes such as cryogenic distillation and pressure swing adsorption. Among the existing membranes for natural gas upgrading, polymeric membranes and inorganic membranes have been extensively explored, but each type has its own pros and cons. The development of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) by incorporating organic/inorganic fillers into the polymer matrix provides a good strategy to combine the merits of each material and fabricate novel membranes with superior gas separation performance. In this review, we first discuss the recent advances in MMMs showing potentials in natural gas upgrading. Special attention is paid to a detailed evaluation on the polymer and filler choices for acidic gas removal. After that, we analyze factors that influence the membrane separation performance and summarize effective strategies reported in the open literature for the fabrication of high-performance MMMs. Finally, a perspective on future research directions in this field is presented

    Effect of different organic solvents (a)and enhancement effects of metal ions (b) on the activity of purified laccase from <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05.

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    <p>All the experiments are performed with the same purified laccase, and activity without the addition of organic solvents was considered as 100%. Error bars shown are standard errors of triplicate samples.</p

    Degradation of azo dyes, a: orange I, b: amaranth, c: sudan II, d: sudan III, e: eriochrome black T; anthraquinone dyes, f: alizarin red, g: alizarin; arylmethane dyes, h: malachite green, i: fuchsin basic, j: crystal violet; and other dyes, k: methylen blue, l: phenol red by purified laccase from <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05.

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    <p>Degradation of azo dyes, a: orange I, b: amaranth, c: sudan II, d: sudan III, e: eriochrome black T; anthraquinone dyes, f: alizarin red, g: alizarin; arylmethane dyes, h: malachite green, i: fuchsin basic, j: crystal violet; and other dyes, k: methylen blue, l: phenol red by purified laccase from <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05.</p

    SDS–PAGE (a) and native PAGE (b) of purified laccase from <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05.

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    <p>(a) Lane 1: denatured protein marker, Lane 2: purified laccase; (b) Lane 1: purified laccase with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250staining, Lane 2: purified laccase with ABTS staining.</p

    UV–visible absorption (a) and electron paramagnetic resonance spectra (b) of laccase from <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05 in 10 mM citric acid buffer (pH 4.0)

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    <p>UV–visible absorption (a) and electron paramagnetic resonance spectra (b) of laccase from <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05 in 10 mM citric acid buffer (pH 4.0)</p

    Characteristics of dyes tested in this work.

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    <p>Characteristics of dyes tested in this work.</p

    Decolourisation of dyes by <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05 laccase.

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    <p>Decolourisation of dyes by <i>M.verrucaria</i> NF-05 laccase.</p

    Substrate specificity of the purified laccase.

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    <p>Substrate specificity of the purified laccase.</p
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