Genome-Wide Association Study of Lung Adenocarcinoma in East Asia and Comparison With a European Population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population.

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Energy storage performances of La doping BaBi4Ti4O15 thin films capacitors

BaBi4Ti4O15-based thin films, belongs to Aurivillius phase compounds, were fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by the chemical solution deposition method and its energy storage performances were investigated. Here, large recoverable energy storage density (66.8 J/cm3) and high storage efficiency (85.1%) were achieved in the BaBi4Ti4O15 thin film via La doped. Such enhanced energy storage performances can attribute to the improvement of crystallization quality with increase of grain size and decrease of leakage current. In addition, from 20 to 140 °C, no significant changes were observed in energy storage density and efficiency, and the energy storage performance did not decrease significantly after 1.6 × 108 charge–discharge cycles, indicating that the film has excellent thermal stability and fatigue resistance. These results not only show that the BBT-based thin film is a potential energy storage material, but also provide important ideas for further exploration of methods to improve energy storage performance

A highly flexible, electrically conductive, and mechanically robust graphene/epoxy composite film for its self-damage detection

Advanced functional composites have attracted a great attention for fabricating flexible devices. In this article, the GnP/epoxy composite film was prepared by mixing graphene platelets (GnPs) with epoxy through sonication process. The morphology, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of the prepared composites were investigated. As the GnP contents increased from 2.5 to 7.5 vol%, the composites showed an increase in strain sensitivity with the rapid decrease in the strain gauge to 4.4. Additionally, when dynamic movement of the flexible film was performed, at bending and twist angle of 135° and 180°, respectively, steady increase in both resistance changes were detected and compared. The electrical resistance of the flexible was measured over a temperature range of 20–95°C, an increase in temperature lead to a linearly equivalent increase in resistance. The composites can also detect slight pressure changes at 2 kPa compression force with rapid decrease of resistance. Additionally, fatigue test was performed with stable, sensitive, and no distinguishable reading under 2,000 stretching cycles. The composite film exhibits an excellent self-sensing responds when fracture occurred. Thus, the obtained highly flexible, conductive, and mechanical robust composite sensor can be applied as advanced composites sensors for health monitoring

A comparative study of two graphene based elastomeric composite sensors

Flexible and stretchable multifunctional electronics is expected to be one of the most active research areas in the next decade. In this work, we fabricate graphene based flexible film sensors using two different matrices; polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and epoxy. A graphene platelet (GnP) refers to a nanosheet that consists of a few stacked graphene layers, mostly below ~10 nm in thickness. The mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of the fabricated composite films were evaluated. The morphology showed a good dispersibility of GnPs into the PDMS and epoxy matrices. The percolation threshold for GnP/PDMS and GnP/epoxy composite film was achieved at 3.19 vol% and 1.08 vol%, respectively. The fabricated composite films showed improvements in thermal conductivity for GnP/PDMS and GnP/epoxy composite film by 147% and 444%, respectively. The Young's modulus for GnP/epoxy system showed a significant increase by 1344% as compared to GnP/PDMS system, whose increment was by 144%. Upon pressure implication, bending and torsional deformation, GnP/ PDMS system demonstrated a better electrical response and flexibility and simultaneously, showed a good stretchability by producing maximum strain up to 25%. The GnP/PDMS system is sensitive to temperature in a wide temperature range (−25 °C–163 °C), and is more suitable as a temperature sensor in cryogenic and high temperature environment than GnP/epoxy system. On the other hand, the GnP/epoxy produced higher repeatability during fatigue testing, emphasizing that GnP/epoxy composite films are highly durable as a strain sensor. This research has enlightened on the importance of selecting the optimum matrix, which is a key factor that determines the overall superior functionality of a flexible sensor

Noncovalent modification of boron nitrite nanosheets for thermally conductive, mechanically resilient epoxy nanocomposites

Due to the rapid development of modern micro/nano electronic devices, polymer nanocomposites of high mechanical performance, and thermal conductivity and stability are increasingly important. We herein report a two-step process for preparation of ∼3 nm-thick boron nitride (BN) nanosheets through noncovalent modification by a surfactant Triton X-100, which improves the compatibility of the nanosheets with the matrix as well as their dispersion. TEM micrographs demonstrated that the modified BN nanosheets (m-BN) were relatively uniformly dispersed in epoxy matrix and some were connected with each other. At 2.14 vol % of m-BN, the glass-transition temperature (Tg) and adhesive toughness of neat epoxy were improved by 17% and 355%, respectively. At 4.93 vol %, the thermal conductivity of neat epoxy was remarkably increased to 0.65 W· m−1·k−1, an increment of 335%. In addition, the epoxy/m-BN nanocomposites exhibited high thermal stability, which holds a potential as thermal interface materials for the next generation of electronic devices

Assessing the conservation impact of Chinese indigenous chicken populations between ex-situ and in-situ using genome-wide SNPs

Conservation programs require rigorous evaluation to ensure the preservation of genetic diversity and viability of conservation populations. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of two indigenous Chinese chicken breeds, Gushi and Xichuan black-bone, using whole-genome SNPs to understand their genetic diversity, track changes over time and population structure. The breeds were divided into five conservation populations (GS1, 2010, ex-situ; GS2, 2019, ex-situ; GS3, 2019, in-situ; XB1, 2010, in-situ; and XB2, 2019, in-situ) based on conservation methods and generations. The genetic diversity indices of three conservation populations of Gushi chicken showed consistent trends, with the GS3 population under in-situ strategy having the highest diversity and GS2 under ex-situ strategy having the lowest. The degree of inbreeding of GS2 was higher than that of GS1 and GS3. Conserved populations of Xichuan black-bone chicken showed no obvious changes in genetic diversity between XB1 and XB2. In terms of population structure, the GS3 population were stratified relative to GS1 and GS2. According to the conservation priority, GS3 had the highest contribution to the total gene and allelic diversity in GS breed, whereas the contribution of XB1 and XB2 were similar. We also observed that the genetic diversity of GS2 was lower than GS3, which were from the same generation but under different conservation programs (in-situ and ex-situ). While XB1 and XB2 had similar levels of genetic diversity. Overall, our findings suggested that the conservation programs performed in ex-situ could slow down the occurrence of inbreeding events, but could not entirely prevent the loss of genetic diversity when the conserved population size was small, while in-situ conservation populations with large population size could maintain a relative high level of genetic diversity